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Physics + Astronomy

A closeup of a man playing cello, with other musicians fading into a blurry background.
Photo Credit
Cyano66 via iStock
If the mind is a symphony, the orchestra playing it remains obscured.

New mathematical frameworks reveal how stable thoughts emerge from chaotic brain activity

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Phoito-illustration of Boris Shraiman in front of a blackboard.
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Boris Shraiman

Boris Shraiman points a physicist’s eye on biological quandaries
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UCSB joins NSF's National Quantum Virtual Laboratory
Newton's cradle

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigators awards to UCSB experimentalists opens the door to new insights and innovations
illustration of two scientists
Photo Credit
Illustration Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach
UCSB physics professors John Martinis, left, and Michel Devoret

UCSB physics professors John Martinis and Michel Devoret win 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics
A rendering of the paths of various particles after a collision in a particle accelerator.
Photo Credit
Vchal via iStock
Theorists like Bruno Scheihing-Hitschfeld develop our descriptions of the exotic materials created within particle colliders.

A rewarding dissertation on the strong nuclear force
photo of the the LZ experiment's outer detector
Photo Credit
Matt Kapust/Sanford Underground Research Laboratory
The outer detector of the LZ dark matter experiment

Physicists tighten the net on elusive dark matter
Gary Horowitz in blue collared shirt on blue background.
Photo Credit
Jeff Liang
Gary Horowitz

Gary Horowitz awarded Dirac Medal for contributions to theoretical physics
artists' rendering of a sun and its planet-forming disk
Artist's rendering of a young star surrounded by its protoplanetary disk, with elements furnished by NASA's Hubble Telescope

Some young suns are aligned with their planet-forming disks, others are born tilted
white man in front of blackboard
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
Joseph Polchinski at UCSB’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, where he advanced pivotal ideas in string theory and quantum gravity.

Polchinski archive opens digital window into renowned physicist’s work
turbulence as ink is dispersed into water

New mathematical insights into Lagrangian turbulence
scientist at work
Photo Credit
Matt Perko
A researcher at work in materials scientist Stephen Wilson's Lab

Advancing quantum science and nurturing aspiring scientists
images of six galaxies taken with the James Webb Space Telescope
Photo Credit
M. Franco / C. Casey / COSMOS-Web collaboration
Six images of galaxies taken from nearly 800,000, from upper left to lower right: the present-day universe, and 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10 billion years ago

Mapping space: Largest map of the universe announced
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