The pioneering life of Edward Alexander Bouchet

The first African American physicist to earn a PhD made the best of a difficult career path.

Undergraduate students grapple with an uncertain future

Apprehension about career pathways and research funding dominated the list of concerns expressed by physics and astronomy undergraduates in a recent survey.

Analysis of B-meson decay hints at new physics

The measured trajectories of the products of a rare B-meson decay deviate from the predictions of the standard model.

Separating signals in the soft x-ray sky

An analysis of two years of measurements from far beyond Earth’s atmosphere has yielded a comprehensive map of x rays that are generated by solar wind.

Koloina Randrianarivony manages financial risk at the World Bank

Relativistic plasma could boost intensity of petawatt laser

With a new approach to generating powerful laser pulses, researchers may have the means to observe phenomena in quantum electrodynamics.

How human hearing is shaping high-end audio

Insights into how the auditory system processes time and information are guiding audio design beyond traditional measures of fidelity.

Amelia Paine works to bring rare-disease treatments to patients

The Virtual Cook: Modeling Heat Transfer in the Kitchen

With a second‐order differential equation and a computer, the gastro‐physicist can challenge much of the conventional wisdom about how to grill a steak to perfection.

Hannah Pell ensures regulatory compliance at Three Mile Island

A collider conversion

Oppenheimer reflects on his early career

Interviews now available to the public bring the famed physicist’s lesser-known early years to life.

Q&A: Amal Kasry works to strengthen science where it’s most needed

For the UNESCO section chief, “striking a balance between global coherence and respect for national ownership and cultural diversity is both essential and complex.”

Experiment closes in on a second critical point of water

Precision heating of amorphous ice allows researchers to make tricky measurements of supercooled water.

arXiv sets out on its own

In search of funding and autonomy, the preprint service is launching as a nonprofit.

Fluid fingers through the sand

Signals through salt: Building machines that use the language of biology

Physiological communication relies primarily on ions to carry signals. The emerging field of bioiontronics aims to build engineered devices that can do the same.

Brightness of the night sky is volatile

By analyzing daily satellite observations, researchers identified rapid and localized brightness changes caused by human activity.

Sandy Chilson teaches science in and out of the classroom