There are some self-evident ones, like Planck’s constant h, the speed of light c and the cryptic signs that represent planets in ancient (and modern) astronomy. For other symbols, part of the fun lies ...

After analyzing light coming from distant quasars, some researchers have asked a physical constant a blunt question: Are you really constant at all? And since the "fine structure constant" that ...

A fundamental constant of the universe may not be soconstant after all, according to a new study. Recent observations of distant galaxies suggest that thestrength of the electromagnetic force ? the so ...

The strength of the electromagnetic interaction, one of physics’s most fundamental constants, is actually very slowly changing, and has different values in different parts of the universe. This ...

For nearly half a century, theoretical physicists have made a series of discoveries that certain constants in fundamental physics seem extraordinarily fine-tuned to allow for the emergence of a ...

It's fun to think about the fundamental physical constants. These are special values used in our models of the physical universe. They include things like the speed of light, the gravitational ...

IT IS a well-kept secret, but we know the answer to life, the universe and everything. It’s not 42 – it’s 1/137. This immutable number determines how stars burn, how chemistry happens and even whether ...

RICHARD FEYNMAN, Nobel laureate and physicist extraordinaire, called it a “magic number” and its value “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics”. The number he was referring to, which goes by ...

For nearly half a century, theoretical physicists have made a series of discoveries that certain constants in fundamental physics seem extraordinarily fine-tuned to allow for the emergence of a ...