Pneumonia kills more children worldwide than malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis combined. This is surprising given that treatment for pneumonia is relatively simple. In rich countries survival rates are very…
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Articles on Physics
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This year’s Ig Nobel prizes were awarded on September 12 at a meeting of nerds at Harvard University. The prizes are given for genuine scientific research that “first makes people laugh and then makes…
After the first day of the third Ashes test cricket match between England and Australia it may be a good time to consider how spin bowling might affect the outcome of the series - and how science can be…
Mexican scientists have used maths to reveal just how impressive Ussain Bolt’s world-record dash was. The calculations show…
Developing a Theory of Everything is physics’ Holy Grail. So could it have been completed in recent weeks? And by an outsider, working alone? American mathematical physicist-turned-hedge-fund-consultant…
The lord of the particle accelerator, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), went out of particle collision business for almost two years as of late last week. For particle physicists, Valentine’s Day 2013…
I really shouldn’t let myself watch Q&A. Don’t get me wrong, the ABC’s flagship weekly panel show is usually compelling viewing. But after just a few minutes I end up with the systolic blood pressure…
One of humanity’s eternal questions surrounds what we are fundamentally made of. Many ancient philosophies believed in a set of classical elements: from water, air, fire and earth of ancient Greeks; to…
If you’ve ever studied a periodic table of the elements (see below), you’re probably already aware that this table reveals a great deal about the chemical properties of the atoms that make up our world…
Most people outside the esoteric worlds of little-science physics (aka quantum mechanics) and big-science physics (aka cosmology) will at some point realise both worlds fly in the face of intuition. Why…
A young child looked up in the sky, And said, “It’s so blue, Mum, but why?” You see, blue scatters more, (There’s this power of 4), So it rarely comes straight to your eye. – Author unknown Most of what…
As a cosmologist, I often carry around a universe or two in my pocket. Not entire, infinitely large universes, but maybe a few billion light years or so across. Enough to be interesting. Of course, these…
What do Casper the Friendly Ghost, Harry Potter and H.G Wells’ Griffin all have in common? The answer, of course, is “the ability to become invisible”. And these three characters weren’t the first to have…
The success of soccer player Christiano Ronaldo’s powerful “knuckleball” strike is due to fluctuating aerodynamic lift forces…
Just on a year ago my colleagues and I announced our discovery that carbon nanotube yarns could be made to twist and rotate at great speeds when electrically stimulated. In this way we had created “artificial…
All of the light we see around us comes in chunks of energy known as photons. As well as making up light, photons can be used to carry and process information and their quantum properties make possible…
When two gold nanoparticle spheres are pushed sufficiently close together, the gap between them acquires a red colour, as…
Diamond is well known for its appeal as a gemstone. Perhaps less well known are some of its extreme material properties. As well as being the hardest material in nature, diamond is very good at conducting…
Ball lightning is one of the strangest phenomena on our planet. It’s usually seen during thunderstorms as a ball of light about the size of a grapefruit, with the intensity of roughly a 40W light bulb…
Frenchman Serge Haroche and American David Wineland have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in what researchers in the field say is long overdue recognition. Through their ingenious laboratory methods…
Top contributors
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Associate Professor, Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne
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Post Doctoral Research Associate, Centre for the Subatomic Structure of Matter, University of Adelaide
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University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona
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Emeritus Professor, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, OzGrav, The University of Western Australia
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Physicien, Professeur des Universités, Université Paris-Saclay
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Professor of Astrophysics, University of Sydney
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Professor of Nuclear Physics, Michigan State University
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Professor of Physics, University of Lynchburg
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Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of New England
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Professor & Head, School of Science & Mathematics, Mauritius Institute of Education
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Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology
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Professor of Quantum Physics and Quantum Technology, University of Sydney
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Professor, University of Sydney
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Lecturer, The University of Queensland
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Honorary senior lecturer, Australian National University
