Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Particle Physics
50 years ago, neutrinos ghosted scientists
In the last half-century, neutrino detectors have spotted particles cast out by the sun, supernova 1987A and a supermassive black hole.
- Particle Physics
A high-energy neutrino has been traced to its galactic birthplace
The high-energy particle was born in a blazar 4 billion light-years away, scientists report.
- Particle Physics
Readers ask about proton pressure, wearable tech and more
Readers had questions about the pressure inside a proton, wearable tech safety and the effects of global warming on insects.
- Chemistry
How a particle accelerator helped recover tarnished 19th century images
Chemists used a synchrotron to peek beneath 150 years of grime on damaged daguerreotype images, revealing hidden portraits.
- Materials Science
Designer diamonds could one day help build a quantum internet
A new design in artificial diamonds stores and releases quantum information better than others.
- Quantum Physics
Mini machines can evade friction by taking quantum shortcuts
Special maneuvers allow researchers to create tiny machines that are as efficient as possible.
- Quantum Physics
A tiny version of this physics toy is revealing quantum secrets
Scientists created a quantum Newton’s cradle to study thermal equilibrium.
- Tech
50 years ago, a Japanese scientist dreamed up a rocket-propelled train
50 years ago, a Japanese engineer tried rocket boosters on a train. Today, high-speed trains propelled by superconducting magnets are being tested.
