Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 19, 2018

Are Those Gravitational Waves? Nope, They're Just Thirsty Ravens

Bizarre data glitches have set gravitational-wave scientists — and a conspiracy of ravens — all aflutter. A series of weird blips in the data, known as short-duration bursts, raised the suspicions of physicists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Hanford Observatory, in eastern Washington. Were they communications from alien...

Jul 5, 2018

Einstein's Theory of Gravity Passes Toughest Test to Date

Einstein's theory of general relativity has passed its toughest-ever test with flying colors, a new study reports. General relativity, which the great physicist proposed in 1916, holds that gravity is a consequence of space-time's inherent flexibility: Massive objects distort the cosmic fabric, creating a sort of well around which other...

Aug 10, 2018

Researchers Find Source of Strange 'Negative' Gravity

Sound has negative mass, and all around you it's drifting up, up and away — albeit very slowly. That's the conclusion of a paper submitted on July 23 to the preprint journal arXiv, and it shatters the conventional understanding that researchers have long had of sound waves: as massless ripples...

May 9, 2019

The Universe Probably 'Remembers' Every Single Gravitational Wave

The universe might remember gravitational waves long after they've passed. That's the premise of a theoretical paper published April 25 in the journal Physical Review D. Gravitational waves, faint ripples in space and time that humanity has only in the past few years managed to detect, tend to pass very...

Jun 24, 2019

Sperm Can Survive Microgravity, but Don’t Expect Any Space Babies Soon

Frozen sperm samples can remain viable after exposure to microgravity conditions that are somewhat similar to those found in space, new research reveals. The findings, which were presented today (June 24) at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Vienna, suggest that at least one obstacle on the...

Aug 7, 2019

3 Physicists Win $3 Million Prize for 'Supergravity' Discovery

The three architects of supergravity are getting some high-profile recognition, more than four decades after they developed the influential theory. Sergio Ferrara, Daniel Freedman and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen will receive a $3 million Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their formulation of supergravity in 1976, Breakthrough Prize representatives announced...

Aug 28, 2019

To Hunt Gravitational Waves, Scientists Had to Create the Quietest Spot on Earth

LIVINGSTON, La. — About a mile and a half from a building so big you can see it from space, every car on the road slows to a crawl. Drivers know to take the 10 mph (16 km/h) speed limit very seriously: That's because the building houses a massive detector...

Oct 28, 2019

These Mesmerizing Images Show 'Invisible Gravity Waves' Rippling Over Australia

Satellites have detected atmospheric gravity waves off the northern coast of Western Australia this week: https://t.co/CnoFDxfkZr pic.twitter.com/ti1NjFawjsOctober 22, 2019 See more Rippling gravity waves in the sky are usually invisible, but a satellite recently caught a rare glimpse of the phenomenon off the coast of northwestern Australia. In the images,...

Nov 18, 2019

Mysterious Gravitational Wave Sparks Days-Long Hunt — But It Was Just a Glitch

Thursday (Nov. 14) marked the end of a thrilling, mysterious and ultimately disappointing five days in astrophysics. Telescopes all over the planet and in space spun on their axes last Sunday (Nov. 10), rushing to scan the sky for the source of a mysterious, never-before-seen gravitational wave spotted by three...

Feb 4, 2020

Photons could reveal 'massive gravity,' new theory suggests

Gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, slip through Earth all the time, carrying secrets about the universe. But until a few years ago, we couldn't detect these waves at all, and even now, we have only the most basic ability to detect the stretching and squeezing of the cosmos. However,...

May 13, 2020

What is gravity?

Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces in the universe, alongside electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Despite being all-pervasive and important for keeping our feet from flying off the Earth, gravity remains, in large part, a puzzle to scientists. Ancient scholars trying to describe the world...

Jun 15, 2020

Einstein's core idea about gravity just passed an extreme, whirling test in deep space

Once again, physicists have confirmed one of Albert Einstein's core ideas about gravity — this time with the help of a neutron star flashing across space. The new work makes an old idea even more certain: that heavy and light objects fall at the same rate. Einstein wasn't the first...

Sep 10, 2020

Pioneering gravity research snags $3 million physics Breakthrough Prize

A team of physicists just snared $3 million for testing the law of gravity like never before. Eric Adelberger, Jens Gundlach and Blayne Heckel won the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for precision fundamental measurements that test our understanding of gravity, probe the nature of dark energy and establish...

Sep 14, 2020

Fate of Schrödinger's cat probably isn't in the hands of gravity, experiment finds

For the better part of a century, the world's greatest minds have struggled with the mathematical certainty that objects can be in multiple positions at the same time before something causes them to snap into place. A number of physicists have wondered if good old gravity is responsible for forcing...

Jan 13, 2021

'Bumblebee gravity' could explain why the universe is expanding so quickly

Physicists have long assumed that the universe is pretty much the same in any direction, and now they've found a new way to test that hypothesis: by examining the shadow of a black hole. If that shadow is a wee bit smaller than existing physics theories predict, it could help...