Physics
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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 Andrew Grant -
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 Eva Emerson -
Physics
The science of avalanches
High-tech instruments are helping researchers study how temperature can change the character — and danger — of an avalanche
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Physics
Halo of light crowns Antarctica
Ice crystals in the air bend sunlight into a ring over a research base in eastern Antarctica.
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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 Andrew Grant -
Science & Society
These truisms proved false in 2015
Don’t always believe what you hear. These truisms turned out to be false in 2015.
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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 Andrew Grant -
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.
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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 Andrew Grant -
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 Andrew Grant -
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 Andrew Grant -
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 Andrew Grant