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Finding Beauty and Truth in Mundane Occurrences
The physicist Sidney Nagel delights in solving mysteries of the universe that are hiding in plain sight.
The Strange Physics That Gave Birth to AI
Modern thinking machines owe their existence to insights from the physics of complex materials.
What’s Going On Inside Io, Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon?
Recent flybys of the fiery world refute a leading theory of its inner structure — and reveal how little is understood about geologically active moons.
Can Quantum Gravity Be Created in the Lab?
Quantum gravity could help physicists unite the currently incompatible worlds of quantum mechanics and gravity. In this episode, Monika Schleier-Smith discusses her pioneering experimental approach, using laser-cooled atoms to explore whether gravity could emerge from quantum entanglement.
‘Paraparticles’ Would Be a Third Kingdom of Quantum Particle
A new proposal makes the case that paraparticles — a new category of quantum particle — could be created in exotic materials.
Why Everything in the Universe Turns More Complex
A new suggestion that complexity increases over time, not just in living organisms but in the nonliving world, promises to rewrite notions of time and evolution.
Is Dark Energy Getting Weaker? New Evidence Strengthens the Case.
Last year, an enormous map of the cosmos hinted that the engine driving cosmic expansion might be sputtering. Now physicists are back with an even bigger map, and a stronger conclusion.
The Road Map to Alien Life Passes Through the ‘Cosmic Shoreline’
Astronomers are ready to search for the fingerprints of life in faraway planetary atmospheres. But first, they need to know where to look — and that means figuring out which planets are likely to have atmospheres in the first place.
‘Next-Level’ Chaos Traces the True Limit of Predictability
In math and computer science, researchers have long understood that some questions are fundamentally unanswerable. Now physicists are exploring how even ordinary physical systems put hard limits on what we can predict, even in principle.