Physics
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse in Science
The multiverse of pop culture owes its existence to a testable scientific hypothesis.
As Creation Stories Go, the Big Bang Is a Good One
How science is like mythology when it pushes the boundaries of the known.
I Just Want to Know What I’m Made Of
It’s time to admit quantum theory has reached a dead end. Can we please go back to the math?
How the Physics of Resonance Shapes Reality
The same phenomenon by which an opera singer can shatter a wineglass also underlies the very existence of subatomic particles.
My Dad Once Told Me the World Was 100 Years Old
His teasing provoked me to understand the origins of time.
An Injection of Chaos Solves Decades-Old Fluid Mystery
In the 1960s, drillers noticed that certain fluids would firm up if they flowed too fast. Researchers have finally explained why.
Detailed Footage Finally Reveals What Triggers Lightning
Scientists have never been able to adequately explain where lightning comes from. Now the first detailed observations of its emergence inside a cloud have exposed how electric fields grow strong enough to let bolts fly.
Seeing the Big Picture: Moving From One Molecule to Many
We are living through a so-called “omics revolution,” with new technologies that make cellular analyses much more comprehensive.
Gravitational Waves Should Permanently Distort Space-Time
The “gravitational memory effect” predicts that a passing gravitational wave should forever alter the structure of space-time. Physicists have linked the phenomenon to a potential solution to the black hole information paradox.
Quantum Simulators Create a Totally New Phase of Matter
One of the first goals of quantum computing has been to recreate bizarre quantum systems that can’t be studied in an ordinary computer. A dark-horse quantum simulator has now done just that.
