A new specialized, radiation-hardened chip has been designed for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) upgrade.
Engineers at Columbia University have developed this analog-to-digital converter (ADC) chip.
The custom-designed chips will be used in the ATLAS detector to measure up to 1.5 billion particle collisions per second.
Which leads us to a strange but necessary question:
If the universe is just structure — just syntax — then where’s the meaning?
Because that’s what we’ve been trying to find all along, isn’t it? Not just patterns. Not just formulas. But something is behind it. Something in it. A message. A cause. A reason why anything is the way it is. Something we could point to and say, “There — that’s what it’s all about.”
3:04 The Illusion of Physical Reality — Is Anything Really There?
10:16 Quantum Mechanics — When Reality Stops Making Sense.
18:04 The Holographic Principle — A Universe Made of Information.
26:24 Quantum Fields, Not Particles — The Fabric Beneath Matter.
33:29 Emergence — Time, Space, and Matter Are Not Fundamental.
41:49 Simulation Theory — But with a Physics Twist.
49:12 Quantum Gravity and the End of Local Reality.
57:29 Consciousness and the Collapse of Reality.
1:06:11 The “It from Bit” Hypothesis.
1:15:37 Experimental Clues — When the Universe Disobeys Logic.
1:23:46 If the Universe Isn’t Real, What Are We?
1:33:13 Could Physics Be Telling Us There’s No ‘There’ There?
1:39:33 Is the Universe a Language Without a Speaker?
1:46:53 So… What’s Left? Do We Actually Exist?
1:52:07 The Ultimate Twist — Could “Nothing” Be the Most Real Thing?
1:57:07 What If the Universe Is the Biggest Illusion Ever Constructed?
If you keep peeling everything back, does anything actually remain?
That’s the uncomfortable part. Because there’s a difference between saying “nothing exists the way we thought” and saying “nothing exists at all.” The first is about interpretation. The second is about presence. One reframes reality. The other questions whether there’s anything there to reframe.
MIT physicists confirm that, like Superman, light has two identities that are impossible to see at once. Physicists at MIT recreated the double-slit experiment using individual photons and atoms held in laser light, uncovering the true limits of light’s wave–particle duality. Their results proved Einstein’s proposal wrong and confirmed a core prediction of quantum mechanics.
MIT physicists have performed an idealized version of one of the most famous experiments in quantum physics. Their findings demonstrate, with atomic-level precision, the dual yet evasive nature of light. They also happen to confirm that Albert Einstein was wrong about this particular quantum scenario.
The experiment in question is the double-slit experiment, which was first performed in 1801 by the British scholar Thomas Young to show how light behaves as a wave. Today, with the formulation of quantum mechanics, the double-slit experiment is now known for its surprisingly simple demonstration of a head-scratching reality: that light exists as both a particle and a wave. Stranger still, this duality cannot be simultaneously observed. Seeing light in the form of particles instantly obscures its wave-like nature, and vice versa.
Some phases of matter cannot be described using the conventional framework of symmetry breaking and exhibit a so-called quantum order. One type of quantum order, known as topological order, is characterized by long-range entanglement between particles across an entire system, a ground state degeneracy that depends on the global shape of the system, and a robustness against local disturbances.
Topological phases of matter primarily occur at zero temperature, as thermal fluctuations tend to destroy them and disrupt their underlying order. In a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters, however, researchers at Nanjing University, Yale University and other institutes reported a new 3D topological phase of matter characterized by an anomalous two-form symmetry that occurs at non-zero temperatures.
“In the last several years, we have made substantial progress in our ability to control quantum systems —over a range of different platforms: superconducting qubits, trapped ions, neutral atoms, photonics, and so on,” Tyler D. Ellison, senior author of the paper, told Phys.org.
A stunning new image of a cosmic jet has helped astronomers unlock the mystery behind the unusually bright emission of high-energy gamma rays and neutrinos from a peculiar celestial object. The source is a blazar—a type of active galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole devouring matter at the heart of a galaxy. They have captured what looks like the mythical “Eye of Sauron” in the distant universe and may have just solved a decade-long cosmic puzzle.
Plan a route, grab some snacks, and fuel up. Engineers and scientists have been sending massive magnets from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national labs on cross-country road trips.
Magnets are at the heart of many scientific instruments at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. They are not like typical refrigerator magnets, which apply a relatively weak and uniform force to magnetic materials. These electromagnets are often incredibly large and powerful, with variable fields that can be controlled by changing the electric current that runs through them.
One of their applications is to apply magnetic force to subatomic particles. For example, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is made of superconducting electromagnets that steer and focus particle beams as they circulate through the accelerator at nearly the speed of light.
IN A NUTSHELL 🔍 NASA monitors the South Atlantic Anomaly, a region of weakened magnetic intensity impacting satellite operations. 🛰️ The anomaly poses risks to technological systems in spacecraft due to exposure to solar particles. 🧭 The anomaly’s evolution involves dynamic changes and a potential split into two distinct cells. 🌌 Ongoing research explores the
What happened to GUT grand unified theory.
Is our missing antimatter hiding in a mirror universe?
Some scientists think a time-reversed anti-universe exists alongside ours — a place where antimatter rules and their “forward” is our “backwards.” If true, it could solve one of physics’ biggest mysteries.
In this video: the antimatter imbalance, CPT symmetry, and what life in a mirror reality might be like.
Could our missing antimatter be hiding in a parallel, time-reversed universe?
Physicists have long puzzled over one of the biggest mysteries in cosmology: why our universe is made almost entirely of matter, when the Big Bang should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter. Some theories suggest that the answer lies in a mirror universe — a realm where antimatter dominates and time flows in the opposite direction to ours.
In this episode of Stellar Stories, we explore: