A tiny levitating bead records the kicks delivered by impacts from individual gas atoms. Its jitters could become the basis for precision measurements—and searches for dark matter.

The thermodynamic and quantum mechanical properties of topological insulators provide a path toward scalable energy storage ...

This issue of PT explores the relationships and larger forces that help forge the professional paths of scientists. Drawing ...

In physics, you learn how to work with incomplete information, question assumptions, develop hypotheses, and keep moving ...

In 1994, after he had completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, ...

Tested in pigs, a new battery design offers a safer, more reliable alternative to standard power sources for ingestible medical devices. Swallowing a battery typically requires a trip to the emergency ...

Science’s endless frontier is a changing frontier. It requires a dynamic approach to governance, collaboration, and ...

On the cover Do you want to inspire younger generations to care about science? Persuade someone to fund your work? Fight the deluge of mis- and disinformation in society? If so, you might consider ...

T HE NEUTRON was discovered in 1932. Why, then, did it take seven years before nuclear fission was found? Fission is obviously a striking phenomenon; it results in a large amount of radioactivity of ...

I N THE LONG HISTORY of scientific investigation of musical instruments the flute has been given particular attention, primarily because of its apparent simplicity. Yet many of the physical factors ...

In 1794 the London printer J. Cooper published an essay by a woman writing under the name Mrs. Fulhame. Elizabeth Fulhame’s An Essay on Combustion, with a view to a new art of dy[e]ing and painting: ...