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Death of rare giant star sheds light on cosmic past
One of the most massive stars known exploded in 2007, creating an unusual type of supernova that was likely common in the early universe > >
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Physical Science
Transparent universe reveals hidden galaxies
Detection of high-energy gamma rays from distant "blazars" are forcing a rethink of our ideas about the formation and evolution of galaxies > >
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Physical Science
LHC becomes most powerful accelerator of all time
Last night the rebooted Large Hadron Collider gave a beam of protons the most energy of any particle accelerator ever > >
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Physical Science
Large Hadron Collider
Welcome to the high-carbon future
From coal, soot and pencils to electronics, nanoribbons and atom-thick semiconductors – carbon is turning out to be even more talented than we thought > >
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Physical Science
Rainbow trapped for the first time
An ingeniously simple device, made with just a magnifying lens and a plate of glass, has been used to trap a rainbow of visible light > >
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Physical Science
Superconductors can come in from the cold
Calculations suggest that a wire can be an electrical superconductor even if some sections are at room temperature > >
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Physical Science
The eye-catching best of fluid dynamics
Beautiful images from experiments in fluid dynamics, as exhibited by physicists at a meeting in Minnesota this week > >
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Physical Science
Dark power: Grand designs for interstellar travel
We could reach the stars if we built a black hole starship or a dark matter rocket – we've got the physics to do it > >
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Physical Science
Birthplace of cosmic guitar pinpointed
A pulsar that is forming a massive guitar-shaped wake in interstellar gas has been tracked back to its origin > >
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Physical Science
LHC smashes protons together for first time
The particle accelerator is now officially a collider – it will attempt to break the world record for collision energies before the end of the year > >
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Physical Science
Orion's dark secret: Violence shaped the night sky
A ring of bright stars surrounds us, giving us some of our most familiar constellations. But where did it come from? > >
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Physical Science
Future colliders: Beyond the LHC
Physicists are already plotting how the discoveries of the Large Hadron Collider will shape the next generation of particle smashers > >
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Physical Science
Large Hadron Collider
Ripples in space divide classical and quantum worlds
We're made of subatomic particles that can be in two places at once. So why can't we? > >
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Physical Science
The Mandelbulb: first 'true' 3D image of famous fractal
A group of fractal image makers claim to have made the best three-dimensional portrayal to date of the Mandelbrot set, the most famous fractal equation > >
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Physical Science
The quest for Mandelbrot fractals in 3D
See the process that led to the creation of the first "real" 3D images based on the Mandelbrot set, the most famous fractal equation
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Physical Science
Don't pack your parachute: Totally free fall
Teams of modern-day birdmen are racing to pull off a stunt they hope will be groundbreaking – but only metaphorically > >
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Physical Science
Mystery 'dark flow' extends towards edge of universe
Over a thousand galaxy clusters are streaming in one direction across the sky – some think it's the first sign of a neighbouring universe > >
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Physical Science
First universal programmable quantum computer unveiled
Ion-trap two-qubit device put through its paces > >
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Physical Science
Piezoelectronics gets green makeover
Piezoelectric materials have traditionally been made from lead, but now there's a clean alternative that could soon perform just as well > >
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Physical Science
Quantum 'trampoline' to test gravity
A technique to bounce ultra-cold atoms provides a new way to test the strength of gravity with high accuracy > >
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Physical Science
Mini ice age took hold of Europe in months
Detailed studies of ancient climate have revealed that the onset of Europe's "Big Freeze", 13,000 years ago, was anything but glacial > >
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Physical Science
In SUSY we trust: What the LHC is really looking for
Forget the God particle - the rebooted Large Hadron Collider will give us much greater revelations > >
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Physical Science
Large Hadron Collider
Backward star ain't from around here
The nearest neighbouring star to orbit the galaxy backwards appears to have come from a much brighter place > >
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Physical Science
Will probe's upcoming fly-by unlock exotic physics?
All eyes will be on the Rosetta comet-chasing probe when it flies by Earth on Friday – a past fly-by revealed a mysterious speed boost that general relativity cannot explain > >
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Physical Science
Earth
Plan to pierce heart of urban monster volcano
Next month, geologists will begin to drill into a huge volcano in Italy that has towns on top of it: is that a good idea? > >
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Physical Science
Mass extinction blamed on fiery fountains of coal
One of Earth's worst-ever mass extinctions may have been caused by carbon dioxide released by exploding mixtures of magma and coal > >
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Physical Science
Earth
Giant crack in Africa formed in just days
A crack in the Earth's crust ripped open in just days in 2005, a new study suggests – it could be the forerunner to a new ocean > >
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Physical Science
Earth
Tomorrow's weather: Cloudy, with a chance of fractals
Umbrella or sunscreen? Flood or drought? The secret of flawless weather forecasting turns out to be surprisingly simple > >
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Physical Science
Michael Green: On the shoulders of Newton and Hawking
The physicist follows Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking into the Lucasian chair of mathematics at the University of Cambridge > >
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Physical Science
Isaac Newton
Stephen Hawking
Atmospheric 'tides' trigger landslides at night
Some landslides slip more at night than during the day, probably because of tiny changes in atmospheric pressure > >
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Physical Science
Signs of alien worlds from long ago and far, far away
Light from 88 remote galaxies, emitted when the universe was young, provides some of the best evidence yet of solar systems beyond the Milky Way > >
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Physical Science
Milky Way
Magnetic 'eyesight' helps birds find their way
Birds have magnetic particles in their nostrils, but it's their visual system that's critical for navigation > >
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Physical Science
Where do ghosts come from?
Some places spook even those who scoff at the supernatural. Our reporter braved a night in a haunted castle to find out why > >
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Physical Science
Slim, warm superconductors promise faster electronics
Some physicists said it would never happen, but an atom-thick layer is enough for high-temperature superconductivity > >
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Physical Science
Why three buses come at once, and how to avoid it
The clumping of commuter buses and trains could be avoided with a dash of meanness from operators and a bit of patience from passengers > >
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Physical Science
Universe's quantum 'speed bumps' no obstacle for light
The prospect that light is slowed by quantum-scale graininess in space-time seems to be fading, thanks to observations by NASA's Fermi telescope > >
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Physical Science
NASA
Multiplying universes: How many is the multiverse?
Imagine 10 to the power of 10 to the power of 10 million universes – oh, sorry, quantum physics says you can't > >
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Physical Science
Probably guilty: Bad mathematics means rough justice
Statistics can stump the best brains – but when courts get it wrong the consequences can be dire. New Scientist brings you five fallacies to forgo > >
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Physical Science
Seven questions that keep physicists up at night
From the nature of matter to that of reality itself, physicists are pondering the big questions at a 10-day physics festival in Canada > >
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Physical Science
Rethinking relativity: Is time out of joint?
An analysis of ancient light from distant galaxies suggests that gravity once distorted time more than space. That's not the way Einstein saw things > >
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Physical Science
Albert Einstein
Was our oldest ancestor a proton-powered rock?
Forget primordial soup: the cradle of life may have been a foaming stone > >
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Physical Science
Solving the crystal maze: The secrets of structure
Crystal structures explain the behaviour of everything from bone to gemstones – but why do they take the shapes they do? We might have cracked it at last > >
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Physical Science
Review: Time by Eva Hoffman
From physics to biology to neuroscience, the many faces of the mysterious dimension are poetically explored > >
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Physical Science
'Magnetricity' observed for first time
Just as the flow of electrons produces electrical current, streaming magnetic 'charges' generate magnetic current – nano-scale computer memory could be on the horizon > >
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Physical Science
First black hole for light created on Earth
An electromagnetic black hole has been built in a lab – and may one day be adapted to generate limitless solar energy even on a cloudy day > >
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Physical Science
Earth
Don Eigler: Two decades of nanotech
The pioneer who wrote "IBM" using 35 xenon atoms in 1989 tells New Scientist how nanotech is progressing > >
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Physical Science
Crystal is one-way street for microwaves
New photonic crystal acts like a diode for radiation and could form new components for optical computers > >
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Physical Science
Building a second sun: Take $10 billion, add coconuts
Work has begun on the world's biggest fusion reactor. New Scientist takes a close-up look at its construction > >
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Physical Science
Review: Cracking the Einstein Code by Fulvio Melia
The story of Roy Kerr, the man who solved Einstein's treacherous equations and paved the way for our understanding of black holes > >
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Physical Science
Albert Einstein
Big bang flashgun to snap atomic anatomy
A plasma soup that dominated the early universe could create flashes brief enough to take snapshots of the inside of atomic nuclei > >
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