A fundamental constant of the universe may not be so constant after all, according to a new study. Recent observations of distant galaxies suggest that the strength of the electromagnetic force the so ...

A crucial number that rules the universe goes big in a strange quantum material. The fine-structure constant is about 10 times its normal value in a type of material called quantum spin ice, ...

A researcher at the Department of Physics at Tohoku University has uncovered a surprising quantum phenomenon hidden inside ordinary crystals: the strength of interactions between electrons and lattice ...

Images made with the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii show how light from two distant galaxies is distorted into multiple images. UC Davis astronomers have made a new estimate of the Hubble Constant, ...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The word “crisis” hung in the air from the very beginning of the meeting. In a room just steps from the ocean in Santa Barbara, astronomers and physicists shifted restlessly in ...

Planck's constant reveals the quantum world's fundamental energy levels. It shows how light and matter exist in discrete units (quanta). This constant defines limits to our knowledge of particle ...

In 1999, a paper in the prestigious scientific journal Physical Review Letters indicated that one of nature's fundamental constants -- a number that, in effect, reflects how tightly atomic particles ...