Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 27, 2018

How Quantum Computers Could Kill the Arrow of Time

A new technique for quantum computing could bust open our whole model of how time moves in the universe. Here's what's long seemed to be true: Time works in one direction. The other direction? Not so much. That's true in life. (Tuesday rolls into Wednesday, 2018 into 2019, youth into...

Aug 22, 2018

Ancient Quasars Provide Incredible Evidence for Quantum Entanglement

Using two ancient galactic cores called quasars, researchers have taken a massive step forward toward confirming quantum entanglement — a concept that says that the properties of particles can be linked no matter how far apart in the universe they may be. If quantum entanglement is valid, then a pair...

Dec 27, 2018

18 Times Quantum Particles Blew Our Minds in 2018

Mind-blowing science (Image credit: NASA)The small world got up to some pretty big things this year. From strange Schrödinger’s-cat situations to mysteries of water to impossible-seeming particles flying up from the Antarctic ice, particle physics proved that there are many unknowns in the universe for us to explore. Here are...

Feb 12, 2019

A Computer Spotted a Turtle Hiding Out in a Cloud of 'Quantum Fireworks'

Zap a mass of supercooled atoms with a magnetic field and you'll see quantum fireworks — jets of atoms firing off in apparently random directions. Researchers discovered this back in 2017, and they suspected there might be a pattern in those fireworks. But they couldn't spot it on their own....

Mar 6, 2019

Physicists May Have Found a Way to 'Untangle' Information Trapped in a Black Hole

Black holes are gravitational monsters, squeezing gas and dust down to a microscopic point like great cosmic trash compactors. Modern physics dictates that, after being consumed, information about this matter should be forever lost to the universe. But a new experiment suggests that there might be a way to use...

Mar 11, 2019

Quantum Monism Could Save the Soul of Physics

The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible, Albert Einstein famously once said. These days, however, it is far from being a matter of consensus that the universe is comprehensible, or even that it is unique. Fundamental physics is facing a crisis, related to two popular...

Mar 15, 2019

Physicists Reverse Time for Tiny Particles Inside a Quantum Computer

Time goes in one direction: forward. Little boys become old men but not vice versa; teacups shatter but never spontaneously reassemble. This cruel and immutable property of the universe, called the arrow of time, is fundamentally a consequence of the second law of thermodynamics, which dictates that systems will always...

Mar 20, 2019

More Than One Reality Exists (in Quantum Physics)

Can two versions of reality exist at the same time? Physicists say they can — at the quantum level, that is. Researchers recently conducted experiments to answer a decades-old theoretical physics question about dueling realities. This tricky thought experiment proposed that two individuals observing the same photon could arrive at...

Mar 21, 2019

Truly Spooky: How Ghostly Quantum Particles Fly Through Barriers Almost Instantly

At the subatomic level, particles can fly through seemingly impassable barriers like ghosts. For decades, physicists have wondered just how long this so-called quantum tunneling takes. Now, after a three-year investigation, an international team of theoretical physicists has an answer. They measured a tunneling electron from a hydrogen atom and...

Apr 19, 2019

This Quantum Computer Can See the Future — All 16 of Them

When Mile Gu boots up his new computer, he can see the future. At least, 16 possible versions of it — all at the same time. Gu, an assistant professor of physics at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, works in quantum computing. This branch of science uses the weird laws...

May 6, 2019

Last-Ditch Hack Led to the Invention of Quantum Mechanics

Let's say you've got some random object in front of you — how about a nice hot cup of coffee? You can see the cup and the coffee, of course, because light from your lamp is reflecting off it and into your eyeballs. And you can feel its warmth as...

May 20, 2019

There's a Brand-New Kilogram, And It's Based on Quantum Physics

The kilogram isn't a thing anymore. Instead, it's an abstract idea about light and energy. As of today (May 20), physicists have replaced the old kilogram — a 130-year-old, platinum-iridium cylinder weighing 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) sitting in a room in France —— with an abstract, unchanging measurement based on...

Jun 6, 2019

What is cryptography?

Since ancient times, people have relied on cryptography, the art of writing and solving coded messages, to keep their secrets secure. In the fifth century, enciphered messages were inscribed on leather or paper and delivered by a human messenger. Today, ciphers help protect our digital data as it zips through...

Jun 12, 2019

'God Plays Dice with the Universe,' Einstein Writes in Letter About His Qualms with Quantum Theory

Three letters written by Albert Einstein in 1945 are up for auction and offer an intriguing glimpse into the renowned physicist's criticisms of how scientists were interpreting physics at the quantum level. The letters, which were addressed to Caltech theoretical physicist Paul Epstein, describe Einstein's qualms about quantum theory, which...

Jun 21, 2019

Forget Moore's Law — Quantum Computers Are Improving According to a Spooky 'Doubly Exponential Rate'

The era of quantum supremacy is nigh. Quantum computers, which make calculations with entangled particles, or qubits, are poised to overtake their conventional counterparts very, very fast. And it's all captured by a new law of computing, known as Neven's Law, according to a fascinating new article in Quanta Magazine....