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Scientists tried to solve the mystery of the helium nucleus — and ended up more confused than ever
By Anna Demming published
Helium is the simplest element in the periodic table with more than one particle in its nucleus, yet state of the art theory and experiments on it don't add up.
Exotic new state of matter discovered by squishing subatomic particles into an ultradense crystal
By Kiley Price published
By shining a strong beam of light through two chemical compounds, scientists discovered a unique new state of matter made of particles called excitons.
The expansion of the universe could be a mirage, new theoretical study suggests
By Robert Lea published
New research looking at the cosmological constant problem suggests the expansion of the universe could be an illusion.
A 79-year-old mathematician may have just solved an infinite dimension puzzle that's vexed theorists for decades
By Nathan Brownlowe published
Mathematician Per Enflo, who solved a huge chunk of the 'invariant subspaces problem' decades ago, may have just finished his work.
Stephen Hawking wanted scientists to 'make black holes' on Earth. Physics says it's possible.
By Thomas Hertog published
When Stephen Hawking and I visited the Large Hadron Collider, he hoped for an unexpected physics breakthrough. His dreams may not be impossible.
Mathematicians end decades-long quest to find elusive 'vampire einstein' shape
By Paul Sutter published
Researchers have discovered a new 14-sided shape called the Spectre that can be used to tile a surface without ever creating a repeating pattern, ending a decades' long mathematical hunt.
Why do magnets have north and south poles?
By Laurel Hamers published
Spinning electrons may help explain why magnets have north and south poles.
Dark matter's secret identity could be hiding in distorted 'Einstein rings'
By Harry Baker published
Researchers may be a step closer to identifying dark matter after studying unusual cases of gravitational lensing caused by "dark matter halos" surrounding distant galaxies.
World's heaviest Schrödinger's cat made in quantum crystal visible to the naked eye
By Ben Turner published
Physicists have placed part of a sapphire crystal into a quantum superposition, making it the heaviest object to show quantum effects, in a new take on Erwin Schrödinger's famous cat experiment.
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