What’s a Blazar? A Galactic Bakery for Cosmic Rays
Astrophysicists have traced the origin of some of Earth’s cosmic rays to a blazar 4 billion light years away.
The Quest to Make Super-cold Quantum Blobs in Space
Physicists launched a custom-made freezer and then let it plummet back to Earth—for science!
These Physicists Watched a Clock Tick for 14 Years Straight
It was to test Einstein's theory of general relativity.
Scientists Are Using AI to Painstakingly Assemble Single Atoms
A machine’s atom-wide tip could help usher in an era of microscopic circuits.
This Random Videogame Powers Quantum Entanglement Experiments
How a simplistic keyboard-mashing game recruited thousands of players—for physics!
Chemists Orchestrate the Molecular Union of Two Single Atoms
It’s a molecular Parent Trap: Stick two atoms in a vacuum chamber, and steer them together with lasers.
Quantum Mechanics Creates a Totally Random Number Generator
A perfectly provable random number generator is the bedrock of good cryptography. This scientist wants to make one.
The Case of the Missing Dark Matter
Physicists have discovered a galaxy 65 million light years away with so little dark matter that it may contain none at all.
Google’s Quantum Computing Party Is as Fancy as Physics Gets
Physicists aren't known for their fancy shindigs—but quantum computer researchers break the mold.
Elusive Higgs-Like State Created in Exotic Materials
Two teams of physicists have figured out how to create a "mini universe," which could help researchers understand the strange behavior of deeply quantum systems.