Physics & Chemistry

Watching Water Filled Condoms Explode is Suprisingly Mesmerizing

Ever wonder what happens when you fill a condom with water, spin it up with a drill, and jab it with a knife? Maybe not, but now you’re thinking about it. Thankfully, the Slo Mo Guys have yet another mesmerizing demonstration to feed our imaginations. This little experiment proves, once and for all, that fluid…

Physics & Chemistry Maddie Stone

Every Satellite Got Into Space Thanks to Newton’s Law of Gravitation

What goes up must come down — though not always in the way you’d expect. This is Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation, and you can thank it for GPS, Google Earth and even the pictures beamed back from the other side of the Solar System. Here’s why. The equation neatly describes the gravitational attraction that…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe

A Stealth Energy Startup Just Made a 10x Improvement to Its Fusion Tech

Tri Alpha Energy does not have a website. Its office in California is unmarked. But this stealth company apparently has hundreds of millions in cash. And now it has something to show for it, reportsScience: The company claims it’s gotten ten times better at containing high-energy particles necessary for fusion energy. But before we rev…

Physics & Chemistry Sarah Zhang

From Today the LHC Runs at Full Power to Push the Limits of Physics

As of today, the Large Hadron Collider will run at full, record-breaking power levels, as scientists kick off a new set of experiments that will help us understand the secrets of particle physics. After rebooting in Marchfollowing a two-year period of repairs an upgrades, teams of scientists have been testing the Collider’s abilities to run…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe

The Physics Behind Ice Spikes, Nature’s Perfect Murder Weapon

Ice spikes may very well be the perfect untraceable weapon, but how do these jagged sticks of frosty death form? Turns out there’s no magic involved (womp), just some simple physics. Image: Shulevskyy Volodymyr via Shutterstock Ice cubes freeze from their outer edges inward, expanding as they go. Sometimes, this process squeezes the water in…

Physics & Chemistry Maddie Stone

The Seashell-Inspired Material Creating a New Wave of Safety Gear

The risk of injury in professional sport has been a central feature in recent debates about how well protected our stars are. Only recently, Argentine football player Emanuel Ortega died of a fatal head injury after hitting a concrete wall during a game. One solution is to increase the use of protective wear and to…

Physics & Chemistry Andy Alderson

How to Win Your Physics Class Egg Drop Competition

The problem is simple enough. You’ve got a raw egg, and it’s going to be dropped from a high place. You have to build a contraption so that it doesn’t break when it hits. Easy? Maybe. But how do you make it as light as possible? Or as small as possible? These questions have had…

Physics & Chemistry Brent Rose

This Is the First Single-Molecule Diode That Could Actually Be Useful

The diode is a very simple-sounding little electronic device: it allows current to flow easily in one direction, but not the other. But while the quest to miniaturize them to the molecular scale has worked in the past, only now is it a truly practical proposition. A team from Columbia University has created a new…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe

You’ll Feel Way Smarter After Watching These YouTube Physics Lessons

If you like the Explain Like I’m Five subreddit, which demystifies life’s mysteries in layman speak (like this one about why kids eat boogers), then you should bookmark MinutePhysics. It’s a popular YouTube channel that breaks down one of the more confounding branches of science by drawing cartoons with a Crayola marker. MinutePhysics has been…

Physics & Chemistry Bryan Lufkin

The Secrets Of The Theory of General Relativity In An Alphabetic Primer

Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is beautiful, elegant, and a golden standard of, “This is what complex physics looks like.” To celebrate the centennial of its publication, the Perimeter Institute put together an alphabetic primer of lessons and trivia to bring you up to speed. Images credits: the Perimeter Institute.

Physics & Chemistry Mika McKinnon

The Large Hadron Collider Just Detected Extremely Rare Particle Decays

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider have just announced the detection of a rare particle decay “harder to find than the famous Higgs particle.” The strange B meson is certainly a lot less famous than the Higgs boson, but it also has an important role to play in the Standard Model of particle physics. For…

Physics & Chemistry Sarah Zhang

This Magnetic Shield Will Push the Boundaries of Particle Physics

This chamber might not look empty—but in fact it’s missing something that usually permeates every space on Earth: magnetic fields. And it will help physicists in the quest for a unifying Theory of Everything. In fact, it’s the first magnetic shield to be built that provides a space with an extremely low magnetic field over…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe

A Plane Took a Wrong Turn and Ended Up in a Cloud of Antimatter

Where the hell did the antimatter come from? That’s what atmospheric scientist Joseph Dwyer has been trying to figure out for the past six years, after his research plane accidentally flew through a thunderstorm into a cloud of antimatter in 2009. Dwyer’s plane was outfitted to detect atmospheric gamma-rays (or γ-rays), high-energy photons that can…

Physics & Chemistry Sarah Zhang

Giant Magnet Goes On Cross-Country Trip To Find Self, Study the Universe

A special visitor recently arrived at Brookhaven National Laboratory after a weeks-long cross-country trek, requesting a homecooked meal and shower, probably. Image: The BaBar Magnet, via SLAC on Flickr and Symmetry Magazine. Photo by Andy Freeberg. The 20-ton superconducting magnet is called the BaBar magnet, and it was recently transported across the country on the…

Physics & Chemistry Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

We’ve Just Developed a Portable Cloaking Device

If you’re a non-magical being, you might think your chances of becoming invisible are slim to nil. But don’t jump to conclusions just yet: Researchers are now claiming to have developed a portable system that can make small objects, like your keys or pet lizard, disappear from sight. Top image: Conceptual model of an invisibility…

Physics & Chemistry Maddie Stone

Bats Fly by Touch, Using Sophisticated Sensors in Their Wings

As if bats weren’t badass enough, we now know that their wings are loaded with ultra-sensitive sensors that help the bats maneuver like airborne ninjas. This could lead to aircraft design that might reduce turbulence, improve flight control, and generally be a lot less clumsy. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, and the University…

Physics & Chemistry Bryan Lufkin

This Clock Only Loses One Second Every 15 Billion Years

If you think your fancy watch is accurate, think again. This atomic clock—the most accurate in the world—is now so finely tuned that it will lose a single second at most over the course of 15 billion years. The ‘optical lattice’ clock, developed by a global team of researchers including members from the National Institute…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe

Astronomers Are Furious About the Roomba Lawnmower

I know, right? What could the makers of Roomba and astronomers possibly be arguing over? This is the story of how an obscure slice of the electromagnetic spectrum become the object of one bitter fight. iRobot, the company behind the Roomba, has been looking to bring its little robot technology to the outdoors, according to…

Physics & Chemistry Sarah Zhang

These Tiny Capsules Suck Up CO2

They might look more like candy, but these micro-capsules are rather more special than that. Their shiny shell allows CO2 to pass straight through—where it can be trapped by a liquid held in their core. The little spheres are made up of a permeable polymer shell which holds a fluid with sodium carbonate in it.…

Physics & Chemistry Jamie Condliffe

How To Do Particle Physics On The Cheap

Particle physics normally goes hand-in-hand with giant subterranean research facilities and data-processing measured in petaflops. But if you don’t have a research grant the size of Latvia’s GDP, investigating the wonders of subatomic particles can be kinda difficult. Detecting muons, subatomic particles that are the heavy cousins of electrons, requires a ring-imaging Cherenkov detector —…

Physics & Chemistry Chris Mills

Watching Water Filled Condoms Explode is Suprisingly Mesmerizing

Every Satellite Got Into Space Thanks to Newton’s Law of Gravitation

A Stealth Energy Startup Just Made a 10x Improvement to Its Fusion Tech

From Today the LHC Runs at Full Power to Push the Limits of Physics

The Physics Behind Ice Spikes, Nature’s Perfect Murder Weapon

The Seashell-Inspired Material Creating a New Wave of Safety Gear

How to Win Your Physics Class Egg Drop Competition

This Is the First Single-Molecule Diode That Could Actually Be Useful

You’ll Feel Way Smarter After Watching These YouTube Physics Lessons

The Secrets Of The Theory of General Relativity In An Alphabetic Primer

The Large Hadron Collider Just Detected Extremely Rare Particle Decays

This Magnetic Shield Will Push the Boundaries of Particle Physics

A Plane Took a Wrong Turn and Ended Up in a Cloud of Antimatter

Giant Magnet Goes On Cross-Country Trip To Find Self, Study the Universe

We’ve Just Developed a Portable Cloaking Device

Bats Fly by Touch, Using Sophisticated Sensors in Their Wings

This Clock Only Loses One Second Every 15 Billion Years

Astronomers Are Furious About the Roomba Lawnmower

These Tiny Capsules Suck Up CO2

How To Do Particle Physics On The Cheap

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

Utah Is Giving Dr. AI the Power to Renew Drug Prescriptions

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

‘Starfleet Academy’ Season 3 Could Have Done the ‘Voyager’ Sequel Episode of Robert Picardo’s Dreams

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

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Let us help find what you are looking for...