Physics
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Turning buoyancy on its head
French researchers have floated boats “upside down” on liquid.
At risk of stating the obvious: boats float on top of water. Yet French researchers have seemingly inverted gravity a...
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Conversation
Raising questions about physical reality
Unveiling a new paradox in quantum mechanics.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Perhaps not, some say. And if so...
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A three-in-one flame with potential
Researchers learn more about the intriguing blue whirl.
Four years ago, a team of aerospace and fire protection engineers from the University of Maryland, US, described a un...
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Alcohol beats the coffee ring effect
That could mean better printing for electronics, researchers say.
The “coffee ring effect” is one of the most puzzling phenomena in fluid mechanics. A quick Google search will unearth...
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History
Rachel Makinson and the science of wool
Distinguished career began on a temporary basis.
Rachel Makinson joined the radiophysics laboratory at Australia’s then Council of Scientific and Industrial Research ...
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Can water be two types of liquid?
Researchers offer evidence to support decades-old theory.
Cold water behaves strangely. For starters, it expands rather than contracting as it cools (which is why ice floats),...
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History
Maria Goeppert Mayer: from nuisance to Nobel
Success and professorships were family affairs.
The co-winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics was Maria Goeppert Mayer – one of only two women to receive it since...
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Here’s why this happens
The physics behind waves that light up a beach.
Blue waves made quite a splash along the coast off southern California earlier this year, but it’s not an unusual phe...
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Focus
The supersizing of quantum physics
Smashing noise limits by squeezing light.
Quantum physics is the realm of tiny particles no longer. Scientists at the giant gravitational wave detector LIGO in...
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Homemade masks can work, physics suggests
But don’t expect a bandana to do the job.
Physics suggests that homemade masks are useful in a pandemic, as long as they’re the right sort and fitted right. ...
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It happened in just zeptoseconds
Physicists calculate the speed of nuclear reactions.
Australian and US physicists say they have calculated the speed of the most complex nuclear reactions and found that ...
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Where robotics meets quantum computing
Researchers adapt techniques to overcome noise.
Australian physicists say they have adapted techniques from autonomous vehicles and robotics to efficiently assess th...