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Alchemy Arrives in a Burst of Light
Researchers have shown how to effectively transform one material into another using a finely shaped laser pulse.
Some Physicists See Signs of Cosmic Strings From the Big Bang
Subtle aberrations in the clockwork blinking of stars could become “the result of the century.” That’s if the distortions are produced by a network of giant filaments left over from the birth of the universe.
Physicists Argue That Black Holes From the Big Bang Could Be the Dark Matter
It was an old idea of Stephen Hawking’s: Unseen “primordial” black holes might be the hidden dark matter. A new series of studies has shown how the theory can work.
How Mathematical ‘Hocus-Pocus’ Saved Particle Physics
Renormalization has become perhaps the single most important advance in theoretical physics in 50 years.
A New Cosmic Tension: The Universe Might Be Too Thin
Cosmologists have concluded that the universe doesn’t appear to clump as much as it should. Could both of cosmology’s big puzzles share a single fix?
An Unexpected Twist Lights Up the Secrets of Turbulence
Having solved a central mystery about the “twirliness” of tornadoes and other types of vortices, William Irvine has set his sights on turbulence, the white whale of classical physics.
The Shape-Shifting Squeeze Coolers
Push or crush a new class of materials, and they’ll undergo record-breaking temperature changes.
The Mathematical Structure of Particle Collisions Comes Into View
Physicists have identified an algebraic structure underlying the messy mathematics of particle collisions. Some hope it will lead to a more elegant theory of the natural world.
The Physicist Who Slayed Gravity’s Ghosts
Claudia de Rham showed how theories of “massive gravity” could potentially get rid of the need for dark energy.