The advance provides scientists with a new method for tuning quantum emitters, which are microscopic light sources that could play an important role in future technologies such as quantum computing, secure communications, and ultra-sensitive sensors.

Lead author Dr. Angus Gale said the work offers researchers a valuable new tool for making these quantum systems more practical.

“You can measure these quantum emitters and see that they exist, but it’s hard to make them work in practice. This gives us a lever to get closer to that — a step towards the realization of quantum technologies,” said Dr. Gale.

Twisting Layers Changes Quantum Light

During the experiments, Gale and his team found that twisting the material could significantly alter both the color and wavelength of the light emitted by the quantum emitters. The magnitude of the change was especially noteworthy.

Most studies create a device at a specific twist angle and leave it unchanged. In contrast, the researchers were able to repeatedly lift, rotate, and restack the material, allowing them to continuously modify its properties.

“We’re leveraging the fact that this material, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), is layered. We can pick it up, stack it, twist it, and use that twist to modify the emitters. You can’t really do that with traditional materials like diamond or silicon carbide.”

“The benefit is that we used this twistable platform to shift the emission by a very significant amount,” said Gale. “Often when you control these systems, the amount of manipulation is very limited, but in this case the shift was much larger than expected.

“Rather than trying to make hBN defects behave like a traditional solid-state hosts, we took advantage of hBN’s own strength: its thin, layered, twistable structure.”

Why Hexagonal Boron Nitride Is Different

Gale compared the material’s structure to slices of cheese rather than a solid block.

“With a block of cheese, you can’t really get to the flavor in the middle. But with slices, you can peel away layers, put them back together and change how they interact,” he said.

Because hBN is made of extremely thin layers, researchers can separate and reassemble those layers in ways that are not possible with more conventional quantum materials.

New Possibilities for Quantum Technologies

Supervising author Professor Igor Aharonovich said the ability to twist layered materials is particularly exciting because it can reveal entirely new physical behavior.

“You can take two layers that don’t do much on their own, put them together at a specific angle, and suddenly you have a completely different system,” said Professor Aharonovich.

According to Aharonovich, the findings could help advance several emerging quantum technologies.

“These materials could eventually be used for quantum computing communications and quantum sensing, which would help for applications such as healthcare, cybersecurity and improved GPS; and gives us more control over the building blocks needed to get there.”

A large international study led by scientists from the University of Reading, Harvard Medical School, the University of California Davis, and Mars, Inc., found that most people are not consuming enough flavanols, natural compounds linked to a lower risk of heart disease.

The researchers discovered that fewer than 20% of people reached the flavanol intake level associated with heart health benefits. Even many individuals who regularly ate the recommended five daily servings of fruits and vegetables failed to meet that target.

Published on June 8, 2026, in the journal Food and Function, the study analyzed dietary data from more than 30,000 people in the United Kingdom and the United States using biomarker measurements to assess flavanol intake.

Most People Fall Short on Flavanols

Dr. Javier Ottaviani, the study’s lead author, said: “Flavanols can significantly reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, but only if you consume enough of them. Most people assume that eating plenty of fruit and vegetables covers this, but what this research shows is that the specific choices you make matter far more than the total amount. Including a handful of blackberries, a whole apple or having a cup of green tea alongside your meal could make a real difference to how much of these beneficial compounds you actually consume and absorb from the diet.”

The findings suggest that simply increasing fruit and vegetable intake may not be enough. The specific foods people choose appear to play an important role in determining how many flavanols they actually consume.

Foods Highest in Heart Healthy Flavanols

Earlier research, including the COSMOS study, the largest clinical trial to examine flavanols, found that consuming 500 milligrams of flavanols per day significantly lowered the risk of death from heart disease.

The new study indicates that most people remain well below that level, even when following standard healthy eating recommendations such as the NHS Eatwell Guide.

Researchers identified the following foods as some of the richest dietary sources of flavanols per serving:

• Plums (500g, roughly one punnet): ~450mg of flavanols
• Cranberries (250g, roughly one punnet): ~300mg of flavanols
• Blackberries (200g, roughly one punnet): ~250mg of flavanols
• Green tea (one 250ml cup): ~200mg of flavanols
• Broad beans/fava beans (80g, a small handful): ~140mg of flavanols
• Cherries (400g, roughly one punnet): ~130mg of flavanols
• Apples with skin (200g, one medium apple): ~110mg of flavanols
• Strawberries (200g, roughly one punnet): ~90mg of flavanols
• Blueberries (150g, roughly one punnet): ~80mg of flavanols
• Pinto beans (40g, two tablespoons dry): ~70mg of flavanols

Could Dietary Guidelines Be Improved?

The results also raise questions about whether current nutrition recommendations could do a better job of helping people obtain beneficial compounds such as flavanols.

Professor Gunter Kuhnle of the University of Reading said: “Five-a-day is the right message, but we may need to think more carefully about which five. Different fruits and vegetables offer very different nutritional benefits beyond vitamins and minerals, and as our understanding of these compounds grows, there is a real opportunity to make dietary guidance more specific and more effective. This research is a step towards understanding what that might look like in practice.”

The researchers say the findings highlight an important point. While eating plenty of fruits and vegetables remains a cornerstone of a healthy diet, the types of produce chosen may have a significant impact on heart health benefits.

Researchers initially suspected that a supermassive black hole was powering an extraordinarily bright distant galaxy linked to the neutrino signal. Instead, observations revealed that the galaxy’s energy comes from intense star formation. The finding provides important evidence that could help explain where many of the Universe’s mysterious high-energy neutrinos originate.

Tracking One of the Universe’s Most Elusive Particles

Neutrinos are among the most puzzling particles known to science. Vast numbers of them pass through space, and even through Earth, with very little interaction with matter. Although astronomers have identified a handful of galaxies capable of producing neutrinos, those known sources are not enough to account for the large population of high-energy neutrinos detected so far.

To investigate the origin of one such particle, an international team of researchers from MITOS Science Co., LTD., National Central University, Chung Yuan Christian University, Tohoku University, Fukui University of Technology, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan conducted follow-up observations using ALMA and several other telescopes.

Their target was the high-energy neutrino event IC 210922A, which was detected by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. The search led them to an exceptionally luminous galaxy known as JCMT0402−0424, located roughly 11 billion light-years from Earth.

The Mystery of Shadow Blaster

Previously identified neutrino-producing galaxies have typically been powered by supermassive black holes. However, when the researchers examined JCMT0402−0424, they found no evidence of the energetic emissions normally associated with such a black hole.

The galaxy is heavily veiled by dust, making it difficult to see in visible light. At submillimeter wavelengths, however, it shines intensely. Because of its hidden nature and extreme brightness at those wavelengths, the team gave it the nickname ‘Shadow Blaster.’

A Natural Telescope Reveals the Galaxy’s Core

Astronomers were able to look deep inside Shadow Blaster thanks to a fortunate alignment with another galaxy positioned between it and Earth. The foreground galaxy’s gravity bent and amplified radio waves coming from Shadow Blaster, effectively creating a natural telescope.

This gravitational lensing effect produced brighter and enlarged images that allowed ALMA to examine the distant galaxy in far greater detail.

The radio observations again showed no sign of a powerful black hole. Instead, the data pointed toward another source of energy. The gas and dust throughout the galaxy appear to be heated primarily by vigorous star formation.

Researchers also identified a dense “compact core” at the center of Shadow Blaster. Large quantities of gas and dust are packed into a region only about 1,500 light-years across. Such an extreme environment is capable of generating neutrinos.

A New Explanation for High-Energy Neutrinos

The results suggest that intense star-forming galaxies may represent an important and previously underappreciated source of high-energy neutrinos.

According to the team, compact, dust-rich starburst galaxies undergoing rapid star formation could contribute a substantial share of the high-energy neutrino background. Their analysis indicates that these galaxies may account for as much as 20% of the total population of high-energy neutrinos observed across the Universe.

If confirmed by future studies, the discovery could significantly reshape scientists’ understanding of how some of the Universe’s most elusive particles are produced.

According to quantum field theory (QFT), the framework that describes elementary particles and their interactions, empty space should be filled with quantum fluctuations that contribute an enormous amount of energy. In fact, calculations suggest the cosmological constant should be extraordinarily large, effectively approaching infinity.

Yet observations show something very different. The actual value of the cosmological constant is incredibly small compared with what theory predicts.

Now, researchers at Brown University have proposed a possible explanation.

Their work suggests that a mathematical feature of space-time itself may prevent the cosmological constant from ballooning to the huge values expected from quantum physics. The idea draws on an unexpected connection between quantum gravity and the quantum Hall effect, a remarkable phenomenon in condensed matter physics.

A Surprising Link Between Quantum Gravity and the Quantum Hall Effect

The team found that the mathematics behind a simple approach to quantum gravity closely resembles the mathematics that describes the quantum Hall effect, an unusual state of matter in which electrical conductance takes on highly precise values.

In the quantum Hall effect, those values remain fixed even when the conducting material contains imperfections. The stability comes from topology, a branch of mathematics concerned with the underlying “shape” or structure of a system.

The researchers argue that a similar type of topology appears in the Chern-Simons-Kodama state, a proposed ground state of quantum gravity.

“What we’ve shown is that if space-time has this non-trivial topology, then it resolves one of the deadliest problems of the cosmological constant,” said study co-author Stephon Alexander, a professor of physics at Brown. “All the quantum perturbations that should blow up the value of the cosmological constant are rendered inert by this topology, which keeps the constant’s value stable.”

The study, co-authored by Alexander and Brown Theoretical Physics Center colleagues Aaron Hui and Heliudson Bernardo, was published in Physical Review Letters.

Einstein’s “Ugly” Cosmological Constant

The cosmological constant first appeared in Albert Einstein’s equations of general relativity, his theory of space, time, and gravity.

At the time, Einstein believed the universe was static. To keep his equations from predicting a collapsing universe, he introduced the cosmological constant as a kind of repulsive effect in empty space that counterbalanced gravity.

That idea seemed unnecessary after Edwin Hubble discovered in 1929 that the universe was expanding. Since the cosmos was not static after all, Einstein removed the term from his equations. He reportedly disliked the constant and later referred to it as his “biggest blunder.”

For decades, the cosmological constant largely faded from prominence.

Then, in 1998, astronomers discovered something surprising: the expansion of the universe is speeding up. Rather than disappearing from the story, the cosmological constant suddenly became essential again because it could account for this accelerating expansion.

The Cosmological Constant Problem

The revival of the cosmological constant created a serious problem.

During the years when the constant had fallen out of favor, quantum field theory had become one of the most successful theories in science and a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics.

QFT describes empty space as anything but empty. Instead, it is filled with particles constantly appearing and disappearing through quantum fluctuations.

All of this activity should contribute a vast amount of vacuum energy. That vacuum energy is associated with the cosmological constant, which means the constant should be extraordinarily large.

But observations show that it is not.

If the cosmological constant were as large as QFT predicts, the universe would have expanded so rapidly that galaxies, stars, planets, and ultimately life could never have formed.

The mismatch between theory and observation remains one of the most perplexing problems in modern physics. The puzzle is made even more striking because experiments have repeatedly confirmed the extraordinary accuracy of quantum field theory in other contexts.

A Topological Solution

Alexander has spent years studying Chern-Simons-Kodama (CSK) theory, a proposed quantum gravity state that emerges from quantum field theory.

Physicists still lack a complete quantum theory of gravity that describes gravity at the smallest scales. According to Alexander, the CSK approach is among the more straightforward possibilities.

“It’s a really conservative approach to quantizing gravity,” he said. “This is the approach used by people like Dirac, Schrödinger and Wheeler. It’s just good, old-fashioned quantization.”

Alexander had long noticed similarities between CSK theory and the mathematics of the quantum Hall effect. To better understand those connections, he collaborated with Hui, an assistant professor at Brown who studies topological systems.

“This is the beauty of the Brown Theoretical Physics Center,” Alexander said. “We want to be a place where there’s a mixing of lots of perspectives, and this is us practicing what we preach — a cosmologist working closely with a condensed matter theorist.”

How Topology Creates Stability

The researchers found that the cosmological constant in the CSK framework appears to benefit from the same kind of topological protection seen in the quantum Hall effect.

The quantum Hall effect occurs when electricity flows through extremely thin materials exposed to a magnetic field.

Imagine a thin rectangular strip of metal carrying an electric current. When a magnetic field is applied, a second voltage develops at right angles to the current. This effect produces what is known as a Hall voltage (named after Edwin Hall, who discovered it).

Under ordinary conditions, the Hall voltage changes smoothly as the magnetic field increases.

Under extremely cold temperatures and very strong magnetic fields, however, the behavior changes dramatically. Instead of varying smoothly, the Hall voltage increases in distinct steps and plateaus. Remarkably, those values remain identical regardless of the material being used or any imperfections it contains.

That reliability comes from topology.

In these extreme conditions, electrons behave collectively and enter a highly correlated quantum state. The topology of that state fixes the values of the steps and plateaus, making them resistant to disturbances and defects.

The Brown researchers argue that an analogous process occurs in the CSK description of quantum gravity.

Just as topology locks the Hall voltage into specific values, the topology of space-time could lock the cosmological constant into stable values, protecting it from the quantum fluctuations that would otherwise drive it much higher.

“What we find is that this quantization of the electrical conductance in quantum Hall has an analog with the cosmological constant,” Hui said. “It also ends up becoming quantized for topological reasons. There turn out to be constraints in the theory that force the cosmological constant to take certain allowed quantized values.”

A New Direction for Quantum Gravity

Alexander emphasizes that much more work is needed before a topological explanation of the cosmological constant can be fully established.

Still, he believes the findings represent an important step toward solving the gravitational side of the problem. The work also strengthens the case for the CSK state as a serious candidate for a future theory of quantum gravity.

“We took something old, which is this conservative, canonical approach to quantum gravity, and discovered something new that had been there all along,” Alexander said. “Now we’re working on a bigger picture of how this phenomenon works.”

Among the most ambitious and challenging ideas riding this wave of enthusiasm is something that sounds almost like science fiction: orbital data centers. SpaceX may be one of the most well-known companies seeking to build them, but it is not the only one.

The logic is seductive: Launch the data centers into orbit, where solar energy is abundant and land, water and local power grids are no longer constraints. As artificial intelligence drives an explosion in computing demand, companies are pitching orbital data centers as a way to escape the growing environmental and infrastructure pressures of Earth-based computing. Data centers often also face backlash from the public at having these centers located in their communities.

But there is a vast difference between launching satellites and operating an industrial-scale computing infrastructure in orbit. Space is unforgiving. Radiation damages electronics. The electronics generate enormous amounts of heat, and getting rid of that heat is surprisingly difficult in space. Repairs are extraordinarily expensive, and every pound launched into orbit still carries a significant cost.

We are engineering professors who study data center design and space systems engineering. Building a space-based data center will involve considerations from both sides.

What goes into a data center on Earth

First off, consider what goes into an Earth-based data center, like those that you’ve probably begun to see pop up everywhere. These facilities power cloud computing, video streaming, online banking, scientific computing and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. But a data center is much more than a room full of servers.

A data center needs several things to operate reliably. The first is electric power. Servers, networking equipment and storage devices consume large amounts of electricity, and that power demand is growing rapidly with AI.

The second is cooling. Almost all the electricity consumed by servers eventually becomes heat. If that heat is not removed quickly and reliably, equipment performance drops, failures increase and the data center can shut down. Cooling systems often include air handling units, chillers, cooling towers, pumps and, increasingly, liquid-cooling equipment. In many facilities, cooling is the largest energy consumer after the computing equipment itself.

The third is physical infrastructure, including the necessary land, buildings, structural support, backup power, water systems, communication networks and maintenance access. Data centers also need to be close enough to users and network backbones to provide fast digital services.

In short, Earth-based data centers are large electrical and thermal infrastructure systems built around computing hardware.

Placing them in space

So what would it take to build these data centers in space, and why are companies finding this possibility such an interesting business proposition?

As on Earth, these data centers would require massive amounts of power. In space, this power would come from solar panels. The Sun always shines in space and can’t be blocked by clouds. However, depending on the orbit the solar panels are put in, the Earth may shadow them for some portion of the orbit.

And even the best solar cells available today can convert only about half the sunlight that hits them to electricity.

Another potential advantage found in space is cooling. The cold background of space (near minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 270 degrees Celsius) creates an opportunity: waste heat from the data center could escape into space through radiators, keeping the electronics cool.

In principle, that design could eliminate some of the bulky and water-intensive cooling infrastructure used on Earth. However, those thermal radiators would require a large amount of surface area, and that would be in addition to the area required by the solar panels.

In space, there is no air to blow across hot equipment and help heat escape. The heat has to leave as infrared radiation, which is a relatively slow process. As a result, removing 10 megawatts of waste heat can require radiator surfaces comparable to the size of two football fields.

Space-based data centers could also avoid some of the local conflicts that come with building large data centers on the ground. Many communities resist new data center developments because of their land use, energy and water demand, and noise and environmental impact.

A space-based system would avoid competing for local land and water resources, and it would not generate neighborhood noise or require local zoning approval in the same way.

However, space is already getting crowded, and launching thousands of large orbital data centers would accelerate this issue. Orbital debris and micrometeorites are hazards because they can puncture the space data center, and a worst-case collision could destroy it and create even more space debris.

The frequency of space launches necessary to send all the equipment to orbit may also become a concern for some communities. SpaceX has had protests at its launch complex in Boca Chica, Texas, from local activists who argue that its rocket testing and launches damage the surrounding environment.

All that data would need to be sent between Earth and these data centers – and between the data centers themselves – using radio waves or laser communications systems. Although satellite constellations such as Starlink and Amazon Leo have demonstrated that doing this is possible, the amount of data sent to and from space would balloon.

Additional challenges

These data centers, along with their solar panels and radiators, cannot be launched in one piece and would need to be assembled in space. This process would require new equipment for in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing.

Another key challenge is the refresh cycle of computing hardware. Data center servers are not built to last forever. Operators on Earth usually replace or upgrade hardware every three to five years as chips improve, workloads change and equipment ages.

And equipment failures can require replacing components. The refresh and repair processes are relatively straightforward on Earth, where workers can physically remove and replace servers.

In space, refresh and repair becomes much harder. Hardware sent to orbit may be difficult or too expensive to upgrade. If the computing platform cannot be updated, or too many components fail, it may become obsolete long before the surrounding infrastructure reaches the end of its useful life.

In a field where performance improves so rapidly and demand from computing continues to increase, this hurdle could prove a major economic and operational challenge.

Then there is the harshness of space. These data centers would be in a near vacuum, with constant radiation hitting them. And depending on their orbit, they would go from hot when in the sunlight to cold in Earth’s shadow many times a day. All of these challenges, and more, are issues that will need to be addressed.

So, do they still make sense?

Despite these challenges, companies are moving forward with designing space-based data centers. SpaceX just announced the design for its AI1 Compute Satellite, which it hopes to use as an orbital data center spacecraft. However, this satellite is 100 to 1,000 times less capable than current Earth-based data centers.

Not every computing task makes sense to do in space. Many data center applications depend on fast response times and close connections to users on Earth. Financial transactions, interactive AI services and most cloud applications are extremely sensitive to delay.

More feasible early applications may be those that are less latency-sensitive and more tightly connected to space operations. Examples could include processing Earth observation data from satellites, military or intelligence data processing, scientific computing related to space missions, or specialized computing for satellites and other space assets.

In other words, the first viable space data centers may serve space-based customers before they compete with mainstream cloud data centers on Earth.