I HAVE been pretty obsessed with space-time this year. Thankfully, I am a theoretical physicist and, in principle, this is my day job. But the more time I have spent returning to my roots with it, the stranger the whole thing has started to seem to me. As I wrote […]
space-time
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Illustration of the creation of planets of the solar system NASA The following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter. Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or two to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the universe. You can sign up […]
WENBIN PHOTO/Getty Images THERE are two questions that I somewhat dread when communicating science to the public. And, unfortunately, they are rather common, because they are interesting to everyone, myself included. The first is: “What was there before the beginning of the universe?” The second: “What is space-time?” You might […]
When it comes to something as complex as space-time, intuition comes in different ways, depending on the level of science you have access to, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Physics | Columnist 6 July 2022 By Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Quality Stock/Alamy THE origin story we tell about the universe goes roughly like […]
By Richard Webb Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity “didn’t have to be” Hello, and welcome to November’s Lost in Space-Time, the monthly physics newsletter that unpicks the fabric of the universe and attempts to stitch it back together in a slightly different way. To receive this free, monthly newsletter […]
An illustration shows a black hole with a corona (the ball of white light) as it devours material streaming into the black hole. NASA/JPL-Caltech Astronomers have seen light from behind a black hole for the first time. The black hole warped light from X-ray explosions on its far side, bending […]
By Leah Crane The Muon g−2 experimental equipment at Fermilab in Illinois Reidar Hahn The strange behaviour of a fundamental particle called a muon may hint at the existence of exotic particles and forces beyond the standard model of physics. We have had signs of this anomaly before, but a […]
By Leah Crane Artist’s impression of antimatter being manipulated by lasers Chukman So/TRIUMF One of our most precise mechanisms for controlling matter has now been applied to antimatter atoms for the first time. Laser cooling, which slows the motion of particles so they can be measured more precisely, can make […]