Category: Fightin’
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The neglected puzzle of low energy nuclear reactions
Cold fusion won’t go away and perhaps rightly so. Numerous groups have reported idiosyncratic behaviour of palladium hydrides sitting in heavy water when a current passes through them. Many of these experiments are said to be repeatable. Of course, serious questions remain over what exactly is going on in these experiements. They may or may…
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The remarkable language of Vai
Vai is a language spoken by 150,000 people in western Africa, specifically in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The language is noteworthy because its uses a remarkable system of sounds. Speakers must be able to pronounce seven oral vowels, five nasal vowels and 31 consonants all of which come in various combinations. In its written form,…
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How politics manipulates science
In a fascinating and controversial paper, Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sets out to show how changes in the structure of scientific activity over the past half century have left the scientific endeavor vulnerable to political manipulation. In particular, he focuses on how political bodies try to control scientific institutions, how scientists…
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Forget black holes, could the LHC trigger a “Bose supernova”?
The fellas at CERN have gone to great lengths to reassure us all that they won’t destroy the planet (who says physicists are cold hearted?). The worry was that the collision of particles at the LHC’s high energies could create a black hole that would swallow the planet. We appear to be safe on that…
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Loophole found in quantum cryptography photon detectors
If you’re hoping to secure your data using quantum cryptography, you might want to find a shoulder to cry on. Quantum cryptography ought to be 100 percent secure. In theory , it provides perfect security against eavesdroppers. But in practice, a number of loopholes have emerged (see here and here). And today, Vadim Makarov and…
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Could life have come from other stars?
Late in the last century, researchers calculated that an asteroid impact on Mars could jettison rocks towards Earth in a way that preserved bacterial life within them; the implication being that life could have evolved first on a warmer wetter Mars and later seeded life on Earth. Now Mauri Valtonen from Turku University in Finland and…
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Orbiting observatory finds dark matter, but what kind?
The world of cosmology is abuzz with rumours that an orbiting observatory called PAMELA has discovered dark matter. Last month, the PAMELA team gave a few selected physicists a sneak preview of their results at a conference in Stockholm. Here’s the deal. The PAMELA people say their experiment has seen more positrons than can be…
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Why aluminum should replace cesium as the standard of time
The second is defined as 9,192,631,770 vibrations of a cesium atom and measured in a device known as a fountain clock. These work by cooling a tiny cloud of cesium atoms to a temperature close to zero, tossing it up in the air and zapping it with microwaves as it falls. Then you watch the…
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Global warming and the climate of fear
“It does, however, seem difficult to believe that our species, that has dominated the planet for a relatively short period of time, could have such a huge impact on our planet’s climate, whilst the Sun, the most massive body in the solar system whose influence dominates our planet, could have such little impact.” So concludes…
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The latest social network: binge drinking
Binge drinking is “the rapid consumption of large amounts of alcohol, especially by young people, leading to serious anti-social and criminal behavior in urban centres,” say Paul Ormerod, an economist at Volterra Consulting in London, also linked to the University of Durham. Binge drinking is a growing problem in city centers in the UK, with…