During fleeting fits, the sun occasionally hurls a colossal amount of energy into space. Called solar flares, these eruptions last for mere minutes, and they can trigger catastrophic blackouts and dazzling auroras on Earth. But our leading mathematical theories of how these flares work fail to predict the strength and speed of what we observe.… Continue reading The Tiny Physics Behind Immense Cosmic Eruptions
Category: Quantum Stuff
A Proposal to Change Medical Training Will Affect Autism Care
In the U.S., almost 20 percent of children have developmental delays, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, learning disabilities or speech and language disorders. These disorders are usually diagnosed in childhood and have specific and time-intensive treatments based on severity. The prevalence of some of these disorders is rising, including autism. The Centers for Disease… Continue reading A Proposal to Change Medical Training Will Affect Autism Care
New Math Shows When Solar Systems Become Unstable
Now, in three papers that together exceed 150 pages, Guàrdia and two collaborators have proved for the first time that instability inevitably arises in a model of planets orbiting a sun. “The result is really very spectacular,” said Gabriella Pinzari, a mathematical physicist at the University of Padua in Italy. “The authors proved a theorem… Continue reading New Math Shows When Solar Systems Become Unstable
What It Would Take for Electric Vehicles to Help Power the Grid
CLIMATEWIRE | A new California bill would turn electric vehicles into a backup power supply for the state’s troubled grid. But experts say the idea — while promising — still has some technological hurdles to overcome. And they warn that mandates such as the one prescribed in the California measure could increase the cost of electric… Continue reading What It Would Take for Electric Vehicles to Help Power the Grid
Dogs Can Carry Mutant Flu Strains
Mutant strains of a common human flu virus have been found in dogs for the first time, prompting concerns that such viruses could start to spread easily among pets—and potentially evolve into dangerous new strains that jump back to humans. Nanjing Agricultural University virologist Shuo Su and his colleagues identified two dogs in southern China… Continue reading Dogs Can Carry Mutant Flu Strains
Memories Help Brains Recognize New Events Worth Remembering
Memories are shadows of the past but also flashlights for the future. Our recollections guide us through the world, tune our attention and shape what we learn later in life. Human and animal studies have shown that memories can alter our perceptions of future events and the attention we give them. “We know that past… Continue reading Memories Help Brains Recognize New Events Worth Remembering
Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse?
By definition, the universe seems like it should be the totality of everything that exists. Yet a variety of arguments emerging from cosmology, particle physics and quantum mechanics hint that there could also be unobservable universes beyond our own that follow different laws of nature. While the existence of a multiverse is speculative, for many… Continue reading Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse?
Secret Messages Can Hide in AI-Generated Media
The result comes from the world of information theory, which provides a mathematical framework for understanding communication of all sorts. It’s an abstract and tidy field, in contrast to the complicated messiness of practical steganography. The worlds don’t often overlap, said Jessica Fridrich, a researcher at Binghamton University who studies ways to hide (and detect)… Continue reading Secret Messages Can Hide in AI-Generated Media
After Nearly a Century, a New Limit for Patterns in Graphs
“I was floored,” said Yuval Wigderson, a mathematician at Tel Aviv University, on hearing about the new result. “I was literally shaking for half an hour to an hour.” The Party Lines Ramsey theory most commonly asks questions either about the integers or about graphs. A graph, in this context, refers to collections of points called… Continue reading After Nearly a Century, a New Limit for Patterns in Graphs
50,000 Worms Tangled Up in a Ball Unravel in an Explosive Burst when a Predator Appears
Anyone who’s grappled with jumbled headphones knows the difficulty of disentangling snarled cords. A tight knot is nothing for a California blackworm, however. These tiny worms twist together by the thousands to form tightly packed blobs reminiscent of a forkful of squirming spaghetti. While these tangles take minutes to form, intertwined blackworms can wriggle free… Continue reading 50,000 Worms Tangled Up in a Ball Unravel in an Explosive Burst when a Predator Appears