For decades a distant dream, the countdown to nuclear fusion may have finally begun
The latest results from the National Ignition Facility in the US represent the passing of a nuclear fusion power milestone and come after a year of significant progress at projects in France and the UK. The concept…
Before fusion: a human history of fire
We humans are fire creatures. Tending fire is a species trait, a capacity we alone possess – and one we are not likely to tolerate willingly in any other species.…
Fusion energy: A time of transition and potential
For centuries, humans have dreamed of harnessing the power of the sunto energize our lives here on Earth. But we want to go beyond collecting solar energy, and one day generate…
Why nuclear fusion is gaining steam –again
Back when I studied geology in grad school, the long-term future of energy had a single name: nuclear fusion. It was the 1970s. The physicists I studied with predicted that…
Elements from the stars: The unexpected discovery that upended astrophysics 66 years go
Nearly 70 years ago, astronomer Paul Merrill was watching the sky through a telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California. As he observed the light coming from a distant star, he…
The Standard Model of particle physics: The absolutely amazing theory of almost everything
The Standard Model. What dull name for the most accurate scientific theory known to human beings. More than a quarter of the Nobel Prizes in physics of the last century…
Electric dipole moment in the quantum world
The story of EDM, however, is very different in the quantum world. There the vacuum around an electron is not empty and still. Rather it is populated by various subatomic…
What a tiny electron can tell us about the structure of the universe
What is the shape of an electron? If you recall pictures from your high school science books, the answer seems quite clear: an electron is a small ball of negative…
Bizarre Superfluid Could Explain the Existence of the Modern Universe
Back in the first moment of the universe, everything was hot and dense and in perfect balance. There weren't any particles as we'd understand them, much less any stars or…
A Mirror Image of Our Universe May Have Existed Before the Big Bang
Like a mountain looming over a calm lake, it seems the universe may once have had a perfect mirror image. That's the conclusion a team of Canadian scientists reached after…
