Personal and Historical Perspectives of Hans Bethe
New 'Fairy' Insect Is Mind-Blowingly Small
A new species of tiny fly named after the fairy in "Peter Pan" is mind-blowingly miniscule, with delicate wings trimmed in fringe. Tinkerbella nana is a newly discovered species of fairyfly from Costa Rica. Fairyflies are a type of chalcid wasp, and almost all are parasites, living on the eggs and larvae of other insects. It's a gruesome way to live, but it makes fairyflies useful for farmers, who sometimes import them to control nasty pests. Many fairyflies are extraordinarily tiny, including Kikiki huna, a Hawaiian species that grows to be only 0.005 inches (0.13 millimeters) long — about the diameter of the tip of a fine drawing pen. There, they found specimens of T. nana, none of which were more than 250 micrometers in length. Tinkerbella nana is only about 250 nanometers long.Credit: John T. Under the microscope, these teeny-tiny insects reveal fine detail, particularly their long, skinny wings, which terminate in hairlike fringe.
The Measurement That Would Reveal The Universe As A Computer Simulation
One of modern physics’ most cherished ideas is quantum chromodynamics, the theory that describes the strong nuclear force, how it binds quarks and gluons into protons and neutrons, how these form nuclei that themselves interact. This is the universe at its most fundamental. So an interesting pursuit is to simulate quantum chromodynamics on a computer to see what kind of complexity arises. The promise is that simulating physics on such a fundamental level is more or less equivalent to simulating the universe itself. There are one or two challenges of course. The physics is mind-bogglingly complex and operates on a vanishingly small scale. That may not sound like much but the significant point is that the simulation is essentially indistinguishable from the real thing (at least as far as we understand it). It’s not hard to imagine that Moore’s Law-type progress will allow physicists to simulate significantly larger regions of space. First, some background. What they find is interesting.
The mention of “spin” of a particle is one that... - Say It With Science
New results indicate that new particle is a Higgs boson
At the Moriond Conference today, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) presented preliminary new results that further elucidate the particle discovered last year. Having analysed two and a half times more data than was available for the discovery announcement in July, they find that the new particle is looking more and more like a Higgs boson, the particle linked to the mechanism that gives mass to elementary particles. It remains an open question, however, whether this is the Higgs boson of the Standard Model of particle physics, or possibly the lightest of several bosons predicted in some theories that go beyond the Standard Model. Finding the answer to this question will take time. Whether or not it is a Higgs boson is demonstrated by how it interacts with other particles, and its quantum properties. "The beautiful new results represent a huge effort by many dedicated people.
What the Dalai Lama can teach us about temperatures below absolute zero
What can these three teach us about temperature? There’s been a lot of buzz lately in the science blogosphere about a recent experiment where physicists created a gas of quantum particles with a negative temperature – negative as in, below absolute zero. This is pretty strange, because absolute zero is supposed to be that temperature at which all atomic motion ceases, where atoms that normally jiggle about freeze in their places, and come to a complete standstill. Presumably, this is as cold as cold can be. Can anything possibly be colder than this? Here’s the short answer. To understand this, we first need to know what physicists mean by temperature. This definition really made sense to me when I could see it for myself, so here is a simulation where you can play around with gas molecules. So far, so good. Here’s the new definition that they came up with. Now, if you don’t speak math, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Here’s the analogy. References
Physics Community Afire With Rumors of Higgs Boson Discovery | Wired Science
One of the biggest debuts in the science world could happen in a matter of weeks: The Higgs boson may finally, really have been discovered. Ever since tantalizing hints of the Higgs turned up in December at the Large Hadron Collider, scientists there have been busily analyzing the results of their energetic particle collisions to further refine their search. “The bottom line though is now clear: There’s something there which looks like a Higgs is supposed to look,” wrote mathematician Peter Woit on his blog, Not Even Wrong. The possible news has a number of physics bloggers speculating that LHC scientists will announce the discovery of the Higgs during the International Conference on High Energy Physics, which takes place in Melbourne, Australia, July 4 to 11. The new buzz is just the latest in the Higgs search drama. The latest Higgs rumors suggest nearly-there 4-sigma signals are turning up at both of the two separate LHC experiments that are hunting for the particle.
Quantum Art and Poetry
Video The relativity and probability of Time. Quantum Atom Theory is a theory on the dynamics of Light and Time that forms the geometry of spacetime. In this theory the individual atoms are creating their own Time by the emission and absorption of electromagnetic radiation (light). The atoms bound together forming their own spacetime geometry therefore the observer as a group of atoms is also creating their own spacetime geometry relative to their position and momentum. Therefore the observer is the only true reference frame and we have relativity. Time is a measurement and a variable because we have Lorentz factor and the Lorentz contraction of space that changes the geometry of spacetime. In this theory we only need three dimensions and one variable of time. We have Quantum Entanglement because light has spherical symmetry and therefore photons will have opposite spin when they are on opposite sides of the light sphere. Euler Identity is at the heart of Quantum Atom Theory.
putting a 1/2" neodymium magnet in ferrofluid
Two Diamonds Linked by Strange Quantum Entanglement | Spooky Action at a Distance | Quantum Mechanics Macroscopic Objects
Scientists have linked two diamonds in a mysterious process called entanglement that is normally only seen on the quantum scale. Entanglement is so weird that Einstein dubbed it "spooky action at a distance." It's a strange effect where one object gets connected to another so that even if they are separated by large distances, an action performed on one will affect the other. Entanglement usually occurs with subatomic particles, and was predicted by the theory of quantum mechanics, which governs the realm of the very small. But now physicists have succeeded in entangling two macroscopic diamonds, demonstrating that quantum mechanical effects are not limited to the microscopic scale. "I think it's an important step into a new regime of thinking about quantum phenomena," physicist Ian Walmsley of England's University of Oxford said." Another study recently used quantum entanglement to teleport bits of light from one place to another.
