Emily Conover

Physics, Senior Writer, Science News

Physics writer Emily Conover loves physics for its ability to reveal the secret rules about how stuff works, from tiny atoms to the vast cosmos. Before becoming a science journalist, she studied physics at the University of Chicago. There, she investigated the weird ways of tiny particles called neutrinos. She has previously written for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Science Magazine and the American Physical Society. She is a two-time winner of the D.C. Science Writers’ Association Newsbrief award.

All Stories by Emily Conover

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. Math

    An ‘einstein’ shape eluded mathematicians for 50 years. Now they found one

    The shapes can form an infinite tiled pattern that never repeats. The first is a 13-sided shape nicknamed “the hat.”

  10. Physics

    Shouting into the wind may seem futile — but it’s really not

    Sending a sound upwind, against the flow of air, actually makes the sound louder — only it doesn’t sound that way to the person making the noise.

  11. Materials Science

    Laser light transformed plastic into tiny diamonds

    The technique could be used to make nanodiamonds for quantum devices and other technology.

  12. Physics

    Scientists used lasers to make ‘smoke rings’ of light

    Physicists had a bright idea: Make light into swirling, ring-shaped vortices, similar to smoke rings or bubble rings.