Sound waves are made of particles called phonons. New research shows they’re affected by magnetic fields, with researchers able to steer heat magnetically.
The epoch of the leptons existed for nine seconds after the Big Bang.
Big Bang by Shutterstock
Subatomic particles have shaped and continue to shape our universe but despite perfect predictions by physicists, the theory about unseen particles is still wrong.
Look into my high-energy particle physics and what do you see?
CERN
It’s time we embraced quantum mechanics and stopped trying to explain away its weirdness.
A 3D artist has dissected the LHC in this composite image, showing a cut-out section of a superconducting dipole magnet. The beam pipes are represented as clear tubes, with counter-rotating proton beams shown in red and blue.
Daniel Dominguez/CERN
Since the spectacular discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the gigantic particle accelerator outside Geneva, have suffered a bit of a drought when it comes…
Move over LHC: the next generation of circular accelerator is being planned.
Fotografik33/Flickr
While the world’s largest circular particle accelerator – the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – will continue operation for the next few years, scientists have already started the conversation to build a much…
Electricity – just one bright idea to stem from physics.
Flickr/JonathanCohen
AUSTRALIA 2025: How will science address the challenges of the future? In collaboration with Australia’s chief scientist Ian Chubb, we’re asking how each science discipline will contribute to Australia…
Muons, a type of lepton, are studied at the Large Hadron Collider – but what are they?
CERN
The giant Large Hadron Collider at CERN’s lab in Europe may be closed until 2015 but experiments will still be run there in the second half of this year on much smaller synchrotrons that examined the decay…
Dark matter is still a bit of mystery.
Fractured Studios
A US team with a highly sensitive dark matter detector has just finished its first run. It has found nothing, and that is still big news. Physicists can explain accurately the behaviour of what makes matter…
A bit too big for your average hospital.
Ars Electronica
Suzie Sheehy, Science and Technology Facilities Council
When you stand in the 27km-long Large Hadron Collider tunnel deep under Switzerland and France it looks as if the chain of blue magnets simply stretches off to infinity. So when people talk about putting…
At 31 kilometres long, the International Linear Collider is tipped to be one of the most exciting scientific instruments ever built. But why?
ILC GDE
While the world’s most powerful particle accelerator - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - is on a two-year hiatus for repairs and upgrade, engineers are getting ready to construct the next generation of…
The Large Hadron Collider has temporarily shut down, but will return stronger than ever.
CERN
The lord of the particle accelerator, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), went out of particle collision business for almost two years as of late last week. For particle physicists, Valentine’s Day 2013…
The Large Hadron Collider has been used to find out what matter is fundamentally made of, and how the universe was created.
EPA/Martial Triezzini
One of humanity’s eternal questions surrounds what we are fundamentally made of. Many ancient philosophies believed in a set of classical elements: from water, air, fire and earth of ancient Greeks; to…
We thought we knew the radius of the proton to within 0.8%. Perhaps not.
Ludie Cochrane/Flickr
Striving for agreement between theory and experiment and pushing the boundaries of precision are important parts of the scientific process. With each step in this process we move closer to enlightenment…