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. Space

    Spotted: Milky Way’s giant gas bubbles in visible light

    The bubbles have different colors, based on how the gas inside them moves. That could give clues to how the bubbles developed.

  2. Physics

    Physicists foil classic oobleck science trick

    Cornstarch and water — best known as oobleck — solidifies upon impact. Researchers used a new technique to make it stay liquid.

  3. Physics

    Soap bubbles’ ‘pop’ reveals the physics of the bursts

    A bubble’s pop is a quiet, high-pitched noise. This can reveal the forces that occur during the bubble’s demise.

  4. Physics

    There’s science to making great fried rice

    Scientists report finding the physics that seems to explain how chefs can quickly fry rice over a hot flame without burning the food.

  5. Animals

    Drones might one day capture a dolphin’s breath in midair

    High-speed footage of dolphin spray reveals that droplets blast upward at speeds close to 100 kilometers per hour.

  6. Math

    Color-changing fibers help unravel a knotty problem

    Experiments with colorful fibers helped scientists discover a few simple rules on why the strength of various types of knots differs.

  7. Materials Science

    Here’s how to hide some objects from heat-sensing cameras

    A special coating that conceals temperature information from heat-detecting cameras might someday be used as a privacy shield.

  8. Physics

    Giving Notre Dame back her unique voice

    A 2019 fire robbed Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral of more than her roof. She also lost her voice. Now scientists are using acoustics to return her unique soundscape.

  9. Physics

    Here’s how quantum mechanics lets heat cross a vacuum

    Heat can move across a vacuum if the span is small enough. As in really, really small. In a new experiment, the gap was only a few hundred nanometers.

  10. Planets

    Glass beads help scientists puzzle out how baby planets grow

    Researchers have mimicked the first stages of planet formation in the lab. All they needed were glass beads and a catapult.

  11. Planets

    Physics Nobel rewards discoveries on cosmic evolution and exoplanets

    This trio of scientists helped figure out the makeup of our universe. Two of them also identified the first known exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star.

  12. Chemistry

    Chemists have created a ring-shaped form of carbon

    A ring-shaped carbon molecule takes its place among buckyballs, carbon nanotubes and other odd forms of the element.