Tag: Quantum Stuff

Isaac Newton was never entirely happy with his law of universal gravitation. For decades after publishing it in 1687, he sought to understand how, exactly, two objects were able to pull on each other from afar. He and others came up with several mechanical models, in which gravity was not a pull, but a push.… Continue reading Is Gravity Just Entropy Rising? Long-Shot Idea Gets Another Look.

Lawmakers Form First Extreme Heat Caucus, Citing ‘Deadly Risk’ The House of Representatives’ first caucus to address extreme heat is being launched by a Democrat from the Southwest and a Republican from the Northeast By Ariel Wittenberg & E&E News A construction worker in Folsom, Calif., during a July 2024 heatwave that brought daytime highs… Continue reading Lawmakers Form First Extreme Heat Caucus, Citing ‘Deadly Risk’

The approach has been fruitful. In 2022, Gore and colleagues discovered that ecological communities undergo phase transitions — a core organizing principle in physics that describes, for example, water’s change from solid ice to liquid to gas. As the researchers increased either the number of species in their experimental ecosystems or the strength of the… Continue reading The Ecosystem Dynamics That Can Make or Break an Invasion

What Causes Glaciers to Collapse like the Event That Buried a Swiss Village? Climate change and thawing permafrost play a role in destabilizing glaciers By Jen Schwartz edited by Dean Visser The small village of Blatten in the Swiss Alps was largely destroyed by a landslide that occurred as a result of the partial collapse… Continue reading What Causes Glaciers to Collapse like the Event That Buried a Swiss Village?

For Martin Schrimpf, the promise of artificial intelligence is not in the tasks it can accomplish. It’s in what AI might reveal about human intelligence. He is working to build a “digital twin” of the brain using artificial neural networks — AI models loosely inspired by how neurons communicate with one another. That end goal… Continue reading How AI Models Are Helping to Understand — and Control — the Brain

Last winter, at a meeting in the Finnish wilderness high above the Arctic Circle, a group of mathematicians gathered to contemplate the fate of a mathematical universe. It was minus 20 degrees Celsius, and while some went cross-country skiing, Juan Aguilera, a set theorist at the Vienna University of Technology, preferred to linger in the… Continue reading Is Mathematics Mostly Chaos or Mostly Order?

Sahara Dust Clouds Are Heading to Florida and Beyond Clouds of dust blown off the Saharan Desert into the southeastern U.S. could affect local weather and make sunrises and sunsets particularly vivid By Meghan Bartels edited by Dean Visser Each year, seasonal winds carry tens of millions of tons of Saharan dust across the Atlantic… Continue reading Sahara Dust Clouds Are Heading to Florida and Beyond

Megalodon Diets, Teeth Sensitivity and a Bunch of Vaccine News It’s one step forward and two steps back for vaccine policy in the U.S. Plus, we discuss the fishy origins of sensitive teeth and megalodon diets. By Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi & Alex Sugiura Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific American Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! It may… Continue reading Are Ancient Fish Responsible for Your Sensitive Teeth?

AI Found a ‘Magic Potion’ That Can Bring Dead Batteries Back to Life Electric vehicles leave behind mountains of dead lithium-ion batteries. A new “injection” brings them back to life By You Xiaoying edited by Andrea Thompson Malte Mueller/Getty Images A team of researchers in China has found a way to bring dead lithium-ion batteries… Continue reading AI Found a ‘Magic Potion’ That Can Bring Dead Batteries Back to Life