Common sense is of no help in studying reality at the atomic scale.

How a tiny little electronic switch sparked the computer revolution.

How the joule thief circuit “steals” energy from seemingly depleted power cells.

Never mind the “heat death of the universe.” Entropy is just a bridge between two levels of reality.

Planning a Fourth of July getaway? Use less gas—and cut your emissions—by easing up on the pedal.

As World Cup action kicks off, we look at the physics of the beautiful game.

The many methods we use to gather data ultimately boil down to either counting or comparing.

Here’s how you can hack together a radio transmitter and receiver out of stuff you have at home—and explore the weirdness of wireless.

On Star Wars Day, we put to rest a question that has bedeviled sci-fi nerds for years.

Weirdly, spaceships have no direct way to gauge their own speed. Luckily, we can use some physics tricks to figure it out.

That’s good news, since the forecast is sunshine for the next 5 billion years.

Who needs a supercomputer when you can calculate pi with a box of sewing needles?

For railroads, it’s all about managing static and kinetic friction.

Massive data centers for generative AI are bad for the Earth. How about launching them into orbit?

Here are three smart tricks, based on an understanding of frictional forces, to beat a slippery slope.

The “Joining” seems to connect people via radio waves. Let’s dig into the physics at play.

In Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack and Will use an overturned dinghy to hold air underwater. Madness or brilliance?

Even the best telescopes can’t see exoplanets. It’s all about watching for jiggly stars, blue shifts, and transits.

With just a friend, a phone, and a few Lego bricks, you can accurately measure the size of our planet.

By shifting water to a higher elevation, the giant Three Gorges Dam caused the Earth to spin more slowly.

The aurora borealis is usually seen near the Arctic, but solar winds and magnetic turbulence are sparking some of the best light shows in centuries throughout the US.

What sneaky invisible forces enable these instruments to locate buried treasure?

Driving a spacecraft around a planet isn’t anything like driving on a planet. A physicist explains orbital navigation.

Thinking about science and technology in terms of return on investment misses the point. Here’s what kids really need to know.

These five equations should be part of your mental toolkit. They might even improve your bowling score.

These innovative pavings convert the kinetic energy of footsteps into clean electric energy.

This persnickety number determines the strength of magnetic fields. It figures in everything from motors and generators to audio speakers. Oh, and without it we’d live in eternal darkness.

The force between electrical charges is kind of a big deal—without it, the universe would be a primordial soup, and you would not exist. That force is determined by the electric constant.

Your gadgets run on direct current, but the electricity in your home is alternating current. What’s up with that?

The mind-bending concept of time dilation results from a seemingly harmless assumption—that the speed of light is the same for all observers.

What would it take to run a cable from the ISS to Earth? Depends how fast you want the Earth to rotate.

According to physics, any blanket can cool you—for a few minutes. But a real cooling blanket is possible with phase-change materials.

According to physics, one burns more calories than the other—and the winner might surprise you.

Those epic battle scenes in space are awesome—and physically impossible. But hey, it’s more fun this way!

Basic research often pays huge dividends—but that’s not why we do it.

Baseball season just started, and everyone’s talking about these crazy new bats. Will they change the game?

Pi is an irrational number, and like some irrational people it just goes on and on. What is it with this crazy, crucial number?

Physics is weird. Especially when you’re dealing with moving reference frames.

Either way, it sucks. But at least there’s some fun physics to ponder while you’re sitting in the repair shop.