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. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. Physics

    This idea would turn the Earth into a giant space telescope

    One astronomer has a bold solution to getting around the high cost of building big telescopes.

  8. Space

    The Milky Way is shaped like a curvy potato chip

    Our galaxy’s got curves. You can see them in a chart of thousands of stars called Cepheids.

  9. Physics

    This device turns the kilogram’s new definition into a real mass

    A new suitcase-sized device will be able to measure small masses — around 10 grams — with surprising accuracy.

  10. Physics

    Black holes might have a temperature

    Physicists made a mock black hole in their lab. They used it to show the real, celestial black holes have a slight temperature.

  11. Physics

    Dying stars can make gold as they collapse into black holes

    There are spinning stars in space. Some of them collapse into black holes. Along the way, they may generate a lot of heavy elements — including gold.

  12. Physics

    Here’s the first picture of a black hole

    The Event Horizon Telescope imaged the supermassive beast lying some 55 million light-years away in a galaxy called M87.