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Meet Strange Metals: Where Electricity May Flow Without Electrons

November 27, 2023

For 50 years, physicists have understood current as a flow of charged particles. But a new experiment has found that in at least one strange material, this understanding falls apart.

Rogue Worlds Throw Planetary Ideas Out of Orbit

November 13, 2023

Scientists have recently discovered scores of free-floating worlds that defy classification. The new observations have forced them to rethink their theories of star and planet formation.

Q&A

The Scientist Who Decodes the Songs of Undersea Volcanoes

November 8, 2023

In the rumbles and groans of underwater volcanoes, Jackie Caplan-Auerbach finds her favorite harmonies — and clues to the Earth’s interior.

These Moons Are Dark and Frozen. So How Can They Have Oceans?

November 2, 2023

The moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn appear to have subsurface oceans — tantalizing targets in the search for life beyond Earth. But it’s not clear why these seas exist at all.

Biophysicists Uncover Powerful Symmetries in Living Tissue

October 25, 2023

After identifying interlocking symmetries in mammalian cells, scientists can describe some tissues as liquid crystals — an observation that lays the groundwork for a fluid-dynamic theory of how tissues move.

The Quest to Quantify Quantumness

October 19, 2023

What makes a quantum computer more powerful than a classical computer? It’s a surprisingly subtle question that physicists are still grappling with, decades into the quantum age.

Thirty Years Later, a Speed Boost for Quantum Factoring

October 17, 2023

Shor’s algorithm will enable future quantum computers to factor large numbers quickly, undermining many online security protocols. Now a researcher has shown how to do it even faster.

The Mathematician Who Sculpted the Shape of Space

October 16, 2023

Eugenio Calabi, who died on September 25, conceived of novel geometric objects that later became fundamental to string theory.

Invisible ‘Demon’ Discovered in Odd Superconductor

October 9, 2023

Physicists have long suspected that hunks of metal could vibrate in a peculiar way that would be all but invisible. Now physicists have spotted these “demon modes.”

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