The speed of light is the ultimate limit of motion, yet against the vast scale of the cosmos it becomes painfully inadequate.

Physicists are no longer content to let atoms blur into invisibility. By squeezing light into pulses that last just ...

About 20 years ago, a neuroscientist named David Eagleman strapped a bunch of students into harnesses, hoisted them to the top of an imposing metal tower, and then, without warning, dropped them 150 ...

In science fiction, spaceships moving at or beyond lightspeed enable all manner of universal exploration. But in Earth-bound reality, traveling at the speed of light (299,792,458 meters per second, or ...

So, you’re driving a car at half the speed of light. (Both hands on the wheel, please.) You turn on the headlights. How fast would you see this light traveling? What about a person standing by the ...

Hornof, D., Helm, V., de Dios Rodriguez, E. et al. A snapshot of relativistic motion: visualizing the Terrell-Penrose effect. Commun Phys 8, 161 (2025). https://doi ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

Edgerton’s flash work to trillion-frame capture with single-pixel sensors, helping you choose gear for fast events ...

When I was a teenager, I was—shockingly, I know—deeply nerdy. At a science-fiction convention, I bought a button that read, “186,282 miles/second: Not just a good idea, it’s the law.” It was poking ...