It's All Relative. Really.

In the wonderful world of Physics, everything can be categorized with four adjectives: big, small, fast, slow.

Physics is pretty much like Sesame
Street, in that sense.

Seriously, though, these qualifiers are what physicists focus on when evaluating anything. In fact, there’s a branch of physics for each combination, and unbeknownst to you (or perhaps fully beknownst), we’ve already covered a lot of these concepts ourselves:

Slow and Big:	Classical Physics (The Tides, Gravity)
Slow and Small:	Quantum Mechanics (Quantum Dots)
Fast and Big:	General Relativity (Time Travel)
Fast and Small:	Quantum Field Theory (Higgs Boson)

The fascinating thing is that one man almost single-handedly made all of these possible: Albert Einstein. In 1905, Einstein published a set of papers establishing his ideas on Special Relativity, considered by far the most groundbreaking theory in modern physics. They revolutionized the way scientists thought of the Universe, and made further developments in both science and technology possible. This is all great news, and I’m sure you’re jumping out of your chair with joy, but… what did his papers actually say? What makes Special Relativity so special?

Nope. 

Where We're Going...

A lot of you have probably been thinking, “OK, world, this is the future. Where is my flying car?”

"I need something more... stylish."

Well, before you get your proverbial panties in a bunch, think about how that would work. Without involving jets (which are dangerous for a commercial vehicle) and propellers (which would make your car a plane) the only thing left to make your car fly would be the power of magnetism. Everyone’s pushed a magnet across a table before; in theory, a strong enough magnet would be able to push off a metal surface and, with, a motor in it, possibly drive itself around. However, that magnet you pushed does flips, skids, and is just entirely unstable if pushed from the bottom. How could one implement your fantastic new magnet technology in a stable car, one that wouldn’t flip over when you turned it on? The answer: superconducting levitation. Believe it or not, that is a real phrase, and the technology is being implemented as we speak.

The God Particle

The Higgs boson.
...I don't even know.

You may have heard of the “Higgs boson particle” in the news lately. It’s the thing that CERN is working so hard on this year, sending out news reports daily, it seems. In reality, the Higgs boson is one of the only theoretical fundamental particles that hasn’t been observed yet, and even more important, it’s the key to a grand unification of Physics theory.

But... what is it?