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Archive for the ‘physics’ category: Page 253

Jan 10, 2019

Japan’s pioneering detector set to join hunt for gravitational waves

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

The ¥16.4-billion (US$148-million) observatory — Japan’s Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA) — will work on the same principle as the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States and the Virgo solo machine in Italy. In the past few years, these machines have begun to detect gravitational waves — long-sought ripples in the fabric of space-time created by cataclysmic cosmic events such as the merging of two black holes or the collision of two neutron stars.


LIGO’s Asian cousin will this year deploy ambitious technology to improve sensitivity in the search for these faint, cosmic ripples — but its biggest enemy could be snowmelt.

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Jan 6, 2019

Wash U scientist helps launch telescope from Antarctica to see bright objects in space

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Just before the new year, a Washington University professor was among a group of scientists who launched a telescope from Antarctica that could observe bright, massive objects in space, like black holes.

The international team of researchers, which included Wash U physics professor Henric Krawczynski, wanted to collect data on black holes and neutron stars, a very dense collapsed core of a giant star.

Studying such celestial phenomena helps astrophysicists test the fundamental laws of physics, Krawczynski said.

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Jan 6, 2019

Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s ‘The Physicists’

Posted by in categories: ethics, physics

On January 5, 1921, Swiss author and dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt was born. Dürrenmatt was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author ‘s work included avant-garde dramas, philosophical crime novels, and macabre satire. Especially his play “The Physicists” ( 1961 ) deals with questions of scientific ethics and humanity ‘s ability to handle its intellectual responsibilities.

“A story is not finished, until it has taken the worst turn.” (Friedrich Dürrenmatt)

Friedrich Dürrenmatt was born in Konolfingen, a small town about thirteen miles from Bern in the Emmental in Switzerland, the son of a Protestant pastor. The family moved to Bern in 1935. Dürrenmatt began studies in philosophy, German language and literature at the University of Zurich in 1941, but moved to the University of Bern after one semester. It was here that he first became interested in playwriting after becoming a regular patron of the operettas. Among his favorite playwrights were Aristophanes and Thornton Wilder.[3] In December 1943 he was on the point of transferring from the University of Zürich to the University of Bern, where he intended to write a doctoral dissertation on “Kierkegaard and the Tragic ”, when he suddenly decided to turn to writing as a career and dropped his academic career. In 1945–46, he wrote his first play It is Written, which premiered to great controversy.

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Jan 6, 2019

Gravitational Waves Might be the Key to Finding Dark Matter

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Exotic dark matter theories. Gravitational waves. Observatories in space. Giant black holes. Colliding galaxies. Lasers. If you’re a fan of all the awesomest stuff in the universe, then this article is for you.


Jan 3, 2019

Physicists uncover new competing state of matter in superconducting material

Posted by in categories: materials, physics

A team of experimentalists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and theoreticians at University of Alabama Birmingham discovered a remarkably long-lived new state of matter in an iron pnictide superconductor, which reveals a laser-induced formation of collective behaviors that compete with superconductivity.

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Dec 25, 2018

Mathematicians Disprove Conjecture Made to Save Black Holes

Posted by in categories: cosmology, mathematics, physics

‘’As a result, it’s nonsensical to ask what happens to space-time beyond the Cauchy horizon because space-time, as it’s regarded within the theory of general relativity, no longer exists. “This gives one a way out of this philosophical conundrum,” said Dafermos.


Mathematicians have disproved the strong cosmic censorship conjecture. Their work answers one of the most important questions in the study of general relativity and changes the way we think about space-time.

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Dec 25, 2018

Could We Be Outgrowing the Scientific Method?

Posted by in category: physics

Do all scientific theories require evidence? Some disciplines, like physics, might be outgrowing the scientific method.

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Dec 25, 2018

Mind-Bending Study Suggests Time Did Actually Exist Before The Big Bang

Posted by in categories: cosmology, information science, physics

According to a straightforward interpretation of general relativity, the Big Bang wasn’t the start of ‘everything’.

Taking Einstein’s famous equations at face value and making as few assumptions as possible, a team of researchers has rewound the clock on our Universe to find it wouldn’t lead to a stopping point at all, but would take us through a different kind of beginning into a flipped space.

To understand what all the fuss over the Big Bang is, we need to rewind a bit to understand why physicists think it may not have been the start of everything.

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Dec 22, 2018

Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory About Our Universe Will Melt Your Brain

Posted by in categories: cosmology, neuroscience, physics

Nope. Too late already. It’s been molten long ago already ha…


Groundbreaking physicist Stephen Hawking left us one last shimmering piece of brilliance before he died: his final paper, detailing his last theory on the origin of the Universe, co-authored with Thomas Hertog from KU Leuven.

The paper, published in the Journal of High Energy Physics in May, puts forward that the Universe is far less complex than current multiverse theories suggest.

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Dec 16, 2018

Why Don’t Black Holes Swallow All of Space? This Explanation Is Blowing Our Minds

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Black holes are great at sucking up matter. So great, in fact, that not even light can escape their grasp (hence the name).

But given their talent for consumption, why don’t black holes just keep expanding and expanding and simply swallow the Universe? Now, one of the world’s top physicists has come up with a new explanation.

Conveniently, the idea could also unite the two biggest theories in all of physics.

Continue reading “Why Don’t Black Holes Swallow All of Space? This Explanation Is Blowing Our Minds” »