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Quiz of the week: how much data will NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope produce each day?

Launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope

Take this quiz to test your knowledge of science on stage

Check how much you know about physics at the theatre

Theatre is bringing physics to new audiences but what is the definitive science play?

Chris Sinclair explores the plays that are bringing physics to new audiences

Opinion and reviews

The Bayeux Tapestry: how optical techniques have let this artwork come home

Tell us what science you need to know to be ‘cultured’

Two photos: an earthenware dish of porridge topped with butter; and Austrian vineyards with a bottle and glasses of wine in the foreground

Meet the demons: four mythical creatures that inhabit science

Soviet institutes, Martian neighbours, Whovian science, stellar patterns and dystopian predictions: micro reviews of recent books

Condensed natter: Physics World editors give their compressed verdicts on top new books

The wonderful world of microfluidics

Nicole Sharp reviews How the World Flows: Microfluidics from Raindrops to COVID Tests by Albert Folch

What a modern-day US Declaration of Independence should say

Robert P Crease imagines a modern-day US Declaration of Independence

‘Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers’: how Alfred Tennyson drew science into his poetry

Robert P Crease reviews The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief by Richard Holmes

The dark heart of the lithium-ion battery revolution

James Dacey reviews The Elements of Power: a Story of War, Technology and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth by Nicolas Niarchos

Will the demise of the US penny damage science education?

Robert P Crease wonders what the death of the US penny will do to how we teach and learn science

Celebrating the best of Critical Point

Critical Point has appeared in Physics World magazine since May 2000, written by science historian and philosopher Robert P Crease. Enjoy our pick of the best columns, which bring the perspective of an outsider looking in on the “workshop of science”.

illustration of a person sat at a desk using a typewriter

Features

Coffee with a splash of physics: how to make the most out of your brew

Coffee pouring out of an espresso machine into a small white cup

Lure of the black hole: from science to art

Artwork of bright coloured strands around a black circle

Mulugeta Bekele: the jailed and tortured scientist who kept Ethiopian physics alive

Explore more in culture, history and society

Quiz of the week: how will the new ‘AstroRad’ vest be of benefit to astronauts?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

3D render of testing the new vest inside the Orion spacecraft

Word wave puzzle no.8

Can you work out the word in this puzzle, which relates to a recent Physics World article?

Quiz of the week: where does new research say the universe’s ‘missing’ baryonic matter is?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

Quiz of the week: what are engineers using to control the growth of artificial blood vessels?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

Word flower puzzle no. 7

How many words can you find in this puzzle?

Quiz of the week: what age of science is the US entering according to Trump?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

Word wave puzzle no.7

Can you work out the word in this puzzle?

Quiz of the week: what type of radiation travels on a photonic highway?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

The science of being ‘cultured’: a slide puzzle

Can you reconstruct this food-as-culture image in our interactive slide puzzle?

History
Blog

John Bell and the most obscure journal in physics

Iulia Georgescu looks at the curious history of the journal Physics

Mock-up of Physics Physique Физика journal banner

Quiz of the week: what makes strange metals so strange?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

Illustration showing a cubic lattice of electrons glowing with an eerie green light

Word flower puzzle no. 6

How many words can you find in this puzzle?

Quiz of the week: what techniques can be combined to predict the frequency of extreme weather events?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

History
Blog

Study reveals the energy cost of Hannibal’s Alpine crossing

The Col du Clapier route would have been the more energetically favourable

Quiz of the week: what are researchers using to detect the motion of silent whales?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

Beyond the data: art meets climate at the edge of the world

Arctic odysseys, video games and other creative ways to confront the climate emergency

Artist Tom Bailey trekking in the Arctic with reindeer antlers

Quiz of the week: how do scientists hope to protect Earth from dangerous solar storms?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

A schematic of how solar storms affect Earth

A demon of a puzzle: interactive cryptic crossword

Try this thermodynamics-themed cryptic crossword, republished in interactive form

Physics World podcast

Explore our two regular podcast series! Physics World Weekly looks at the latest events and headlines in physics, as well as featuring short interviews with scientists and our team of journalists. Physics World Stories takes a more in-depth look at a topic.

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Particle and nuclear | Symposium World Nuclear Symposium 2026 9—11 September 2026 | London, UK
Materials | Conference European Conference on Thermoelectrics 14—18 September 2026 | Edinburgh, UK

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