Scientists may have finally unlocked the unusual role quasiparticles known as "anyons" play in a pair of quantum experiments ...

"Quantum" may seem like a useless buzzword, but quantum computing is a real thing, and it's actually understandable even if ...

A century ago, the strange behavior of atoms and elementary particles led physicists to formulate a new theory of nature. That theory, quantum mechanics, found immediate success, proving its worth ...

Every year, Santa Claus races around the globe in a matter of hours to bring presents to children all over the world.

Quantum physics has a reputation for needing exotic hardware, from liquid-helium-cooled qubits to sprawling AI clusters, just to crunch through basic simulations. Now a new “physics shortcut” is ...

Olival Freire Jr is a professor of physics and the history of physics at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. What makes matter stable? Why are atoms as they are? Why do different materials vary ...

We’re celebrating 180 years of Scientific American. Explore our legacy of discovery and look ahead to the future. This year is the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, according to ...

A rift runs deep through the heart of physics. The general theory of relativity, which describes gravity, clashes with quantum physics. In an effort to seal that physics fissure, untold numbers of ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

In the 1960s, a group of physicists and historians began a massive project meant to catalogue and record the history of quantum physics. It was called Sources for History of Quantum Physics (SHQP). As ...

Max Born made many contributions to quantum theory. This said, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1954 for establishing the statistical interpretation of the ____________. Fill in the blank ...