Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
A filter that turns saltwater into freshwater just got an upgrade
Smoothing out a material used in desalination filters could help combat worldwide water shortages.
- Astronomy
A faint glow found between galaxies could be a beacon for dark matter
Intracluster light may help reveal where dark matter resides within galaxy clusters.
- Climate
Readers question dark fusion, Antarctic ice melting and more
Readers had questions about Antarctic ice melting, dark fusion and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Astronomy
Hopes dim that gamma rays can reveal dark matter
A mysterious glow of gamma rays coming from the center of the Milky Way probably isn’t a sign of dark matter.
- Physics
Strange metals are even weirder than scientists thought
Some strange metals are odd in more ways than one, and that could help scientists understand high-temperature superconductors.
- Particle Physics
In a first, physicists accelerate atoms in the Large Hadron Collider
Ionized lead atoms took a spin around the world’s biggest particle accelerator.
- Particle Physics
A new quasiparticle lurks in semiconductors
Strange entities called collexons hint at undiscovered physics among interacting subatomic particles in a semiconductor.
- Physics
A star orbiting a black hole shows Einstein got gravity right — again
For the first time, general relativity has been confirmed in the region near a supermassive black hole.
- Tech
Readers share their experiences with DNA ancestry tests
Readers delighted in learning about Emmy Noether, and asked about autonomous taxis and how the first Americans may have arrived via coastal routes.
- Physics
The Planck satellite’s picture of the infant universe gets its last tweaks
Scientists have released the last big result from the cosmic microwave background experiment Planck.
- Tech
A new kind of spray is loaded with microscopic electronic sensors
For the first time, researchers have built circuits on microscopic chips that can be mixed into an aerosol spray.
- Particle Physics
One particle’s trek suggests that ‘spacetime foam’ doesn’t slow neutrinos
Neutrinos and light travel at essentially the same speed, as predicted.
