Charlie Wood

Staff Writer

Latest Articles

Swirling Forces, Crushing Pressures Measured in the Proton

March 14, 2024

Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of energies, forces and pressures inside a subatomic particle for the first time.

A Quantum Trick Implied Eternal Stability. Now the Idea May Be Falling Apart.

February 26, 2024

A series of advances seemed to promise the impossible: the existence of quantum states that would never, ever fall into disarray. But physicists are now discovering that the pull of disorder may not be so easily overcome.

Extra-Long Blasts Challenge Our Theories of Cosmic Cataclysms

December 11, 2023

Astronomers thought they had solved the mystery of gamma-ray bursts. A few recent events suggest otherwise.

Meet Strange Metals: Where Electricity May Flow Without Electrons

November 27, 2023

For 50 years, physicists have understood current as a flow of charged particles. But a new experiment has found that in at least one strange material, this understanding falls apart.

Rogue Worlds Throw Planetary Ideas Out of Orbit

November 13, 2023

Scientists have recently discovered scores of free-floating worlds that defy classification. The new observations have forced them to rethink their theories of star and planet formation.

The Quest to Quantify Quantumness

October 19, 2023

What makes a quantum computer more powerful than a classical computer? It’s a surprisingly subtle question that physicists are still grappling with, decades into the quantum age.

Invisible ‘Demon’ Discovered in Odd Superconductor

October 9, 2023

Physicists have long suspected that hunks of metal could vibrate in a peculiar way that would be all but invisible. Now physicists have spotted these “demon modes.”

Physicists Who Explored Tiny Glimpses of Time Win Nobel Prize

October 3, 2023

The development of attosecond pulses of light allowed researchers to explore the frame-by-frame movement of electrons.

Physicists Observe ‘Unobservable’ Quantum Phase Transition

September 11, 2023

Measurement and entanglement both have a “spooky” nonlocal flavor to them. Now physicists are harnessing that nonlocality to probe the spread of quantum information and control it.

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