Physics

The Gas Giant was once bigger

Jupiter rapidly doubled in volume soon after the formation of the Solar System

A strategist in Science

José Israel Vargas was an expert in nuclear energy, a chemist, a physicist, and Brazil’s longest serving minister of science and technology

José Roque: Physicist talks about the Sirius accelerator and Brazil’s first maximum biosafety level laboratory

Director-General of the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) won the 2025 Admiral Álvaro Alberto Award

Simulation suggests that Mercury formed from a glancing collision with a body of similar mass

Impact would have ripped away part of the planet's mass and shaped its current geological composition

Rare form of helium abundant in the Sun

Solar Probe records highest ever observed concentration of rare isotope helium-3 in the Sun

Advances in experiments manipulating interactions between acoustic and light waves

Control of the interactions between phonons and photons could be used to develop more refined lasers and facilitate quantum information processing

Álvaro Alberto Award

USP physicist receives Álvaro Alberto Award

Costa Ribeiro discovered unexpected sources of electricity

In 1944, the engineer and physicist from Rio de Janeiro identified an electric current formation in carnauba wax, a phenomenon used today in cell phones and computers

Giant atoms could be the basis for more refined quantum sensors

Controlling the so-called Rydberg state is the key to producing this type of structure

Traces of a super-energetic neutrino under the sea

Ultra-energetic neutrino detected in the Mediterranean

New generation of chips

Brazilian universities and research centers developing prototypes of light-based devices that promise greater speed and lower energy consumption

Disorder in state of matter generates new type of superconductor

Disorder in state of matter generates new type of superconductor

Magnetic North changing location

Magnetic North Pole is moving away from Canada towards Siberia

Driver of Brazilian science

Physicist Rogério Cezar de Cerqueira Leite’s work was crucial to the creation and success of several research institutions

Cold beer for longer

Tall, narrow-based glass with trumpet mouth keeps the beverage cooler during consumption

José Nelson Onuchic: Genetic structure modeler

Brazilian physicist who specializes in protein and DNA folding helped restore the genome of the woolly mammoth

A retouched image

Image of the Sagittarius A* black hole published in 2022 may not show its actual shape

Mysterious water phenomenon can also be produced in quantum systems

Mpemba effect causes hot liquids to freeze faster than cold ones

Asteroid set to pass close to Earth in 2029 could create a meteor shower on the Moon 100 years later

Proximity to Earth could cause debris surrounding the asteroid to be pulled away by the planet’s gravitational field

2024 Nobel Prize honors researchers in the field of artificial intelligence

The physics and chemistry prizes were awarded to scientists who created computational tools

Singularities

High cost and disruptions in helium supply make it difficult to carry out research at temperatures close to absolute zero

The liquefied from of the noble gas is used to cool magnetic resonance imaging machines, particle accelerators, and quantum computers

Brazilians participate in the largest international experiment studying neutrinos

Scientists created a method of purifying liquid argon for the experiment

Research topics that have stood out since the magazine was launched in 1999

A diverse range of topics, from climate change and exoplanets to ultra-processed foods, have influenced the direction of science and technology over the past two and a half decades

Efficient and flexible solar cells

Ultra-thin, flexible perovskite solar cells could be printed onto bags, cellphones, and cars

Sunspots seen by Kepler in 1607

In 1607, German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler identified sunspots with the naked eye

Flowers of physics

Thereza Borello-Lewin was renowned for her work at USP’s Pelletron particle accelerator

Brazil’s first quantum cryptography network is expected to connect five research institutions

The Rio Quântica Network will transmit qubits by fiber optic cable and aerial laser

New secrets of Jupiter

James Webb Telescope reveals new secrets about Jupiter

Academic genealogy

Survey identifies 851 master’s and doctoral graduates from six generations descending from the physicist's postgraduate work