A swarm of honeybees can provide valuable lessons about how a group of many individuals can work together to accomplish a task, even with no one in charge. Roboticists are taking notes.
An artist’s conception of two black holes entwined in a gravitational tango.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Christopher Go
Smadar Naoz, University of California, Los Angeles
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.
Lithium ion batteries store large amounts of power in small battery cells that can be recharged.
Mile Atanasov
Nobel Prizes in science are usually given for revolutionary ideas that change our perception of the universe. But this year’s chemistry prize was awarded to inventors of a revolutionary device.
Artist impression of the exoplanet 51 Pegasi b.
ESO/M. Kornmesser/Nick Risinger
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics went to a cosmologist who helped unlock the secrets of the Big Bang’s aftermath, and two astronomers who found a “hot Jupiter” orbiting a nearby star.
High speeds, the threat of dangerous crashes, the excitement of the crowd – and the laws of physics on full display. A physicist explains the science of NASCAR.
Some pitchers are convinced the balls are being messed with behind the scenes.
Aspen Photo/Shutterstock.com
Recent changes to the ball seem to be juicing hitters’ stats. But could other factors, like the climate and advanced analytics, also be playing a role?
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in his laboratory in Leiden.
Marine Joumard
All the buildings and the cars and the restaurants, and the phones and even everything that’s inside of you… it all started with an exploding star, billions of years ago.
This sounds like a good idea at first, but it’s not very practical.
Image Credit: NASA/Mark Vande Hei
A physicist reflects on the show’s made-up Nobel Prize-winning theory of ‘super asymmetry’ along with how the series showcased authentic science and role models for future STEM students.
The crests (bright) and troughs (dark) of waves spread out after they were produced. The picture applies to both light and sound waves.
Titima Ongkantong
Most people are familiar with lasers. But what about a laser made with sound rather than light? A couple of physicists have now created one that they plan to use for measuring imperceivable forces.
The math of raindrops.
Stefan Holm/shutterstock.com
Why does the impact of rain in a puddle look different from when it falls elsewhere, like in a lake or the ocean? A ‘puddle equation’ dives deep into the secret math of ripples.
Flash crashes have become more common in recent years.
JMiks/shutterstock.com
Thanks to new trading technology, sudden steep falls may become more common. A new program uses the principles of fluid dynamics to try to predict crashes before they happen.
Pedestrians in Tokyo pass a television screen broadcasting a report on May 4, 2019 that North Korea has fired several unidentified short-range projectiles into the sea off its eastern coast.
AP Photo/Koji Sasahara
North Korea is a major military threat to the US and its Asian allies, but exactly how powerful are its nuclear weapons? An earth scientist explains why it’s hard to answer this question.
Leonardo da Vinci’s experiments with friction underpinned the modern science of Tribology.