13
POPSPhysicists Seek Answers to Quantum Correlations The physicists ruled out several possible classical explanations for the instantaneous communication. For one thing, they showed that the photons did not share information before leaving Geneva, and so they didn´t travel knowing about each other´s properties. In another test, the scientists showed that no communication could have occurred through a different reference frame, as might happen because of the photons´ high speeds. According to Einstein´s theory of relativity, observers moving at high speeds can get different measurements of the same event because they have different reference frames. But, by performing tests over a complete rotation of the Earth, the researchers ruled out this possibility. "We think space and time are important because that´s the kind of monkeys we are,"
0
POPSThe World's Largest Particle Accelerator No one really knows what the machine will give birth to. But the equations suggest that some weird stuff could be just around the corner — maybe "dark matter," the invisible stuff that seems to hang around galaxies. "It's kind of an embarrassment that we don't know what 95 percent of the universe is made of by weight," Green says. "We hope — it's possible — we may be making dark matter." Some theories say it is possible the collider will cause miniature black holes to momentarily appear. But for now, what has appeared is a table of croissants, an urn of coffee, and more people. Everyone stands around in blue hard hats. They don't talk about black holes or dark matter. A few say things like "I hope the magnet doesn't fall."
6
POPSSpooky Physics: Signals Seem to Travel Faster Than Light One could instead argue that an entangled object releases an unknown particle or some other signal at high speeds to influence its partner, giving the illusion of a simultaneous reaction. In the past, experiments have ruled out any suspects for such hidden signals from the realm of classical physics. Still, one exotic possibility remains — that such x-factors instead travel faster than the speed of light. To investigate this possibility, scientists at Geneva in Switzerland began with entangled pairs of photons, or packets of light. These pairs were then split up and sent over fiber optic cables provided by Swisscom to stations at two Swiss villages some 11 miles (18 kilometers) apart from each other. The stations confirmed that each pair of photons had remained entangled — by analyzing one, scientists could predict aspects of its partner.
25
POPSString Theory Faster-Than-Light Drive Proposed Dreams of interstellar travel may need to be put on hold for the moment, however. Cleaver and Obousy estimate that the amount of energy needed to influence the extra dimension is equivalent to the entire mass of Jupiter being converted into pure energy for a ship measuring roughly 10 meters by 10 meters by 10 meters. "That is an enormous amount of energy," Cleaver said. "We are still a very long ways off before we could create something to harness that type of energy." But what if we could make ourselves very very small??? I am ready to squeeze myself quite a bit to get really far... :-)
4
POPSWomen Nobel Laureates The Nobel Prize has been awarded to 34 women since 1901. One woman, Marie Curie, has been awarded the Nobel Prize two times, in 1903 (the Nobel Prize in Physics) and in 1911 (the Nobel Prize in Chemistry).
8
POPSEurope's 'Earth Explorer' to Map Planet "Inside Out" From Space The five hundred million dollar satellite is expected to survive for 20 months - at twenty-five million a month that makes it even higher maintenance than Paris Hilton, but infinitely more useful. Data provided by the satellite will map everything from ocean depths to the magma core of the planet, providing data of unprecedented accuracy for everything from climate physics to geophysics. In an interesting coincidence, GOCE will be launched on the same day the Large Hadron Collider powers up. Project leader Kal-El urges readers not to pay too much attention to this, nor ask why the nose cone seems to be full of diapers and a red cape.
5
POPSHallelujah! Finally a ray of hope in the God forsaken science blasphemies. I'll pray that you stay on the earth.
16
POPSIs our universe fine-tuned for life? The Anthropic Principle Under Scrutiny Adams selected a range of possible values for each of these constants, then put them into a computer model that created a multitude of universes, or a virtual "multiverse". Each universe within the multiverse used different values for the three constants and was subject to slightly different laws of physics. About a quarter of the resulting universes turned out to be populated by energy-generating stars. "You can change alpha or the gravitational constant by a factor of 100 and stars still form," Adams says, suggesting that stars can exist in universes in which at least some fundamental constants are wildly different than in our universe.
13
POPSLarge Hadron Collider: The Biggest Human Experiment Ever Yet Some of those particles could help us to understand the nature of mass, including the as-yet-undetectable dark matter that accounts for so much of the universe’s mass. Other particles might prove the existence of extra dimensions, or lead to entirely new theories or physical laws
3
POPSPhysics Proves It: Everyone Should Shoot Granny-Style Judging by mechanics alone, just about every foul shot should be a winner. “There’s nothing simpler in basketball, because you can take all the time you want to make it, and there’s nobody waving his arms in front of you trying to block you,” says Peter Brancazio, a physics professor emeritus from Brooklyn College and author of SportsScience: Physical Laws and Optimum Performance. “It’s like bowling. You do exactly the same thing over and over and over again.” Yet while Barry can easily sink 9 out of 10 shots, other players fall far short. The late Wilt Chamberlain, for instance, could shoot a basket from just about anywhere on the court—except when he toed up to the line 15 feet from the hoop. There, the legendary “Big Dipper” sank barely 5 of 10 shots, one of the lowest percentages in professional basketball.
6
POPSOcean Glints Could Reveal Alien Planets "Crescent phase is where the starlight would be glancing off the edge of the planet toward our telescopes," says Williams, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Penn State Erie. "That would be when the light is coming at the surface at a very steep angle, and the specular reflection would be the strongest and most intense." Williams ran simulations of idealized, cloud-free planets with three types of surfaces: unfrozen land, snow and ice, and water. His goal was to see to what extent the presence of water would contribute to the light coming from a planet in another solar system.
6
POPSWhat if Electricity Was FREE??? The life story and work of Nikola Tesla. He invented AC electricity, Neon Lights, Radio transmission, The Electric motor, Wireless electricity transfer, Remote control, Hydraulics, Lasers, Space weapons, Robotics, and many, many more things. As Tesla claimed to have invented a way to harness free energy from the voltage difference in the ionosphere that causes lightning, he was seen as a threat to the world energy economy and most of his inventions were classified for national security by the US government. A lot of his discoveries in physics have not been released to the public, despite being invented nearly 100 years ago. In 2006 the first company publicly announced it could successfully power items by remote power without wires, (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6129460. stm) something Tesla had invented nearly a century ago.
10
POPSRichard Dawkins branded 'secularist bigot' by veteran philosopher
"The fault of Dawkins as an academic was his scandalous and apparently deliberate refusal to present the doctrine which he appears to think he has refuted in its strongest form." He says there are five references to Einstein in the index to The God Delusion, but no mention of his belief that the complexity of physics led him to conclude that there must be a divine intelligence behind it. "An academic attacking some ideological position which he believes to be mistaken must of course attack that position in its strongest form. This Dawkins does not do in the case of Einstein and his failure is the crucial index of his insincerity of academic purpose and therefore warrants me in charging him with having become, what he has probably believed to be an impossibility, a secularist bigot." He went on: "The whole enterprise of The God Delusion was not, as it at least pretended to be, an attempt to discover and spread knowledge of the existence or non-existence of God but rather an att
11
POPSScientists explain the composition of vaulting your pole What would it take to get over that extra 4 in? The secret to high vaults is 85 percent physics, 15 percent acrobatics. To build up enough kinetic energy to lift himself within striking distance, the 6-ft. 2-in. Walker needs to run at least 33 ft./sec. When the pole is planted, it acts as a spring to transfer Walker’s energy (4195 joules) from the horizontal plane to the vertical, lifting him 16.7 ft. high. The additional 3.4 ft. comes by bending his body and pushing his center of gravity up and over the bar.
2
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update