Physics

Queen’s University Belfast and University of Sheffield also enter into the spirit of ‘Back to the Future Day’

Stereotypes, prejudice and laddish behaviour still deter young women interested in physics, engineering and computer science, says Eileen Pollack

Study finds ‘super ties’ with another academic can lead to higher citation rates

Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-2016 subject tables will be revealed over six weeks

Japanese and Canadian professors awarded prize for their work on ‘nature’s most elusive elementary particles’

The University of Cambridge is the top UK institution for hosting both international and British students who go on to win Nobel prizes, finds British Council

The good, the bad and the offbeat – the academy through the lens of the national press

Major/minor course designed to improve graduates’ employment prospects

Studies on urine, pain thresholds and unboiled eggs honoured in annual awards for improbable research. John Elmes takes a look

Physicist warns that the UK’s high scientific output is based on investment made ‘decades’ ago

Tara Shears on the career thrills and frustrations of a female scientist who made history at Berkeley

Landmark discoveries have relied on some unexpected connections, says Richard Joyner

The rise in ‘kilo-authors’ and ‘gift authorship’ is causing the academy to rethink how it assesses the worth of academic publications

Want more women to study for a physics degree? Stop asking for a physics A level, says Peter Coles

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and physicist Brian Cox highlighted as positive role models

Increase led by rise of applications from India and growing popularity of STEM subjects

Prize-winning physicist appointed as vice-chancellor of ANU

A new series of short films reveals the often unexpected books that have inspired scientists at Cambridge.

This examination of space exploration has its feet firmly on the ground, writes Monica Grady

An detailed account of the bigger picture around the astronomer’s discoveries interests Robyn Arianrhod

A biography of a secretive scientist comes with a cast worthy of a le Carré novel, says Jon Turney

The authors’ case for a cosmology in crisis is infinitely plausible, finds Jon Turney

A history of the steps humans took to explain how and why things work delights Cait MacPhee

Cait MacPhee on an examination of current theories about our history

Irene Glendinning evaluates a rare study of the effectiveness of STEM widening-participation schemes

Is life on our planet unique in space? And do we know how to find out? Cait MacPhee ponders

Virginia Trimble on a book that aims to explain the universe and its contents in terms of natural processes

Robyn Arianrhod on the complex and contradictory life of the greatest physicist of all time

A study of heliocentrism rightly acknowledges the work of Islamic astronomers, writes Peter Barker

Jörg Michael Dostal on how the NSS has enabled the US to attain technological leadership to serve its geopolitical objectives

Considering different timescales is a fun way to digest serious science, finds Graham Farmelo

Virginia Trimble on the search for the mysterious, magical secret ingredient of the universe

A former Higgs boson sceptic is a formidable guide on the hunt for the elusive particle

Life history of physicist illuminates undervalued Britons behind the Bomb

Jon Turney on an editor whose work with popular science writers helped to re-establish the genre

William Poole on how a culture of literary commonplacing gradually gave way to one of scientific record-keeping

Advice from an astronomer would have benefited this exploration of connections between two subjects, says Virginia Trimble

What will we need to know to reboot civilisation after the apocalypse?, asks Alison Stokes

Athene Donald agrees that scientists, although not infallible, do know better about some things

An intellectual adventure that seeks to explain everything through maths captivates John Gribbin

Her Star Trek dream dashed, Noel-Ann Bradshaw is still delighted by the science of impossible tales

The astrobiology is up to date but the subbing needs work, says Lewis Dartnell

David Toop is charmed by an exploration of the pains and pleasures of the noises around us

Andrew Briggs on an effort to cast down faith-based reasoning

A. W. Purdue on the leader who saw the nuclear future but let it slip

Margaret Weitekamp on a woman who helped get the US space programme off the ground

Erik-Jan Bos finds that the mystery surrounding a famous painting opens a new window on the French philosopher’s world and life

Simon Mitton finds much to admire in a grand tour of our home galaxy

Graham Farmelo on a scientific giant’s debt to his wife

Michael Berry is unpersuaded by a radical theory that tries to reinstate the concept of absolute time

Jon Turney on the generator of the AC power grid

Lewis Dartnell regrets that a discussion of extreme life forms focuses on faint possibility rather than wondrous reality

Tristan Bekinschtein recommends a challenge to our notions of consciousness and cognition

Margaret Weitekamp on a historical study of the relationship between religion and spaceflight

Virginia Trimble on the hidden forces in the Cosmos

Madeline Muntersbjorn reviews a guide to the oeuvres of a mathematical genius

Graham Farmelo applauds a tribute to the technological experts who helped the Allies win the Second World War

Vike Martina Plock on literary echoes of relativity’s shockwaves

Jon Turney on future-facing researchers Gerard O’Neill and Eric Drexler

Virginia Trimble considers supermassive creative destruction at the Universe’s galactic centres