Can quantum systems become more disordered, as thermodynamics would predict? Yes, they can - if a proper definition of "entropy" is used. It is one of the most important laws of nature that we know: ...

It is one of the most important laws of nature that we know: The famous second law of thermodynamics says that the world gets more and more disordered when random chance is at play. Or, to put it more ...

When two black holes orbit each other, they eventually spiral inward and collide in one of the most violent phenomena in the ...

Though a cornerstone of thermodynamics, entropy remains one of the most vexing concepts to teach budding physicists in the classroom. Physics teachers designed a hand-held model to demonstrate the ...

Electron–proton collisions Study reveals importance of entanglement entropy. (Courtesy: Kevin Coughlin/Brookhaven National Laboratory) An international team of physicists has used the principle of ...

The following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter. Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or two to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the universe.

For more than a century, gravity has been the stubborn outlier in physics, resisting every attempt to merge Einstein’s smooth space-time with the jittery world of quantum mechanics. A new wave of ...

Of all the scientific advances, evolution has been the hardest on the human ego. Charles Darwin’s revolutionary theory, laid out in his groundbreaking 1859 book On the Origin of Species, threatened to ...

Though a cornerstone of thermodynamics, entropy remains one of the most vexing concepts to teach budding physicists in the classroom. As a result, many people oversimplify the concept as the amount of ...