Physicists could justly be accused of living in a bit of a fantasy world. As every student encountering physics for the first time knows, very little gets done unless we assume that friction does not exist, objects are perfectly shaped blocks or balls, and collisions release no energy in the form of sound or heat….Continue Reading Exploring the Messy Reality of Defective Crystals
Category: Bite-sized Physics
Could Gamma Rays Shed Light on Dark Matter?
Dark Matter More than 80 years ago, the German physicist Fritz Zwicky theorized the existence of an invisible substance whose gravity holds galaxies together. He called it Dunkle Materie: Dark Matter – and to this day we have no great theory for what it might be. We have written about dark matter on our blog…Continue Reading Could Gamma Rays Shed Light on Dark Matter?
A Fifth Force of Nature? Forging New Frontiers in Physics
Nearly 400 years ago, as the legend goes, Sir Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on his head. This gave him the idea that the laws of nature “up there” keeping the planets around the sun, must be the same laws “down here” keeping his feet on the ground. Newton…Continue Reading A Fifth Force of Nature? Forging New Frontiers in Physics