Browse Physics

Salt crystallizing on walls or old artifacts forms in discrete bunches, rather than coating the surface, because of an unexpected feedback effect, according to experiments and simulations.

An adiabatic quantum algorithm can calculate properties about graphs that cannot be efficiently computed on a classical computer.

Motion in an ice avalanche is strongly affected by the feedback effect of melting.

The behavior of the increasingly thin ice found in the Arctic Ocean can be modeled as a two-dimensional, granular gas.

A laser gyroscope measures extremely low-frequency wobbles in the Earth’s rotation.

How nodes connect to each other may explain why we don’t see certain classes of networks.

A new model explains how subterranean ice can grow into large sheets that lift the earth and damage roads and buildings.

The sea, rocks, and the shape of the coastline combine to cause erosion with fractal characteristics.

Noise has a distinct effect on how some mechanical systems learn and forget.

Spontaneous synchronization between an array of mechanical oscillators gives rise to an acoustic analog to the laser.

The paddling motion works not just for swimmers but also for fliers, as new high-speed video observations of fruit flies show.

To better interpret the information in images, electron microscopists are looking more closely at how an electron beam scatters inside of a specimen.

Photons (bosons) confined in a hollow waveguide containing an atomic gas could show spin-charge separation, which is more commonly associated with one-dimensional fermions.

Imposition of small periodic perturbations on discrete stochastic systems can dramatically change the probabilities of rare events.

Properties of vibrations in a pillar in a 1400-year-old Sicilian cathedral correlate with those of very small, nearby earthquakes, suggesting new ways of monitoring the gradual damage that such quakes can inflict on old buildings.

Even though global warming remains a heated political topic, physicists should not ignore the intellectual challenge of trying to model climate change.

Images reveal some of the factors that determine the shapes of icicles.

The complex topography of a crumpled piece of paper has only two basic types of regions, and they can be combined to build up the whole surface, according to calculations.

Experiments and modeling point to the optimal shapes for enhancing lift or drag forces on objects moving in granular media.

Allured by the chic perception and higher funding levels of disease-oriented research, many physicists have migrated to cell biology. Does physics really play a dominant role, or is cellular physiology slave to genetics and chemistry?