Van Dishoeck talks about some of the key unanswered questions in astrochemistry, including how complex molecules form on the tiny specks of dust in interstellar space. We chat about the recent growth ...

Small levitating platforms that can stay airborne indefinitely at very high altitudes have been developed by researchers in the US and Brazil. Using photophoresis, the devices could be adapted to ...

Hybrid copper-halide-based emitters promise the best of both worlds, being both non-toxic and stable. They are also inexpensive, with tuneable optical properties and a high luminescence efficiency, ...

David Norman reviews The Physics of Birds and Birding: the Sounds, Colors and Movements of Birds, and Our Tools for Watching Them by Michael Hurben ...

The first precise mass measurements of an extremely short-lived and proton-rich nucleus, silicon-22, have revealed the “magic” – that is, unusually tightly bound – nature of nuclei containing 14 ...

Travis Humble is director of the Quantum Science Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, US – which is run by the US Department of Energy (DOE). The centre links the capabilities ...

“Until now, we thought that solids could not exist above about three times their melting temperatures,” White says. “Our results show that if we heat a material rapidly – that is, before it has time ...

This episode of Physics World Stories explores a new book that restores women to the early history of quantum mechanics ...

Jonathan Edwards, who originally studied physics at Durham University, still holds the men’s world record for the triple-jump. Edwards broke the record twice on 7 August 1995 at the World Athletics ...

Researchers in the US are first to show how a melting ice disc can quickly propel itself across a patterned surface in a manner reminiscent of the Leidenfrost effect. Jonathan Boreyko and colleagues ...

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At high temperatures and pressures, molten carbon has two options. It can crystallize into diamond and become one of the ...