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Thermodynamics
Scientists have been chasing the dream of harnessing the reactions that power the Sun since the dawn of the atomic era. Interest, and investment, in the carbon-free energy source is heating up.
The second law of thermodynamics is an inviolable law of reality. Here's what everyone should know about closed, open, and isolated systems.
The matter that creates black holes won't be what comes out when they evaporate. Will the black hole information paradox ever be solved?
Nothing can escape from a black hole. So where do Hawking radiation, relativistic jets, and X-ray emissions around black holes come from?
The biggest nuclear blast in history came courtesy of Tsar Bomba. We could make something at least 100 times more powerful.
In physics, we reduce things to their elementary, fundamental components, and build emergent things out of them. That's not the full story.
How do physicists solve a problem like entropy?
In the beginning, genes weren't needed.
John Templeton Foundation
We can't go back to the Big Bang, nor ahead to the heat death of the Universe. Nevertheless, here are today's natural temperature extremes.
Simple physics makes hauling vast ice chunks thousands of miles fiendishly difficult — but not impossible.
Apart from the energy needed to flip the switch, no other energy is needed to transmit the information.
Its implications go well beyond the Earth itself, affecting even the future of space travel.
If you gave me $400 and I gave you $3.15, would you consider yourself wealthier? That's a financial analogy for the supposed fusion power "breakthrough."
The most common element in the Universe, vital for forming new stars, is hydrogen. But there's a finite amount of it; what if we run out?
Every time our Universe cools below a critical threshold, we fall out of equilibrium. That's the best thing that ever happened to us.
There are at least 15 different types of solid water (ice). Now, scientists believe that there might be a second type of liquid water.
In the 20th century, many options abounded as to our cosmic origins. Today, only the Big Bang survives, thanks to this critical evidence.
Should you blast the A/C even when you're not at home?
The game of Plinko perfectly illustrates chaos theory. Even with indistinguishable initial conditions, the outcome is always uncertain.
At their cores, stars can reach many millions or even billions of degrees. But even that doesn't touch the hottest of all.
Ever since the start of the hot Big Bang, time ticks forward as the Universe expands. But could time ever run backward, instead?
Even though the leftover glow from the Big Bang creates a bath of radiation at only 2.725 K, some places in the Universe get even colder.
There’s an enormous evolutionary advantage for flamingos to stand on one leg, but genetics doesn't help. Only physics explains why.
If you think you know how an astronomical nova works, buckle up. You're in for a ride like you never expected.
It has no moving parts and could allow us to tap into renewable energy year round.
Capturing energy from clubbers could help power homes and buildings.
In Sun-like stars, hydrogen gets fused into helium. In the Big Bang, hydrogen fusion also makes helium. But they aren't close to the same.
Drop sodium in water, and a violent, even explosive reaction will occur. But quantum physics is needed to explain why.