The Big Bang is often described as the explosive birth of the universe – a singular moment when space, time and matter sprang into existence. But what if this was not the beginning at all? What if our universe emerged from something else – something more familiar and radical at the same time? In a […]
“God does not play dice.” This famous remark by Albert Einstein critiqued the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics. Paradoxically, his theory of relativity has become an essential tool for understanding the behaviour of electrons, the primary subjects of quantum mechanics. Electrons are so minuscule that their behaviour must be analysed through quantum mechanics, yet they […]
The relationship between experiences of bullying and serious mental health problems has been at the center of scientific debate for years. However, it is only in the last decade that longitudinal studies have made it possible to go beyond correlation and explore the direction and persistence of these effects over time. Two pieces of research—an […]
Why didn’t the universe annihilate itself moments after the big bang? A new finding at Cern on the French-Swiss border brings us closer to answering this fundamental question about why matter dominates over its opposite – antimatter. Author: William Barter, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, University of Edinburgh Much of what we see in everyday life […]
The Dead Sea is a confluence of extraordinary conditions: the lowest point on Earth’s land surface, with one of the world’s highest salinities. The high concentration of salt gives it a correspondingly high density, and the water body’s status as the deepest hypersaline lake gives rise to interesting and often temperature-related phenomena below the water’s […]
Aging is inevitable, but not all forms of aging are the same. While some people reach old age in good physical and mental health, others suffer a progressive decline that affects their quality of life. What if there was a way to tip the balance toward healthier aging? A group of researchers from several scientific […]
Astrophysics • DIPC Astrophysics • DIPC Particle Physics • Particle physics
Deep in the heart of exploding stars and colliding neutron stars lies a hidden light we’ve barely glimpsed — gamma rays in the mega-electron-volt (MeV) range. These elusive rays, carrying clues about cosmic explosions and mysterious phenomena like dark matter, have been hard to study due to technological limits. Enter COCOA , a compact, innovative […]
Can you prove whether a large quantum system truly behaves according to the weird and wonderful rules of quantum mechanics—or if it just looks like it does? In a new study, physicists from Leiden, Beijing and Hangzhou found the answer to this question. You could call it a “quantum lie detector”: Bell’s test designed by […]
Each year, millions of people experience an ischaemic stroke, a condition where a blood clot blocks the flow of oxygen and nutrients to part of the brain. Even when doctors act quickly to remove the clot, many survivors struggle with long-term challenges like difficulty moving, remembering, or managing emotions. While treatments like clot-dissolving drugs or […]
For more than a century, a well-known 18-electron rule has guided the field of organometallic chemistry. Now, researchers at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), in collaboration with scientists from Germany, Russia, and Japan, have successfully synthesized a novel organometallic compound that challenges this longstanding principle. They have created a stable 20-electron derivative of […]