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The MICrONS mouse visual cortex dataset shows that neurons with similar response properties preferentially connect, a pattern that emerges within and across brain areas and layers, and independently emerges in artificial neural networks where these ‘like-to-like’ connections prove important for task performance.

Here, the authors design a microcavity-confined 2D heterojunction to realize the strong coupling among donor exciton, acceptor exciton, and cavity photon mode, leading to an unconventional energy transfer via polariton relaxation with an enhancement factor of ~440.

Exciton-polaritons present opportunities for quantum photonics, next generation qubits, and tuning material photophysics. Here Laitz et al. study the temperature dependence of 2D perovskite microcavity polaritons, revealing material-specific relaxation mechanisms towards the control of polariton momentum.

How neuron-level interactions produce complex cognitive behavior remains unclear. Here, the authors develop a brain circuit mechanistic model based on physiological computation, that uncovers an unexpected neural code, subsequently validated by empirical data.

Current specialized function gradient computing hardware is not scalable to common higher-order functions. This work reports an approach for massively parallel gradient calculations of high-degree polynomials. Solving a Boolean satisfiability problem was experimentally implemented on an in-memory computing circuit.

An Ising solver that is based on a network of electrically coupled phase-transition nano-oscillators, which provides a continuous-time dynamical system, can be used to efficiently solve a non-deterministic polynomial time (NP)-hard MaxCut problem.

An analog optical computer that combines analog electronics, three-dimensional optics, and an iterative architecture accelerates artificial intelligence inference and combinatorial optimization in a single platform, paving a promising path for faster and sustainable computing.

Microcavity exciton-polaritons in atomically thin semiconductors are a promising platform for valley manipulation. Here, the authors show valley-selective control of polariton energies in monolayer WS2 using the optical Stark effect, thereby extending coherent valley manipulation to a hybrid light-matter regime

Excitons in atomically thin crystals couple strongly with light. Here, the authors observe lattice polaritons in a tunable open optical cavity at room temperature, with an imprinted photonic lattice strongly coupled to excitons in a WS₂ monolayer.

The mechanism for exciton-polariton condensation in the presence of an incoherent reservoir has been long debated. Here the authors demonstrate the role of the spatial hole burning in condensation of long‐lived exciton polaritons by imaging the condensates in a single-shot excitation regime.

Understanding phase transitions in open quantum systems is challenging. This work explores a driven-dissipative exciton polariton system undergoing an interaction-driven phase transition and reveals a relationship between the power-law decay of spatial coherence, the effective temperature of the system, and its coherent fraction, in surprising analogy to the conservative case.

Designing efficient analog dynamical systems for solving hard optimization problems remains a challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate a dynamical system of thirty oscillators with reconfigurable coupling to compute optimal/near-optimal solutions to the hard Maximum Independent Set problem with over 90% accuracy.

Multiferroics can exhibit directional dichroism, which means that they can exhibit different absorption for light travelling forward and backward. Here, the authors show that in multiferroics with a strong optical magnetoelectric effect magnetically controlled one-way transparency can be realized.

The mechanisms of episodic memory are not well understood. Here, the authors show that the reactivation of non-spatial information precedes the reactivation of spatial information, and that both are correlated with hippocampal sharp-wave ripples.

2D chiral polaritons are light-matter states with select angular momentum holding technological promise. Here, the authors present the theory of such states, and propose their realisation based on a phenomenon called “apparent circular dichroism”.

We report the experimental realization and room-temperature operation of a low-power (20 pW) moiré synaptic transistor based on an asymmetric bilayer graphene/hexagonal boron nitride moiré heterostructure.

Polaritonics is the physics of strongly coupled light–matter states that studies condensates and superfluids of bosonic quasiparticles in solid-state systems. Coherent flows of exciton–polaritons can be used for classical and quantum information processing, offering advantages of full optical control and read-out.

The authors demonstrate on-the-fly reconfigurable optical trapping of organic polariton condensates which are delocalised over a macroscopic distance from the excitation region, holding great potential for future work on polaritonic lattice physics.

Epitaxial strain is a promising control knob to modulate Tc to enhance superconductivity. Here, the authors show that a metallic oxide RuO₂ can be turned superconducting through application of epitaxial strain in thin films grown on a (110)-oriented TiO₂ substrate.

Efficiently imitating a complex motor sequence such as birdsong is a computationally intensive problem. Here the authors show that young zebra finches learn new songs using a non-optimal strategy that prioritizes efficient learning of syllable vocabulary over syllable sequence.

A part-light, part-matter exciton-polariton topological insulator is created in an array of semiconductor microcavities.

Limited specificity of transcription factor-DNA interactions leads to crosstalk in gene regulation. Here the authors consider global crosstalk in regulatory networks of growing size and complexity, and show that it imposes constraints on gene regulation and on the evolution of regulatory networks.

On October 10, 1946, a V-2 rocket, instrumented by the Naval Research Laboratory, was launched from White Sands, New Mexico, and carried an ultraviolet spectrograph above the ozone layer to photograph the solar ultraviolet spectrum. After twenty-five years of rocket astronomy, it is therefore appropriate to trace some of the history of astronomy from space platforms.