Physics & Math

How I Dismantled the World’s Deadliest Weapon

Phil Hoover is in the bomb business. But these days he’s a bomb unbuilder, eliminating nukes to comply with arms treaties. 02.20.2012

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Clouds

Some are visible only after sunset, none are created by seeding, and one chewed on a fighter pilot for half an hour before spitting him out, alive. 01.30.2012

#1: Faster than the Speed of Light

Runaway subatomic particles seem to be 
breaking the cosmic speed limit. If the results hold 
up, physicists have some explaining to do. 01.09.2012

#14: Astronomers Watch Black Hole Devour Star


Researchers luck out, getting a front row seat for stellar annihilation. 01.09.2012

#17: Quantum Weirdness Enters the Larger World


Eight-legged molecule may be the strangest--and biggest--new quantum phenom on the block. 01.09.2012

#20: Helium’s Antimatter Twin Created 


Scientists catch particle only created once every 28 billion times nuclei are smashed together. 01.09.2012

#26: The New Physics of Bicycles

Why do riderless bikes stay upright? What we thought was wrong. 01.09.2012

#32: Where’s the Higgs?

The Large Hadron Collider is supposed to solve the top mysteries in physics. That has not happened yet. Joseph Lykken explains why not, and what to do next. 01.09.2012

#62: Star Birth Seen in Action


Astronomers glimpse stellar creation. 01.09.2012

#65: America’s Atom Smasher, 1983–2011

The Illinois-based Tevatron closes after an auspicious--but all too short--career. 01.09.2012

#82: Could Random Airplane Boarding Speed Your Trip?


The quickest way to climb aboard a plane may be the least ordered. 01.09.2012

#83: Gravity Probe B Gives Einstein an A


Satellite measures how much Earth warps space-time. 01.09.2012

#93: Super-
Rocket Tested


NASA has begun testing its high-powered new engine. 01.09.2012

#95: Computer Builds 
A Perfect Galaxy


Nature did it in 13 billion years. Computer does it in 9 months. 01.09.2012

#11: Scientist of the 
Arab Spring

At Caltech, Ahmed Zewail is a world-class chemist. In Egypt, he is a national hero. 01.03.2012

Selling Cheap: Abandoned, Half-Finished, Would-Be Collider Facility

It has a variety of potential uses—potential buyers have discussed using the tunnels for energy generation, secure storage, and mushroom farming—and is definitely one-of-a-kind. 12.02.2011