Nature Physics, Published online: 30 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41567-026-03489-9
Microtubules are bound by active motors and passively diffusing proteins. Now it is shown that this mixture of active and passive molecules is a realization of rectified Brownian motion in active matter.
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- Motors use biased diffusion to shepherd diffusible proteins on microtubules
- Automated inverse design of metainterfaces with tailored friction lawsNature Physics, Published online: 30 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41567-026-03503-0 Understanding friction between contacting surfaces is important to improve device performance. Now a method is shown to discover materials that offer on-demand frictional behaviour using inverse design based on genetic algorithms.
- Multiparticle quantum walks in a dipole-conserving Bose–Hubbard modelNature Physics, Published online: 30 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41567-026-03512-z Strong potential gradients can localize individual particles, but interactions can still generate collective motion. An experiment with ultracold atoms in a tilted lattice now shows this collective motion by tracking mobile bound states of fractons.
- Thermodynamic demonstration of tetracriticality and multicomponent superconductivity in UTe<sub>2</sub>Nature Physics, Published online: 30 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41567-026-03504-z Prior measurements of the phase diagram of UTe2 contain a triple point that is forbidden by thermodynamics. Now, an additional phase boundary is discovered that resolves this problem and confirms multicomponent superconductivity in this material.
- The challenge of recognition in large scientific collaborationsNature Physics, Published online: 30 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41567-026-03511-0 The authorship practices of large collaborations can hide individual contributions. A recognition programme developed by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration publicly documents verified contributions to research, infrastructure and community service.
- Imaging hot-electron Thomson cooling beyond the Boltzmann–Onsager frameworkNature Physics, Published online: 29 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41567-026-03510-1 Classical Thomson cooling is inefficient. Now non-equilibrium energy dissipation with a breakdown of the Boltzmann–Onsager limit is demonstrated by imaging hot electrons in HgTe and HgCdTe quantum wells.
- Order in a quantum chaotic seaNature Physics, Published online: 27 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41567-026-03513-y Experiments with a superconducting quantum processor revealed an island of regular motion within otherwise chaotic quantum many-body dynamics and used feedback to steer the dynamics towards it.
- Three-dimensional cell morphology is mediated by curvature sensing and interfacial stressNature Physics, Published online: 26 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41567-026-03482-2 Cells adhering to micro-curved surfaces can exhibit either complete adhesion or partial interior detachment. This is now found to be determined by the balance between the cell contractile stress and the cell–substrate adhesion stress.
