A US neutron research facility at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been forced to close after elevated radiation levels were discovered in the reactor’s confinement building.

The UK has announced the creation of a new, independent research agency that will aim to fund high-risk, high-reward science and technology.

Physicists remain convinced that the elusive Majorana particle will be found, despite the retraction of a paper claiming its discovery, as Alexander Hellemans reports

Air purifiers in confined spaces such as lifts could increase the spread of airborne virus droplets.

Strong evidence that the dinosaurs were killed off 66 million years ago by an asteroid hitting Earth has been found in the Chicxulub crater under the Gulf of Mexico.

A new isotope of darmstadtium and a new excited state of copernicium-282 have been found in the decay chains of the superheavy element flerovium by an international team of researchers.

Scientists in Russia have observed trace amounts of hydrogen chloride in Mars’ atmosphere for the first time.

Primary-school children, and the rest of us too, are continuously being showered by unseen muons, a heavier relative of the more familiar electron. I was therefore excited to read about a successful US-based outreach project that allows members of the public to make muon detectors for less than $100 and observe these tiny particles for themselves.

Tim Gershon is a professor of physics at the University of Warwick, UK. Since completing his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2000, his research career has taken him to experiments in Japan and California as well as CERN

Materials scientist Arnab Basu, head of radiation-detection technology developer Kromek, talks to Tushna Commissariat about founding a spin-off, the challenges of COVID-19 and looking to the future

David Appell reviews Seven Pillars of Science: the Incredible Lightness of Ice, and Other Scientific Surprises by John Gribbin

Andrew Glester reviews Dream Big: How to Reach for Your Stars by Abigail Harrison

Researchers have used X-rays to pin down the way in which egg whites solidify when heated.

An atmospheric scientist from the University of Helsinki has bagged this year’s top prize of $2750 in the annual Dance Your PhD contest.

In 2003 the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson lit up the Turbine Hall of London’s Tate Modern with a huge artificial Sun. Now you can brighten up your own house with a virtual version

Designers at Svaha Apparel–a “one-stop shop” for geeky clothing–decided to create a dress and T-shirt based on the pattern of red, white and black segments that made up the parachute of NASA’s Perseverance rover

Cutting methane production from livestock is considered vital to climate change mitigation, with lots of research focusing on how animals breed and are fed. But physicists are playing their part too by developing ways to measure the emissions from cattle, using techniques such as spectroscopic analysis and aerial sampling, as Michael Allen discovers

Multi-layered solar cells stand on the brink of 50% efficiency, but the practical benefits of such high-efficiency cells are more likely to be realized in space than on Earth, as Richard Stevenson explains

One hundred years after “nuclear isomers” were first discovered, Philip Walker and Zsolt Podolyk pick five examples of these long-lived, excited nuclear states to show why they are so important in medical physics and beyond

In the article “Very deep thinking” (February p18), we forgot to include a “1” as the first digit in the age of the universe, reporting it as a mere 3.8 billion years.

In response to the 11 March episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, in which ine O’Brien from the University of Glasgow describes her team’s efforts scouring farmland for remnants of the 100 kg meteoroid that exploded over southern Britain in February.

In response to Carol Davenport’s Forum article “Widening career aspirations” (March p23), in which she discusses the importance of telling school pupils about the wide range of physics-related career options at a much earlier age.

In response to Matin Durrani’s editorial “Entangled thoughts” (March p21) in which he discusses the level at which Physics World articles are pitched to be informative and entertaining to their audience.

Robert P Crease describes how news of a radiation leak at a US neutron facility was handled in today’s online, networked and locked-down world

James McKenzie celebrates some of the firms that have won business innovation awards from the Institute of Physics over the last 10 years

Sebastian Wood says that science needs to welcome different faiths and do more to build bridges between the two communities

Paolo Elias says that the COVID-19 pandemic offers the chance to revamp how we assess physics students at school and college

Physics and physicists are helping to understand how much methane cows belch out

Steven Hall, who stepped down last month after 10 years as managing director of IOP Publishing, talks to Matin Durrani about the challenges that learned-society publishers face

Scientists from around the world have issued an open letter in support of the Harvard University nanoscientist Charles Lieber who has been charged by the US government over lying about his connections with institutions supported by the Chinese government.

Ling Xin examines the legacy of the recently closed Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment on neutrino physics, US–China collaborations and future neutrino facilities

A panel of US fusion experts has outlined how the US could create a small fusion pilot plant to produce net electricity to the grid by 2040.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted female academics in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine

NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars in the Jezero Crater – a 45 km-wide basin pockmarked with boulders and steep cliffs – on 18 February

Male students do not consistently outperform their female counterparts in university physics exams. That is the conclusion of an analysis of over a decade’s worth of data covering more than 10,000 students

New insights into how brain injuries occur have been gleaned from how an egg yolk is deformed when rotational forces are applied to its outer shell.

Click beetles use the elastic recoil of a spring-like mechanism in their exo-skeleton to throw themselves into the air. The mechanism of the insects’ motion was discovered using high-speed synchrotron X-ray imaging.

“Alpha clusters” resembling helium-4 nuclei have been spotted on the neutron-rich surfaces of heavy atomic nuclei.

New insights into the physical and chemical properties of the rare heavy element einsteinium have been gained by researchers working at several labs across the US.

Black holes remain a fascinating idea in popular physics while inspiring high-level research.

Troels Schnfeldt, co-founder and chief executive of Danish start-up Seaborg Technologies, talks to Julianna Photopoulos about his career in nuclear and particle physics – and how he unintentionally became an “impact entrepreneur”

Ian Randall reviews The Brilliant Abyss: True Tales of Exploring the Deep Sea, Discovering Hidden Life and Selling the Seabed by Helen Scales

Hamish Johnston reviews Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table by Kit Chapman

The PandaX-II dark-matter experiment has confirmed previous signs of exotic particles but further evidence will be needed, as Edwin Cartlidge reports

DNA molecules are not fixed objects – they are constantly getting broken up and glued back together to adopt new shapes. Davide Michieletto explains how this process can be harnessed to create a new generation of “topologically active” materials

The long-standing problem of the cosmological constant, described both as “the worst prediction in the history of physics” and by Einstein as his “biggest blunder”, is being tackled with renewed vigour by today’s cosmologists. Rob Lea investigates

The US Postal Service has issued a commemorative stamp honouring the Chinese-American physicist Chien-Shiung Wu

If there’s one mystery that has longed puzzled biologists, it’s why wombat poo is not round but shaped like a cube?

Alan Shepard famously hit a couple of golf balls on the Moon and claimed his second shot went “miles and miles and miles”. Imaging specialist Andy Saunders from the UK has now put Shepard’s boast to the test

Housing developer Barratt London has teamed up with the British Interplanetary Society to create a prototype home for future astronauts on the Moon

Analysing magnetic information stored in ancient artefacts is revealing the recent history of the Earth’s magnetic field and providing clues to the changes we might expect in the future. Rachel Brazil explains

In response to a series of letters (February p21) about the Forum article by Philip Ball titled “Why free will is beyond physics” (January p17).

In response to David Appell’s feature “The 10 greatest predictions in physics” (January pp36–40).

In response to Robert P Crease’s Critical Point article “Very deep thinking” (February p18), which argues that looking thousands – or hundreds of thousands – of years into the future is vital for humanity.

In response to the Forum article “Why breadth beats depth” (January p19), in which physics teacher Niki Bell argues that subject-matter specialists don’t necessarily make the best teachers.

In response to the careers article “On the road less travelled” (December 2020 pp45–46), in which Tamia Williams from Pace University in New York discusses her experiences as a Black physicist.

Robert P Crease reflects on the US Capitol’s invasion from a unique perspective

The solution to climate change could be lying beneath our feet. James McKenzie examines the potential of pumps that warm our homes and offices by extracting heat from the ground below

With COVID-19 fostering anti-science conspiracies, Caitlin Duffy says that scientists have a duty to speak up and challenge misinformation

As children narrow down their career interests from an early age, Carol Davenport says it is important that they are brought up with a positive attitude towards science