Physics

Nia Imara is working to understand the mysterious clouds of gas and dust that collapse into stars.

Surprising as it may sound, 107 years after the introduction of general relativity, the meanings of basic concepts are still being worked out.

A new origins-based system for classifying minerals reveals the huge geochemical imprint that life has left on Earth. It could help us identify other worlds with life too.

Decades after a Tanzanian teenager initiated study of the “Mpemba effect,” the effort to confirm or refute it is leading physicists toward new theories about how substances relax to equilibrium.

Quantum computers may derive their power from the “magical” way that properties of particles change depending on the context.

Physicists have solved a key problem of robotic locomotion by revising the usual rules of interaction between simple component parts.

Observations of faraway planets have forced a near-total rewrite of the story of how our solar system came to be.

Physicists are building neural networks out of vibrations, voltages and lasers, arguing that the future of computing lies in exploiting the universe’s complex physical behaviors.

The second law of thermodynamics is among the most sacred in all of science, but it has always rested on 19th century arguments about probability. New arguments trace its true source to the flows of quantum information.