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While the Large Hadron Collider is shut down for repairs, you might be feeling pessimistic about grand scientific experiments. But that's the cool thing about science - even when everything goes horribly wrong, we still learn something. Sometimes, what we learn from failure is more important than what we'd have gained from a success. Here are five scientific experiments that didn't go as planned, and we're all better off for them. More »
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You may think physics has changed over the past 200 years, but it hasn't. Today, theoretical physicists can't understand why the universe is expanding at an observed rate that doesn't quite mesh with general relativity. Back in the 19th century, theoretical physicists couldn't understand how electromagnetic energy and gravity could propagate through empty space. The proposed solution in both cases was the same: there must some stuff out there that we can't see, yet affects the entire universe. In the past, that substance was aether. Is today's dark energy the modern equivalent? More »
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