Articles by Ben Turner, Live Science Staff Writer

Ben Turner is a U.K. based staff writer at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, among other topics like weird animals and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess.

Articles by: Ben Turner

The new material works by forming triangles out of an atom's spin states.

Physicists create new state of matter from quantum soup of magnetically weird particles

By Ben Turner published 15 December 21

The messy quantum soup of spin states allows for quantum entanglement across an entire material.

An artist's impression of a distant asteroid approaching Earth.

'Potentially hazardous' asteroid worth nearly $5 billion will pass by Earth this week, NASA says

By Ben Turner published 6 December 21

The mineral-rich asteroid has an estimated worth of $4.71 billion.

Blue laser light used by one of the experiments to detect the increased transparency of the gas.

Weird quantum effect that can turn matter invisible finally demonstrated

By Ben Turner published 22 November 21

The effect, called Pauli blocking, has been predicted for 30 years. Scientists just proved it for the first time.

Researchers at Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics used the same set-up at the recent study to create superionic ice, shown here in this artistic rendering. In that instance, the ice was not stable.

Ultrahot 'superionic' ice is a new state of matter

By Ben Turner published 18 November 21

To create the ice, the scientists had to squeeze a water droplet to 3.5 million times Earth's atmospheric pressure and heat it hotter than the sun.

An artist's depiction of the IC 10 X-1 system, a black hole lurks in the upper left corner.

Black holes may be growing as the universe expands

By Ben Turner published 15 November 21

The hypothesis could help to explain the weird discrepancies spotted in space-time ripples from enormous black hole collisions.

The lowest part of Earth's atmosphere has been rising by 164 feet (50 meters) per decade since 1980.

Earth's lower atmosphere is expanding due to climate change

By Ben Turner published 14 November 21

The rate of atmospheric expansion has increased since the first measurements in the 1980s.

Don't miss the longest partial lunar eclipse of the century next week

By Ben Turner published 13 November 21

This eclipse will be the longest one of the century, and of the past 580 years.

The volcano is just over a week away from breaking its all-time record for longest duration erupting.

Politician suggests bombing erupting La Palma volcano to stop lava flow

By Ben Turner published 7 November 21

Aside from lava flows, the volcano has been belching out high-speed molten boulders and causing tremors.

Healthy vegetation sits next to a field cleared by a fire in the Amazon in Rondonia State, Brazil

World leaders pledge to end deforestation by 2030

By Ben Turner published 7 November 21

The enormous pledge encompasses over 85% of the world's forests and more than 100 nations.

The right shows the night sky in radio polarized waves, with the filaments annotated with arrows.

Earth may be trapped inside a giant magnetic tunnel

By Ben Turner published 25 October 21

Scientists made the startling discovery by plugging radio wave observations into a brand-new computer model.

The scanning tunnelling image of the graphene sheet shows the honeycomb imprint of the 'electron ice' underneath it.

Scientists capture image of bizarre 'electron ice' for the first time

By Ben Turner last updated 15 March 22

Wigner crystals have been theorized for more than 80 years, but this is the first time the elusive crystals have been captured in an image.

Representatives from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences sit in front of a screen displaying the winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Nobel prize in physics goes to trio whose research alerted the world to climate change

By Ben Turner published 6 October 21

Their work gave us crucial insights into how complex systems behave.

Since there aren't any images of the Greenland fireball, here's an illustration of a space rock burning up as it enters Earth's atmosphere.

32,000 mph fireball spotted soaring over North Carolina

By Ben Turner published 29 September 21

The fireball’s bright streak was captured by a neighborhood porch camera.

An artist's depiction of a swirling vortex beam.

1st 'atom tornado' created from swirling vortex of helium atoms

By Ben Turner last updated 31 October 22

Physicists have created the first-ever atomic vortex beam — a swirling tornado of atoms and molecules with mysterious properties that have yet to be understood.

The time crystal was created inside Google's Sycamore chip, which is kept cool inside their quantum cryostat.

Otherworldly 'time crystal' made inside Google quantum computer could change physics forever

By Ben Turner published 18 September 21

The crystals neatly sidestep some of physics' most iron-clad laws.

The rogue black holes could make up 10% of the universe's total black hole mass.

Rogue black holes could be wandering at the edges of the Milky Way

By Ben Turner last updated 16 September 21

A new simulation predicts that the lost giants were dislodged by gigantic collisions and have wandered the outskirts of galaxies ever since.

The Einstein ring shows light from a distant quasar being bent around two galaxies 3.4 billion light-years away.

Hubble captures gorgeous image of 'Einstein ring' from warped quasar light

By Ben Turner published 26 August 21

Astronomers use the rings to study remote galaxies and to measure the masses of the objects that create them.

An artist's impression of the supersolid, which is like a solid and a liquid at the same time.

Physicists give weird new phase of matter an extra dimension

By Ben Turner published 19 August 21

The new phase of matter behaves like a solid and a frictionless liquid at the same time

The STAR detector at Brookhaven National Laboratory detected the matter-antimatter pairs created by the colliding light.

Famous Einstein equation used to create matter from light for first time

By Ben Turner last updated 18 August 21

The particles used were spooky virtual particles, conjured from a disturbance between two electromagnetic fields.

Gulf Stream could be veering toward irreversible collapse, a new analysis warns

By Ben Turner published 8 August 21

Although scientists don’t fully understand the varying strengths of the factors contributing to the slowdown, all of them are linked to human-caused climate change.

The three galaxies are yanking strands of material from each other as they spiral ever closer.

NASA has glimpsed our galaxy's fate in three-way galactic brawl

By Ben Turner published 8 August 21

Despite the apocalyptic appearances, galactic mergers are a frequent and essential part of a galaxy’s life cycle.

An artist's impression of the new particle, called Tcc+, which is made up of two charm quarks, an up antiquark and a down antiquark.

'Doubly charming' tetraquark is the longest-lived exotic-matter particle ever found

By Ben Turner last updated 1 November 22

Studying the particle could provide physicists with vital insight into the rules that govern how all matter is formed.

Ice receding from a glacier near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. This photo was taken during a helicopter tour of the region with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in May 2021.

'Massive melting event' strikes Greenland after record heat wave

By Ben Turner published 3 August 21

One estimate suggests that 13 billion tons (12 metric tons) of ice made its way into the ocean on a single day.

The meteor, travelling up to 43200 miles per hour, lit up the night sky as if it were daytime.

Flashing meteor that exploded over Norway landed somewhere in a nearby forest

By Ben Turner last updated 27 July 21

Scientists believe the ultra-fast object landed in a densely-forested area near the capital, Oslo. It could take up to ten years to find.

Bezos shows the aviation glasses that once belonged to Amelia Earhart, which he took with him during the flight, at the post-flight press conference.

Jeff Bezos went to the edge of space. Does that make him an astronaut?

By Ben Turner published 25 July 21

The billionaire's flight has opened up a debate about what "astronauts' and "space' even are.

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