Physics
9 questions
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How do proteins fold so fast and so reliably?
AI can now predict a protein's final shape. How the chain actually finds that shape is still a mystery.
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What causes fast radio bursts?
Flashes of radio waves lasting a few thousandths of a second arrive from distant galaxies thousands of times a day.
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What is dark energy?
Something makes the expansion of the universe speed up. It makes up most of the cosmos, and we don't know what it is.
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What is dark matter made of?
Most of the matter in the universe gives off no light and has never been caught by a detector. What is it?
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What is glass?
Window glass looks solid and behaves like a solid, but its atoms are arranged like a liquid's. Why does a liquid stop flowing without ever crystallising?
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Why do some materials superconduct at high temperatures?
Some ceramics carry electricity with zero resistance far above the limits once thought possible. Forty years on, we still don't know how.
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Why does Earth's magnetic field flip?
Hundreds of times in its history, magnetic north and south have swapped places. We can't predict when the next flip will come.
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Why does time have a direction?
The laws of physics barely distinguish past from future. We do. Where does the difference come from?
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Why is there more matter than antimatter?
The Big Bang should have made equal amounts of both, and they should have annihilated. Yet here we are.