physics

Girls and boys achieve similar results in physics. Credit: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock "From my own knowledge of these things, physics is not something that girls tend to fancy. They don't want to do it … There's a lot of hard math in there that I think that they would rather not do," Katharine Birbalsingh, chair of the U.K. government's Social Mobility Commission and a secondary school head teacher, told the Commons…

Using easily available equipment and substances in anyone’s kitchen, you can complete home study projects to learn about complex fluid behavior.Home study projects of complex fluids in anyone’s kitchen, using readily available equipment and substances.Although the <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>COVID-19</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>First identified in 2019 in Wuhan, China, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is…

Mistakes happen. Especially when it comes to the replication of vast sequences of DNA inside our cells. It's a good thing too. If not for the errors in our genes we refer to as mutations, natural selection would be a no-go, and life would be dead in the water.  As crucial as mutations are to everything from disease to biodiversity, we know shockingly little about the physics of the process.Findings from the University of Surrey in the UK have revived speculations that a primary trigger behind the chemical sleight-of-hand…

After a decade of meticulous measurements, scientists announced Thursday that a fundamental particle – the W boson – has a significantly greater mass than theorized, shaking the foundations of our understanding of how the Universe works.  Those foundations are grounded by the Standard Model of particle physics, which is the best theory scientists have to describe the most basic building blocks of the Universe, and what forces govern them.The W boson governs what is called the weak force, one of the four fundamental…

Does time exist? The answer to this question may seem obvious: Of course it does! Just look at a calendar or a clock.But developments in physics suggest the non-existence of time is an open possibility, and one that we should take seriously.  How can that be, and what would it mean? It'll take a little while to explain, but don't worry: Even if time doesn't exist, our lives will go on as usual.A crisis in physicsPhysics is in crisis. For the past century or so, we have explained the Universe with two wildly successful…

Elizabeth Simmons. Credit: University of California - San Diego LGBT+ physicists often face harassment and other behaviors that make them leave the profession, according to a new study, which comes as physics as a discipline has attempted to grapple with equity and inclusion issues. …

I am admittedly not the smartest guy, and as such, I really don’t like puzzles. If there’s a puzzle in a game, I’ll probably just look up how to solve it. They’re not my thing, and I gravitate more toward straightforward games as a result. So it may surprise you to hear that Lego Bricktales, which is entirely made up of physics puzzles, was one of my favorite games at PAX East 2022. I can’t make that make sense, but I’ll explain it to the best of my abilities. Piece by piece Lego Bricktales is, on the outside, a…