Physics
A Hologram Shows How Space Could Pop Into Existence
The holographic principle—with a real hologram.
To Make Two Black Holes Collide, Try Three
How do black holes merge and make gravitational waves? Maybe with a little help from their friends.
A Novelist Teaches Herself Physics
To explore loss and mystery, Nell Freudenberger journeyed into the atomic world.
Sun’s Puzzling Plasma Recreated in a Laboratory
The twisting loops of the sun’s magnetic field control the flow of charged particles throughout the solar system. For the first time, researchers have created a scale model of this mysterious environment.
How (Relatively) Simple Symmetries Underlie Our Expanding Universe
Although Einstein’s theory of space-time seems more complicated than Newtonian physics, it greatly simplified the mathematical description of the universe.
A New Law to Describe Quantum Computing’s Rise?
Neven’s law states that quantum computers are improving at a “doubly exponential” rate. If it holds, quantum supremacy is around the corner.
The Spirit of the Inquisition Lives in Science
What a 16th-century scientist can tell us about the fate of a physicist like David Bohm.
What’s the Magic Behind Graphene’s ‘Magic’ Angle?
A new theoretical model may help explain the shocking onset of superconductivity in stacked, twisted carbon sheets.
Why the Flow of Time Is an Illusion
Getting human feeling to match the math is an ultimate goal in physics.