Two independent teams have built operating nuclear clocks—devices that might one day rival the best atomic clocks and offer new ways to probe fundamental physics. Photograph of the thorium-229-doped ...

When intense quantum light knocks electrons out of atoms, the statistics of the light can be transferred to the electrons. Strong-field ionization—a process in which intense laser light strips ...

Researchers observe atoms trapped in an optical lattice mimicking particles created in a strong electric field. In physics, you can get something from nothing. In a strong electric field, electrons ...

Pairing superconducting qubits with microwave cavities could reduce the hardware requirements for quantum simulations of fundamental physics. Performing simulations of quantum systems on an ordinary ...

A new technique for generating solid fibers from a liquid jet is easier to model—and thus easier to control—than past methods. Transformed by light. These seven photos show a liquid streaming downward ...

The shape of gold nanostructures changes depending on how they are imaged. This electron-microscope image shows a nanosized cube wrapped in a gold layer. The tiny package is the result of reactions ...

The creation of modern quantum mechanics was a messy business in which many of the participants did not grasp the significance of their own discoveries. The wave nature of electrons is revealed in ...

Figure 1: Will two objects fall at the same rate in a vacuum? Galileo was the first to test this equivalence principle, and he was followed by many others, including the Apollo astronauts. Now, the ...

The new JWST observatory is revealing far more bright galaxies in the early Universe than anyone predicted, and astrophysicists have more than one explanation for the puzzle. With the JWST observatory ...

Scientists have pinpointed energy-efficient ways to cook al dente pasta and developed an infallible recipe for the perfect cacio e pepe sauce. The study by Toultchinski and Vilgis was inspired by a ...

Particle physicists are faced with a growing list of “anomalies”—experimental results that conflict with the standard model but fail to overturn it for lack of sufficient evidence. For their study of ...

The geometric patterns on dry, salty lake beds are generated by convection of high- and low-salinity water underground, according to simulations and observations. Patterns in nature. The polygons in ...