Physics writer Emily Conover joined Science News in 2016. She has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago, where she studied the weird ways of neutrinos, tiny elementary particles that can zip straight through the Earth. She got her first taste of science writing as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She has previously written for Science Magazine and the American Physical Society. She is a two-time winner of the D.C. Science Writers’ Association Newsbrief award.

All Stories by Emily Conover

  1. Quantum Physics

    Physicists used LIGO’s mirrors to approach a quantum limit

    Using LIGO’s laser beams to reduce jiggling rather than detect gravitational waves, scientists have gotten closer to the realm of quantum mechanics.

  2. Physics

    Gravitational waves confirm a black hole law predicted by Stephen Hawking

    The first black hole merger detected by LIGO affirms that the surface area of a black hole can increase over time, but not decrease.

  3. Particle Physics

    Physicists dream big with an idea for a particle collider on the moon

    A lunar particle collider that dwarfs any such facility on Earth might not be impossible, according to new calculations.

  4. Physics

    Nuclear clocks could outdo atomic clocks as the most precise timepieces

    Better clocks could improve technologies that depend on them, such as GPS navigation, and help test fundamental ideas of physics.

  5. Planetary Science

    Laser experiments suggest helium rain falls on Jupiter

    Compressing a hydrogen and helium mixture with lasers shows that the two elements separate at pressures found within gas giant planets.

  6. Particle Physics

    In a first, neutrinos were caught interacting at the Large Hadron Collider

    Despite the LHC’s fame, all its detectors were oblivious to neutrinos. But not anymore.

  7. Astronomy

    Record-breaking light has more than a quadrillion electron volts of energy

    Hundreds of newly detected gamma rays hint at cosmic environments that accelerate particles to extremes.

  8. Physics

    A newfound quasicrystal formed in the first atomic bomb test

    Material formed in the wake of the first atomic bomb test contains a strange material that is ordered but that is not a standard crystal.

  9. Astronomy

    A study of Earth’s crust hints that supernovas aren’t gold mines

    Supernovas aren’t the main source of gold, silver and other heavy elements, a study of deep-sea crust suggests.

  10. Materials Science

    Morphing noodles start flat but bend into curly pasta shapes as they’re cooked

    Shape-shifting pasta could potentially cut down on packaging and save space during shipping.

  11. Physics

    A clock’s accuracy may be tied to the entropy it creates

    A clock made from a thin, wiggling membrane releases more entropy, or disorder, as it becomes more accurate.

  12. Particle Physics

    The thickness of lead’s neutron ‘skin’ has been precisely measured

    At 0.28 trillionths of a millimeter thick, the shell of neutrons around the nucleus of an atom of lead is a bit thicker than physicists had predicted.