Predicting the whirlwind
In more than 20 years as a meteorologist, Joshua Wurman had seen – and chased – more than 150…
Tag: physics
Auto-focus eyeglasses rely on liquid lenses
With round lenses set in super-thick frames, these new eyeglasses look like they belong on a cartoon character. But what…
How Bose–Einstein condensates keep revealing weird physics
A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), the first of which was shown experimentally 22 years ago, isn’t your garden variety state of…
How nonequilibrium thermodynamics speaks to the mystery of life
In his 1944 book What is Life?, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger argued that organisms stay alive precisely by staving off…
The return of supersolids!
We learn it from a young age: solids hold their shapes; liquids flow. Physical states of matter are mutually exclusive.…
Burning to learn
In central California’s Yosemite National Park, it doesn’t take much to set the forest on fire. A discarded cigarette.…
Hacking the Planet
Some problems have easy solutions. If we feel sweaty, we’ll head for the shade. If our soup’s too hot,…
Just Press Print
A person with a failing vital organ usually has only one treatment option: get a new one. But right now,…
Ahead of the wave
Bump a glass and any water inside might slop over the side. Splash in the bathtub and waves slosh.…
Riding raindrops
To humans, falling rain usually amounts to little more than a minor inconvenience. After all, we are big and raindrops…