Engineering researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed an advanced three-dimensional (3D) image projection system capable of displaying 28 distinct depth layers simultaneously in a single optical exposure.

Led by Professor Aydogan Ozcan from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), the project introduces a compact framework designed to enhance next-generation holographic displays, medical imaging, and virtual reality interfaces.

The research details a hybrid digital-optical architecture that resolves persistent issues of visual distortion and cross-talk in dense 3D imaging.

Traditional multi-layer volumetric projection methods often suffer from image degradation when multiple focal planes are closely spaced. As these layers converge, the light fields often bleed into one another, reducing depth clarity, causing severe blurriness, and diminishing visual sharpness for the viewer.

Deep learning and light programming

To overcome these limitations, the UCLA research team utilized deep learning to co-optimize a digital computational encoder alongside a passive, physical optical decoder.

The system functions by running target visual data through a digital neural network that incorporates explicit depth and coordinate instructions. This network compresses the multi-layered structural information into a singular, unified phase pattern that represents the entire 3D volume.

When light passes through the system, it hits a series of structurally optimized diffractive surfaces that act as an analog decoder. These surfaces physically manipulate the light wave, routing specific components of the image to their exact pre-assigned depth planes.

This precise “light programming” allows the system to suppress data leakage between adjacent layers, maintaining clean visual separation even when planes are separated by distances near the scale of a single light wavelength.

Scalability and experimental validation

Through numerical modeling, the team demonstrated that the framework scales effectively to accommodate complex volumetric scenes split into 28 independent axial slices.

Additionally, the system features a dynamic adjustment capability, allowing operators to alter the target depth positions of the projected images on demand without modifying the core physical architecture.

To confirm the practical viability of this digital-optical pipeline, the researchers built a physical, two-plane hardware prototype that uses a single-layer optical decoder operating in the visible light spectrum.

Experimental measurements confirmed that the projected light distribution closely matched both the target designs and computational simulations. The experimental setup significantly outperformed unassisted free-space optical systems, validating the real-world stability and accuracy of the design.

Future tech integration

The compact layout of this encoder-decoder architecture provides an energy-efficient foundation for high-resolution volumetric imaging. Beyond immediate integration into near-eye augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets, the technology holds potential applications in multi-depth microscopy, real-time 3D medical visualization, and optical computing.

Moving forward, the research team aims to expand the capabilities of this framework by exploring multispectral operations to support full-color projections, multi-perspective holography, and the integration of physically fabricated multi-layer decoders suitable for commercial manufacturing form factors.

The research was first published in the journal Light: Science & Applications.

One of fusion energy’s biggest selling points is that it is supposed to be different from traditional nuclear power. 

Unlike today’s fission reactors, which rely on uranium fuel and produce materials that can be linked to nuclear weapons programs, fusion machines are often portrayed as a cleaner and safer alternative. 

However, as governments and companies pour billions of dollars into making fusion commercially viable, some researchers are asking a burning question: How will anyone ensure that future fusion plants are being used exactly as advertised?

This is important because “fusion power systems can in principle be used to make significant amounts of fissile material,” researchers note.

A new study suggests antineutrinos, tiny particles produced in nuclear reactions, could act as independent witnesses to what is happening inside a fusion reactor. If this idea works as expected, future inspectors may be able to spot attempts to produce weapons-related materials without opening up the reactor or interrupting its operation.

When clean energy creates an unexpected security question

Most fusion designs under development rely on a reaction between two forms of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium. When these atomic nuclei merge, they release enormous amounts of energy. 

They also release fast-moving neutrons, which are essential for extracting that energy and converting it into electricity. Those neutrons, however, do not care how they are used.

If uranium-238 were placed near the fusion reaction, some of the neutrons could be absorbed by the uranium. Through a sequence of nuclear transformations, the uranium could eventually become plutonium-239, one of the materials that can be used in nuclear weapons.

This possibility does not mean that fusion reactors are secret weapons factories. Producing plutonium in this way would require deliberate action. Yet regulators generally prefer to design safeguards before a technology becomes widespread rather than after. 

“Demonstrating methods to assure the timely detection of such a misuse scenario would be extremely valuable as part of the efforts to guarantee the peaceful use of fusion energy systems,” the study authors said.

The challenge has been finding a monitoring method that can reliably reveal what is happening inside a reactor without becoming intrusive or technically impractical.

Listening for particles that cannot be silenced

The study authors investigated whether antineutrinos could provide that monitoring capability.

Antineutrinos are among the most elusive particles known to science. 

Trillions pass through the human body every second without leaving a trace. Since they interact so weakly with matter, they cannot realistically be blocked by walls, shielding, or other barriers.

That property turns them into a unique source of information. If plutonium production were taking place inside a fusion reactor, the nuclear reactions involved would generate a characteristic antineutrino signal. In principle, that signal could reveal activity that operators might otherwise try to conceal.

The researchers used computer simulations to test whether such a signal would be detectable in practice. They modeled the antineutrinos expected from plutonium-producing reactions and compared them with other sources of background noise, including signals generated during normal reactor operation and particles arriving from space.

Their results indicate that the difference should be measurable. According to the study, a relatively compact detector could detect the production of only a few kilograms of plutonium over about 30 days. 

In one benchmark scenario examined by the researchers, the production of 8 kilograms of plutonium in a month generated a strong and easily detectable antineutrino signal. This is a small enough amount to provide an early warning that something unusual is happening.

“Our results confirm that even a modestly-sized antineutrino detector should be able to detect the presence of fertile material during operation in a reliable and timely manner,” the study authors added.

Equally important, the detector would not need to sit inside the reactor complex. This is because antineutrinos travel through matter almost unhindered; the monitoring system could operate from outside the facility, making it less disruptive for reactor operators.

Building the rulebook before the reactors arrive

No commercial deuterium-tritium fusion power plants exist today, which means there is currently no facility where the approach can be tested under full operating conditions. The researchers therefore relied on simulations rather than real-world measurements.

That limitation also highlights why the study matters now. Fusion developers are still working to prove that their reactors can generate electricity economically. 

If they succeed, governments and international agencies will eventually need a framework for monitoring the technology. Creating such safeguards after hundreds of reactors are already operating would be far more difficult.

The new work does not solve every question surrounding fusion security, but it does offer a practical way to verify that future reactors are doing only what they are supposed to do. 

The study is published in the journal Physical Review Applied.

America’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) watchdog has warned that the US may struggle to sustain a long-term conflict with China should hostilities break out. The issue is not about technical capability (the US military is arguably the world’s most powerful), but rather a matter of logistics.

For combat operations thousands of miles from home, as would be the case in the Indo-Pacific, the GAO argues that the US may struggle to refuel and resupply assets, notably its considerable aircraft fleet.

The issue mainly centers around aging refueling aircraft and issues with spare parts. If tensions over Taiwan were to go hot, these could both conspire to make American efforts in the region trickier than expected.

“The percentage of aerial refuelling tankers that are available and mission capable has remained persistently below the standards that the [US] Air Force established for the fleet,” the report said.

To give you some idea of the problem, imagine an F-35 running a sortie from Hawaii to Taiwan, say. These aircraft have a combat radius of around 700 miles (1,127 km), and the distance between these two islands is about 5,000 miles.

An army marches on its stomach

The fighter wouldn’t be able to make it on its own and would need several midair refueling operations to safely get there and back. After the mission, it may also need repairs, which require a sufficient stock of spare parts lying around.

If enough tankers aren’t available, the fighters couldn’t arrive in meaningful numbers. A bit of a quandary.

Of course, travel distances for fighters can be dramatically reduced by deploying carrier groups closer to Taiwan, but that puts them at risk of being attacked by long-range missiles (including hypersonics), submarines, or Chinese aircraft.

The main weakness, the report argues, is the US reliance on aging aircraft like Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers. Many of the current airframes entered service in the 1950s and 1960s, and are still going strong.

The airframes have been upgraded repeatedly, but old aircraft require more maintenance and suffer more breakdowns. And that leads to the second main issue: a lack of spare parts.

The US military increasingly struggles to obtain parts for older systems. Some suppliers no longer exist, and some components must be specially manufactured. Any break in supply means that assets, like aircraft, can sit grounded while waiting for parts.

Not how much you make, it’s how much you keep

So, even if you have 400 tankers on paper, perhaps only 250 are actually flyable on a given day. Other issues cited include a shortage of skilled personnel and delays in replacement hardware for older tech, like the planned Boeing KC-46 Pegasus.

But the KC-46 program has experienced years of technical problems and delays. The Air Force expected newer tankers to reduce pressure on older aircraft.

When factoring in the fact that China reportedly possesses long-range missiles specifically designed to target US bases and support aircraft, any direct conflict could prove very expensive for the US.

China’s military planners, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports, understand that destroying tankers may be more effective than trying to shoot down stealth fighters.

So, would such a conflict mean China could win? Not necessarily, since China has its own issues (like a lack of combat experience), but a “home advantage” would certainly tip the odds in its favor unless the US can cure its growing logistical bottlenecks.

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Students at a local high school in Rome had long known of the mysterious underground passages that lay beneath the ground, but finally, a protest stirred the school, authorities were informed, and they discovered an ancient Roman villa.

Cavour Scientific High School is located about a five-minute walk from the Colosseum, and it sits on the site of the recently identified Roman villa. Built in the 19th century as a missionary complex, the school embodies layers of history for which Rome is known.

For years, students quietly shared stories about the rooms, artwork, and passages beneath the gymnasium. As time went on, these tales grew more elaborate, leading the school administration to take them less seriously, according to Popular Mechanics.

The situation escalated when the students staged a protest during COVID. Locking themselves into school, these restless teenagers roamed the premises unsupervised. They explored the underground passageways beneath the gymnasium, seeking to prove the validity of their claims. A curious teacher, Claudia Marino, heard the fervor in their accounts and took a group of adventurous students through an iron door.

They found themselves in an old boiler room, and as they ventured deeper into this unused chamber, they encountered ancient Roman walls. Continuing through a narrow passage, they stumbled upon an intact domus, or villa.

Archaeologists from the Special Superintendency of Rome began excavations a few years later in September 2025.

A family villa in an ancient affluent neighborhood

The ancient residence first came to light in 1895 when Via degli Annibaldi was constructed. At that time, archaeologists uncovered sections of the building as well as a water pipe inscribed with the family name, Umbrius. However, further excavation did not take place, and the ancient villa faded into obscurity.

Graffiti from the 1940s and 1950s, however, indicates that students had long left their mark on someone else’s house, but the secret held among the youth never seeped into adult consciousness until the Romans took to the streets.

Once the protests signaled the villa’s existence, archaeologists were eager to investigate because the school is positioned in an exclusive neighborhood in Rome where ancient prominent figures lived: Cicero, Pompey, Octavian, Emperor Augustus, and more, according to Archaeology News.

Excavation officially began in January 2026, with an announcement made on May 28 confirming that the students had discovered a mid-Imperial domus, which was subsequently named Domus Liceo Cavour. Dating to the mid-second century CE, it indeed belonged to the Umbrius family, originally from south-central Italy.

Future employment for students

Archaeologists left the site with 48 crates of artifacts, including wall paintings, decorative elements, and a notable mosaic of large, irregularly shaped tiles—designs that were popular in the second century CE.

The villa’s exceptional preservation prompted the Italian Ministry of Culture to describe the paintings as “spectacular” and in need of full excavation, according to Popular Mechanics. It is likely that the grounds extend into the school’s courtyard, so further exploration is planned.

The project aims to open the site to visitors, with students serving as tour guides—a thoughtful conclusion that honors those who discovered and appreciated this piece of history.

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A large-scale power engine has successfully supplied electricity to Spain’s national grid using 100% pure hydrogen fuel. The trial, conducted by technology group Wärtsilä in the northern town of Bermeo, is the first time an engine of this scale has operated entirely on pure hydrogen under real-world grid conditions.

“This is the world’s first demonstration of a large-scale hydrogen engine running on 100% pure hydrogen,” said the company in a press release.

The operation utilized the Wärtsilä 31H2 model, which currently stands as the largest pure hydrogen engine in existence. While previous power plant designs relied on engines that mixed hydrogen with standard natural gas, this test confirms that grid-connected generators can function without any fossil fuel inputs.

Grid-scale technical validation

“The Wärtsilä 31H2 engine, part of the Wärtsilä 31 platform, one of the world’s most efficient multi-fuel 4-stroke engines, shows that hydrogen can move beyond theory into real-world energy infrastructure,” added the company.

According to the company, Spain was selected for the project because the country has established a high percentage of renewable energy sources and is actively trying to decrease its dependence on unpredictable global fuel markets.

This development addresses a major structural problem facing modern electrical grids. International projections indicate that global solar and wind installations will expand by approximately 4,600 gigawatts by 2030.

Because wind and solar electricity production fluctuates based on weather conditions and the time of day, grid operators require highly flexible backup power systems that can start quickly during periods of low generation or high consumer demand.

Addressing renewable intermittency

“Green hydrogen produces no carbon emissions, enabling clean power generation while supporting the decarbonisation of renewable-heavy grids,” highlighted the press release. When wind or solar farms produce more electricity than consumers need, that excess power can run electrolyzers to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas.

This hydrogen is stored and subsequently burned in engines like the 31H2 to generate emissions-free electricity when weather-dependent sources are offline, ensuring a continuous power supply.

Beyond traditional grid stabilization, the engine platform is engineered to supply electricity to remote regions that lack connection to main power lines. The manufacturer also expects the technology to support industries that require constant, high-volume electricity.

This includes industrial manufacturing operations and artificial intelligence data centers, which face pressure to reduce their carbon footprints while maintaining uninterrupted operational uptime.

Frameworks for future expansion

Following the verification of the engine’s mechanical performance, company officials stated that widespread adoption now depends on external economic factors rather than engineering capabilities.

“Our Wärtsilä 31H2 hydrogen engine is operating on 100% hydrogen and supplying power to Spain’s national grid, demonstrating that large-scale hydrogen engines can provide the flexible, dispatchable sustainable power needed to support future renewable energy systems,” remarked Rasmus Teir, Director of Technology Strategy & Decarbonisation at Wärtsilä.

He concluded that commercial expansion will require governments to establish clear regulatory frameworks, secure investment pathways, and build the physical pipelines and storage facilities necessary to transport sustainable fuels to power generation sites.

The German defense technology company Helsing has presented an electronic attack variant of the CA-1 autonomous unmanned aircraft at the International Aerospace Exhibition in Berlin. The platform named CA-1EA builds on the company`s existing CA-1 Europa architecture. 

CA-1 Europa is 4 ton class, single engine unmanned combat aircraft employing a low observable design. It has a length of 11 meters and a wingspan of 10 meters. Its autonomy is centered around the Helsing’s Centaur AI pilot stack and advanced mission systems.

The original combat variant, which the company is already producing, will now carry the designation CA-1KA (Kinetic Attack), distinguishing it from the new electronic warfare model. According to the company, the electronic attack variant is intended to provide non-kinetic effects on the battlefield by disrupting and degrading enemy sensors and reconnaissance networks. 

Helsing argues that modern air forces increasingly need a combination of kinetic and electronic attack capabilities to penetrate advanced air defence systems and counter sophisticated surveillance assets, making autonomous electronic warfare platforms a key component of future military operations.

New CA-1EA creates safer corridors through enemy air defences

Modern military operations depend heavily on suppressing enemy radar and surveillance networks before strike aircraft enter contested airspace. Helsing says the CA-1 EA is designed to fill that role by using airborne electronic warfare capabilities to disrupt and jam hostile ground-based radar systems. By interfering with an adversary’s ability to detect and track targets, the autonomous aircraft can help create safer flight paths for other assets operating behind it.

The company notes that the CA-1EA is designed to work alongside autonomous systems such as the CA-1 Europa as well as conventional crewed fighters, including the Eurofighter, extending electronic protection across mixed air fleets.

Both the CA-1KA and the CA-1EA electronic warfare variant are built on a common architecture, using the same airframe, propulsion system, autonomy software stack, and ground control infrastructure. The distinction between the two platforms is primarily defined by their payload configurations, which determine whether the aircraft is optimised for kinetic or electronic effects on the battlefield.

By standardising the core design across both variants, the German company aims to reduce production and lifecycle costs while streamlining manufacturing processes. The shared system architecture also simplifies logistics and maintenance requirements, while making it easier for operators to transition between mission types and train across both configurations within a unified operational framework.

Flexible CA-1 platform aims to meet diverse air force requirements 

As the company further explains, this modular approach enables the CA-1 platform to evolve further, giving it the flexibility to be adapted to the operational needs of European air forces. By maintaining a scalable and shared architecture, the system can be configured for different mission profiles without requiring a complete redesign. 

This design philosophy is intended to support rapid capability expansion while aligning with the varied requirements of modern European defense users.

“Modern air forces cannot do without electronic warfare. Helsing has been working to develop this capability for years. The CA-1EA is the result: an unmanned system that operates alongside the CA-1KA at tactical range, but can also be deployed flexibly as a standalone platform for electronic warfare,” said Stephanie Lingemann, vice president for air domain at Helsing.

The CA-1 platform is still under development, with the first flight of the CA-1 Europa attack variant planned for early 2027. It is being developed and produced in southern Germany by Helsing’s subsidiary Grob Aircraft, positioning the system as a fully European solution for German and allied air forces. The first operational capability is expected in 2029 for the CA-1KA variant, followed by 2031 for the CA-1EA electronic warfare version.

At the heart of the patented technology is a baseline imaging approach that creates a visual reference of the vehicle’s underside. When the car is switched off and in a stable state, the system captures and stores an image of the underbody, establishing a snapshot of what the area should normally look like.

Later, when the vehicle is preparing to move or performing a safety check, new real-time images are taken and compared with the stored reference. Rather than processing the entire underbody scene every time, the software focuses only on areas where it detects a change from the baseline image. 

These altered sections are isolated as target images and sent for more detailed analysis, allowing the system to reduce computing demands while quickly identifying anything unusual beneath the vehicle.

AI safety technology could help prevent underbody accidents

Rather than repeatedly processing every component beneath the car, the patented system is designed to ignore elements that remain unchanged from one scan to the next. Fixed structures such as the battery pack housing, suspension components, aerodynamic covers, and other underbody hardware are treated as part of the reference environment, allowing the software to concentrate on anything that appears or moves after the baseline image has been recorded.

Once a new or altered area has been identified, the technology performs a more detailed examination of that specific section. It extracts visual features from the target image, analyses them using its detection algorithms, and determines whether the object is a living organism. The system can then assess the detected subject’s condition or status before deciding whether further action or a safety warning is required, CarNewsChina reported.

Unlike in-cabin monitoring technologies, identifying living organisms beneath a vehicle presents a far more complex computer-vision challenge. The space underneath a parked car is highly unpredictable, with constantly changing environmental conditions that can interfere with accurate detection.

Shifting shadows, uneven lighting, road debris, accumulated dirt, and different ground textures all create visual noise that makes reliable recognition difficult. Conventional motion-detection systems can also generate false positives, often failing to distinguish between ordinary environmental changes and the presence or movement of a person or animal beneath the vehicle.

Two-stage detection system could make parked cars safer

Instead of depending exclusively on object-recognition software, BYD’s patented technology first builds a unique visual reference of the area beneath each parked vehicle. By comparing new images against this stored baseline, the system can quickly identify anything that has changed in the underbody environment before carrying out a more advanced analysis.

Only after these differences have been isolated does the software apply its recognition algorithms to determine whether the detected object is a person, an animal, or another living organism. This layered, two-step process is designed to improve the accuracy of the detection system while cutting down on false alarms triggered by fixed structures or other non-threatening objects that remain stationary beneath the vehicle.

The patent also aligns with BYD’s broader push into advanced vehicle safety systems. The company recently unveiled another invention designed to detect forgotten occupants inside a car using radar-based sensing and signal analysis.

Together, the two technologies monitor opposite sides of the vehicle – one focusing on the cabin and the other on the space underneath. The approach suggests BYD is building a wider sensing ecosystem that combines computer vision, radar, and intelligent monitoring to improve overall vehicle awareness.

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The Turkish Ministry of Defense reports that it has successfully tested the nation’s first domestically-produced heavyweight torpedo, the AKYA. Launched from the Preveze-class submarine TCG Sakarya, the torpedo acquired, tracked, and hit its target, reportedly breaking the target ship in two.

According to reports, the test was part of the Republic’s Denizkurdu II exercise held in the Eastern Mediterranean earlier this month. During the exercise, the TCG Sokullu Mehmet Paşa (a retired training ship) was deliberately sunk as part of a SINKEX (Sink Exercise).

Such exercises are critical for evaluating the real-world performance of weapons like torpedoes, as only so much can be learned from computer modelling. Actual sinking exercises provide valuable data on structural damage, flooding, shock effects, and sinking behaviour.

Developed by the Ankara-based defense company Roketsan, the AKYA is an impressive piece of kit, at least on paper. It has a diameter of 21 inches (53.3 cm), has a reported range of 27 nautical miles (50 km), and can travel at a speed of around 45 knots (83 kph).

Home-built for home defense

The electrically-propelled torpedo is guided using a combination of active and passive sonar, and can also track targets using wake homing. This latter capability, as the name suggests, enables the torpedo to follow the disturbance made by a ship as it moves through water.

The advantage is that it’s much harder to decoy than a torpedo, simply chasing engine noise. The torpedo doesn’t care where the ship is now; it just follows where the ship has been.

The torpedo also features autonomous or fiber-optic guidance capabilities. The latter enables the submarine to update target information, refine the attack profile, and improve accuracy throughout the engagement.

Apart from the torpedo itself, another major innovation for the Turkish navy was the use of the MÜREN Submarine Combat Management System (CMS). Also domestically developed, this system works as the submarine’s “brain.”

In modern submarines, such systems collect sonar information, track targets, and calculate firing solutions. It also manages the guidance process for wire-guided weapons and integrates navigation and tactical displays.

Previously, Turkish submarines relied heavily on foreign systems, but with MÜREN, Turkey is fast becoming less reliant on third parties for critical operations of this nature.

Made in Turkey, not imported

Apart from field testing the AKYA torpedo, the Denizkurdu II exercise also featured the testing of Turkey’s latest surface-to-surface missile, the ATMACA. Launched from the Ada-class corvette TCG Kınalıada, this domestically-produced guided anti-ship missile hit a retired open-sea tugboat, the TCG Akbaş.

Taken together, both these tests show that Turkey is making concerted efforts to reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers for military hardware. Historically, the nation relied heavily on German and American combat systems and weapons, but is increasingly replacing critical components with domestically developed alternatives.

The goal appears to be to develop an entirely national underwater warfare ecosystem where critical software, weapons, and support are under Turkish control.

For military planners, that can be as important as the weapon itself because it reduces vulnerability to export restrictions, sanctions, spare-part shortages, or political disagreements.

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For more than three centuries, physicists have believed in Isaac Newton’s third law—every action has an equal and opposite reaction. However, many real-world collective systems appear to ignore this rule. 

For example, a bird in a flock pays attention mainly to birds in front of it, not those behind. Cells moving through tissue respond to some neighbors but not others. Swarming bacteria and even human crowds often behave in similarly one-sided ways. 

These nonreciprocal interactions have long posed a challenge because many of the mathematical tools physicists use assume that action and reaction are balanced. 

Now, a new study presents a framework that effectively restores access to those powerful tools without changing the underlying physics. This work could make it much easier to study flocking animals, active matter, biological tissues, and potentially even exotic quantum systems. 

“We have developed and proven a theory that makes much of what we teach our students applicable to nonreciprocal systems as well,” said Marin Bukov, one of the study authors and a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems.

These systems, where Newton’s third law does not apply, can now finally be described exactly and simulated precisely—even using established methods. This is exactly the kind of tool that has been missing in recent years,” Bukov added. 

What’s wrong with birds in a flock

In conventional systems, interactions can be described by an energy function, allowing researchers to use well-established methods from statistical mechanics and many-body physics. 

Nonreciprocal systems are different. If one bird responds to another but not vice versa, there is no single interaction energy that describes the pair. Without that energy landscape, many standard analytical and computational approaches become unavailable. 

Scientists could still simulate the systems directly, but the calculations were often slower, less flexible, and harder to interpret. A general framework capable of handling nonreciprocal interactions while preserving the advantages of traditional physics had remained elusive. 

Restoring Newton-like symmetry 

The researchers solved the problem by introducing what they call auxiliary degrees of freedom. In simple terms, every real component in a nonreciprocal system is paired with an artificial counterpart that exists only in mathematics.

The key idea is surprisingly simple. Instead of changing the physics, the researchers add mathematical partners to every real component in the system. 

“The trick behind the new theory is that it constructs a partner for each component of the system—a fictitious partner that doesn’t exist in nature,” Ricard Alert, one of the study authors and a biophysicist at the Max Planck Institute, said.

Imagine a flock of birds. Instead of modeling only the real birds, the framework adds a second set of fictional birds. These imaginary birds are carefully defined so that the originally one-way interactions can be rewritten as ordinary two-way interactions between real and auxiliary partners. 

The resulting enlarged system obeys the reciprocal rules that physicists know how to handle. Once a specific constraint is imposed, the mathematical model reproduces the exact behavior of the original nonreciprocal flock. 

The idea resembles a common strategy in theoretical physics, where extra variables are introduced to simplify difficult problems. 

What makes this work different is that the auxiliary variables provide a general recipe for translating nonreciprocal interactions into a form compatible with Hamiltonian mechanics—a mathematical framework physicists use to predict how complex systems evolve over time.

Putting the framework to the test

To demonstrate the approach, the team studied a model known as the vision-cone XY model. In this system, each element interacts only with neighbors that fall within a specific field of view, much like birds paying attention only to those ahead of them. 

Since one bird can see another without being seen in return, the interaction is inherently nonreciprocal. The researchers showed that by adding an auxiliary partner for every element and enforcing a mirror-like relationship between the two, the original dynamics emerge exactly from a Hamiltonian description. 

The payoff was immediate. The team proved that Monte Carlo simulations based on the new Hamiltonian framework reproduced both steady and changing states of the original nonreciprocal system. 

This means scientists can now apply computational techniques that were previously reserved for conventional reciprocal systems. In practice, researchers may be able to analyze much larger systems more efficiently and explore behaviors that were previously difficult to access. 

The framework also unlocked another powerful tool, Floquet engineering, a technique that uses periodic driving to manipulate interactions. 

Using their new formulation, the researchers showed how a periodically driven nonreciprocal spin system could effectively be transformed from a two-dimensional network into behavior resembling a collection of one-dimensional chains. Such control would have been difficult to analyze without a Hamiltonian description.

“Overall, our construction paves the way towards extending statistical mechanics and Hamiltonian dynamics to non-reciprocal systems,” the study authors note.

A bridge to new physics, but not the final answer

The framework gives physicists a new way to study nonreciprocal systems using many of the established tools developed for conventional physics. Beyond flocking birds and moving cells, it could help researchers analyze a wide range of systems where interactions are one-sided.

Currently, the approach applies to pairwise interactions and introduces an auxiliary partner for every real component, making more complex systems a challenge for future work.

Looking ahead, the study authors want to explore whether nonreciprocal interactions can produce entirely new forms of collective quantum behavior. 

If so, the framework could open a new window into how complex matter organizes itself when the usual action-reaction symmetry breaks down.

The study is published in the journal Nature Physics.

For years, the idea of a fully autonomous weapon system killing a human being on the battlefield existed as a warning, a thought experiment, and an unconfirmed rumor. It is no longer any of those things.

A Ukrainian drone manufacturer has confirmed to New Scientist that a test involving 10 fully autonomous AI-controlled drones — operating with no human oversight or connection — killed Russian soldiers on the front line of the Ukraine war approximately two years ago.

The disclosure, made at a press event hosted by the Ukrainian embassy, marks what weapons experts are calling a historic threshold in the history of warfare.

“Everything it sees will be killed”

The drone-maker behind the technology, Alexander Kokhanovskyy, described the operation in blunt terms. The drones were launched toward the front line near the cities of Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar during a Ukrainian counteroffensive push, programmed to cover between three kilometers (1.86 miles) and five kilometers (3.10 miles) over approximately 10 minutes, at which point they entered what Kokhanovskyy called “Terminator mode” — a state in which an onboard AI model independently searched for, identified, and attacked targets with no human input.

“We just launch it, and we know everything will be dead — everything that will be found there in this particular area will be dead,” Kokhanovskyy told New Scientist. “There is no connection to the drone at all, you cannot see the video, nothing. Everything it sees will be killed.”

Because the autonomous drones transmitted no live footage during the mission, there was no way to monitor them in real time. After the test concluded, human-piloted drones were sent into the area to manually survey results. What they found: “a couple of soldiers, one truck.”

Kokhanovskyy was not personally present at the test, which was carried out by an unnamed military unit. He was clear that it remained a one-off experiment and was never expanded into wider deployment. “It’s a test. We never implemented it more widely,” he said.

What makes this different from every prior incident

The distinction matters. Traditional armed drones transmit live video to a human operator who makes the decision to fire. A fully autonomous drone detects its target, decides whether it meets the engagement criteria, calculates an attack path, and executes the strike — entirely in software, with no human consulted at any point. In Terminator mode, that decision — whether a person lives or dies — was made by an algorithm.

A UN report in 2021 suggested that a Turkish Kargu-2 quadcopter may have been used to autonomously attack humans in Libya in 2020, but that account contained no confirmed casualties and gave no specific sourcing. The Ukraine disclosure, by a named manufacturer speaking on record at a diplomatic event, is the first confirmed account with stated outcomes.

What Kokhanovskyy wants

Ukraine’s current regulations prohibit fully autonomous lethal operation in the final stage of an engagement, requiring human verification before a strike is executed.

Kokhanovskyy acknowledged this constraint in the same conversation — while noting that his company’s upcoming ALITA counter-drone system, consisting of 16 launch pads and 64 drones, will require just two human operators to manage the entire battery. The system can travel toward incoming threats at 280mph, engaging everything from small drones to helicopters.

Even with humans required in the final step, Kokhanovskyy made his personal view clear: “I would love to operate without that restriction.”

That position is not universal inside Ukraine’s military. Major Danylo Polozhukhno, a senior figure in Ukraine’s 21st Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment who was unaware of the test, told New Scientist that his soldiers use semi-autonomous systems but always maintain a human in the loop.

An international team of space physicists and engineers has unveiled a highly ambitious planetary defense concept designed to protect Earth from the devastating impacts of extreme space weather.

The proposal, dubbed “StormWall,” outlines a space-based system that can artificially reinforce the planet’s natural defenses just before a major solar storm strikes.

According to researchers, applying serious physics to the problem demonstrates that humanity no longer has to simply brace for impact and accept whatever the Sun throws at the planet.

The fragility technological infrastructure

Geomagnetic storms occur when a massive surge of solar energy—often carried by coronal mass ejections—violently interacts with Earth’s magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble protecting the planet.

While these events trigger beautiful auroras, they pose a severe threat to modern civilization by inducing major electrical currents that can overload power grids, destroy multi-million-dollar transformers, damage satellites, and knock out global GPS and communication networks.

Historically, severe events such as the 1859 Carrington Event disrupted telegraph lines across continents. In today’s hyper-connected society, a similar extreme storm could cause trillions of dollars in economic damage and leave entire populations in prolonged darkness.

The physics of the ‘orbital airbag’

The core breakthrough of the StormWall concept lies in suppressing a process known as magnetic reconnection. During powerful solar storms, the magnetic fields carried by the solar wind can align with Earth’s magnetic field, linking the two. This cosmic link opens a pathway that allows solar energy to pour directly into near-Earth space.

To exploit this physical vulnerability, the StormWall system functions similarly to an automotive airbag. The proposed architecture involves a constellation of six spacecraft strategically deployed into geosynchronous orbit. These satellites would carry stores of safe solid or liquid alkaline materials, such as barium, lithium, sodium, or calcium.

When space weather forecasters detect a dangerous solar storm barreling toward Earth, ground operators would trigger the fleet to release the materials into space. Upon release, solar radiation would rapidly vaporize and ionize the elements, forming a thick cloud of electrically charged plasma.

This artificial plasma would drift toward the sun-facing frontier of the magnetosphere, effectively thickening the planet’s shield and forcing the harsh solar wind to slide around Earth rather than break through.

High rewards and earthwide benefits

To test the viability of the concept, the research team ran advanced computer simulations modeling the historic May 2024 geomagnetic storm. The data revealed that under normal conditions, the storm caused major magnetospheric disruptions, but when the simulated StormWall plasma shield was activated, the overall intensity of the geomagnetic storm was slashed by more than half.

Crucially, this geoengineering approach features minimal long-term environmental risk. The artificial plasma cloud is highly transient and would naturally dissipate within roughly six hours as it is swept into deep space by the solar wind, avoiding re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

Furthermore, because the magnetosphere blankets the entire globe, StormWall would act as a collective, democratic shield. The system cannot be modified to protect just one country or a specific corporate satellite fleet; it inherently shields the entire planet and everyone on it simultaneously.

The primary hurdle moving forward is reducing the steep manufacturing and deployment costs. Future phases of the project will focus on identifying the single most cost-effective element for mass release and optimizing orbital trajectories to minimize upkeep.

A German company has completed the final assembly of a new unmanned aircraft system.

Called AeroForce X prototype, Aerodata AG’s aircraft has reached an important milestone and is moving on to the next phase as scheduled.

The prototype’s first  flight is scheduled to take place in Germany this year.

Closer to operational reality

“This milestone takes AeroForce X a huge step closer to operational reality,” said Ole Vörsmann, General Manager for Unmanned Systems.

“Now that final assembly has been successfully completed, we look forward to thoroughly testing the prototype during the upcoming test phases.”

The company also revealed that the MALE-class (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) unmanned aircraft system stands out in particular for its long endurance of up to 40 hours and a payload capacity of up to 1,300 kg. Thanks to its modular platform design, AeroForce X can be flexibly configured and deployed in combination with existing manned reconnaissance aircraft for a wide range of missions.

Aerodata AG will be exhibiting at the ILA Berlin from June 10 to 14, according to a press release.

Intended to address a broad range of surveillance

Reports have revealed that AeroForce X is intended to address a broad range of surveillance, reconnaissance, and mission-support requirements. One of its standout features is an endurance capability of up to 40 hours, enabling extended missions without the need for frequent landings or refueling. The platform is also engineered to carry payloads of up to 1,300 kilograms, providing considerable flexibility for various sensor packages and mission equipment.

A defining characteristic of AeroForce X is its modular architecture. The aircraft can be configured for different operational scenarios and integrated alongside manned reconnaissance platforms. This approach allows operators to tailor the system to mission-specific requirements while benefiting from coordinated manned-unmanned operations.

The development reflects the growing demand for advanced unmanned aerial systems capable of delivering long-duration surveillance and intelligence-gathering capabilities. By combining significant endurance, high payload capacity, and adaptable mission configurations, AeroForce X aims to position itself as a versatile solution for both governmental and commercial operators.

With the prototype now assembled and flight testing on the horizon, Aerodata has entered one of the most important phases of the program. The upcoming test campaign will be closely watched as the company seeks to demonstrate the operational potential of AeroForce X and strengthen its position in the rapidly evolving unmanned aviation sector.

Aerodata has emphasized a modular design philosophy for AeroForce X. Rather than being limited to a single role, the platform is intended to support various mission configurations through adaptable payload bays and mission systems. This approach allows operators to customize the aircraft according to evolving operational requirements, potentially reducing lifecycle costs and improving mission effectiveness.

The maiden flight, expected later this year in Germany, will serve as a crucial benchmark for the program. Beyond proving basic flight characteristics, the test campaign will evaluate aircraft handling, endurance, mission systems integration, and overall operational performance.

The design philosophy behind the American lunar architecture depends heavily on a single high-performance main engine responsible for critical mission phases. During descent, that engine governs the entire journey from lunar orbit down to the Moon’s surface. 

On ascent, the same single-point system becomes the only means of returning astronauts to lunar orbit. The lack of redundancy means that a malfunction would eliminate any backup option, a concern highlighted in a peer-reviewed study published in Chinese Space Science and Technology in March, which argues the system “contains some glaring weaknesses.”

By contrast, China’s proposed lunar lander adopts a multi-engine approach. Developed by a Shanghai-based national laboratory team, it uses four variable-thrust engines producing over 30 kilonewtons collectively. Even if one engine fails entirely, the remaining three would still deliver thrust comparable to the main engine of NASA’s Orion spacecraft.

Lunar ascent safety debate centers on redundancy versus mass constraints

Beyond the primary propulsion system, the design includes an additional safeguard layer intended to improve mission resilience. If the main engines were to become inoperative, six smaller orbit-control thrusters can still be activated on the lunar surface, providing an alternative pathway for a rapid ascent. This redundancy raises a broader engineering question: if multiple engines offer greater safety than a single one, why are they not universally adopted, the South China Morning Post writes.

The constraint is mass, as additional engines typically increase overall vehicle weight, reducing efficiency and payload capacity. The Chinese engineering team addressed this trade-off through a structural optimization known as a common bulkhead tank, which integrates fuel storage more efficiently and reduces excess mass while still enabling a multi-engine configuration.

China introduced a new tank design in a crewed deep-space vehicle that uses a pressure-fed system, where fuel and oxidiser are separated by a shared wall, often called a “common bottom.” In earlier lunar lander designs, the two propellants were stored in completely separate tanks, which added extra structural weight and took up more space inside the vehicle.

By combining them into a single structure with a shared barrier, the system reduces unnecessary duplication in the tank framework. According to the researchers, this change cuts weight at the “hundred-kilogram level,” making the overall design more efficient without sacrificing capacity or performance.

Hot-fire tests validate new lightweight tank architecture for space missions

The reduction in mass created by this design enables the use of four engines instead of a single main unit, increasing redundancy without exceeding launch constraints. Built from composite materials, the tank achieves more than a 20 per cent weight reduction compared to traditional metal alternatives. 

Beyond storing propellant, the structure also serves a dual purpose as a load-bearing component of the spacecraft, effectively becoming part of the vehicle’s frame and improving overall mass efficiency. The approach is backed by experimental validation, with the paper drawing on results from full-system hot-fire tests. These tests provide real-world performance data under operating conditions, confirming the feasibility of the integrated structural and propulsion design.

Test results indicate that the four variable-thrust engines can be closely coordinated, keeping thrust variation within less than 100 Newtons. This level of precision is crucial for preventing unstable motion that could cause the lander to tumble during critical flight phases. The experiments also suggest that pressure challenges within the common bulkhead tank can be effectively managed.

Replicating this kind of system would be difficult for any other space programme. It requires highly precise autonomous control of pressure inside a shared-tank structure operating with very narrow safety margins. In addition, it demands tightly synchronised performance across multiple throttling engines, a task that becomes significantly more complex as each additional engine is introduced.

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