A $205 million upgrade will allow a laser-wielding observatory to monitor tens of thousands of galaxies for mysterious gravitational waves. Leading investigators are confident that the Advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatories) Project will be able for the first time to detect gravitational waves from neutron stars and black holes, as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity.
An artificial black hole has been simulated in a laboratory by scientists using lasers at St Andrews University. Intense light pulses were used to create an artificial event horizon - the defining feature of a black hole known as the "point of no return".
When the world's most powerful particle accelerator starts up later this year, exotic new particles may offer a glimpse of the existence and shapes of extra dimensions. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California-Berkeley say that the telltale signatures left by a new class of particles could distinguish between possible shapes of the extra spatial dimensions predicted by string theory.
Astronomers may have accidentally nudged the universe closer to its death by observing dark energy, two astronomers suggest, based on quantum theory.
By analysing the most elegant and intricate pattern known to mathematics, "outsider" physicist Garrett Lisi has uncovered a relationship underlying all the universe's particles and forces, including gravity - or so he hopes.
The team of mathematicians that first created the mathematics behind the "invisibility cloak" announced by physicists last October has now shown that the same technology could be used to generate an "electromagnetic wormhole."
Israeli researchers have developed a theoretical model of a time machine that, in the distant future, could possibly enable future generations to travel into the past.
Real-life plasma shields to protect soldiers are only the beginning. The technology -- which use a laser to create a curtain of miniature plasma explosions like firecrackers to turn away an enemy -- could be adapted to turn it into a physical shield, capable of warding off projectiles.
Wormholes -- those hypothetical short cuts in the space-time continuum -- that have been theorized to allow everything from warp speed spacecraft to time travel. Now, researchers are suggesting we can actually create a type of wormhole using those fun metamaterials that everyone is all excited about lately.
A laser developed for military use is a few steps away from hitting a power threshold thought necessary to turn it into a battlefield weapon. The Solid State Heat Capacity Laser (SSHCL) has achieved 67 kilowatts (kW) of average power in the laboratory.