Physics & Chemistry

Scientists Just Found Signs of Supernovae on the Sea Floor

Is it possible to find trace evidence of supernovae from millions of years ago in the sediment lining the ocean floor? One astrophysicist has spent the better part of a decade trying to find the proverbial smoking gun to prove that it is. And now, it seems, he has succeeded. Shawn Bishop, an astrophysicist at…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 23

The Mystery About the ‘Coffee Ring Effect’ Continues

The “coffee ring effect” is that pattern you get when a single liquid evaporates and leaves behind a ring of previously dissolved solids. In the case of coffee, that would be the coffee grounds. A new paper in Physical Review E. demonstrates that we still have a lot to learn about this seemingly simple everyday…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 22

How to Make Your Own Gravitational Waves

Remember that time Stephen Colbert brought physicist Brian Greene on The Late Show to demonstrate the concept of gravitational waves with green lasers? Yeah, that was pretty awesome. Now there’s a handy DIY demonstration for those of us without access to that kind of technology, courtesy of science presenter Steve Mould. For those who haven’t…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 22

How To Give Wood The Ultimate Paper Cut

It’s like a Bizzaro World version of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” where the paper manages to beat everything and scissors are pissed. A video posted by John Heisz shows that while paper is considered flimsy, it’s tough as nails and can actually cut through wood—with the correct circumstances. Heisz replaces his buzzsaw with a piece of…

Physics & Chemistry Carli Velocci Aug 21

You’ve Never Seen Birds Fly Like This Before

Flight is one of those evolutionary wonders that’s hard to fully appreciate with two squishy eyeballs and a linear sense of time. But we’re no longer limited to what nature gave us, thanks to the wonders of photo editing. As Barcelona-based photographer Xavi Bou shows, a few simple tricks can reveal the dizzying artistry of…

Physics & Chemistry Maddie Stone Aug 19

We’re One Step Closer To Proving Black Holes Evaporate

In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking made an audacious prediction that black holes aren’t totally black; they evaporate over time, emitting tiny amounts of radiation in the process. Now Israeli physicists have reported the strongest evidence to date that Hawking was right in a new paper in Nature Physics. Black holes got their name because their…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 15

We Are All Intuitive Physicists, Scientists Say

Most of us are pretty good at acting on the fly: swerving to avoid an obstacle in the road, ducking to keep from being hit, or reflexively catching a fly ball. We can do this because the brain is constantly running simulations of the physics involved as we scan our environment, according to a new…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 14

Whoa, Dude, This Ball Is Totally Levitating on Sound Waves

Using sound frequencies above the human threshold for hearing, scientists have successfully levitated a two-inch sphere made from polystyrene. In a new study published in Applied Physics Letters, a team of international scientists has shown that it’s possible to acoustically levitate an object that’s larger than the acoustic wavelength itself. In their experiment, the researchers…

Physics & Chemistry George Dvorsky Aug 12

The Simple Physics of Pole Dancing

It’s the last day of Senior Week at Gizmodo, and this is my confession: I am a huge pole dancing fan. Something about the combination of dance and acrobatics, athleticism and grace, gets me every time. Plus it’s sexy as hell—but only if it wants to be, slut-shamers be damned. I am also a huge…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 12

How That Guy Scaled Trump Tower Without Going Splat

For a brief period of time Wednesday afternoon, a man who called himself “Steve” captured our imaginations. He attempted to scale the side of the Trump Tower with suction cups, proving that cartoons aren’t so detached from reality after all. https://gizmodo.com/watch-man-mounts-trump-tower-1785110693 “Steve” has since been taken into police custody, and the spectacle has died down…

Physics & Chemistry Carli Velocci Aug 10

The Hunt for Exotic Fourth Neutrino Comes Up Empty

It’s been a rough few weeks of null results for physicists. First, a promising underground experiment failed to find evidence of dark matter. Then news broke that the Large Hadron Collider hadn’t discovered an exciting new particle after all. And now the IceCube collaboration in Antarctica has announced yet another null result. The experiment failed…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 8

The Science Behind The Horrific Crash That Hospitalized an Olympic Cyclist

Dutch Olympic cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten is recuperating in intensive care after an horrific crash on the cycling track during the women’s road race event at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The rider suffered a heavy concussion and three small fractures in her lumbar spine, although she was apparently conscious and able to speak, and there…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 7

Antibubbles Are Bubbles’ More Flimsy, Bizzaro World Cousins

Playing with bubbles never gets old, but did you know that you can fiddle around with another kind of bubble? Just to shake things up. A new video from Physics Girl details this exciting phenomenon, known as an antibubble. Instead of normal bubbles, which float in the air, these form when submerged in a liquid.…

Physics & Chemistry Carli Velocci Aug 6

It’s Official: The LHC Didn’t Find a New Particle [UPDATED]

Well, shoot. It’s been confirmed that early hints of a possible exotic new particle at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland have vanished. That disappointing news was announced this morning at a physics conference in Chicago. It all started last December, when physicists at two LHC collaborations announced that they’d found tantalizing traces of an…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 5

The Fascinating Physics of Blood Splatters

During the 2007 murder trial of music mogul Phil Spector, forensic experts for the defense and prosecution disagreed on how to interpret the blood spatter patterns on clothing worn by both Spector and his victim, among other disputed physical evidence. The end result was a hung jury, forcing the presiding judge to declare a mistrial.…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 3

How Migrating Birds Can Soar To Such Great Heights

Migratory birds can glide over very long distances with minimal wing-flapping, thanks to their strategic use of rising warm air currents. A new study has found that the birds use two basic sensory cues, combined with reinforcement learning algorithms (RLA), to navigate this turbulent environment. These new computer simulations employ the same architecture that Google…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Aug 1

Your Next Cocktail Could Defy Gravity With the Levitating CUP

Diehard cocktail aficionados swear by serving specific drinks in the correct glass. I wonder what they’ll make of the Levitating CUP, a cocktail glass designed to float above a portable base, in seeming defiance of gravity. It’s the brainchild of Joe Paglione, CEO of a Chicago-based startup company called Levitating Cup. They’ve launched a Kickstarter…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Jul 27

Amazing Spider Silk Continues to Surprise Scientists

We already know that spider silk is something of a wonder material, but scientists are still discovering more awesome things that it can do. An international team of researchers has found that spider silk shares a useful property with semiconductors—except rather than exploiting this to manipulate electrons, it can be used to manipulate sound and…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Jul 26

Why This Drop of Liquor Looks Like a Galaxy

Anyone who’s imbibed a glass of ouzo—the licorice-flavored spirit that is practically the national drink of Greece—may be familiar with how it turns cloudy when the liquor is mixed with water. But there are still some mysteries about how such mixed liquids behave. Now physicists at the University of Twente in the Netherlands have captured…

Physics & Chemistry Jennifer Ouellette Jul 22

Engineer Discovers Something Amazing in Da Vinci’s ‘Irrelevant Scribbles’

Never assume that Leonardo Da Vinci’s doodles are meaningless. That, at least, is the takeaway of a new study out of the University of Cambridge, which shows that a page of Leonardo’s scribbled notes from 1493—previously dismissed as “irrelevant” by art historians—is actually the first written demonstration of the laws of friction. It is widely…

Physics & Chemistry Maddie Stone Jul 22

Scientists Just Found Signs of Supernovae on the Sea Floor

The Mystery About the ‘Coffee Ring Effect’ Continues

How to Make Your Own Gravitational Waves

How To Give Wood The Ultimate Paper Cut

You’ve Never Seen Birds Fly Like This Before

We’re One Step Closer To Proving Black Holes Evaporate

We Are All Intuitive Physicists, Scientists Say

Whoa, Dude, This Ball Is Totally Levitating on Sound Waves

The Simple Physics of Pole Dancing

How That Guy Scaled Trump Tower Without Going Splat

The Hunt for Exotic Fourth Neutrino Comes Up Empty

The Science Behind The Horrific Crash That Hospitalized an Olympic Cyclist

Antibubbles Are Bubbles’ More Flimsy, Bizzaro World Cousins

It’s Official: The LHC Didn’t Find a New Particle [UPDATED]

The Fascinating Physics of Blood Splatters

How Migrating Birds Can Soar To Such Great Heights

Your Next Cocktail Could Defy Gravity With the Levitating CUP

Amazing Spider Silk Continues to Surprise Scientists

Why This Drop of Liquor Looks Like a Galaxy

Engineer Discovers Something Amazing in Da Vinci’s ‘Irrelevant Scribbles’

Two Songs We Really Wish Were the Anime Outros for ‘Steel Ball Run’

AI Training Data Giant Mercor Is Reportedly Looking to Buy the Work You Did at Your Old Job

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Here’s the Perfect Excuse to See ‘Project Hail Mary’ Again

US Airlines Are Hiking Bag Fees Amid Iran War Oil Crisis

This Ridiculously Simple Trick Might Stop Gulls From Nabbing Your Lunch

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Judge Kills Lawsuit Against Infamous Study That Might Have Increased Teen Suicides

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