What's up in

Physics

Latest Articles

An Antimatter Experiment Shows Surprises Near Absolute Zero

March 16, 2022

An experiment conducted on hybrid matter-antimatter atoms has defied researchers’ expectations.

Tiny Galaxies Reveal Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes

March 14, 2022

Dwarf galaxies weren’t supposed to have big black holes. Their surprise discovery has revealed clues about how the universe’s biggest black holes could have formed.

A Deepening Crisis Forces Physicists to Rethink Structure of Nature’s Laws

March 1, 2022

Physicists are reexamining a longstanding assumption: that big stuff consists of smaller stuff.

Four Years On, New Experiment Sees No Sign of ‘Cosmic Dawn’

February 28, 2022

When astronomers tried to confirm a signal from the birth of the first stars after the Big Bang, they saw nothing.

Q&A

In Search of Cracks in Albert Einstein’s Theory of Gravity

February 23, 2022

Celia Escamilla-Rivera is combining large data sets with supercomputers to test general relativity against its little-known competitors.

The Mysterious Forces Inside the Nucleus Grow a Little Less Strange

February 14, 2022

The strong force holds protons and neutrons together, but the theory behind it is largely inscrutable. Two new approaches show how it works.

Quantum Complexity Tamed by Machine Learning

February 7, 2022

If only scientists understood exactly how electrons act in molecules, they’d be able to predict the behavior of everything from experimental drugs to high-temperature superconductors. Following decades of physics-based insights, artificial intelligence systems are taking the next leap.

Machine Learning Gets a Quantum Speedup

February 4, 2022

Two teams have shown how quantum approaches can solve problems faster than classical computers, bringing physics and computer science closer together.

A Solution to the Faint-Sun Paradox Reveals a Narrow Window for Life

January 27, 2022

We might have a past faint sun to owe for life’s existence. This has consequences for the possibility of life outside Earth.

Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox