Precisely testing the speed of light
15 September, 2015Australian and German researchers have completed testing that has effectively measured the spatial consistency of the speed of light with a precision 10 times greater than ever before.
A re-usable system for launching satellites
11 August, 2015The University of Queensland is developing a re-usable system that would make it cheaper and easier to launch satellites into space.
What does Einstein have to do with space travel?
11 August, 2015One hundred years after Albert Einstein first penned his theory of general relativity, Professor Geraint Lewis says we're only now starting to scratch the surface of what the theory predicts.
Two giant leaps for mankind
17 July, 2015It's been an exciting couple of weeks in the field of astronomy, with scientists both discovering new worlds and finding out more about old ones.
The sky's the limit: construction approved for the Giant Magellan Telescope
24 June, 2015 by Lauren DavisJune 2015 marked a major milestone in the field of astronomy, with construction approval announced for the highly anticipated Giant Magellan Telescope — the biggest optical telescope in the world.
Quantum tunnelling is an instantaneous process
01 June, 2015An international team of scientists studying ultrafast physics has solved a mystery of quantum mechanics, finding that quantum tunnelling is an instantaneous process.
Reality does not exist until it is measured
29 May, 2015Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) have performed a famous experiment in quantum theory, created by the late theoretical physicist John Wheeler, which suggests that reality does not exist until it is measured.
How we found the source of the mystery signals at The Dish
27 May, 2015 by Emily Petroff, Swinburne University of TechnologyEveryone likes solving a mystery, and the hunt for the source of strange signals detected by Australia's Parkes radio telescope is a classic. Although how "aliens" became involved in the story is more of a media mystery.
The hunt for gravitational waves begins
25 May, 2015The Advanced LIGO project has been officially opened in the United States. The project aims to complete the search for the last missing piece of Einstein's general theory of relativity - gravitational waves.
UV light separates rare-earth elements
18 May, 2015Researchers from KU Leuven have discovered a method to separate the rare-earth elements europium and yttrium with UV light instead of traditional solvents. Their findings offer new opportunities for the recycling of fluorescent lamps and low-energy light bulbs.
The first experimental exploration of quantum phase transitions
18 May, 2015Chinese and Australians scientists have published research experimentally exploring how quantum matter changes when it makes a 'quantum phase transition'.
Cosmic radio waves caught in real time
22 January, 2015 by Lauren DavisSwinburne University of Technology PhD student Emily Petroff has become the first person to observe a 'fast radio burst' - a short, bright flash of radio waves from an unknown source - happening live.
Simulating the power of bubbles
07 January, 2015Researchers have used the most powerful computer in Japan to explore a process observed in both bubbly beverages as well as scientific systems including spin systems, foams and metallic alloys.
Coin-sized device could detect gravitational waves
01 December, 2014Physicists from The University of Western Australia have invented a tiny detector, about the size of a coin, which they claim could observe gravitational waves - ripples in space-time generated by accelerating massive objects.
The constants are still constant
01 December, 2014Researchers have improved the constraints on time-variation of fundamental constants by making measurements of two optical clock transitions in the same atom (ytterbium). Their experiments have shown that one essential fundamental constant - the mass ratio of protons to electrons - can have changed only by a maximum of one part in a million over the age of our solar system.
