Physical Science

What is white noise? There's a little more to it than the ambient noise you associate with a humming air conditioner or whirring fan.

By Nicole Antonio

Researchers have come up with the most precise determination of Planck's constant ever, making it possible to reframe the idea of what a kilogram even is.

By Patrick J. Kiger

The seriously ambitious experiment aims to understand the mysterious neutrino and maybe even figure out why matter won out over antimatter during the Big Bang.

By Ian O'Neill, Ph.D.

A reinterpretation of an ancient Babylonian tablet shows that trigonometry might be 1,000 years older than thought. But there's some disagreement.

By Jesslyn Shields

If you're one of those people who chooses invisibility as your desired superpower, it could mean you have a dark side.

By Alia Hoyt

Scientists have figured out why some objects stick more to each other. And it's a very cool trick.

By Alia Hoyt

They say gunshot residue is not a good way to ID a suspect.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

Nights on Earth are getting artificially brighter, bringing unintended consequences.

By Patrick J. Kiger

It's a force of habit to shake spray canisters, but when it comes to canned air, that inclination could cause frostbite.

By Laurie L. Dove

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor plant aims to demonstrate that nuclear fusion could be a viable source of power in the future.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Mary, Queen of Scots was in the news again when amateur cryptologists found the key to decoding some letters that had remained a mystery for 500 years. How did they manage to break the code?

By Dave Roos

A new geometric shape called the "einstein" shape has been discovered and when you tile it, no repeating pattern emerges.

By Jesslyn Shields

Math is a language of symbols and equations and knowing the basic signposts is the first step in solving mathematical problems.

By Thomas Harlander

It's seeped into movies and popular culture, but what does "six degrees of separation" really mean? Are we really that connected to each other?

By Dave Roos

There are two different scales of measuring temperature on Earth, but they merge at just one very cold number.

By Jesslyn Shields

Metallurgy involves studying how metals behave and using that understanding to manipulate and shape them into various forms.

By Desiree Bowie

If you're already familiar with subtracting fractions, learning how to add fractions will be a piece of cake for you. And if you haven't learned how to subtract fractions yet, don't worry — we've got you covered!

By Jesslyn Shields

When a peta and a tera won't do, you can now call on the quetta or the ronna prefixes. But just how big are these new metric systems of measurement?

By Alia Hoyt

The science is pretty simple. It's all about oxidation (the chemical reaction that makes rust). It's just sped up super fast.

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

You can find the distance between two points by using the distance formula. It's an application of the Pythagorean theorem. Remember that from high school algebra?

By Mark Mancini

It's called fusion ignition and it's being hailed as a historic development in nuclear fusion that could pave the way for clean energy. We talked to a nuclear physicist who explained it all.

By Carolyn Kuranz

The very idea of trying to subtract one fraction from another may send you into convulsions of fear, but don't worry — we'll show you how.

By Jesslyn Shields

Want to know the area of your pizza or the kitchen you're eating it in? Come on, and we'll show you how to figure it out with an area formula.

By Thomas Harlander

We take the mystery out of reporting the percent error correctly and show you how to use it in real life.

By Mark Mancini

The Collatz conjecture can be worked on by 9-year-old math whizzes, but it's flummoxed some of the greatest minds of the past century. Will it ever be solved?

By Jesslyn Shields