Physics

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Measurement, motion, energy, and the physical rules behind complex systems.

A scientific weather balloon being prepared for launch

NASA’s ANITA balloon recorded two strange radio bursts rising from beneath Antarctic ice in 2006 and 2014, as if an ultrahigh-energy particle had crossed about 6,000 kilometers of Earth and after nearly two decades of investigation and a major neutrino test, physicists still cannot identify the cause, leaving unusual ice effects and unknown particles among the possibilities

Researchers with the Pierre Auger Collaboration have used 15 years of observations to investigate two mysterious radio signals recorded above Antarctica. According to a Penn State announcement, the analysis found no comparable upward-going particle showers in data from the vast Pierre Auger Observatory. That result sharply narrows one of the leading explanations for the decades-old…

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Liquid water molecular structure

Researchers find evidence that liquid water switches between two hidden structures

A study in Nature Physics has found molecular-level evidence that liquid water can shift between two local structures, giving scientists a fresh clue to one of chemistry’s oldest puzzles. Using unsupervised deep learning and large molecular dynamics simulations, the research team identified patterns that support a long-debated idea called the two-state water model. The result…

NASA Cold Atom Lab ultracold bubbles

NASA’s upgraded space station lab is creating a strange fifth state of matter

NASA’s official Cold Atom Lab announcement points to one of the strangest laboratories ever flown in orbit. A compact quantum physics facility aboard the International Space Station is back in operation after an upgrade, giving researchers a sharper tool for studying matter at temperatures close to absolute zero. The facility is designed to create Bose-Einstein…

Dynamic abstract image of molecules with vibrant warm tones, highlighting scientific visualization

Physicists Built a Tiny Quantum Universe Where Time Emerges Without a Clock

A study in Physical Review Research reports that 24,000 ultracold atoms can behave like a tiny laboratory universe in which events are ordered from inside the system. The work, led by Giovanni Barontini at the University of Birmingham, tests a striking idea from quantum cosmology: time may emerge from the relationships between parts of a…