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The drugs we’ve developed to help us deal with chronic pain largely focus on suppressing its symptoms, rather than eliminating its underlying causes. By studying the way pain works in injured fruit flies, scientists have for the first time uncovered evidence that its effects can be long-lasting, something they say opens up new opportunities for more effective treatments in humans.

Scientists seeking to bring to Earth the fusion that powers the sun and stars must control the hot, charged plasma—the state of matter composed of free-floating electrons and atomic nuclei, or ions—that fuels fusion reactions. For scientists who confine the plasma in magnetic fields, a key task calls for mapping the shape of the fields, a process known as measuring the equilibrium, or stability, of the plasma. At the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), researchers have proposed a new measurement technique to avoid problems expected when mapping the fields on large and powerful future tokamaks, or magnetic fusion devices, that house the reactions.

Neutron bombardments

Such tokamaks, including ITER, the large international experiment under construction in France, will produce neutron bombardments that could damage the interior diagnostics now used to map the fields in current facilities. PPPL is therefore proposing use of an alternative diagnostic system that could operate in high-neutron environments.

There are two sound velocities in a Bose-Einstein condensate. In addition to the normal sound propagation there is second sound, which is a quantum phenomenon. Scientists in Ludwig Mathey’s group from the University of Hamburg have put forth a new theory for this phenomenon.

When you jump into a lake and hold your head under water, everything sounds different. Apart from the different physiological response of our ears in air and water, this derives from the different sound propagation in water compared to air. Sound travels faster in water, checking in at 1493 m/s, on a comfortable summer day of 25°C. Other liquids have their own sound velocity, like alcohol with 1144 m/s, and helium, if you go to a chilling −269°C for its liquefied state, with 180 m/s.

These liquids are referred to as classical liquids, examples for one of the primary states of matter. But if we cool down that helium a few degrees more, something dramatic happens, it turns into a quantum liquid. This macroscopic display of quantum mechanics is a , a liquid that flows without friction.

The environment contains electromagnetic radiation and magnetic fields of natural and artificial origin. Even a short electromagnetic pulse is enough to knock any equipment out of operation. Candidate of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics) Aleksey Trukhanov, senior research fellow at the SUSU Nanotechnologies Research and Education Center, is studying electrolytic films to develop electromagnetic and magnetic shields capable of neutralizing this radiation.

“The issue of electromagnetic compatibility of devices is very topical today. One of the most popular methods of equipment protection used around the world is shielding—creating electromagnetic and magnetic shields. But every developer has his own design approaches and secrets, which he naturally wouldn’t share. Suffice it to say that the cost of products with and without protective shielding may differ tenfold and more,” says Trukhanov.

Normally, heavy elements are used as the material for shielding, as they efficiently absorb high-energy radiation. Bismuth is a heavy metal with high density and high number of shell electrons. This makes it analogous to such widely used materials as lead. However, in the ratio of the protection efficiency to mass-size parameters (as well as with consideration to the ecological aspect) bismuth is the best option.

The concept of super-asymmetry is related to super-symmetry string theory.

In particle physics, “supersymmetry” is a proposed type of space-time symmetry that relates two basic classes of elementary particles: bosons, which have an integer-valued spin, and fermions, which have a half-integer spin. Each particle from one group is associated with a particle from the other, known as its super-partner, the spin of which differs by a half-integer.

While most of the science discussed in the show has it’s basis with real-world science, the concept of super-asymmetry is fairly unique to the world of “The Big Bang Theory”. Amy and Sheldon are working on a new theory or concept for string theory and appear to be on the road to a Nobel Prize.

It appears that the physics of information holds the key to the solution of the Fermi Paradox — indications are that we most likely live in a “Syntellect Chrysalis” (or our “second womb”) instead of a “cosmic jungle.”

Within the next few decades, we’ll transcend our biology by leaving today’s organic Chrysalis behind, by leaving our second womb, by leaving our cradle, if speaking in tropes.

This particular version of “human universe” is what we “see” from within our dimensional cocoon, it’s a construct of our minds but by no means represents objective reality “out there” including our most advanced models such as M-theory that are only approximations at best.