Most people are familiar with lasers. But what about a laser made with sound rather than light? A couple of physicists have now created one that they plan to use for measuring imperceivable forces.
The discovery and development of optical tweezers won the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics. Now physicists are using this tool to crack some of the fundamental questions behind how the universe works.
A podcast all about nothing. From the importance of doing nothing to the ill-effects of time spent in solitary confinement and what nothing means in space.
Thomas Stace, The University of Queensland and Clemens Müller, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Physicists have designed an electrical component that breaks time-reversal symmetry. Not quite the time machine from Hollywood but it should help with communication technology and quantum computing.
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation; Michael Lund, The Conversation; Wes Mountain, The Conversation, and Julie Carli, The Conversation
The explainer episode
The Conversation, CC BY67.5 MB(download)
Today on Trust me, I'm An Expert, we're explaining the tricky topics: what is quantum mechanics? What does the research say about lone actor terrorism? And why do people like pimple popping videos?
A particle physicist explains just what this keystone theory includes. After 50 years, it’s the best we’ve got to answer what everything in the universe is made of and how it all holds together.
A podcast on intuition: from how it works in the body, to how to harness it, and the story of two scientists who followed a hunch – about quantum biology.
We usually think of quantum entanglement in the realm of atomic systems, but now it’s been scaled up to relatively massive objects. This opens the door to new kinds of technology.
A future that continues to have increasingly fast computing depends on quantum physics – but research is showing that there are limits to how fast quantum computers can go.