Dark matter hasn’t been directly detected, but some form of invisible matter is clearly gravitating. Could the graviton hold the answer?
Search Results
You searched for: quantum
Einstein’s relativity overthrew the notion of absolute space and time, replacing them with a spacetime fabric. But is spacetime truly real?
Some constants, like the speed of light, exist with no underlying explanation. How many “fundamental constants” does our Universe require?
Up until 2002, we thought that the heaviest stable element was bismuth: #83 on the periodic table. That’s absolutely no longer the case.
Lasers are all around you. This ubiquitous technology came from our understanding of quantum physics.
Protons and neutrons are held together by the strong force: with 3 colors and 3 anticolors. So why are there only 8 gluons, and not 9?
A cute mathematical trick can “rescale” the Universe so that it isn’t actually expanding. But can that “trick” survive all our cosmic tests?
When what we predict and what we measure don’t add up, that’s a sign there’s something new to learn. Could it be a new fundamental force?
LK-99, almost certainly, isn’t a room-temperature superconductor. The underlying physics of the phenomenon helps us understand why.
For some reason, when we talk about the age of stars, galaxies, and the Universe, we use “years” to measure time. Can we do better?
Practically all of the matter we see and interact with is made of atoms, which are mostly empty space. Then why is reality so… solid?
All of the matter and radiation we measure today originated in a hot Big Bang long ago. The Universe was never empty, not even before that.
The strongest tests of curved space are only possible around the lowest-mass black holes of all. Their small event horizons are the key.
In all the Universe, only a few particles are eternally stable. The photon, the quantum of light, has an infinite lifetime. Or does it?
New tech is a double-edged sword. Integration can be expensive and perilous: Mess up the adoption and jobs are on the line.
Wolfgang Pauli was a brilliant, well-liked physicist and a scathing critic of balderdash.
It may be time for a cosmological paradigm shift.
From the explosions themselves to their unique and vibrant colors, the fireworks displays we adore require quantum physics.
At a fundamental level, nobody knows whether gravity is truly quantum in nature. A novel experiment strongly hints that it is.
Our greatest tool for exploring the world inside atoms and molecules, and specifically electron transitions, just won 2023’s Nobel Prize.
Are you unhappy with how various events in your life turned out? Perhaps, in a parallel Universe, things worked out very differently.
The relationship between these two ways of thinking about the world deserves deeper exploration.
Is LK-99 truly a room temperature superconductor? These 4 tests, none of which have yet been passed, will separate fact from fiction.
2022 was another busy year in the realm of science, with groundbreaking stories spanning space, materials, medicine, and technology.
If our Universe were born a little differently, there wouldn’t have been any planets, stars, galaxies, or chemically interesting reactions.
From the Big Bang to black holes, singularities are hard to avoid. The math definitely predicts them, but are they truly, physically real?
Quantum mechanics + consciousness: There is nothing better than mixing two great mysteries to produce an even bigger one.
Every proton contains three quarks: two up and one down. But charm quarks, heavier than the proton itself, have been found inside. How?
Quantum mechanics has taught us that even empty space contains energy. “Negative energy” is the state of having less energy than empty space.