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Physics

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Educating Americans for the 21st Century

This School Is Getting Girls Into Physics

The gap between boys and girls in math and engineering starts early and continues through college. But a school in the UK is trying to buck that trend

Comet ISON, still just a faint glimmer at the crosshairs of this telescope image, could be the brightest comet in a generation next November.

5 Science Stories to Watch in 2013

The new year could feature discoveries of life within subglacial Antarctic lakes, the brightest comet in generations and more

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This Is What the End of All Time Looks Like

Feel like having your tiny human mind blown? Check out predictions for the next 10^10^10^76.66 years

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Santa Could Totally Deliver All Those Presents Using Worm Holes Or Relativity Clouds

Have you ever wondered just how Santa delivers presents to every nice kid on Earth in just one night

A graphic data readout of the a collision of two protons, briefly producing a Higgs Boson, from the Large Hadron Collider.

Mythical Particles, Goldilocks Planets and More: Top 5 Surprising Scientific Milestones of 2012

From the Higgs Boson to the Curiosity rover, 2012 was a major year for science

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On This Day in 1901, the First Nobel Prizes Were Awarded

One-hundred and eleven years ago today the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace

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Sick of Fluorescents? New Technology Provides Flicker-Free Light

A new advance in lighting could soon bring a silent, consistent glow that’s easy on the eyes to an office near you

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The Science of Cooking a Turkey, and Other Thanksgiving Dishes

In a new book, the editors of Cook’s Illustrated share some secrets to preparing the perfect holiday feast

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The Physics of Flocking

There are a few things that people can watch forever - fire, water, and herds of animals moving

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Watch Five Years of the Sun’s Explosions

A camera on the Hinode spacecraft has recorded the sun’s X-rays for five years

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Whatever Happened to Sociologists?

Sociology wasn’t always the brunt of jokes from other scientists

Models indicate that climate change will cause more frequent hurricanes, but the overall trend can’t be linked with a particular event, such as Hurricane Sandy (above, on October 29).

Can We Link Hurricane Sandy to Climate Change?

Models indicate that climate change will cause more frequent and intense hurricanes, but the overall trend can’t be linked with any particular storm

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Teaching Physics with a Massive Game of Mouse Trap

Mark Perez and his troupe of performers tour the country, using a life-sized version of the popular game to explain simple machines

This is the Lambda Centauri nebula, a star-forming cloud in our Milky Way galaxy, also known as the Running Chicken nebula.

Alpha Centauri Has a Planet

A newly discovered planet circling Alpha Centauri is only four light years away and could point the way to habitable planets nearby

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Sounding Smart with SmartNews: Your Cheat Sheet to the Nobels

Here, in Twitter-sized bites, are descriptions of the work that won the Nobel this week

An MIT study reveals that carbon dioxide directly reduces the strength of ice, regardless of temperature.

Bad News Chemistry: Carbon Dioxide Makes Ice Weaker

An MIT study reveals that carbon dioxide directly reduces the strength of ice, which has troubling implications for climate change

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Today’s Physics Nobel Prize Didn’t Go to the Higgs

The winning research centers around figuring out the way light behaves at a very fundamental level - a field called “quantum optics”

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Skydiver Plans to Break the Sound Barrier by Jumping From 120,000 Feet

Carried aloft by a giant helium balloon, Felix Baumgartner will free-fall from the stratosphere

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This Is What Happens When a Black Hole Eats a Black Hole

A super-computer simulation calculates what happens when two black holes merge

David Blaine at a recent NYC performance.

David Blaine’s Going to Have 1 Million Volts of Electricity Shot at Him for 72 Hours

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