Particle Physics, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 11, 2023

Scientists create 'slits in time' in mind-bending physics experiment

In a first, scientists have shown that they can send light through slits in time. The new experiment is a twist on a 220-year-old demonstration, in which light shines through two slits in a screen to create a unique diffraction pattern across space, where the peaks and troughs of the...

Apr 17, 2023

Gravity can transform into light, mind-bending physics paper suggests

Gravity can turn itself into light, but only if space-time behaves in just the right way, a research team has found. Under normal circumstances, you cannot get something from nothing. Specifically, the Standard Model of particle physics, the reigning theory that explains the subatomic zoo of particles, usually forbids the...

Jun 21, 2023

Exotic new state of matter discovered by squishing subatomic particles into an ultradense crystal

Physicists have discovered an exotic new state of matter that takes the form of a highly ordered crystal of subatomic particles. The new state of matter, called a bosonic correlated insulator, could lead to the discovery of many new types of exotic materials made from condensed matter, according to the...

Jun 27, 2023

Scientists tried to solve the mystery of the helium nucleus — and ended up more confused than ever

One of nature's simplest elements is giving scientists a big headache after new research shows that protons and neutrons in helium atoms are not behaving as theory suggests they should. The mismatch between theoretical predictions of how these particles behave and what they're actually doing could point to new physics...

Jun 29, 2023

Neutrino map of the galaxy is 1st view of the Milky Way in 'anything other than light'

Scientists have traced the galactic origins of thousands of ghost particles known as neutrinos to create the first-ever portrait of the Milky Way made from matter and not light — and it's given them a brand-new way to study the universe. The groundbreaking image was snapped by capturing the neutrinos...

Aug 31, 2023

What is the strong force?

The strong force or strong nuclear force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, along with gravity, electromagnetism and the weak force. As the name suggests, the strong force is the strongest force of the four. It binds fundamental particles of matter, known as quarks, to form larger...

Oct 25, 2023

World's smallest particle accelerator is 54 million times smaller than the Large Hadron Collider, and it works

Scientists recently fired up the world's smallest particle accelerator for the first time. The tiny technological triumph, which is around the size of a small coin, could open the door to a wide range of applications, including using the teensy particle accelerators inside human patients. The new machine, known as...

Mar 13, 2024

Mysterious 'unparticles' may be pushing the universe apart, new theoretical study suggests

The ever-accelerating expansion of the universe may be driven by a mysterious form of matter called unparticles, which do not obey the Standard Model of particle physics, a new theoretical paper suggests. Scientists widely acknowledge that the universe is expanding, though the cause of that expansion remains elusive. One of...