Physicists Come Closer to Answering Question of Antimatter's Scarcity

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February 19, 2020

Dear Reader, One of the greatest mysteries of modern physics is why the universe has more matter than antimatter. Our main story explores significant new findings by physicists working to solve this puzzle. At the California Institute of Technology, researchers are using fiber-optic cables to study earthquakes—a promising new method that is shaking up geology. And in other news, a nationwide analysis concluded that whiter counties and neighborhoods disproportionately benefit from government buyouts of flood-damaged homes, even as low-income and minority homeowners are more likely to participate in such programs.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Physics Physicists Come Closer to Answering Question of Antimatter's Scarcity Researchers have confirmed a long-predicted key similarity between hydrogen and antihydrogen By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Policy & Ethics Racial Inequalities in Housing Extend to Flood Buyout Programs Whiter, wealthier communities disproportionately benefit from government programs to purchase flood-damaged homes By Daniel Cusick,E&E News

Engineering Kilometers of "Dark Cable" Form the Newest Seismic Sensors Fiber-optic cables stretching below cities, through glaciers and along the seafloor could record earthquakes and more By Shannon Hall

Environment Industrial Revolution Pollution Found in Himalayan Glacier Ice cores from a Tibetan glacier reveal the first deposits of Industrial Revolution pollution starting in layers deposited in about 1780. By Susanne Bard | 03:00

Climate Trump Administration Begins Work on Next National Climate Report Climate science deniers are hoping to have a hand in the fifth assessment of climate impacts on the U.S., due out in 2022 By Scott Waldman,E&E News

Medicine The Women's Health Pioneer You've Probably Never Heard Of The 19th-century black "doctress" Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler should be on everyone's radar By Kimberly Nagy

FROM THE STORE Ask the Experts: Astronomy This second eBook in our Ask the Experts series – Astronomy – looks skyward and explains a variety of universal phenomena and theories. Questions on stars, planets, asteroids, galaxies, black holes, space exploration and more are answered in this collection.

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FROM THE ARCHIVE What Happened to All of the Universe's Antimatter? Differences between matter and antimatter could help explain why the cosmos mostly lacks the latter today, researchers say By Clara Moskowitz | May 2019

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Sometimes I pinch myself, because when I started, we didn't have any antihydrogen at all. And lots of people said we would never be able to make it. Now we're up to thousands of atoms stored. It's really a revolution that we're able to do this." Jeffrey Hangst, Aarhus University

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