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Physicists Pinpoint the Quantum Origin of the Greenhouse Effect
Carbon dioxide’s powerful heat-trapping effect has been traced to a quirk of its quantum structure. The finding may explain climate change better than any computer model.
‘Metaphysical Experiments’ Probe Our Hidden Assumptions About Reality
Experiments that test physics and philosophy "as a single whole" may be our only route to surefire knowledge about the universe.
Vacuum of Space to Decay Sooner Than Expected (but Still Not Soon)
One of the quantum fields that fills the universe is special because its default value seems poised to eventually change, changing everything.
Physicists Puzzle Over Emergence of Strange Electron Aggregates
Electrons have been seen uniting into entities with fractions of electric charge, this time without a magnetic field coaxing them into it.
The S-Matrix Is the Oracle Physicists Turn To in Times of Crisis
Particle physicists in search of the next theory of reality are consulting a mathematical structure that they know will never fail: a table of possibilities known as the S-matrix.
He Seeks Mystery Magnetic Fields With His Quantum Compass
Alex Sushkov is updating an old technology with new quantum tricks in hopes of sensing the magnetic influence of dark matter.
Will Better Superconductors Transform the World?
Scientists are pursuing materials that can conduct electricity with perfect efficiency under ambient conditions. In this episode, the physicist Siddharth Shanker Saxena tells co-host Janna Levin about what makes this hunt so difficult and consequential.
Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems
After years of false starts, a team of computer scientists has found a way to efficiently deduce the Hamiltonian of a physical system at any constant temperature.
Can Information Escape a Black Hole?
Black holes are inescapable traps for most of what falls into them — but there can be exceptions. The theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind speaks with co-host Janna Levin about the black hole information paradox and how it has propelled modern physics.