What We're Reading

Cells of different size classes all have a similar total mass, such that small, numerous cells such as red blood cells contribute the same amount to the body’s total mass as the largest cells, as reported by researchers in the September 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The current-carrying ability of so-called strange metals defies the known rules of electricity. Now Aavishkar Patel of the Flatiron Institute and his colleagues have an explanation for why.

What the hairiest problem in math can teach us about wind, antennas and nuclear fusion.

Magnetars possess magnetic fields that are trillions of times stronger than those of ordinary stars. Flatiron Institute astrophysicist Christopher White comments on the work being done to pin down possible pathways to a magnetar.

Strange metals have confounded physicists since their discovery 40 years ago, suggesting that a new fundamental theory is needed to understand how they work. Now, a new study led by Flatiron Scientists claims to offer just that.

As their colonies grow, bees and wasps eventually need to increase the size of the hexagonal cells that make up their nests. But it’s hard to efficiently combine hexagons of different sizes into a single continuous array. Both the honeybees and wasps have solved this problem by mixing in some pairs of five-sided and seven-sided cells, which bridge the gap between different sizes of the six-sided hexagons.

The discovery of ‘weak neutral currents’ at Europe’s particle-physics research centre CERN 50 years ago was a decisive step towards establishing the standard model of particle physics — a journey that continues to this day.

Physicists have three different definitions of mass, all thought to be equivalent. Measurements of the distance between Earth and the moon confirm that two of those masses are one and the same to higher precision than ever before, confirming one of the most basic foundations of physics: Newton’s third law of motion.

The vivid view of “sun-like” stars in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex 390 light years away, released to mark the first year of operation of the James Webb space telescope, is the first time researchers have been able to see the area in fine detail, minus the distraction of foreground stars.

After 15 years of painstaking observations, a team of researchers — including Chiara Mingarelli, who worked on the new findings while at the Flatiron Institute — has listened in on the ripples of gravitational waves that perpetually course throughout the Universe for the first time.