The Physics arXiv Blog
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How to test the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
The many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics holds that before a measurement is made, identical copies of the observer exist in parallel universes and that all possible results of a measurement actually take place in these universes. Until now there has been no way to distinguish between this and the Born interpretation. This holds that…
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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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Earths ‘n’ Mars’
The best of the rest from the physics arXiv: Skull Flexure from Blast Waves: A New Mechanism for Brain Injury with Implications for Helmet Design Triangleland. II. Quantum Mechanics of Pure Shape Atom Interferometry Based on Light Pulses The Frontiers of Nuclear Science, A Long Range Plan A Statistical Approach to Modeling Indian Classical Music…
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How alien Earths will reveal their secrets
The European Space Agency has set itself an ambitious goal: to recognise the biomarkers on Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. The first step in such an endeavour is work out to look for, which the goal that Lisa Kaltenegger at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge and Franck Selsis at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de…
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The first printed plastic magnetic field sensors
Conducting polymers just keep getting better. This week, Sayani Majumdar at Åbo Akademi University in Finland and pals say they’ve used using an inkjet printer to print a plastic circuit onto a plastic substrate that clearly shows magnetoresistance at room temperature. That means they can print plastic microchips capable of sensing magnetic fields. Cool,…
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The trouble with traffic at intersections
These rather beautiful graphs are space-time plots of vehicles approaching, entering and then leaving an intersection controlled by traffic lights. The plots were calculated using cellular automata to model the behavior of the vehicles. Here the upper plot shows the pattern of traffic at a traffic lights with a fixed schedule. The lower figures shows…
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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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Orbits ‘n’ ephemeris
The best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week: Correlated Connectivity and the Distribution of Firing Rates in the Neocortex Constructing Perfect Steganographic Systems Fainter and Closer: Finding Planets by Symmetry Breaking Diamond Nanoparticles as Photoluminescent Nanoprobes for Biology and Near-Field Optics Silicon Photonics: The Inside Story Limb Preference in the Gallop of…
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Periodic Pioneer anomaly points to modified general relativity
The Pioneer anomaly grows ever more fascinating. Here’s the background: Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively and, after sweeping past a number of the outer gas giants, have been heading out of the solar system ever since. NASA has been accurately tracking their position and speed using Doppler tracking measurements…