Switchable free-space skyrmions Researchers used a nonlinear metasurface to experimentally demonstrate that skyrmions can be switched between electric and magnetic modes in free-space toroidal terahertz light pulses. (Courtesy: Li Niu and Xueqian Zhang, Tianjin University)" title="Click to open image in popup" href="https://physicsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/19-05-26-switchable-skyrmions.jpg"> Switchable free-space skyrmions Researchers used a nonlinear metasurface to experimentally demonstrate that skyrmions can be switched between electric and magnetic modes in free-space toroidal terahertz light pulses. (Courtesy: Li Niu and Xueqian Zhang, Tianjin University) There is a shape in physics that is remarkably hard to destroy. You can shake it, heat it, push it and disturb it in every way imaginable, but unless you physically tear the fabric it resides in, it will survive perfectly intact. This is not wishful thinking. It is a mathematical certainty. That shape is called a skyrmion.…