Researchers at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory in Paris have made the most precise measurement of one of the fundamental constants, called the fine-structure constant, providing physicists with a vital ...

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, ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it. Why is our Universe the way it is, and not some other way? There are ...

Researchers at The University of Manchester have used graphene to measure an important and mysterious fundamental constant - and glimpse the foundations of the universe. The researchers from The ...

Not so constant: is α different here? Is the fine-structure constant different in different parts of the universe? The answer to this intriguing question could be one step closer, thanks to a new way ...

The experimental measurement of the fine-structure constant. © Pierre Cladé, Saïda Guellati-Khélifa and Tatsumi Aoyama The most precise measurement ever of the ...

Even on a black hole’s turf, an essential constant of nature holds steady. According to standard physics, the fine-structure constant, which governs interactions of electrically charged particles, is ...

In sports and in cosmology, the rules of the game aren't supposed to change as you go along. Athletes call this playing fair. Cosmologists call it the cosmological principle, and it means that the ...

Legislators change laws from time to time, but Mother Nature's laws are eternal -- or so it has seemed. Now, though, scientists are debating clues that suggest the laws of physics change over time.