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Archive for the ‘physics’ category: Page 219

Sep 8, 2019

The physicists’ library

Posted by in category: physics

To compile the ultimate science reading list, Tushna Commissariat talks to some of today’s top physicists, writers and broadcasters.

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you.”

Astronomer, science communicator and author Carl Sagan always had a way with words, and it’s no surprise that he sums up so well the magic of books and writing. From the very first issue of Physics World, this magazine has featured a vibrant reviews section, in which we look at some of the most interesting physics literature being published.

Sep 8, 2019

Caltech Faculty Honored with Breakthrough and New Horizons Prizes

Posted by in categories: cosmology, engineering, physics

Caltech’s Katherine L. (Katie) Bouman has been named a recipient of the 2020 Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics as part of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team that generated the first-ever image of a black hole, while Xie Chen and Xinwen Zhu have each received 2020 New Horizons prizes from the same foundation for their work in physics and mathematics, respectively.

The Breakthrough Prize, now in its eighth year, is considered the world’s most generous science prize. Each Breakthrough Prize is $3 million and the 347 authors of the six EHT papers will divide the award.

“I was stunned and absolutely thrilled to hear the news,” says Bouman, assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences and Rosenberg Scholar in Caltech’s Division of Engineering and Applied Science. “I’m so lucky to work with an amazingly talented group of individuals that continues to push the boundaries of science every day. It is such a privilege and an honor to share this award with each one of them.”

Sep 8, 2019

Probing General Relativity with Neutron Stars

Posted by in categories: alien life, physics

Another of those ‘new eras’ I talked about in yesterday’s post is involved in the latest news on gravitational waves. Let’s not forget that it was 50 years ago — on November 28, 1967 — that Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish observed the first pulsar, now known to be a neutron star. It made the news at the time because the pulses, separated by 1.33 seconds, raised a SETI possibility, leading to the playful designation LGM-1 (‘little green men’) for the discovery.

We’ve learned a lot about pulsars emitting beams at various wavelengths since then and the SETI connection is gone, but before I leave the past, it’s also worth recognizing that our old friend Fritz Zwicky, working with Walter Baade, first proposed the existence of neutron stars in 1934. The scientists believed that a dense star made of neutrons could result from a supernova explosion, and here we might think of the Crab pulsar at the center of the Crab Nebula, an object whose description fits the pioneering work of Zwicky and Baade, and also tracks the work of Franco Pacini, who posited that a rotating neutron star in a magnetic field would emit radiation. Likewise a pioneer, Pacini suggested this before pulsars had been discovered.

Writing about all this takes me back to reading Larry Niven’s story ‘Neutron Star,’ available in the collection by the same name, when it first ran in a 1966 issue of IF. Those were interesting days for IF, but I better cut that further digression off at the source — more about the magazine in a future post. ‘Neutron Star’ is the story where Beowulf Shaeffer, a familiar character in Larry’s Known Space stories, first appears. If you want to see a neutron star up close and learn what its tidal forces can do, you can’t beat Niven’s tale.

Sep 7, 2019

Stunning 1st image of Black Hole

Posted by in categories: astronomy, general relativity, gravity, physics, science, space
Eight of 347 scientists: Their achievement is above the fold in major newspapers

Yesterday (Sep 5, 2019), the Breakthrough Prize Foundation awarded $21.6 million US dollars to the scientists behind a stunning achievement. They imaged a black hole. Although the image was announced and released 5 months ago, the story is still unfolding.

Yesterday (Sep 5, 2019), the Breakthrough Prize Foundation awarded $21.6 million US dollars to the scientists behind a stunning achievement. They imaged a black hole. Although the image was announced and released 5 months ago, the story is still unfolding.

The Breakthrough Prize is funded by Russian-Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner. It is the highest-paying science prize for researchers in life science, math, and physics.

There are many black holes in our galaxy and some small ones in our own galactic “neighborhood” . Yet the EHT team* focused on M87, a black hole in the center of another Galaxy, 55 million light years from our solar system.

Continue reading “Stunning 1st image of Black Hole” »

Sep 6, 2019

Steven Gubser, a Bright Star in the Physics Universe, Dies at 47

Posted by in category: physics

He did groundbreaking work toward finding a “theory of everything.” He died in an Alpine rock-climbing accident.

Sep 6, 2019

2020 Breakthrough Prizes: Who won this year’s ‘Oscars of science’?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics, science

This year’s other prizes include four in the life sciences, a special prize in fundamental physics for the invention of supergravity, one winner in mathematics, and a handful of $100,000 awards for early career researchers. Recipients will be honored at an awards gala to be held on November 3 at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and broadcast live on National Geographic.


A record-setting black hole picture and advances in how we perceive pain are among the winners of this year’s $3-million prizes.

Sep 4, 2019

Nikola Tesla On Antigravity Technology, Flying Saucers Powered By Tesla Coils And The Ether

Posted by in categories: energy, physics

In the mid-1800’s to the early 1900’s Tesla file for more than 110 patents in varying technologies. From his magnifying transmitter, than uses an air coil or vortex to generate massive voltages, to wireless transmissions of power which Tesla used to prove transmission of data, power, and even lighting a layer of the strata as early as 1900. For this reason many consider Nikola Tesla to be one of the most brilliant scientists the world have ever seen.

Tesla’s dynamic theory of gravity explains the relation between gravity and electromagnetics in the same field. This was due to the presence of aether, also known as ether, which is a space-filling medium that is necessary for the propagation of forces either through electromagnetic or gravitational in nature. In plain English, Aether is the medium necessary for any exchange on these levels. Also, Aether was removed from theory in modern physics and was replaced with more abstract models. In looking at Tesla’s ideas and results; it appears that modern physics is wrong.

In the late 1800’s Tesla presented his Dynamic Theory of Gravity, which was a model over matter, Aether, and energy. Tesla’s version of this medium is closer to the gas theory and has extreme elasticity and a very high permeability. He also felt that Aether was much more common and filled all of the space.

Sep 4, 2019

Incredibly Weird Dark Energy –“Its Source Unknown, Location Unknown, Physics Unknown”

Posted by in categories: alien life, physics

“Dark energy is incredibly strange, but actually it makes sense to me that it went unnoticed,” said Noble Prize winning physicist Adam Riess in an interview. “I have absolutely no clue what dark energy is. Dark energy appears strong enough to push the entire universe – yet its source is unknown, its location is unknown and its physics are highly speculative.”

Physicists have found that for the last 7 billion years or so galactic expansion has been accelerating. This would be possible only if something is pushing the galaxies, adding energy to them. Scientists are calling this something “dark energy,” a force that is real but eludes detection.

One of the most speculative ideas for the mechanism of an accelerating cosmic expansion is called quintessence, a relative of the Higgs field that permeates the cosmos. Perhaps some clever life 5 billion years ago figured out how to activate that field, speculates astrophysicist Caleb Scharf in Nautil.us. How? “Beats me,” he says, “but it’s a thought-provoking idea, and it echoes some of the thinking of cosmologist Freeman Dyson’s famous 1979 paper ”Time Without End,” where he looked at life’s ability in the far, far future to act on an astrophysical scale in an open universe that need not evolve into a state of permanent quiescence. Where life and communication can continue for ever.

Sep 3, 2019

The ‘Nobel Prize of Math’ Has Been Won By A Woman For The First Time Ever

Posted by in categories: information science, mathematics, physics

❤👍👍👍


Greetings with some good news for the women’s world. Just recently, one of the most prestigious mathematics prizes in the world – The Abel Prize was awarded to a woman for the first time ever. Yes! Karen Uhlenbeck is a mathematician and a professor at the University of Texas and is now the first woman to win this prize in mathematics. You go Karen!

The award, which is modeled by the Nobel Prize, is awarded by the king of Norway to honor mathematicians who have made an influence in their field including a cash prize of around $700,000. The award to Karen cites for “the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics.” This award exists since 2003 but has only been won by men since.

Continue reading “The ‘Nobel Prize of Math’ Has Been Won By A Woman For The First Time Ever” »

Sep 2, 2019

Automating Scientific Discovery in Physics using Hybrid AI Models

Posted by in categories: physics, robotics/AI

PhD Project — Automating Scientific Discovery in Physics using Hybrid AI Models at University of Manchester, listed on FindAPhD.com.