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Archive for the ‘physics’ category

Sep 23, 2024

Scientists propose a new method to search for dark matter using LIGO

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

A new study published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) proposes using gravitational wave detectors like LIGO to search for scalar field dark matter.

Sep 21, 2024

Creating superhuman AI

Posted by in categories: alien life, mathematics, physics, robotics/AI

This conversation between Max Tegmark and Joel Hellermark was recorded in April 2024 at Max Tegmark’s MIT office. An edited version was premiered at Sana AI Summit on May 15 2024 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Max Tegmark is a professor doing AI and physics research at MIT as part of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence \& Fundamental Interactions and the Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines. He is also the president of the Future of Life Institute and the author of the New York Times bestselling books Life 3.0 and Our Mathematical Universe. Max’s unorthodox ideas have earned him the nickname “Mad Max.”

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Sep 21, 2024

Why is physics so good at math?

Posted by in categories: mathematics, physics

This i share with pleasure H/T Ulla Mattfolk.


Physical insights drawn from the real world are inexplicably useful for solving abstruse problems in mathematics.

Sep 19, 2024

Researchers create tiny nuclear-powered battery thousands of times more efficient than predecessors

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, physics

A team of physicists and engineers affiliated with several institutions in China has developed an extremely small nuclear battery that they claim is up to 8,000 times more efficient than its predecessors. Their paper is published in the journal Nature.

Sep 19, 2024

Sara Imari Walker: Using physics to rethink the definition of life

Posted by in categories: biological, physics

Sara Imari Walker is a professor of physics at Arizona State University and the author of a new book Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life’s Emergence. As I wrote in my review of the book, I’m a big fan of Walker’s work (full disclosure, we have collaborated before on a paper and a proposal).

The subject of her work and the new book is what might be called the “Physics of Life.” This is different from biophysics, which tries to account for specific physics aspects of biological processes. Instead, the Physics of Life has a more ambitious goal: to understand what separates living from non-living systems.

Along with her collaborators, Walker developed Assembly Theory, which focuses on “selection” and is a fundamental physics account for the difference between life and non-life. Assembly Theory quantifies complexity by measuring how many unique steps are needed to build a molecular structure. By identifying complex patterns that signify biological processes, this framework could help scientists detect life forms on other worlds — even those that may not look like anything we’re familiar with on Earth.

Sep 19, 2024

Tracking plasma progression in a picosecond: Physicists develop ultra-fast laser method to study high-density plasmas

Posted by in categories: energy, physics, space

In a few picoseconds (trillionths of a second), a small, thin piece of copper momentarily becomes dense plasma, specifically a state called warm dense matter, warm being a relative term—the metal is nearly 200,000 degrees Fahrenheit. With the short duration of a high-powered laser pulse, copper shifts from a solid state to a plasma state in an instant before it explodes. Understanding the progression of heat in the copper is an exciting breakthrough in physics relevant to the interior of giant planets and laser fusion fuel cores.

Sep 19, 2024

Physicists reveal evolution of shell structure using machine learning

Posted by in categories: physics, robotics/AI

A research team has used a machine learning approach to investigate the evolution of shell structure for nuclei far from the stability valley. The study, published in Physics Letters B and conducted by researchers from the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huzhou University, and the University of Paris-Saclay, reveals the double-magic nature of tin-100 and the disappearance of the magic number 20 in oxygen-28.

Sep 18, 2024

Lord Kelvin: How the 19th century scientist combined research and innovation to change the world

Posted by in categories: innovation, physics

“What got you into astrophysics?” It’s a question I’m often asked at outreach events, and I answer by pointing to my early passion for exploring the biggest questions about our universe. Well, along with seeing Star Wars at an impressionable age.

Sep 17, 2024

Physicists Turn Light Into A One-Dimensional Gas With Incredibly Strange Properties

Posted by in category: physics

When you cool light photons to absolute zero, things get really weird.

Sep 16, 2024

Controlling molecular arrangements using selenium doping

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, physics

Physicists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have achieved controlled conformational arrangements in nanostructures using a flexible precursor and selenium doping, enhancing material properties and structural homogeneity. Their method advances on-surface synthesis for the design and development of engineered nanomaterials.

On-surface synthesis has been extensively investigated over the past decades for its ability to create diverse nanostructures. Various complex nanostructures have been achieved through the smart design of precursors, choice of substrates and precise control of experimental parameters such as molecular concentration, electrical stimulation and thermal treatment.

Among these methods, the Ullmann coupling is notable for efficiently linking precursors through dehalogenation and covalent bonding. While most research has focused on conformationally rigid precursors, exploring conformationally flexible precursors offers significant potential for developing complex functional nanomaterials with engineered structures and properties.

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