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The zero-point energy of empty space is not zero. Even with all the physics we know, we have no idea how to calculate what it ought to be.

From the earliest stages of the hot Big Bang (and even before) to our dark energy-dominated present, how and when did the Universe grow up?

The Universe changes remarkably over time, with some entities surviving and others simply decaying away. Is this cosmic evolution at work?

No matter what physical system we consider, nature always obeys the same fundamental laws. Must it be this way, and if so, why?

Holograms preserve all of an object’s 3D information, but on a 2D surface. Could the holographic Universe idea lead us to higher dimensions?

The observation that everything we know is made out of matter and not antimatter is one of nature’s greatest puzzles. Will we ever solve it?

It’s deceptively tricky to distinguish living systems from non-living systems. Physics may be key to solving the problem.

When you bring two fingers together, you can feel them “touch” each other. But are your atoms really touching, and if so, how?

American students are being compelled to specialize earlier and earlier. Here’s what it takes to build a successful physics foundation.

Everyone loves a good origins story.

“To take this in, you need to ride inside the mathematical symbols.” 

There are many things that separate science from ideology, politics, philosophy, or religion. Follow these 10 commandments to get it right.

2023’s Nobel Prize was awarded for studying physics on tiny, attosecond-level timescales. Too bad that particle physics happens even faster.

Traveling back in time is a staple of science fiction movies. But according to Einstein, it’s a physical possibility that’s truly allowed.

Drop sodium in water, and a violent, even explosive reaction will occur. But quantum physics is needed to explain why.

The difference between predictions and observations of the magnetic properties of muons suggests a mystery for the Standard Model.

Could we finally detect the elusive Unruh effect?

There is nothing more important to science than its ability to prove ideas wrong.

The evidence that the Universe is expanding is overwhelming. But how? By stretching the existing space, or by creating new space itself?

Recent claims put LK-99 as the first room temperature, ambient pressure superconductor ever. Has the game changed, or is it merely hype?

Without wormholes, warp drive, or some type of new matter, energy, or physics, everyone is limited by the speed of light. Or are they?

Is gravity weaker over distances of billions of light-years?

We thought the Big Bang started it all. Then we realized that something else came before, and it erased everything that existed prior.

Einstein called his idea “abominable,” but the world of physics came around to embracing the views of Georges Lemaître.

Perhaps the most remarkable fact about the Universe is simply that it, and everything in it, exists. But what’s the reason why?

A new hypothesis accuses the simple sugar of wrecking energy metabolism.

The combination of charge conjugation, parity, and time-reversal symmetry is known as CPT. And it must never be broken. Ever.

Every timekeeping device works via a version of a pendulum — even the atomic clocks that are accurate to nanoseconds.

Some 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe became hot, dense, and filled with high-energy quanta all at once. Here’s what it was like.

“A person’s mass is made not of ‘stuff’ in the way we normally think about it, but rather our mass is made of energy.”