physics

On Tuesday, physicists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California achieved ignition: a stable fusion reaction that produces more energy than its input.

Scientists have noticed that global precipitation tends to drop after a volcanic eruption, but they haven't known all the factors that can influence this effect. Now, thanks to a new study, a group of researchers thinks the missing link is El Niño, the weather pattern we normally see every 2 to 7 years.

Greenhouse gases trap the sun’s heat in a planet’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the most familiar example The release of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels is the main cause of global climate change.

There’s a joke that asks, “Where do astronauts go for a drink?” The answer is, “The space bar!” But in the distant future, you might ask that question literally. There really is alcohol in space, even if we can’t access it yet.

Most insects fly—but, across millennia, many species have lost the ability. Island dwelling insects have been especially prone to this evolutionary trend.

The first picture an expecting mother is likely to see of her developing fetus is not, technically, a picture at all. Most likely, it's an ultrasound image, produced by technology that has more to do with hearing than with seeing.

Some photos appear normal, except for an unearthly red color glowing from the pupils of your loved ones' eyes. Are Grandma and Uncle Felix possessed, or is there some other explanation for this red-eye phenomenon?

Today’s A Moment of Science examines brachiation, which is how apes and monkeys swing through the trees. Orangutans, spider monkeys, and chimpanzees can brachiate, but gibbons do it most often.

The molecular working parts of living things are complex organic molecules with a backbone of carbon atoms. Some scientists think that hot springs might have provided the special chemical environments needed to link simple molecules up to form these longer and more complicated molecules.

In 2020 an international team of astonomers made a surprising discovery using the James Clerk Maxwell telescope in Hawai'i. They found evidence that the atmosphere of the planet Venus contains tiny amounts of phsophine gas.