Physics

  1. Physics

    Aircraft industry could take tips from penguins

    Tiny grooves and an oily sheath prevent water droplets from freezing on the feathers of some penguins.

    By
  2. Science & Society

    Climate, new physics and Jupiter on the horizon for 2016

    The first issue of the new year features stories about what will, editor in chief Eva Emerson predicts, hold on as scientific newsmakers during 2016.

    By
  3. Physics

    The science of avalanches

    High-tech instruments are helping researchers study how temperature can change the character — and danger — of an avalanche

    By
  4. Physics

    Halo of light crowns Antarctica

    Ice crystals in the air bend sunlight into a ring over a research base in eastern Antarctica.

    By
  5. Particle Physics

    Dark matter helped destroy the dinosaurs, physicist posits

    In ‘Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs,’ Lisa Randall finds connections between particle physics, cosmology, geology and paleontology.

    By
  6. Science & Society

    These truisms proved false in 2015

    Don’t always believe what you hear. These truisms turned out to be false in 2015.

    By
  7. Physics

    Pulsar pair ripples spacetime

    A pair of pulsars gives scientists the best evidence so far for gravitational waves, which have yet to be detected directly.

    By
  8. Climate

    Why some rainbows are all red

    Red rainbows are caused by the position of the sun in the sky, appearing more often during sunrise and sunset, new research finds.

    By
  9. Physics

    General relativity caught in action around black hole

    X-rays enable scientists to spot a black hole twisting the surrounding fabric of spacetime, just as Einstein’s theory predicts.

    By
  10. Physics

    Uncovering the science of sand dune ‘booms’

    Mechanical engineer and geophysicist Nathalie Vriend explores noises in the desert that are triggered by sand sliding down dunes.

    By
  11. Particle Physics

    LHC restart provides tantalizing hints of a possible new particle

    The first comprehensive analyses of the recently restarted Large Hadron Collider yields no clear-cut discoveries but at least one intriguing hint of a new particle.

    By
  12. Quantum Physics

    Year in review: Quantum spookiness is real

    A new version of an experiment proposed in 1964 confirmed a counterintuitive tenet of quantum mechanics.

    By