Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Agriculture
Cold plasma could transform the sustainable farms of the future
Physicists have been working on ways to use the power of plasma to boost plant growth and kill pathogens.
- Physics
New ‘vortex beams’ of atoms and molecules are the first of their kind
Twisted beams of atoms and molecules join other types of corkscrew beams made of light or electrons.
- Physics
Physicists caught protons ‘surfing’ on shock waves
A laser experiment could help scientists understand how protons reach high energies traveling through the cosmos.
- Cosmology
‘Flashes of Creation’ recounts the Big Bang theory’s origin story
In ‘Flashes of Creation,’ author Paul Halpern tells the story of George Gamow , Fred Hoyle and their decades-long sparring match about the Big Bang.
- Physics
50 years ago, physicists thought they found the W boson. They hadn’t
Fifty years after a false-alarm discovery, physicists have caught the W boson and are using it to unravel mysteries of particle physics.
- Physics
With a powerful laser blast, scientists near a nuclear fusion milestone
A National Ignition Facility experiment spawned nuclear fusion reactions that released nearly as much energy as was used to ignite them.
- Physics
Windbreaks, surprisingly, could help wind farms boost power output
Wind farm performance could be improved by 10 percent by using low barriers to increase the wind speed directed at the turbines, simulations suggest.
- Physics
Colliding photons were spotted making matter. But are the photons ‘real’?
Smashups of particles of light creating electrons and positrons could demonstrate the physics of Einstein’s equation E=mc2.
- Particle Physics
How particle detectors capture matter’s hidden, beautiful reality
Old and new detectors trace the whirling paths of subatomic particles.
- Physics
A bounty of potential gravitational wave events hints at exciting possibilities
Of about 1,200 possible events, most are probably false alarms, but some could be ripples in spacetime that are especially hard to spot.
- Physics
Black holes born with magnetic fields quickly shed them
New computer simulations show one way that black holes might discard their magnetic fields.
- Physics
With Steven Weinberg’s death, physics loses a titan
The Nobel laureate advanced the theory of particles and forces, and wrote insightfully for a wider public.
