These shape-shifting devices melt and reform thanks to magnetic fields
Shape-shifting liquid metal robots might not be limited to science fiction anymore. Miniature machines can switch from solid to liquid and back again to squeeze…
Category: Physics
Want a ‘Shrinky Dinks’ approach to nano-sized devices? Try hydrogels
High-tech shrink art may be the key to making tiny electronics, 3-D nanostructures or even holograms for hiding secret messages. A new approach to making…
Rare ‘dark lightning’ might briefly touch passengers when flying
CHICAGO — More than electricity can illuminate a thundercloud. Brilliant bursts of gamma radiation, known as dark lightning or terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, also explode in…
Here’s how to make a fiber-optic cable out of air using a laser
Tubular laser beams can create what amount to fiber-optic cables made of thin air, researchers report in a study to appear in Physical Review X.…
Tiny bubbles that make icicles hazy are filled with water, not air
Tiny drops of dirty water, often mistaken for air bubbles, tell the tale of rippling icicle growth. Icicles made of pure water are smooth. But…
We could get messages back from spacecraft sent through a wormhole
If you ever happen to fall through a wormhole in space, you won’t be coming back. It will snap shut behind you. But you may…
Humans haven’t set foot on the moon in 50 years. That may soon change
A perfect ending for the final Apollo — Science News, December 23, 1972 Project Apollo ended this week. The last moon men … returned to…
These science discoveries from 2022 could be game changers
These reported discoveries from 2022 could be game changers, if only we were sure of the findings. News reports this year left us wondering ……
In a breakthrough experiment, nuclear fusion finally makes more energy than it uses
Scientists have finally managed to bottle the sun. Researchers with the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif., have ignited controlled nuclear fusion that resulted in…
50 years ago, physicists found the speed of light
A New Figure for the Cosmic Speed Limit – Science News, December 2, 1972 A group at the National Bureau of Standards at Boulder, Colo.,…
A new supercomputer simulation animates the evolution of the universe
The infant universe transforms from a featureless landscape to an intricate web in a new supercomputer simulation of the cosmos’s formative years. An animation from…
Physicists explain how to execute a nearly splashless dive
Olympic divers slice into a pool with a quick turn underwater that minimizes splash. But not for the reasons many athletes think it does, according…
How physics can improve the urinal
Restroom visitors can expect cleaner knees and tidier floors, if they happen to use a new urinal inspired by curves in nature. The key to…
Here’s where jazz gets its swing
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing — all you’ve got to do is stagger your timing. For decades, fans of…
Cooperative sperm outrun loners in the mating race
Even sperm gotta stick together. Bull sperm swim more effectively when in clusters, a new study shows, potentially offering insight into fertility in humans. In…
Protons may be stretchier than physics predicts
Protons might be stretchier than they should be. The subatomic particles are built of smaller particles called quarks, which are bound together by a powerful…
Particles from space provide a new look inside cyclones
Particles raining down from space offer 3-D views inside swirling tropical storms. Muons created from cosmic rays that smash into Earth’s upper atmosphere have revealed…
Wind turbines could help capture carbon dioxide while providing power
Wind turbines could offer a double whammy in the fight against climate change. Besides harnessing wind to generate clean energy, turbines may help to funnel…
Insect swarms might generate as much electric charge as storm clouds
You might feel a spark when you talk to your crush, but living things don’t require romance to make electricity. A study published October 24…
Here’s how polar bears might get traction on snow
Tiny “fingers” can help polar bears get a grip. Like the rubbery nubs on the bottom of baby socks, microstructures on the bears’ paw pads…
Crowdsourced cell phone data could keep bridges safe and strong
Your cell phone could reveal the health status of bridges just by being in your pocket as you go about your daily travels. Accelerometers and…
Zapping tiny metal drops with sound creates wires for soft electronics
Zapping liquid metal droplets with ultrasound offers a new way to make wiring for stretchy, bendy electronics. The technique, described in the Nov. 11 Science,…
Why dandelion seeds are so good at spreading widely
You don’t need a dandelion to know which way the wind blows. But it can help. On any given dandelion, some seeds are destined to…
Here are the Top 10 science anniversaries of 2022
Even though it’s only even odds that 2022 will turn out to be less of a disaster than 2021 (or 2020), at least 2022 is…
An ‘everlasting’ bubble endured more than a year without popping
If you hate having your bubble burst, you’ll love these “everlasting” bubbles. While soap bubbles are known for their fragile constitutions, the new bubbles can…
The quantum ‘boomerang’ effect has been seen for the first time
Some quantum particles gotta get right back to where they started from. Physicists have confirmed a theoretically predicted phenomenon called the quantum boomerang effect. An…
Vinegar eels can synchronize swim
Trapped within a bead of water, thousands of tiny worms wiggle in hypnotic synchrony as they stream around the globule’s rim. And at the center…
A century of quantum mechanics questions the fundamental nature of reality
Scientists are like prospectors, excavating the natural world seeking gems of knowledge about physical reality. And in the century just past, scientists have dug deep…
Antiprotons show no hint of unexpected matter-antimatter differences
It’s confirmed: Protons and antiprotons are well-matched. The two types of subatomic particles mirror each other in the ratios of their electric charge to mass,…
The only known pulsar duo sheds new light on general relativity and more
The only known duo of pulsars has just revealed a one-of-a-kind heap of cosmic insights. For over 16 years, scientists have been observing the pair…
Physicists have coaxed ultracold atoms into an elusive form of quantum matter
An elusive form of matter called a quantum spin liquid isn’t a liquid, and it doesn’t spin — but it sure is quantum. Predicted nearly…
Scientists finally detected a quantum effect that blocks atoms from scattering light
A cloud of ultracold atoms is like a motel with a neon “no vacancy” sign. If a guest at the motel wants to switch rooms,…
New high-speed video reveals the physics of a finger snap
It all happens in a snap. New high-speed video exposes the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it physics behind snapping your fingers. The footage reveals the extreme speed at which…
A new particle accelerator aims to unlock secrets of bizarre atomic nuclei
Inscribed on an Italian family’s 15th century coat of arms and decorating an ancient Japanese shrine, the Borromean rings are symbolically potent. Remove one ring…
A stunning simulation re-creates how M87’s black hole launches plasma jets
From the maw of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy M87, two enormous jets stream thousands of light-years into space. Scientists…
Neutron star collisions probably make more gold than other cosmic smashups
The cosmic origins of elements heavier than iron are mysterious. One elemental birthplace came to light in 2017 when two neutron-rich dead stars collided and…
A rush to watch a supernova exposed its last gasp before exploding
A mad scramble to observe the moments after a star’s death is helping scientists understand how the star lived out its last year. Astronomers reported…
Doubt cast on theorized ‘sterile’ particles leaves a neutrino mystery unsolved
For decades, physicists have suspected an interloper. A reclusive, hypothetical subatomic particle might be creeping into studies of neutrinos, nearly massless particles with no electric…
Here’s the physics of why ducklings swim in a row behind their mother
There’s physics to having your ducklings in a row. By paddling in an orderly line behind their mother, baby ducks can take a ride on…
An atomic clock measured how general relativity warps time across a millimeter
A millimeter might not seem like much. But even a distance that small can alter the flow of time. According to Einstein’s theory of gravity,…
Scientists are one step closer to error-correcting quantum computers
Mistakes happen — especially in quantum computers. The fragile quantum bits, or qubits, that make up the machines are notoriously error-prone, but now scientists have…
These colorful butterflies were created using transparent ink
You’ve heard of disappearing ink. Now get ready for suddenly appearing ink. Using a clear liquid, researchers can print a full rainbow of colors on…
Whirling maple seeds inspired these tiny flying sensors
Like helicoptering maple seeds, tiny new fliers whirl gracefully as they glide. The miniature aircraft, which can be made as small as a grain of…
One of nature’s key constants is much larger in a quantum material
A crucial number that rules the universe goes big in a strange quantum material. The fine-structure constant is about 10 times its normal value in…
New ‘vortex beams’ of atoms and molecules are the first of their kind
Like soft serve ice cream, beams of atoms and molecules now come with a swirl. Scientists already knew how to dish up spiraling beams of…
Physicists caught protons ‘surfing’ on shock waves
Protons can surf some truly gnarly waves. A new experiment suggests that the subatomic particles can be accelerated by a process akin to surfers catching…
‘Flashes of Creation’ recounts the Big Bang theory’s origin story
Flashes of CreationPaul HalpernBasic Books, $30 The Big Bang wasn’t always a sure bet. For several decades in the 20th century, researchers wrestled with interpreting…
50 years ago, physicists thought they found the W boson. They hadn’t
The W particle may have been found — Science News, August 21, 1971 Physicists distinguish four different kinds of force by which objects in the…
With a powerful laser blast, scientists near a nuclear fusion milestone
With a powerful laser zap, scientists have blasted toward a milestone for nuclear fusion. A fusion experiment at the world’s biggest laser facility released 1.3…
How particle detectors capture matter’s hidden, beautiful reality
At every moment, subatomic particles stream in unfathomable numbers through your body. Each second, about 100 billion neutrinos from the sun pass through your thumbnail,…