On his 143rd birthday, Inverse celebrates the world’s most iconic physicist — and interrogates the myth of his genius.
Einstein Week
A tale of sloppy science, a not-so-remarkable brain, and the rise of a more nuanced understanding of intelligence.
Einstein Week
Einstein became the world's most iconic scientist seemingly overnight. Here's how.
While the Red Scare was making America panic, the FBI had their eyes on the famed physicist.
Scientists are tantalizingly close to a ground-breaking gravity discovery
Scientists are trying to detect a gravitational wave background signal, a kind of static generated by all the gravitational waves emanating from binary supermassive black holes.
107 years later, scientists have vindicated one of Einstein’s most remarkable theories
It’s never too late!
Scientists managed to take pure energy and create matter — and new physics
“We wanted to take light and convert it into matter.” Wish fulfilled.
Physicists are finally ready to test a key Einstein theory
“Relativity has been tested over and over. It’s been holding true. Quantum mechanics has been tested over and over and has been holding true.”
Hubble catches a cosmic optical illusion predicted by Einstein 86 years ago
Gravitational lensing is a key predictor of general relativity.
Einstein Week
For all his genius, Einstein had a tendency to be stuck in his ways.
Einstein Week
Was Einstein’s genius, as some have claimed, aided by what he ate? Let’s find out.
Scientists just laid the cornerstone of our quantum internet future
And the mortar holding it together is teleportation.
New picture answers many questions about our galaxy's black hole — and reveals some mysteries
The recently-released image shows how Sagittarius A* is both mundane and very strange, all at once.
Why scientists think physics could be in for a reckoning
The evidence seems to be growing that some new physics is needed.
Real-life time travel hinges on this one controversial scientific theory
Time travel is full of contradictions, but one popular sci-fi concept could resolve them all.
How the new Large Hadron Collider experiments could change physics forever
Are you ready to see the Standard Model get weird?
The grossest idea from The Matrix could lower your energy bill
We’ll all feel the heat, the heat between me and you.
Science and superheroes invented the multiverse by mistake — they’re still fighting over it today
As Doctor Strange and The Flash enter the multiverse, scientists question what it means for the future.
Physicists are on the brink of unlocking an elusive particle’s secrets
Plus: Elon Musk and his firms make history again.
Meet the micronova: Astronomers discover a strange new stellar explosion
These bursts almost always happen when a white dwarf strips material from a companion star.
Scientists finally know why Oreo filling always sticks to one side
There’s rheology, and then there’s Oreology.
Three years ago, we got the first-ever image of a gargantuan black hole — confirming Einstein's greatest theory
Three years ago, the study of black holes was revolutionized.
What is gravitational lensing? 107 years later, a phenomenon predicted by Einstein is still bearing fruit
A massive object can act like a massive magnifying glass under the right conditions.
"Quantum spin liquid": Scientists squeeze water into a new form of matter
This isn't the kind of ice you'll find in your freezer.
Another Earth? The real science of the multiverse isn't what you think
Is there another Earth?
New data on an elusive particle could upend physics as we know it
The W boson measurement provides insight into existing physics and opens the door to new arenas.
New atomic clocks could herald in a "second quantum revolution"
The next-generation atomic clocks could bring breakthroughs from fundamental physics to navigation.