When you bake a loaf of bread or a batch of muffins, you place the dough in a pan. As it bakes, the dough expands into the pan, causing any chocolate chips or blueberries to spread farther apart. In some ways, the Universe’s expansion is similar. However, there’s a key difference: while dough expands into […]
A Physicist Explains How to Visualize the Universe’s Astonishing Expansion Read More »
Scientists have accidentally discovered a particle that has mass when moving in one direction but lacks mass when traveling in another. Known as semi-Dirac fermions, these particles with peculiar behavior were first theorized 16 years ago. A new phenomenon observed in ZrSiS material Researchers discovered the phenomenon in a semimetal material called ZrSiS, which consists
Unusual Particle Gains or Loses Mass Depending on Its Direction of Movement Read More »
A decade-long experiment has provided the first glimpse into the chaotic hurricane of particles inside neutron, paving the way to solve a fundamental mystery about the building blocks of matter. Using data from the Central Neutron Detector at the US Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National §Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), researchers are beginning to map the
Groundbreaking Experiment Reveals Neutron Internal Structure for the First Time Read More »
Astrophysicists have detected the highest-energy electrons ever recorded, raining down on Earth from a mysterious nearby source. These cosmic rays carry trillions of times the energy of visible light, suggesting they originate from a powerful source relatively close to our solar system. Earth is constantly bombarded by cosmic radiation, primarily from our Sun. However, other
Highly Energetic Electrons Hit Earth from an Unusual Nearby Source Read More »
Measuring time in our world of ticking clocks and swinging pendulums is as straightforward as counting seconds between “then” and “now.” However, at the quantum scale, where electrons buzz unpredictably, “then” becomes difficult to pinpoint, and “now” often dissolves into uncertainty. In such cases, a traditional stopwatch is simply ineffective. A potential answer may lie
Physicists Discover a Completely New Method for Measuring Time Read More »
A new experiment has demonstrated something seemingly impossible: light casting its own shadow. When a laser is manipulated in a specific way and illuminated side-on by another light source, it’s possible to create this unusual optical effect. While we’re used to seeing shadows in everyday life, they appear as dark areas on a surface where
Laser Experiment Shows Light Casting its Own Shadow Read More »
Recent headlines claim Chinese researchers used D-Wave quantum computers to hack RSA, AES, and “military-grade encryption.” This is both true and misleading. A May 2024 white paper in the Chinese Journal of Computers details how researchers used D-Wave’s quantum annealing to factor RSA-protected integers using Ising and QUBO models. The paper reports successful decryption of
No, Chinese Quantum Computers Have not Broken Military-Grade Encryption Read More »
If you’ve enjoyed an AI-generated video, fraud protection, or voice-to-text, you can thank scientists like physicist John Hopfield and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton. On Oct. 8, 2024, they received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work on artificial neural networks, which, though inspired by biology, relied heavily on statistical physics. How neurons compute
Nobel Prize in Physics: How Hopfield and Hinton’s AI Transformed Our World Read More »
The term “atom,” derived from Latin for “indivisible,” can be misleading. A recent simulation by U.S. theoretical physicists has provided a detailed microscopic view of how an atom splits in two, shedding light on an energetic event that has significantly impacted science and technology. In 1938, physicists Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and Fritz Strassmann demonstrated
Scientists Finally Uncover What Really Happens When an Atom Splits Read More »
Imagine three people arranged in a circle, where each can only hear one other directly. Scientists have created a device that directs sound waves in just this way, allowing them to travel in a single direction only. Developed by researchers at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, the device consists of
Physicists Create Sound Waves That Move Exclusively in One Direction Read More »