Physics World


Physics World is the membership magazine of the Institute of Physics, one of the largest physical societies in the world. It is an international monthly magazine covering all areas of physics, pure and applied, and is aimed at physicists in research, industry, physics outreach, and education worldwide.

Overview

The magazine was launched in 1988 by IOP Publishing Ltd, under the founding editorship of Philip Campbell. The magazine is made available free of cost to members of the Institute of Physics, who can access a digital edition of the magazine; selected articles can be read by anyone for free online. It was redesigned in September 2005 and has an audited circulation of just under 35000.
The current editor is Matin Durrani. Others on the team are Michael Banks and Tushna Commissariat and Sarah Teah. Hamish Johnston, Margaret Harris and Tami Freeman are online editors.
Alongside the print and online magazine, Physics World produces films and two podcasts. The Physics World Stories podcast is hosted by Andrew Glester and is produced monthly. The Physics World Weekly podcast is hosted by James Dacey.

Breakthrough of the Year

The magazine makes two awards each year. These are the Physics World Breakthrough of the Year and the Physics World Book of the Year, which have both been awarded annually since 2009.
;Top 10 works and winners of the Breakthrough of the Year
2009: "to August Jonathan Home and colleagues at NIST for unveiled the first small-scale device that could be described as a complete "quantum computer"
  • Top results from Tevatron
  • Spins spotted in room-temperature silicon
  • Graphane makes its debut
  • Magnetic monopoles spotted in spin ices
  • Water on the Moon
  • Atoms teleport information over long distance
  • Black-hole analogue traps sound
  • Dark matter spotted in Minnesota
  • A 2.36 TeV big bang at the LHC
2010: "to ALPHA and the ASACUSA group at CERN for have created new ways of controlling antihydrogen"
  • Exoplanet atmosphere laid bare
  • Quantum effects seen in a visible object
  • Visible-light cloaking of large objects
  • Hail the first sound lasers
  • A Bose–Einstein condensate from light
  • Relativity with a human touch
  • Towards a Star Wars telepresence
  • Proton is smaller than we thought
  • CERN achieves landmark collisions
2011: Aephraim M. Steinberg and colleagues from the University of Toronto in Canada for using the technique of "weak measurement" to track the average paths of single photons passing through a Young's interference experiment.
  • Measuring the wavefunction
  • Cloaking in space and time
  • Measuring the universe using black holes
  • Turning darkness into light
  • Taking the temperature of the early universe
  • Catching the flavour of a neutrino oscillation
  • Living laser brought to life
  • Complete quantum computer made on a single chip
  • Seeing pure relics from the Big Bang
2012: "to the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN for their joint discovery of a Higgs-like particle at the Large Hadron Collider".
  • Majorana fermions
  • Time-reversal violation
  • Galaxy-cluster motion
  • Peering through opaque materials
  • Room-temperature maser
  • Wiping data will cost you energy
  • Entangling twisted beams
  • Neutrino-based communication
  • Generating and storing energy in one step
2013: "the IceCube Neutrino Observatory for making the first observations of high-energy cosmic neutrinos".
  • Nuclear physics goes pear-shaped
  • Creating 'molecules' of light
  • Planck reveals 'almost perfect' universe
  • Quantum microscope' peers into the hydrogen atom
  • Quantum state endures for 39 minutes at room temperature
  • The first carbon-nanotube computer
  • B-mode polarization spotted in cosmic microwave background
  • The first laser-cooled Bose–Einstein condensate
  • Hofstadter's butterfly spotted in graphene
2014: "to the landing by the European Space Agency of the Philae on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko", which was the first time a probe had been landed on a comet
  • Quasar shines a bright light on cosmic web
  • Neutrinos spotted from Sun's main nuclear reaction
  • Laser fusion passes milestone
  • Electrons' magnetic interactions isolated at long last
  • Disorder sharpens optical-fibre images
  • Data stored in magnetic holograms
  • Lasers ignite 'supernovae' in the lab
  • Quantum data are compressed for the first time
  • Physicists sound-out acoustic tractor beam
2015: "for being the first to achieve the simultaneous quantum teleportation of two inherent properties of a fundamental particle – the photon".
  • Cyclotron radiation from a single electron is measured for the first time
  • Weyl fermions are spotted at long last
  • Physicists claim 'loophole-free' Bell-violation experiment
  • First visible light detected directly from an exoplanet
  • LHCb claims discovery of two pentaquarks
  • Hydrogen sulphide is warmest ever superconductor at 203 K
  • Portable 'battlefield MRI' comes out of the lab
  • Fermionic microscope sees first light
  • Silicon quantum logic gate is a first
2016: "to LIGO's gravitational wave discovery".
  • Schrödinger's cat lives and dies in two boxes at once
  • Elusive nuclear-clock transition spotted in thorium-229
  • New gravimeter-on-a-chip is tiny yet extremely sensitive
  • Negative refraction of electrons spotted in graphene
  • Rocky planet found in habitable zone around Sun's nearest neighbour
  • Physicists take entanglement beyond identical ions
  • 'Radical' new microscope lens combines high resolution with large field of view
  • Quantum computer simulates fundamental particle interactions for the first time
  • The single-atom engine that could
2017: "to First multimessenger observation of a neutron star merger".
  • Physicists create first ‘topological’ laser
  • Lightning makes radioactive isotopes
  • Super-resolution microscope combines Nobel-winning technologies
  • Particle-free quantum communication is achieved in the lab
  • Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays have extra-galactic origins
  • ‘Time crystals’ built in the lab
  • Metamaterial enhances natural cooling without power input
  • Three-photon interference measured at long last
  • Muons reveal hidden void in Egyptian pyramid
2018: "Discovery that led to the development of “twistronics”, which is a new and very promising technique for adjusting the electronic properties of graphene by rotating adjacent layers of the material."
  • Multifunctional carbon fibres enable “massless” energy storage
  • Compensator expands global access to advanced radiotherapy
  • IPCC Special Report on 1.5 °C climate change
  • EXPLORER PET/CT produces first total-body scans
  • Combustion-free, propeller-free plane takes flight
  • Quantum mechanics defies causal order, experiment confirms
  • Activating retinal stem cells restores vision in mice
  • Ancient hydrogen reveals clues to dark matter’s identity
  • Superconductivity spotted in a quasicrystal
2019: "First direct observation of a black hole and its ‘shadow’ by the Event Horizon Telescope"
  • Neuroprosthetic devices translate brain activity into speech
  • First detection of a “Marsquake”
  • CERN physicists spot symmetry violation in charm mesons
  • “Little Big Coil” creates record-breaking continuous magnetic field
  • Casimir effect creates “quantum trap” for tiny objects
  • Antimatter quantum interferometry makes its debut
  • Quantum computer outperforms conventional supercomputer
  • Trapped interferometer makes a compact gravity probe
  • Wearable MEG scanner used with children for the first time
2020: "Silicon-based light with a direct band gap in microelectronics"
  • Taking snapshots of a quantum measurement
  • Quantum correlations discovered in massive mirrors
  • Borexino spots solar neutrinos from elusive fusion cycle
  • First observation of a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal
  • Thin-film perovskite detectors slash imaging dose
  • Fundamental constants set limit on speed of sound
  • Expanding twistronics to photons
  • Mixed beams enhance particle therapy accuracy
  • The first room-temperature superconductor
2021: "Quantum entanglement of two macroscopic objects"
  • Restoring speech in a paralysed man
  • Making 30 lasers emit as one
  • Quantifying wave–particle duality
  • Milestone for laser fusion
  • Innovative particle cooling techniques
  • Observing a black hole’s magnetic field
  • Achieving coherent quantum control of nuclei
  • Observing Pauli blocking in ultracold fermionic gases
  • Confirming the muon’s theory-defying magnetism
2022: "Deflection of a near-Earth asteroid by DART satellite"
  • Ushering in a new era for ultracold chemistry
  • Observing the tetraneutron
  • Super-efficient electricity generation
  • The fastest possible optoelectronic switch
  • Opening a new window on the universe by JWST
  • First-in-human FLASH proton therapy
  • Perfecting light transmission and absorption
  • Cubic boron arsenide is a champion semiconductor
  • Detecting an Aharonov–Bohm effect for gravity
2023: "Brain–computer interface that allowed a paralysed man to walk"
  • Growing electrodes inside living tissue
  • Neutrinos probe the proton’s structure
  • Simulating an expanding universe in a BEC
  • A double slit in time
  • Building blocks for a large-scale quantum network
  • First X-ray image of a single atom
  • “Smoking gun” evidence of early galaxies transforming the universe
  • Supersonic cracks in materials
  • Antimatter does not fall up
  • Fusion energy breakthrough
2024: "Quantum error correction with 48 logical qubits; and independently, below the surface code threshold"
  • Light-absorbing dye turns skin of live mouse transparent
  • Laser cooling positronium
  • Modelling lung cells to personalize radiotherapy
  • A semiconductor and a novel switch made from graphene
  • Detecting the decay of individual nuclei
  • Two distinct descriptions of nuclei unified for the first time
  • New titanium:sapphire laser is tiny, low-cost and tuneable
  • Entangled photons conceal and enhance images
  • First samples returned from the Moon’s far side