In investigating the limits of extracting work from their real-world information engine, Bechhoefer and Still have found that, in certain regimes, it can significantly outperform conventional engines. They’ve also tracked the inefficiency associated with receiving partial information about the bead’s state, inspired by Still’s theoretical work. The information engine is now shrinking to the quantum… Continue reading What Is Entropy? A Measure of Just How Little We Really Know.
America Is Ready for a New Chapter and Restoration of the American Dream
In the weeks since President-elect Donald Trump’s historic victory, I’ve walked the streets of Miami, talking to the people who shape our future, about the future. I listened to a young couple who had just opened a small café—its tables filled with neighbors eager to support their new venture. I spoke with a college student… Continue reading America Is Ready for a New Chapter and Restoration of the American Dream
Exotic New Superconductors Delight and Confound
Theorists brainstormed new ways of pairing electrons. The higher-temperature superconductors seemed to have atoms arranged in a way that slows electrons down. And when electrons get the chance to mingle in a leisurely fashion, they collectively generate an ornate electric field that can make them do novel things, like form pairs rather than repel. Physicists… Continue reading Exotic New Superconductors Delight and Confound
Quantum Computers Cross Critical Error Threshold
“The whole story hinges on that kind of scaling,” said David Hayes, a physicist at the quantum computing company Quantinuum. “It’s really exciting to see that become a reality.” Majority Rules The simplest version of error correction works on ordinary “classical” computers, which represent information as a string of bits, or 0s and 1s. Any… Continue reading Quantum Computers Cross Critical Error Threshold
The Potential Power of DOGE
There can be little doubt that the recent election of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States has unleashed a fair degree of animal spirits in the financial markets and in corporate America. Some of this could simply be a function of the fact that a chaotic and sometimes frightening election is… Continue reading The Potential Power of DOGE
Do We Really Live in the Darkest Timeline?
As memes go, it wasn’t particularly viral. But for a couple of hours on the morning of November 6, the term “darkest timeline” trended in Google searches, and several physicists posted musings on social media about whether we were actually in it. All the probabilities expressed in opinion polls and prediction markets had collapsed into… Continue reading Do We Really Live in the Darkest Timeline?
Pass the Kids Online Safety Act Before It’s Too Late
Mason Bogard was 15 when he told his parents he loved them and went upstairs to take a shower and head to bed. Less than an hour later, they found him dead on the floor of his bedroom, a belt around his neck. Mason had attempted the viral Tik Tok “choking challenge” where kids… Continue reading Pass the Kids Online Safety Act Before It’s Too Late
Exorcism (the Old and New Rites of Exorcism)
Podcast: Download MYS342: For hundreds of years, the Catholic Church has had a variety rites to expel evil spirits from people who are possessed by them. But in 1614 and again in 1998, the Church published official rites for the procedure, and in this episode Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss what the rites actually… Continue reading Exorcism (the Old and New Rites of Exorcism)
Kristi Noem, Set to Oversee Disaster Agency, Has Rejected Climate Science
CLIMATEWIRE | President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the department in charge of disaster recovery has been skeptical of climate change, declined to accept federal climate money and been criticized for her own handling of a natural catastrophe. Trump named Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota on Tuesday to run the Department of Homeland Security,… Continue reading Kristi Noem, Set to Oversee Disaster Agency, Has Rejected Climate Science
Restore the American Spirit | RealClearPolicy
Critics of President-elect Trump assert that mass deportation is morally wrong for two reasons: first, Trump’s plan is said to be overbroad and will deport people indiscriminately; second, Trump’s plan will cause unjust suffering for those affected. Let us address each objection in turn. The idea that mass deportation will be indiscriminate is false. Since… Continue reading Restore the American Spirit | RealClearPolicy