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Physics

Latest Articles

Magnetic fields in the universe.
cosmology

The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View

By Natalie Wolchover
July 2, 2020
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Astronomers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date back to the Big Bang, they could solve a major cosmological mystery.

Gif of a grid of arrows whose directions flip up and down.
Abstractions blog

The Cartoon Picture of Magnets That Has Transformed Science

By Charlie Wood
June 24, 2020
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One hundred years after it was proposed, the Ising model is used to understand everything from magnets to brains.

Katie Mack portrait.
Q&A

This Cosmologist Knows How It’s All Going to End

By Dan Falk
June 22, 2020
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The astrophysicist and social media phenom Katie Mack is ready to tell you about the fate of the universe.

The XENON1T detector’s time projection chamber.
Abstractions blog

Dark Matter Experiment Finds Unexplained Signal

By Natalie Wolchover
June 17, 2020
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Researchers say there are three possible explanations for the anomalous data. One is mundane. Two would revolutionize physics.

Illustration showing an austere number line on one side and various interesting objects on the the other, including a dodecahedron, an armillary sphere, flowers and plants.
Quantized Columns

The Two Forms of Mathematical Beauty

By Robbert Dijkgraaf
June 16, 2020
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Mathematicians typically appreciate either generic or exceptional beauty in their work, but one type is more useful in describing the universe.

A falling apple.
Abstractions blog

Why Gravity Is Not Like the Other Forces

By Natalie Wolchover
June 15, 2020
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We asked four physicists why gravity stands out among the forces of nature. We got four different answers.

A magnetar.
astrophysics

A Surprise Discovery Points to the Source of Fast Radio Bursts

By Shannon Hall
June 11, 2020
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After a burst lit up their telescope “like a Christmas tree,” astronomers were able to finally track down the source of these cosmic oddities.

A black hole shooting thunderbolts.
quantum gravity

Black Hole Paradoxes Reveal a Fundamental Link Between Energy and Order

By Natalie Wolchover
May 28, 2020
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By chewing on the problems posed by “extremal” black holes, physicists have exposed a surprising and universal connection between energy and entropy.

Lines representing paths of particles fan out from a point and pass through a series of detectors.
Abstractions blog

Growing Anomalies at the Large Hadron Collider Raise Hopes

By Charlie Wood
May 26, 2020
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Collider physicists report that several measurements of particles called B mesons deviate from predictions. Alone, each oddity looks like a fluke, but their collective drift is more suggestive.


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