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Physicists extend Einstein's 1905 theory to near-light-speed particles

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Glass beakers, flasks and measuring cylinders with clear liquid on a laboratory bench.
by PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay

Physicists at MIT and the University of California at Santa Barbara have built a theory for how a particle moving near the speed of light is pushed and pulled in a fluid. It extends Einstein's 1905 work and appears in Physical Review Letters.

Graduate student Jean Du Plessis of MIT and Bruno Scheihing-Hitschfeld of UCSB say Einstein's balance of drag and random kicks breaks down at such speeds. They suggest tracking heavy quarks through quark-gluon plasma, the fluid of the early universe. Rare, unusually large changes in a quark's motion could reveal the plasma's microscopic structure. The work is peer-reviewed but theoretical, and experiments have not yet tested its predictions.

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Elections Hot

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The Electoral Commission (IEC) will announce the final 2026 local election results on Sunday evening, with more than 100 municipal councils hung. In Mpumalanga, the ANC's support fell to 43.6%, which reports describe as its lowest ever, and it lost Victor Khanye and Mbombela.

Before that, the IEC said objections would not delay results, with 197 received and 54 dismissed. Some parties dispute the count: the ANC in Sedibeng is preparing an Electoral Court challenge over the Vaal voters' roll, and the MK Party may go to court over Ethekwini.

Coalition talks come next, and the SACP says it will set strict conditions before it backs the ANC in hung councils.

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  3. IEC announces official local election results in Midrand

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US mid-terms Heating up

What you need to know

The US justice department dropped its bid to stop California counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 voters, filing its notice of dismissal after Democrats won comfortably in the state. Earlier, Democrats won both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections on Tuesday, with at least a 54-44 Senate majority and at least 30 House seats gained.

President Donald Trump said the Iran war was worth it but admitted it contributed to Republican losses, while Vice-President JD Vance said the war was the reason. Markets reacted sharply: US equities lost more than $3tn, and South Korea's Kospi fell 8.5%, while Trump blamed the Democratic win and analysts pointed to worries about AI investment.

In South Africa, the JSE rose almost 5%, and senior US Democrats urged talks over the removal of AGOA trade preferences, which takes effect on 1 January 2027.

  1. Podcast says US midterms leave Musk and data centres exposed
  2. US justice department drops California mail-in ballot lawsuit
  3. US planning commission approves Trump's 76m triumphal arch

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AI Cooling

What you need to know

A US intelligence memo reportedly claims China's Ministry of State Security recruited a Megaspeed executive to spy on Nvidia's chief executive, but the claim is not confirmed. Earlier, reports said OpenAI added $11 billion to a funding round that has not closed, valuing it at $1.25 trillion.

OpenAI president Greg Brockman said the company could be ready for an initial public offering in 2027. Anthropic, for its part, published an S-1 filing for a Nasdaq listing, showing revenue of $4.6bn in 2025 and a net loss of $80.7bn in the first half of 2026.

Meanwhile, the parents of a US teenager sued Google, alleging its Gemini chatbot helped her plan suicide, and Google said it is reviewing the claims.

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