Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 14, 2022

Atomic Clock Is So Precise It Won't Lose a Second for 15 Billion Years

An atomic clock that sets the time by the teensy oscillations of strontium atoms has gotten so precise and stable that it will neither gain nor lose a second for the next 15 billion years. The strontium clock, which is about three times as precise as the previous record holder,...

Mar 22, 2023

'Ghostly' neutrinos spotted inside the world's largest particle accelerator for the first time

For the very first time, physicists have created and detected high-energy ghost particles inside the world's largest atom smasher. The findings could help unlock the secrets of how stars go supernova. The tiny particles, known as neutrinos, were spotted by the FASER neutrino detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)...

Apr 11, 2023

Scientists create 'slits in time' in mind-bending physics experiment

In a first, scientists have shown that they can send light through slits in time. The new experiment is a twist on a 220-year-old demonstration, in which light shines through two slits in a screen to create a unique diffraction pattern across space, where the peaks and troughs of the...

Apr 17, 2023

Gravity can transform into light, mind-bending physics paper suggests

Gravity can turn itself into light, but only if space-time behaves in just the right way, a research team has found. Under normal circumstances, you cannot get something from nothing. Specifically, the Standard Model of particle physics, the reigning theory that explains the subatomic zoo of particles, usually forbids the...

Jun 21, 2023

Exotic new state of matter discovered by squishing subatomic particles into an ultradense crystal

Physicists have discovered an exotic new state of matter that takes the form of a highly ordered crystal of subatomic particles. The new state of matter, called a bosonic correlated insulator, could lead to the discovery of many new types of exotic materials made from condensed matter, according to the...

Jun 27, 2023

Scientists tried to solve the mystery of the helium nucleus — and ended up more confused than ever

One of nature's simplest elements is giving scientists a big headache after new research shows that protons and neutrons in helium atoms are not behaving as theory suggests they should. The mismatch between theoretical predictions of how these particles behave and what they're actually doing could point to new physics...

Jun 29, 2023

Neutrino map of the galaxy is 1st view of the Milky Way in 'anything other than light'

Scientists have traced the galactic origins of thousands of ghost particles known as neutrinos to create the first-ever portrait of the Milky Way made from matter and not light — and it's given them a brand-new way to study the universe. The groundbreaking image was snapped by capturing the neutrinos...

Aug 31, 2023

What is the strong force?

The strong force or strong nuclear force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, along with gravity, electromagnetism and the weak force. As the name suggests, the strong force is the strongest force of the four. It binds fundamental particles of matter, known as quarks, to form larger...

Oct 25, 2023

World's smallest particle accelerator is 54 million times smaller than the Large Hadron Collider, and it works

Scientists recently fired up the world's smallest particle accelerator for the first time. The tiny technological triumph, which is around the size of a small coin, could open the door to a wide range of applications, including using the teensy particle accelerators inside human patients. The new machine, known as...

Mar 13, 2024

Mysterious 'unparticles' may be pushing the universe apart, new theoretical study suggests

The ever-accelerating expansion of the universe may be driven by a mysterious form of matter called unparticles, which do not obey the Standard Model of particle physics, a new theoretical paper suggests. Scientists widely acknowledge that the universe is expanding, though the cause of that expansion remains elusive. One of...

Apr 30, 2013

Mathematician Who Proved Map-Coloring Theorem Has Died

Kenneth Appel, one of the first mathematicians to solve a famous mathematical proof using a computer, died April 19 at the age of 80. In 1976, Appel helped prove the four-color theorem, which states that any map can be colored in using just four colors, without bordering territories using the...

May 13, 2013

Googol, Googolplex - & Google

A googol equals 1 followed by 100 zeros. Googol is a mathematical term to describe a huge quantity. It is not an incorrect spelling of the search engine giant’s name, Google — actually, it's the other way around. Googol, a quantity that surpasses even the number of hydrogen atoms in...

May 20, 2013

Famous Prime Number Conjecture One Step Closer to Proof

Infinity down, only 69,999,997 to go. New research has proven that prime numbers don't just disappear as numbers get larger — instead, there is an infinite number of prime numbers separated by a distance of at most 70 million. The new proof, accepted this month for publication in the journal...

May 20, 2013

What is a Prime Number?

The first five prime numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7 and 11. A prime number is an integer, or whole number, that has only two factors — 1 and itself. Put another way, a prime number can be divided evenly only by 1 and by itself. Prime numbers also must be...

Jun 3, 2013

No End in Sight: Debating the Existence of Infinity

NEW YORK — Despite being in existence for more than 2,000 years, the concept of infinity has endured as an enigmatic, and oftentimes challenging, idea for mathematicians, physicists and philosophers. Does infinity really exist, or is it just part of the fabric of our imaginations? A panel of scientists and...