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SciencePhysics & ChemistryThese Are Bubbles Made of Sand
Engineers observed bubbles of sand moving within other sand, like oil droplets through water, in a first-of-its-kind observation. It’s difficult for scientists to understand the behavior of countless small moving particles, and we’re still learning new things about materials like sand, as some of our past stories show. In a new experiment, scientists observed two … Continued
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Tech NewsThanos, CBD, and Disembodied Pig Brains: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
An awful lot happened this week—some of it good, much of it bad, and a bit of it just plain weird. In the good news category, the Hubble Space Telescope turned 29, New York City passed a world-first law requiring owners of large buildings to reduce their climate impact, scientists used a modified 747 to … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsWhat Do Nuclear Bomb Explosions Sound Like?
On July 16, 1945, scientists first unleashed the energy stored at the center of the atomic nucleus, causing a massive explosion in the New Mexican desert. That bomb’s successors would kill several hundred thousand people, permanently alter the course of international relations, and instill a constant sense of fear across the world for the following … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryThe Quest for the Most Elusive Material in Physics
Zack Geballe spent months screwing together pairs of polished diamonds at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Geophysical Laboratory. Theory predicted that squeezed between the diamonds’ tips could be one of the most miraculous substances of modern physics—a material that, at near room temperature, could transport electricity without losing power. He just needed to get the … Continued
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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightWhy Doesn’t the Black Hole Image Look Like the One From Interstellar?
No one knew what a black hole looked like before today. Sure, we thought we knew, thanks to simulations and the now-famous black hole featured in the movie Interstellar. But today, scientists behind the Event Horizon Telescope unveiled an image of the 6.5-billion-solar-mass black hole at the center of the (relatively) nearby galaxy M87. And … Continued
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Tech NewsPoliticsPentagon Pulls Funding for Team of Academics Who Work on the Most Difficult Scientific Problems
The U.S. Department of Defense under Patrick M. Shanahan has quietly pulled funding for an independent organization called the Jason Group under the Pentagon’s latest budget proposal. And it’s just one more way that the Trump regime is chipping away at independent scientific voices in the U.S. government. The Jasons, as they’re sometimes called, are … Continued
By Matt Novak -
EartherEarth SciencePyroclastic Flows May Spread Swift Death on a Cushion of Air
Scientists think they’ve figured out how pyroclastic flows, fast-moving bringers of death during volcanic events, can travel such incredible distances and speeds despite the friction between the volcanic material and the ground. Pyroclastic flows are searing-hot mixtures of volcanic material and gas that travel explosively down the slopes of volcanoes, sometimes traversing tens of miles … Continued
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Tech NewsGimlet’s Union Drive, Twisted Graphene, and Psychedelic Mice: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
Well, folks, it’s just a few hours shy of the turn of the month, and you know what that means: April Fool’s Day. Yes, it’s that special time of year when insipid brands, mean-spirited teens, and tech titans compete to be the first to trick you into thinking they released Skittle’s… For Men, that it’s … Continued
By Tom McKay -
SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Why Twisted Graphene Is One of the Most Exciting Physics Stories of the Year
Just a year ago, scientists presented results that seemed almost too good to be true: Carbon sheets only a single atom thick, called graphene, took on a pair of important physical properties when they were twisted at just the right “magic” angle relative to one another. If the atmosphere this month at the world’s largest … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Why an Incredible New CERN Observation Has Physicists Popping Champagne
Scientists have announced the observation of “CP violation in a D0 meson” at CERN, a discovery that will appear in physics textbooks for years to come. You’re probably wondering what exactly it means. The Universe is full of regular matter. There’s also antimatter, which exists even here on Earth, but there’s much less of it. … Continued
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EartherEarth Science
Indian Scientists Measure 1.3-Billion-Volt Thunderstorm, the Strongest on Record
Scientists in India observed the highest-voltage thunderstorm ever documented with the help of a subatomic particle you might not hear much about: the muon. The researchers operate the GRAPES-3 telescope, which measures muons, particles that are similar to electrons but heavier. Specifically, the Gamma Ray Astronomy at PeV EnergieS Phase-3 (GRAPES-3) muon telescope measures high-energy … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Mercury, Not Venus, Is the Closest Planet to Earth
A team of scientists just demonstrated something that might shock you: Mercury, not Venus, is the closest planet to Earth on average. The researchers presented their results this week in an article in the magazine Physics Today. They explain that our methods of calculating which planet is “the closest” oversimplifies the matter. But that’s not … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
The UK Royal Mint Is Putting a Black Hole on a Coin to Honor Stephen Hawking
The United Kingdom’s Royal Mint will honor the work of Stephen Hawking with a commemorative coin featuring the physicist’s name above concentric circles representing a black hole. It looks pretty awesome. The famous scientist died last year and is perhaps most known in the scientific community for his study of black holes and the idea … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
How Heavy Is the Milky Way?
By combining data from the Hubble and Gaia space telescopes, an international team of astronomers has come up with the most accurate estimate yet of our galaxy’s mass. From stars, planets, and asteroids through to black holes and invisible dark matter, our galaxy is packed with a lot of stuff. The total mass of all … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
How Scientists Made a Laser Beam That Can Pass Through White Paint
It’s not quite seeing through walls, but scientists are working to engineer light beams so that they can pass through an opaque medium without scattering, according to a new paper. When you shine headlights through a fog, they scatter or reflect and the beam spreads out. But there are times when scientists really need to … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Astronomers Around the World Are Training in Case a Giant Asteroid Threatens Earth
On October 12, 2017, a 20-meter asteroid passed just 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) from Earth. For weeks, dozens of astronomers from labs around the world mobilized, measuring everything they could about the asteroid in preparation for an impact. This asteroid had been discovered five years before, and the astronomers knew that it wasn’t actually a … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Physicists Propose Hunting for Signs of Dark Matter in Ancient Minerals
Physicists typically build large, complex experiments to hunt for dark matter particles coming from outer space, but what if clues to its existence have been hiding inside the Earth all along? One group of physicists proposes hunting for signs of it in ancient minerals, such as olivine or gypsum, that formed in the Earth’s mantle … Continued
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Tech NewsFake FCC Comments, Shark DNA, and the Edge of Everything: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
Hopefully your week has been better than leading New York politicians, like NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew “Amazon” Cuomo—both of whom are still dealing with the disastrous fallout from the failed deal to subsidize a new Amazon facility in Queens’s Long Island City neighborhood. (Adding insult to injury: de Blasio, who has … Continued
By Tom McKay -
SciencePhysics & ChemistryParticle Physicists Build a Meatball Collider
A team of particle physicists wanted “to unveil the deepest secrets of the Universe—and of Swedish cuisine.” So, naturally, they built a Swedish meatball collider. The MEAL, or MEatball AcceLerator collaboration, could answer important questions such as why we’re made of meatballs, rather than anti-meatballs, or whether we can create dark meatballs. The proof-of-concept experiment … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryScientists Produce Rigorous Study of Why Grapes Spark in the Microwave
A paper published Monday in a well-known science journal begins with the following sentence: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a pair of grape hemispheres exposed to intense microwave radiation will spark, igniting a plasma.” A universally acknowledged truth indeed… but what causes this microwave marvel? If you’re not familiar, putting grapes into a … Continued