Nature: A team of engineers and physicists has used lasers to crack the encryption keys of two commercial quantum cryptographic systemsâmdash;and left no trace. Nature‘s Zeeya Merali explains the technology involved in this latest hack. Although quantum cryptography had been touted as a secure method to send information, hackers have been busy proving that it is not so. Several months ago, the University of Toronto’s Feihu Xu, Bing Qi, and Hoi-Kwong Lo also found a way to hack quantum systems. Now, Vadim Makarov at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim and his colleagues have published the results of their successful hack in Nature Photonics.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
Get PT in your inbox
PT The Week in Physics
A collection of PT's content from the previous week delivered every Monday.
One email per week
PT New Issue Alert
Be notified about the new issue with links to highlights and the full TOC.
One email per month
PT Webinars & White Papers
The latest webinars, white papers and other informational resources.