Physics – latest in science and technology | �鶹��ý

Strange paraparticles could be reality’s missing ingredient

Miriam Frankel — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Neither matter nor force, paraparticles would be something else entirely. Fresh hints that they exist are raising hopes that they could explain reality at its deepest level

Can consciousness be quantum? We may now have an answer

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000

A mathematical analysis suggests that the notion of agency, which is a prerequisite for consciousness, cannot be purely quantum in nature

Do we owe our existence to weird ‘virtual’ particles?

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0000

When considering what makes up a human body, a physicist drills down beyond the atomic level. Columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein explores the not-exactly-real particles that allow the stuff we’re made of to hang together

Mathematics of thermodynamics is being rewritten after 200 years

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 13:00:58 +0000

The laws of physics that concern heat and work could gain a firmer mathematical footing thanks to “gauge theory”, which already helps us understand quantum fields

The physicist trying to solve the gravity question

Emily Bates — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 17:00:03 +0000

Quantum mechanics and general relativity don’t fit together, and a big part of the issue comes down to gravity. For decades, the accepted route to an ultimate theory of everything has involved taking our best theory of gravity and squeezing it into the frame of quantum mechanics. Yet, almost a century later, scientists still haven’t managed to make gravity fit. Ivette Fuentes is a professor of quantum mechanics who conducts experiments at the scales where quantum theory and general relativity interplay. Fuentes sat down with �鶹��ý features editor Thomas Lewton to discuss the issues and fascinating theories that pop out when we try to fit classical and quantum mechanics together.

Does time come from the entire universe running computations?

Leah Crane — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 17:00:36 +0000

Explaining the passage of time has been a gnarly problem in physics basically forever, but physicist and computer scientist Stephen Wolfram has a radical proposal for where it comes from. He discussed his ideas on time – and what they mean for free will – with reporter Leah Crane

The strange metals forcing us to rethink how electricity really works

Jon Cartwright — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 15:00:29 +0000

Some 40 years ago, physicists noticed certain metals were conducting electricity in a bizarre way no one could explain. New answers to how and why this happens are forcing us to question how electricity flows

Random wobbles in time could finally solve gravity’s greatest mystery

Leah Crane — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 15:00:14 +0000

The question of how gravity interacts with the quantum world has long perplexed physicists, but a non-quantum theory of space-time could present an answer

The weirdness of neutrinos could completely rewrite particle physics

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 14:00:29 +0000

A philosopher has put forward an argument for rethinking how particles are defined within the standard model of particle physics

Sean Carroll: uncovering the mysteries of quantum mechanics

Emily Bates — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:00:13 +0000

What really happens in the quantum world? In this conversation, physicist Sean Carroll explores some of the deepest mysteries in quantum mechanics: the famous double-slit experiment, wave function collapse, the Many Worlds interpretation, entropy and the arrow of time. Speaking to �鶹��ý reporter Jacklin Kwan, Carroll discusses why electrons appear to behave like waves, how observation seems to affect reality and whether the universe constantly branches into countless parallel worlds. Carroll also explains the measurement problem, the challenges of interpreting quantum theory and why physicists still debate what quantum mechanics is actually telling us about the nature of reality. Carroll is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author whose work focuses on the foundations of physics, quantum mechanics, cosmology and the nature of time.