Physics and Numbers
Among developing countries that are investing heavily in science, Singapore (is Singapore still a developing country?) stands out. A recent article in Nature profiles a massive new public/private science complex called "Fusionopolis." This is a physical-sciences counterpart to the existing "Biopolis."
McGill University researchers have discovered a new state of matter, a quasi-three- dimensional electron crystal, in a material very much like those used in the fabrication of modern transistors. This discovery could have momentous implications for the development of new electronic devices.
Is it impossible to pin down both where and when an event takes place, due to quantum gravity effects?
Shahn Majid explains why this may be.
In my recent posts I have emphasized ideas on the cutting edge of fundamental science which have testable predictions or other contact with experiment, rather than being merely fashionable. Now, up until recently it was widely assumed that ideas for the ‘Mount Everest’ challenge of quantum gravity, as Martin Rees puts it in his review of the multi-authored book On Space and Time, could never be tested experimentally.
Theoretical proof of stable and measurable states extending over two quantum dots and creating offspring has now been provided for the first time. This supports the notion of what is known as Quantum Darwinism, which makes the selection and reproduction of quantum mechanical states responsible for the way in which our reality is perceived. These results of an Austrian Science Fund FWF project were recently published in Physical Review Letters and will play a part in the future development of quantum information technology.
A team of researchers in Canada have made a bold stride in the struggle to detect dark matter. The PICASSO collaboration has documented the discovery of a significant difference between the acoustic signals induced by neutrons and alpha particles in a detector based on superheated liquids.
About three times a second, a 10,000-year-old stellar corpse sweeps a beam of gamma-rays toward Earth. Discovered by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the object, called a pulsar, is the first one known that only "blinks" in gamma rays.
University of Arizona scientists experimenting with some of the coldest gases in the universe have discovered that when atoms in the gas get cold enough, they can spontaneously spin up into what might be described as quantum mechanical twisters or hurricanes.
A team of researchers in Canada have made a bold stride in the struggle to detect dark matter. The PICASSO collaboration has documented the discovery of a significant difference between the acoustic signals induced by neutrons and alpha particles in a detector based on superheated liquids.
Some of Fields medalist Alain Connes‘ revolutionary ideas shed light on how to understand the ‘zoo’ of elementary particles thrown up by accelerators like the LHC. If Connes is right, the key to the fundamental nature of matter lies in graffiti carved on a bridge in Dublin in 1843.
In case anyone was wondering, I am far from alone in my call for a new science policy in the coming administration. It is the topic of the editorial in a recent issue of Science Magazine America's premier scientific journal.
Leave it to hypothesized gravity to weigh down what physicists have thought for 30 years. If theoretical physicists, led by the University of Oregon's Stephen Hsu, are right, the idea that nature's forces merge under grand unification has grown fuzzy.
Engineers long have known that great ideas can be lifted from Mother Nature, but a new paper takes it to a cellular level. Applying modern engineering design tools to one of the basic units of life, they argue that artificial cells could be built that not only replicate the electrical behavior of electric eel cells but in fact improve on them.
Physics was plunged into over a thousand years of darkness through fear brought about by brutality in the name of religion. Scientific investigation (looked down upon by the greeks) has made a come back over the past 300-500 years...why hasn't thinking and philosophy (held in high importance by the greeks)...indeed it appears to have backtracked. How can I have completed a degree in Physics without having been expected to read Plato's Allegory of the Cave?
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have tested an 'invisibility cloak' that could reduce the risk of large water waves overtopping coastal defenses
Shahn Majid looks at dark energy. Will it herald a revolution in our understanding of fundamental physics?
