Physics – Quanta Magazine

Scientists keep detecting new forms of ice. According to simulations, there could be many more left to find. The post Physicists Discover the Most Complex Forms of Ice Yet first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Some quantum cryptographers want to find ways to keep messages secret even if the rules of quantum mechanics don’t hold. The recently rediscovered idea of quantum jamming complicates things. The post Quantum ‘Jamming’ Explores the Truly Fundamental Principles of Nature first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Introduction In theory, a universe can come in any shape or size, but scientists prefer to think about three basic kinds of universes: one that’s expanding, one that’s collapsing, and one that stays the same. Out of these three simplified models, an expanding universe is the hardest for physicists to understand. Yet it’s exactly the one our real world most resembles. When physicists calculate wha…

Introduction In the summer of 1912, word reached Robert Fiske Griggs that the apocalypse had arrived on Kodiak, an inhabited island off the coast of Alaska. The following year, Griggs, a botanist at the University of Ohio, led the first of several expeditions to the island, where he and a team glimpsed a disquieting sight: Kodiak was shrouded in a full foot of ash. And it wasn’t just the island. …

Introduction Fifty-eight years after it first appeared, string theory remains the most popular candidate for the “theory of everything,” the unified mathematical framework for all matter and forces in the universe. This is much to the chagrin of its rather vocal critics. “String theory is not dead; it’s undead and now walks around like a zombie eating people’s brains,” the former physicist Sabine…

For 50 years, physicists have understood current as a flow of charged particles. But a new experiment has found that in at least one strange material, this understanding falls apart. The post Meet Strange Metals: Where Electricity May Flow Without Electrons first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Scientists have recently discovered scores of free-floating worlds that defy classification. The new observations have forced them to rethink their theories of star and planet formation. The post Rogue Worlds Throw Planetary Ideas Out of Orbit first appeared on Quanta Magazine

In the rumbles and groans of underwater volcanoes, Jackie Caplan-Auerbach finds her favorite harmonies — and clues to the Earth’s interior. The post The Scientist Who Decodes the Songs of Undersea Volcanoes first appeared on Quanta Magazine

The moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn appear to have subsurface oceans — tantalizing targets in the search for life beyond Earth. But it’s not clear why these seas exist at all. The post These Moons Are Dark and Frozen. So How Can They Have Oceans? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

After identifying interlocking symmetries in mammalian cells, scientists can describe some tissues as liquid crystals — an observation that lays the groundwork for a fluid-dynamic theory of how tissues move. The post Biophysicists Uncover Powerful Symmetries in Living Tissue first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Physicists have long suspected that hunks of metal could vibrate in a peculiar way that would be all but invisible. Now physicists have spotted these “demon modes.” The post Invisible ‘Demon’ Discovered in Odd Superconductor first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Our galaxy's stars keep a record of its past. By reading those stories, astronomers are learning more about how the Milky Way came to be — and about the galaxy we live in today. The post In the Milky Way’s Stars, a History of Violence first appeared on Quanta Magazine

To catch even a whiff of the universe’s earliest epochs — an age of darkness, and one of new light — Cynthia Chiang builds her own equipment. Then she deploys it at the ends of the Earth. The post The Experimental Cosmologist Hunting for the First Sunrise first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Scientists have struggled to accurately forecast the strength of the sun’s 11-year cycle — even after centuries of solar observations. The post How Scientists Are Tackling the Tricky Task of Solar Cycle Prediction first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Astronomers are scouring the cosmos for fingerprints of the invisible — tiny clumps of pure dark matter that might solve a long-standing cosmic mystery. The post In a Monster Star’s Light, a Hint of Darkness first appeared on Quanta Magazine

In their jiggles and shakes, red giant stars encode a record of the magnetic fields near their cores. The post Quaking Giants Might Solve the Mysteries of Stellar Magnetism first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Giant black holes were supposed to be bit players in the early cosmic story. But recent James Webb Space Telescope observations are finding an unexpected abundance of the beasts. The post JWST Spots Giant Black Holes All Over the Early Universe first appeared on Quanta Magazine

New observations of a faraway rocky world that might have its own magnetic field could help astronomers understand the seemingly haphazard magnetic fields swaddling our solar system’s planets. The post Exoplanets Could Help Us Learn How Planets Make Magnetism first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Inside of a black hole, the two theoretical pillars of 20th-century physics appear to clash. Now a group of young physicists think they have resolved the conflict by appealing to the central pillar of the new century — the physics of quantum information. The post Quantum Complexity Shows How to Escape Hawking’s Black Hole Paradox first appeared on Quanta Magazine