Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 6, 2020

Heavy atom spills its guts in decade-long experiment

Wielding proton beams and lasers, physicists have for the first time unlocked one of the key secrets of the rarest naturally occurring element on Earth: astatine. Astatine is a halogen, meaning it shares chemical properties with fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine (all elements that typically bind with metals to form...

Aug 27, 2020

Half the atoms in the planet could be digital data by 2245

Information might seem immaterial. But within a few short centuries, the total amount of digital bits produced annually by humanity could exceed the number of atoms on our planet and, even more unexpectedly, account for half of its mass. Those are the conclusions of a mind-bending new study looking at...

Sep 21, 2020

First experimental evidence of a new type of dark boson possibly found

Two experiments hunting for a whisper of a particle that prevents whole galaxies from flying apart recently published some contradictory results. One came up empty handed, while the other gives us every reason to keep on searching. Dark bosons are dark matter candidates based on force-carrying particles that don't really...

Oct 19, 2020

Researchers capture elusive particle trios at room temperature

Researchers have found a way to trap and study elusive particle trios called trions at room temperature. Previously, trions could be studied only in super-cooled conditions. These trios consist of either two electrons and an electron hole (a space in the electronic structure that an electron could fill, but where...

Oct 20, 2020

Higgs boson possibly caught in act of never-before-seen transformation

Scientists may have observed the Higgs boson doing a new trick: creating pairs of muons. When the Higgs boson was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012, it was the final piece of Standard Model of particle physics puzzle, a particle that had been— long theorized to exist...

Jan 19, 2021

Mystery particle may explain extreme X-rays shooting from the 'Magnificent 7' stars

More than 400 light-years from Earth, there is a cluster of young neutron stars that are too hot for their age. These stars, known as the Magnificent Seven, emit a stream of ultra-high-energy X-rays that scientists haven't been able to explain. Now, scientists have proposed a possible culprit: axions, theoretical...

Jan 26, 2021

Oddball 'neutral electron' possibly discovered in new state of matter

A previously unknown quantum particle — equivalent to a neutral electron — may have been found in a new state of matter. The chargeless oddball wouldn't be one of the fundamental building blocks of matter, however. Rather, it would be a quasiparticle that emerges from the collective behavior of a...

Feb 8, 2021

Superpowerful 'oscillon' particles could have dominated the infant universe, then vanished

A weird, super-powerful particle that's not truly a particle could have dominated the universe when it was just a second old, releasing a flood of ripples that permeated all of space-time. Called oscillons, they would have been so energetic their ripples could have unleashed so-called gravitational waves — those vibrations...

Feb 11, 2021

Particles zipping around Earth at near light-speed finally explained

In the swirl of a perfect solar storm, electrons can get trapped near Earth, where they can accelerate to nearly the speed of light. These electrons get their zip from surfing on waves of super-heated, charged gas called plasma that gets launched from the sun during solar storms. They accelerate...

Feb 16, 2021

Scientists find first evidence of rare Higgs boson decay

Scientists have found the first evidence for a rare type of Higgs boson decay. (Image credit: CERN)Scientists have spotted the first evidence of a rare Higgs boson decay, expanding our understanding of the strange quantum universe. In 2012, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to a breakthrough finding: the...

Mar 12, 2021

Monster antimatter particle slams into Antarctica

Editor's note: This story was corrected at 6:20 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 18 to reflect that Sheldon Glashow's first name is not Stephen. The most remote particle detector on Earth has detected the most energetic antimatter particle ever: a single ultralight particle that smacked into the Antarctic ice with...

Apr 7, 2021

A tiny, wobbling muon just shook particle physics to its core

The results from one of the most hotly-anticipated experiments in particle physics are in, and they could be about to fulfill every researcher's wildest dreams: They maybe, perhaps, could break physics as we know it. Evidence taken from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago appears to point to a...

Apr 13, 2021

After 48-year search, physicists discover ultra-rare 'triple glueball' particle

A never-before-seen particle has revealed itself in the hot guts of two particle colliders, confirming a half-century-old theory. Scientists predicted the existence of the particle, known as the odderon, in 1973, describing it as a rare, short-lived conjointment of three smaller particles known as gluons. Since then, researchers have suspected...

Jun 11, 2021

Electrons 'surf' across space to create the northern lights, new study finds

Physicists are super stoked to share definitive evidence that the aurora borealis — that colorful sky glow also known as the northern lights — is the result of gnarly electrons surfing across the cosmos on powerful party waves. The team's findings were published June 7 in the totally tubular science...

Jun 23, 2021

This 'charming' particle could have saved the universe

Scientists working at the world’s largest atom smasher have caught a bizarre subatomic particle in the act of changing from matter to antimatter. The discovery could help us understand how the universe was saved from total annihilation soon after it exploded into existence. Using data from the second run of...