Chinese companies have pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy manufacturing investments overseas, but the projects are having significant social, environmental, and human rights impacts.
This year saw Physics World report on a raft of innovative and exciting developments in the worlds of medical physics and biotech. These included novel cancer therapies using low-temperature plasma or laser ablation, intriguing new devices such as biodegradable bone screws and a pacemaker smaller than a grain of rice, and neural engineering breakthroughs including an ultrathin bioelectric implant that improves movement in rats with spinal cord injuries and a tiny brain sensor that enables thought control of external devices. Here are a few more research highlights that caught my eye.
Vision transformed
One remarkable device introduced in 2025 was an eye implant that restored vision to patients with incurable sight loss. In a clinical study headed up at the University of Bonn, participants with sight loss due to age-related macular degeneration had a tiny wireless implant inserted under their retina. Used in combination with specialized glasses, the system restored the ability to read in 27 of 32 participants followed up a year later.
Learning to read again Study participant Sheila Irvine, a patient at Moorfields Eye Hospital, training with the PRIMA device. (Courtesy: Moorfields Eye Hospital)
We also described a contact lens that enables wearers to see near-infrared light without night vision goggles, reported on an fascinating retinal stimulation technique that enabled volunteers to see colours never before seen by the human eye, and chatted with researchers in Hungary about how a tiny dissolvable eye insert they are developing could help astronauts suffering from eye conditions.
Radiation therapy advances
2025 saw several firsts in the field of radiation therapy. Researchers in Germany performed the first cancer treatment using a radioactive carbon ion beam, on a mouse with a bone tumour close to the spine. And a team at the Trento Proton Therapy Centre in Italy delivered the first clinical treatments using proton arc therapy – a development that made it onto our top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year.
Meanwhile, the ASTRO meeting saw Leo Cancer Care introduce its first upright photon therapy system, called Grace, which will deliver X-ray radiation to patients in an upright position. This new take on radiation delivery is also under investigation by a team at RaySearch Laboratories, who showed that combining static arcs and shoot-through beams could increase plan quality and reduce delivery times in upright proton therapy.
It’s particularly interesting to examine how the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting healthcare, especially considering its potential for use in data-intensive tasks. Earlier this year, a team at Northwestern Medicine integrated a generative AI tool into a live clinical workflow for the first time, using it to draft radiology reports on X-ray images. In routine use, the AI model increased documentation efficiency by an average of 15.5%, while maintaining diagnostic accuracy.
Samir Abboud: “For me and my colleagues, it’s not an exaggeration to say that [the AI tool] doubled our efficiency.” (Courtesy: José M Osorio/Northwestern Medicine)
When introducing AI into the clinic, however, it’s essential that any AI-driven software is accurate, safe and trustworthy. To help assess these factors, a multinational research team identified potential pitfalls in the evaluation of algorithmic bias in AI radiology models, suggesting best practices to mitigate such bias.
A quantum focus
Finally, with 2025 being the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, Physics World examined how quantum physics looks set to play a key role in medicine and healthcare. Many quantum-based companies and institutions are already working in the healthcare sector, with quantum sensors, in particular, close to being commercialized. As detailed in this feature on quantum sensing, such technologies are being applied for applications ranging from lab and point-of-care diagnostics to consumer wearables for medical monitoring, body scanning and microscopy.
Alongside, scientists at Jagiellonian University are applying quantum entanglement to cancer diagnostics and developing the world’s first whole-body quantum PET scanner, while researchers at the University of Warwick have created an ultrasensitive magnetometer based on nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond that could detect small cancer metastases via keyhole surgery. There’s even a team designing a protein qubit that can be produced directly inside living cells and used as a magnetic field sensor (which also featured in this year’s top 10 breakthroughs).
And in September, we ran a Physics World Live event examining how quantum optics, quantum sensors and quantum entanglement can enable advanced disease diagnostics and transform medical imaging. The recording is available to watch here.
Tory Bruno, who recently stepped down as chief executive of United Launch Alliance, is joining Blue Origin as head of the company’s new national security business unit.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is continuing its mission to collect samples despite uncertainty about how, when or even if those samples will be returned to Earth.
Although wolf-canine interbreeding has been considered extremely rare, the latest research shows that many present-day canines carry a small amount of wolf genes.
South Korea’s Innospace said it will attempt a second launch of its small rocket in the first half of 2026 after its inaugural flight failed shortly after liftoff Dec. 22.
WIRED spoke with DeepMind’s Pushmeet Kohli about the recent past—and promising future—of the Nobel Prize-winning research project that changed biology and chemistry forever.
How well have you been following events in physics? There are 20 questions in total: blue is your current question and white means unanswered, with green and red being right and wrong.
16–20 Top quark – congratulations, you’ve hit Einstein level
11–15 Strong force – good but not quite Nobel standard
ZAP-X is a next-generation, cobalt-free, vault-free stereotactic radiosurgery system purpose-built for the brain. Delivering highly precise, non-invasive treatments with exceptionally low whole-brain and whole-body dose, ZAP-X’s gyroscopic beam delivery, refined beam geometry and fully integrated workflow enable state-of-the-art SRS without the burdens of radioactive sources or traditional radiation bunkers.
Theresa Hofman
Theresa Hofman is deputy head of medical physics at the European Radiosurgery Center Munich (ERCM), specializing in stereotactic radiosurgery with the CyberKnife and ZAP‑X systems. She has been part of the ERCM team since 2018 and has extensive clinical experience with ZAP‑X, one of the first centres worldwide to implement the technology in 2021. Since then, the team has treated more than 900 patients with ZAP‑X, and she is deeply involved in both clinical use and evaluation of its planning software.
She holds a master’s degree in physics from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where she authored two first‑author publications on range verification in carbon‑ion therapy. At ERCM, she has published additional first‑author studies on CyberKnife kidney‑treatment accuracy and on comparative planning between ZAP‑X and CyberKnife. She is currently conducting further research on the latest ZAP‑X planning software. Her work is driven by the goal of advancing high‑quality radiosurgery and ensuring the best possible treatment for every patient.
An Indian LVM3 rocket launched AST SpaceMobile’s next-generation direct-to-device BlueBird satellite Dec. 23, kicking off a rollout of dozens of spacecraft built around the largest commercial communications antenna ever deployed in LEO.
MILAN — The European Space Agency announced plans to hire approximately 520 new staff members starting in 2026, following decisions approved at ESA’s 342nd Council meeting earlier this month. The recruitment will result in a net increase of about 400 staff, alongside the replacement of roughly 120 positions due to retirements. “This will be the […]
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