Experimental physics

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Physicists have long searched for hypothesized dark matter particles called WIMPs. Now, focus may be shifting to the axion — an ultra-lightweight particle whose existence would solve two mysteries at once.

A new measurement appears to have eliminated an anomaly that had captivated physicists for nearly a decade.