Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Animals
Intricate silk helps net-casting spiders ensnare prey in webs
Rufous net-casting spiders can tune the stiffness and elasticity of their webs thanks to loops of silk, scanning electron microscope images reveal.
- Physics
Physicists dream up ‘spacetime quasicrystals’ that could underpin the universe
Quasicrystals are orderly structures that never repeat. Scientists just showed they can exist in space and time.
- Physics
A precise proton measurement helps put a core theory of physics to the test
After years of confusion, a new study confirms the proton is tinier than once thought. That enables a test of the standard model of particle physics.
- Physics
The only U.S. particle collider shuts down – so a new one may rise
The famed collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory has ended operations, but if all goes to plan, a new collider will rise from its ashes.
- Physics
A Greek star catalog from the dawn of astronomy, revealed
Researchers are using X-rays to discover invisible markings left on ancient parchment containing information from the Greek astronomer Hipparchus.
- Physics
A massive clump of dark matter may lurk in the Milky Way
Pulsating remnants of stars hint at a clump of invisible matter thought to be about 10 million times the sun’s mass.
- Physics
Physics theories about the multiverse are stranger than fiction
Cosmology and quantum physics both offer tantalizing possibilities that we inhabit just one reality among many. But testing that idea is challenging.
- Particle Physics
Physicists discovered neutrinos 70 years ago. The ghostly particles still have secrets to tell
Neutrinos have kept scientists on their toes in the decades since they were discovered.
- Physics
Queen bumblebees are poor foragers thanks to sparse tongue hair
The density of fine hairs on bumblebees’ tongues determines how much nectar they can collect — and workers put queen bees to shame.
- Particle Physics
Earth is bathed in droves of neutrinos spewed by the Milky Way’s stars
The subatomic particles are incredibly numerous. About 1,000 neutrinos from stars other than the sun pass through a thumbnail every second.
- Physics
Here’s the science behind nuclear weapons testing
Nuclear weapons haven’t been tested in the United States since 1992. Find out why, and what could happen if the hiatus ends.
- Science & Society
These scientific discoveries brought us joy in 2025
Amidst a tough year for science, glimmers of joy burst through in revelations from the silly to the sublime.
