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The Year in Physics

December 17, 2024

Physicists discovered strange supersolids, constructed new kinds of superconductors, and continued to make the case that the cosmos is far weirder than anyone suspected.

The First Nuclear Clock Will Test if Fundamental Constants Change

September 4, 2024

An ultra-precise measurement of a transition in the hearts of thorium atoms gives physicists a tool to probe the forces that bind the universe.

How the Higgs Field (Actually) Gives Mass to Elementary Particles

September 3, 2024

In this article adapted from his new book, "Waves in an Impossible Sea," physicist Matt Strassler explains that the origin of mass in the universe has a lot to do with music.

Vacuum of Space to Decay Sooner Than Expected (but Still Not Soon)

July 22, 2024

One of the quantum fields that fills the universe is special because its default value seems poised to eventually change, changing everything.

What Could Explain the Gallium Anomaly?

July 12, 2024

Physicists have ruled out a mundane explanation for the strange findings of an old Soviet experiment, leaving open the possibility that the results point to a new fundamental particle.

The S-Matrix Is the Oracle Physicists Turn To in Times of Crisis

May 23, 2024

Particle physicists in search of the next theory of reality are consulting a mathematical structure that they know will never fail: a table of possibilities known as the S-matrix.

Dogged Dark Matter Hunters Find New Hiding Places to Check

May 7, 2024

Perhaps dark matter is made of an entirely different kind of particle than the ones physicists have been searching for. New experiments are springing up to look for these ultra-lightweight phantoms.

AI Starts to Sift Through String Theory’s Near-Endless Possibilities

April 23, 2024

Using machine learning, string theorists are finally showing how microscopic configurations of extra dimensions translate into sets of elementary particles — though not yet those of our universe.

Hopes of Big Bang Discoveries Ride on a Future Spacecraft

April 17, 2024

Physicists and cosmologists will have a new probe of primordial processes when Europe launches the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) next decade.

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