Forget Lasers. The Hot New Tool for Physicists Is Sound
From acoustic tweezers to holograms, engineers are taking inspiration from the field of optics—and riding the sound wave.
How Quickly Can Atoms Slip, Ghostlike, Through Barriers?
A new experiment on how rapidly atoms can tunnel through a barricade revives a physics debate about how time passes on the quantum scale.
The Equity-Diversity-Inclusion Industrial Complex Gets a Makeover
Companies and universities have long relied on seminars to reduce racism, despite lackluster results. Maybe institution leaders can salvage the format.
These Bacteria Ate Their Way Through a Really Tricky Maze
Microbes are well known for working together in stressful environments. Scientists wanted to see how they would fare at a labyrinthine brain teaser.
This Lab ‘Cooks’ With AI to Make New Materials
A Toronto lab recycles carbon dioxide into more useful chemicals, using materials it discovered with artificial intelligence and supercomputers.
Physicists Clear the Air With a Sweet Frickin’ Laser Beam
Fast laser pulses produce a shock wave in air that pushes water vapor aside. That clears channels in clouds for transmitting optical data from satellites.
How to See the World’s Reflection From a Bag of Chips
Computer scientists reconstructed the image of a whole room using the reflection from a snack package. It’s useful for AR/VR research—and possibly spying.