For The First Time Ever, Scientists Discover Fractal Patterns in a Quantum Material
From tiny snowflakes to the jagged fork of a lightning bolt, it’s not hard to find examples of fractals in the natural world. So it might come as a surprise…
Mathematicians Have Discovered an Entirely New Way to Multiply Large Numbers
A pair of mathematicians from Australia and France have devised an alternative way to multiply numbers together, while solving an algorithmic puzzle that has perplexed some of the greatest math…
MIT Engineers Show Da Vinci’s 500-Year-Old Radical Bridge Design Would Have Worked
We know that Leonardo da Vinci was a genius who was well ahead of his time, but even the great man himself might have struggled to believe that engineers would…
Scientists Can Now Predict The Weird Behaviour of Oobleck
You might not know the term ‘oobleck’, but it’s highly likely you came across it as a kid. Also known as a non-Newtonian fluid, the strange material sometimes behaves like…
First-of-Its-Kind Quantum Vibration Produced by Shooting a Laser at a Diamond
Scientists have observed a quantum vibration at normal room temperature for the first time, a phenomenon that usually requires ultra-cold, carefully calibrated conditions – bringing us another step closer to…
In a Quantum First, Physicists Put 2,000 Atoms in Two Places at Once
You might be familiar with the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, where the eponymous feline in a box can be both alive or dead at the same time, often used to…
We Just Made a Breakthrough on a Genius Concept For Eco-Friendly Batteries
From smartphones to electric cars, we’re going to continue to need plenty of batteries in the years to come. New research shows how an upgraded type of aluminium battery could…
New Simulation Shows Superconductivity Could Be Turned On And Off in Some Materials
Superconductivity (passing charges through materials without losing heat) promises to revolutionise electronics and power, if we can get it working at reasonable temperatures – and scientists just reported a big…
Huge CERN Experiment Detects Two Extremely Rare Particle Decay Events
For several years now, physicists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) have been running a landmark experiment, recording tens of billions of particles break apart in the hopes…
We Just Narrowed Down The Mass of Neutrinos, The ‘Ghost Particles’ That Baffle Physics
A huge experiment to pin down the mass of one of the Universe’s most perplexing particles has put a cap on how big the neutrino might actually be. Once considered…
Engineers Just Unveiled a New Blackest-Ever Material, Even Darker Than Vantablack
You might think you already know black – even super-black Vantablack, previously the blackest material known to science – but researchers just came up with a material that takes black…
Black Holes May Hide Cores of Pure Dark Energy That Keep The Universe Expanding
A fifty-year-old hypothesis predicting the existence of bodies dubbed Generic Objects of Dark Energy (GEODEs) is getting a second look in light of a proposed correction to assumptions we use…
The Longstanding Mystery of How Big a Proton Is May Finally Have Been Solved
Protons probably aren’t quite as big as we’d once imagined, according to the results of a sensitive physics experiment that took eight years to complete. Scientists now say our earlier…
Physicists Have Finally Built a Quantum X-Ray Device
A team of researchers has just demonstrated quantum enhancement in an actual X-ray machine, achieving the desirable goal of eliminating background noise for precision detection. The relationships between photon pairs…
In a Totally Unexpected Finding, Water Has Spontaneously Produced Hydrogen Peroxide
Water is a weird molecule, and no matter how many strange things about it we discover, it seems like there are always more unexpected surprises waiting around the corner –…
Brace Yourself, a Particle Accelerator Just Simulated Colliding Neutron Stars
When two neutron stars collide, it’s not like we can just pop up there with a thermometer to measure the intense temperatures being generated at the heart of the collision.…
Physicists Have Built The World’s Smallest Engine, And It’s Seriously Tiny
It’s not like the one in your car, but a team of physicists at Trinity College Dublin have built what they claim is the world’s smallest engine. The engine is…
Physicists Find Evidence of Superconductivity at Temperatures Well Above The Current Threshold
Scientists have found evidence of superconductivity happening at temperatures and energy levels way above its normal boundaries – a finding which could one day go on to help revolutionise the…
This Superconductor Could Be Key to a Whole Different Type of Quantum Computer
For quantum computing to become fully realised, we’re going to have to make a few huge scientific leaps along the way – including finding a superconductor that can act in…
For The First Time Ever, Scientists Have Made a Stable Ring of Pure Carbon
Carbon can be arranged in a number of configurations. When each of its atoms is bonded to three other carbon atoms, it’s relatively soft graphite. Add just one more bond…
Quantum Teleportation Has Been Reported in a Qutrit For The First Time
It’s time to celebrate another first in the field of quantum physics: scientists have been able to ‘teleport’ a qutrit, or a piece of quantum information based on three states,…
Scientists Have Made The Thinnest Gold Sheets Ever, Just 2 Atoms Thick
Researchers have created the thinnest unsupported gold sheets ever created in a lab, producing infinitesimal slivers of the precious metal that are only two atoms thick. These vanishingly thin gold…
Scientists Find The Origin of an Ancient Reservoir of Water Below The Israeli Desert
The Negev desert that sprawls across Israel is one of the driest places on Earth, but deep below its surface is a different story. Held in the sandstone deep underground…
Scientists Just Discovered a New Structure in Gold That Only Exists at Extreme States
Scientists have just discovered something new about gold. When extreme crushing pressure is applied quickly, over mere nanoseconds, the element’s atomic structure changes, becoming more similar to metals harder than…
Physicists Just Captured The First-Ever Footage of a Molecule’s Spectacular Rotation
Imagine trying to film an event that was over and done within a mere 125 trillionths of a second. It’s something that molecular physicists have long been dreaming of, and…
An Elusive Particle That Acts as Its Own Antiparticle Has Just Been Imaged
New images of the Majorana fermion have brought physicists a step closer to harnessing the mysterious objects for quantum computing. These strange objects – particles that acts as their own…
“Quantum Darwinism” Sounds Mind-Breaking, But This Theory Is Passing Tests
When it comes to our physical world, scientific research indicates that size really does matter. While “big” objects, anything from a grain of sand to a galaxy, abide by one…
Physicists Have Reversed Time on The Smallest Scale by Using a Quantum Computer
It’s easy to take time’s arrow for granted – but the gears of physics actually work just as smoothly in reverse. Maybe that time machine is possible after all? An…
A New Paper Says That One Dark Matter Candidate Hasn’t Killed Anyone
We may not know what dark matter is, but one thing we do know: it doesn’t appear to have killed anyone by slamming into them – an event that would,…
Quantum Scientists Have Built The First Silicon Two-Qubit Gate Between Atom Qubits
In a major step forward for atomic-scale quantum computing, scientists have built the first two-qubit gate between atoms in silicon, allowing qubits to communicate with each other and perform operations…
Physicists Just Discovered The First Elusive Candidate For a 3D Quantum Spin Liquid
Physicists in the US have discovered a material that could qualify as the first known three-dimensional example of a quantum spin liquid – an exotic theoretical phase of matter. Quantum…
Cosmic Ray Particle Scans Reveal Details of a Mysterious Underground Vault in Russia
Hidden underneath the Naryn-Kala fortress in Derbent, Russia, is a mysterious subterranean vault – a buried structure whose original purpose has been unknown for decades. Now, thanks to clever use…
We Have The First-Ever Images of Molecules Changing Their Charge State
Using some of the world’s most advanced microscope technology, scientists have captured images of molecules changing their charge state in real time. To do this, they added and removed electrons,…
Scientists Just Unveiled The First-Ever Photo of Quantum Entanglement
In an incredible first, scientists have captured the world’s first actual photo of quantum entanglement – a phenomenon so strange Einstein famously described it as ‘spooky action at a distance’.…
If You Thought Quantum Mechanics Was Weird, You Need to Check Out Entangled Time
In the summer of 1935, the physicists Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger engaged in a rich, multifaceted and sometimes fretful correspondence about the implications of the new theory of quantum…
Physicists Find a New Way to Make Hybrid ‘Particles’ That Are Part-Matter, Part-Light
Photons – those fundamental particles of light – have a slew of interesting properties, including the fact they don’t tend to crash into one another. That hasn’t stopped physicists from…
Here’s a Simple Guide to The Genius Chemistry Behind Firework Colours
It may be Independence Day, but there’s nothing revolutionary about the way your 4th of July fireworks are made. Fireworks have been built from a mix of explosive powder, chemicals,…
The World’s Smallest MRI Machine Just Captured The Magnetic Field of a Single Atom
Using a new technique, scientists have performed the world’s smallest magnetic resonance imaging to capture the magnetic fields of single atoms. It’s an incredible breakthrough that could improve quantum research,…
The Rules of Gravity Could Be Intrinsically Linked With Building Quantum Computers
Quantum computing promises to revolutionise the power and scale of our computing systems, if only we can figure out how to harness it. Now scientists have made a discovery about…
Scientists Have Detected a Strange Connection Between Gamma Rays And Lightning
For the first time, scientists have clearly linked together two types of gamma-ray phenomena in thunderclouds, suggesting that weak bursts of gamma-ray activity might precede lightning flashes in certain conditions.…
Researchers Have Built a Plasma Jet That Can Touch Stuff, Like a Tiny Lightsaber
Nothing says welcome to the future like having your wound fixed by a tiny lightsaber. It might sound wild at first, but that’s basically what a new plasma technology advance…
Decades-Old Physics Theory Confirmed by Microscopic Clone of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
In 1949, famous physicist Lars Onsager published a paper discussing the potential implications of superfluids and turbulence. Now, 70 years later, a team of Australian researchers has conducted an experiment…
A Physicist Has Calculated That Life Really Could Exist in a 2D Universe
Our entire living reality happens in a three-dimensional Universe, so naturally it’s hard to imagine a universe with just two dimensions. But, according to new calculations, a 2D universe could…
Physicists Discover Entirely New Quantum States When Graphene Meets Itself
The super-thin ‘wonder material’ graphene has been shaking up science for years with its amazing properties, but things get really interesting when you stack this 2D nanomaterial up against itself.…
Physicists Think They’ve Finally Found The Trick to Making Perfect Crepes
Who better to make the perfect crêpe than two French physicists who specialise in fluid dynamics? Edouard Boujo and Mathieu Sellier are experts in their field, and yet both have…