Lifeboat Foundation

Hundreds of physicists met in London this week for the ninth Future Circular Collider (FCC) Conferen.

The Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, has returned from a seven-month hiatus literally with a bang, as it has captured the spectacular aftermath of a supernova, a massive star that exploded in the large, face-on, spiral Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101). The supernova, named SN 2023ixf (lower left), was discovered on May 19 by amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki.

Since its discovery, observers around the globe have pointed their telescopes toward Messier 101 to get a look at the burst of light. Over the coming months, Gemini North will allow astronomers to study how the light from the supernova fades and how its spectrum evolves over time, helping astronomers better understand the physics of such explosions.

Continue reading “Gemini North back on sky with dazzling image of supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy” »

Nuclear physicists at RIKEN have successfully created an extremely neutron-rich isotope of sodium, ³⁹ Na, previously predicted by many atomic nuclei models to be non-existent. This discovery has significant implications for our understanding of atomic nuclei structure and the astrophysical processes that form heavier elements on Earth.

Nuclear physicists have made the most neutron-rich form of sodium yet, which will help reveal more about the complex world of nuclei.

Continue reading “Sodium on Steroids: A Nuclear Physics Breakthrough Thought To Be Impossible” »

A research team led by University of California Los Angeles astrophysicists recently published their findings in the journal Nature, confirming the existence of the faintest galaxy ever seen from the early universe known as JD1.

An international team of astrophysicists has discovered hundreds of mysterious structures in the centre of the Milky Way.

The one-dimensional cosmic threads are made up of hundreds of horizontal or radial filaments, slender, elongated bodies of luminous gas that potentially originated a few million years ago — and seem to be pointing the direction of the black hole.

“I was actually stunned when I saw these. We had to do a lot of work to establish that we weren’t fooling ourselves,” added Yusef-Zadeh, who’s also a member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics.

AI researchers have built a Minecraft bot that can explore and expand its capabilities in the game’s open world — but unlike other bots, this one basically wrote its own code through trial and error and lots of GPT-4 queries.

Called Voyager, this experimental system is an example of an “embodied agent,” an AI that can move and act freely and purposefully in a simulated or real environment. Personal assistant type AIs and chatbots don’t have to actually do stuff, let alone navigate a complex world to get that stuff done. But that’s exactly what a household robot might be expected to do in the future, so there’s lots of research into how they might do that.

Minecraft is a good place to test such things because it’s a very (very) approximate representation of the real world, with simple and straightforward rules and physics, but it’s also complex and open enough that there’s lots to accomplish or try. Purpose-built simulators are great, too, but they have their own limitations.

The universe was briefly governed by different physical laws than exist today, according to new research.

If I were a brilliant physicist, I would have written this.

Learn more about differential equations (and many other topics in maths and science) on Brilliant using the link https://brilliant.org/sabine. You can get started for free, and the first 200 will get 20% off the annual premium subscription.

Continue reading “I don’t believe in free will. This is why” »

Year 2020 o.o!!!

The primary difficulty of interstellar communication is finding common ground between ourselves and other intelligent entities about which we can know nothing with absolute certainty. This common ground would be the basis for a universal language that could be understood by any intelligence, whether in the Milky Way, Andromeda, or beyond the cosmic horizon. To the best of our knowledge, the laws of physics are the same throughout the universe, which suggests that the facts of science may serve as a basis for mutual understanding between humans and an extraterrestrial intelligence.

One key set of scientific facts presents an intriguing question. If aliens were to visit Earth and learn about its inhabitants, would they be surprised that such a wide variety of species all share a common genetic code? Or would this be all too familiar? There is probable cause to assume that the structure of genetic material is the same throughout the universe and that, while this is liable to give rise to life forms not found on Earth, the variety of species is fundamentally limited by the constraints built into the genetic mechanism.

Continue reading “Do We Share DNA with ET?” »