Extremes in physics: toughest lifeforms, strongest magnets, blackest materials
Whether it’s the shortest wavelength, the lightest particle, the highest pressure or the brightest beam, there’s something intrinsically appealing about pushing boundaries to break records and establish new limits of what’s physically possible. This special issue covers three frontier-busting research endeavours. We kick off by looking at a human-made extreme: the search for the blackest materials ever produced. Next, we examine how physics techniques are unravelling the secrets of tough lifeforms that exist in some of the most extreme environments on Earth. Finally, we go beyond Earth to a cosmic extreme: magnetars – a special kind of rotating neutron star that are the strongest magnets in the universe.
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