Science News
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
#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
The Brain: Humanity's Other Basic Instinct: Math
New research suggests that math has evolved its way right into our neurons—and monkeys', too. 11.17.2009
A Tumultuous Year at the LHC
Physicist Lisa Randall describes the turbulent first year after the collider's premature celebration. 11.12.2009
Visual Science: Polishing a Cosmic Spyglass
A tune-up for one of the most sophisticated imaging devices ever made 11.02.2009
What is This? A Bioluminescent Mushroom?
Hint: It's actually not on the ground, nor in the oceans, but up in the sky—way up in the sky. 10.21.2009
Discover Interview: Roger Penrose Says Physics Is Wrong, From String Theory to Quantum Mechanics
One of the greatest thinkers in physics says the human brain—and the universe itself—must function according to some theory we haven't yet discovered. 10.06.2009
Being Stephen Hawking
Former Nature editor John Maddox on one of the most famous scientists of our age 09.29.2009
Slicing Open the Moody Sun
Our star may seem like a model of constancy, but its surface is violently active, rocked by explosions and sun quakes. 09.15.2009
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