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Physics
Everything acts like a wave while it propagates, but behaves like a particle whenever it interacts. The origins of this duality go way back.
So far, gravitational waves have revealed stellar mass black holes and neutron stars, plus a cosmic background. So much more is coming.
For thousands of years, humanity had no idea how far away the stars were. In the 1600s, Newton, Huygens, and Hooke all claimed to get there.
Recent measurements of CERN data seem to disagree with standard-model predictions about how the Higgs boson decays, though further analysis is needed to confirm the observations.
As planets with too many volatiles and too little mass orbit their parent stars, their atmospheres photoevaporate, spelling doom for some.
The DUNE project will beam tiny neutrinos across vast distances. But the first step involved moving a heavier material: 1 million tons of rock.
Explore how QBism reframes science by placing the observer at the heart of quantum reality.
The midwest is particularly filled with them.
Each time you fold a piece of paper, you double the paper's thickness. It doesn't take all that long to even reach the Moon.
Figuring out the answer involved a prism, a pail of water, and a 50 year effort by the most famous father-son astronomer duo ever.
In our Universe, matter is made of particles, while antimatter is made of antiparticles. But sometimes, the physical lines get real blurry.
It’s not just fun: DNA origami has the potential to revolutionize engineering at the nanoscopic scale.
The paper does not prove the existence of dark matter, but it mostly eliminates a rival theory called Modified Newtonian Dynamics.
Roger Babson wanted a “partial insulator, reflector, or absorber of gravity” — something, anything, that would stop or dampen it.
Two of the answers add a dimension to physics that doesn’t belong there. Maybe we could call it "astrotheology."
When we look at our Sun, its properties are incredibly constant, varying by merely ~0.1% over time. But all stars don't play by those rules.
Light can be turned into heat, which can then be turned into motion, and the effect of that motion can be turned into a big squeeze.
The combined intellectual heft of multiple “big thinkers” delivered arguably the most successful scientific theory in history.
There's a quantum limit to how precisely anything can be measured. By squeezing light, LIGO has now surpassed all previous limitations.
The second law of thermodynamics is an inviolable law of reality. Here's what everyone should know about closed, open, and isolated systems.
From ancient Greek cosmology to today's mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, explore the relentless quest to understand the Universe's invisible forces.
From unexplained tracks in a balloon-borne experiment to cosmic rays on Earth, the unstable muon was particle physics' biggest surprise.
2023's Nobel Prize was awarded for studying physics on tiny, attosecond-level timescales. Too bad that particle physics happens even faster.
Our greatest tool for exploring the world inside atoms and molecules, and specifically electron transitions, just won 2023's Nobel Prize.
Sci-fi enthusiasts have long hoped that a substance called antimatter might experience gravity opposite that of ordinary matter. It doesn't.
This measurement is crucial to confirm that one of the assumptions of Einstein’s theory of gravity is valid.
Dark matter hasn't been directly detected, but some form of invisible matter is clearly gravitating. Could the graviton hold the answer?
A clock, designed and built in Europe, ran hopelessly at the wrong rate when brought to America. The physics of gravity explains why.
Positron emission tomography (PET) scans use positrons — the antimatter equivalent of an electron — to locate cancer in the body.
As the Manhattan Project headed for completion, German attempts to build a nuclear weapon had already been dismantled.