The laws of physics apply to everyone… Right?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Universal law states that if you push something, it pushes back equally hard. Scientists wondered if this rule holds in dusty plasma. Dusty plasma is a gas of charged particles mixed with dust grains, usually found in space.
Enter Wentao Yu at Emory University. In the lab, Yu created a tiny plasma storm and recorded 3D videos. AI was used to study how the dust grains interacted.
And? When one grain pushed another, the push wasn’t returned evenly. This breaks the rule of equal and opposite reactions! Dust doesn’t get the memo!
The universe just got less predictable. Thanks, rebellious dust.
Yu, W., Abdelaleem, E., Nemenman, I., & Burton, J. C. (2025). Physics-tailored machine learning reveals unexpected physics in dusty plasmas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(31), e2505725122.https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2505725122