Category: Quantum Stuff

Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin. Doing science isn’t easy. It takes an enormous amount of time and energy to collect and analyze data. At least, that’s the way it usually works. Saad Bhamla: This is one of those examples that we joke that we can snap our fingers and… Continue reading The Surprising Physics of Finger Snapping

When we think about how science is distorted, we usually think about concepts that have ample currency in public discourse, such as pseudoscience and junk science. Practices like astrology and homeopathy come wrapped in scientific concepts and jargon that can’t meet the methodological requirements of actual sciences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, pseudoscience has had a… Continue reading The Attack of Zombie Science

After several tense days of unfurling and clicking its various parts into place, the biggest and most sophisticated space telescope ever launched is now complete. On 8 January, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope slowly swung the last 3 of its 18 hexagonal mirror segments into position, locking them together into one 6.5-metre-wide, gold-coated cosmic eye.… Continue reading Landmark Webb Observatory Is Now Officially a Telescope

Hurricane Ida, which cut a path of destruction from Louisiana to New York last year, is being recognized as one of the most destructive storms in U.S. history and the world’s costliest natural disaster in 2021. But the Category 4 hurricane also is becoming a poster child for government spending on flood protection. Analysts say… Continue reading Rebuilt New Orleans Levees Saved Lives and Property

We take it for granted that virtually every habitat on Earth is alive with the sounds of animals, from the haunting songs of whales in the oceans to the riotous symphony of birds, frogs and insects in forests to the hubbub of humans and our technological creations in cities the world over. Yet for most… Continue reading Fossils Reveal When Animals Started Making Noise

In the moment between reading a phone number and punching it into your phone, you may find that the digits have mysteriously gone astray — even if you’ve seared the first ones into your memory, the last ones may still blur unaccountably. Was the 6 before the 8 or after it? Are you sure? Maintaining… Continue reading Neural Noise Shows the Uncertainty of Our Memories

A new organization called the Association for Mathematical Research (AMR) has ignited fierce debates in the math research and education communities since it was launched last October. Its stated mission is “to support mathematical research and scholarship”—a goal similar to that proclaimed by two long-standing groups: the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Mathematical Association… Continue reading New Math Research Group Reflects a Schism in the Field

To health care workers in the COVID era, holidays mean death, and we knew Omicron was coming before it had a name. The wave caused by this variant has barely begun, rapidly gathering steam, and we are exhausted, attempting to pull from reserves badly drained by earlier surges. Back in August, the beds of my… Continue reading Nurses Struggle through a New COVID Wave with Rage and Compassion

Humans are very good at inventing commodities, and we’ve been at it for a long time. See that pebble over there? Well, that’s a better pebble than all these others, and if you give me something in exchange for it, I’ll let you take ownership. It’ll be your pebble, forever. And soon there will be… Continue reading The Worrisome Rise of NFTs

As quantum computers have become more functional, our understanding of them has remained muddled. Work by a pair of computer scientists has clarified part of the picture, providing insight into what can be computed with these futuristic machines. “It’s a really nice result that has implications for quantum computation,” said John Watrous of the University… Continue reading Computer Scientists Eliminate Pesky Quantum Computations