Nature Reviews Physics

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.

Nature Reviews Physics, Published online: 09 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s42254-026-00935-8 Magnetic fields affect astrophysical processes throughout the Universe. This Review explores how the generation, amplification and transport of astrophysical magnetic fields can be investigated in terrestrial experiments, using high-energy-density plasmas generated by intense lasers.