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Swirling Forces, Crushing Pressures Measured in the Proton

March 14, 2024

Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of energies, forces and pressures inside a subatomic particle for the first time.

What Is Quantum Teleportation?

March 14, 2024

Teleporting people through space is still science fiction. But quantum teleportation is dramatically different and entirely real. In this episode, Janna Levin interviews the theoretical physicist John Preskill about teleporting bits and the promise of quantum technology.

Fresh X-Rays Reveal a Universe as Clumpy as Cosmology Predicts

March 4, 2024

By mapping the largest structures in the universe in X-rays, cosmologists have found striking agreement with their standard theoretical model of how the universe evolves.

What Is the Nature of Time?

February 29, 2024

Time is all around us: in the language we use, in the memories we revisit and in our predictions of the future. But what exactly is it? The physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek joins Steve Strogatz to discuss the fundamental hallmarks of time.

A Quantum Trick Implied Eternal Stability. Now the Idea May Be Falling Apart.

February 26, 2024

A series of advances seemed to promise the impossible: the existence of quantum states that would never, ever fall into disarray. But physicists are now discovering that the pull of disorder may not be so easily overcome.

Never-Repeating Tiles Can Safeguard Quantum Information

February 23, 2024

Two researchers have proved that Penrose tilings, famous patterns that never repeat, are mathematically equivalent to a kind of quantum error correction.

Inside Scientists’ Life-Saving Prediction of the Iceland Eruption

February 20, 2024

The Reykjanes Peninsula has entered a new volcanic era. Innovative efforts to map and monitor the subterranean magma are saving lives.

Q&A

To See Black Holes in Stunning Detail, She Uses ‘Echoes’ Like a Bat

February 12, 2024

The astrophysicist Erin Kara measures time lags in black holes’ X-ray glows, which reveal the complexity of the objects’ closest surroundings.

Radio Maps May Reveal the Universe’s Biggest Magnetic Fields

February 6, 2024

A controversial technique has produced detailed maps of the magnetic fields in colossal galaxy clusters. If confirmed, the approach could be used to reveal where cosmic magnetic fields come from.

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