The Most Surprising Discoveries in Physics

Trouble viewing? View in your browser. View all Scientific American publications.

    

July 27, 2023

This week, we're feeling surprised. Mostly by the scorching, record-shattering heat that is gripping much of the globe, but also by some arguably less ominous developments. Our lead story highlights the most delightfully unexpected discoveries in physics, as selected by a cadre of thoughtful researchers. Elsewhere, we have a bounty of other coverage, including stories on a dress rehearsal for an asteroid sample return, deeper scrutiny of a nearby supernova, the inspiring story of the Black astrophysicist Aomawa Shields, a tantalizing comet sprouting "wings," and much more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics

Astronomy The Most Surprising Discoveries in Physics Experts weigh in on the most shocking, paradigm-shifting and delightful findings in the history of physics By Clara Moskowitz

Astronomy Only 26 Black Women Have Ever Become Astrophysicists in the U.S. Here's One's Story Astrophysicist Aomawa Shields recounts her alternative career path in a new memoir about life, space and motherhood By Rebecca Boyle

Mathematics Why Do Cats Land on Their Feet? Physics Explains As it turns out, felines can survive a fall from any height—at least in theory By Manon Bischoff

Space Exploration This Is How the First-Ever U.S. Asteroid Sample Return Will Unfold Scientists are gearing up for a high-stakes finale to OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to snare a sample from an asteroid By Leonard David

Astronomy 'Millennium Falcon' Comet Sprouts Icy Wings as It Loops around the Sun Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, headed for its closest encounter with the sun next year, has started to heat up, leading to a cinematic outburst of icy volcanism By Daniel Vergano

Astrophysics Nearby Supernova Gives Unique View of a Dying Star's Last Days Astronomers are piecing together the final moments of supernova 2023ixf and learning more about it than any other in recent history By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Astronomy Earthshine Lights up the 'Dark Side' of the Moon This week—and any time there's a new crescent moon—the lunar night is a little less dark, thanks to the bright reflected light of Earth By Phil Plait

Planetary Science 'Man in the Moon' Older Than Scientists Thought Revisiting the precious lunar samples on Earth suggests that some areas of the moon's surface might be older than scientists once thought By Meghan Bartels

Astrophysics JWST Might Have Spotted the First Dark Matter Stars Stars fueled by the self-annihilation of dark matter might have been spotted for the first time by JWST By Stephanie Pappas

Materials Science Controversial Physicist Faces Mounting Accusations of Scientific Misconduct Allegations of data fabrication have sparked the retraction of multiple papers from Ranga Dias, a researcher who claimed discovery of a room-temperature superconductor By Dan Garisto,Nature magazine

Black Holes Oppenheimer Almost Discovered Black Holes Before He Became 'Destroyer of Worlds' Before leading the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer co-authored a paper explaining that the most massive stars must eventually become what we would now call a black hole By Meghan Bartels

Defense Here's What 'Oppenheimer' Gets Right--and Wrong--about Nuclear History Here's what a historian who has studied J. Robert Oppenheimer for two decades has to say about the new Christopher Nolan film on the father of the hydrogen bomb. By Lee Billings,Jeffery DelViscio,Carin Leong | 14:13

Defense What the Film Oppenheimer Probably Will Not Talk About: The Lost Women of the Manhattan Project Hundreds of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project were women. They were physicists, chemists, engineers and mathematicians. Today we bring you the story of one of them. By Katie Hafner,Erica Huang,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Artificial Intelligence Oppenheimer Offers Us a Fresh Warning of AI's Danger The U.S. ignored Oppenheimer's warnings about nuclear weapons and rushed to build and deploy a dangerous technology. We must not make the same mistake with AI By Senator Edward J. Markey

History What Was the Manhattan Project? The top-secret Manhattan Project resulted in the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 By Tom Metcalfe

Defense This Lost Woman of the Manhattan Project Saw the Deadly Effects of Nuclear Radiation Up Close Floy Agnes Lee came to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1945 knowing nothing of the top secret work on the atomic bomb happening all around her—but she studied the blood of the researchers who did. By Katie Hafner,Monica Lopez,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Many of these events occurred relatively recently, showing that the field of physics continues to astound us." Clara Moskowitz, senior editor at Scientific American, on the most surprising physics discoveries in history.

FROM THE ARCHIVE 6 Times Quantum Physics Blew Our Minds in 2022 Quantum telepathy, laser-based time crystals, a glow from empty space and an "unreal" universe—these are the most awesome (and awfully hard to understand) results from the subatomic realm we encountered in 2022 By Lee Billings | December 2022

LATEST ISSUES

Questions?   Comments?

Download the Scientific American App

To view this email as a web page, go here. You received this email because you opted-in to receive email from Scientific American. To ensure delivery please add newsletters@scientificamerican.com to your address book. Unsubscribe     Manage Email Preferences     Privacy Policy     Contact Us

Scientific American

1 New York Plaza, FDR Dr, Floor 46, New york, NY 10004

Unsubscribe - Unsubscribe Preferences