In the movie Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr challenges the physicist early in his career: Bohr: Algebra is like sheet music. The important thing isn’t “can you read music?” It’s “can you hear it?” Can you hear the music, Robert? Oppenheimer: Yes, I can. I can’t hear the algebra, but I feel the machine. I felt the machine even… Continue reading Computation Is All Around Us, and You Can See It if You Try
Tag: Quantum Stuff
The Brainstem Fine-Tunes Inflammation Throughout the Body
Last month, researchers discovered cells in the brainstem that regulate inflammation throughout the body. In response to an injury, these nerve cells not only sense inflammatory molecules, but also dial their circulating levels up and down to keep infections from harming healthy tissues. The discovery adds control of the immune system to the brainstem’s core… Continue reading The Brainstem Fine-Tunes Inflammation Throughout the Body
The Enduring Mystery of How Water Freezes
The colder that water gets, the smaller this energy barrier gets. This makes it easier for random molecular motions to push a tiny embryonic ice structure over the critical size threshold. Ice forms and grows, and the lower-energy crystal structure stays stable. Boosting Nucleation Surfaces and impurities can dramatically lower the energy barrier for nucleation… Continue reading The Enduring Mystery of How Water Freezes
Across a Continent, Trees Sync Their Fruiting to the Sun
Then the team stumbled across a clue by accident. One summer evening, Bogdziewicz was sitting on his balcony reading a study which found that the timing of leaf senescence — the natural aging process leaves go through each autumn — depends on when the local weather warms relative to the summer solstice. Inspired by this… Continue reading Across a Continent, Trees Sync Their Fruiting to the Sun
Physicists Puzzle Over Emergence of Strange Electron Aggregates
In 2012, a group of researchers at Tsinghua University in China created a metallic film from a mix of elements — bismuth, antimony and tellurium, with a dash of chromium to provide an effective internal magnetic field. When the Tsinghua group ran a current through the film, without any external magnetic field, the characteristic integer… Continue reading Physicists Puzzle Over Emergence of Strange Electron Aggregates
People Hate Daylight Saving. Science Tells Us Why.
In the summer of 2017, when communication professor Jeffery Gentry moved from Oklahoma to accept a position at Eastern New Mexico University, he was pleasantly surprised to find it easier to get up in the morning. The difference, he realized, was early morning light. On September mornings in Portales, New Mexico, Gentry rose with the… Continue reading People Hate Daylight Saving. Science Tells Us Why.
Hunger in Gaza Could Affect Survivors’ Health for Decades
Tanya Lewis: The situation in Gaza right now is desperate. A large percentage of the population is experiencing hunger or even dying of starvation. [Kamala Harris news clip] Tulika Bose: Videos show people using bird seed to bake “bread” or giving newborn babies dates to suck on because their mothers can’t provide enough milk. On… Continue reading Hunger in Gaza Could Affect Survivors’ Health for Decades
Total Solar Eclipses Are Cosmic Coincidences That Won’t Last Forever
Total Solar Eclipses Are Cosmic Coincidences That Won’t Last Forever Earthlings are very lucky to see the spectacle of a total solar eclipse By Meghan Bartels Science History Images/Alamy Stock Photo This article is part of a special report on the total solar eclipse that will be visible from parts of the U.S., Mexico and… Continue reading Total Solar Eclipses Are Cosmic Coincidences That Won’t Last Forever
Medicaid Expansion Alone Won’t Stop the Opioid Overdose Crisis
Medicaid Expansion Alone Isn’t Enough to Stop the Opioid Overdose Crisis Expanding the state and federal insurance program helps prevent overdoses. But that only happens with enough treatment, and legal reform, to make it work By Hannah L. F. Cooper, Courtney R. Yarbrough, Umedjon Ibragimov, Janet Cummings & Danielle Haley People are seen outside a… Continue reading Medicaid Expansion Alone Won’t Stop the Opioid Overdose Crisis
Mathematicians Attempt to Glimpse Past the Big Bang
About 13.8 billion years ago, the entire cosmos consisted of a tiny, hot, dense ball of energy that suddenly exploded. That’s how everything began, according to the standard scientific story of the Big Bang, a theory that first took shape in the 1920s. The story has been refined over the decades, most notably in the… Continue reading Mathematicians Attempt to Glimpse Past the Big Bang