Lifeboat Foundation

Stojkovic and Dai say that by monitoring the motions of stars on our side—such as S2, a known star orbiting about 17 light-hours from Sagittarius A*—we could look for tiny but perceptible accelerations caused by a wormhole’s presence. If telescopic observations of S2’s motion reach a precision of 0.000001 meter per second squared, the duo calculate such measurements could reveal the “imprint” of a star not much larger than our sun pulling on S2 from the wormhole’s far side.

If wormholes do exist, there is some question as to whether they link two points in our own universe or in two different parallel universes. For Dai and Stojkovic’s purposes, however, the difference is academic, because either scenario should produce similar detectable effects. Of course, finding a small acceleration that corresponded to a star on the other side would not be proof of the wormhole’s existence, perhaps instead hinting at unseen smaller black holes nearby, for example. But it might point in that direction. If no such acceleration were detected, given the expectation that a supermassive black hole orbited by stars would exist at a wormhole’s other side, then the presence of such a passageway in Sagittarius A* could be seemingly ruled out.

Cosimo Bambi of Fudan University in China, who was not involved in the paper, notes that a failure to find any anomalous motions could carry implications just as large as those for a success. But he cautions that any excitement about such measurements would be somewhat premature. “Of course, [this study] may be too optimistic,” he says. “But in principle, it’s possible. We cannot exclude [wormholes], right now, from current observations. Sometimes you discover something even if you don’t discover anything.”

Summary: Neurons in the anterior cingulate store social rank information to inform upcoming decisions. The findings could shed new light on social deficits associated with ASD and schizophrenia.

Source: Mass General.

New research in mice has identified neurons in the brain that influence competitive interactions between individuals and that play a critical role in shaping the social behavior of groups.

The MIT engineers behind the robot mini cheetah released a video showcasing its new running and terrain-traversing skills on Thursday.

US-based Kernel released a piece of wearable helmet tech called the Kernel Flow that uses near-infrared light to scan your brain with lasers.

Dark energy is a completely unknown source making up 70% of the universe. Will any of the new projects designed to find out what it is succeed?

How can Einstein’s theory of gravity be unified with quantum mechanics? This is a challenge that could give us deep insights into phenomena such as black holes and the birth of the universe. Now, a new article in Nature Communications, written by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and MIT, USA, presents results that cast new light on important challenges in understanding quantum gravity. Credit: Chalmers University of Technology / Yen Strandqvist.

How can Einstein’s theory of gravity be unified with quantum mechanics? It is a challenge that could give us deep insights into phenomena such as black holes and the birth of the universe. Now, a new article in Nature Communications, written by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology 0, Sweden, and MIT 0, USA, presents results that cast new light on important challenges in understanding quantum gravity.

A grand challenge in modern theoretical physics is to find a ‘unified theory’ that can describe all the laws of nature within a single framework – connecting Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which describes the universe on a large scale, and quantum mechanics, which describes our world at the atomic level. Such a theory of ‘quantum gravity’ would include both a macroscopic and microscopic description of nature.

Dude, what if everything around us was just … a hologram?

The thing is, it could be—and a University of Michigan physicist is using quantum computing and machine learning to better understand the idea, called holographic duality.

Holographic duality is a mathematical conjecture that connects theories of particles and their interactions with the theory of gravity. This conjecture suggests that the theory of gravity and the theory of particles are mathematically equivalent: what happens mathematically in the theory of gravity happens in the theory of particles, and vice versa.

Engineers at Ford’s Advanced Manufacturing Center have tasked the innovative robot on wheels – called Javier – with operating the 3D printers completely on its own. The autonomous process enables the 3D printer to run continuously with no human interaction needed, increasing throughput and reducing the cost of custom-printed products.

Ford says Javier is always on time, very precise in its movements, mostly spends its day doing nothing but 3D printing, only taking a “short break” to recharge the batteries. The company has achieved great accuracy with Javier, using its feedback to significantly reduce margins of error. The method can also be applied to a vast array of robots already working at the company to increase efficiency and reduce cost.

Ford has filed several patents for the technology in its drive to innovate. Javier can communicate with Ford’s 3D printer, something that isn’t necessarily as easy to pull off as it sounds. The robot does not require the use of a camera vision system to “see.”

Transterrestrialism in the Renaissance, and it’s importance for today’s Space Philosophy.

Mon, Mar 21 at 3 PM CDT.

Interested.