All Stories by Emily Conover
- Space
The shape of our universe may be complex — like a doughnut
Physicists haven’t yet ruled out the possibility that in our universe, space loops back on itself.
- Materials Science
New lab trick makes diamonds without extreme pressure
The lab-grown diamonds form in a liquid of gallium, iron, nickel and silicon.
- Physics
Forests could help detect ‘ghost particles’ from space
If trees could act as natural antennas, one physicist proposes that they just might pick up signals of hard-to-spot ultra-high energy neutrinos.
- Tech
Artificial intelligence helped design a new type of battery
Supercomputing and AI cut the early discovery steps from decades to just 80 hours. The process led to a new solid electrolyte.
- Physics
Physics explains what happens when a lawn sprinkler sucks in water
Experiments with a floating sprinkler revealed the surprisingly complex physics behind a simple question.
- Physics
Physics explains why poured water burbles the way it does
The loudness of falling water depends on the height of the pour and the thickness of the stream.
- Physics
Heat makes water evaporate. Now it appears light can, too
In the lab, shining light on water made it evaporate faster. This never-before-seen effect, if real, might be happening naturally all around us.
- Physics
A new tool shows tiny changes in the ’24-hour’ length of a day
An underground instrument known as ‘G’ uses laser beams to measure Earth’s rotation — a gauge of day length — with extreme precision.
- Math
A twisty mystery about Möbius strips has been solved at last
Turning to paper and scissors helped one mathematician finally figure out just how short the twisted loops can be.
- Physics
Efforts to create ultrafast light pulses win 2023 physics Nobel
Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier won the prize for creating light bursts that last billionths of a billionth of a second.
- Space
Newfound gravitational waves may be from the biggest black holes in the universe
Observations of dead stars hint that ripples in spacetime — ripples light-years long — roll through our universe.
- Plants
A single particle of light can kick off photosynthesis
In a new experiment with bacteria, a lone photon sparked the process of turning light to chemical energy.
