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Charlie Wood

Staff Writer

Latest Articles

How Gravity Is a Double Copy of Other Forces

May 4, 2021

An enigmatic connection between the forces of nature is allowing physicists to explore gravity’s quantum side.

A New Twist Reveals Superconductivity’s Secrets

March 16, 2021

An unexpected superconductor was beginning to look like a fluke, but a new theory and a second discovery have revealed that emergent quasiparticles may be behind the effect.

Imaginary Numbers May Be Essential for Describing Reality

March 3, 2021

A new thought experiment indicates that quantum mechanics doesn’t work without strange numbers that turn negative when squared.

Physicists Study How Universes Might Bubble Up and Collide

January 25, 2021

Since they can’t prod actual universes as they inflate and bump into each other in the hypothetical multiverse, physicists are studying digital and physical analogs of the process.

Galaxy-Size Bubbles Discovered Towering Over the Milky Way

January 6, 2021

For decades, astronomers debated whether a particular smudge was close-by and small, or distant and huge. A new X-ray map supports the massive option.

The New History of the Milky Way

December 15, 2020

Over the past two years, astronomers have rewritten the story of our galaxy.

The Search for Dark Matter Is Dramatically Expanding

November 23, 2020

Physicists plan to leave no stone unturned, checking whether dark matter tickles different types of detectors, nudges starlight, warms planetary cores or even lodges in rocks.

Room-Temperature Superconductivity Claim Falls Apart [Update]

October 14, 2020

In 2020, researchers reported that they had created a room-temperature superconductor. That paper has now been retracted.

How Mathematical ‘Hocus-Pocus’ Saved Particle Physics

September 17, 2020

Renormalization has become perhaps the single most important advance in theoretical physics in 50 years.

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