Physics

It’s a moonless night. The wind howls outside. A door opens slowly, as if pushed by an invisible hand. “Cre-e-e-a-k.” That sound — a horror movie cliché — is the result of friction. A stealthier entrance calls for oiling the door’s hinges. Friction is everywhere — from a violinist bowing a string to children skidding down […] More

Lab experiments characterize a phenomenon predicted by cosmologist Stephen Hawking NOT BLACK  Stephen Hawking first proposed that black holes (illustrated) aren’t fully black, but emit a faint haze of particles that came to be known as Hawking radiation. Now scientists have measured the radiation’s temperature in a lab analog of a black hole. NASA’s Goddard […] More