Shock waves should not be shocking—engineers across scientific fields need to be able to precisely predict how the instant ...

Pulsars suggest that ultra–low-frequency gravitational waves are rippling through the cosmos. The signal seen by ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about physics, science, academia, and pop culture. The highlight of the Great Escape trip wound up being their wave pool, ...

Light's behavior seems counterintuitive. That is, until you figure out light is a wave. The way light behaves can seem very counterintuitive, and many physicists would agree with that, but once you ...

Protons can surf some truly gnarly waves. A new experiment suggests that the subatomic particles can be accelerated by a process akin to surfers catching waves. The protons get a speed boost not from ...

Earlier measurements of duckling metabolism showed that the youngsters saved energy when swimming behind a leader, but the physics behind that savings wasn’t known. Using computer simulations of ...

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne for their detection of gravitational waves, a development scientists believe could give vital clues ...

Down at the level of atoms and electrons, quantum physics describes the behavior of the very smallest objects. Solar panels, LED lights, your mobile phone and MRI scanners in hospitals: all of these ...