NEIL deGRASSE TYSON: One of my favorite characters in the history of atoms is Ernest Rutherford, a physicist in the early 20th century. He was the first person ever to discover how empty atoms actually are. He had this clever experiment where he had this ...

Where do you see patterns in chaos? It has now been demonstrated in the incredibly tiny quantum realm. Researchers detail an experiment that confirms a theory first put forth 40 years ago stating that electrons confined in quantum space would move along ...

The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic nuclei—the center part of atoms, which make up all matter—were more stable than others. These nuclei had specific numbers of ...

Photo: Niels Bohr's research notes for his new atomic theory Rutherford's find came from a very strange experience. Everyone at that time imagined the atom as a "plum pudding." That is, it was roughly the same consistency throughout, with negatively ...

Quantum mechanics, or quantum physics, is the body of scientific laws that describe the wacky behavior of photons, electrons and the other subatomic particles that make up the universe. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate ...

From the multiverse to black holes, here’s your cheat sheet to the spooky side of the universe. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The quantum world has a lot in common with shoes.

The Nobel Physics Prize this year went to physicists Anne L’Huillier, Pierre Agostini, and Ferenc Krausz for developing a way to spy on the ultra-fast lives of electrons. The physicists’ combined 40 years of work led to a clever way to measure the ...

One hundred years after Niels Bohr published his model of the atom, a special issue of Nature explores its legacy — and how much there is still to learn about atomic structure. July 1913 saw Danish physicist Niels Bohr publish the first of three papers ...

The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic nuclei – the center part of atoms, which make up all matter – were more stable than others. These nuclei had specific numbers of ...