The Planck scale sets the universe’s minimum limit, beyond which the laws of physics break. In the late 1890s, physicist Max Planck proposed a set of units to simplify the expression of physics laws.

Once the most popular framework for physics beyond the Standard Model, supersymmetry is facing a reckoning—but many researchers are not giving up on it yet. The Standard Model of particle physics is ...

In the 1900s, Albert Einstein unified the concepts of space and time, giving us a useful new way to picture the universe. At the start of the 20th century, physicists had a problem: The speed of light ...

Our best model of particle physics explains only about 5 percent of the universe. The Standard Model is a thing of beauty. It is the most rigorous theory of particle physics, incredibly precise and ...

Meet the short-lived particle that helps the sun shine. Visible matter is made from only a handful of particles, but many more are behind the scenes, affecting what those matter particles do. The W ...

Scientists around the world are testing ways to further boost the power of particle accelerators while drastically shrinking their size. At least when it comes to particle accelerators, bigger is ...

A forthcoming upgrade to the IceCube detector will provide deeper insights into the elusive particles. Underneath the vast, frozen landscape of the South Pole lies IceCube, a gigantic observatory ...

Documenting the work of building the world’s largest neutrino experiment presents photographers with a unique set of challenges. Discussing her decades-spanning career, photographer Annie Leibovitz ...

In 2023, the ALICE experiment was ready for their best year yet, until a mysterious signal threatened everything. As the LHC wraps up its 2025 lead-ion run, physicists recall how they worked together ...

Three physicists share their experiences learning and communicating physics in a foreign language: English. Rose Ferreira, an astronomer and popular-science communicator who goes by the name Rose DF, ...

Rubin Observatory will bring new capabilities to the studies of dark matter and dark energy. In just a few years, scientists at Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will launch the Legacy Survey of ...

Take an interactive animated journey through the particle physics alphabet. Accelerators and black holes and cryostats, oh my! We know particle physics can seem daunting at times, but everything’s ...