Around 13.7 billion years ago, our Universe sprang into existence, but what was around before the Big Bang? In an episode of Star Talk released just a few weeks before his death in March 2018, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking sat down with host Neil deGrasse Tyson to talk about what exactly pre-dated the beginning of our

Back in 2015, scientists found something amazing – a classic formula for pi hidden in the world of quantum physics. Pi is the ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter, and is incredibly important in pure mathematics. But this was the first time scientists had found it “lurking” in the world of physics, when

It’s easy to take time’s arrow for granted – but the gears of physics actually work just as smoothly in reverse. Maybe that time machine is possible after all? A recent experiment shows just how much wiggle room we can expect when it comes to distinguishing the past from the future, at least on a

A new quantum physics experiment just lent evidence to a mind-boggling idea that was previously limited to the realm of theory, according to the MIT Technology Review – that under the right conditions, two people can observe the same event, see two different things happen, and both be correct. According to research shared to the

It’s been a year since the renowned and profoundly influential physicist Stephen Hawking passed away, and the Royal Mint has honoured his legacy in the form of a new commemorative 50 pence coin. If you’ve ever been concerned that British currency doesn’t feature enough astrophysical equations, we have good news. Although the collector’s item, sold on

A team of scientists working with electrical currents and silicate glass have been left gobsmacked after the glass appeared to defy a basic physical law. If you pass an electrical current through a material, the way that current generates heat can be described by Joule’s first law. It’s been observed time and time again, with

In November, Chinese researchers announced that the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor — an “artificial sun” designed to mimic the nuclear fusion process the real Sun uses to generate energy — had hit a milestone by achieving an electron temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius. Now, officials are saying they believe they’ll wrap up

In recent years scientists have started exploring the concept of anti-lasers – devices that can perfectly absorb a particular wavelength of light, as opposed to emitting it the way a laser does. Now researchers have published a study that explores the blueprint for building an anti-laser that’s more complex than anything we’ve seen before. More

For the very first time, NASA has captured the shockwaves of two supersonic jets interacting in mid-flight, and the result is so brilliant, even the researchers are amazed. The images feature two T-38s from the US Air Force, flying at supersonic speeds less than nine metres (30 feet) apart, with a stream of shockwaves emanating

Traditionally when we think of sound waves, we think of invisible vibrations moving weightless through the air – not carrying any mass. That might be about to change. Physicists have just provided further evidence that particles of sound really can carry tiny amounts of mass. And that means they can produce their own gravitational fields

A new method for analysing the entanglement of scrambled particles could tell us how the Universe still keeps track of information contained by particles that disappear into black holes. It won’t get our quantum information back, but it might at least tell us what happened to it. Physicists Beni Yoshida from the Perimeter Institute in

Deep in the heart of physics there’s a lucky guess. It was an incredibly good guess, one that remains solid in the face of time and experiment, and is now a fundamental principle in quantum mechanics. It’s called the Born rule, and while it’s used for predictions, nobody truly understands how it works. But a bold

Have you ever seen fine water condensation on a transparent surface shimmer like a rainbow? Scientists have now figured out exactly how it happens – and have used this new knowledge to make water droplets produce a dazzling array of colours. If the droplets are on a transparent surface, and lit by a single lamp,

A team of theoretical physicists has a mind-bending new explanation for why our Universe is the way it is, and how it emerged in all its strangeness. According to a recent paper, space-time itself – the very fabric that makes up our Universe – is nothing more than a product of quantum mechanics. And distortions in

Something about atoms has never added up. Fundamental particles called quarks get kind of sluggish once they’re caught up in crowds of protons and neutrons – and quite frankly, they shouldn’t. For decades, physicists have hunted for clues on the quark’s tendency to slow down in larger atoms, but have come up empty-handed. But now,

For years, the internet has hemmed and hawed over a mysterious yet universal truth: a grape, sliced nearly in half and placed in the microwave, will suddenly begin to spit plasma. The fiery sight had us mystified for years, garnering millions of views online and a variety of expert opinions, none of which were based

Black holes are the Universe’s most jealously guarded secrets. We all want to know what’s going on inside such exclusive space clubs, yet the best we can do is stand outside and listen to the beat. To do this, scientists host their own parties. Sure, these aren’t as fun as twisted pits of spacetime, but

Two decades after the hypothetical prediction that it should be possible, scientists have been able to produce fractal light from a laser. Not only that, they’ve shown the fractal light could be created in 3D rather than just 2D. Displaying one of nature’s most common patterns from a very human-made technology could open up opportunities

Martin Rees, a well-respected British cosmologist, made pretty bold statement late last year when it comes to particle accelerators: there’s a small, but real possibility of disaster. Particle accelerators, like the Large Hadron Collider, shoot particles at incredibly high speeds, smash them together, and observe the fallout. These high speed collisions have helped us discover

Football fans in the US can be divided into three camps – those who think the Patriots victory against the Colts in the 2014/15 playoffs were given a helping hand by slightly under inflated footballs, those who don’t, and those who ask ‘OMG can’t we just get on with football?!’ Over the past few years,