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. Physics

    To combat an expanding universe, aliens could hoard stars

    An advanced alien civilization might combat the impact of dark energy by harvesting stars.

  2. Physics

    The Large Hadron Collider is getting an upgrade

    Revamping the accelerator’s equipment will increase the rate of proton collisions.

  3. Astronomy

    Magnetic fields may be propping up the Pillars of Creation

    Scientists made a map of the magnetic field within the Pillars of Creation, a star-forming area depicted in an iconic Hubble Space Telescope image.

  4. Physics

    This heavy element has a football-shaped atomic nucleus

    Three nobelium isotopes have oblong nuclei, and some sport a ‘bubble’ center.

  5. Physics

    In her short life, mathematician Emmy Noether changed the face of physics

    A century after she published a groundbreaking mathematical theory, Emmy Noether gets her due.

  6. Astronomy

    The sun shrinks a teensy bit when it’s feeling active

    The radius of the sun gets slightly smaller during periods of high solar activity, researchers say.

  7. Particle Physics

    If real, dark fusion could help demystify this physics puzzle

    Fusing dark matter particles might explain why galaxy cores have evenly distributed dark matter.

  8. Particle Physics

    Mysterious neutrino surplus hints at the existence of new particles

    Neutrinos show up in greater numbers than expected in an experiment, possibly bolstering the idea of a fourth type of the particle.

  9. Particle Physics

    Dark matter particles elude scientists in the biggest search of its kind

    The XENON1T experiment saw no signs of hypothetical dark matter particles called WIMPs.

  10. Astronomy

    Maverick asteroid might be an immigrant from outside the solar system

    A space rock’s backward orbit could be a hint of unusual origins.

  11. Particle Physics

    The inside of a proton endures more pressure than anything else we’ve seen

    For the first time, scientists used experimental data to estimate the pressure inside a proton.

  12. Physics

    Despite a new measurement, the neutron’s lifetime is still puzzling

    Two techniques for gauging the subatomic particle’s longevity disagree.