Search Results for “physics” – Quanta Magazine

‘Metaphysical Experiments’ Probe Our Hidden Assumptions About Reality

Amanda Gefter — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 14:40:10 +0000

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals in the deep scaffolding of the world: the nature of space, time, causation and existence, the foundations of reality itself. It’s generally considered untestable, since metaphysical assumptions underlie all our efforts to conduct tests and interpret results. Those assumptions usually go unspoken. Most of the time, that’s fine.

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The Physics of Cold Water May Have Jump-Started Complex Life

Veronique Greenwood — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 14:10:10 +0000

Once upon a time, long ago, the world was encased in ice. That’s the tale told by sedimentary rock in the tropics, many geologists believe. Hundreds of millions of years ago, glaciers and sea ice covered the globe. The most extreme scenarios suggest a layer of ice several meters thick even at the equator. This event has been called “Snowball Earth,” and you’d think it would be a terrible time to...

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Simple Equation Predicts the Shapes of Carbon-Capturing Wetlands

Gabriel Popkin — Tue, 28 May 2024 14:09:01 +0000

A visit to a peat bog will make you rethink everything you know about the surface of our planet. A bog is land, sort of, but not in the solid-ground sense you’re used to. If you try walking across one’s surface, you may feel the soft organic muck known as peat undulate beneath you — or you may sink into it yourself. From the surface, it’s hard to know whether the waterlogged peat extends 3 feet...

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Can Information Escape a Black Hole?

Janna Levin — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 13:09:00 +0000

Nothing escapes a black hole … or does it? In the 1970s, the physicist Stephen Hawking described a subtle process by which black holes can “evaporate,” with some particles evading gravitational oblivion. That phenomenon, now dubbed Hawking radiation, seems at odds with general relativity, and it raises an even weirder question: If particles can escape, do they preserve any information about the...

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Dark Energy May Be Weakening, Major Astrophysics Study Finds

Charlie Wood — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:00:41 +0000

Physicists have deduced subtle hints that the mysterious “dark” energy that drives the universe to expand faster and faster may be slightly weakening with time. It’s a finding that has the potential to shake the foundations of physics. “If true, it would be the first real clue we have gotten about the nature of dark energy in 25 years,” said Adam Riess, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins...

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