Emily Conover

Emily Conover

Senior Writer, Physics

Physics writer Emily Conover joined Science News in 2016. She has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago, where she studied the weird ways of neutrinos, tiny elementary particles that can zip straight through the Earth. She got her first taste of science writing as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She has previously written for Science Magazine and the American Physical Society. She is a two-time winner of the D.C. Science Writers’ Association Newsbrief award.

All Stories by Emily Conover

  1. A closeup photo of a large icicle with others hanging out of focus in the background.
    Physics

    Here’s why icicles made from pure water don’t form ripples

    A new study explains why icicles made from pure water have irregular shapes rather than the ripples typical of the salty icicles found in nature.

  2. A metal vessel filled with ice and stainless steel balls
    Physics

    Water is weird. A new type of ice could help us understand why

    A newfound type of amorphous ice with a density close to liquid water could help scientists make sense of water’s quirks.

  3. a black and white animation in which ghosts representing neutrinos pass through the earth
    Particle Physics

    How ghostly neutrinos could explain the universe’s matter mystery

    If neutrinos behave differently from their antimatter counterparts, it could help explain why our cosmos is full of stuff.

  4. illustration of a laser passing through a plastic bottle with an inset showing tiny nanodiamonds that also connects to the interior of a planet
    Physics

    Zapping plastic with a laser forged tiny diamonds

    The technique could be used to manufacture nanodiamonds for use in quantum devices and other applications.

  5. Two side-by-side images of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87, both taken by the Event Horizon Telescope EHT. The left image looks like a luminous blurry donut. On the right is a more recent image that isolates a circular feature of the black hole’s emission and resembles a thin ring.
    Space

    Physicists dispute a claim of detecting a black hole’s ‘photon ring’

    A thin ring of light around a black hole, which would probe gravity in a new way, has been found, one team claims. Skeptics aren’t convinced.

  6. photo of a levitating force sensor in gold amid red-hued light
    Physics

    ‘Chameleon’ forces remain elusive in a new dark energy experiment

    A hypothetical fifth force associated with “chameleon” dark energy and that morphs based on its environment didn’t turn up in a sensitive experiment.

  7. an illustration of a proton, which looks like a bubble containing three shining dots, one orange (a down quark) and two blue (up quarks)
    Particle Physics

    Protons contain intrinsic charm quarks, a new study suggests

    The massive quarks — counterintuitively heavier than the proton itself — might carry about 0.6 percent of a proton’s momentum.

  8. A candidate WWW event is visualized. On a black backdrop, one part of the image shows a reddish burst of energy with a green ring surrounded by a yellow ring. Another part of the image shows a similar event, but witih red, green and white lines illustrating particles' tracks, and surrounded by additional light in various colors.
    Particle Physics

    Physicists spotted rare W boson trios at the Large Hadron Collider

    By measuring how often triplets of particles called W bosons appear, scientists can check physics’ standard model for any cracks.

  9. illustration that shows light (white lines) from the cosmic microwave background (in orange and blue) passing through other galaxies (in purple) on its way to Earth
    Cosmology

    Scientists mapped dark matter around galaxies in the early universe

    A technique used to reveal dark matter could also shed light on a disagreement about the clumpiness of matter in the cosmos.

  10. an experiment that uses strontium ions to test quantum entanglement
    Quantum Physics

    Quantum entanglement makes quantum communication even more secure

    Bell tests proved that quantum mechanics really is “spooky.” Now they’ve made quantum communication even more hacker-proof.

  11. dark matter detector in construction
    Physics

    A new dark matter experiment quashed earlier hints of new particles

    Unlike its earlier incarnation, the XENONnT detector found no evidence of extra blips that scientists had hoped indicated new physics.

  12. the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment in front of the night sky
    Astronomy

    A fast radio burst’s rapid, steady beat offers a clue to its cosmic origin

    Amped-up neutron stars, pairs of magnetically entangled neutron stars or magnetar quakes could explain a three-second-long train of radio blips.