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POPSWhy nature can't be reduced to mathematical laws If so, then even perfect knowledge of the physics at one level would be inadequate for understanding organisation at higher levels. This conjecture has been debated ever since. Now Mile Gu at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues, claim that it may be possible to prove Anderson's idea. They studied a basic mathematical model called the Ising model, which is often used to study how magnetism arises in iron and other materials from the collective organisation of their atoms. Using the model, the team focused on whether the pattern that the atoms adopt under various scenarios, such as a state of lowest energy, could be calculated from knowledge of those forces. They found that in some scenarios, the pattern of atoms could not be calculated from knowledge of the forces - even given unlimited computing power. In mathematical terms, the system is considered "formally undecidable".
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POPSDo subatomic particles have free will? But physicists all the way back to Einstein have been unhappy with this idea. Einstein famously grumped, “God does not play dice.” And indeed, ever since the birth of quantum mechanics, some physicists have offered alternate interpretations of its equations that aim to get rid of this indeterminism. The most famous alternative is attributed to the physicist David Bohm, who argued in the 1950s that the behavior of subatomic particles is entirely determined by “hidden variables” that cannot be observed. Conway and Kochen say this search is hopeless, and they claim to have proven that indeterminacy is inherent in the world itself, rather than just in quantum theory. And to Bohmians and other like-minded physicists, the pair says: Give up determinism, or give up free will. Even the tiniest bit of free will.
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POPSPioneering Physicist John Wheeler Dies at 96 a real genius, if i am not mistaken he was Hugh Everett III's professor of physics, also he is the one the suggested the 'delayed choice' experiment that showed the experimenter can choose, AFTER THE FACT, whether the photon was in both places or just one.
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POPSBefore the Big Bang - the Big Bounce Now, however, Dr Bojowald and fellow physicists are exploring territory unknown even to Einstein - the time before the Big Bang - using his new theory, called Loop Quantum Cosmology. An analysis of this, one of a series of newly-emerging theories which combine Einstein's theory of gravity (general relativity) with that of the subatomic world (quantum theory), "is supposed to provide a non-singular framework in which one could address the question of what was there before the Big Bang," he says.
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POPSIBM Is Working on DNA-Based processors This new goal is an addition to the research on the "DNA origami," conducted by Paul Rothemund of California Institute of Technology. Currently, more and more researchers are turning to DNA in search of an older goal, the "self-assembly". The advantages of building semiconductors based on DNA and nanotubes are especially concerning the chips' size, given the fact that DNA can work at a 2-nanometer scale. Imagine a chip built at two-nanometer node, then compare it to a state-of-the-art processor built with the 45-nanometer production node.
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