Astronomy
Our Sun Could Someday Reveal the Surfaces of Alien Earths
In the far future, we could reveal detailed views of distant worlds by turning our home star into a gravitational lens
"relativity"
Particle Physics
In a First, an ‘Atomic Fountain’ Has Measured the Curvature of Spacetime
The atom interferometry technique uses the effects of time dilation to reveal subtle changes in gravity’s strength
Astrophysics
ArXiv.org Reaches a Milestone and a Reckoning
Runaway success and underfunding have led to growing pains for the preprint server
Black Holes
Singularities Can Exist Outside Black Holes—in Other Universes
Recent work has shown how “naked singularities” might defy the cosmic censorship conjecture
Space & Physics
The Utter Failure of Fictional Time Travel
An answer to why we’ve not been visited from the future?
Space & Physics
Hope for a New Particle Fizzles at the LHC
A curious signal of a potentially revolutionary new particle detected last year turned out to be a fluke
Space & Physics
Just How Resilient Is Spacetime?
A hundred years on, and the implications of Einstein's general relativity still surprise and delight
The Sciences
100 Years of Great Physics: Watch Live Monday and Tuesday [Video]
General relativity and Noether’s theorem take center stage in two live Web broadcasts this week
The Sciences
Neil deGrasse Tyson at 85% the Speed of Light
This video made me laugh harder than anything I’ve seen in a long time. Okay, except for some Louis CK videos. But for a non-comedian (allegedly)… this is hard to beat.
Krugman’s Theory of Interstellar Trade
Everyone needs a little light relief sometimes, including the Nobel winning economist and writer/blogger extraordinaire Paul Krugman. A few months back he reminded the world of a short paper he’d written some years ago on the rather unexpected topic of interstellar finance...
The Sciences
Was Einstein Wrong?: A Quantum Threat to Special Relativity
Entanglement, like many quantum effects, violates some of our deepest intuitions about the world. It may also undermine Einstein's special theory of relativity
The Sciences
Do Naked Singularities Break the Rules of Physics?
The black hole has a troublesome sibling, the naked singularity. Physicists have long thought--hoped--it could never exist. But could it?
The Sciences
Darwin's Living Legacy--Evolutionary Theory 150 Years Later
A Victorian amateur undertook a lifetime pursuit of slow, meticulous observation and thought about the natural world, producing a theory 150 years ago that still drives the contemporary scientific agenda...
Space & Physics
Using Causality to Solve the Puzzle of Quantum Spacetime
A new approach to the decades-old problem of quantum gravity goes back to basics and shows how the building blocks of space and time pull themselves together
