Your Daily Science News Source from Around the Globe
Albert Einstein wasn’t entirely convinced about quantum mechanics, suggesting our understanding of it was incomplete. In particular, Einstein took issue with entanglement, the notion that a particle could be affected…
Those Transportation Security Administration requirements are drilled into every frequent flyer’s head: You can carry on liquids that are only less than 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) in volume each. But…
The state of perfect stillness known as absolute zero is one of the Universe’s impossible achievements. As close as we can get, the laws of physics will always prevent us…
The resolution of light microscopes has been given a huge boost thanks to the clever use of a common phenomenon in quantum physics. By sending entangled light down different paths…
A tiny vibrating crystal weighing little more than a grain of sand has become the heaviest object ever to be recorded in a superposition of locations. Physicists at the Swiss…
By teaching a machine to learn a few quantum tricks, physicists have uncovered a strange new phase of hydrogen in solid form. While it’s purely theoretical for now, the discovery…
Predicted over a century ago as monstrous concentrations of mass that torture the fabric of the Universe into traps of light and information, black holes are now established as objects…
The sense of how to shift our position on a playground swing tends to come naturally as part of growing up – a bit like learning how to ride a…
Testing the possibility of models of gravity different from general relativity may be closer to home than we think. A team of researchers has proposed that we might be able…
Graphene is a special material. Among its many talents, it can act as a superconductor, generate a super-rare form of magnetism, and unlock entirely new quantum states. Now graphene has…
Buried under kilometers of rock in Ontario, Canada, a tank of the purest water flashed as barely detectable particle slammed through its molecules. It’s the first time that water has…
Our Sun regularly erupts in tongues of heat and fury so large, our own planet would be dwarfed by their size many times over. To better understand how they work,…
Scientists are still getting to grips with the ins and outs of strange materials known as time crystals; structures that buzz with movement for eternity. Now a new variety might…
Quantum computing promises to be a revolutionary tool, making short work of equations that classical computers would struggle to ever complete. Yet the workhorse of the quantum device, known as…
Last year a new finding in particle physics stunned scientists: a fundamental particle responsible for one of the Universe’s four fundamental forces was heavier than predicted. The discovery of a…
A synthetic analog of a black hole could tell us a thing or two about an elusive radiation theoretically emitted by the real thing. Using a chain of atoms in…
In 1801, British scientist Thomas Young carried out a ‘double slit’ experiment that has gone down in physics history: By shining light through two slits in a material, he showed…
Right down on a molecular level, water ice can form out of a rich variety of structures. Though they’re all fairly similar in general appearance, differences in their properties means…
A group of mathematicians has unveiled a brand new 13-sided shape they’ve simply called ‘the hat’. Don’t let the rather mundane description fool you though. This hat (which looks a…
The humble proton is a lynchpin of the material Universe. Its characteristics define chemistry, governing teams of electrons that build atoms into molecules, and molecules into dazzling complexity. For all…
Nearly a century has passed since scientists broke the Universe. Through a complex mix of experiment and theory, physicists discovered an engine built on the mathematics of probability ticks away…
For the first time, an international team of physicists has successfully manipulated small numbers of light particles – known as photons – that have a strong relationship with each other.…
The ghost, at long last, is actually in the machine: For the first time, scientists have created neutrinos in a particle collider. Those abundant yet enigmatic subatomic particles are so…
It’s easy to envisage other universes, governed by slightly different laws of physics, in which no intelligent life, nor indeed any kind of organized complex systems, could arise. Should we…
Transferring information from one location to another without transmitting any particles or energy seems to run counter to everything we’ve learned in the history of physics. Yet there is some…
Walk through a maze of mirrors, you’ll soon come face to face with yourself. Your nose meets your nose, your fingertips touch at their phantom twins, stopped abruptly by a…
To take a picture, the best digital cameras on the market open their shutter for around around one four thousandths of a second. To snapshot atomic activity, you’d need a…
In 2022, the physics Nobel prize was awarded for experimental work showing that the quantum world must break some of our fundamental intuitions about how the Universe works. Many look…
Few discoveries in science would revolutionize technology as much as a material that achieves superconductivity at room temperature, under relatively mild pressures. A team of physicists led by Ranga Dias,…
Is our Universe all there is, or could there be more? Is our Universe just one of a countless multitude, all together in an all-encompassing multiverse? And if there are…
Determining the passage of time in our world of ticking clocks and oscillating pendulums is a simple case of counting the seconds between ‘then’ and ‘now’. Down at the quantum…
Chemistry takes effort. Whether it’s by raising the temperature, increasing the odds that compatible atoms will collide in a heated smash-up, or increasing the pressure and squeezing them together, building…
The Standard Model of particle physics is our current best-guess on what the blue-prints for matter looks like. Of all of its predictions, none are as precise as the magnetic…
Quantum mechanics deals with the behavior of the Universe at the super-small scale: atoms and subatomic particles that operate in ways that classical physics can’t explain. In order to explore…
If a nuclear bomb were dropped in your city tomorrow, would you know where to take cover? Nuclear war is a terrifying thought, but for a team of researchers at…
Ghost imaging is a sophisticated and incredibly useful set of techniques that scientists deploy to photograph light-sensitive objects in surprisingly high resolution. By making use of a mix of quantum…
Scientists have produced a sensor that converts light into an electrical signal at an astonishing 200 percent efficiency – a seemingly impossible figure that was achieved through the weirdness of…
Two newly discovered forms of frozen salt water could help scientists resolve a mystery concerning the Solar System’s ice-encrusted moons. When subjected to higher pressures and lower temperatures than can…
Isaac Newton is credited with first formulating a theory of gravity in the latter half of the 17th century – apparently inspired by an apple falling from a tree –…
Physicists have just set a new record confining a self-focused laser pulse to a cage of air, down the length of a 45 meter-long (148 foot-long) university corridor. With previous…
Tractor beams make intuitive sense. Matter and energy interact with each other in countless ways throughout the Universe. Magnetism and gravity are both natural forces that can draw objects together,…
Silently churning away at the heart of every atom in the Universe is a swirling wind of particles that physics yearns to understand. No probe, no microscope, and no X-ray…
The ancient Romans were masters of building and engineering, perhaps most famously represented by the aqueducts. And those still functional marvels rely on a unique construction material: pozzolanic concrete, a…
Italians are notoriously – and understandably – protective of their cuisine, as regular arguments about the correct toppings for pizza or the appropriate pasta to use with a Bolognese ragu…
Nothing can go faster than light. It’s a rule of physics woven into the very fabric of Einstein’s special theory of relativity. The faster something goes, the closer it gets…
Ordinarily, to measure an object we must interact with it in some way. Whether it’s by a prod or a poke, an echo of sound waves, or a shower of…
Fractal patterns can be found everywhere from snowflakes to lightning to the jagged edges of coastlines. Beautiful to behold, their repetitive nature can also inspire mathematical insights into the chaos…
Scientists have made a “breakthrough” in their quest to harness nuclear fusion. The US Department of Energy officially announced the milestone in fusion energy research on Tuesday. For the first…