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Tag Archives: Physics
Physics proves that no one really has blue eyes [Optics]
Although some people have blue eyes, and many babies are born with particularly deep blue irises, no one actually has blue pigment in their irises. They’re just a trick of the light.
With the news of Elizabeth Taylor’s death, many people’s thoughts h… Continue reading
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Tagged biology, color, Eyes, Optics, Physics, science, syndicated, Top
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The Pioneer Anomaly is finally solved, thanks to 1970s computer graphics [Physics]
The Pioneer 10 and 11 probes are currently heading out of the solar system, but they’re not quite doing it quickly enough. This physics-defying anomaly has stubbornly defied explanation, but an old computer graphics technique has finally solved the con… Continue reading
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Tagged Astronomy, Fb, Gravity, Heat, NASA, Physics, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Pioneer anomaly, reflection, science, sun, syndicated, tweet
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James Gleick’s tour-de-force: The Information, a natural history of information theory
I’ve just finished reading The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, James Gleick’s tour-de-force history of information theory. I read Freeman Dyson’s early review of The Information with interest earlier in the month, and fell upon the book and… Continue reading
Posted in culture, history, math, syndicated
Tagged book, featured, informationtheory, lexicography, medialiteracy, Physics, Reviews, syndicated, webtheory, wikipedia
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Tiny Fibers Put the Head on Stout Beer
Irish mathematicians have discovered tiny plant fibers can make nitrogen bubbles out of stout beer and form a creamy head of foam. The find could mean an end to more expensive and less-eco-friendly technolog… Continue reading
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Tagged beer, bubbles, carbon dioxide, fluid dynamics, nitrogen, Physics, syndicated, Tech
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Pasta-Shaped Light From Spinning Black Holes Could Challenge Einstein
Rotating black holes could leave a twisty signature on light escaping their gravitational maws. If this screwy light can be detected from Earth, it would give astronomers a new way to detect exotic black holes and a new test of Einstein’s theory of … Continue reading
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Tagged black holes, General relativity, Gravity, Physics, space, syndicated
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No one can escape friction, not even in a vacuum. [Physics]
On earth, we’re slowed down by the muck of the everyday world. Matter slows us down, rubbing against us and taking away our speed and power. Gravel, air, even slip-n-slides, exert some friction on us. This frictional force runs counter to our motion, a… Continue reading
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Tagged Astronomy, photons, Physics, Quantum Mechanics, science, space, syndicated, Vacuum
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Particles can be quantum entangled through time as well as space [Mad Science]
Quantum entanglement says that two particles can become intertwined so that they always share the same properties, even if they’re separated in space. Now it seems particles can be entangled in time, too. Who’s ready for some serious quantum weirdness?… Continue reading
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Tagged Entanglement, mad science, Particle physics, Physics, Quantum entanglement, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Physics, science, space, syndicated, theoretical physics, Time
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No, Italian scientists have not discovered cold fusion [Skepticism]
Two physicists recently announced they had figured out the secrets of cold fusion, which is a low energy nuclear reaction that, if it exists, could solve the world’s energy problems. But to call their story fishy is a massive understatement.Cold fusion… Continue reading
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Tagged Cold fusion, Fusion, Nuclear Fusion, Physics, reactor, science, skepticism, syndicated
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What happens when you put a Luneburg lens on a silicon chip [Physics]
Recently British physicists announced to the world that they managed to put a Luneburg Lens on a silicon chip. Here’s why this odd bit of news could change the world.
Well, at least the world of data processing.
A Luneberg lens is a perfectly spherica… Continue reading
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Tagged Fb, Light, Luneburg lens, Optics, Physics, science, syndicated, tweet
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Loop quantum gravity could unite physics and take us back to the Big Bang [Mad Science]
General relativity and quantum mechanics are the twin foundations of modern physics, but there’s a problem: they’re mutually exclusive, at least according to our current understanding. A new model using loop quantum gravity might have the beginnings of… Continue reading
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Tagged Big Bang, Fb, General relativity, Loop quantum gravity, mad science, Physics, Quantum Mechanics, relativity, science, Speculative science, syndicated, theoretical physics
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String theory fails first major experimental test [Mad Science]
String theory is one of the more popular candidates to combine quantum mechanics and relativity into a grand unified theory. But it had remained completely untestable until recent experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. The early results don’t look g… Continue reading
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Tagged CERN, Fb, Grand unified theory, large hadron collider, mad science, Physics, science, String theory, syndicated, Theory of everything
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How to Test What Really Happened After the Big Bang
A new test that takes data from several realms of physics could explain what really happened in the first sliver of a second after the Big Bang.
Most cosmologists believe the universe burst from an extremely dense, hot state around 13.7 billion years … Continue reading
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Tagged Astronomy, Big Bang, cosmic background radiation, Perimeter Institute, Physics, Princeton University, syndicated
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Large Hadron Collider proves the universe was once a liquid [Liquid Universe]
The world’s most powerful particle accelerator smashed together lead nuclei at the highest energies possible, creating dense sub-atomic particles that reach temperatures of over ten trillion degrees. Beyond being awesome, this achievement shows the ear… Continue reading
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Tagged Big Bang, large hadron collider, Liquid universe, Physics, science, syndicated, Universe
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Extreme Survival 101: How to survive a falling elevator, surf a lava wave, and more! [Disasterzone]
Survival isn’t just a matter of stockpiling food and water purification tablets. This guide is for situations more extreme than that. Find out how to defuse a nuclear bomb, survive a 3500 foot plunge, and surf down a lava wave.
Photo courtesy of the U… Continue reading
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Tagged Airplanes, Bomb, Disasterzone, Physics, science, Survival, syndicated, Top, Volcano
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New discovery could be best hint yet of the elusive Higgs boson [Mad Physics]
The Higgs boson is the missing particle that would complete the standard model of particle physics, but so far we’ve found little to even suggest it actually exists. But a new finding might just have come from a decaying Higgs.The Compact Muon Solenoid… Continue reading
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Tagged Higgs boson, large hadron collider, mad physics, Physics, science, syndicated
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The strange behavior of positronium could unlock the secrets of the universe [Mad Science]
Positronium is a particle created when you bind together an electron and its antimatter counterpart, the positron. It doesn’t interact with other atoms in the way we would expect, and this discovery could help us solve the universe’s biggest mysteries…. Continue reading
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Tagged Antimatter, Bose einstein condensate, electron, Fb, mad science, Physics, positron, Positronium, science, syndicated, tweet
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The explosive that became a heart medicine [Mad Science]
Nitroglycerin destroys lives by exploding, and saves them by stopping heart problems. How can it do both?
Most moviegoers have watched a scene or two where nitroglycerin has been used to blow the doors off of a bank vault. They’ve also seen scenes when… Continue reading
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Tagged Chemistry, Explosions, explosives, Fb, mad science, medicine, Physics, syndicated, tweet
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World’s Most Precise Clocks Could Reveal Universe Is a Hologram
Our existence could be coded in a finite bandwidth, like a live ultra-high-definition 3-D video. And the third dimension we know and love could be no more than a holographic projection of a 2-D surface.
A scientist’s $1 million experiment, now un… Continue reading
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Tagged Fermilab, GEO600, holograph, holometers, illusions, lasers, Physics, syndicated
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Metal Chunk Ditched for Silicon Sphere to Measure Kilogram
The kilogram may finally get a break from its yo-yo diet. An international team of scientists is closer to redefining the unit of mass based on fundamental constants, instead of a piece of metal in France that loses weight only to put it back on again… Continue reading
Spacecraft Finishes Mapping Cosmic Microwave Background
After nine years of plotting the oldest light in the universe, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe has shut down. The satellite, which single-handedly helped establish the standard model of cosmology, took its last look at the cosmos Aug. 20, and… Continue reading