2021's Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics

It was a big year. Fermilab discovered possible evidence of new physics with the muon G-2 experiment. Physicists created a time crystal, a new phase of matter that appears to violate one of nature’s most cherished laws. And we got a glimpse of an enormous pair of bubbles towering over the Milky Way.

[alexxans]

Time crystals have got to be one of the coolest scientific names given to an object.

[eulermachado]

I love how the scientist explained what 3.7 sigma represents in a coin toss, its much more easy to understand and I think if he didnt I would certainly be confused. Its always great to translate these discoveries into something more people can reach.

[wolfboyft]

It's so awesome that they managed to find a way to legitimately call something a time crystal.

[FunnyVidsIllustrated]

Quanta, first video I watch of yours - and I gotta say I'm very impressed.
1. You dumb down sophisticated subjects adequately, like not condensending and not too high level. Props to your script writer, this is not easy so gj!
2. Your community is respectful and curious, and I thoroughly enjoy this corner of the internet. Im going to check out a couple more of your vids and if its the same story you earned yourself a sub. Thank you and keep it up!

[SimSim]

Time crystal just doesn't consume energy like any atom for example. Perpetual motion machine generates energy from nothing. The idea of the time crystal is not that it's perpetual motion machine or breaks some physics law but that this is periodic motion without losing energy. We knew the possibility of such motion with super fluids and other exotic states for a while, but this is the first legit exactly zero energy loss demonstration.

[john.dough.]

It's amazing to see how much we still have to learn!

[batmanarkham]

This is beautiful. This video implicitly tells you that how science works. Science doesn’t always comprise of eureka moments. Often scientists slog through different inconsistencies assumptions and opposing theories to purport a hypothesis.

[RazvanNemes]

I look forward to these videos every year. Thank you Quanta!

[primenumberbuster]

Thank you so much Quanta Magazine to fill young hearts with this deep inquisitiveness and fascination with the reality around. The true potential of the platform is limitless. This epic summary just resonates so many unexplained questions than I had the time before.

[acekike]

People overlook physics too much, this is where the cool stuff comes from :)

[logansmith-perkins]

Every time I look at one of your physics videos, I'm astounded by the fast pace of technology and the fast pace of our understanding of the universe. The world is becoming more advanced before our very eyes.

[allenjackson]

Thanks for creating this site. .Although I am a retired physicist, it is exciting to read about what discoveries are being made, particularly in quantum world.

[owen]

Thank you for your excellent articles (and for links to the original research paper at the bottom!) You do a great service for those of us that wish we had time to sort through all the 1000's of published research that comes out each month but don't have the time to figure out which articles are interesting or have profound/important implications in their respective fields.

[Eigenbros]

High quality content from Quanta and great choices for the biggest breakthrough in physics in 2021.

[epicmatter]

Truly fascinating. I’m just glad that all these new opportunities for discovering new types of physics is where I will have an opportunity to discover new physics

[rabbitazteca]

I am just in awe of how I KNOW for fact that in this lifetime I could never possibly be as smart or in the same caliber of intelligence as these that go on to discover scientific marvels like these in the video. WOOOW!

[midas]

Your videos remind me that just because only a few science breakthroughs reach major headlines outside the academic community, progress is constantly being made.

I want to ask though since you showed that formula of the standard model, what is z that it is solving for?

[bayr]

Thank you science! wether its in physics or in other fields. im grateful for all the people that work hard & achieve so much

[morkovija]

Well, that would be a good series to look back to, later on, when you need to remember what significant discoveries happened that year

[Staminist-MMF-]

Thank you for the upload! Amazing what humans have mastered, but the greatest thing is that there are only more and more questions with each discovery.
Please, upload more, we need this!
Cheers