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Thomas Lewton

Thomas Lewton

Contributing Writer

Latest Articles

A woman stands in a darkened laboratory next to a shallow tank of water that glows green.
Q&A

She Turns Fluids Into ‘Black Holes’ and ‘Inflating Universes’

By Thomas Lewton
December 12, 2022
Comment
Read Later

By using fluids to model inaccessible realms of the cosmos, Silke Weinfurtner is “looking for a deeper truth beyond one system.” But what can such experiments teach us?

quantum gravity

Black Hole's Orbiting Ring of Light Could Encrypt Its Inner Secrets

By Thomas Lewton
September 8, 2022
Comment
Read Later

Physicists have discovered that the ring of photons orbiting a black hole exhibits a special kind of symmetry, hinting at a deeper meaning.

An illustration of a blue swirling galaxy inside an amillary sphere. A black hole appears in the center.
black holes

What Drives Galaxies? The Milky Way’s Black Hole May Be the Key.

By Thomas Lewton
August 23, 2022
Comment
Read Later

Supermassive black holes have come to the fore as engines of galactic evolution, but new observations of the Milky Way and its central hole don’t yet hang together.

A red laser beam enters a glass cube and splits in two; half of the beam continues straight ahead and the other half shoots out of the glass cube at a right angle.
particle physics

A New Tool for Finding Dark Matter Digs Up Nothing

By Thomas Lewton
March 21, 2022
Comment
Read Later

Physicists are devising clever new ways to exploit the extreme sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors like LIGO. But so far, they’ve seen no signs of exotica.

Q&A

In Search of Cracks in Albert Einstein’s Theory of Gravity

By Thomas Lewton
February 23, 2022
Comment
Read Later

Celia Escamilla-Rivera is combining large data sets with supercomputers to test general relativity against its little-known competitors.

atmospheric science

Detailed Footage Finally Reveals What Triggers Lightning

By Thomas Lewton
December 20, 2021
Comment
Read Later

Scientists have never been able to adequately explain where lightning comes from. Now the first detailed observations of its emergence inside a cloud have exposed how electric fields grow strong enough to let bolts fly.

Illustration of labyrinth with a large sphere representing the neutrino at center. People with flashlights explore the paths.
particle physics

Is the Great Neutrino Puzzle Pointing to Multiple Missing Particles?

By Thomas Lewton
October 28, 2021
Comment
Read Later

Years of conflicting neutrino measurements have led physicists to propose a “dark sector” of invisible particles — one that could simultaneously explain dark matter, the puzzling expansion of the universe, and other mysteries.

Q&A

The Astronomer Who’s About to See the Skies of Other Earths

By Thomas Lewton
October 12, 2021
Comment
Read Later

After the ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope launches later this year, Laura Kreidberg will lead two efforts to check the weather on rocky planets orbiting other stars.

A complicated arrangement of orange and purple bands against a black background.
condensed matter physics

The ‘Weirdest’ Matter, Made of Partial Particles, Defies Description

By Thomas Lewton
July 26, 2021
Comment
Read Later

Theorists are in a frenzy over “fractons,” bizarre, but potentially useful, hypothetical particles that can only move in combination with one another.


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About the author

Thomas Lewton is a freelance science journalist and filmmaker based in London and East Africa. His work has been featured on the BBC, CNN, Thomson Reuters and NPR. A physicist by background, Lewton now explores a breadth of sciences in his writing and videography and their often messy relationship with politics and society.
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