Physicists

• An international team including University of Oxford, University of Michigan, and others used the Gemini laser and plasma to compress light, creating the most powerful light ever in a lab. • The technique acts as a 'quantum magnifying glass' by focusing light waves, enabling direct study of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) interactions with the quantum vacuum. • Published in Nature on April 22, 2026, it bridges a 20-year gap between theory and observation, per Prof. Brendan Romey of Queen's University Belfast.

• University of Utah geophysicists used electromagnetic data from airborne surveys to identify a newly discovered freshwater reservoir under the Great Salt Lake's Farmington Bay, marking a first-of-its-kind breakthrough. • The reservoir, located in a key area of the lake, could potentially alleviate Utah's ongoing water scarcity issues amid prolonged drought conditions. • This finding matters as it reveals untapped groundwater resources critical for the western U.S., where the Great Salt Lake has shrunk by nearly 50% since 1980 due to overuse and climate change.

• CERN scientists announced the discovery of the Ξcc⁺ particle, a long-predicted heavy cousin of the proton, resolving a 20-year mystery in particle physics. • The breakthrough marks the first particle discovery with the upgraded LHCb detector, involving over 1,000 researchers from 20 countries, with the UK contributing the most led by University of Manchester's Professor Chris Parkes. • Professor Parkes stated, 'Rutherford's gold-foil experiment in a Manchester basement transformed our understanding of matter, and today's discovery builds on that legacy.'

• Researchers at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston broke the longstanding record for high-temperature superconductivity, reaching a transition temperature of 151 Kelvin under ambient pressure. • The breakthrough by physicists Ching-Wu Chu and Liangzi Deng, published March 9 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, enables potential advances in efficient energy generation, transmission, and storage. • This record surpasses all prior ambient-pressure superconductors since 1911, bringing room-temperature superconductivity—a century-old holy grail—closer by narrowing the gap to about 140 degrees Celsius.