16+ hour, 56+ min ago   (262+ words) A massive worldwide survey of physicists has revealed surprisingly little agreement about some of the universe’s biggest mysteries. No majority backed the standard cosmological model, a leading explanation for dark matter, or any single theory of quantum gravity. One area…...

5+ day, 18+ hour ago   (365+ words) Physicists have directly observed a long-predicted quantum effect of gravity, putting one of Einstein’s foundational ideas to a striking new test. Using ultracold atoms, researchers split an atom’s quantum wave so that one part was held in place while the…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago   (859+ words) A faint background of extremely low frequency gravitational waves detected through networks of pulsars could contain clues to events that unfolded more than 13 billion years ago, including the emergence of some of the Universe's earliest supermassive black holes. In a…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago   (533+ words) NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now one major step closer to liftoff. On Aug. 21, teams enclosed the observatory inside the protective fairing of its SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space…...

3+ week, 6+ day ago   (689+ words) Gravity was the natural place to start. On average, the universe is electrically neutral, which means electromagnetism does not dominate its large-scale behavior. Einstein also knew nothing about the strong and weak nuclear forces (to be fair, nobody did), but those…...