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Physics
Time is relative, not absolute, as gravity and motion both cause time to dilate. Your head and feet, therefore, don't age at the same rate.
Do we actually live in a deterministic Universe, despite quantum physics? An alternative, non-spooky interpretation has now been ruled out.
Taught in every introductory physics class for centuries, the parabola is only an imperfect approximation for the true path of a projectile.
Inflation, dark matter, and string theory are all proposed extensions to the prior consensus picture. But what does the evidence say?
The original principle of relativity, proposed by Galileo way back in the early 1600s, remains true in its unchanged form even today.
The largest particle accelerator and collider ever built is the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Why not go much, much bigger?
More than any other equation in physics, E = mc² is recognizable and profound. But what do we actually learn about reality from it?
Today, the Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful particle physics experiment in history. What would a new, successor collider teach us?
A longstanding mismatch between theory and experiment motivated an exquisite muon measurement. At last, a theoretical solution has arrived.
The all-time record is Usain Bolt's 9.58 seconds, set in 2009. What is the fastest time, ultimately, for an ideal human body?
Physicists have increasingly begun to view life as information-processing "states of matter" that require special consideration.
From the explosions themselves to their unique and vibrant colors, the fireworks displays we adore require quantum physics.
Our thermodynamic arrow of time explains why the entropy of any isolated system always increases. But it can't explain what we perceive.
All telescopes are fundamentally limited in what they can see. JWST reveals more distant galaxies than Hubble, but still can't see them all.
Although the Big Bang occurred at an instant in time long ago, we still see the light from it. Will the evidence ever disappear completely?
Northern lights in the American South, clusters of huge geomagnetic storms—the Sun is throwing a tantrum right on schedule.
There are two different ways to measure the expansion rate of the Universe, and they don't agree. And no, new measurements don't help.
Predicted way back in the 1960s, the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 completed the Standard Model. Here's why it remains fascinating.
A new technique that can automatically classify phases of physical systems could help scientists investigate novel materials.
Scientists are searching for dark matter particles that are trillions or even quadrillion times lighter than the more traditional searches.
The number of planets that could support life may be far greater than previously thought, a recent discovery suggests.
There are many theories of gravity out there, and many interpretations of wide binary star data. What have we really learned from it all?
A human hand has the power to split wooden planks and demolish concrete blocks. A trio of physicists investigated why this feat doesn’t shatter our bones.
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Physicist Sean Carroll on entropy, complexity, and the origins of life:
Practically all of the matter we see and interact with is made of atoms, which are mostly empty space. Then why is reality so... solid?
If the electromagnetic and weak forces unify to make the electroweak force, maybe, at higher energies, something even grander happens?
Lord Kelvin is thought to have said there was nothing new to discover in physics. His real view was the opposite.
In the infant Universe, particle physics reigned supreme.
First derived by Emmy Noether, for every symmetry a theory possesses, there's an associated conserved quantity. Here's the profound link.
Everything acts like a wave while it propagates, but behaves like a particle whenever it interacts. The origins of this duality go way back.