Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

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....

Jun 28, 2019

After Decades of Hunting, Physicists Claim They've Made Quantum Material from Depths of Jupiter

A team of French researchers has posted a paper online in which they claim to have achieved the holy grail of extreme-pressure materials science: creating metallic hydrogen in a laboratory. Physicists have suspected since the 1930s that under extreme pressures, hydrogen atoms — the lightest atoms on the periodic table,...

Jul 18, 2019

'Spooky' Quantum Entanglement Finally Captured in Stunning Photo

Scientists just captured the first-ever photo of the phenomenon dubbed spooky action at a distance by Albert Einstein. That phenomenon, called quantum entanglement, describes a situation where particles can remain connected such that the physical properties of one will affect the other, no matter the distance (even miles) between them....

Aug 28, 2019

Quantum Gravity Could Reverse Cause and Effect

You've probably heard of Schrödinger's cat, the unfortunate feline in a box that is simultaneously alive and dead until the box is opened to reveal its actual state. Well, now wrap your mind around Schrödinger's time, a situation in which one event can simultaneously be the cause and effect of...

Oct 4, 2019

2,000 Atoms Exist in Two Places at Once in Unprecedented Quantum Experiment

Giant molecules can be in two places at once, thanks to quantum physics. That's something that scientists have long known is theoretically true based on a few facts: Every particle or group of particles in the universe is also a wave — even large particles, even bacteria, even human beings,...

Oct 24, 2019

Google's Quantum Computer Just Aced an 'Impossible' Test

Google just took a quantum leap in computer science. Using the company's state-of-the-art quantum computer, called Sycamore, Google has claimed quantum supremacy over the most powerful supercomputers in the world by solving a problem considered virtually impossible for normal machines. The quantum computer completed the complex computation in 200 seconds....

Oct 28, 2019

These Weirdo Stellar Corpses Have Creamy Centers Filled with Exotic Quantum Liquids

Billions of years from now, when the sun is in its final throes of death (that is, after it has already vaporized Earth), its helium core will collapse in on itself, shriveling into a tightly compressed ball of glowing gas called a white dwarf. But while these stellar tombstones already...

Nov 16, 2019

Objective Reality Doesn't Exist, Quantum Experiment Shows

Alternative facts are spreading like a virus across society. Now, it seems they have even infected science — at least the quantum realm. This may seem counter intuitive. The scientific method is after all founded on the reliable notions of observation, measurement and repeatability. A fact, as established by a...

Dec 1, 2019

Do We Live in a Quantum World?

Let's face it: quantum mechanics is really confusing. All the rules of physics that we're used to simply go straight out the window in the quantum realm. Put a particle in a box. According to classical physics (and common sense), that particle should stay in that box forever. But under...