Physicists know a lot about the most fundamental properties of the universe, but they certainly don’t know everything. 2021 was a big year for physics – what was learned and what’s coming next?
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Physics
Displaying 1 - 20 of 327 articles
The quantum nature of light can be harnessed for a variety of purposes.
There is a lot to consider when buying a new pair of headphones. A professional musician and acoustics researcher explains how the science of sound and quirks of human hearing make for a great listening experience.
Did humans invent mathematics or does it exist independently?
The fastest things ever made by humans are spacecraft, and the fastest spacecraft reached 330,000 mph – only 0.05% the speed of light. But there are ways to go faster.
Energy isn’t really made of anything else. It’s a kind of capacity to do things
A new result from the MicroBooNE neutrino experiment has dashed hopes for a neat resolution to several puzzles for physicists.
The sky on other planets doesn’t look the same as the sky on Earth does. And that’s because of the different gases in Earth’s atmosphere.
Modern climate and weather models can predict what the weather will be next week and what the climate may be in 100 years. They would not exist without Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi.
The work of Italian physicist Giorgio Parisi has helped predict the unpredictable, from changes in the climate to the movements of flocks of starlings.
The largest orbital telescope ever made will allow astronomers to study the atmospheres of alien planets, learn about how stars form in the Milky Way and peer into the farthest reaches of the universe.
Preprints are scientific papers made available before being published in a peer-reviewed journal. The Australian Research Council has banned researchers from citing them in grant applications.
A US laboratory has announced an exciting new leap forward in nuclear fusion, but it may be several decades before we see this form of energy come to fruition.
In trials teaching Einsteinian physics in schools, our most astonishing discovery was that children were not astonished: they just took the ideas in their stride.
The universe has a finite age — 13.8 billion years to be exact. So if it had a beginning, why is it so difficult to say for sure whether it will have an end?
Without a magnetic field, the Moon’s surface is exposed to solar wind. These could have been depositing resources like water and potential rocket fuel on the Moon’s surface for billions of years.
Excluding, silencing and discouraging so many brilliant minds carries a very heavy cost, not just to the women directly impacted, but to all of humanity.
Gravity is something every person on Earth intuitively understands: It is what keeps you on the ground. But how come gravity pulls down, rather than pushes up? Einstein came up with the answer.
Olympic surfers are coming from around the world to compete in surfing’s Olympic debut. But where will the waves come from?
Science teaches you many skills. Even if you don’t plan for a science related career, including a science subject in your senior years can provide a good balance. But only if you’re interested.
Top contributors
-
Associate professor, Australian Catholic University
-
Post Doctoral Research Associate, Centre for the Subatomic Structure of Matter, University of Adelaide
-
Emeritus Professor, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, OzGrav, The University of Western Australia
-
Physicien, Professeur des Universités, Université Paris-Saclay
-
Associate Professor, University of Sydney
-
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Griffith University
-
Professor of Quantum Physics and Quantum Technology, University of Sydney
-
Professor of Astrophysics, University of Sydney
-
Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University
-
Professor & Chair, Research, Mauritius Institute of Education
-
Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of New England
-
Associate Professor of Physics, The University of Melbourne
-
PhD candidate, History & Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne
-
Professor, The University of Queensland
-
Professor of Astrophysics and Director of the Big Questions Institute at UNSW, UNSW
