3 Body Problem: a deep dive into the Netflix show
This episode of Physics World Stories explores the science, politics and ethics in the Netflix series 3 Body Problem. Adapted from the celebrated Chinese novel The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, the...
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Cryptic quantum-physics word search: the solution
Answers Wave range? A plum tide at sea (9) [AMPLITUDE] Sequence of hobo sonata carries force (5) [BOSON] Yell out “circle” immediately? Overpowered freezer (8) [CRYOSTAT] Nineties served up “greatest...
View ArticleIn real-world social networks, your enemy’s enemy is indeed your friend, say...
If you’ve ever tried to remain friends with both halves of a couple going through a nasty divorce, or hung out with a crowd of mutuals that also includes someone you can’t stand, you’ll know what an...
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Pump–probe microscopy reveals how historical paintings fade
Mellowed yellows Despair is an example of how Edvard Munch used yellows in his paintings. (Edvard Munch 1894. File courtesy: Munchmuseet) New insights into how a yellow pigment widely used in...
View ArticleDecimal time: life in a world where our days are divided differently
In an era where conspiracy theories run amok, this fictional thriller invites more than just the curiosity of its adolescent target audience. Written by the London-based author Sam Sedgman – a...
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Physics in Ukraine: scientific endeavour lives on despite the Russian invasion
Photographs of researchers and scientific facilities in Kharkiv, Ukraine, taken in November 2023. Read the article below to hear from photographer Eric Lusito about his experiences documenting the...
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Bruno Touschek: the physicist who escaped the Nazi Holocaust to build...
Man of many talents Bruno Touschek pictured in 1955, a decade after escaping death in Germany. By this time he was a successful theorist who had already proposed building the world’s first...
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Ursula Le Guin: the pioneering author we should thank for popularizing...
The world’s most famous cat is everywhere. It appears on cartoons, T-shirts, board games, puzzle boxes and glow-in-the-dark coffee cups. There’s even a gin named after the celebrity animal. Boasting...
View ArticleH1dd3n variab7es: the fundamental constant on which the new Physics World...
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View ArticleSwift Quakes and new podcast music inspired by the fine-structure constant
Whether you’re a Swiftie, a devout metalhead, or a 1980s synth pop aficionado, there is something for every musical taste in this month’s Physics World Stories. In part one, podcast host Andrew...
View ArticleBaltimore bridge collapse: engineers explain how failures can be avoided
Earlier this year, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the US collapsed after being struck by a large container ship. Six people were killed in the disaster and many around the world were left wondering...
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Simple equation predicts how quickly animals flap their wings
Consistent coefficient: Wingbeat frequency data for a variety of flying animals (plus a few swimming ones), plotted against the square root of the animal’s mass divided by its wing or fin area....
View ArticleA love of triangles, the physics of spin, volcanic science and Pascal’s...
Love Triangle: the Life-changing Magic of Trigonometry By Matt Parker Comedian and science author Matt Parker is on a mission to elevate the reputation of the humble triangle. Despite dealing with what...
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Could the answer to the Antikythera astronomical device emerge from a...
“You can’t understand it unless you build it yourself,” says Michael Dubno, a scientist, inventor and explorer. He’s talking to me in the richly equipped basement workshop of his Manhattan townhouse,...
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Birds save up to 25% of their energy when they follow a leader
A painstaking study of sensor-laden European starlings has confirmed what scientists have long suspected: birds use significantly less energy when they fly behind a leader. The study, which was carried...
View ArticlePhysics and sport: flying balls, perfecting technique, and wellbeing in academia
For sports fans, the next few weeks will bring excitement and drama. The Euro 2024 football (soccer) tournament is under way in Germany and the Copa América is about to kick off in the US. Then at the...
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From the lab to Ukraine’s front line
When Ukraine was invaded by Russia in February 2022, life for the country’s citizens was turned upside down, with scientists no exception. Efforts to help have come from many quarters both within...
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When the world went wild for uranium: tales from the history of a...
Radioactive fun! This 1955 children’s board game was inspired by the US government’s drive to encourage the domestic discovery and mining of uranium. (Courtesy: Oak Ridge Associated Universities Museum...
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Revised calibration curve improves radiocarbon dating of ancient Kyrenia...
The Kyrenia Ship is an ancient merchant vessel that sank off the coast of Cyprus in the 3rd century BCE. Through fresh analysis, a team led by Sturt Manning at Cornell University has placed tighter...
View ArticlePhysics cookbook is fun but fails to gel
There’s a lot of physics in a cup of tea. Compounds in the tea leaves start to diffuse as soon as you pour over hot water and – if you look closely enough – you’ll see turbulence as your milk mixes in....
View ArticleCan you solve this pistachio packing problem?
It sounds like a question you might get in an exam: given a full bowl of N pistachios, what size container do you need for the leftover 2N non-edible shells? That tasty problem has now been examined by...
View ArticleClams and algae collaborate to harvest sunlight very efficiently
I think it’s safe to say that photosynthesis is one of the most important biochemical processes at work here on Earth – and possibly elsewhere in the universe. I know that it is chemistry, but...
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Constellation and Dark Matter: the TV series that could change your view of...
“My understanding of identity has been shattered,” mulls the protagonist in Blake Crouch’s book Dark Matter (2016). “I am one facet of an infinitely faceted being called Jason Dessen who has made every...
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Aperiodicity: the dance event bringing non-repeating patterns to life
We all like order in our lives (well, I do at least) but things rarely operate that way. In fact, the world is full of “aperiodic” order – patterns that aren’t totally repetitive but not completely...
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Angels & Demons, Tom Hanks and Peter Higgs: how CERN sold its story to the world
“Read this,” said my boss as he dropped a book on my desk sometime in the middle of the year 2000. As a dutiful staff writer at CERN, I ploughed my way through the chunky novel, which was about someone...
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Could humans run on water?
With the 2024 Paris Olympics just days away, sports fans are braced to see who will run, jump, row, fight and dance themselves into the history books. One of the most exciting moments will be the 100m...
View ArticleRumours spread like nuclear fission, say physicists
It is no coincidence that “going viral” is used to describe how ideas spread on social media. Researchers have long used models of infectious disease to understand how information – and indeed...
View ArticleParadigm shifts: positivism, realism and the fight against apathy in the...
Science can be a messy business. Scientists caught in the storm of a scientific revolution will try to react with calm logic and reasoning. But in a revolution the stakes are high, the atmosphere...
View ArticleAbdus Salam: celebrating a unifying force in global physics
This podcast explores the extraordinary life of the Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam, who is celebrated for his ground-breaking theoretical work and for his championing of physics and physicists in...
View ArticlePumping on a half-pipe: physicists model a skateboarding skill
If you have been watching skateboarding at the Olympics, you may be wondering how the skaters manage to keep going up and down ramps long after friction should have consumed their initial gravitational...
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Heisenberg gets ‘let off the hook’ in new historical drama based on the Farm...
As the Second World War reached its endgame in Europe in 1945, Allied forces advancing towards Berlin raced to round up German scientists who’d worked on the Nazis’ “Uranium Project” to harness nuclear...
View ArticlePhysics for a better future: mammoth book looks at science and society
This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast explores how physics can be used as a force for good – helping society address important challenges such as climate change, sustainable development,...
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Abdus Salam: honouring the first Muslim Nobel-prize-winning scientist
A child prodigy born in a humble village in British India on 29 January 1926, Abdus Salam became one of the world’s greatest theorists who tackled some of the most fundamental questions in physics. He...
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A breezy tour of what gaseous materials do for us
Fuelled by science Gas lamps at the Louvre in modern-day Paris, which in 1801 became the first city in the world to use gas for lighting purposes. (Courtesy: iStock/Charlotte167) The first person to...
View ArticleThe Wow! signal: did a telescope in Ohio receive an extraterrestrial...
On 15 August 1977 the Big Ear radio telescope in the US was scanning the skies in a search for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Suddenly, it detected a strong, narrow bandwidth signal that...
View ArticleResearchers cut to the chase on the physics of paper cuts
If you have ever been on the receiving end of a paper cut, you will know how painful they can be. Kaare Jensen from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), however, has found intrigue in this bloody...
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Akiko Nakayama: the Japanese artist skilled in fluid mechanics
Any artist who paints is intuitively an expert in empirical fluid mechanics, manipulating liquid and pigment for aesthetic effect. The paint is usually brushed onto a surface material, although it can...
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Shrinivas Kulkarni: curiosity and new technologies inspire Shaw Prize in...
What does Shrinivas Kulkarni finds fascinating? When I asked him that question I expected an answer related to his long and distinguished career in astronomy. Instead, he talked about how the skin of...
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Stop this historic science site in St Petersburg from being sold
In the middle of one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in St Petersburg, Russia, is a vacant and poorly kept lot about half an acre in size. It’s been empty for years for a reason: on it stood the...
View ArticleThe physics of cycling’s ‘Everesting’ challenge revealed
“Everesting” involves a cyclist riding up and down a given hill multiple times until the ascent totals the elevation of Mount Everest – or 8848 m. The challenge became popular during the COVID-19...
View ArticlePhysicists reveal the mechanics of tea scum
If you have ever brewed a cup of black tea with hard water you will be familiar with the oily film that can form on the surface of the tea after just a few minutes. Known as “tea scum” the film...
View ArticleRambling tour of Europe explores the backstory of the Scientific Revolution
Sixteenth-century Europe was a place of great change. Religious upheaval swept the continent, empires expanded and the mystic practices of the medieval world slowly began shifting toward modern...
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Nobel predictions and humorous encounters with physics laureates
In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, our very own Matin Durrani and Hamish Johnston explain why they think that this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics could be awarded for work in...
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Use our infographic to predict this year’s Nobel prize winners
Charting disciplines This infographic shows the fields of physics associated with successive Nobel Prizes for Physics. Click on the image to expand. (Courtesy: Alison Tovey/IOP Publishing) Part of the...
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How to rotate your mattress like a physics Nobel prizewinner
Amid the hype of Nobel Prize week, it’s important to remember that in many respects, Nobel laureates are just like the rest of us. They wake up and get dressed. They eat. They go about their daily...
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Laureates on film: Nobel winners who have graced our silver screen
One of the benefits of being on Physics World is that you get to meet some of the world’s best and brightest physicists – some of whom are Nobel laureates and some who could very well be among this...
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Roger Penrose: the Nobel laureate with a preference for transparencies over...
As a young physics student, I spent the summer of 2004 toting around Roger Penrose’s The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe. It was one of the most challenging...
View ArticleAround the world in 16 orbits: a day in the life of the International Space...
Every day the International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth 16 times. Every day its occupants could (if they aren’t otherwise occupied) observe each one of our planet’s terrains and seasons. For...
View ArticleConfused by the twin paradox? Maybe philosophy can help
Once upon a time, a man took a fast rocket to a faraway planet. He soon missed his home world and took a fast rocket back. His twin sister, a physicist, was heartbroken, saying that they were no longer...
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Gems from the Physics World archive: Isaac Asimov
(Courtesy: Shutterstock/Mei-Zendra) Since 1988 Physics World has boasted among its authors some of the most eminent physicists of the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as some of the best...
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