We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.
condensed matter physics
Controversy Continues Over Whether Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold
Decades after a Tanzanian teenager initiated study of the “Mpemba effect,” the effort to confirm or refute it is leading physicists toward new theories about how substances relax to equilibrium.
fluid dynamics
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.
Q&A
The Materials Scientist Who Studies the Innards of Exoplanets
Federica Coppari uses the world’s most powerful laser to recreate the cores of distant worlds.
Abstractions blog
Debate Erupts Over How ‘Forbidden’ Black Holes Grow
Once missing in action, middleweight black holes have finally been detected. Now researchers are trying to figure out how they grow from small ones.