Stories by Natalie Wolchover

The physicist and computer scientist Stephanie Wehner is planning and designing the next internet—a quantum one

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which operates at a lower energy than the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, recently fired up for its 15th run to look at quarks and gluons

When scientists traced a museum rock back to its origins, they uncovered mysteries about the early solar system

With a new approach that treats the universe as a fluid, cosmologists plan to tease out the fine details of the big bang from its behavior and evolution

A physicist has proposed the provocative idea that life exists because the law of increasing entropy drives matter to acquire life-like physical properties

Improvements in how densely spheres and other shapes can be packed together could lead to advances in materials science, deep space communication and theoretical physics.

By investigating the central role played by knots in fluids and fields, physicists hope to run experiments that help them better understand turbulent flow in 3-D

To determine the nature of infinity, mathematicians face a choice between two new logical axioms. What they decide could help shape the future of mathematical truth

Experiments designed to probe this interface could revitalize a longstanding quest for a theory of quantum gravity

Physicists have completed a new round of searches for the answer to why matter dominates antimatter. But the radioactive decay that would solve the puzzle evades them

As physics prepares for ambitious projects like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the field is seeking new methods of data-driven discovery

Studies suggest that computer models called neural networks may learn to recognize patterns in data using the same algorithms as the human brain

Decades of confounding experiments have physicists considering a startling possibility: the universe might not make sense

A game theory model suggests that animal communication may have evolved to be honest most of the time, but not always

"Thinking quantumly" can lead to new insights into long-standing problems in classical computer science, mathematics and cryptography, regardless of whether quantum computers ever materialize

Using supercomputers and new mathematical techniques, physicists are working to reveal how the Hoyle state atomic nucleus gives rise to the light elements that enable life, and how it drives the evolution of stars

With the Large Hadron Collider unable to find the particles that the theory says must exist, the field of particle physics is back to its "nightmare scenario"

A perfect storm engenders online rudeness, including virtual anonymity and thus a lack of accountability, physical distance and the medium of writing

The lack of even one openly gay or lesbian living astronaut in the history of American spaceflight may reflect the culture at the NASA astronaut office

Yelling into echo chambers, like narrow-cast web sites and cable TV, about issues such as gun control, instead of engaging in conversations with those who disagree, has led each of us to spin toward extreme views

External input makes eyewitness testimony unreliable. Eyewitnesses are generally unaware that their memory has been altered by post-event information

To start, get permission to keep what you find, find a barren spot like the Mojave Desert or Great Plains, and track down 'dark flight trajectories' from recent fireballs

The agency's Near-Earth Objects Program head points out many fallacies, including the claim that an imaginary planet will collide with Earth in December. Thousands of astronomers have not seen this

The tricky thing about the wheel is not conceiving of a cylinder rolling on its edge. It's figuring out how to connect a stable, stationary platform to that cylinder