Latest Articles
To Invent a Quantum Internet
Fifty years after the current internet was born, the physicist and computer scientist Stephanie Wehner is planning and designing the next internet — a quantum one.
Physicists Finally Nail the Proton’s Size, and Hope Dies
A new measurement appears to have eliminated an anomaly that had captivated physicists for nearly a decade.
A Black Hole So Big It ‘Should Not Exist’
Researchers have confirmed rumors of a black hole collision that challenges our ideas about how black holes form.
Cosmologists Debate How Fast the Universe Is Expanding
New measurements could upend the standard theory of the cosmos that has reigned since the discovery of dark energy 21 years ago.
The Universal Law That Aims Time’s Arrow
A new look at a ubiquitous phenomenon has uncovered unexpected fractal behavior that could give us clues about the early universe and the arrow of time.
How (Relatively) Simple Symmetries Underlie Our Expanding Universe
Although Einstein’s theory of space-time seems more complicated than Newtonian physics, it greatly simplified the mathematical description of the universe.
Philosophers Debate New ‘Sonic Black Hole’ Discovery
Opinions differ about what recent measurements of a sound-trapping fluid reveal about light-trapping black holes.
Physicists Debate Hawking’s Idea That the Universe Had No Beginning
A recent challenge to Stephen Hawking’s biggest idea — about how the universe might have come from nothing — has cosmologists choosing sides.
The Sun Is Stranger Than Astrophysicists Imagined
The sun radiates far more high-frequency light than expected, raising questions about unknown features of the sun’s magnetic field and the possibility of even more exotic physics.