Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 13, 2023

Many physicists think we live in a multiverse. But they're getting a simple math rule wrong.

One of the most startling scientific discoveries of recent decades is that physics appears to be fine-tuned for life. This means that for life to be possible, certain numbers in physics had to fall within a certain, very narrow range. One of the examples of fine-tuning which has most baffled...

Nov 25, 2023

'Vampire' stars that bleed their companions dry may have a hidden accomplice, new study reveals

The universe may be haunted by more triple-star vampire systems than previously thought, new research in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests. The new research looks at the evolution of a mysterious kind of star called type-Be stars. These stars, a subset of the bright and...

Dec 1, 2023

Electricity flows like water in 'strange metals,' and physicists don't know why

Scientists have spotted electricity flowing like a fluid inside a weird group of metals, and it's left them baffled. The experiment, conducted in nano-sized wires made from a weird class of material called strange metals, shows electricity no longer moving in clumps of electrons — contradicting one of physicists' most...

Dec 14, 2023

1st evidence of nuclear fission in stars hints at elements 'never produced on Earth'

The silver and gold in your jewelry may be the result of massive, ancient stars splitting apart elements heavier than anything formed naturally on Earth, a new study suggests. The research offers the first compelling evidence of nuclear fission in the cores of massive stars. Elements heavier than iron are...

Jan 13, 2024

Is it possible to reach absolute zero?

Absolute zero is the lowest theoretical temperature, which scientists have defined as minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 degrees Celsius). That's even colder than outer space. So far, nothing we know of has reached absolute zero. But is it even possible to achieve this chilling milestone? To answer this question,...

Jan 23, 2024

Mysterious 'sudden death' of quantum vortices in a superconductor stumps scientists

Physicists have observed the mysterious sudden death of quantum fluctuations inside a bizarre superconducting material. The discovery, made in an atom-thin layer of the semimetallic compound tungsten ditelluride, requires a completely new theory to explain it. Describing why this happens could reveal new insight into superconductors, materials in which electricity...

Jan 24, 2024

Scientists accidentally create world's tightest, smallest knot

Scientists recently tied the smallest, tightest knot ever recorded, containing just 54 atoms. The microscopic twist is in the form of a trefoil, the simplest type of nontrivial knot, with three interlaced crossings and no loose ends. The newly formed metallaknot contains gold and even assembles itself, according to a...

Feb 3, 2024

Why don't we feel Earth spinning?

When you're going around and around on a carnival ride, you feel it — you're pulled outward, and all you can do is hang on. Our planet is rotating much faster than that, so why aren't we all holding on for dear life? Why can't we feel Earth's rotation? There...

Feb 8, 2024

CERN proposes $17 billion particle smasher that would be 3 times bigger than the Large Hadron Collider

Researchers at the world's biggest particle accelerator have put forward proposals to build a new, even larger atom smasher. The $17 billion Future Circular Collider (FCC) would be 57 miles (91 kilometers) long, dwarfing its predecessor, the 16.5-mile-long (27 kilometers) Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located at the European Organization for...

Feb 15, 2024

Daylight saving time 2024: When does the time change?

Daylight saving time will begin on Sunday, Mar. 10, 2024 at 2 a.m. local time, when clocks will spring forward by one hour. This year's daylight saving time (sometimes erroneously called daylight SAVINGS time) ends on Nov. 3, 2024, when clocks fall back by an hour. In most of Europe,...

Feb 15, 2024

8 ways you can see Einstein's theory of relativity in real life

Albert Einstein began formulating the theory of relativity in 1905 to explain the behavior of objects in space and time, and the groundbreaking work can be used to predict things such as the existence of black holes, light bending due to gravity and the behavior of planets in their orbits....

Mar 2, 2024

What's the fastest thing on Earth?

A spacecraft launching, a race car zipping around a track, a cheetah hurtling toward its prey — our home planet is full of high-speed feats. But what's the fastest thing on Earth? The answer depends on how you define thing and on Earth. And the top candidates — neutrinos and...

Mar 11, 2024

Albert Einstein: Biography, facts and impact on science

Albert Einstein was a German-American physicist and probably the most well-known scientist of the 20th century. He is famous for his theory of relativity, a pillar of modern physics that describes the dynamics of light and extremely massive entities, as well as his work in quantum mechanics, which focuses on...

Mar 12, 2024

Why does snow squeak when you walk on it?

Walking in a winter wonderland can be a feast for the senses as you feel the brisk air, see a magnificently white landscape and hear the sound of snow crunching underfoot. But while much about snow science is well documented, such as how snowflakes get their unique shapes or why...

Mar 13, 2024

Opposites attract? Not in new experiment that finds loophole in fundamental rule of physics

Scientists have observed like charges attracting each other over long distances in an apparent contradiction of a fundamental principle of physics. First stated by French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb in the 18th century, opposites attract and like charges repel each other has become a familiar idiom — even being famously...