Physics

By measuring inflated helium nuclei, physicists have challenged our best understanding of the force that binds protons and neutrons.

The marine geochemist Chris German brings decades of experience studying seafloor hydrothermal vents to NASA’s preparations for visits to other ocean worlds in our solar system.

The puzzling behavior of black hole interiors has led researchers to propose a new physical law: the second law of quantum complexity.

Renate Loll has helped pioneer a radically new approach to quantum gravity. She assumes that the fabric of space-time is a blend of all possible fabrics, and she has developed the computational tools needed to calculate the far-reaching implications of that assumption.

Several areas of physics suggest reasons to think that unobservable universes with different natural laws could lie beyond ours. The theoretical physicist David Kaplan talks with Steven Strogatz about the mysteries that a multiverse would solve.

For the first time, mathematicians have proved that planetary orbits in a solar system will always be unstable.

A new theory describes how particle interactions fuel fast magnetic reconnection, the process behind solar flares and other astrophysical jets.

In two landmark experiments, researchers used quantum processors to engineer exotic particles that have captivated physicists for decades. The work is a step toward crash-proof quantum computers.

If we want to understand complex constructions, such as ourselves, assembly theory says we must account for the entire history of how such entities came to be.