We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.
Quanta Homepage
  • Physics
  • Mathematics
  • Biology
  • Computer Science
  • Topics
  • Archive

What's up in

Physics

Latest Articles

A drawing of cosmic rays approaching the sun and the sun emitting gamma rays.
astrophysics

Strange Solar Gamma Rays Discovered at Even Higher Energies

By Katie McCormick
February 27, 2023
Comment
Read Later

There appear to be too many gamma rays coming from the sun. New higher-energy measurements reveal that this excess continues for a bit, then disappears — a cutoff that could help clarify what’s going on.

A shining lightbulb with a cord that’s not plugged in.
quantum physics

Physicists Use Quantum Mechanics to Pull Energy out of Nothing

By Charlie Wood
February 22, 2023
Comment
Read Later

The quantum energy teleportation protocol was proposed in 2008 and largely ignored. Now two independent experiments have shown that it works.

golden planets look like they're moving through a twisting current
The Joy of Why

How Will the Universe End?

By Steven Strogatz
February 22, 2023
Comment
Read Later

Big Freeze, Big Rip, Big Crunch, Bounce or vacuum decay? Steven Strogatz speaks with theoretical cosmologist Katie Mack about the five ways that scientists think the universe could come to an end.

The Joy of Why

The Joy of Asking About Infinity, Jellyfish and the End of the Universe

By Polly Stryker
February 9, 2023
Comment
Read Later

As The Joy of Why podcast returns for a second season, producer Polly Stryker and host Steven Strogatz invite listeners to join them and their brilliant new guests on another voyage of discovery.

simulated image of two celestial bodies interacting
astrophysics

What Lights the Universe’s Standard Candles?

By Lyndie Chiou
February 8, 2023
Comment
Read Later

Type Ia supernovas are astronomers’ best tools for measuring cosmic distances. In a first, researchers have managed to re-create one on a supercomputer, giving a boost to a leading hypothesis for how they form.

Illustration in which a bright red line results from many wavelike ripples overlapping.
explainers

How Our Reality May Be a Sum of All Possible Realities

By Charlie Wood
February 6, 2023
Comment
Read Later

Richard Feynman’s path integral is both a powerful prediction machine and a philosophy about how the world is. But physicists are still struggling to figure out how to use it, and what it means.

A graphical illustration showing a number of well-known stars in the present-day universe, along with the edge of a far bigger star.
astronomy

Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe’s First Stars

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
January 30, 2023
Comment
Read Later

Theory has it that “Population III” stars brought light to the cosmos. The James Webb Space Telescope may have just glimpsed them.

Video/image of a metronome whose arm is simultaneously ticking rightward and leftward.
quantum physics

How Quantum Physicists ‘Flipped Time’ (and How They Didn’t)

By Charlie Wood
January 27, 2023
Comment
Read Later

Two teams have made photons act as if time were simultaneously flowing in two directions. The experiments demonstrate a way to potentially boost the performance of quantum devices.

Fanciful illustration of galaxies with various geometric shapes at their centers.
mathematical physics

Mathematicians Find an Infinity of Possible Black Hole Shapes

By Steve Nadis
January 24, 2023
Comment
Read Later

In three-dimensional space, the surface of a black hole must be a sphere. But a new result shows that in higher dimensions, an infinite number of configurations are possible.


Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • ...
  • 64
Next
The Quanta Newsletter

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

Recent newsletters
Quanta Homepage
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Instagram

  • About Quanta
  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Simons Foundation
All Rights Reserved © 2023