
Rafi Letzter
Latest articles by Rafi Letzter

A long-lost type of dark matter may resolve the biggest disagreement in physics
By Rafi Letzter published
Right now, key measurements of the universe's expansion are contradicting each other. A lost form of dark matter could help them agree.

Flickers of light in a giant, underground tank of water in Japan could explain the entire universe
By Rafi Letzter published
There's an asymmetry between the universe's matter and antimatter. This experiment might explain why.

'Longest animal ever' discovered in deep-sea canyon off Australian coast
By Rafi Letzter published
Underwater explorers found a 150-foot siphonophore — a stringy creature that, like coral or jellyfish, is made up of smaller critters — living in waters off the coast of Australia.

A huge cloud of invisible particles seems to be missing from the Milky Way
By Rafi Letzter published
A key signal for a certain kind of dark matter failed to turn up in a search throughout the Milky Way. Now scientists are disagreeing about what that means.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is on fire and radiation levels are spiking
By Rafi Letzter published
A forest fire caused a radiation spike in the Chernobyl region, but that elevated radiation has not reached nearby, populated areas.

New Zealand is winning the war on coronavirus. Here’s why.
By Rafi Letzter published
Early and decisive nationwide action from New Zealand's government put the small country on track to weather its coronavirus outbreak better than most.

Could a mobile app control the COVID-19 pandemic and help reopen society?
By Rafi Letzter published
Right now, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus epidemic is out of control and society is shut down. With the help of a mobile app, researchers argue, that could change.

Is 6 feet enough space for social distancing?
By Rafi Letzter published
By now, you've probably heard that to slow the COVID-19 epidemic, people need to stay 6 feet (1.8 meters) apart from each other. Here's why, and how it works.

Contact-tracing mobile app could help track the spread of coronavirus
By Rafi Letzter published
Right now, the virus is spreading too quickly to track its movements through communities with current methods. Researchers are proposing a drastic new step involving a mobile app.

'Submarine avalanches' are burying microplastics deep under the ocean
By Rafi Letzter published
Very little is known about how plastic moves under the ocean's surface. But that's where 99% of it ends up, and scientists are trying to model how it flows.

Doctors scramble for best practices on reusing medical masks during shortage
By Rafi Letzter published
Very little is known about how to properly reuse medical masks to fight infectious diseases, but some best practices are starting to emerge.

Can homemade masks protect you from COVID-19?
By Rafi Letzter published
Homemade cloth masks aren't ideal, but given the present shortages of medical-grade protective gear in the midst of a pandemic, they may be the best option for some people.

We might be living in a gigantic, intergalactic bubble
By Rafi Letzter published
The bubble concept could explain one of the strangest mysteries plaguing astrophysics: Why can't we tell how fast the universe is expanding?

American stuck in Egypt for false-positive coronavirus test describes his struggle in military hospital
By Rafi Letzter published
TechRadar Editor Matt Swider is learning firsthand what coronavirus precautions look like in Egypt, after an apparent false positive stuck him in quarantine.

The universe may have been filled with supermassive black holes at the dawn of time
By Rafi Letzter published
As the universe cooled in the era after the Big Bang, a supermassive black hole had already formed in the center of a galaxy, forming a giant engine of energy we can still see today.

Something strange is going on with the North Star
By Rafi Letzter published
Something's up with the North Star, a cepheid. Its distance, mass and age should be easy to measure. But new calculations keep disagreeing with one another and failing to make sense.

Did German physicists accidentally discover dark matter in 2014?
By Rafi Letzter published
A new theory suggests that dark matter might not be made of undiscovered, never-before-seen particles. Instead, researchers write, it might be made from a type of "hexaquark" detected in 2014.

SXSW canceled amid coronavirus fears
By Rafi Letzter published
The city of Austin canceled the dates for 2020 South by Southwest events, and organizers said they would abide by the decision.

Cruise ship with apparent coronavirus outbreak is held offshore near San Francisco
By Rafi Letzter published
A cruise ship with a suspected COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is being kept in limbo near San Francisco Bay, where officials will screen people on board for the virus.

How a tornado outbreak left 22 dead across central Tennessee
By Rafi Letzter published
Twenty-two are dead, more are missing, and many more are injured after a supercell storm spawned a series of tornadoes early Tuesday morning, including one that struck downtown Nashville.

Dramatic effect of coronavirus lockdowns seen from space
By Rafi Letzter published
There's been a sharp drop in air pollution over China since the acceleration of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, and satellites can see it from space.

Huge physics conference canceled at the last minute due to coronavirus fears
By Rafi Letzter published
Organizers of the American Physical Society's March conference made the decision to cancel due to coronavirus concerns less than two days before the conference was set to begin.

'Exquisite' dinosaur-age cockroaches discovered preserved in amber
By Rafi Letzter published
A pair of 99-million-year-old cave-dwelling cockroaches are rewriting the early history of when bugs first moved into caves.
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