Two mammoth underground detectors have delivered more stringent upper limits on how strongly a putative dark matter candidate interacts with normal matter.
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Jul 29, 2023
Two Atoms Vibrate Like a Laser
Posted by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz in categories: particle physics, quantum physics
A laser for vibrational energy, rather than for light, operating in the quantum regime could teach researchers about the interplay between spin, vibration, and dissipation in quantum mechanics.
Phonon lasers replace the light excitations (photons) that are used in a standard laser with vibrational excitations of matter (phonons). Researchers have now coaxed two ions into forming a phonon laser containing fewer than 10 phonons, placing it firmly in the quantum regime [1], whereas previous phonon lasers had at least 10,000 phonons. The researchers plan to use this quantum phonon laser as a tool to investigate the role of dissipation in the behavior of quantum systems.
Dissipation—energy leaking into or out of a system in the form of heat—is often seen as a nuisance in physics, for example, when it takes the form of air resistance and reduces the fuel efficiency of a car or an airplane. But quantum systems also exhibit dissipation, and its effects in the quantum realm are not fully understood. Jonathan Home of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and his colleagues wanted to investigate how two separate sources of dissipation can interact to affect the behavior of a quantum system. “A laser is the simplest quantum system we could think of” that allows such experiments, Home says.
Jul 29, 2023
Express Delivery of Proton Therapy
Posted by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz in category: biotech/medical
A new scheme could increase the efficiency of a high-dose cancer radiation therapy and mitigate patient discomfort by reducing particle loss in proton beams.
Jul 29, 2023
A Pair of New Tetraquarks
Posted by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz in category: particle physics
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider has detected the signals of two new four-quark states that are unusual because of their charges and their quark compositions.
Jul 29, 2023
The Fermi Paradox Has An Incredibly Simple Solution
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: alien life, existential risks
It’s possibly the most famous question in all of science — where is everyone? Join us today for deep dive into Fermi Paradox. 🌏 Get exclusive NordVPN deal here ➵ https://NordVPN.com/coolworlds It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!✌
The Fermi Paradox has been a topic of keen debate amongst scientists, astronomers and the rest of us for more than seven decades. We can’t resist the urge to speculate about aliens! But what is the paradox even really about? What explanations have been offered? Today, we explore this famous question, and offer a mind-shifting explanation.
Continue reading “The Fermi Paradox Has An Incredibly Simple Solution” »
Jul 29, 2023
Has JWST shown the Universe is TWICE as old as we think?!
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: cosmology, robotics/AI
Go to https://brilliant.org/drbecky to get a 30-day free trial and the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual subscription. A new research study has come out claiming that to explain the massive galaxies found at huge distances in James Webb Space Telescope images, the Universe is older than we think, at 26.7 billion years (rather than 13.8 billion years old). In this video I’m diving into that study, looking at what model they used to get at that claim (a combination of the expansion of the universe and “tired light” ideas of redshift), how this impacts our best model of the Universe and the so-called “Crisis is Cosmology”, and why I’m not convinced yet!
#astronomy #JWST #cosmology.
Continue reading “Has JWST shown the Universe is TWICE as old as we think?!” »
Jul 29, 2023
Dr. Robert Sapolsky: Science of Stress, Testosterone & Free Will | Huberman Lab Podcast #35
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience, science
In this episode, I interview Dr. Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Neurology & Neurosurgery at Stanford University. We discuss stress, what defines short-term versus long-term stress, and how stress can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on the context. We also discuss stress mitigation and how our sense of control over stress mitigation techniques, including exercise, determine health outcomes. Dr. Sapolsky explains some of the key effects of the hormone testosterone — how it can amplify pre-existing tendencies for aggression or sexual behavior, but that it does not produce those behaviors per se. He also explains how testosterone impacts our social hierarchies, sense of confidence, and willingness to embrace challenges of different kinds. He also explains how our behaviors and perceptions shape testosterone levels. And we discuss estrogen and the powerful role it plays in brain development, health and longevity. Finally, we discuss free will, what it means to have free will, and if we have any free will, including how knowledge alone might allow us to make better decisions for ourselves and society.
#HubermanLab #Testosterone #Stress.
Jul 29, 2023
Episode 9: Solo — Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: open access, physics, space
Lecture from the 2nd mini-series (Is “God” Explanatory) from the “Philosophy of Cosmology” project. A University of Oxford and Cambridge Collaboration.
Jul 29, 2023
Bioengineered Probiotics: Synthetic Biology Can Provide Live Cell Therapeutics for the Treatment of Foodborne Diseases
Posted by Dan Breeden in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, economics, food, health
The rising prevalence of antibiotic resistant microbial pathogens presents an ominous health and economic challenge to modern society. The discovery and large-scale development of antibiotic drugs in previous decades was transformational, providing cheap, effective treatment for what would previously have been a lethal infection. As microbial strains resistant to many or even all antibiotic drug treatments have evolved, there is an urgent need for new drugs or antimicrobial treatments to control these pathogens. The ability to sequence and mine the genomes of an increasing number of microbial strains from previously unexplored environments has the potential to identify new natural product antibiotic biosynthesis pathways. This coupled with the power of synthetic biology to generate new production chassis, biosensors and “weaponized” live cell therapeutics may provide new means to combat the rapidly evolving threat of drug resistant microbial pathogens. This review focuses on the application of synthetic biology to construct probiotic strains that have been endowed with functionalities allowing them to identify, compete with and in some cases kill microbial pathogens as well as stimulate host immunity. Weaponized probiotics may have the greatest potential for use against pathogens that infect the gastrointestinal tract: Vibrio cholerae, Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium perfringens and Clostridioides difficile. The potential benefits of engineered probiotics are highlighted along with the challenges that must still be met before these intriguing and exciting new therapeutic tools can be widely deployed.
The discovery and application of antibiotic drugs is among the most significant accomplishments of medical science. Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin (Fleming, 1929) and subsequent discovery and development of multiple classes of natural product antibiotics have been transformational to modern society. These compounds have yielded cheap and effective treatments for diseases caused by common bacterial infections that would previously have proven fatal. The advent of effective antibiotic drugs has made it possible to survive complex surgical procedures like open heart surgery and organ transplants and extended the average human life-span (Riley, 2005; Kaviani et al., 2020). The benefits of readily available antibiotic drugs have extended into agriculture and aquaculture, making it possible to increase productivity of farmed animals (Park et al., 1994; Patel et al., 2020).
