Hundreds of physicists met in London this week for the ninth Future Circular Collider (FCC) Conferen.
Category: physics – Page 109
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.
The appearance of SN 2023ixf is rather serendipitous for the Gemini North telescope, which is back to observing with its primary mirror repaired and recoated after suffering damage in late 2022. The damage was limited to a small region outside of the light-collecting area of the mirror. Nevertheless, the repairs were carefully planned and completed to ensure that Gemini North could safely return to normal operations. This process lasted approximately seven months and in May 2023 the mirror was recoated and reinstalled, and the control systems were powered up and tested.
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.
Physicists at RIKEN have created an exceptionally neutron-rich sodium isotope, 39 Na, which was previously believed to be impossible. This breakthrough has major implications for understanding atomic nuclei structure and the creation of Earth’s heavier elements.
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.
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Do humans have free will or to the laws of physics imply that such a concept is not much more than a fairy tale? Do we make decisions? Did the big bang start a chain reaction of cause and effects leading to the creation of this video? That’s what we’ll talk about today.
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00:00 Intro.
Do We Share DNA with ET?
Posted in alien life, genetics, physics
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.
On Earth we have only sequenced the genomes of a small percentage of living organisms and have only recently completed the human genome. We have successfully cloned several animals, but technical and ethical roadblocks prevent scientists from doing the same with humans. If an extraterrestrial civilization isn’t burdened with ethical dilemmas about cloning, however, sending the genetic code for humans and other species may be the most effective way to teach them about our biology.
Physicists have long puzzled over why there is more matter in the Universe than its flipped twin, antimatter. Without this imbalance, the two types of material would have canceled out, leaving nothing but a boring glow in the vast emptiness of space.
Somehow, at some point, something changed in the way the Universe works on a fundamental level, favoring the mirrored state – or parity – of one kind of ‘stuff’ over the other.
Scientists have sought clues to this critical moment in the remnants of the Big Bang, including the cosmic microwave background and gravitational waves, without much luck.