© 2026 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. By accelerating charged particles (electrons, protons, or other ions), the LINAC (linear accelerator), invented in the 1930s, became one of the key machines that advanced nuclear physics well into the second half of the twentieth century. One of the main uses of LINACs today is as the primary source of particle beams at high-energy laboratories around the world. High-energy particle colliders are usually ring-based, such as the LHC

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. A Cosmic Mystery for the Next Generation of Scientists Recent research from South Korea (2025), has raised new questions about one of the biggest mysteries in modern physics: dark energy . Understanding what dark energy is, and what it might do in the future, could determine the ultimate fate of our universe and there may be new evidence that we might have got it wrong! The Expanding Universe: A Quick History Before the 1990s Modern

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. When writing about noble gases in a Journey into Modern Physics , the expression ' react with nothing, under normal conditions ' was always used. This article explores noble gas chemistry, which may come as a surprise. Under certain conditions, some of the noble gasses do react with other atoms, in particular the more massive gasses are more reactive than the lighter ones as their outermost orbitals are not as strongly attached to

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. There are two fundamental problems in modern physics, which are; Problem 1: Spiral galaxies don't have enough gravity to stop their arms from spinning off into space. Something is clearly producing the additional gravitational attraction that keeps spiral galaxies from spinning apart. Whatever it is, it can't be detected, so it's called 'dark-matter' . Problem 2: The expansion of the universe is not slowing down as expected, it's ac

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. In modern physics, we know that empty space isn’t really empty. Even in a perfect vacuum, tiny bursts of energy are constantly being created and disappearing. These are called quantum fluctuations , and they give space a kind of fizzy, restless background. Many scientists use the nickname “quantum foam” to describe this ever-changing activity. If you recall, there is energy at every point in the vacuum of space and Heisenberg's unc

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. There are two things that can help us answer this question, although you may not be happy about the outcome. But the conclusion might cheer you up! The ΛCDM Model The current theory describing the history of the universe from time = 0 to the present is known as the ΛCDM (Lambda–Cold Dark Matter) model . Λ (Lambda) refers to Einstein’s cosmological constant . It has had a checkered history (Einstein once called it his “biggest mist

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. Protons (the uud quark configuration of the lightest of all baryons) are the most stable of all the hadrons. Experiments show that the proton’s lifetime must be greater than 10 ^34 years, far exceeding the age of the universe. So if protons do decay, it happens so rarely that it is effectively invisible to us. So, how come they are so stable when hadrons in general, are not: even the neutron (ddu quark composition) is unstable when

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. Black holes are not actual holograms but can be mathematically described as if they were! The Holographic Principle And it’s not just black holes either - some physicists believe that the entire universe could be so described! The idea is known as the holographic principle , first proposed in the 1990s by Gerard ’t Hooft and Leonard Susskind , building on earlier work on black hole physics. Black holes as holograms, was described i

FULL SERIES & LIGHT ADAPTATIONS As from 20th October 2025, all KINDLE and KOBO E-book prices for A Journey into Modern Physics have been reduced! The Main Series E-books have been slashed by 25% and the Adaptations by 33%. (The actual percentage reduction may vary slightly from these figures depending on which currency is used to make the purchase). If you are signed up with KOBO PLUS, then all our E-book down-loads are free! Now that we have the full complement of our E-book

Hydrogen (1 electron) Helium (2 electrons) © 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. If you think of an electron as a tiny snooker ball, then of course it spins, right? An electron creates a tiny magnetic field and this can be measured for real. So, if its magnetic field is real - it must spin to create the field, just like spinning neutron stars, only on a much smaller scale! Of course electrons spin! Oh No They Don't! The experiment that proved that an electron has a tiny

The physicist and inventor Robert Van de Graaff created an electrostatic generator in the early 1930s that became a wonderful science-lesson demonstration of the effects of very high voltages. By "going-large", it also became a work-horse for the development of nuclear physics, right up until the 1980s and is still in use today both in the classroom and in smaller nuclear physics labs. What's it all about? Most Van de Graaff generators consist of a tower, on top of which is a

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. Tachyons are hypothetical particles that, if they exist, can only move faster than the speed of light. In theory, a tachyon can never slow down to the speed of light — just as a normal particle with real mass can never be accelerated up to, or beyond, light speed. Fundamental Differences from Normal Particles The differences between real particles and hypothetical tachyons are profound: a) Rest mass Normal particles have a real, in

Big Changes Ahead! By the end of October 2025, we hope to have all the E-books in both the main series and the LIGHT adaptations of A...

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. A plasma ball is a spectacular light display created by ionised gas atoms that produce glowing filaments of coloured light. The front covers of Journey into Modern Physics  (Parts 1, 2, and 3) all feature plasma balls. If you’ve never seen one in action, just search “plasma ball” on Google; there are plenty of videos showing these fascinating devices in all their glory. There’s a lot of physics behind them, so let’s dive in. What is

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. In part 1 of a Journey into Modern Physics, it was stated; The mediators of the electroweak force have never been seen in accelerators due to the fact that to allow the electroweak force to come into existence, with its mediators, would require an energy of many times more than the LHC can produce in its proton-proton collisions. The LHC is currently the world's most powerful accelerator. This statement needs some clarification. The

© 2025 Kieron Conway - All rights reserved. This is a very common question.  Physics tells us that the speed of light in a vacuum is the fastest speed that anything can travel and is reserved for electromagnetic waves or photons. And yet, far-away galaxies appear to be doing a runner away from us at speeds that are faster the further away they are! So, some really far-off galaxies must be moving away at close to light speed and even beyond it! This is scientific fact and was

The LIGHT edition of the series is now complete with the publication of Part 3 - LIGHT. So, what's the point of a LIGHT version of the...

STEM Preparing for a rapidly evolving world A Journey into Modern Physics-LIGHT edition has been adapted from the main series with...

A Journey into Modern Physics Part 2 - LIGHT is now available! This is a condensed version of Part 2 from the main series. The same...

Sample from Part 3 paperback The paperback editions of Part 1 and Part 2 of a Journey into Modern Physics, were originally produced in a...