The 50 most-cited articles in Physics Today, 2020

Advances in materials science have made it possible for electrons in metals to exhibit exotic hydrodynamic effects.

Researchers are trying to store robust quantum information in Majorana particles and are generating quantum gates by exploiting the bizarre non-abelian statistics of Majorana zero modes bound to topological defects.

Effectively releasing drugs in the body depends on the physical and chemical traits of a special class of liquid crystals.

The link between information and physics has been implicit since James Clerk Maxwell introduced his famous demon. Information is now emerging as a key concept to bridge physics and biology.

As the world continues to spew carbon dioxide at record levels, it’s becoming clear that emissions reductions alone can’t prevent the greenhouse gas from rising to dangerous levels.

The nanometer-scale localized objects share a nonlinear mathematical framework with systems from water waves to elementary particles.

The elements’ electronic configurations help explain why the rare earths are key ingredients in dozens of technological products—cell phones, computer hard drives, and lasers among them.

Simulating the acoustics of destroyed or altered amphitheaters, cathedrals, and other architectural sites re-creates their sonic grandeur.

The two-dimensional materials form one- and zero-dimensional hollow structures with a host of promising mechanical, optical, and electrical properties.

Climate conditions for growing corn and soybeans have improved, but current trends indicate they will not last.

Cutting the weight of fuel tanks and continuing advances in fuel-cell technologies are key to making hydrogen competitive in aviation.

In the early days of NSF, its leaders dreamed of large-scale federal investment in basic science but had to carve out a place for the new foundation in the complicated landscape of US science funding.

The phenomenon is so pervasive that we stake our lives on it, but Doppler’s idea faced fierce criticism that took half a century to overcome.

Resource managers use forecasts to ensure future access to abundant water and provide safety from river-related hazards.

Gradual falls and sharp rises in temperature for millions of years have profoundly affected living conditions on the planet and, consequently, our own evolution.

Modern neutron sources illuminate the complex functions of living systems.

Instructors grapple with how to administer exams that meaningfully assess students, suppress cheating, minimize anxiety, and preserve privacy.

Recent changes in ice cover and ocean stratification have been so large that acoustic measurements made during the Cold War no longer reflect current conditions.

Advances in accelerator technology are enabling discoveries in particle physics and other fields.

Nontrivial electron band structures may enable a new generation of functional materials.

Policymakers face a plethora of predictions on how the disease will proceed and when it might resurge.

Various sounds in nature shape how animals, including humans, interact with their environment.

Although a magnetic field gradually destroys the superconducting state in most materials, a small family of uranium compounds bucks the trend.

A few simple metrics characterize outbreaks like COVID-19, but calculating them correctly is surprisingly tricky.

The last-minute decision has attendees scrambling to reschedule travel, get refunds, and find alternative ways to network and share their research.

Scientists are employing x rays, electrons, and neutrons to decipher and disable the molecular machinery of the novel coronavirus.

The outward flaring of a shark’s scales removes drag-producing eddies that otherwise form in the animal’s wake.

Apollo missions placed astronauts outside Earth’s protective magnetosphere for days at a time. Future missions risk exposing them to solar and cosmic radiation for months.

Capturing the behavior of complex materials requires connecting dynamics on multiple scales.

Relying on students to rate professors is convenient, cheap, and problematic.

Improved device quality is the key to seeing a whole series of superconducting, correlated, and magnetic states in two layers of graphene assembled at a magic angle.

As suborbital space tourism gears up, the decades-old debate about the boundary of Earth’s atmosphere continues.

Two-dimensional nanomaterials are bending the rules of the papercraft known as kirigami.

As a clinical technology, MRI offers unsurpassed flexibility to look inside the human body.

Scientists say subcritical experiments with plutonium will eliminate the need for nuclear tests, a promise that was first made in 1995.

A general approach to analyzing audio files makes it possible to re-create the sound of ancient instruments, identify cross-cultural musical properties, and more.

A fixed value for Planck’s constant connects the kilogram to frequency measurements.

The definition has evolved through history from an acoustical term informed by music to a plurality of meanings. Today one person’s noise may be someone else’s signal.

Roger Penrose proved that black holes could and should form in the universe. The topological picture he used in that proof has become foundational to general relativity.

Among the goals are to pick a Higgs factory, carry out R&D on accelerators and detectors, conduct feasibility studies, and improve environmental sustainability.

As wind turbines harvest energy, they redistribute heat in the lower atmosphere. Farmers have been exploiting the effect for decades.