All Stories by Andrew Grant
- Chemistry
Experiment offers glimpse at how to make hydrogen metallic
A new phase of hydrogen could represent the stepping stone for transforming element 1 into a metal.
- Physics
Aircraft industry could take tips from penguins
Tiny grooves and an oily sheath prevent water droplets from freezing on the feathers of some penguins.
- Particle Physics
Dark matter helped destroy the dinosaurs, physicist posits
In ‘Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs,’ Lisa Randall finds connections between particle physics, cosmology, geology and paleontology.
- Chemistry
Four elements earn permanent seats on the periodic table
The four newest elements on the periodic table gain official recognition and will be getting new names soon.
- Planetary Science
Equipment failure delays Mars mission
A leaky instrument will push back launch of the Mars InSight lander by at least two years.
- Astronomy
Equipment failure pushes back Mars lander mission
The launch of the Mars InSight lander is suspended until at least 2018 because of a faulty seismometer.
- Astronomy
New recipe found for making supermassive black hole
The universe’s first supermassive black holes may have formed directly from gas in colliding galaxies, new simulations suggest.
- Physics
Pulsar pair ripples spacetime
A pair of pulsars gives scientists the best evidence so far for gravitational waves, which have yet to be detected directly.
- Physics
General relativity caught in action around black hole
X-rays enable scientists to spot a black hole twisting the surrounding fabric of spacetime, just as Einstein’s theory predicts.
- Physics
Uncovering the science of sand dune ‘booms’
Mechanical engineer and geophysicist Nathalie Vriend explores noises in the desert that are triggered by sand sliding down dunes.
- Particle Physics
LHC restart provides tantalizing hints of a possible new particle
The first comprehensive analyses of the recently restarted Large Hadron Collider yields no clear-cut discoveries but at least one intriguing hint of a new particle.
- Quantum Physics
Year in review: Quantum spookiness is real
A new version of an experiment proposed in 1964 confirmed a counterintuitive tenet of quantum mechanics.
