Physical Science

Groundbreaking physical organic chemist

In a study published today in Joule, researchers at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center report that giving batteries their first charge at unusually high currents increased their average lifespan by 50% while decreasing the initial charging time from 10 hours to just 20 minutes.

With temperatures rising globally, the need for more sustainable cooling options is also growing. Researchers at UCLA and their colleagues have now found an affordable and scalable process to cool buildings in the summer and heat them in the winter.

Scientists still debate whether our mathematical models of the universe objectively exist

Well, not anyone. You have to meet some pretty stringent job requirements

This theoretical geoengineering technique is called "marine cloud brightening." Some experts say it could inadvertently cause new problems.

Teachers, librarians, and community leaders from across Northeast Ohio came to NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland to learn how to conduct eclipse events safely and effectively.

A team of scientists has figured out how to convert planet-warming carbon dioxide into a harmless powdery fuel that could be converted into clean electricity

In a Perspective, a biophysical chemist, Kenneth J. Breslauer, and his brother, a political scientist, George W. Breslauer, explore the parallelisms between the concept of stability as it is used in their respective fields. The Perspective is published in the journal PNAS Nexus.

President Joe Biden's national climate adviser Ali Zaidi speaks with The Verge about what climate change means for the US economy.

A new tool based on machine learning uses features of writing style to distinguish between human and AI authors

Letters respond to Gideon Lewis-Kraus's article about the researchers Dan Ariely and Francesca Gino, and to Ruth Franklin's review of novels reimagining "Frankenstein."

Physicists and philosophers recently met to debate a theory of consciousness called panpsychism

The universe is humming with gravitational radiation—a very low-frequency rumble that rhythmically stretches and compresses spacetime and the matter embedded in it.

UPDATE: (Read after reading what's below the line.) NewsHub, which has seen the proposed curriculum document described below, also says that biology is largely missing from the proposed curri…

In late April, head teacher Katharine Birbalsingh commented that girls didn't like physics and are put off it because of the hard maths. Is this true?

Imagine the possibility of life forms on other planets that don't resemble any on Earth. What might they look like, and why would they be so different?

A hands-on introduction to machine learning and its applications to the physical sciences

NASA advances science planning for the historic return of humans to the Moon.

Research in quantum mechanics is usually centered on tech. But there is evidence that nature has learned how to use quantum mechanics to function optimally.