Scientists made a breakthrough discovery about the physics of Hawking radiation by making a miniature black hole out of light in the laboratory.
Category: physics – Page 2
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Sara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist. She is the author of a new book titled \.
Gravitational waves reveal hidden populations within black hole mergers
Since gravitational waves were first detected in 2015, instruments including LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA have picked up a steady stream of signals from colliding black holes, building a catalog that now numbers in the hundreds. Yet despite this wealth of data, a fundamental question has remained stubbornly unresolved: How do these black holes actually form?
Now, two independent research teams have used fresh theoretical approaches to comb through the data, and both arrived at a similar conclusion: Merging black holes don’t form a single uniform group, but instead separate into distinct subpopulations, each bearing the fingerprints of different formation mechanisms. Both studies have been published in Physical Review Letters.
Visualization of Merging Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
Source: Ashtekar A, Paraizo DE, Shu J (2026). “Thermodynamics of Black Holes, Far from Equilibrium.” Physical Review Letters. DOI 10.1103/3c1r-v8f1. Published June 24, 2026. Selected as Editor’s Suggestion. Penn State University. ScienceDaily, July 13, 2026. Quotes: Abhay Ashtekar, Penn State. Video.
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A 200-year-old physics experiment could help build future computers
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have found a much simpler way to produce unusual light structures known as optical skyrmions by reviving a classic optics experiment that dates back more than 200 years.
Optical skyrmions are tiny, stable swirling patterns formed within the properties of light. Their structure has often been compared to the spines of a hedgehog. Because they can potentially encode and store information, researchers see them as promising building blocks for future data storage, communications, and computing technologies.
Instead of relying on expensive, highly engineered metamaterials that have traditionally been needed to generate optical skyrmions, the NTU team created them by shining a laser at a small circular disc. The approach provides a far simpler way to produce, study, and control these complex light structures.
Oobleck droplets reveal 5 ways cornstarch ‘goo’ behaves when hitting water
Cornstarch can thicken soup or serve as a base for a DIY shampoo, but there’s more to the humble pantry staple. Given the right conditions, it seems to defy the laws of physics. Mixing cornstarch with water creates “oobleck”—a shape-shifting substance classified as a non-Newtonian fluid that changes states when subjected to a force.
Leave it alone, and it oozes like liquid. Stir it up, and it gets more viscous before locking into a solid. Under certain conditions, if it’s punctured, it can even fracture, according to Northeastern University researchers. The thickening phenomenon is known as the oobleck effect.
Back in 1949, Seuss made oobleck famous as the “green goo” wreaking havoc on a fictional kingdom that a boy named Bartholomew endeavors to rescue. But today, Northeastern mechanical and industrial engineering scientist Xiaoyu Tang and Ph.D. student Boqian Yan are using the same mix of ingredients for a different purpose.
Firefly brightness holds a cautionary tale about accepting older measurements
For over a century, the accepted value for a firefly’s brightness has mostly stood, tracing its origins to experiments carried out in 1912. Through rigorous new analysis published in the American Journal of Physics, David Silver of Remiza AI in New York has discovered that this value has likely been vastly overestimated. His results provide a stark reminder of what can happen when widely accepted older measurements are converted into modern standard units.
Out of the hundreds of species of animals, fungi and bacteria that produce their own light, fireflies are the most widely studied. In the 1880s, experiments revealed that their flashing bioluminescence emerges from a catalyzed reaction between an organic compound named luciferin and an enzyme named luciferase.
In 1912, the brightness of these flashes was measured for the first time by William Coblentz—one of the founders of modern radiometry. “Coblentz reported that the flash of the firefly Photinus pyralis ranged from 1/50th to 1/400th the power of a candle, with 1/400 predominating,” Silver describes.
‘Silly sprinklers’ put in reverse to further unravel decades-old physics puzzle
Each summer, lawns are marked by a familiar addition: “silly sprinklers,” whose loops and spirals spew water in creative ways. While seemingly frivolous in their construction, a team of mathematicians has used their design to address a long-standing mystery surrounding the laws of physics.
For decades, scientists have been trying to solve Feynman’s Sprinkler Problem: How does a sprinkler running in reverse—in which the water flows into the device rather than out of it—work? Through a series of experiments on custom-designed sprinklers with different shapes, the researchers arrived at a clear answer and, more generally, determined how flowing fluids exert forces and move structures.
“This work provides the experimental answer for Feynman’s Sprinkler Problem by showing, across several sprinkler types, how the angular momentum of water flows drives sprinklers’ rotation,” explains Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at New York University’s Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science and the senior author of the paper, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Hidden fifth dimension could tune dark matter resonance, new theory proposes
The mysterious substance that binds galaxies together could naturally be “in tune” with a hidden fifth dimension, according to a new University of Sheffield theory aiming to shed light on one of science’s biggest enigmas: dark matter.
Dark matter has been explored by scientists and science fiction writers for decades, inspiring everything from planet-destroying vortexes in “Star Trek” to the “dust” that sustains the multiverse in Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” fantasy trilogy.
Yet it remains one of the greatest open problems in physics. While scientists are certain it exists because of its immense gravitational effect—acting as an invisible “cosmic glue” holding galaxies together—it has never been observed, and its true nature remains a mystery.