Science News
The Man Who Plucks All the Strings
03.09.2010 Brian Greene says string theory is still scientific even if it's not falsifiable.
by Andrew Grant; photography by Jennifer Karady
Beautifully Detailed Supercomputer Simulations
Simulations running for days on room-size machines have given visual form to the previously unimaginable, from boundless cosmic realms to the infinitesimal constituents of matter. 03.11.2010
How to Build a $1000 Fusion Reactor in Your Basement
Admittedly, the project is a little dangerous—not because of a few little fusion reactions but because of the the very flammable gas and voltages high enough to instantly kill you. 03.02.2010
The Coolest Science Experiments in Antarctica
Researchers go neutrino-hunting and penguin-watching at the South Pole. 02.25.2010
Discover Interview: Space Is Getting Bigger, and It's Getting Bigger Faster
Saul Perlmutter changing our understanding of the entire universe by discovering that its expansion is accelerating. 02.22.2010
The Hottest Science Experiment on the Planet
In a Long Island lab, gold particles collide to form a subatomic stew far hotter than the sun. 02.15.2010
World's Tiniest Scale Can Weigh Individual Molecules
Clever use of a microscopic resonator can quickly measure the masses of proteins and gold nanoparticles. 02.10.2010
The Real Rules for Time Travelers
Time travel may in fact be possible, but it wouldn't work like in Back to the Future. (For one thing, you don't have worry about your parents failing to create you—you already exist.) 02.02.2010
Two More Steps Toward Quantum Computing
01.31.2010
#40: Quantum Strangeness Leaks Into the Big World
Four ions can become quantum entangled. Why not a human? 01.26.2010
#39: Math—Combined With GPS—Could Fix Traffic Jams
Traffic jams are mathematically like explosions. Drivers armed with info can defuse the bomb. 01.26.2010
#15: Model Solves Fundamental Packing Problem
How do different-sized spheres fit into a large container? 01.25.2010
#23: Computer Learns to Reason Like Isaac Newton
Data-heavy phenomena like gene regulation may be too complicated for human scientists to pin down. 01.25.2010
Visual Science: The Ultimate X-Ray Generator
To get really high-energy X-rays, you need some really powerful magnets. 01.06.2010
#54: Seismic Waves Reveal the Thickness of Tectonic Plates: ~50 Miles
By analyzing how waves change speed and direction, researchers were able to locate the boundary between rigid tectonic plates and the hot, pliable asthenosphere. 12.30.2009
#78: California to Get Some Star Power—Literally
The National Ignition Facility starts warming up for its main act: nuclear fusion research. 12.22.2009
#79: Sonic Black Hole Created in Lab
No atoms could escape the void within the cloud: “It’s like trying to swim upstream in a river whose current is faster than you.” 12.22.2009
#83: Like Magnets, Light Can Attract and Repel Itself
The attraction and repulsion effects make up what is known as the “optical force,” a newly observed phenomenon that works on microscopic scales. 12.21.2009
#86: Particle-Smasher John Ellis
The CERN theoretical physicist looks ahead to what will happen when the LHC gets cranked up to full power. 12.19.2009
#93: Re-Analyzing One of the Greatest Brains in History
The quirks in Einstein's thinging parts may have reflected his “preference for thinking in sensory impressions, including visual images rather than words.” 12.17.2009
What Is This... A Hi-Tech Pin Cushion?
Hint: There are a lot fewer of them now than there were a few years ago. 11.18.2009
Subscribe to Physics & Math:
