This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
This week, Quanta featured a three-part series on spacetime. Part 1 is by K.C. Cole: Wormholes Untangle a Black Hole Paradox. A bold new idea aims to link two famously discordant descriptions of nature. In doing so, it may also reveal how space-time owes its existence to the spooky connections of quantum information. I wrote Part 2, on tensor networks and entanglement. How Quantum Pairs Stitch Space-Time: New tools may reveal how quantum information builds the structure of space. Finally, Part 3 featured an interactive presentation that illustrates the relationship between entanglement, tensor networks and space-time.
A few more related links: Face Off: Building a Toy Universe to Pit Quantum Theory Against Gravity. Using superconducting circuits to create a curved-spacetime analog with stronger gravity than our cosmos. Also: Is the universe a hologram? Bonus: A Video Introductory Explanation to the Concept of Spacetime.
The science behind that devastating Nepal earthquake.
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Be sure to check out the winners of the 2014 Quantum Shorts film contest.
Curiosity has explored Mars for over two and a half years. What if the rover kept a scrapbook?
The Problem with Superman and Other Physics Conundrums. Physics professor Rhett Allain answers questions for Science Friday and shares an excerpt from his new book Geek Physics. Related: What Does a Hulkbuster Punch Feel Like? Because Iron Man Hits the Hulk Pretty Damn Hard in Age of Ultron. Also: Neil deGrasse Tyson And Jon Stewart Debate Batman vs. Superman. Bonus: “Because Science” Explains How We All Have Daredevil’s Powers.
A ‘New World’ In A Grain Of Sand – Most Abundant Silicon Oxide In The Universe Now At Room Temperature.
An Algorithm for Detecting the World’s Invisible Vibrations. “Every structure has a fundamental or natural frequency that it vibrates at in the absence of an outside force, which is just an everyday property of that particular physical system.”
The Physics of Water-skipping Stones (and Spheres). “Among other things, they examined possible angles of attack and how they affect the subsequent skipping.”
Can non-Newtonian fluids help make a better iPhone case?
Water Worlds: “now is the time to initiate an Outer Planet Exploration Program.”
The Science Behind the Different Methods of Crafting a Good Gin (and Tonic). Related: How to Read a Wine. “It’s not like “reading tea leaves”. Fermented grape juice will not foretell the future. But wine does tell a story if you speak its language.”
Gustave Eiffel’s Secret Apartment: High atop the Eiffel Tower is a small apartment built exclusively to entertain the science elite and make the rest of Paris jealous.
Deep Learning Machine Solves the Cocktail Party Problem. Separating a singer’s voice from background music has always been a uniquely human ability. Not anymore.
How Fluid Flow Affects Bacteria: “Researchers have used mathematical equations to shed new light on how flowing fluid hinders the movement of bacteria in their search for food.”
The Fight to Build Earth’s Most Powerful Optical Telescope. “With its unobstructed views, Mauna Kea offers not just a portal to infinity for science but also for Native Hawaiian culture, which considers the summit one of its most sacred sites. Protests have spread from road blockages to statewide gatherings and international social media campaigns, putting the TMT at the center of indigenous-rights conversations worldwide.” Related: In symbolic blow, native Hawaiian panel withdraws support for world’s largest telescope. But Office of Hawaiian Affairs declines to oppose project.
Einstein on the Common Language of Science in a Rare 1941 Recording. “Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem — in my opinion — to characterize our age.”
Holographic Stephen Hawking tells fans Zayn Malik could still be in One Direction in a parallel universe.
Dazzling Short Film About An Alchemist Whose Invention Feeds On Memories. Per io9: “A young man arrives at his late father’s lab and learns all about his father’s invention, a device that can turn objects into gold, but at the price of his most precious memories.”
The Alchemist's Letter from Carlos Stevens on Vimeo.
The “silly walk” of a motor protein that transports cargo throughout the cell is revealed. “Kukura describes the motion as being similar to walking across the tops of evenly-spaced traffic bollards. ‘Imagine you had to walk on them and whatever leg is moving is doing a three-dimensional search in space, it’s very difficult to find the next one,’ said Kukura. ‘But if you keep the angle between your legs the same and you just rotate, you will automatically get to the next one.’”
Newly-Discovered Bacterial Crystals Are a Biophysics Mystery.
Novel wireless antennas are small enough to squeeze onto computer chips.
Large Hadron Collider: Nothing New Expected But One Deviation Can Change Everything. Related: Natural SUSY’s last stand. Either Supersymmetry will be found in the next years at the LHC, or it isn’t exactly what theorists hoped it was.
This little six-year-old girl named Samantha will show you how to build a particle detector to detect cosmic rays.
IBM’s Latest Quantum Computing Advance. A new superconducting chip demonstrates a technique crucial to the development of quantum computers.
A Few of Evelyn Lamb’s Favorite Spaces: Fat Cantor Sets.
Data Fusion Heralds City Attractiveness Ranking. Big data mining allows cities to be ranked according to their “attractiveness,” say researchers developing a new science of cities.
NASA’s Planes of the Future Will Have Shapeshifting, Bug-Resistant Wings.
The Pillars Of Creation Visualized In 3-D. “ESO’s MUSE instrument on the Very Large Telescope has now helped illustrate the ongoing evaporation of the Pillars of Creation in unprecedented detail, revealing their orientation.”
Multifractals suggest the existence of an unknown physical mechanism on the Sun.
Intriguing blend of advanced mathematics and art by Jos Leys (h/t John Baez).
The video game that teaches algebra to 4-year-olds — but don’t call DragonBox an “algebra app.” It is actually about “speed and imagination,” says its creator.
Cosmic rays could help to illuminate the origin of lightning.
Ten things you might not know about antimatter. “While antimatter bombs and antimatter-powered spaceships are far-fetched, there are still many facts about antimatter that will tickle your brain cells.”
Here’s the Most Complete 3D Map of Our Expanding Universe, “what the universe would look like if it was sliced in half like a melon.”
Glorious Gearworks–Model of the Solar System, 1817, a beautiful orrey created by William Pearson (1767-1847, and one of the founders of the Royal Astronomical Society).
Queen of Carbon, Millie Dresselhaus, Becomes First Woman to Receive IEEE Medal of Honor. You go, girl! Er, “Dr. Dresselhaus.”
Two Physicists Wanted To Explode A Nuclear Bomb To Find Neutrinos.
7 Lesser-Known Victorian Inventors Who Were Just As Fascinating As Tesla.
D?rer’s solid, also known as the truncated triangular trapezohedron, is the 8-faced solid depicted in an engraving entitled Melancholia I by Albrecht D?rer.
Griffith Observatory’s Tesla Coil: High on a hill overlooking Los Angeles lives a world famous, high power conical Tesla Coil.
What Facebook, Blue Jeans, and Metal Signs Taught Us About Tornado Science.
How night games — and electric lights — helped open up the sport of baseball to racial integration.
What Does Scientific Consensus Mean? Should we get vaccinated? Fluoridate our water? Fight global warming? Believe in evolution? The Big Bang? Dark matter?
“If you want to construct an accurate picture of what governs the Universe, you need to build on all that we’ve learned up to this point. And when we say “scientific consensus,” that’s what we’re talking about: things we’ve already learned, and the solid foundation for where we go from here. You might have grown up believing that doing something yourself is the only way to ensure it gets done correctly. But when it comes to science, not only is that not the case at all, but a scientific consensus isn’t the conclusion, but rather the starting point.”
“Window on the Universe,” A Musical Tribute to the Hubble Space Telescope to Celebrate Its 25th Anniversary:
Is Our Universe a One-Off Fluke, or an Endless Cycle?
Watch Pluto And Its Moon Rotate Around A Center Of Mass. “Charon doesn’t revolve around Pluto; instead the two rocks revolve around a single center of mass once every 6.4 Earth days.”
When Space Probes Crash–For Science And Otherwise.
Astrophysicists draw most comprehensive map of the universe.
Check out physicist Bob Scherrer’s new blog — Cosmic Yarns: Exploring the Science in Science Fiction.
Q&A with Stathis Psillos,a philosopher of science who thinks about why it’s best to be a scientific realist, etc.
Algorithms are like invisible judges that decide our fates. Companies now use ‘voice analysis’ software to determine whether to hire us. And, once we’re employed, to predict if we’ll stay.
A Math Teacher’s Guide to Explaining Technology to Your Parents: “making mistakes isn’t just a part of learning. Making mistakes is learning. In math class, knowing the principles for solving an equation doesn’t mean you’ll be able to actually solve any. You’ve got to get out there and do it, erring and tripping along the way. Success becomes automatic only after a bit of drill and feedback.”
Schott’s glass: the man who solved the problem of chromatic aberration in telescope lenses.
A Beautiful Eclipse Print, 1859. “F.G. Hesse captured this dramatic image of total eclipse at Olmos Peru for Lt. J.M. Gillis’ report of the event for the Smithsonian in 1858.”
A Clever Animation Explaining How Geckos Are Able to Defy Gravity.
Data science class offers L.A. Unified students a new handle on math.
Artificial spin ice: A new playground to better understand magnetism.
E.O. Wilson’s Advice to Young Scientists. “What is crucial is not that technical ability, but it is imagination in all of its applications.”
“For the first time ever, you can play as a girl character in Minecraft. Meanwhile, the official release of Kerbal Space Program (a popular NASA simulator) brings with it female Kerbal astronauts for the first time in the game’s two year existence in beta. Both moves are encouraging signs in a world in which many games don’t offer the option to play as a girl (and one in which many games charge extra money to play as a girl).”
‘Reactions’ Explains the Science Behind the Armor, Weapons, and Abilities of Marvel’s Avengers.