The Poop Emoji Got Gravity Right, Physicists Find
The poop emoji accurately captures the typical poop shape in nature formed by the downward pull of gravity.…
Scientists Just Turned Silkworm Silk Into a Near-Kevlar Supermaterial
Spider silk is reportedly five times stronger than steel. With some genetic adjustments, silkworm silk can get even…
Physicists Discover Previously Unknown Crystal Forged During Manhattan Project’s Trinity Test
America’s first plutonium implosion test—its first detonated nuclear bomb—left the 100-foot (30-meter) tower that held it aloft, including…
Researchers Just Opened a Literal Explosions Lab in Texas
Explosions are really important to scientific breakthroughs. So, researchers assembled a global coalition to set up an entire…
Diamonds Get a Little Squishy at the Nanoscale. Here’s Why
Familiar materials will act differently at the smallest scales. Notably, diamonds—typically hard and brittle—grow strangely soft at the…
After 100 Years, Engineers Finally Discover Why Rubber Is So Tough
Plenty of familiar phenomena and materials are actually scientific mysteries. Reinforced rubber has long been on that list:…
Liquids Crack With an Audible Snap, Study Finds
At the most fundamental levels, science often challenges common sense. And a new finding might be the most…
High-temperature superconducting dome mapped in nickelate thin films
Physicists hunting for new superconductors often look for a very specific shape hidden in their data—a dome. In…
Scientists Claim They’ve Finally Made the Elusive ‘Hexagonal’ Diamond
In 1962, researchers hypothesized that diamond’s known form—a mostly cubic crystal—wasn’t the coveted mineral at its greatest hardness.…
The Most Elusive Color in Chemistry Might Surprise You
Seeing a color in nature is one thing. Recreating colors artificially is an entirely different challenge—one with some…