Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Quantum Physics
Birds’ turns match math of quantum matter
Equations that describe superfluidity may explain how information about which way and when to turn spreads in a starling flock.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum Cheshire Cat experiment splits particles from their properties
When facing a fork in the road, neutrons appear to go in one direction and their spins in the other.
- Science & Society
Quantum connection could revitalize superstrings
Status of superstrings could be elevated by their ability to explain the mysterious rules of quantum mechanics.
- Materials Science
‘Stuff Matters’ explores the science behind everyday objects
Author Mark Miodownik explores why everyday materials look and behave the way they do.
- Chemistry
Molecular cage traps rare gases
Organic compound could cull valuable xenon from the air and detect cancer-causing radon in homes.
- Materials Science
Weird materials could make faster computers
Topological insulators could speed up how computers switch between 1s and 0s.
- Quantum Physics
You shouldn’t try to pigeonhole quantum physics
A quantum analysis shows a way to violate math’s pigeonhole principle, by allowing three particles in two boxes with no two in the same box.
- Particle Physics
Dark matter hunters may get three new experiments
NSF and DOE have approved three new facilities to look for the exotic particles that might make up dark matter.
- Physics
Diamonds under pressure impersonate exoplanet cores
Scientists use lasers at the National Ignition Facility to squeeze diamonds to the extreme pressures found inside massive exoplanets.
- Cosmology
Lab version of early universe fails to solve lithium problem
An experiment that imitated conditions from just after the Big Bang failed to explain why observed amounts of lithium don’t match those expected from theory.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum math makes human irrationality more sensible
Vagaries of human decision making make sense if quantum math describes the way the brain works.
- Physics
‘Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field’ is a biography of brilliance
Authors Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon show how two men’s work came together to change physics.
