When fluid dynamics mimic quantum mechanics

In the early days of quantum physics, in an attempt to explain the wavelike behavior of quantum particles, the French physicist Louis de Broglie proposed what he called a “pilot wave” theory. According to de Broglie, moving particles—such as electrons, or the photons in a beam of light—are borne along on waves of some type, like driftwood on a tide.

Austerity-led brain drain is killing Greek science

Science in Greece is going backwards. This month, researchers lost access to the journal Bioinformatics, a top-ranked title in mathematical and computational biology. Many more publications are likely to disappear from Greek libraries. The Ministry of Education has not paid the bills for its subscription bundles. The largest publishers — including Elsevier, Springer and Taylor & Francis — have threatened to suspend access. Others have done so already.

Going underground in search of dark matter strikes

THE chill hits me as soon as the door shuts. Then the floor starts to rumble. The lift I've just entered feels like an original from the late 1800s, when miners made the same trip in search of iron ore. But my guide and I (pictured above) are seeking a much more elusive substance: dark matter.

Hubble's Successor: The James Webb Space Telescope

Radio signal-hunting astronomers find no alien life near Milky Way stars

After a hunt for Milky Way radio signals came up empty, the team of astronomers behind it has estimated that fewer than one in a million stars in the galaxy could have advanced civilisations residing on their orbiting planets.

Extreme life might be visible on colourful exoplanets

Lichens and algae could be the first life forms we find on Earth-like exoplanets, by looking for their light signatures in a planet's distinctive colouring.

Astronomers have found several rocky worlds in the habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water can exist on a planet's surface, and many more are thought to exist. As telescopes get more sensitive, we should be able to collect light reflected off such planets and look for clues to their surface conditions.

What is life? The physicist who sparked a revolution in biology

Insights from biology and computing built upon Schrödinger’s genius, changing our view of life forever. Photograph: Rick Sammon/AP

Matthew Cobb
Seventy years ago, on 5 February 1943, the Nobel prizewinning quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger gave the first of three public lectures at Trinity College, Dublin. His topic was an unusual one for a physicist: “What is Life?” The following year the lectures were turned into a book of the same name.