What's up in

Space-time

Latest Articles

The Strange Second Life of String Theory

September 15, 2016

String theory has so far failed to live up to its promise as a way to unite gravity and quantum mechanics. At the same time, it has blossomed into one of the most useful sets of tools in science.

Colliding Black Holes Tell New Story of Stars

September 6, 2016

Just months after their discovery, gravitational waves coming from the mergers of black holes are shaking up astrophysics.

How Feynman Diagrams Almost Saved Space

July 5, 2016

Richard Feynman's famous diagrams weren’t just a way to do calculations. They represented a deep shift in thinking about how the universe is put together.

LIGO Reports Second Black-Hole Merger

June 15, 2016

The spokesperson for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory called it “a promising start to mapping the populations of black holes in our universe.”

After Black Holes Collide, a Puzzling Flash

March 2, 2016

A satellite spotted a burst of light just as gravitational waves rolled in from the collision of two black holes. Was the flash a cosmic coincidence, or do astrophysicists need to rethink what black holes can do?

Q&A

From Einstein’s Theory to Gravity’s Chirp

February 18, 2016

The path from a revolutionary set of equations to the detection of gravitational waves was strewn with obstacles and controversy, explains the physicist Daniel Kennefick — and the struggle continues.

Gravitational Waves Discovered at Long Last

February 11, 2016

Ripples in space-time have been detected a century after Einstein predicted them, launching a new era in astronomy.

Quantum Weirdness Now a Matter of Time

January 19, 2016

Bizarre quantum bonds connect distinct moments in time, suggesting that quantum links — not space-time — constitute the fundamental structure of the universe.

String Theory Meets Loop Quantum Gravity

January 12, 2016

Two leading candidates for a “theory of everything,” long thought to be incompatible, may be two sides of the same coin.

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