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The Last of the Universe’s Ordinary Matter Has Been Found
For decades, astronomers weren’t able to find all of the atomic matter in the universe. A series of recent papers has revealed where it’s been hiding.
The Strange Numbers That Birthed Modern Algebra
The 19th-century discovery of numbers called “quaternions” gave mathematicians a way to describe rotations in space, forever changing physics and math.
To Understand Volcanoes on Other Worlds, Stand On Our Own
Rosaly Lopes has visited dozens of active volcanoes on Earth and discovered even more elsewhere in the solar system. Her work is helping to establish whether volcanoes on distant moons could create conditions friendly to life.
The End of Theoretical Physics as We Know It
Computer simulations and custom-built quantum analogues are changing what it means to search for the laws of nature.
Black Hole Firewalls Could Be Too Tepid to Burn
String theorists elide a paradox about black holes by extinguishing the walls of fire feared to surround them.
Dark Energy May Be Incompatible With String Theory
A controversial new paper argues that universes with dark energy profiles like ours do not exist in the “landscape” of universes allowed by string theory.
Star-Swallowing Black Holes Reveal Secrets in Exotic Light Shows
Black holes occasionally reveal themselves when passing stars get ripped apart by their gravity. These tidal disruption events have created a new way for astronomers to map the hidden cosmos.
Closed Loophole Confirms the Unreality of the Quantum World
A quickly closed loophole has proved that the “great smoky dragon” of quantum mechanics may forever elude capture.
How Artificial Intelligence Can Supercharge the Search for New Particles
In the hunt for new fundamental particles, physicists have always had to make assumptions about how the particles will behave. New machine learning algorithms don’t.