Collaborate Disseminate
Scientists in Japan have managed to manipulate light as though it was being influenced by gravity. By carefully distorting a photonic crystal, the team was able to invoke “pseudogravity” to bend a beam of light, which could have useful applications in … Continue reading “Pseudogravity” in crystals can bend light like black holes
Our solar system officially houses eight planets, but some scientists say there could be a ninth. And that’s not just Pluto aficionados – evidence suggests a huge undiscovered world lurks on the dark fringes out there. Now, a new study has found the ou… Continue reading “Modified gravity” could rule out both dark matter and Planet Nine
Antimatter has intrigued and confounded physicists for almost a century, and the effect of gravity on antimatter has been a point of disagreement. New research may have settled the debate by finding that antihydrogen atoms, the antimatter counterpart o… Continue reading Antigravity disproved: Antimatter responds to gravity just like matter
From strange stars to weird worlds and other odd objects that defy explanation, the cosmos constantly surprises us. Now astronomers have discovered a “heartbreak” star system where tidal waves, three times taller than the Sun, rise and crash on the sur… Continue reading 3-million-mile-high tsunamis crash down on “heartbreak” star
Of the four fundamental forces of physics, gravity is the one we’re most familiar with in everyday life, but it’s also the only one that can’t currently be explained by quantum physics. Now scientists have outlined a plan to look for signs of quantum g… Continue reading “Quantum gravity” clues could be hiding in the songs of black holes
Although we take a lot of scientific knowledge for granted today, each of the basics – whether it be about light, gravity, mass or the shape of the Earth – …read more Continue reading Leonardo da Vinci’s Visualization of Gravity as a Form of Acceleration
Astrophysicists have observed some puzzling behavior in star clusters that seem to defy our current understanding of gravity at cosmic scales. Intriguingly, the observations fit with an alternative theory of gravity that could negate the need for dark … Continue reading Puzzling astronomical observations support alternative theory of gravity
Microgravity wreaks havoc on the bodies of astronauts, which is bad news given humanity’s space-bound ambitions. A NASA experiment housing fruit flies on the International Space Station has now shown that artificial gravity can help reduce some of thos… Continue reading Artificial gravity reduces spaceflight’s health toll in fruit fly tests
If you’ve seen the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) this week (and let’s face it, how could you not?), you might have heard the term “gravitational lensing” being thrown around. But what does it mean exactly? And how can it help … Continue reading What is gravitational lensing and how can the James Webb Telescope use it?
The flow of time isn’t as consistent as we might think – gravity slows it down, so clocks on the surface of Earth tick slower than those in space. Now researchers have measured time passing at different speeds across just one millimeter, the smallest d… Continue reading Physicists measure gravitational time warp to within one millimeter