Glimpses of the ultrafast world of electrons are changing scientists’ vision of the inner workings of atoms and molecules. The 2023 Nobel Prize in physics goes to three physicists who illuminated this realm with ultrashort pulses of light, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced October 3. Physicists Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier […]
Vela’s exploded star is the highest-energy pulsar ever seen
The sweeping beams of cosmic lighthouses called pulsars are much more energetic than previously thought, calling into question the bulbs that power them. A new analysis, from the High Energy Stereoscopic System array in Namibia, reveals a pulsar that radiates at 20 trillion electron volts — making it the most energetic pulsar ever seen. The finding, […]
50 years ago, scientists dreamed of lasers that could kick off nuclear fusion
Excerpt from the September 29, 1973 issue of Science News Nearly 200 powerful lasers at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif., blast a fuel pellet (illustrated), igniting nuclear fusion that can release more energy than the lasers put in. LLNL A powerful pulse of laser light: Step toward fusion — Science News, September 29, 1973 One […]
A laser gyroscope measured tiny variations in the lengths of days on Earth
Some days really are longer than others. And now scientists know by precisely how much. Using a laser gyroscope, scientists have measured variations in Earth’s rotation rate smaller than a millionth of a percent. The technique could help scientists understand the complex flows of water and air that cause the tiniest of tweaks to the […]
Here are some of the new ways researchers might detect gravitational waves
Until recently, gravitational waves could have been a figment of Einstein’s imagination. Before they were detected, these ripples in spacetime existed only in the physicist’s general theory of relativity, as far as scientists knew. Now, researchers have not one but two ways to detect the waves. And they’re on the hunt for more. The study […]
Filipino math teacher Emma Rotor helped develop crucial WWII weapons tech
As an amateur historian studying Philippine-American history in Washington, D.C., I’ve long been familiar with the story of Arturo Rotor and Emma Unson Rotor. The couple moved from the Philippines to Baltimore in 1941 for graduate studies, but World War II disrupted their plans. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded the […]
Superconductor research surges forward despite mounting controversy
With his bold claims of revolutionary room-temperature superconductors, physicist Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester in New York propelled the field of high-pressure physics into the spotlight. Now, after two paper retractions and plagiarism allegations, there’s a haze of suspicion around Dias, and some physicists are worried that outsiders might suspect that the entire […]
How to run a marathon in under two hours
In an unofficial race in Vienna in 2019, Kenyan long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge became the first person ever to run a marathon in under two hours. A new study shows how teamwork made that feat possible. Kipchoge ran with a rotating posse of pacers, other runners who deflected some of his air resistance in a […]
Centuries on, Newton’s gravitational constant still can’t be pinned down
There was a secret inside the envelope in the hands of Stephan Schlamminger, one of the world’s leading experts in experimental tests of gravity. He appeared to be on the verge of opening the envelope during a presentation at the April 2022 meeting of the American Physical Society, to read a number that would reveal […]
Mass has different definitions. The moon’s orbit confirms two are equivalent
Mass is mass is mass. Physicists have three different definitions of mass, all thought to be equivalent. Measurements of the distance between Earth and the moon confirm that two of those masses are one and the same to higher precision than ever before, physicists report July 13 in Physical Review Letters. That result confirms one […]