The physics of porpoises
When it comes to catching prey, porpoises really use their heads.
Porpoise sonar is one of many enduring mysteries surrounding porpoises Are they really as happy as they seem? Are the...
Physics
-
-
Who’s killing physics?
The renowned German author, theoretical physicist and Research Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute ...
On a recent visit to my mom’s place, I searched through my old stuff for something my children might like. One book t...
-
Explainer
What is energy?
Energy is one of the most basic concepts in physics, but also one of the hardest to define.
Any physics textbook will tell you energy is the capacity to do work. Then it usually goes on to explain that “work” ...
-
Conversation
What is quantum entanglement?
Quantum entanglement – a term unfamiliar to most and misunderstood by many. Are there ways to mak...
Quantum computers, quantum cryptography and quantum (insert name here) are often in the news these days. Articles abo...
-
Black holes exert ‘quantum pressure’ on their environment
Shedding new light on the true quantum nature of black holes.
Black holes aren’t as single-minded as we thought. It turns out their quantum behaviour adds a new, recalcitrant dime...
-
You may have missed…
Moths vs bats, weird asteroids, and ancestors with a sweet tooth – catch up on the science you mi...
Moths vs bats: moths use sound to thwart bat attacks Photograph of the Atlas moth (Attacus atlas). This large silk...
-
Our 5 favourite Ig Nobel Prize Winners
Upside-down rhinos, nose-clearing sex and chewing gum forensics.
Every year, the science humour magazine the Annals of Improbable Research awards the Ig Nobel Prizes – a riff on the ...
-
Dark energy will almost certainly destroy the universe and everything in it.
Sorry, but the heat death of the universe is actually the nice option.
Dark energy is without a doubt the weirdest thing in the universe. Despite being present in every corner of the cosmo...
-
Part of a disCERNing crowd
Life with and around the Large Hadron Collider.
Happy 13th birthday, CERN! The following is an edited excerpt from the article “A disCERNing crowd”, which appeared i...
-
What causes the oily film on black tea?
Researchers take a closer look at the physics and chemist-tea.
If you’re a black tea fan, you may have noticed the thin, oily film that sometimes forms on the top of the drink. Why...
-
Video
Wired for sound: The observatory that’s always listening
The Australian Acoustic Observatory (A2O) proves you don’t have to be there to get the data.
The Australian Acoustic Observatory (A2O) is a continental-scale acoustic sensor network, designed to collect data ov...
-
Magazine
Cosmology, next-gen
The last century has grown our understanding of the universe from speculation to precision scienc...
In the year 1909, a little-known astronomer named Vesto Slipher began a series of painstaking observations at the Low...