Physics & mathematics
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What is the largest known prime number?
By Charles Q. Choi published
There are infinitely many prime numbers, but the biggest one we know of goes by the name M82589933 and contains more than 24 million digits.
How long is a second?
By Victoria Atkinson published
The length of a second depends on how you're measuring it.
The 9 most massive numbers in existence
By Tia Ghose last updated
From the humble trillion to Graham's number, here are some of the most massive numbers ever conceived by humans.
Einstein must be wrong: How general relativity fails to explain the universe
By Valerio Faraoni, Andrea Giusti published
As new and powerful telescopes gather fresh data about the universe, they reveal the limits of older theories like Einstein's relativity.
Many physicists think we live in a multiverse. But they're getting a simple math rule wrong.
By Philip Goff published
Our universe seems to be perfectly suited for life. But anyone who claims that's evidence of a multiverse is falling prey to a logical fallacy.
'Refraction is then all there is to it': How Isaac Newton's experiments revealed the mystery of light
By Philip Ball published
In this extract from the new book Beautiful Experiments: An Illustrated History of Experimental Science, science writer Philip Ball explains how Isaac Newton transformed our understanding of light.
1st images from the Euclid 'dark universe' telescope are here — and they're jaw-dropping
By Robert Lea published
The first images from ESA's dark universe detective Euclid are out, featuring spectacular views of nebulas, distant galaxies and globular clusters of thousands of stars.
World's smallest particle accelerator is 54 million times smaller than the Large Hadron Collider, and it works
By Harry Baker published
Scientists have created the world's first nanophotonic electron accelerator, which speeds negatively charged particles with mini laser pulses and is small enough to fit on a coin.
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