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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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POPS Sloshing Inside Earth Changes Protective Magnetic Field The Earth's magnetic field extends about 36,000 miles (58,000 km) into space, generated from the spinning effect of the electrically-conductive core that acts something like a giant electromagnet. The field creates a tear-drop shaped bubble that has constantly shielded life on Earth against much of the high-energy radiation flowing from the sun. The last major change in the field took place some 780,000 years ago during a magnetic reversal, although such reversals seem to occur more often on average. A flip in the north and south poles typically involves a weakening in the magnetic field, followed by a period of rapid recovery and reorganization of opposite polarity. Some studies in recent years have suggested the next reversal might be imminent, but the jury is out on that question.
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POPSPhysicists Seek Answers to Quantum Correlations The physicists ruled out several possible classical explanations for the instantaneous communication. For one thing, they showed that the photons did not share information before leaving Geneva, and so they didn´t travel knowing about each other´s properties. In another test, the scientists showed that no communication could have occurred through a different reference frame, as might happen because of the photons´ high speeds. According to Einstein´s theory of relativity, observers moving at high speeds can get different measurements of the same event because they have different reference frames. But, by performing tests over a complete rotation of the Earth, the researchers ruled out this possibility. "We think space and time are important because that´s the kind of monkeys we are,"
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POPSThe World's Largest Particle Accelerator No one really knows what the machine will give birth to. But the equations suggest that some weird stuff could be just around the corner — maybe "dark matter," the invisible stuff that seems to hang around galaxies. "It's kind of an embarrassment that we don't know what 95 percent of the universe is made of by weight," Green says. "We hope — it's possible — we may be making dark matter." Some theories say it is possible the collider will cause miniature black holes to momentarily appear. But for now, what has appeared is a table of croissants, an urn of coffee, and more people. Everyone stands around in blue hard hats. They don't talk about black holes or dark matter. A few say things like "I hope the magnet doesn't fall."
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POPSLarge Hadron Collider: The Biggest Human Experiment Ever Yet Some of those particles could help us to understand the nature of mass, including the as-yet-undetectable dark matter that accounts for so much of the universe’s mass. Other particles might prove the existence of extra dimensions, or lead to entirely new theories or physical laws
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POPSRevoke EPA’s Licenses to Pollute Behind the veil of “clean skies,” however, smog and soot and very small toxic particulate matter are still pouring out of the pipes of cars, trucks, the containerized shipping industry that drives global commerce, airplanes, incinerators, large farms and factories. These microscopic particles cause inflammation and injury to the lungs and the blood, killing thousands and condemning many more to life with asthma. Runoff from agribusiness, industry and suburban trophy lawns still flows through our (non-burning) rivers, creating dead zones off our shores and sickening swimmers on our beaches. This is happening because industries have become experts at delaying and manipulating the work of EPA through political pressure and legal tactics. And EPA analysts cut and paste corporate-generated studies and analysis into their findings. As a result, the EPA often acts as if it were protecting the earnings of regulated industries rather than the public’s health.
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POPSRappin' physics In the months before I began working at New Scientist I spent some time in Geneva working at CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider. What I actually did there has always been a bit of a mystery to everyone in the New Scientistoffice. This video might offer some answers. When the LHC is (finally) switched on later this year, the things that it discovers really will rock you in the head.
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POPSCool! Nanoparticles Recent results from research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) show that adding the right dash of nanoparticles to standard mixes of lubricants and refrigerants could highly contribute to energy saving in cooling systems.
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POPSPrelude to the Higgs: A work for 2 bosons in the key of Z You might rightly ask yourselves why would I bother to clip this scientific gibberish. Actually this experiment, makes science a step closer to a critical junction, the discovery of the Higgs Boson, a.k.a the 'God' particle. A very substantial part of our understanding of the physical universe is put to a critical test. It worth a clip...
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POPSBeyond Cold: How the World Works at Minus 459 Degrees Quantum mechanics may seem exotic, but it affects every aspect of your life, from the chemical basis of your metabolism, to the forces that prevent your feet from falling through the floor. The quantum behavior of many particles together is the foundation for much of modern technology. For example, materials like the semiconductors inside computer chips, which consist of electrons traveling through crystals formed by ions, use the quantum behavior of those electrons to make transistors. Some quantum effects in materials are not well understood, such as what happens inside "high-temperature" superconductors that can operate at temperatures higher than the boiling point of nitrogen. In a superconductor, the resistance to flow of electrons through the material vanishes below a certain temperature.
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POPSGiant Impactor Theory what makes science attractive, is the ability to develop methods to test the solidity of the basic theories. one has to wait and see what would be the impact :)
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POPS First Electronic Ink Magazine Cover Expected “The possibilities of print have just begun. In two years, I hope this looks like cellphones did in 1982, or car phones.” Science fiction readers have been looking forward to this development for a long time, and can give us an idea of what this technology will look like in coming years. For example, writer Greg Bear had a very clear view of the Esquire E-ink cover in 2003 in "Darwin's Children." He wrote about e-paper covers with speaker chips.
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POPSRevolutionary materials reflect ancient forms Because crystals and quasicrystals comprise different material classes with differing physical and chemical properties, the observed intermediate structure is striking. "The combination of crystalline and quasicrystalline structural elements will likely lead to novel material properties"
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POPSSolar Sailing in Space The concept of solar sailing was invented in the 1920s by two Russian scientists, and it has been the subject of a few projects over the years, says Louis Friedman, the executive director of the Planetary Society, a public space organization based in Pasadena, CA
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