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physics

PHYSICS: Schrodinger’s Cat Gets a Cheshire Grin

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Cheshire Cat - Pixabay

“I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice. “But a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!” It’s an experience eminent physicist Yakir Aharonov can relate to. Together with fellow Israeli physicist Daniel Rohrlich, he’s shown theoretically how a particle might show its face in a corner of an experiment without needing its body anywhere in sight. To be more precise, their analysis argues information could be transferred between two points without an exchange of particles. The theory dates back to 2013 when researchers based in the US and … Read more

SPACE: Is Dark Matter Really A Bunch of Tiny Black Holes?

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black hole - pixabay

The universe might be full of tiny, ancient black holes. And researchers might be able to prove it. These mini black holes from the beginning of time, or primordial black holes (PBHs), were first dreamed up decades ago. Researchers proposed them as an explanation for dark matter, an unseen substance that exerts a gravitational pull throughout space. Most explanations for dark matter involve hypothetical particles with special properties that help them evade detection. But some researchers think swarms of little black holes moving like clouds through space offer a cleaner explanation. Now, a new study explains where these PBHs might … Read more

World’s Largest Atom Smasher Might Be Seeding Tiny Black Holes. And That’s a Good Thing?

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Large Hadron Collider - Deposit Photos - LHC

The cosmos may be studded with black holes so tiny they could slip in between atoms, a wild new theory suggests. And we could be making these teensy singularities all the time at the world’s largest atom smasher, a new study shows. If we could make these objects, they could be a window into the mysterious nature of gravity. We have four fundamental forces of nature (at least, that we know about so far): electromagnetism, strong force, weak force and gravity. All four forces operate at different ranges, have different carriers and interact in different ways. They also have very … Read more

Is Reality Real? new Paradox Throws It Into Question

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reality - deposit photos

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Perhaps not, some say. And if someone is there to hear it? If you think that means it obviously did make a sound, you might need to revise that opinion. We have found a new paradox in quantum mechanics — one of our two most fundamental scientific theories, together with Einstein’s theory of relativity — that throws doubt on some common-sense ideas about physical reality. Quantum mechanics vs. common sense Take a look at these three statements: When someone observes … Read more

Is There a Mirror Universe? And Does My Hair Look Better There?

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Mirror universe - pixabay

A series of viral articles claimed that NASA had discovered particles from another parallel universe in which time runs backward. These claims were incorrect. The true story is far more exciting and strange, involving a journey into the Big Bang and out the other side. The sensational headlines had muddled the findings of an obscure 2018 paper, never published in a peer-reviewed journal, which argued that our universe might have a mirror reflection across time, a partner universe that stretches beyond the Big Bang. If that’s the case, and a series of other extremely unlikely and outlandish hypotheses turn out … Read more

You’ve Heard of the Big Bang? What About the “Big Bounce”?

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bounce - pixabay

In the beginning, there was an infinitely dense, tiny ball of matter. Then, it all went bang, giving rise to the atoms, molecules, stars and galaxies we see today. Or at least, that’s what we’ve been told by physicists for the past several decades. But new theoretical physics research has recently revealed a possible window into the very early universe, showing that it may not be “very early” after all. Instead it may be just the latest iteration of a bang-bounce cycle that has been going on for … well, at least once, and possibly forever. Of course, before physicists … Read more

SCIENCE: New Quantum Experiment Puts 2000 Atoms in Two Places at Once

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atoms

Giant molecules can be in two places at once, thanks to quantum physics. That’s something that scientists have long known is theoretically true based on a few facts: Every particle or group of particles in the universe is also a wave — even large particles, even bacteria, even human beings, even planets and stars. And waves occupy multiple places in space at once. So any chunk of matter can also occupy two places at once. Physicists call this phenomenon “quantum superposition,” and for decades, they have demonstrated it using small particles. But in recent years, physicists have scaled up their … Read more

Quantum Computer Can See Sixteen Possible Futures

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quantum comouter - live science

When Mile Gu boots up his new computer, he can see the future. At least, 16 possible versions of it — all at the same time. Gu, an assistant professor of physics at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, works in quantum computing. This branch of science uses the weird laws that govern the universe’s smallest particles to help computers calculate more efficiently. Unlike classical computers, which store information as bits (binary digits of either 0 or 1), quantum computers code information into quantum bits, or qubits. These subatomic particles, thanks to the weird laws of quantum mechanics, can exist in … Read more

First There Was Dark Matter. Now We Have Dark Fluid – Live Science

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dark fluid - pixabay

d It’s embarrassing, but astrophysicists are the first to admit it. Our best theoretical model can only explain 5 percent of the universe. The remaining 95 percent is famously made up almost entirely of invisible, unknown material dubbed dark energy and dark matter. So even though there are a billion trillion stars in the observable universe, they are actually extremely rare. The two mysterious dark substances can only be inferred from gravitational effects. Dark matter may be an invisible material, but it exerts a gravitational force on surrounding matter that we can measure. Dark energy is a repulsive force that … Read more

SCIENCE: How to Get Inside a Black Hole

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black hole - pixabay

SCIENCE Physicists have insisted for a long time that black holes are impenetrable ciphers. Whatever goes in is lost, impossible to study or meaningfully understand. Some small amount of matter and energy might escape a black hole in the form of “Hawking radiation,” but anything still inside the black hole is functionally disappeared from the physical universe. The idea is a basic premise of modern physics: If something falls into a black hole, it can’t be contacted, it’s future can’t be predicted. No observer could possibly survive traveling into the dark space, not even long enough to glance around and … Read more