Latest Articles
How Ancient Light Reveals the Universe’s Contents
A photograph of the infant cosmos reveals the precise amounts of dark matter and dark energy in the universe, leaving precious little room for argument.
Astronomers Find Black Holes Stirring Up the Biggest Galaxies
After a space telescope disintegrated, astrophysicists had little hope of understanding how supermassive black holes agitate giant galaxies. Then they invented a hack.
Top Dark Matter Candidate Loses Ground to Tiniest Competitor
Physicists have long searched for hypothesized dark matter particles called WIMPs. Now, focus may be shifting to the axion — an ultra-lightweight particle whose existence would solve two mysteries at once.
Hologram Within a Hologram Hints at Fate of Black Holes
Calculations involving a higher dimension are guiding physicists toward a misstep in Stephen Hawking’s legendary black hole analysis.
Unexpected ‘Germline’ Plant Cells May Shield New Generations
To avoid passing on new mutations to offspring, plants may minimize the number of divisions by the stem cells that make flowers and seeds.
Bubble Experiment Finds Universal Laws
Physicists have found examples of “universality” in a system of confined bubbles. The work could help researchers understand the strange behavior of singularities.
Physicists Peer Inside a Fireball of Quantum Matter
Experimenters in Germany have glimpsed the kind of strange, non-atomic matter thought to fill the cores of merging neutron stars.
Do Brains Operate at a Tipping Point? New Clues and Complications
New experimental results simultaneously advance and challenge the theory that the brain’s network of neurons balances on the knife-edge between two phases.
Dark Matter Gets a Reprieve in New Analysis
A strange glow coming from the Milky Way’s center was thought to be due to ordinary pulsars. But a new look at a years-old study shows that dark matter might still be responsible.