Physics Week in Review: February 11, 2017

This week's physics highlights: AI can help solve the many-body quantum systems puzzle; a starlight experiment reaffirms quantum weirdness; and the curious case of cockroach magnetization.

I wrote about a super-cool new paper for New Scientist. AI learns to solve quantum state of many particles at once. "The same type of artificial intelligence that mastered the ancient game of Go could help wrestle with the amazing complexity of quantum systems containing billions of particles." And here's a more technical account of the same research from Ars Technica's John Timmer: Neural network trained to solve quantum mechanical problems.

Super Bowl Science! A Blackjack Pro Explains How Ignoring the Odds Cost the Falcons the Super Bowl. Related: To Unlock Deflation Puzzle, Mind Your PV = nRT's. Also: Exercise Equivalents: what it would take to burn off the calories we typically consume during the Super Bowl.

Prepping for Valentine's Day, Symmetry has issued a physics love poem challenge, with a few sample haiku to get you inspired. Related: How to Tell a Mathematician You Love Them: "You and I must sum to a prime because what we have is indivisible."

Physicists Devise "Black Hole" on a Chip: "a new way to manufacture a 'point of no return.'" " Related: Information paradox and black holes in plasmas: Big-ass laser and fast mirrors may bring black hole death to the lab, help unravel information paradox.

Quantum Theory by Starlight. Starlight test shows quantum world has been weird for 600 years. Related: Experiment Reaffirms Quantum Weirdness: Physicists are closing the door on an intriguing loophole.

LHC sees matter and antimatter misbehaving in alternate particle. "A hint of matter and antimatter behaving differently to each other has been spotted in a new particle for the first time. If the find bears out, it could help explain the existence of all the matter in the universe, and why it was not snuffed out by antimatter long ago."

A Fight to Fix Geometry's Foundations. "When two mathematicians raised pointed questions about a classic proof that no one really understood, they ignited a years-long debate about how much could be trusted in a new kind of geometry."

The Exotic Matter States Behind PCs, Visual Displays, and Future of Water: liquid crystals in the nematic phase.

The Curious Case of Cockroach Magnetization. The discovery that living and dead cockroaches have strikingly different magnetic properties could help bioengineers design new magnetic sensors.

An astronomical artist, Michael Carroll, traveled to Antarctica for otherworldly inspiration. [Image: Michael Carroll]

Dynamics of a human spiral wave: With a few simple instructions, participants at the Atlanta Science Festival mimicked a phenomenon (certain heart arrhythmias) that can have fatal consequences in biological systems.

Italy's VIRGO lab: LIGO's underdog cousin ready to enhance gravitational-wave hunt.

The science and engineering of quantum dot lasers.

Time Isn't Really on Your Side. Time appears to be connected to many great unsolved mysteries, like the mind's nature and the origin of the universe. Related: After Temporality: "The alleged dimension of time has been under investigation by the physics police on charges of quantum weirdness."

The Tangled History of Big Bang Science. History shows how the route to scientific recognition was littered with others' bad luck.

Keeping Nanoparticles-and Treatments-on Target.

Is Artificial Intelligence close to solving nature's ultimate origami puzzle?

World's First Atomic Blast Tests Theories of Moon's Formation. Radioactive glass from the Trinity nuclear test site resembles ancient moon rocks.

Virtual Reality Poses the Same Riddles as the Cosmic Multiverse. The observations you make in a multiverse, whether in space or in silicon, need not bear any relation to reality.

Testing Quantum Foundations With Atomic Clocks.

A Star Just Ripped Comet Halley's Massive Cousin to Shreds. The Hubble Space Telescope has found a white dwarf star consuming a huge comet, scattering its remains throughout its atmosphere.

Black Hole Caught Devouring a Star for an Entire Decade. Spaghettification is real, y'all.

Scientists Have a Crazy Hunch About Why the Sun Is Spinning Too Slowly.

Saturn Could Be Defending Earth From Massive Asteroid Impacts. Jupiter is often cited as Earth's protector - but Saturn may actually be hero of the day.

Calculating what it would take to park a solar sail at Alpha Centauri: Like gravitational boosts, but brakes.

An astronaut has recorded a 'first of its kind' video of mysterious blue jets of electricity.

Blue Tarantulas Inspire 3D-Printed Color That Never Fades. The spiders' blue hue is created not from pigment but by nanostructures in their hairs.

Could You Write Mystery Science Theater 3000 on the Moon?

Different data visualization techniques can spin the same data into wildly different stories.

"According to new research from NASA, planets in the habitable zone in red dwarf star systems-including much-hyped exoplanet Proxima b-might lose too much oxygen to support liquid water, and therefore, life."

Marine geophysicist and printermaker Ele Willoughby produced this impressive linocut (right) of Mae Jameson, first African-American woman in space in 1995.

The Apollo Astronaut Who Was Allergic to the Moon: geologist Harrison Schmitt.

Let's Use Physics to Model the Gaps in Saturn's Rings.

A Visit to the European Southern Observatory High in northern Chile's Atacama Desert.

The strangest eclipse fact of all: the Moon's shadow isn't a circle.

The end of the Iron Fist trailer shows his super-powered punch. Let's use physics to analyze its strength.

How Math Could Help Map Earth's Interior. A new solution to a decades-old geometry puzzle might unlock the secrets of our planet's inner structure.

Great Literature Is Surprisingly Arithmetic: "Maybe data can teach us more about stories."

Science Gets Its Close-Up: If you get the feeling you've been seeing more movies about science, you're right.

This NASA Expert Made The Space Between Us a Realistic Mars Movie.

What Would Happen If a Black Hole Showed Up in Our Solar System? Hollywood and an Expert Answer.

Do you understand time travel paradoxes? People less than a century ago didn't.

The 'March for Science' is gaining mainstream momentum. "I think we have to be more forceful in our defense of science."--Rush Holt, AAAS.

When the Butterfly Effect Took Flight. "Half a century ago, Edward Lorenz... overthrew the idea of the clockwork universe with his ground-breaking research on chaos. Now MIT professors are working to establish a climate research center in his name."

Song of Two Worlds: Alan Lightman's Poetic Ode to Science, the Unknown, and Our Search for Meaning.

Inside Einstein's Love Affair With 'Lina'-His Cherished Violin. "The famed physicist rarely left home without his music, and it inspired him as he developed some of the most elegant theories in science."

The creation story of the atomic bomb told through a powerful and moving picture book.

Satiric Monologue of the Week: The First Law of Thermodynamics Has Had Enough of Your Shit. "It's like you think you can ignore science. Or call it a bunch of 'alternative facts.' It's almost as if you think you can get a free ride from me - a Law of Thermodynamics! Who do you think you are?"

Microscopic Crystals Forming Look Like a Forest Growing Impossibly Fast.

The Map of Mathematics: Animation Shows How All the Different Fields in Math Fit Together: