Nature Reviews Physics

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 09 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00958-1 Deciding what physics research to pursue involves cost–benefit analysis — which should include environmental impacts.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 04 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00956-3 Forty years after its invention, atomic force microscopy has evolved from a simple surface imaging tool into one of the most versatile measurement platforms in nanoscience. This Comment traces the key innovations.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 04 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00959-0 Decolonizing physics is a scientific necessity often stalled by ‘competence anxiety’. By using the Six Thinking Hats framework, educators can navigate these challenging conversations with structure and safety.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 27 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00951-8 Deciding whether a big science project is sustainable is a complex multi-dimensional problem, but there are tools from economics that can help with decision making.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 27 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00938-5 Transparent conducting electrodes are a key performance and sustainability bottleneck in high-efficiency perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells. This Review examines how optical, electrical and interfacial losses in transparent conducting electrodes arise in tandem cells and outlines strategies to enable scalable…

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 18 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00945-6 The multistable dynamics of the Atlantic Ocean circulation pose a central problem in climate physics, because instabilities of the flows can have large climate impacts. This Review uses a dynamical systems viewpoint to unify results obtained from a hierarchy of ocean-climate models.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 15 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00941-w Chaos in photonics is not always a nuisance but often a source of innovation. This Review surveys chaotic microcavity photonics across materials and architectures, highlighting opportunities to harness chaotic dynamics for technology and science.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 15 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00944-7 2D van der Waals multiferroics, with their coupled magnetic and electric orders and their reduced dimensionality, offer great opportunities for low-power magnetoelectric devices. This Review moves beyond conventional probing techniques and advocates for cross-probing technologies to identify intrinsic multiferro…

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 14 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00943-8 Polaritons can be optically driven into nonlinear states such as vortices and solitons, with properties like quantized phase jumps and stable shapes, that enable applications in information processing. This Review discusses the formation and control of polariton vortices and solitons.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 12 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00947-4 Katia Moskvitch shares her experience of launching a quantum computing podcast with her child.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 11 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00948-3 Antonius von Strachwitz explains the advantages and challenges of replacing the exchange-correlation functionals in DFT with a learnable model.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 11 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00946-5 A closer look at past and present shows how trust underpins the international scientific endeavour.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 11 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00942-9 The study of black-hole thermodynamics — now 50 years old — has led to deep insights into fundamental physics, but it has also created fresh paradoxes and puzzles. This Review assesses what has been learned, where progress is being made, and what remains unknown.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 07 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00940-x This Perspective reviews recent progress in relation to three old yet unsolved problems on supercooled liquids and glasses, emphasizing the different approach and focus of physics and chemistry.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 21 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00929-6 Although no universally accepted definition exists, coherent structures are key organized features of wall-bounded turbulent flows. This Review clarifies competing CS interpretations and highlights challenges in establishing causal relationships among CSs and in their interpretation via machine learning.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 21 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00936-7 Topological photonic chips can be controlled globally, across the lattice, and locally, at the level of individual sites. This Review discusses these programmable and reconfigurable technologies for topological, quantum and non-Hermitian physics.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 17 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00931-y Recent advances in first-principles computation are enabling quantitative predictions of electronic transport properties in materials. This Review explores the material insights and chemical intuition these advances offer and highlights prospects for discovering new materials across a broader spectrum.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 09 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00933-w The contribution of Chinese physicists to global scientific output has a long history, that is often overlooked. In this Comment, historian Danian Hu shares the stories of early 20th century Chinese physicists and discusses the reciprocal US–China relationship that enabled their work.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 09 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00937-6 2D materials are appealing for emergent phenomena and applications, but despite the realization of many 2D layered crystals, 2D metals remain hard to realize because of their non-layered nature. In the past year, a van der Waals squeezing method has been developed for the production of diverse 2D metals at ång…

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 09 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00934-9 As the USA cuts research ties with China, historian Dazhou Wang looks back at a similar scientific rupture in the 1960s and argues that although China was able to make progress despite its isolation, collaboration remains better for science.