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MIT discovers a new state of matter, a new kind of magnetism

MIT discovers a new state of matter, a new kind of magnetism
Researchers at MIT have discovered a new state of matter with a new kind of magnetism. This new state, called a quantum spin liquid (QSL), could lead to significant advances in data storage. QSLs also exhibit a quantum phenomenon called long-range entanglement, which could lead to new types of communications systems, and more. Generally, when we talk about magnetism’s role in the realm of technology, there are just two types: Ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism. In the case of quantum spin liquids, the material is a solid crystal — but the internal magnetic state is constantly in flux. The existence of QSLs has been theorized since 1987, but until now no one has succeeded in actually finding one. Moving forward, Lee says that the discovery of QSLs could lead to advances in data storage (new forms of magnetic storage) and communications (long-range entanglement). Now read: Quantum entangled batteries could be the perfect power source

De la entropía Posiblemente pocas ideas científicas tan fundamentales tengan más expresiones diferentes que la segunda ley de la termodinámica. Una que no suele emplearse demasiado pero que encierra en una sola frase su esencia se debe a Ludwig Boltzmann que, parafraseando a Josiah Willard Gibbs, dijo: “La imposibilidad de una disminución no compensada de la entropía parece estar reducida a una improbabilidad”. Y es que el concepto de entropía está en el centro de la termodinámica, y en el de la evolución del universo. El origen del concepto de entropía tiene está en una paradoja planteada por William Thomson (más tarde lord Kelvin) en 1847: la energía no puede crearse ni destruirse, sin embargo la energía térmica pierde su capacidad de realizar trabajo (por ejemplo, levantar un peso) cuando se la transfiere de un cuerpo caliente a uno frío. En 1852 Thomson sugirió que en un proceso como la conducción del calor la energía no se pierde sino que se “disipa” o deja de estar disponible.

String Theory - The Physics of String-Bending and Other Electric Guitar Techniques Electric guitar playing is ubiquitous in practically all modern music genres. In the hands of an experienced player, electric guitars can sound as expressive and distinct as a human voice. Unlike other more quantised instruments where pitch is a discrete function, guitarists can incorporate micro-tonality and, as a result, vibrato and sting-bending are idiosyncratic hallmarks of a player. Figures Citation: Grimes DR (2014) String Theory - The Physics of String-Bending and Other Electric Guitar Techniques. Editor: Dante R. Received: May 16, 2014; Accepted: June 9, 2014; Published: July 23, 2014 Copyright: © 2014 David Robert Grimes. Data Availability: The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. Funding: The author received no specific funding for this work. Competing interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction Materials and Methods 0.1 String bending (1)where is the length of the vibrating element, . .

Mind-Bending Video Shows Liquid Boiling, Freezing At Same Time NEXT: Amazing Sea Creatures A red lionfish (Pterois volitans) swims in the aquarium of the Schonbrunn zoo in the gardens of the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna on October 16, 2012. The red lionfish is a venomous coral reef fish. ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP/Getty Images A California sea lion and a walrus kiss each other during a show at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye) A two-day-old female white whale swims with her mother at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, Saturday, June 30, 2012.

Apparent breakthrough in nuclear fusion silenced by shutdown The preamplifiers of the National Ignition Facility are the first step in increasing the energy of laser beams as they make their way toward the target chamber. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Scientists have come one step closer to harnessing the power of the sun. Researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) have passed a milestone in achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion -- but you won't hear about it from the researchers. According to the BBC, a research experiment conducted in late September succeeded in releasing more energy through a fusion reaction than it absorbed by the fuel going in. NIF's method for achieving fusion involves sending 192 laser beams through a 1,500-meter journey that increases its energy output by a factor of more than a quadrillion. A breakthrough in nuclear fusion is widely considered the holy grail of achieving an unlimited clean energy source. Nuclear fusion is not to be confused with nuclear fission. © 2013 CBS Interactive Inc.

To Avoid the Multiverse, Physicists Propose a Symmetry of Scales Though galaxies look larger than atoms and elephants appear to outweigh ants, some physicists have begun to suspect that size differences are illusory. Perhaps the fundamental description of the universe does not include the concepts of “mass” and “length,” implying that at its core, nature lacks a sense of scale. This little-explored idea, known as scale symmetry, constitutes a radical departure from long-standing assumptions about how elementary particles acquire their properties. But it has recently emerged as a common theme of numerous talks and papers by respected particle physicists. With their field stuck at a nasty impasse, the researchers have returned to the master equations that describe the known particles and their interactions, and are asking: What happens when you erase the terms in the equations having to do with mass and length? Nature, at the deepest level, may not differentiate between scales. The new scale symmetry approach rewrites the beginning of that story.

Upsalite, 'Impossible' Material Believed To Have Many Uses, Created In Swedish Lab It doesn’t look like much, but scientists from Sweden’s Uppsala University are calling a newly created form of magnesium carbonate an “impossible” material. Dubbed upsalite, the highly porous material sets new records for surface area and water adsorption, according to a written statement issued by the university. It is expected to have all sorts of applications, from controlling moisture in processes used by the electronics and pharmaceutical industries to sopping up toxins in the aftermath of chemical and oil spills. “In contrast to what has been claimed for more than 100 years in the scientific literature, we have found that amorphous magnesium carbonate can be made in a very simple, low-temperature process," study co-author Johan Goméz de la Torre, a researcher in the university’s nanotechnology and functional materials division, said in the statement. The researchers succeeded in making upsalite in 2011 by bubbling carbon dioxide through an alcohol-containing suspension.

Scientists Discover New Shape When Playing With Rubber Bands What do you yet when you cross a rubber band with an octopus? A whole new shape, it turns out, with perversions. The Harvard researchers who made the discovery were seeking to make springs. They glued two strips of uneven length together and stretched them out while clipped at each end with strings thin enough that the strips could rotate freely. As the force stretching the strips out decreased the strips started to wind up like a telephone cord (ask someone over 30). While the new shape resembles a double helix the team noticed it had what they call perversions (see image above). What was unexpected was that the bands developed not just one perversion, but as many as eleven. "Once you are able to fabricate these complex shapes and control them, the next step will be to see if they have unusual properties; for example, to look at their effect on the propagation of light," says Associate Professor Katia Bertoldi, one of the authors. Helices and hemihelices are common in nature.

Scientists Make Objects "Invisible" With a Tricky Optical Illusion The 9 kinds of physics seminar | Many Worlds Theory October 3, 2013 by Matthew Rave As a public service, I hereby present my findings on physics seminars in convenient graph form. In each case, you will see the Understanding of an Audience Member (assumed to be a run-of-the-mill PhD physicist) graphed as a function of Time Elapsed during the seminar. All talks are normalized to be of length 1 hour, although this might not be the case in reality. The “Typical” starts innocently enough: there are a few slides introducing the topic, and the speaker will talk clearly and generally about a field of physics you’re not really familiar with. The “Ideal” is what physicists strive for in a seminar talk. The “Unprepared Theorist” is a talk to avoid if you can. The “Unprepared Experimentalist” is only superficially better. You have to root for undergraduates who are willing to give a seminar in front of the faculty and grad student sharks. The “Guest From Another Department” is an unusual talk. The “Poetry” physics seminar is a rare beast. Like this:

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