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Category: science – Page 27

In science, the simplest explanations often hold the most truth, a concept known as “Occam’s Razor.” This principle has shaped scientific thought for centuries, but when dealing with abstract ideas, how do we evaluate them?

In a new paper, philosophers from UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine discuss how to weigh the complexity of scientific theories by comparing their underlying mathematics. They aim to characterize the amount of structure a theory has using symmetry — or the aspects of an object that remain the same when other changes are made.

After much discussion, the authors ultimately doubt that symmetry will provide the framework they need. However, they do uncover why it’s such an excellent guide for understanding structure. Their paper appears in the journal Synthese.

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The crisis of understanding, according to Popper, arose in physics along with the Copenhagen interpretation, or, more precisely, from the point of view of Bohr and Heisenberg on the status of quantum mechanics.

In his opinion, quantum mechanics should be interpreted as the last revolution in physics, since the inherent boundaries of knowledge were reached in it.

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For the first time ever, research scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with the Institute for Soldier Technologies have demonstrated a level of control over the phenomenon known as quantum randomness.

If perfected, controlling quantum randomness could lead to a number of scientific breakthroughs, including the ability to perform previously impossible probabilistic quantum computing and advanced field sensing technologies.

Are Vacuum Fluctuations in the Quantum World Uncontrollable?

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Mayo Clinic scientists are building an expansive library of DNA blueprints of disease-causing bacterial species. The unique collection of genomic sequences is serving as a reference database to help doctors provide rapid and precise diagnoses and pinpoint targeted treatments to potentially improve patient outcomes.

The vast data set is also being studied by researchers in an effort to develop new individualized treatments to combat bacteria-related diseases.

Bacterial infections were linked to more than 7 million global deaths in 2019. Of those, nearly 1.3 million were the direct result of drug-resistant bacteria, according to the National Institutes of Health.

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