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Brighter Than a Billion Billion Suns: Gamma-Ray Bursts Continue to Surprise

June 30, 2021

These ultrabright flashes have recently been tracked for days, upending ideas about the cataclysms that create them.

Gas Giants’ Energy Crisis Solved After 50 Years

June 22, 2021

Jupiter and Saturn should be freezing cold. Instead, they’re hot. Researchers now know why.

Mathematicians Prove 2D Version of Quantum Gravity Really Works

June 17, 2021

In three towering papers, a team of mathematicians has worked out the details of Liouville quantum field theory, a two-dimensional model of quantum gravity.

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The Materials Scientist Who Studies the Innards of Exoplanets

June 15, 2021

Federica Coppari uses the world’s most powerful laser to recreate the cores of distant worlds.

Graphene Superconductors May Be Less Exotic Than Physicists Hoped

June 14, 2021

Superconductivity has been discovered in graphene devices without any twists, suggesting the form of superconductivity in the material might be mundane after all.

The Mystery at the Heart of Physics That Only Math Can Solve

June 10, 2021

The accelerating effort to understand the mathematics of quantum field theory will have profound consequences for both math and physics.

Astronomers Find Secret Planet-Making Ingredient: Magnetic Fields

June 7, 2021

Scientists have long struggled to understand how common planets form. A new supercomputer simulation shows that the missing ingredient may be magnetism.

A Burp or a Blast? Seismic Signals Reveal the Volcanic Eruption to Come

June 1, 2021

Scientists have begun to decipher the subtle signs that reveal how explosive a volcanic eruption is going to be.

Squishy Neutron Star Setback Dampens Hopes of Exotic Matter

May 26, 2021

Groundbreaking results show that neutron stars of different masses may have the same size — upending astrophysical models.

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