Why is quantum theory so strange? The weirdness could be in our heads
17 November 2021
Quantum theory is peerless at explaining reality, but assaults our intuitions of how reality should be. It seems likely the fault lies with our intuitions
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Premium
If the multiverse exists, are there infinite copies of me?
9 December 2020
According to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the universe is constantly dividing and taking you with it – so would you recognise your other selves if you met them?
We have seen hints of a new fundamental force of nature
13 May 2020
Multiple indications seem to be showing that something is manipulating the universe beyond the four basic forces we know – and we are starting to work out what it is
What you experience may not exist. Inside the strange truth of reality
29 January 2020
What our senses allow us to experience may not reflect what actually exists. It may be a creation of our own consciousness, or a computer simulation designed by superintelligent beings
Big bang retold: The weird twists in the story of the universe's birth
11 December 2019
It certainly wasn’t big, and probably didn’t bang – and the surprises in the conventional story of the universe's origins don’t end there
In the quantum world, uncertainty reigns – or is it all in the mind?
11 December 2019
Schrödinger's dead-and-alive cat embodies the uncertainty of the quantum world. But whether parallel realities truly exist is a question less of science than belief
Inside the race to find the first billion-digit prime number
7 August 2019
Discovering giant prime numbers involves laborious trial and error, and they are of little use when they are found. For certain devotees, that's beside the point
The time paradox: How your brain creates the fourth dimension
3 July 2019
We all feel the passing of time, but nothing in physics suggests it is a fundamental property of the universe. So where does our sense of time’s flow come from?
The secret of dark matter could be a particle the size of a planet
29 May 2019
Physicist Asimina Arvanitaki thinks big: enormous particles and a gigantic, dark-matter beacon – and knows how we might find them
The race to see the start of time in the first light of the universe
20 February 2019
A lone observatory at the South Pole has a rare chance to glimpse a secret written in the sky. Spot it, and we will know how time and space were born
