What's up in

Physics

Latest Articles

‘Big Bang Signal’ Could All Be Dust

September 21, 2014

Cosmic dust in the high latitudes of the Milky Way could account for the entire swirl pattern that had been presented as proof of a leading Big Bang theory, according to a new data analysis from the Planck satellite.

Q&A

Finding Dark Energy in the Details

September 18, 2014

The astrophysicist Joshua Frieman seeks to pinpoint the mysterious substance driving the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Quark Quartet Fuels Quantum Feud

August 27, 2014

Newly discovered particles are forcing physicists to extend their simple picture of subatomic interactions or replace it with a more nuanced understanding.

At Multiverse Impasse, a New Theory of Scale

August 18, 2014

Physicists have begun to explore the idea that mass and length may not be fundamental properties of nature. The hypothesis could help to avoid the conclusion that our world is just a weird bubble in an endlessly foaming multiverse.

In Noisy Equations, One Who Heard Music

August 12, 2014

Martin Hairer was named a 2014 Fields medalist for an epic masterpiece in stochastic analysis that colleagues say “created a whole world.”

Q&A

In Search of Dark Stars

July 22, 2014

Katherine Freese, a physicist who will soon lead the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, reflects on the hunt for dark matter and how dark matter heating may have produced the first stars.

The New Science of Evolutionary Forecasting

July 17, 2014

Newly discovered patterns in evolution may help scientists make accurate short-term predictions.

Q&A

A Bold Critic of the Big Bang’s ‘Smoking Gun’

July 3, 2014

The cosmologist David Spergel explains why a widely publicized gravitational-wave discovery could be wrong, and how the “overreaching” study could affect the public’s perception of science.

Q&A

Early-Universe Explorer Looks for Answers

July 3, 2014

Chao-Lin Kuo, who helped design the experiment that claimed to have found evidence of gravitational waves from the Big Bang, isn’t bothered by criticism that cosmic dust may account for his results.

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