Physics in the News

Saturday, August 9, 2014

High-energy particle collisions reveal the unexpected

High-energy collisions between nuclei (white arrows) produce a cloud of elementary particles including quarks (red) and gluons (yellow). When gluons form an expansion front, they can produce a wall of matter called a color glass condensate, which eventually dissipates as the expansion continues. (Credit: © 2014 Larry McLerran, RIKEN–BNL Research Center)

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Watch water run UP a wall: Material that allows liquid to defy gravity could spell the end of windscreen wipers(VIDEO)

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Lonely supernovae may have been kicked out of their galaxies

University of Warwick researchers explain mystery of the loneliest supernovas. Compact binary star systems that have been thrown far from their host galaxy when one star of that pair became a neutron star, go through a second trauma when the remaining white dwarf star is eventually pulled onto the neutron star. (Credit: Mark A. Garlick / space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick)

Whovian physicists claim TARDIS time travel is possible

While time travel may be theoretically possible, there are unfortunately several drawbacks to the researchers’ TARDIS concept. In order to function, it requires the use of exotic matter, which has yet to be shown to exist in our universe. Time travel would also have to violate classical mechanics, and in order to move in anything other than a circular direction in both time and space, more than one TARDIS curve would need to be constructed, raising the possibility of exiting the time vortex into a universe of anti-matter. (Credit: Bitbillions) — While time travel may be theoretically possible, there are unfortunately several drawbacks to the researchers’ TARDIS concept. In order to function, it requires the use of exotic matter, which has yet to be shown to exist in our universe. Time travel would also have to violate classical mechanics, and in order to move in anything other than a circular direction in both time and space, more than one TARDIS curve would need to be constructed, raising the possibility of exiting the time vortex into a universe of anti-matter.
(Credit: Bitbillions)

String theory coming unstrung even among science writers?

A construction for computer visualization of certain complex curves" (Credit: CC BY-SA 2.5) — A construction for computer visualization of certain complex curves. Science journalist, Tom Siegfried, has been one of the most vociferous proponents of string theory for many, many years, but even his faith seems like it might be failing as the decades roll on. (Credit: CC BY-SA 2.5)

Watch Pluto and Charon engage in their orbital dance

Animation of Pluto and Charon showing nearly a full rotation (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)

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Rosetta will teach us more about comets than we have learned in 50 years

Do you see a duck? On August 6, millions of miles away from Earth, the firing of a rocket thruster signalled the end of a decade-long journey by a European spacecraft to reach its ultimate target – the 'duck' comet. (Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS) — Do you see a duck? On August 6, millions of miles away from Earth, the firing of a rocket thruster signalled the end of a decade-long journey by a European spacecraft to reach its ultimate target – the ‘duck’ comet. (Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS)

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Nature’s magnifying glass: Gravitational lensing

A typical magnifying glass works by bending light (i.e. refraction) to a focus point, in this case your eye. In a similar way, gravitational lensing also works by bending light, but in this case it is mass from another galaxy bending the light. This galaxy that extends far into space causes light rays passing near and through its gravitational field to bend and again refocus onto a particular location. The more massive and dense the matter, the more bending and refracting. (Credit: Flickr, Hubble Heritage)

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Cassini prepares for its biggest remaining burn

This is an artists concept of Cassini during the Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) maneuver, just after the main engine has begun firing. (Credit: NASA/JPL)

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Physics in the News

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Meet the former NASA engineer who wants to build a giant robot that can juggle cars(VIDEO)

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Baby universe picture brought closer to theory

The anisotropies of the Cosmic microwave background (CMB) as observed by Planck. The CMB is a snapshot of the oldest light in our Universe, imprinted on the sky when the Universe was just 380 000 years old. It shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure: the stars and galaxies of today. (Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration - D. Ducros) — The anisotropies of the Cosmic microwave background (CMB) as observed by Planck. The CMB is a snapshot of the oldest light in our Universe, imprinted on the sky when the Universe was just 380 000 years old. It shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure: the stars and galaxies of today. (Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration – D. Ducros)

Massive neutrinos may not bring about cosmological concordance after all

Scientists have found that tension among different data sets persists even after accounting for massive sterile neutrinos, possibly indicating systematic biases in the measurements. (Credit: Leistedt, et al. ©2014 American Physical Society)

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Grad student aims to improve particle accelerators

Siddharth Karkare, left, and Laurent Boulet '14 in the Newman Hall photocathode research lab. (Credit: Lindsay France/University) — Siddharth Karkare, left, and Laurent Boulet ’14 in the Newman Hall photocathode research lab. (Credit: Lindsay France/University)

Hubble finds supernova star system linked to potential ‘zombie star’

(Credit: NASA) — The two inset images show before-and-after images captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of Supernova 2012Z in the spiral galaxy NGC 1309. The white X at the top of the main image marks the location of the supernova in the galaxy. (Credit: NASA)

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Pew Finds Experts Divided On Whether Robots Will Be Good For Society

Nearly half of the respondents (48%) predicted that robots and AI will displace more jobs than they create over the coming decade. While that left a slim majority believing the impact of technology on employment will be neutral or positive. (Credit: Humanrobo/Wikimedia Commons)

NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array Moves onto Two-Year Extension

Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech) — NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array Moves onto Two-Year Extension. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech)

Physics in the News

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Extracting audio from visual information(VIDEO)

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Technical troubleshooting at the CERN Control Centre

Chris Wetton of CERN's Technical Infrastructure Operation group keeps a keen eye on the monitors at the CERN Control Centre (Image: Stephanie Hills) — Chris Wetton of CERN’s Technical Infrastructure Operation group keeps a keen eye on the monitors at the CERN Control Centre (Credit: Stephanie Hills)

via cern

3-D codes yield unprecedented physics, engineering insights

Sandia National Laboratories researchers Steve Plimpton, left, and Michael Gallis look at a projection of a model of the Russian MIR space station, which fell out of orbit several years ago and disintegrated, with the remains ending up at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Using Sandia’s 3-D code SPARTA, the calculation is simulating an instance of the process of de-orbiting. (Credit: Randy Montoya)

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Funds awarded to begin construction of Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

The 8.4-meter LSST will use a special three-mirror design, creating an exceptionally wide field of view. (LSST/rendering) — The 8.4-meter LSST will use a special three-mirror design, creating an exceptionally wide field of view. (Credit: LSST/rendering)

Neutrinos could monitor Iranian nuclear plant

Japanese scientists recently published a paper that showed they could monitor neutrinos by putting a detector in the back of a van and parking it outside the reactor.

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NASA’s quantum drive: Cool your jets

Photo by Paramount Pictures — Of course science has overturned earlier notions of how the Universe works. But sometimes, those rules are shown to be true so much and so often that when you come up with an idea that overthrows all of it, you’d better have iron-clad evidence of it. (Credit: Phil Plait, Paramount Pictures)

The changing state of a qubit over time

The work verifies theoretical models of the most likely way in which a quantum system will collapse, proving that the probable path can be predicted. This paves the way to actively controlling a quantum system in the future by steering it towards a certain outcome.(Credit: Irfan Siddiqi, UC Berkeley)

via newscientist

The summer’s second Supermoon to return Sunday afternoon

A perigee moon rises in Washington, DC, on March 19, 2011. A perigee moon is visible when the moon's orbit position is at its closest point to Earth during a full moon phase. The full moon coincided with its closest approach to the Earth, 221,565 miles (356,575 km), making the so-called "super moon" look slightly larger than average. AFP PHOTO / Jewel Samad (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) — A perigee moon rises in Washington, DC, on March 19, 2011. A perigee moon is visible when the moon’s orbit position is at its closest point to Earth during a full moon phase. The full moon coincided with its closest approach to the Earth, 221,565 miles (356,575 km), making the so-called “super moon” look slightly larger than average. (Credit: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

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Comet-chasing Euro-probe could make history Wednesday

An artist's impression shows what the Rosetta orbiter will look like when it deploys the Philae lander to a comet later this year. (Credit: ESA) — An artist’s impression shows what the Rosetta orbiter will look like when it deploys the Philae lander to a comet later this year. (Credit: ESA)

Physics in the News

Monday, August 4, 2014

Elon Musk calls Artificial Intelligence ‘potentially more dangerous than nukes’

Above: Tesla CEO Elon Musk. (Credit: SXSW Livestream) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk. (Credit: SXSW Livestream)

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NASA wants to build gas stations in space

NASA hopes to add precious years of functional life to satellites and expand options for operators who face unexpected emergencies, tougher economic demand and aging fleets. (Credit: Bob Granath, Kt-Imaging)

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Milky Way galaxy is just half as massive as Andromeda

Andromeda is twice as massive as the Milky Way. Scientists say that Andromeda has twice the mass, made of dark matter, than the Milky Way. (Credit: Phil Plait) — Andromeda is twice as massive as the Milky Way. Scientists say that Andromeda has twice the mass, made of dark matter, than the Milky Way.
(Credit: Phil Plait)

New rule restricting foreign instruments on NASA space probes stirs debate

(Credit: NASA)

General Relativity – Embedding light at the heart of cosmology

Einstein was the first person to propose that ‘empty space’, which does not contain matter or radiation, is not actually empty and in fact has a residual energy. This empty space is also capable of creating more space from itself. (Credit: benmoat/Shutterstock)

Tiny flying robots are being built to pollinate crops instead of real bees

The RoboBee demonstrates a successful flight next to a quarter for scale. (Credit: Harvard University)

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Europe’s Rosetta probe reaches climax of its comet-chasing mission

The Rosetta spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Wednesday. If all goes according to plan, Rosetta will become the first probe ever to orbit a comet — and, in November, the first to drop a lander onto the surface of one of these icy wanderers. (Credit: ESA)

Absence of Russia instrument onboard NASA Mars Rover not related to politics

Photo of the Mars surface, Made with HiRise Camera. (Credit: NASA JPL/University of Arizona)

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The holographic augmented reality future has arrived (Again)

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Physics in the News

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Best evidence yet for coronal heating theory

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of what the sun looked like on April 23, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. EDT when the EUNIS mission launched. EUNIS focused on an active region of the sun, seen as bright loops in the upper right in this picture. (Credit: NASA/SDO) — NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of what the sun looked like on April 23, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. EDT when the EUNIS mission launched. EUNIS focused on an active region of the sun, seen as bright loops in the upper right in this picture. (Credit: NASA/SDO)

Robot Olympics planned for 2020 powered by Japan’s ‘Robot Revolution’

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Moon closer to Mars, moving toward Saturn

Animation of Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring / Mars encounter. (Credit: Near-Earth Object (NEO) office and NASA JPL)

Scientists separate a particle from its properties

he study, carried out at the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL) and published in Nature Communications, showed that in an interferometer a neutron's magnetic moment could be measured independently of the neutron itself, thereby marking the first experimental observation of a new quantum paradox known as the 'Cheshire Cat'. Pictured are Yuji Hasegawa, Tobias Denkmayr, Stephan Sponar, Hartmut Lemmel, and Hermann Geppert. (Credit: Vienna University of Technology.) — The study, carried out at the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL) and published in Nature Communications, showed that in an interferometer a neutron’s magnetic moment could be measured independently of the neutron itself, thereby marking the first experimental observation of a new quantum paradox known as the ‘Cheshire Cat’. Pictured are Yuji Hasegawa, Tobias Denkmayr, Stephan Sponar, Hartmut Lemmel, and Hermann Geppert. (Credit: Vienna University of Technology.)

Companion planet could keep alien Earths warm in old age

An artist’s concept of a rocky world orbiting a red dwarf star. (Credit: NASA/D. Aguilar/Harvard-Smithsonian center for Astrophysics)

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Exclusive: NASA’s Hubble finds ‘magnifying lens’ galaxy

In this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, a giant elliptical galaxy 9.6 billion light-years away appears as a red patch. The bluish dot and tadpole-shaped smear are the distorted and magnified shapes of a more distant spiral galaxy 10.7 billion light-years away. (Credit: NASA, ESA, K.-V. Tran (Texas A&M University), and K. Wong) — In this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, a giant elliptical galaxy 9.6 billion light-years away appears as a red patch. The bluish dot and tadpole-shaped smear are the distorted and magnified shapes of a more distant spiral galaxy 10.7 billion light-years away.
(Credit: NASA, ESA, K.-V. Tran (Texas A&M University), and K. Wong)

Scientists in Scotland have created a working tractor beam

(Credit: iStock/360/Getty) — The Dundee tractor beam is not entirely dissimilar from those in “Star Wars” and “Star Trek,” in that it draws an object toward it without making physical contact. The device works by taking advantage of an acoustic wave’s natural push effect, called radiation pressure. (Photons also exert radiation pressure, which is part of the reason comet tails always point away from the sun.) What the Dundee team was able to demonstrate was an example of negative radiation pressure, otherwise known as pull. (Credit: iStock/360/Getty)

via thenewyorker

Giant asteroids reshaped Earth 4 billion years ago

The team says that during this 500 million year period the planet likely experienced three to seven impacts by objects more than 300 miles wide. There were also as many as four impacts by titanic space rocks more than 600 miles across. If there had been any life on the Earth, a 600 mile wide monster asteroid probably would have wiped it out. Surprisingly, these impacts are compatible with the existence of liquid water on the surface as early as 4.3 billion years ago. — The team says that during this 500 million year period the planet likely experienced three to seven impacts by objects more than 300 miles wide. There were also as many as four impacts by titanic space rocks more than 600 miles across. If there had been any life on the Earth, a 600 mile wide monster asteroid probably would have wiped it out. Surprisingly, these impacts are compatible with the existence of liquid water on the surface as early as 4.3 billion years ago. (D. A. Aguilar, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

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Will DARPA’s new space shuttle crush the SpaceX Grasshopper?

DARPA's hypothetical "space plane." (Credit: DARPA) — DARPA’s hypothetical “space plane.” (Credit: DARPA)

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European spacecraft to attempt historic comet rendezvous this week

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft saw the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimernko from a distance of 1,210 miles (1,950 kilometers). Image taken July 29, 2014. (Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA) — The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft saw the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimernko from a distance of 1,210 miles (1,950 kilometers). Image taken July 29, 2014.
(Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)