Gravitation as a research area investigates the fundamental interaction responsible for the attraction between masses, spanning classical, relativistic, and quantum regimes. It encompasses the study of Newtonian gravity for weak-field, low-velocity systems, general relativity for strong-field and cosmological phenomena, and experimental and observational tests across scales from laboratory to astrophysical and cosmological. The field also includes gravitational wave physics, black hole and neutron star dynamics, precision tests of the equivalence principle, alternative and modified gravity theories, and efforts toward quantum gravity, such as loop quantum gravity, string-inspired models, and semiclassical approaches, with strong connections to cosmology and high-energy theory.
Einstein's theory of general relativity describes gravity as the bending of spacetime, a mathematical model that combines three-dimensional space and time into a single, four-dimensional continuum. The theory also predicts ...
For many years, the simplest view of dark energy has been that it remains unchanged. Throughout cosmic history, the mysterious ingredient believed to drive the universe's accelerated expansion is thought to have behaved in ...
Astronomy
Oct 12, 2026
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314
Isaac Newton is typically portrayed as a solitary scientist with intense focus who was obsessed with power and deeply egotistical. But a new book by Caltech historians Jed Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold takes a deeper look ...
General Physics
Sep 29, 2026
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94
The Human Genome Project was launched in 1990, preceded by decades of breakthroughs in genetics. It eventually gave us a sequence of the human genome. Yet, while the physical rules behind the genome's organization remain ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 23, 2026
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23
If you want to understand the origins of black holes, Yale astronomers say, you need to look beyond the centers of galaxies and start searching in the nooks and crannies. That's where you'll find the "wanderers"—black holes ...
Astronomy
Sep 23, 2026
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Somewhere between the microscopic realm of elementary particles and the macroscopic world of human beings, something strange happens: The rules of quantum physics, which work so exquisitely for tiny atoms, seem to lose their ...
General Physics
Sep 17, 2026
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131
An international team including Nobel Prize-winning physicist Professor Sir Roger Penrose has observed a long-predicted effect of gravity on a falling quantum object for the first time. The result shows that a fundamental ...
General Physics
Sep 2, 2026
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The weak equivalence principle (WEP) is central to Einstein's general relativity. It posits that gravity must accelerate everything equally, regardless of what it is made from. For the first time, a team led by Ming-Sheng ...
In dark skies at night, distant starlight twinkles and speaks to vast cosmic histories almost as old as time itself. New data from instruments such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope are helping astrophysicists probe deep ...
Astronomy
Aug 27, 2026
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38
There is a question that often comes up at every public talk I do, and I have never had a good answer to it—well, not an entirely confident one. What's inside a black hole? The textbook reply is a singularity. Cross the event ...
Astronomy
Aug 12, 2026
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