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experimental physics

Graphic of swirling vortex-like patterns called skyrmions.
condensed matter physics

A New Twist Reveals Superconductivity’s Secrets

By Charlie Wood
March 16, 2021
Read Later

An unexpected superconductor was beginning to look like a fluke, but a new theory and a second discovery have revealed that emergent quasiparticles may be behind the effect.

A video in which a proton seems to be composed of three particles, but on zooming in, it turns out to be a swirling miasma.
quantum physics

Decades-Long Quest Reveals Details of the Proton’s Inner Antimatter

By Natalie Wolchover
February 24, 2021
Read Later

Twenty years ago, physicists set out to investigate a mysterious asymmetry in the proton’s interior. Their results, published today, show how antimatter helps stabilize every atom’s core.

Concentric rings of light seen through crosshairs of a Fabry-Pérot interferometer.
Abstractions blog

Physicists Nail Down the ‘Magic Number’ That Shapes the Universe

By Natalie Wolchover
December 2, 2020
Read Later

A team in Paris has made the most precise measurement yet of the fine-structure constant, killing hopes for a new force of nature.

Particle going through a barrier
quantum physics

Quantum Tunnels Show How Particles Can Break the Speed of Light

By Natalie Wolchover
October 20, 2020
Read Later

Recent experiments show that particles should be able to go faster than light when they quantum mechanically “tunnel” through walls.

fluid vortices
fluid dynamics

An Unexpected Twist Lights Up the Secrets of Turbulence

By David H. Freedman
September 3, 2020
Read Later

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.

materials science

The Shape-Shifting Squeeze Coolers

By Marcus Woo
August 24, 2020
Read Later

Push or crush a new class of materials, and they’ll undergo record-breaking temperature changes.

The XENON1T detector’s time projection chamber.
Abstractions blog

Dark Matter Experiment Finds Unexplained Signal

By Natalie Wolchover
June 17, 2020
Read Later

Researchers say there are three possible explanations for the anomalous data. One is mundane. Two would revolutionize physics.

A quantum knot.
Abstractions blog

‘Milestone’ Evidence for Anyons, a Third Kingdom of Particles

By Dana Najjar
May 12, 2020
Read Later

Anyons don’t fit into either of the two known particle kingdoms. To find them, physicists had to erase the third dimension.

Six looping videos of different types of snowflakes and snow crystals growing.
crystals

Toward a Grand Unified Theory of Snowflakes

By Rebecca Boyle
December 19, 2019
Read Later

Snow crystals come in two main types. The “pope” of snowflake physics has a new theory that explains why.


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