Culture, history and society

Latest articles

The physics of cycling’s ‘Everesting’ challenge revealed

1:10 scale model of Lomonosov’s laboratory

Stop this historic science site in St Petersburg from being sold

A historic scientific landmark may soon disappear, says Robert P Crease

Shrinivas Kulkarni: curiosity and new technologies inspire Shaw Prize in Astronomy winner

"No shortage of phenomena to explore," says expert on variable and transient objects

Opinion and reviews

A breezy tour of what gaseous materials do for us

Heisenberg gets ‘let off the hook’ in new historical drama based on the Farm Hall transcripts

Abstract representation of quantum entanglement

Paradigm shifts: positivism, realism and the fight against apathy in the quantum revolution

Constellation and Dark Matter: the TV series that could change your view of quantum mechanics

What can quantum multiple-world fiction teach us about identity, ask Robert P Crease and Jennifer Carter

Physics cookbook is fun but fails to gel

Megan Povey reviews Physics in the Kitchen by George Vekinis

When the world went wild for uranium: tales from the history of a controversial element

Margaret Harris reviews Chain Reactions: a Hopeful History of Uranium by Lucy Jane Santos

Could the answer to the Antikythera astronomical device emerge from a Manhattan basement?

Robert P Crease meets Michael Dubno, who is trying to solve the mystery of the ancient Antikythera mechanical device

A love of triangles, the physics of spin, volcanic science and Pascal’s papers: micro reviews of the best recent books

Condensed natter: Physics World editors give their compressed verdicts on top new books

Ursula Le Guin: the pioneering author we should thank for popularizing Schrödinger’s cat

Robert P Crease on why we can thank Ursula Le Guin for popularizing Schrödinger’s cat

Free Peer Review Excellence online course

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Features

A musician and an artist on a large stage in front of an enormous screen showing a painting

Akiko Nakayama: the Japanese artist skilled in fluid mechanics

A group of people including Tom Hanks in front of the ATLAS detector at CERN

Angels & Demons, Tom Hanks and Peter Higgs: how CERN sold its story to the world

Bruno Touschek: the physicist who escaped the Nazi Holocaust to build particle colliders

Explore more in culture, history and society

Researchers cut to the chase on the physics of paper cuts

A paper cut “sweet spot” just happens to be close to the thickness of paper in print magazines

The Wow! signal: did a telescope in Ohio receive an extraterrestrial communication in 1977?

This podcast features an astrobiologist who has identified similar radio signals

Abdus Salam: honouring the first Muslim Nobel-prize-winning scientist

Claudia de Rham and Ian Walmsley pay tribute to the contributions of the great theorist Abdus Salam

Physics for a better future: mammoth book looks at science and society

Our podcast guest is Christophe Rossel, co-author of EPS Grand Challenges

Pumping on a half-pipe: physicists model a skateboarding skill

Variable pendulum describes how energy is pumped into the system

Abdus Salam: celebrating a unifying force in global physics

Our podcast guests are Claudia de Rham and Ian Walmsley at Imperial College

Rumours spread like nuclear fission, say physicists

Neutrons are rumours and people are uranium isotopes in new model

The pink trainers of a runner splashing through water against a black background

Could humans run on water?

Scientists have investigated whether we could mimic basilisk lizards, on Earth or elsewhere

Aperiodicity: the dance event bringing non-repeating patterns to life

Matin Durrani reviews Aperiodic – an art-science performance from South West Dance Theatre

Clams and algae collaborate to harvest sunlight very efficiently

Symbiotic relationship is explored by physicists

Can you solve this pistachio packing problem?

Given a full bowl of pistachios, what size container do you need for the leftover shells?

Kyrenia Ship hull during underwater excavation

Revised calibration curve improves radiocarbon dating of ancient Kyrenia shipwreck

Researchers have placed tighter constraints on the age of the Kyrenia Ship that sank off the coast of Cyprus in the 3rd century BCE

From the lab to Ukraine’s front line

Physicist Holly Tann and colleague Adam McQuire explain how their non-profit organization Casus Pax is helping people in Ukraine

Physics and sport: flying balls, perfecting technique, and wellbeing in academia

Hear from two physicists whose passion for sport has shaped their careers and lives

Photo of a starling in flight with its unfurled wings catching the light against a black background

Birds save up to 25% of their energy when they follow a leader

Study on starlings is the first to measure birds’ energy use directly rather than inferring it from other measurements

Montage of four photos showing a dragonfly, the tail of a whale rising out of water, a bat and a hummingbird

Simple equation predicts how quickly animals flap their wings

Relationship between mass, wing area and wingbeat frequency holds true for insects, bats, birds, whales and even a flapping robot

Baltimore bridge collapse: engineers explain how failures can be avoided

Our podcast guests specialize in bridges and coastal infrastructure

Musical notes and the alpha symbol against blurred red and orange bokeh background

Swift quakes and new podcast music inspired by the fine-structure constant

Discover the geophysics of Taylor Swift concerts and the hidden physics within our new podcast jingle

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