Physics

Having solved a central mystery about the “twirliness” of tornadoes and other types of vortices, William Irvine has set his sights on turbulence, the white whale of classical physics.

Push or crush a new class of materials, and they’ll undergo record-breaking temperature changes.

Physicists have identified an algebraic structure underlying the messy mathematics of particle collisions. Some hope it will lead to a more elegant theory of the natural world.

Claudia de Rham showed how theories of “massive gravity” could potentially get rid of the need for dark energy.

An 18th-century physicist first predicted the existence of a chorus of atmospheric waves that swoop around Earth. Scientists have finally found them.

Professional astronomers may not point their telescopes by hand anymore, but COVID-19 has still closed observatories and impeded research.

Detailed computer simulations have found that a cosmic contraction can generate features of the universe that we observe today.

Modified gravity theories have never been able to describe the universe’s first light. A new formulation does.

New calculations show how hypothetical particles called gravitons would give rise to a special kind of noise.