Browse Physics

In a wind tunnel, a plate’s surface irregularities can suppress air turbulence, suggesting possible improvements for airplane wings.

The positron, antiparticle to the electron, was discovered by accident in 1932.

A new technique measures the velocity of electrons in an electric current.

With an optical fiber, researchers created the world’s longest laser and used it to transmit signals with hardly any loss of power during their trip.

Lava from a 2001 eruption may have carved rather than melted a channel through rock, upsetting conventional wisdom.

A film of bacterial protein can slow the speed of light to less than a tenth of a millimeter per second.

Reports of the discovery of spacetime ripples known as gravitational waves in 1969 and 1970 proved erroneous but inspired efforts that continue today.

A new theory may explain what triggers solar flares, explosions of solar energy that can affect earthly communications.

Holes–the spaces left behind by electrons in semiconductors–can crystallize under the right conditions, according to computer simulations.

Researchers see hints of the first molecules made from electrons and positrons.

A nanoscale “thread” of water molecules could be a valuable tool for studying the behavior of water at the molecular level.

Experiments reveal particles that are neither fermions nor bosons–the two categories that encompass all other known particles.

Three optics researchers who described photons in new ways and made extremely precise measurements of laser light share the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics.

A tiny black hole could briefly appear in a particle accelerator and then vanish into its own separate universe.

Liquid hydrogen can be a superconductor, a superfluid, or both, according to computer simulations.

In 1935 Einstein and his co-authors claimed to show that quantum mechanics led to logical contradictions. The objections exposed the theory’s strangest predictions.

A nanoscale ‘bridge’ should twist a measurable amount when a current of spin-aligned electrons flows across. Future electronic devices may be based on manipulating such tiny spin currents.

The quantum state of atoms known as a Bose-Einstein condensate can be a tool for probing quantum effects in empty space.

The first detailed measurements of the effects of strange quarks inside protons disagree with theoretical predictions, showing the limitations of theorists’ calculational technology.

A fluid-based transistor conducts either positive or negative ion currents in water and might be part of future integrated circuits in miniature medical diagnosis devices.