Elusive Magnetic Monopoles May Be Hiding High, High Above Us, Says New Study
Somewhere out in the cosmos, there’s the physics equivalent of a unicorn. Catching even a glimpse of this oddity that looks like the isolated tip of a magnet would be…
Physicists Have Found a Way to Simulate The Beginnings of Fast Radio Bursts
Fast radio bursts are one of the biggest cosmic mysteries of our time. They’re extremely powerful but extremely brief explosions of electromagnetic radiation in radio wavelengths, discharging in milliseconds as…
What Would Happen if Someone Moved at Twice The Speed of Light?
As far as we know, it’s not possible for a person to move at twice the speed of light. In fact, it’s not possible for any object with the kind…
Superconducting X-Ray Laser in California Achieves Temperatures Colder Than Space
A particle accelerator that slams electrons together here on Earth has achieved temperatures colder than those of outer space. Using the X-ray free-electron laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC…
Scientists Just Measured a Mechanical Quantum System Without Destroying It
There’s a key aspect of quantum computing you may not have thought about before. Called ‘quantum non-demolition measurements’, they refer to observing certain quantum states without destroying them in the…
Physicists Found a Way to Trigger The Strange Glow of Warp Speed Acceleration
Every time you take a step, space itself glows with a soft warmth. Called the Fulling–Davies–Unruh effect (or sometimes just Unruh effect if you’re pushed for time), this eerie glow…
We May Finally Soon Have The Ideal Building Block For Quantum Computers
We already have quantum computers of a sort, but at the moment they’re not practical or reliable or large-scale enough to fully realize the massive potential of the technology. To…
Ultraprecise Atomic Optical Clocks Could Help Us Redefine The Length of a Second
The definition of a second, the most fundamental unit of time in our current measurement system, hasn’t been updated in more than 70 years (give or take some billionths of…
Physicists Just Measured The Heaviest Known Particle With Record-Breaking Precision
The world of particle physics has been on shaky ground lately. For years, researchers have been scrutinizing particles to make sure that the rules we use to explain the Universe…