particle physics
For nearly a century, physicists have argued over how to interpret quantum physics. But reality exists independent of any interpretation.
For years and over three separate experiments, "lepton universality" appeared to violate the Standard Model. LHCb at last proved otherwise.
Every proton contains three quarks: two up and one down. But charm quarks, heavier than the proton itself, have been found inside. How?
A concept known as "wave-particle duality" famously applies to light. But it also applies to all matter — including you.
Its implications go well beyond the Earth itself, affecting even the future of space travel.
Light carries with it the secrets of reality in ways we cannot completely understand.
Perhaps wormholes will no longer be relegated to the realm of science fiction.
Like Dua Lipa, he had to create new rules.
The answer to this question is key to understanding why anything exists.
The quantum world is one in which rules that are completely foreign to our everyday experience dictate bizarre behavior.
Maybe the brain isn't "classical" after all.
Realizing that matter and energy are quantized is important, but quantum particles aren't the full story; quantum fields are needed, too.
There's the textbook answer, then there's the real answer.
You are trapped in time. You never live in the world as it is but only as you experience it as it was.
Maybe our understanding of quantum entanglement is incomplete, or maybe there is something fundamentally unique about consciousness.
Does it have a deeper significance — or is it just a number?
Quantum entanglement may remain spooky, but it has a very practical side.
Practically all of the matter we see and interact with is made of atoms, which are mostly empty space. Then why is reality so... solid?
We are not yet at the point where quantum communications can be deployed to secure the internet, but we might not be far off.
It's literally the one and only trick that separates top-notch physicists from crackpots, dropouts, and those who can't cut the mustard.
Empty space itself, the quantum vacuum, could be in either a true, stable state or a false, unstable state. Our fate depends on the answer.
One award was for a medical procedure that incapacitated thousands of people.
Einstein always loses in the quantum realm.
Before we discovered gravitational waves, multi-messenger astronomy got its start with light and particles arriving from the same event.
Uncertainty is inherent to our Universe.
They say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. But thanks to these three pioneers in quantum entanglement, perhaps we do.
When you don't have enough clues to bring your detective story to a close, you should expect that your educated guesses will all be wrong.
From the tiniest subatomic scales to the grandest cosmic ones, solving any of these puzzles could unlock our understanding of the Universe.
Amplifying the energy within a laser, over and over, won't get you an infinite amount of energy. There's a fundamental limit due to physics.
We have two descriptions of the Universe that work perfectly well: General Relativity and quantum physics. Too bad they don't work together.