The week in physics: Quantum history; Plasma wakefield acceleration; Tabletop neutrinos

The week in physics: 17–21 March ADVERTISEMENT Rugged Hexapod for Industrial Use PI's new H-815 is a rugged 6-axis hexapod designed for 24/7 motion in industrial alignment tasks. It features absolute encoders (no referencing) and automatic motor brakes for extra safety during a power loss. Applications: alignment of camera lenses, fiber optics, photonics, micro assembly, and more. Read more. Demythologizing quantum history Celebrating the 100th anniversary of quantum mechanics in 2025 without providing appropriate context risks reinforcing a long legacy of hagiography and hero worship. Ryan Dahn Plasma channel guides electrons to 10 GeV Femtosecond-scale laser pulses make a plasma waveguide that helps wakefield-surfing electron bunches keep their energy focused. Laura Fattaruso From the vault: July 1961 Optics and information theory Modern optical technology is being revolutionized through the use of the statistical methods of information theory in problems involving light‐gathering processes. Richard K. McDonald Precision tabletop neutrino science starts with rare isotopes To learn about the aloof particles' quantum states, researchers are watching radioactive beryllium, not water. Johanna L. Miller From the March issue Making qubits from magnetic molecules Bottom-up synthesis of such molecules provides physicists with a rich playground to study newly discovered quantum effects and a means to store information at the scale of individual atoms. Stephen Hill Post a Job Get Job Alerts Browse All Jobs Senior Science Writer Thorlabs, Inc. (Newton, NJ) View Job Synthetic Biology—Postdoctoral Researcher Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA) View Job Postdoctoral Research Associates—NRC Research Associateship Programs The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (Nationwide) View Job Assistant Professor, Theoretical Catalysis with Energy Applications, Physics University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) View Job Postdoc Positions in Biological Physics Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (Dresden, Germany) View Job Professorship (W2/W3 or W3) for Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics Julius Maximilians Universität Würzburg (Würzburg, Germany) View Job Physics Today is published by the American Institute of Physics. To manage your AIP email preferences and newsletter subscriptions, click here. Or unsubscribe from all AIP emails. © 2025 American Institute of Physics. Physics Today 1 Physics Ellipse College Park, MD 20740-3842 +1 301 209 3100