Category: Quantum Stuff

Why the Brain’s Connections to the Body Are Crisscrossed

Dazzling intricacies of brain structure are revealed every day, but one of the most obvious aspects of brain wiring eludes neuroscientists. The nervous system is cross-wired, so that the left side of the brain controls the right half of the body and vice versa. Every doctor relies upon this fact in performing neurological exams, but… Continue reading Why the Brain’s Connections to the Body Are Crisscrossed

How Physicists Cracked a Black Hole Paradox

A few years ago a team of chemists unboiled an egg. Boiling causes protein molecules in the egg to twist around one another, and a centrifuge can disentangle them to restore the original. The technique is of dubious utility in a kitchen, but it neatly demonstrates the reversibility of physics. Anything in the physical world… Continue reading How Physicists Cracked a Black Hole Paradox

Greatest Migration on Earth Happens under Darkness Every Day

Every evening around the world trillions of zooplankton, many smaller than a grain of rice, hover hundreds of feet below the surface of the sea, waiting for their signal. Scientists long considered these tiny animals to be drifters, passive specks suspended in the ocean, moved by the whims of tides and currents. And yet, just… Continue reading Greatest Migration on Earth Happens under Darkness Every Day

The Number 15 Describes the Secret Limit of an Infinite Grid

For a first-year grad student who’d roped a big-time professor into working on his pet problem, it was an unsettling discovery. “I was horrified. I had basically been working for several months on a problem without realizing this, and even worse, I had made Marijn waste his time on it!” Subercaseaux wrote in a blog… Continue reading The Number 15 Describes the Secret Limit of an Infinite Grid

Even Machine Brains Need Sleep

We all might wish for minds as retentive as a hard drive. Memory file created. Saved. Ready for access at any time. But don’t yet go wishing for the memory performance of AI. Artificial neural networks are prone to a troublesome glitch known, evocatively, as catastrophic forgetting. These seemingly tireless networks can keep learning tasks… Continue reading Even Machine Brains Need Sleep

Tiny Jets on the Sun Power the Colossal Solar Wind

Torrents of charged particles continuously lift off the sun’s atmosphere and radiate outward at millions of kilometers per hour, yielding a solar wind so immense that its limit defines the outer edge of our solar system. Despite the vast reach of this wind, its formation has long been a puzzle. Now a new analysis argues… Continue reading Tiny Jets on the Sun Power the Colossal Solar Wind

The Public Wants Scientists to Be More Involved in Policy Debates

Many scientists are loath to involve themselves in policy debates for fear of losing credibility. They worry that if they participate in public debate on a contested issue, they will be viewed as biased and discounted as partisan. That perception then will lead to science itself being branded as partisan, further weakening public trust in… Continue reading The Public Wants Scientists to Be More Involved in Policy Debates

The Symmetry That Makes Solving Math Equations Easy

Think of the tune to “Pop Goes the Weasel.” Now sing these lyrics: Neg-a-tive b, plus or minusThe square root of b squaredmi-nus four a cAll! over two a This jingle has helped generations of algebra students recall the quadratic formula that solves every equation of the form $latex ax^2+bx+c=0$. The formula is as useful… Continue reading The Symmetry That Makes Solving Math Equations Easy

Shadows in the Big Bang Afterglow Reveal Invisible Cosmic Structures

Explore Nearly 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the primordial plasma of the infant universe cooled enough for the first atoms to coalesce, making space for the embedded radiation to soar free. That light—the cosmic microwave background (CMB)—continues to stream through the sky in all directions, broadcasting a snapshot of the early universe that’s picked… Continue reading Shadows in the Big Bang Afterglow Reveal Invisible Cosmic Structures