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. Science & Society

    How materials science has changed humankind — for better and worse

    As people began wielding new materials, the technologies fundamentally changed humankind, the new book ‘The Alchemy of Us’ argues.

  2. Physics

    Collisions reveal new evidence of ‘anyon’ quasiparticles’ existence

    Scientists report evidence that a class of particle called an anyon appears in two-dimensional materials.

  3. Quantum Physics

    Quantum mechanics means some black hole orbits are impossible to predict

    Computer simulations reveal that foreseeing the paths of three orbiting objects sometimes requires precision better than the quantum limit.

  4. Physics

    A mysterious superconductor’s wave could reveal the physics behind the materials

    Scientists finally spotted a pair-density wave in a high-temperature superconductor.

  5. Particle Physics

    Particles called axions could reveal how matter conquered the universe

    Axions, if they exist, may solve not one, not two, but three pressing puzzles of particle physics.

  6. Physics

    New telescopes could help spot ‘photon ring’ of the first black hole ever imaged

    Expanding the Event Horizon Telescope by adding telescopes in space could help capture the rings around galaxy M87’s supermassive black hole.

  7. Physics

    How slime mold helped scientists map out the cosmic web

    Tapping a similarity between a slime mold’s lacy web and the vast threads of matter that connect galaxies, astronomers visualized the cosmic web.

  8. Physics

    Even a weird hypernucleus confirms a fundamental symmetry of nature

    A particle accelerator experiment reveals that a symmetry of nature holds up and hints at what could lurk at the heart of a neutron star.

  9. Particle Physics

    Physicists have narrowed the mass range for hypothetical dark matter axions

    In two new studies, scientists search for axions within new mass ranges but the particles remain elusive.

  10. Physics

    Listening to soap bubbles pop reveals the physics behind the bursts

    The quiet, high-pitched sound made by a popping soap bubble reveals the forces that occur during the bubble’s demise.

  11. Space

    NASA icon Katherine Johnson has died at the age of 101

    The “Hidden Figure” captured the public’s admiration after the story of her career was publicized in a 2016 book and film.

  12. Physics

    This fundamental constant of nature remains the same even near a black hole

    A number that sets the strength of electromagnetic interactions isn’t altered by the extreme gravity around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole.