The Big Bang is often described as the moment when everything began – the point of infinite density where the laws of physics were broken. But what if that picture isn’t perfect? A new study presents a different account of the birth of the universe: Instead of a sudden start from singularity, as predicted by … Read more
For the first time, physicists have discovered that ‘holes’ of light can travel faster than light itself. They are known as phase singularities or optical vortices, and since the 1970s, scientists have predicted that, just as the eddies in the river can move faster than the water flowing around them, so can the waves of … Read more
Scientists have struggled for years to explain the mysterious mechanism inside tokamaks, donut-shaped machines designed to one day generate electricity by fusing atoms together. Inside these devices, superheated plasma is held in place by gravity. Some of those particles eventually escape from the back and head towards the smoke chamber, called the divertor. When the … Read more