Graphene continues to dazzle us with its strength and its versatility – exciting new applications are being discovered for it all the time, and now scientists have found a way of manipulating the wonder material so that it can better filter impurities out of water.   The two-dimensional material comprised of carbon atoms has been

The formation of crystals is one of the most commonplace processes you can probably think of. Every time you freeze water into ice cubes, for instance, you’re creating crystalline structures. There’s even a fun experiment you can do to grow salt crystals – with nothing more than table salt and water.   But on the

Every day you walk around with your brain gently bobbing about inside your skull. Much like a soft egg yolk floating in a cloud of clear egg whites. All it takes is a sudden jolt or strike, and your brain is thrust aside with startling velocity. Whether it bumps against the skull or goes for

Polarons are important nanoscale phenomena: a transient configuration between electrons and atoms (known as quasiparticles) that exist for only trillionths of a second. These configurations have unique characteristics that can help us understand some of the mysterious behaviours of the materials they form within – and scientists have just observed them for the first time.  

Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity profoundly changed our thinking about fundamental concepts in physics, such as space and time. But it also left us with some deep mysteries.   One was black holes, which were only unequivocally detected over the past few years. Another was “wormholes” – bridges connecting different points in spacetime, in

Physicists have observed a new state of matter at work inside an elusive thread of quantum gas. The gossamer-thin strings of gas capable of binding giants sound items worthy of a quest in Grimm’s fairy tales. But versions of these materials are theoretically possible in physics – unfortunately though, in practice they inevitably collapse on

For decades, scientists have wrestled with a complex mystery of physics: Could the immense amounts of energy theoretically produced by rotating black holes ever be tapped by human hands?   If future societies were somehow able to pull off this magnificent feat, the power supply of far-off galactic civilisations would seemingly be assured – and

Metals and insulators are the yin and yang of physics, their respective material properties strictly dictated by their electrons’ mobility – metals should conduct electrons freely, while insulators keep them in place.    So when physicists from Princeton University in the US found a quantum quirk of metals bouncing around inside an insulating compound, they

Scientists have recently discovered a totally new type of chemical bond – and it’s way stronger than it has any right to be. The new type of bond shows that the divide between powerful covalent bonds, which bind molecules together, and weak hydrogen bonds, which form between molecules and can be broken by something as

Physicists have identified a new state of matter, hidden inside the mysterious transformations that take place between liquid and solid states of glass. The glass transition holds a lot of fascination for scientists, and the new state of matter – called ‘liquid glass’ – exhibits behaviour at the microscopic level that hasn’t been seen before,

Let’s admit it: It’s been a pretty rough year for our neck of the Solar System. But it’s been a great year for scientists studying more distant reaches of the Universe. From a colossal explosion to mystery burps deciphered, here were some of the top stories in physics in 2020.   10. Boom! What might

Scientists are edging closer to making a super-secure, super-fast quantum internet possible: they’ve now been able to ‘teleport’ high-fidelity quantum information over a total distance of 44 kilometres (27 miles).   Both data fidelity and transfer distance are crucial when it comes to building a real, working quantum internet, and making progress in either of

Imagine opening the weekend paper and looking through the puzzle pages for the Sudoku. You spend your morning working through this logic puzzle, only to realise by the last few squares there’s no consistent way to finish it.   “I must have made a mistake,” you think. So you try again, this time starting from

It’s one of the greatest puzzles in physics. All the particles that make up the matter around us, such electrons and protons, have antimatter versions which are nearly identical, but with mirrored properties such as the opposite electric charge. When an antimatter and a matter particle meet, they annihilate in a flash of energy.  

How many particles do you need before individual atoms start behaving collectively? According to new research, the number is incredibly low. As few as six atoms will start transitioning into a macroscopic system, under the right conditions.   Using a specially designed ultra-cold laser trap, physicists observed the quantum precursor of the transition from a

Like watching a movie in reverse, physicists have just demonstrated a new technique for the time-reversal of a wave of optical light. That doesn’t mean that they have actually reversed the flow of time; rather, they have found a way to induce an optical wave to retrace a forward path in reverse, returning to its

Nothing keeps time like the beating heart of an atom. But even the crisp tick-tock of a vibrating nucleus is limited by uncertainties imposed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Several years ago, researchers from MIT and the University of Belgrade in Serbia proposed that quantum entanglement could push clocks beyond this blurry boundary.  

“I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice. “But a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!” It’s an experience eminent physicist Yakir Aharonov can relate to. Together with fellow Israeli physicist Daniel Rohrlich, he’s shown theoretically how a particle might show its face

Matter is what makes up the Universe, but what makes up matter? This question has long been tricky for those who think about it – especially for the physicists. Reflecting recent trends in physics, my colleague Jeffrey Eischen and I have described an updated way to think about matter. We propose that matter is not

A Canadian teenager from Fort McMurray, Alberta has won a major scientific competition for an electrifying YouTube video in which she brilliantly simplifies the complicated concept of quantum tunnelling.   Maryam Tsegaye, a 17-year-old student from École McTavish Public High School, took home top prize at the sixth annual Breakthrough Junior Challenge for the explainer,

China successfully powered up its “artificial sun” nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, state media reported Friday, marking a great advance in the country’s nuclear power research capabilities.   The HL-2M Tokamak reactor is China’s largest and most advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device, and scientists hope that the device can potentially unlock a

For the first time, physicists have recorded sound waves moving through a perfect fluid with the lowest possible viscosity, as permitted by the laws of quantum mechanics, an ascending glissando of the frequencies at which the fluid resonates.   This research can help us to understand some of the most extreme conditions in the Universe

Seeing what the heck is going on inside of us is useful for many aspects of modern medicine. But how to do this without slicing and dicing through barriers like flesh and bone to observe living intact tissues, like our brains, is a tricky thing to do.   Thick, inconsistent structures like bone will scatter

Wherever you have fluid, there you can also find vortex rings. Now, scientists have found vortex rings somewhere fascinating – inside a tiny pillar made of a magnetic material, the gadolinium-cobalt intermetallic compound GdCo2.   If you’ve seen smoke rings, or bubble rings under water, you’ve seen vortex rings: doughnut-shaped vortices that form when fluid flows back

Throughout all known space, between the stars and the galaxies, an extremely faint glow suffuses, a relic left over from the dawn of the Universe. This is the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the first light that could travel through the Universe when it cooled enough around 380,000 years after the Big Bang for ions and electrons

As our need for electronic gadgets and sensors grows, scientists are coming up with new ways to keep devices powered for longer on less energy. The latest sensor to be invented in the lab can go for a whole year on a single burst of energy, aided by a physics phenomenon known as quantum tunnelling.

Is that light particle more like a ball careening through space, or more of a smeary mess that is everywhere at once?  The answer depends on whether the absurd laws of subatomic particles or the deterministic equations that govern larger objects hold more sway.   Now, for the first time, physicists have found a way

In nature, diamonds form deep in the Earth over billions of years. This process requires environments with exceptionally high pressure and temperatures exceeding 1,000℃. Our international team has created two different types of diamond at room temperature — and in a matter of minutes. It’s the first time diamonds have successfully been produced in a

Black holes are notable for many things, especially their simplicity. They’re just … holes. That are ‘black.’ This simplicity allows us to draw surprising parallels between black holes and other branches of physics.   For example, a team of researchers has shown that a special kind of particle can exist around a pair of black

Traditional computer chips use separate areas for calculations and data storage, but new research has shown how these areas can be combined together on a 2D material for the first time – which should lead to smaller, more powerful, more energy-efficient devices.   It’s technically known as a logic-in-memory architecture or a single architecture, where

It may sound like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, but real-life scientists have been busy working on a super-precise laser tractor beam system to change the path and direction of lightning.   There’s a very practical reason behind it too: lightning strikes are the main natural cause of bushfires in Australia, and a growing

In 1934, theoretical physicist Eugene Wigner proposed a new type of crystal. If the density of negatively charged electrons could be maintained below a certain level, the subatomic particles could be held in a repeating pattern to create a crystal of electrons; this idea came to known as a Wigner crystal.   That’s a lot easier

Amongst the many problems we’ve had with the spread of COVID-19 is the coronavirus‘s ability to survive on surfaces for hours on end. While we can effectively wipe down hard materials or sterilize them with alcohol, what about more delicate surfaces like cardboard?   Even in the atmosphere, SARS-CoV-2 can survive up to a few

Quantum physics promises huge advances not just in quantum computing but also in a quantum internet – a next-generation framework for transferring data from one place to another. Scientists have now invented technology suitable for a quantum modem that could act as a network gateway.   What makes a quantum internet superior to the regular,

After a long, seven-year development, an experimental fusion reactor in the UK has been successfully powered on for the time, achieving ‘first plasma’: confirmation that all its components can work together to heat hydrogen gas into the plasma phase of matter.   This transition – achieved last week by a machine called MAST Upgrade in

Passing electricity through a piece of quartz crystal generates a pulse you can literally set your watch by. Set a time crystal melting, on the other hand, and it just might pulse with the deepest secrets of the Universe.   A team of researchers from institutions across Japan has shown the quantum underpinnings of particles arranged

Scientists have measured the shortest unit of time ever: the time it takes a light particle to cross a hydrogen molecule.  That time, for the record, is 247 zeptoseconds. A zeptosecond is a trillionth of a billionth of a second, or a decimal point followed by 20 zeroes and a 1.   Previously, researchers had dipped into

Have you ever been in more than one place at the same time? If you’re much bigger than an atom, the answer will be no. But atoms and particles are governed by the rules of quantum mechanics, in which several different possible situations can coexist at once.   Quantum systems are ruled by what’s called

For something that largely exists in just two dimensions, graphene seems to be everywhere. The super-thin ‘wonder material’ is famous not only for its incredible strength, but also its unique, often surprising mix of thermal and electromagnetic properties.   In recent times, many of the strangest experimental discoveries in graphene research have been made when

The storage and transfer of information is a fundamental part of any computing system, and quantum computing systems are no different – if we’re going to benefit from the speed and security of quantum computers and a quantum internet, then we need to figure out how to shift quantum data around.   One of the

A major new milestone has just been achieved in the quest for superconductivity. For the first time, physicists have achieved the resistance-free flow of an electrical current at room temperature – a positively balmy 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit).   This has smashed the previous record of -23 degrees Celsius (-9.4 degrees Fahrenheit), and

Einstein’s theory of special relativity gave us the speed limit of the Universe – that of light in a vacuum. But the absolute top speed of sound, through any medium, has been somewhat trickier to constrain.   It’s impossible to measure the speed of sound in every single material in existence, but scientists have now

On hearing that they had been awarded a Nobel Chemistry Prize for their groundbreaking work on gene-editing Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier said they hoped it would inspire a new generation of women in science.   Charpentier and Doudna are the first all-woman team to receive a Nobel science prize and become the sixth and

For US astronomer Andrea Ghez, who won this year’s Nobel Physics Prize, what makes black holes so fascinating is how tricky they are to conceptualize. If she’s asked to explain them to an average person, her standard answer is: “A black hole is an object whose pull of gravity is so intense that nothing can

Scientists have been able to draw power from the thermal motion of graphene at room temperature, potentially giving us a clean future source of limitless energy for small devices.   The approach cleverly harnesses both the nanometre-sized rippling and the Brownian motion – random movement of particles – found in graphene, producing an electric current

Mirror image is a tricky thing, but it’s pretty clear when you look at words in a reflection, that mirrors flip things horizontally rather than vertically. Or, at least it seems that that’s the case.   For example, when you hold up a sign saying “Food” in the mirror”, it reads a backwards “dooF”, but

In its 4.5 billion year history, Earth has had to run the gauntlet. Numerous catastrophes have imperilled the planet, from massive impacts, to volcanic conflagrations, to frigid episodes of snowball Earth. Yet life persists.   Among all of the hazards that threaten a planet, the most potentially calamitous might be a nearby star exploding as

A windowpane or a tumbler might shatter quite easily, but solid glass is actually a lot more rigid and strong than it technically should be, if we consider its molecular make-up.   Now, scientists have come closer to revealing the source of this secret strength. Using a newly devised computer model to figure out how