Browse Physics

A tiny cavity made from two optical fibers—previously used only with neutral atoms—strengthens the interaction between an ion and a photon, an important step toward quantum computers and networks.

An equation that describes a wide array of phenomena can be directly tested by watching the equivalent of a drying coffee drip.

Invisible sheetlike structures, which might pervade space and contribute to dark matter or dark energy, could be revealed as they pass by Earth-based detectors.

The near-uniform leaf size of the tallest trees is set by the requirements of their vascular network.

A proposed design for a cylindrical shell with unusual magnetic properties offers a way to concentrate magnetic field energy.

An array of bar magnets that rotate on hinges serves as a model of a magnetic material.

A projectile striking granular material generates a series of acoustic pulses that propagate down from the impact site.

The flexibility of a DNA strand affects its activities in cells and depends on its length. Atomic-scale computer simulations begin to explain why the length matters.

Charged beads floating in a plasma spontaneously form a two-dimensional liquid consisting of small, ordered regions that slide past one another and may mimic the motions in real liquids.

Calculations show that the weight of large support structures can be dramatically reduced if their design consists of patterns that are the same at large scales as at the tiniest scales.

A theoretical proposal offers a technique for storing an x-ray photon and releasing it with its quantum properties fully intact.

Two-dimensional simulations provide the first element-by-element accounting of the fluid and grain flow in an underwater avalanche.

A simple robot demonstrates the timing and motion necessary to make the highest jumps, with parallels to human jumping.

Orderly flow in fluid extracted from a living cell results from the spontaneous organization of randomly-oriented, microscopic forces.

David Wineland and Serge Haroche, who studied photons and atoms in new ways, have won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics.

The first evidence of a superfluidlike state in solid helium came from 2004 experiments that, with improvements, now find no supersolidity.

Combining experiment and theory, two research teams uncover new connections between the shape and the rigidity of ellipsoidal shells.

In a step toward 3D movies, researchers have combined short laser pulses with electron diffraction methods to rapidly map the structure of a simple molecule in three dimensions.

The atomic force microscope, introduced in 1986, provided atomic-scale pictures of surfaces, with few limitations on the type of sample.

Thin filaments of intense laser light have many potential uses but are unstable. Experiments demonstrate that they can be stabilized by sending them through glass whose properties vary periodically in space.