Articles by

Emily Conover

Forests might serve as enormous neutrino detectors 

Neutrino detectors don’t grow on trees. Or do they? Forests could one day be used to spot...

Here’s how scientists reached nuclear fusion ‘ignition’ for the first time

One of nuclear fusion’s biggest advances wouldn’t have happened without some impeccable scientific artistry. In December 2022,...

AI chatbots can be tricked into misbehaving. Can scientists stop it?

Picture a tentacled, many-eyed beast, with a long tongue and gnarly fangs. Atop this writhing abomination sits...

A pivotal quantum theory holds up even in extreme electric fields 

To put one of physicists’ most important theories to the test, scientists go to extremes. Extremely strong...

A predicted quasicrystal is based on the ‘einstein’ tile known as the hat

The “hat” wowed mathematicians. Now the shape is shaking up physics. In 2023, mathematicians reported that the...

Artificial intelligence helped scientists create a new type of battery 

In the hunt for new materials, scientists have traditionally relied on tinkering in the lab, guided by...

Invisible comet tails of mucus slow sinking flakes of ‘marine snow’

WASHINGTON — Tiny, sinking flakes of detritus in the ocean fall more slowly thanks to the goop...

A maverick physicist is building a case for scrapping quantum gravity

A rift runs deep through the heart of physics. The general theory of relativity, which describes gravity,...