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Archive for the ‘cosmology’ category: Page 111

Jul 30, 2022

On black holes, holography, the Quantum Extended Church-Turing Thesis, fully homomorphic encryption, and brain uploading

Posted by in categories: computing, cosmology, encryption, neuroscience, quantum physics, singularity

I promise you: this post is going to tell a scientifically coherent story that involves all five topics listed in the title. Not one can be omitted.

My story starts with a Zoom talk that the one and only Lenny Susskind delivered for the Simons Institute for Theory of Computing back in May. There followed a panel discussion involving Lenny, Edward Witten, Geoffrey Penington, Umesh Vazirani, and your humble shtetlmaster.

Continue reading “On black holes, holography, the Quantum Extended Church-Turing Thesis, fully homomorphic encryption, and brain uploading” »

Jul 30, 2022

Will time run backward if the Universe collapses?

Posted by in category: cosmology

Ever since the start of the hot Big Bang, time ticks forward as the Universe expands. But could time ever run backwards, instead?

Jul 29, 2022

The other end of a black hole — with James Beacham

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics, quantum physics

What would happen if you fell into a black hole? Join James Beacham, particle physicist at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, as he explores what happens when the fabric of reality – physical or societal – gets twisted beyond recognition.

Watch the Q&A with James here: https://youtu.be/Q37oEB4bNSI
Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe.

Continue reading “The other end of a black hole — with James Beacham” »

Jul 29, 2022

NOTHING: The Science of Emptiness

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics, science

Why is there something rather than nothing? And what does ‘nothing’ really mean? More than a philosophical musing, understanding nothing may be the key to unlocking deep mysteries of the universe, from dark energy to why particles have mass. Journalist John Hockenberry hosts Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, esteemed cosmologist John Barrow, and leading physicists Paul Davies and George Ellis as they explore physics, philosophy and the nothing they share.

This program is part of the Big Ideas Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.

Continue reading “NOTHING: The Science of Emptiness” »

Jul 29, 2022

Dark Matter: Is a Revolution Coming to Physics?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

What is dark matter? Does it even exist, or do we just need an adjustment to our theory of gravity?

What is dark matter? It has never been observed, yet scientists estimate that it makes up 85% of the matter in the universe. The short answer is that no one knows what dark matter is. More than a century ago, Lord Kelvin offered it as an explanation for the velocity of stars in our own galaxy. Decades later, Swedish astronomer Knut Lundmark noted that the universe must contain much more matter than we can observe. Scientists since the 1960s and ’70s have been trying to figure out what this mysterious substance is, using ever-more complicated technology. However, a growing number of physicists suspect that the answer may be that there is no such thing as dark matter at all.

Scientists can observe far-away matter in a number of ways. Equipment such as the famous Hubble telescope measures visible light while other technology, such as radio telescopes, measures non-visible phenomena. Scientists often spend years gathering data and then proceed to analyze it to make the most sense of what they are seeing.

Jul 29, 2022

Success! First Results From World’s Most Sensitive Dark Matter Detector

Posted by in categories: cosmology, innovation

Berkeley Lab Researchers Record Successful Startup of LUX-ZEPLIN Dark Matter Detector at Sanford Underground Research Facility

An innovative and uniquely sensitive dark matter detector – the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment – has passed a check-out phase of startup operations and delivered first results. LZ is located deep below the Black Hills of South Dakota in the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) and is led by the DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

The take-home message from this successful startup: “We’re ready and everything’s looking good,” said Berkeley Lab senior physicist and past LZ spokesperson Kevin Lesko. “It’s a complex detector with many parts to it and they are all functioning well within expectations,” he said.

Jul 29, 2022

This IoT device notifies you before an Earth-obliterating supernova

Posted by in categories: cosmology, internet

Would you like a warning before the world ends?

Well, it’s now possible. Extraluminal is an Internet of Things (IoT) device that will notify you an hour before the Earth is about to be destroyed by a supernova.

A supernova refers to “the cataclysmic explosion of a massive star at the end of its life. It can emit more energy in a few seconds than our sun will radiate in its lifetime of billions of years.”

Jul 28, 2022

The 2022 Oppenheimer Lecture: The Quantum Origins of Gravity

Posted by in categories: cosmology, quantum physics

It was once thought that gravity and quantum mechanics were inconsistent with one another. Instead, we are discovering that they are so closely connected that one can almost say they are the same thing. Professor Susskind will explain how this view came into being over the last two decades, and illustrate how a number of gravitational phenomena have their roots in the ordinary principles of quantum mechanics.

Leonard Susskind is an American physicist, who is a professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University, and founding director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics. His research interests include string theory, quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics, and quantum cosmology.

Jul 28, 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope may have just found its first supernova

Posted by in category: cosmology

This could be the first step to studying the oldest explosions in the universe.

Jul 27, 2022

Dark matter behavior may conflict with our best theory of the universe

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

New research shows a direct interaction between dark matter particles and those that make up ordinary matter.

A new paper, published in the *Astronomy and Astrophysics* journal, discovered unexpected characteristics for the elusive dark matter that likely goes against our best theory of the universe — the Lambda-Cold Dark Matter model.

What is dark matter?