Empty space, despite how we think of it, may not be as empty as we assume. Although we cannot detect the virtual particles present in empty space, their presence is necessary to predict, ...

Quantum physicists regularly ask you with a straight face to accept what seems to be complete nonsense. Particles are also waves; cats are alive and dead at the same time. But some of the most ...

The universe is a strange place on very small scales. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. What makes up the matter we perceive in the ...

Physicist Richard Feynman invented them to describe the interactions between real particles. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. This ...

What is our Universe made out of? At a fundamental level, to the best of our knowledge, the answer is simple: particles and fields. The type of matter that makes up humans, Earth, and all the stars, ...

It has been thought of as many things: a pointlike object, an excitation of a field, a speck of pure math that has cut into reality. But never has physicists’ conception of a particle changed more ...

Annika Seppälä is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago. She has previously received research funding from the European Council and the Academy of Finland. University of Otago provides funding ...

At every moment, subatomic particles stream in unfathomable numbers through your body. Each second, about 100 billion neutrinos from the sun pass through your thumbnail, and you’re bathed in a rain of ...

Breaking the rules is exciting, especially if they have held for a long time. This is true not just in life but also in particle physics. Here the rule I'm thinking of is called “lepton flavor ...