Physics
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Materials Science
50 years ago, bulletproof armor was getting light enough to wear
In 1969, bulletproof armor used boron carbide fibers. Fifty years later, bulletproof armor is drastically lighter and made from myriad materials.
- Chemistry
How seafood shells could help solve the plastic waste problem
Chitin and chitosan from crustacean shells could put a dent in the world’s plastic waste problem.
- Physics
A computer model explains how to make perfectly smooth crepes
Here’s how to prepare thin pancakes that are perfectly smooth, according to science.
- Particle Physics
Diamond detectors could aid the search for dark matter
Elusive dark matter particles could be spotted when they slam into electrons or atomic nuclei within diamond, scientists say.
- Astronomy
Readers boggled by black hole behemoth
Readers had questions about the first image of a black hole and a chytrid fungus.
- Particle Physics
Physicists have finally figured out how pentaquarks are built
The particles are made of up two smaller particles, stuck together like atoms in a molecule.
- Physics
This tabletop device turns the quantum definition of a kilogram into a real mass
The mini Kibble balance will measure 10 grams to an accuracy of a few ten-thousandths of a percent.
- Physics
In a first, scientists took the temperature of a sonic black hole
A lab-made black hole that traps sound, not light, emits radiation at a certain temperature, as Stephen Hawking first predicted.
- Physics
100 years ago, an eclipse proved Einstein right. Today, black holes do too — for now
In 1919, an eclipse affirmed Einstein’s famous general theory of relativity. Now scientists hope to use black holes to poke holes in that idea.
- Physics
A new optical atomic clock’s heart is as small as a coffee bean
Optical atomic clocks are extremely good at keeping time, and they’re on their way to becoming pocket watches.
- Science & Society
Murray Gell-Mann gave structure to the subatomic world
Best known for his quarks, the preeminent theoretical physicist was also a complexity pioneer
- Physics
Big black holes can settle in the outskirts of small galaxies
Astronomers have found dozens of surprisingly massive black holes far from the centers of their host dwarf galaxies.
