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.
What Mysteries is the Universe Hiding from Us? A Cosmologist Weighs In
From the Big Bang to dark energy, knowledge of the cosmos has sped up in the past century — but big questions linger.
Does the Doomsday Clock actually mean anything? Experts weigh in
The Cold War relic has a strange history and so-so effectiveness — but it may not be the point.
This concept spacecraft could swiftly send a one-ton spaceship to the edge of the Solar System
A new idea proposed by researchers from UCLA envisions a twist on the beam-sail idea.
In a wild first, physicists used lasers to control lightning on a mountaintop
The car-sized laser can shoot up to 1,000 pulses per second.
A Large Hadron Collider discovery could point the way to dark matter
Violent nuclei may help scientists tackle an astrophysics mystery.
The worst Tom Cruise sci-fi movie on Netflix reveals a possible path to nuclear fusion, physicists say
Turning seawater into energy might actually be a good idea.
This physicist helped confirm Einstein's greatest predictions in our cosmic backyard
Mariafelicia De Laurentis helped us understand our home galaxy’s supermassive black hole in 2022.
Oppenheimer trailer proves it's the biopic Christopher Nolan was born to make
One of history's most intriguing scientists gets the biopic treatment.
When will fusion energy be available? Here's what 3 scientists predict
“The fusion research community is ready to roll up our sleeves and make it happen.”
How Cold War secrecy helped fuel the latest fusion energy breakthrough
The NIF is a relic of Cold War nuclear tests and paranoia.
Nuclear fusion breakthrough: A physicist answers three vital questions
We asked a physicist about the future of nuclear fusion.
Physicists achieve a "holy grail" of nuclear fusion — with a long road ahead
Don’t expect fusion to power your home anytime soon.
This classic sci-fi movie on HBO Max popularized a futuristic technology — can science make it happen?
Star Trek’s science fiction inspired real-life science on the warp drive.
Watch: New laser experiment reveals how high poop particles may blast after we flush
A never-before-seen look at bathroom physics.
Scientists could use a meteor-hunting technique to uncover dark matter
Do look up.
A sports physicist reveals the hidden science behind this year’s World Cup soccer ball
The Al Rihla ball is made with water-based inks and glues and contains 20 panels.