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Articles on Physics

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A black hole is an object so compact that nothing can escape its gravitational pull, not even light. They are formed when stars die and start collapsing under their own weight. Deep inside the black hole resides an infinitely hot and dense object, a so-called, singularity. Science Photo Library - MARK GARLICK/Getty Images

2020 Nobel Prize in physics awarded for work on black holes – an astrophysicist explains the trailblazing discoveries

The 2020 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three scientists – an Englishman, an American and a German – for breakthroughs in understanding the most mysterious objects in the universe: black holes.
Lasers create colorful light shows at concerts, are used by doctors in surgeries – and are used in scientific laboratories. EyeWolf/Getty Images

What is the slowest thing on Earth?

Physicists can use bright, hot lasers to slow atoms down so much that they measure -459 degrees Fahrenheit.
The new model predicts the growth of small ponds on arctic ice sheets. Scientific Visualization Studio / NASA

Video: How simple math can help predict the melting of sea ice

Understanding sea ice loss requires expensive and difficult expeditions. Scientists have developed a new model that predicts the growth of small ponds on sea ice more efficiently.
Mating laser-driven atomic clocks like the one shown here with microwaves promises more accurate electronic devices. N. Phillips/NIST

Pairing lasers with microwaves makes mind-bogglingly accurate electronic clocks – a potential boon for GPS, cell phones and radar

Researchers have made some of the most accurate clocks imaginable in recent years, but the trick is harnessing those clocks to electronics. Using lasers to tune microwaves bridges the gap.
The old idea of running with springs on your feet gets a high-tech makeover. Krisztina Braun

Robo-boot concept promises 50% faster running

A high-tech twist on an old idea – running on springs – could give human-powered movement its biggest boost in more than a century.
It would be fun to be able to shrink people and objects, but it’s something we can only imagine. Jasmin Merdan/Moment via Getty Images

Will scientists ever be able to shrink and grow stuff?

The movies make it seem like someday we’ll be able to make people and objects grow really big or shrink really small. Whether this will be possible comes down to the smallest of things.
No one knows what kicked off the Big Bang that eventually allowed the stars to begin forming. Adolf Schaller for STScI

How could an explosive Big Bang be the birth of our universe?

The term ‘Big Bang’ might make you think of a massive explosion. Put the thought out of your head. Rather than an explosion, it was the start of everything in the universe.
An artist’s conception of two black holes entwined in a gravitational tango. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Christopher Go

Supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy may have a friend

There is a massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Measurements of star orbits near this black hole suggest that there may be a second companion black hole nearby.

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