Month: November 2008
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Chit ‘n’ chatter
The best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week: Recent Developments in Superstatistics Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics: a Critical Survey Introduction to Protein Folding for Physicists Heat Flow of the Earth and Resonant Capture of Solar 57-Fe Axions Large-Scale Cosmic Flows and Moving Dark Energy
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Steganophony–when internet telephony meets steganography
Steganophony is the term coined by Wojciech Mazurczyk and Józef Lubacz at the Warsaw University of Technology in Poland to describe the practice of hiding messages in internet telephony traffic (presumably the word is an amalgamation of the terms steganography and telephony). The growing interest in this area is fueled by the fear that terrorist…
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A clue in the puzzle of perfect synchronization in the brain
“Two identical chaotic systems starting from almost identical initial states, end in completely uncorrelated trajectories. On the other hand, chaotic systems which are mutually coupled by some of their internal variables often synchronize to a collective dynamical behavior,” write Meital Zigzag at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and colleagues o the arXiv today. And perhaps the…
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How much force does it take to stab somebody to death?
How much force does it take to stab somebody to death? Strangely enough, forensic scientists do not know. A number of groups have attempted to measure the forces necessary to penetrate skin but the results are difficult to apply to murder cases because of the sheer range of factors at work. The type and sharpness…
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The engrossing enigma of supersolids
Almost 40 years ago, two Russian physicists predicted the existence of a new state of matter called a supersolid. They reasoned that at very low temperatures, the rules of quantum mechanics would allow a solid to move with zero resistance and that this would allow one solid to move through another like magician walking through…
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Matter wave lithography could carve single nanometre features
Atomic matter waves have been generating a bit of interest of late. The thinking is that atom waves can be manipulated in much the same way as light waves and so could be used to directly print atoms onto microchips to create nanoscale features. The question is: how small can these features be made and…
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Search ‘n’ hide
The best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week: Quantifying Evolvability in Small Biological Networks Experimental Verification of Broadband Cloaking using a Volumetric Cloak Composed of Periodically Stacked Cylindrical Transmission-Line Networks The Primordial Helium Abundance Where Are All the Young Stars in Aquila? The Big Bounce in Rainbow Universe
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Two new SETI searches see first light
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is picking up steam. The folks over at the Berkeley SETI group now have 7 separate searches underway at infrared, visible and radio wavelengths. Today, Andrew Siemiona and pals outline the two newest programs which have recently seen first light and are hunting for pulses just a few hundred nanosceonds…
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A revolution for the science of snowflakes
The way snowflakes form is poorly understood. It seems clear that the process involves a subtle interplay of nonlinear effects in which small variations at the molecular level can produce large changes in the eventual shape. In particular, small levels of gaseous impurities are thought to have a major impact on the way these effects…
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Silicon ribbons pave the way for graphene-like sheets
Graphene is the hottest property in materials science these days. Its extraordinary electronic, thermal and physical properties make it the most heavily studied substance on the plant right now. But there is one thing that graphene can’t do and that is to fit easily into the silicon-based electronics industry. And while graphene based chips hold…