Category: Quantum Stuff

People around the world watched via livestreamed security camera as Russian forces attacked and took over Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant—the largest in Europe—on Friday morning local time. Amid the shelling and gunfire, a fire broke out at a training facility in the complex and was later extinguished, according to news reports. The incident raised… Continue reading The Risks of Russian Attacks near Ukraine’s Nuclear Power Plants

Two months before the Super Bowl, the Omicron surge was decimating NFL rosters as players tested positive for COVID. In mid-December, the NFL postponed a game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks because the Rams, who would go on to win the Super Bowl, had 29 players out with COVID. The number… Continue reading Making COVID Tests Better at Detecting Infectious People

In an episode of the satirical comedy The Great, the reign of the reason-and-science-loving Russian empress Catherine nearly collapses when her husband Peter, the deposed emperor, storms into her private quarters, determined to imprison her. But seeing her tearful and in despair, he forgets his vindictiveness and hugs her. Later, he tells her, “I wanted… Continue reading Love Is Biological Bribery

Number theorists are always looking for hidden structure. And when confronted by a numerical pattern that seems unavoidable, they test its mettle, trying hard — and often failing — to devise situations in which a given pattern cannot appear. One of the latest results to demonstrate the resilience of such patterns, by Thomas Bloom of… Continue reading Math’s ‘Oldest Problem Ever’ Gets a New Answer

Explore The brain is often called a black box but any neuroscientist who has looked inside knows that’s a sobering understatement. Technological advances are making our neural circuitries increasingly accessible, allowing us to closely watch any number of neurons in action. And yet the mystery of the brain only deepens. What’s the meaning embedded in… Continue reading AI Is Helping Scientists Explain the Brain

Imagine going to your local hardware store and seeing a new kind of hammer on the shelf. You’ve heard about this hammer: It pounds faster and more accurately than others, and in the last few years it’s rendered many other hammers obsolete, at least for most uses. And there’s more! With a few tweaks —… Continue reading Will Transformers Take Over Artificial Intelligence?

After years of being encouraged to choose a job I love so I’ll never work a day in my life, I figured I had found my ticket: science. Like many academics, I identify with my work. I pursued a Ph.D. largely because I’ve always thought of myself as curious and enthusiastic about nature, particularly the… Continue reading We’re Killing Ourselves with Work

1972 Surprise: Mars Volcano “Mars continues to surprise the investigators associated with Mariner 9, which has been in orbit around the planet since November 13. Perhaps the most spectacular feature is a volcanic cone at least 300 miles in diameter at the base, making it larger than any comparable feature on the earth. Close-ups of… Continue reading 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago: March 2022

I botched my first interview with Chris Fuchs. Fuchs is a physicist at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the leading proponent of QBism, one of the newest and most controversial of quantum theory’s many interpretations. It goes something like this: Quantum mechanics, the theory physicists use to predict the behavior of elementary particles like… Continue reading My Quantum Leap

Credit: NASAAdvertisement MEXICO Small freshwater fish called sulfur mollies synchronously splash their tails to create waves, and scientists have now demonstrated that this strategy can deter hungry birds. Researchers triggered the wave-making process using slingshots and found that birds waited twice as long between attacks. CHILE An investigation of sedimentary rock cores revealed that a… Continue reading Science News Briefs from around the World: March 2022