Physicists get closer than ever to measuring the elusive neutrino

Ghost-like particles called neutrinos hardly ever interact with normal matter, giving the teensy apparitions supreme hiding powers. They are so elusive that, in the decades since their initial discovery, physicists still haven’t pinned down their mass. But recently, by plopping them onto a 200-ton “neutrino scale,” scientists have put a new limit on the neutrino’s mass. The … Read more

Lightning flash measuring 768 kilometres is the longest ever recorded

Two record-breaking lightning flashes occurred in 2020: one with a length of 768 kilometres is the longest ever recorded, while another with a duration of 17 seconds is the longest-lasting flash ever detected Environment 1 February 2022 By Alex Wilkins Lightning on the Great Plains of North America Laura Hedien/Getty Images The world’s longest lightning … Read more

How Measuring Time Shaped History

Humans have tracked time in one way or another in every civilization we have records of, writes physicist Chad Orzel. In his new book A Brief History of Timekeeping (BenBella Books, 2022), Orzel chronicles Neolithic efforts to predict solstices and other astronomical events, the latest atomic clocks that keep time to ever more precise decimals … Read more