physics – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 The Search for What Shook the Earth for Nine Days Straight https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-did-a-landslide-shake-the-earth-for-nine-days-20240912/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-did-a-landslide-shake-the-earth-for-nine-days-20240912/#respond Thu, 12 Sep 2024 18:00:39 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=140655 The post The Search for What Shook the Earth for Nine Days Straight first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> On September 16, 2023, the world began to rumble. A gargantuan rock-ice avalanche tumbled into the deep waters of a fjord in eastern Greenland, unleashing a megatsunami whose initial waves reached a height of 200 meters. The waves scoured the walls of the fjord before flowing into the open sea. Even for this avalanche-prone corner of Greenland, the collapse and subsequent megatsunami were shocking...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-did-a-landslide-shake-the-earth-for-nine-days-20240912/feed/ 0 Can Thermodynamics Go Quantum? https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-thermodynamics-go-quantum-20240912/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-thermodynamics-go-quantum-20240912/#respond Thu, 12 Sep 2024 13:43:17 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=140647 The post Can Thermodynamics Go Quantum? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> The principles of thermodynamics are cornerstones of our understanding of physics. But they were discovered in the era of steam-driven technology, long before anyone dreamed of quantum mechanics. In this episode, the theoretical physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern talks to host Steven Strogatz about how physicists today are reinterpreting concepts such as work, energy and information for a quantum...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-thermodynamics-go-quantum-20240912/feed/ 0 Do We Need a New Theory of Gravity? https://www.quantamagazine.org/do-we-need-a-new-theory-of-gravity-20240829/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/do-we-need-a-new-theory-of-gravity-20240829/#respond Thu, 29 Aug 2024 13:35:49 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=140166 The post Do We Need a New Theory of Gravity? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Observations of the cosmos suggest that unseen sources of gravity — dark matter — tug at the stars in galaxies, while another mysterious force — dark energy — drives the universe to expand at an ever-increasing rate. The evidence for both of them, however, hinges on assumptions that gravity works the same way at all scales. What if that’s not true? In this episode, theoretical physicist Claudia de...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/do-we-need-a-new-theory-of-gravity-20240829/feed/ 0 Computer Scientists Prove That Heat Destroys Quantum Entanglement https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-prove-that-heat-destroys-entanglement-20240828/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-prove-that-heat-destroys-entanglement-20240828/#respond Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:09:05 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=140110 The post Computer Scientists Prove That Heat Destroys Quantum Entanglement first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Nearly a century ago, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger called attention to a quirk of the quantum world that has fascinated and vexed researchers ever since. When quantum particles such as atoms interact, they shed their individual identities in favor of a collective state that’s greater, and weirder, than the sum of its parts. This phenomenon is called entanglement. Researchers have a firm...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-prove-that-heat-destroys-entanglement-20240828/feed/ 0 Mathematicians Prove Hawking Wrong About the Most Extreme Black Holes https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-prove-hawking-wrong-about-extremal-black-holes-20240821/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-prove-hawking-wrong-about-extremal-black-holes-20240821/#respond Wed, 21 Aug 2024 14:31:25 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=139952 The post Mathematicians Prove Hawking Wrong About the Most Extreme Black Holes first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> To understand the universe, scientists look to its outliers. “You always want to know about the extreme cases — the special cases that lie at the edge,” said Carsten Gundlach, a mathematical physicist at the University of Southampton. Black holes are the enigmatic extremes of the cosmos. Within them, matter is packed so tightly that, according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity...

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