Astronomers have announced that they have gathered new data on the black hole that lies at the center of our galaxy. The new information was gleaned when the scientists added the ALMA telescope into the array of telescopes being used to study the black hole. The discovery has found that the emissions from the supermassive black hole, called Sagittarius A (Sgr A), comes from a smaller region than previously believed.
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CERN has revealed plans for a gigantic successor of the giant atom smasher LHC, the biggest machine ever built. Particle physicists will never stop to ask for ever larger big bang machines. But where are the limits for the ordinary society concerning costs and existential risks?
CERN boffins are already conducting a mega experiment at the LHC, a 27km circular particle collider, at the cost of several billion Euros to study conditions of matter as it existed fractions of a second after the big bang and to find the smallest particle possible – but the question is how could they ever know? Now, they pretend to be a little bit upset because they could not find any particles beyond the standard model, which means something they would not expect. To achieve that, particle physicists would like to build an even larger “Future Circular Collider” (FCC) near Geneva, where CERN enjoys extraterritorial status, with a ring of 100km – for about 24 billion Euros.
Experts point out
Interview with Scott Aaronson — covering whether quantum computers could have subjective experience, whether information is physical and what might be important for consciousness — he touches on classic philosophical conundrums and the observation that while people want to be thorough-going materialists, unlike traditional computers brain-states are not obviously copyable. Aaronson wrote about this his paper ‘The Ghost in the Quantum Turing Machine’ (found here https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0159). Scott also critiques Tononi’s integrated information theory (IIT).
Scott discusses whether quantum computers could have subjective experience, whether information is physical and what might be important for consciousness — he touches on classic philosophical conundrums and the observation that while people want to be thorough-going materialists, unlike traditional computers brain-states are not obviously copyable. Aaronson wrote about this his paper ‘The Ghost in the Quantum Turing Machine’ (found here https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0159). Scott also critiques Tononi’s integrated information theory (IIT).
Questions include:
Scientists working with the Event Horizon Telescope project may have have captured an image of a black hole in the Milky Way, which could be ‘the most iconic ever’.
Scientists have suggested that for the first time, they may have finally captured what could end up being the first image of a black hole within the Milky Way. A team of international astronomers have been hard at work analyzing two specific areas of space located in Sagittarius A and M87 through the Event Horizon Telescope project (EHT), and have reported that they have discovered what amounts to “spectacular” data during their research, which in this case, would be the faint image of the silhouette of a black hole.
According to the Daily Mail, this image may very well prove to be “one of the most iconic ever.” The scientists involved with the EHT collaboration are currently analyzing tremendous amounts of data from 2017, and this data is set to be made public later on this year.
