The principal tool in the Atmospheric Physics Lab is a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. Because the OH stretch (which is an IR active transition) in the water molecule is particularly ...

A new measurement of a fundamental particle called the W boson appears to defy the standard model of particle physics, our current understanding of how the basic building blocks of the universe ...

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide expert advice on some of the most pressing challenges facing the nation and world. Our ...

Physicists have nailed a fiendishly difficult measurement — the mass of the fundamental particle the W boson. The result, from the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is in line with ...

When hundreds of physicists gathered on a Zoom call in late February to discuss their experiment’s results, none of them knew what they had found. Like doctors in a clinical trial, the researchers at ...

In the Environmental Optics Laboratory (EOL) we perform research to reduce uncertainties by developing new measurement and analytical methods. Several graduate and undergraduate students participate ...

The Muon g-2 experiment (pronounced “gee minus two”) is designed to look for tantalizing hints of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. It does this by measuring the magnetic field ...

Adam Fortais explains how the “At-Home Lab Kit” allows undergraduate students at McMaster University to do physics experiments while sheltering in place. This post is part of a series on how the COVID ...

Physics at the smallest scales is a challenge of observation: Particles are often fleeting, and the forces that govern their behavior are nearly imperceptible. But now, by exploiting decades-old data ...

Despite its many successes, physicists are still struggling to nail down a coherent interpretation of quantum mechanics, as it best represents “reality”. Jim Baggott explores the arguments first put ...

During the mid- to late-twentieth century, quantum physicists picked apart the unified theory of physics that Einstein’s theory of relativity offered. The physics of the large was governed by gravity, ...