The XKCD Guide to the Universe's Most Bizarre Physics

What sneaky invisible forces enable these instruments to locate buried treasure?

Driving a spacecraft around a planet isn’t anything like driving on a planet. A physicist explains orbital navigation.

“Anomalous” heat flow, which at first appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, gives physicists a way to detect quantum entanglement without destroying it.

The proof, known to be so hard that a mathematician once offered 10 martinis to whoever could figure it out, uses number theory to explain quantum fractals.

By shifting water to a higher elevation, the giant Three Gorges Dam caused the Earth to spin more slowly.

Solar winds at a million miles an hour and freaky magnetic turbulence are sparking some of the best light shows in centuries.

Two mathematicians have proved that a straightforward question—how hard is it to untie a knot?—has a complicated answer.

The interstellar comet 3I/Atlas reached its closest point to the sun. Here's how to follow the rest of its journey away from our solar system.

An observatory detected the first radio signal from the interstellar object 3I/Atlas. Here’s what it means.

The storm, which is set to make landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday, has stunned meteorologists with its intensity and the speed at which it built.

The math behind even the simplest ocean waves is notoriously uncooperative. A team of Italian mathematicians has made major advances toward understanding it.

This $400 set comes with minifigures of the complete Next Gen crew, including Picard, Riker, and Wesley Crusher’s portable tractor beam.