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The article discusses research into quantum mechanics and discoveries as of July 2014, focusing on an experiment conducted by physicists at the Institut LaueLangevin in Grenoble, France, that allowed neutrons to lose their quantum properties and its implications on theories of physics. Topics include a description of the experiment that caused particles and their spins to go different ways, known as the quantum Cheshire cat phenomenon, the time-symmetric theory of quantum mechanics developed by Yakir Aharonov of Chapman University and colleagues, and the weak measurement method.

The article reports on the prospect of cheap energy from tabletop bubble fusion. Bubble fusion is the idea that blasting a liquid with sound can make bubbles grow within it and then collapse, generating high enough temperatures to trigger thermonuclear fusion. Rusi Taleyarkhan, a nuclear engineer at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, has published a steady stream of papers over the past few years claiming bubble fusion works. In January 2006, Taleyarkhan released for the first time raw data of the energy spectrum of the neutrons he claimed were by-products of fusion reactions. His results were re-analysed by Brian Naranjo, a graduate student at Seth Putterman's laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles. Naranjo concludes there is less than a one in a million chance that fusion could have produced the observed spectrum.

The article covers research on the possible existence of a parallel universe, or mirrored universe. Topics covered include particle physics, antimatter and dark matter, and the behavior of neutrons.

The article focuses on the theory of everything which is meant to explain all the particles and forces of nature. It should reveal, for example, why nuclear forces are strong enough to clamp protons and neutrons together, and why there are exactly three kinds of electron. It should set the constants of nature in stone, and explain the origin of time and space. Thirty years have passed since physicists established the "standard model" of particle physics, a set of limited theories that cover the basics of how particles and forces interact. Since then, they have been trying to weave these separate strands into a single fundamental theory. INSETS: Bright ideas;Taming the multiverse.

The article reports on the possibility of earth-penetrating neutrinos to be used to send data to hidden submarines. It states that since they interact weakly with matter, neutrinos particles can pass through the planet like light through a glass. Physicist Patrick Huber of Virginia Polytechnic Institute contends that neutrinos can be used as an effective communication with nuclear submarines. Also noted is the challenge of producing intense beams of neutrinos.

This article reports that physicists believe they have made the most precise measurement ever of neutron's lifetime. Neutrons are made of three fundamental particles called quarks and decay into protons when a "down" quark turns into an "up" quark. The rate at which neutrons turn into protons determined how much of each was created in the first seconds after the big bang and it also dictates the amount of helium in the universe today. To find out the precise decay rate, Anatoly Serebrov from the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in Russia and colleagues trapped cold neutrons in a large metal bottle and then counted them after fixed periods of time. From these observations they estimated that it took 878.5 seconds for half the neutrons to decay, 7.2 seconds less than the half-life that is the accepted standard.