Physics

Apr 3rd, 2026 - Our planet is under a constant bombardment of radiation— from space . Well, maybe it's not as scary as that makes it seem. "Radiation" is a catchall term astronomers use for forms of light—including visible light, the kind we see—and also for subatomic particles sleeting through space. We don't normally think of such particles as "rays"—cosmic rays, to be precise—but we still use that nomenclature because of lingo inertia . Some cosmic rays come from the sun, some ... [Read More]

Apr 1st, 2026 - A new experiment with momentum-entangled helium atoms could help unite quantum mechanics and general relativity. You can say the universe has a split personality. Or better said, our physical models of the universe are the ones fractured. On the grand scale of stars and galaxies, gravity rules. Albert Einstein's general relativity beautifully describes their motion. Zoom in closer, however, down to the realm of subatomic particles, and quantum mechanics takes over. There, the rules of reality ... [Read More]

Apr 1st, 2026 - Patenting the Quantum Future – Practical Tips Based on PTAB Decisions The number of patents for quantum computing inventions is rapidly increasing as the industry increasingly moves towards greater commercialization. Patenting quantum computing inventions raises several recurring legal issues, many of which mirror issues with patents involving software and algorithms generally. However, the issues are sharpened by the field's heavy reliance on math and physics. Companies that rush to file ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - Quantum mechanics is both the most powerful theory physicists have ever devised and the most baffling. On the one hand, countless experiments have confirmed its predictions; the theory undergirds modern technology and enables the electronic devices we use every day. On the other hand, quantum mechanics describes an underlying reality that is utterly at odds with the world we perceive . In the quantum realm, a single particle exists in many places at once—at least while no one is looking ... [Read More]

Mar 14th, 2026 - Cern researchers are testing traps capable of moving antimatter, which explodes into energy as soon as it comes into contact with regular matter W hen the truck pulls away from the building at Cern , the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, all eyes will be on its precious cargo, a one-tonne device containing some of the most exotic material on Earth. The 20-minute test run around the campus, pencilled in for later this month, will mark the world's first attempt to transport ... [Read More]

Mar 8th, 2026 - Crystal jellyfish have an eerie beauty: thanks to a natural protein, they emit a faint green glow. For decades, researchers have used that green fluorescent protein and similar molecules to light up the field of biology, tracking what's happening inside cells. Now these ubiquitous tools are getting a glow-up: their quantum properties are being harnessed to make them similar to the fundamental bits of quantum computing . "These fluorescent proteins that everybody uses as a fluorescent label can ... [Read More]

Feb 21st, 2026 - By uncovering previously hidden dynamics, the findings reshape how scientists think about testing and calibrating superconducting quantum processors. Qubits are the heart of quantum computers. They can change performance in fractions of a second. However, until now, scientists were unable to see this happening. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) have built a real-time monitoring system that tracks these rapid fluctuations about 100 times faster than previous ... [Read More]

Feb 12th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google A single trapped atom has been used to carry out Einstein's proposed test of the double-slit experiment, a challenge he believed could expose a flaw in quantum mechanics by measuring its recoil The laboratory result was decisive: any attempt to track a particle's path destroys the interference pattern, confirming Niels Bohr's claim that wave-like and particle-like behavior cannot be observed at the same time. Atoms, slits, and recoils Inside a modern experiment that ... [Read More]

Feb 4th, 2026 - An array of 15,000 qubits made from phosphorus and silicon offers an unprecedentedly large platform for simulating quantum materials such as perfect conductors of electricity An unprecedently large quantum simulator could shed light on how exotic, potentially useful quantum materials work and help us optimise them in the future. Quantum computers may eventually harness quantum phenomena to complete calculations that are intractable for the world's best conventional computers . Similarly, a ... [Read More]

Feb 4th, 2026 - Quantum physics paints a strange picture of the world, one filled with spooky connections, unsettling uncertainties and—perhaps oddest of all—particles that spontaneously spring into being from the void. These so-called virtual particles have indirect effects that scientists have measured before. But now, for the first time, researchers have traced the evolution of these something-out-of-nothing particles directly. In a study published today in Nature, physicists at the Relativistic ... [Read More]

Feb 2nd, 2026 - Why does time flow at all? Physicists struggle to find an answer The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation , an online publication covering the latest research. Time feels like the most basic feature of reality. Seconds tick, days pass and everything from planetary motion to human memory seems to unfold along a single, irreversible direction. We are born and we die, in exactly that order. We plan our lives around time, measure it obsessively and experience it as an ... [Read More]

Feb 2nd, 2026 - This new discovery could pave the way for terahertz technology Imagine traveling through a city where the streets themselves change shape depending on how fast you drive down them. For tiny particles traveling close to the speed of light, such a thing may indeed be possible. Physicists have suspected that the microscopic world of electrons operates on a similarly shifting landscape, governed by a hidden geometry that warps their movement much like gravity bends the path of light around a ... [Read More]

Jan 25th, 2026 - Schrödinger's cat just got a little bit fatter. Physicists have created the largest ever 'superposition' — a quantum state in which an object exists in a haze of possible locations at once. A team based at the University of Vienna put individual clusters of around 7,000 atoms of sodium metal some 8 nanometres wide into a superposition of different locations, each spaced 133 nanometres apart. Rather than shoot through the experimental set up like a billiard ball, each chunky cluster ... [Read More]

Jan 11th, 2026 - Less than a trillionth of a second: Ultrafast UV light could transform communications and imaging. Scientists have developed a new platform that produces ultrashort UV-C laser pulses and detects them at room temperature using atom-thin materials. The light flashes last just femtoseconds and can be used to send encoded messages through open space. The system, from Light Publishing Center, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics And Physics, CAS, relies on efficient laser generation and ... [Read More]

Dec 28th, 2025 - As astrophysicists, we are trained to be cautious. New theories appear frequently, and most do not survive careful examination. Yet every so often, a framework emerges that does something unusual: it does not contradict what we already observe, it does not multiply speculative entities, and it does not demand that decades of experimental evidence be discarded. Instead, it quietly suggests that we may have misunderstood something fundamental. I recently encountered such a framework. It is known ... [Read More]

Dec 25th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google For centuries, most scientists have shared the belief that light behaves as both a wave and a particle. This idea, then, became the central component to quantum theory, sprouting the field of science known as quantum mechanics. The double-slit experiment supported the idea, showing bright and dark bands that indicated wave-like interference. But now, a new study suggests that this experiment might not lock us into seeing light as a wave. According to the experts, we can ... [Read More]