Natalie Wolchover

New York

Physics Journalist at Quanta Magazine

Physics journalist @QuantaMagazine. Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. Kindness, integrity, dignity of all living things.

Articles

Amazing inventions that changed the world

Feb 8, 2025 | msn.com | Natalie Wolchover
Heat Destroys All Order. Except for in This One Special Case.

Jan 16, 2025 | quantamagazine.org | Charlie Wood |Henry Carnell |Janna Levin |Natalie Wolchover

Introduction Sunlight melts snowflakes. Fire turns logs into soot and smoke. A hot oven will make a magnet lose its pull. Physicists know from countless examples that if you crank the temperature high enough, structures and patterns break down. Now, though, they’ve cooked up a striking exception.
The Physicist Decoding the Nonbinary Nature of the Subatomic World

Jan 10, 2025 | quantamagazine.org | Henry Carnell |Janna Levin |Natalie Wolchover |Zack Savitsky

Introduction Many discoveries in physics flow from theory to experiment. Albert Einstein theorized that mass bends the fabric of space-time, and then Arthur Eddington observed the effects of this bending during a solar eclipse. Likewise, Peter Higgs first proposed the existence of the Higgs boson; nearly 50 years later, the particle was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider. Hadronization is different.
What Is Entropy? A Measure of Just How Little We Really Know.

Dec 13, 2024 | quantamagazine.org | Zack Savitsky |Henry Carnell |Janna Levin |Natalie Wolchover

Introduction Life is an anthology of destruction. Everything you build eventually breaks. Everyone you love will die. Any sense of order or stability inevitably crumbles. The entire universe follows a dismal trek toward a dull state of ultimate turmoil. To keep track of this cosmic decay, physicists employ a concept called entropy.
Exotic New Superconductors Delight and Confound

Dec 6, 2024 | quantamagazine.org | Charlie Wood |Henry Carnell |Janna Levin |Natalie Wolchover

Introduction This year, superconductivity — the flow of electric current with zero resistance — was discovered in three distinct materials. Two instances stretch the textbook understanding of the phenomenon. The third shreds it completely. “It’s an extremely unusual form of superconductivity that a lot of people would have said is not possible,” said Ashvin Vishwanath, a physicist at Harvard University who was not involved in the discoveries.
Tag: quantum information theory | Quanta Magazine

Feb 22, 2024 | quantamagazine.org | Ben Brubaker |Charlie Wood |George Musser |Natalie Wolchover

Two researchers have proved that Penrose tilings, famous patterns that never repeat, are mathematically equivalent to a kind of quantum error correction. Inside of a black hole, the two theoretical pillars of 20th-century physics appear to clash. Now a group of young physicists think they have resolved the conflict by appealing to the central pillar of the new century — the physics of quantum information.
Quanta Magazine

Oct 9, 2023 | quantamagazine.org | Charlie Wood |Steven Strogatz |Kevin Hartnett |Natalie Wolchover

Physicists have long suspected that hunks of metal could vibrate in a peculiar way that would be all but invisible. Now physicists have spotted these “demon modes.”The Joy of Why Is Perpetual Motion Possible at the Quantum Level? A new phase of matter called a “time crystal” plays with our expectations of thermodynamics. The physicist Vedika Khemani talks with Steven Strogatz about its surprising quantum behavior.
15 Mars objects that look like signs of life (but aren't)

Oct 3, 2023 | livescience.com | Stephanie Pappas |Natalie Wolchover |Brandon Specktor

Humans have been seeing strange things on the surface of Mars for centuries. Perhaps it's because, other than Earth, Mars is the closest thing in the solar system to a habitable planet, or perhaps it's simply because it's close enough to get a pretty good look at. Either way, Earthlings have been fooled time and again by the rocky Martian surface and their own psychology.
16 inventions that changed the world

Aug 22, 2023 | yahoo.com | Natalie Wolchover

Natalie WolchoverMarch 8, 2024 at 12:00 PM1 / 1716 inventions that changed the world Humans are naturally curious and creative, two traits that have led our species to many scientific and technological breakthroughs. Since our earliest ancestors bashed a rock on the ground to make the first sharp-edged tool, humans have continued to innovate. From the debut of the wheel to the launch of Mars rovers, several of these key advancements stand out as especially revolutionary.