The halo from SN1987a, the last nearby supernova Science History Images/Alamy ON A clear night, watching the stars in an inky sky, one word comes to mind: calm. The starlight seems to speak of stability and permanence. And yet, hidden from the naked eye, the wider cosmos is a place …
Read More »The laws of physics were broken in 2023 – by sperm
New Scientist’s most popular story of the year was about the discovery that sperm break Isaac Newton’s third law of motion Source link
Read More »Google wants to solve tricky physics problems with quantum computers
Quantum computers could become more useful now researchers at Google have designed an algorithm that can translate complex physical problems into the language of quantum physics Source link
Read More »Video inside centrifuge shows we don’t fully understand fluid physics
The first footage from inside a centrifuge has uncovered unexpected swirls and vortices inside shower gel and other fluids Source link
Read More »How to create trippy whirlpools in your martini, according to physics
Shaking a martini glass produces beautiful whirlpools in the cocktail Xianyu (Mabel) Song/Zhao Pan Shaking a martini glass instead of the drink itself creates mesmerising patterns of small whirlpools. Zhao Pan at the University of Waterloo, Canada, was travelling abroad when a drink he ordered in a bar led him …
Read More »Nobel prize for physics goes to trio who sliced up time with light
Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier Niklas Elmehed/Nobel Prize Outreach The 2023 Nobel prize in physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier for their work on generating ultra-short pulses of light to study how electrons move through matter. Anne L’Huillier at Lund University in …
Read More »Roger Penrose interview: “Consciousness must be beyond computable physics.”
EARLY in his career, the University of Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose inspired the artist M. C. Escher to create Ascending and Descending, the visual illusion of a loop of staircase that seems to be eternally rising. It remains a fitting metaphor for Penrose’s ever enquiring mind. During his long career, …
Read More »An alternative way to picture the standard model of particle physics
The standard model of particle physics is often illustrated as a simple grid showing the 17 basic particles (shown above). But an alternative way of visualising it reveals the complex rules that govern how the particles and forces interact. This article is part of a special series on the standard …
Read More »Six ways we could finally find new physics beyond the standard model
The standard model of particle physics cannot explain dark matter or dark energy, which together make up 95 per cent of the cosmos NASA, ESA, CSA, J. DePasquale (STScI) IN 1973, physicist Steven Weinberg gave a talk in Aix-en-Provence, France. It was there, according to Weinberg, that he first used …
Read More »Super-heavy oxygen hints at serious problem with the laws of physics
Oxygen-28 has 8 protons and 20 neutrons Carlos Clarivan/Science Photo Library The heaviest version of oxygen ever created falls apart mysteriously quickly. This finding implies a problem with our understanding of a fundamental forces of nature. Yosuke Kondo at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan and his colleagues created …
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