Big things are made of smaller things, and those smaller things are made of smaller things still. That’s reductionism in a nutshell, and digging our way to the smallest layer has been one of the primary goals of physics for ever. But...

Is the Universe Entirely Mathematical feat. Max Tegmark

Life exists in our universe. There we go - one hopefully uncontroversial statement. Therefore our universe is capable of producing and supporting life. How am I going? Two for two? Let’s try for three: therefore there are countless...

The universe is going to end. But of all the possible ends of the universe vacuum decay would have to be the most thorough - because it could totally rewrite the laws of physics. Today I hope to help you understand exactly how terrified...

The device you’re watching this video on is best understood by thinking about positive and negative charges moving around a circuit of diodes and transistors. But the only elementary particle actually flowing in the circuit is the...

If you've studied any physics you know that like charges repel and opposite charges attract. But why? It's as though this thing - electric charge - is as fundamental a property of an object as its mass. It just sort of ... is. Well it...

Paul Dirac's insights into the nature of Quantum Mechanics laid the foundation for Quantum Field Theory and predicted the existence of anti-matter. Part 1 in our series on Quantum Field Theory.

Is the Universe Entirely Mathematical feat. Max Tegmark

Physicist and surfer Garrett Lisi presents a controversial new model of the universe that -- just maybe -- answers all the big questions. If nothing else, it's the most beautiful 8-dimensional model of elementary particles and forces...

Quantum Field Theory is generally accepted as an accurate description of the subatomic universe. However until recently this theory had one giant hole in it. The particles it describes had no mass!

Elementary particles are the smallest known building blocks in the universe-and the neutrino is one of the smallest of the small. These tiny neutrinos can tell us about the furthest reaches and most extreme environments of the universe...

Our fundamental picture of the universe seems pretty nearly complete these days, to the point that some people are suggesting that we’ve arrived at some version of “the end of physics.” And sure, physics is at a turning point, but it...

Science fiction writer Monica Byrne imagines rich worlds populated with characters who defy our racial, social and gender stereotypes. In this performance, Byrne appears as a hologram named Pilar, transmitting a story of love and loss...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how at the smallest level all matter is made of fundamental particles; including quarks, electron, photons and neutrinos. He explains how understanding the properties of these particles allows us to...

In 2012, the Higgs boson (the God Particle) was discovered. It's responsible for giving mass to fundamental particles. But the scientists never measured the particle. So how can scientists claim a discovery without...

What is string theory? When string theory is simplified - it can answer the question "Why do we exist?" First you must accept that there are two worlds we live in - the world of the large, the world we can see, which...

The gauge bosons of the standard model of particle physics are responsible for 3 of the 4 known forces in the universe. A force is conferred is through the exchange of virtual bosons. So for example in...

What is the Electroweak force? Electroweak theory explained: At the moment of the Big Bang, all 4 fundamental forces were probably the same. But as temperatures and energies lowered, the forces separated into...

SUMMARY

How is mass and energy the same thing? What is mass really? If you weigh 80kg and are in a car moving 100km/hr, your energy is equal to about 30000 joules. But did you know that the energy you have standing...

SUMMARY

In 1976, Stephen Hawing proposed that Black Holes, do something impossible according to the laws of quantum mechanics. They destroy information. This is a paradox because information should be conserved in the...

A particle accelerator is a machine that accelerates particles. More specifically, it accelerates elementary particles, like protons and electrons, at extremely high speeds—almost 99.99% of the speed of light. These particles are then...

The Higgs boson is a wave, ripple or disturbance in an invisible, all-permeating field called the Higgs field. In the year 1964, Peter Higgs, François Englert and four other scientists proposed a rather unique idea to explain why certain...

An extremely dense star formed when a giant star called a supernova explodes. A Twig Science Glossary Film. Key scientific terms defined in just 60 seconds using stunning images and concise textual definitions. Twig Science Glossary...

Physics majors study the universe, from electrons and protons to supergiant stars.



As a physics major you will take A LOT of math and apply complex formulas to the problems at hand. Physics majors don't just learn the...