Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 29, 2021

Largest objects ever get cooled down to their ‘quantum limit’

Physicists working at the world’s largest gravitational wave observatory have cooled their apparatus to near absolute zero in a bid to explore the so-called quantum limit, or the point at which the rules that govern subatomic particles break down. The purpose of this, according to the researchers, is not to...

Jul 14, 2021

AI designs quantum physics experiments beyond what any human has conceived

Quantum physicist Mario Krenn remembers sitting in a café in Vienna in early 2016, poring over computer printouts, trying to make sense of what MELVIN had found. MELVIN was a machine-learning algorithm Krenn had built, a kind of artificial intelligence. Its job was to mix and match the building blocks...

Sep 14, 2021

Otherworldly 'time crystal' made inside Google quantum computer could change physics forever

Researchers working in partnership with Google may have just used the tech giant's quantum computer to create a completely new phase of matter — a time crystal. With the ability to forever cycle between two states without ever losing energy, time crystals dodge one of the most important laws of...

Nov 19, 2021

Weird quantum effect that can turn matter invisible finally demonstrated

A weird quantum effect that was predicted decades ago has finally been demonstrated — if you make a cloud of gas cold and dense enough, you can make it invisible. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used lasers to squeeze and cool lithium gas to densities and temperatures...

Dec 14, 2021

Physicists create new state of matter from quantum soup of magnetically weird particles

Scientists have spotted a long hypothesized, never-seen-before state of matter in the laboratory for the first time. By firing lasers at an ultracold lattice of rubidium atoms, scientists have prodded the atoms into a messy soup of quantum uncertainty known as a quantum spin liquid. The atoms in this quantum...

Dec 15, 2021

Weird quantum objects known as Q balls could explain why we exist

One of the biggest cosmological mysteries is why the universe is made up of way more matter than antimatter, essentially why we exist. Now, a team of theoretical physicists says they know how to find the answer. All they need to do is detect the gravitational waves produced by bizarre...

Mar 1, 2022

Physicists create bizarre quantum 'domain walls' in new experiment

Scientists can now reliably create a strange quantum object called a domain wall. The discovery could lead to new quantum technology and to a better understanding of quantum particles in general. Domain walls form when groups of atoms at very low temperatures segregate into different clumps, or domains. Between those...

Mar 4, 2022

What is quantum mechanics?

Quantum mechanics is a subfield of physics that describes the behavior of particles — atoms, electrons, photons and almost everything in the molecular and submolecular realm. Developed during the first half of the 20th century, the results of quantum mechanics are often extremely strange and counterintuitive. How is quantum mechanics...

Mar 18, 2022

Quantum computing: Definition, facts & uses

Quantum computing is a new generation of technology that involves a type of computer 158 million times faster than the most sophisticated supercomputer we have in the world today. It is a device so powerful that it could do in four minutes what it would take a traditional supercomputer 10,000...

Mar 21, 2022

Weird quantum boomerang predicted 60 years ago spotted for the first time

For the first time, physicists have confirmed a weird quantum phenomenon in which tiny particles, when nudged out of place, will snap right back to where they came from. The strange behavior, called the quantum boomerang effect, had been predicted for more than 60 years. Now, a new experiment published...

Mar 21, 2022

Black holes may grow quantum 'hair'

What falls into a black hole, stays in a black hole, at least according to the laws of general relativity. But now, new research suggests that the material inside the black hole may leave a quantum imprint on the gravitational field outside of it. If true, this finding would resolve...

Apr 12, 2022

How It Works issue 163: Your nervous system explained

Explore you nervous system in issue 163 of How It Works magazine, the electrically charged network composed of billions of cells that co-ordinates your thoughts, feelings, and actions from head to toe. Human beings are wonderfully complex. Relative to the numerous single-celled organisms on our planet, humans are gargantuan super...

Aug 19, 2022

Weird quantum experiment shows protons have more 'charm' than we thought

Protons may have more charm than we thought, new research suggests. A proton is one of the subatomic particles that make up the nucleus of an atom. As small as protons are, they are composed of even tinier elementary particles known as quarks, which come in a variety of flavors,...

Sep 20, 2022

The Quantum World May Have a Favorite Flavor, Tantalizing Results Suggest

The world of the teensy-tiny, the quantum realm, could have a favorite flavor. We're not talking about itty-bitty ice cream cones, of course. The world of particles is split into three camps, called flavors (don't ask why). For example, the electrons represent one flavor, and there are two other particles...

Dec 7, 2022

'Quantum time flip' makes light move simultaneously forward and backward in time

For the first time, physicists have made light appear to move simultaneously forward and backward in time. The new technique could help scientists improve quantum computing and understand quantum gravity. By splitting a photon, or packet of light, using a special optical crystal, two independent teams of physicists have achieved...