Search
Relativity Theory
From unexplained tracks in a balloon-borne experiment to cosmic rays on Earth, the unstable muon was particle physics' biggest surprise.
In the quest to measure how antimatter falls, the possibility that it fell "up" provided hope for warp drive. Here's how it all fell apart.
6mins
If Einstein couldn’t solve the theory of everything, could anyone? Physicist Michio Kaku explains what it would take.
Newton thought that gravitation would happen instantly, propagating at infinite speeds. Einstein showed otherwise; gravity isn't instant.
Some processes, like quantum tunneling, have been shown to occur instantaneously. But the ultimate cosmic speed limit remains unavoidable.
Michael Faraday's 1834 law of induction was the key experiment behind the eventual discovery of relativity. Einstein admitted it himself.
From a photon's viewpoint, the Universe is timeless and dimensionless.
How are we to deal with the quantization of spacetime and gravity?
The concept of ‘relativistic mass’ has been around almost as long as relativity has. But is it a reasonable way to make sense of things?
42mins
Sabine Hossenfelder talks about Albert Einstein, dead grandmothers, the physics of aging, and more in this full interview with Big Think.
9mins
Sabine Hossenfelder discusses the physics of… dead grandmothers?
The cosmic microwave background offers clues.
Though he renounced philosophy, Stephen Hawking's final theory of the universe redraws the basic foundations of cosmology.
Time gets a little strange as you approach the speed of light.
Everything everywhere all at once.
How scientists found out that we live in a cosmic aquarium.
Two very different ideas, wormholes and quantum entanglement, might be fundamentally related. What would "ER = EPR" mean for our Universe?
Even with quantum teleportation and the existence of entangled quantum states, faster-than-light communication still remains impossible.
In our Solar System, even the two brightest planets frequently align in our skies. But only rarely is it spectacularly visible from Earth.
7mins
Frank Wilczek is celebrated for his investigations into the fundamental laws of nature that have transformed our understanding of the forces that govern our Universe. In this video, the MIT […]
To Einstein, nature had to be rational. But quantum physics showed us that there was not always a way to make it so.
In Einstein's relativity and the Standard Model, we only have three spatial dimensions. But there could be more, and many think there are.
Einstein tried to disprove quantum mechanics. Instead, a weird concept called entanglement showed that Einstein was wrong.
"Once quantum mechanics is applied to the entire cosmos, it uncovers a three-thousand-year-old idea."
The quantum world — and its inherent uncertainty — defies our ability to describe it in words.
Light carries with it the secrets of reality in ways we cannot completely understand.
The science fiction dream of a traversable wormhole is no closer to reality, despite a quantum computer's suggestive simulation.
There's the textbook answer, then there's the real answer.
You are trapped in time. You never live in the world as it is but only as you experience it as it was.
Over the past 50 years, 27 leap seconds have been added to our time.