
Emily Conover
Physics Reporter at Science News
Physics reporter at @sciencenews. Find me on threads (@emcconover) and bluesky (@econover.bsky.social) She/her
Articles
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3 days ago |
sciencenews.org | Emily Conover
One of the most enduring mysteries of particle physics may be finally resolved, two new studies suggest. The oddities of muons, subatomic particles that are relatives of electrons, are starting to make sense. Muons have an internal magnetism that scientists have struggled to pin down: Measurements of a magnetic quirk of the particles have long clashed with theoretical predictions.
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2 weeks ago |
sciencenews.org | Emily Conover
In sports, the best offense is often a good defense. It’s not clear if the same applies in nuclear war. In the face of nuclear threats from adversaries like Russia, China and North Korea, some politicians are clamoring for a system to reliably protect the United States from incoming missiles.
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2 weeks ago |
sciencenews.org | Emily Conover
In a first-of-its-kind test, scientists used a levitated magnet to search for dark matter, the unidentified substance believed to be present throughout the cosmos. If dark matter is made up of ultralight particles, it could behave like a wave that would subtly jostle the magnet. Although no signs of such jostling appeared, a few tweaks could improve the experiment’s sensitivity to dark matter’s potential influence, the researchers report in a paper to be published in Physical Review Letters.
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2 weeks ago |
sciencenews.org | Emily Conover
Women in the History of Quantum PhysicsEdited by Patrick Charbonneau, Michelle Frank, Margriet van der Heijden and Daniela MonaldiCambridge Univ., $49.99In the 1920s, when quantum mechanics was young, physicists Jane Dewey and Laura Chalk performed some of the first experimental tests of the theory, based on a phenomenon called the Stark effect.
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2 weeks ago |
sciencenews.org | Emily Conover
One hundred years ago on a quiet, rocky island, German physicist Werner Heisenberg helped set in motion a series of scientific developments that would touch nearly all of physics. There, Heisenberg developed the framework of quantum mechanics. At the time, quantum theory was just a loose collection of ideas about the quirks of physics on the scale of atoms. In June 1925, the 23-year-old Heisenberg cloistered himself on the island of Helgoland, in search of relief from a nasty attack of hay fever.
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RT @adamconover: Amazing piece by my sister @emcconover on how quantum computers are going to transform cryptography. Read it.

RT @CassieRMartin: I loved editing this story by @emcconover and legit screamed with joy when she sent me the photo that goes with it.

RT @hadriancho: Really cool story by @ScienceNews @emcconover about a particular tile shape that can be used to completely cover an infinit…