Browse Physics

When following a moving object, humans appear to anticipate the object’s motion in the way that best allows for unexpected speed changes.

Shattered eggshells, together with computer simulations, suggest that all shell-like structures break in a similar way.

A flat slab of material focuses sound using ‘negative refraction’.

Computer simulations demonstrate that the forces in a growing plant can lead to spiral patterns with special mathematical relationships.

Researchers verify a 19th-century theory for the oscillations of a sphere using lasers and nanospheres.

A study of friction acting on a disk as it spins and slides across a surface explains why both motions stop at the same time.

Microwaves reveal the structure of soil and suggest a cheap way to assess its likely agricultural productivity.

Condensed matter physics could offer insights into human cooperation.

Exploring a simple model for river motion reveals how bends shrink, grow, and sometimes migrate upstream.

Portfolio techniques borrowed from the world of finance could aid quantum computing.

Computer models of stock markets suggest that the tendency of investors to act identically on the same information leads to more frequent crashes than chance alone would predict.

Just before you fall asleep for surgery, your brain may undergo a sudden phase transition, similar to water freezing.

Two teams of physicists have shown that only a very small fraction of apparent price correlations in the stock market reliably stable.