Physics

Happy Birthday to Schrödinger’s Cat

In the 80 years since Erwin Schrödinger first outlined a quantum mechanics thought experiment involving a cat, the feline’s popularity has only grown

Study co-author Adam Townsend examines his research subject.

Chocolate Fountains are Great for Physics Lessons

Delicious, delicious physics

These galaxies are smiling at you thanks to general relativity.

Seven Simple Ways We Know Einstein Was Right (For Now)

For the past 100 years, these experiments have offered continued evidence that general relativity is our best description of gravity

Singing sand dunes in the Gobi Desert

Why the Sands of Many Dunes Sing, Boom, and Even Burp

Contrary to Marco Polo's tales, it's not because they're full of mysterious spirits

An artist's rendering shows an acoustic hologram trapping a particle over a levitation device.

This Acoustic Tractor Beam Can Levitate Small Objects With Sound

The device allows researchers to float and manipulate targets with just a single array of ultrasound emitters

The IceCube Lab with a picture of neutrino data superimposed

The Search For Elusive Neutrinos in Antarctica Generates Massive Amounts of Data

The IceCube observatory at the South Pole collects roughly 36 terabytes of data a year in the search for 'special' neutrinos

A person stands in front of a fault in Utah. Better understanding how rocks behave under stress and along faults like this could help geologists more accurately identify places at risk of earthquakes.

Big Quakes Can Trigger Other Shakes Thousands of Miles Away

According to new research, when a big one strikes, more than aftershocks can follow

Learn Physics From Nobel Prizewinner Richard Feynman for Free

The physicist’s legendary lectures are now available online

A map of antineutrinos leaving Earth, where blue is less activity and red more

Here is a Map of Earth’s Antineutrinos

Antineutrinos are the antimatter siblings of the elusive particles called neutrinos and show up where radioactive materials decay

The Theory of Relativity, Then and Now

Albert Einstein's breakthrough from a century ago was out of this world. Now it seems surprisingly down-to-earth

This layered metal sphere is a wormhole for magnets.

Physicists Built a Wormhole for Magnets

The metal sphere lets one magnetic field pass through another undetected, which could lead to improvements in medical imaging

Dense smoke rises as fire engines arrive at the blast site after the deadly explosions in Binhai New Area in Tianjin, China.

It's Strangely Difficult to Measure Big Explosions

But is it time for a makeover?

Workers prepare the Fat Man, the implosion bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki in August 1945.

How Physics Drove the Design of the Atomic Bombs Dropped on Japan

The gun-like design of the Little Boy bomb was effectively the last of its kind

The Physics of a UFC Fighter so Fast, She Might Just Be Bionic

Two words: kinetic energy

Curly or straight, hairstyles are "a personal expression of beauty."

Curly Hair Science Is Revealing How Different Locks React to Heat

A mechanical engineer tackles the understudied problem of how to style curls without frying hair

Artist’s view of a black hole — the normal sized kind, mini black holes would be cuter.

Why Super-Small Black Holes Haven’t Destroyed the Universe

And probably won't

Mystery Solved: Why Puddles Don't Go On Forever

The picture of proper puddle behavior had a few missing pieces

The small, bright yellow dots are lipid cells within subcutaneous fat tissue, which can be used as natural lasers.

Living Cells Armed With Tiny Lasers May Help Fight Disease

The biological light sources may one day help researchers see deeper into the body's microscopic workings

A section of the digitally unwrapped Ein Gedi scroll, bearing text from Leviticus.

1,500-Year-Old Text Has Been Digitally Resurrected From a Hebrew Scroll

Special software helped reveal the words on a burned scroll found inside a holy ark near the Dead Sea

Tick-tock goes the clock.

Can Sound Explain a 350-Year-Old Clock Mystery?

Lab experiments suggest that a strange synchronization of pendulum clocks observed in the 1600s can be chalked up to acoustic energy

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