Article 2PB07 Physics Week in Review: May 13, 2017

Physics Week in Review: May 13, 2017

by
JenLucPiquant
from on (#2PB07)

6a00d8341c9c1053ef01b7c8f6e006970b-800wiAmong this week's cornucopia of physics news: a nanofridge to help qubits keep their cool; WiFi can be used to create holograms; and CERN's new particle accelerator could help spot art forgeries.

My latest news story for New Scientist: Nanofridge could keep quantum computers cool enough to calculate. "Even quantum computers need to keep their cool. Now, researchers have built a tiny nanoscale refrigerator to keep qubits cold enough to function."

Also, I was interviewed for the TMO Background Mode podcast.

Nifty research: Wi-Fi transmitter used to create hologram, potentially sees through walls.

Psychoacoustics! Science vs Stradivarius, round 3: both players AND listeners prefer new violins to Strads in blind tests. So is it a violinists' delusion that Stradivarius instruments sound better? Not necessarily. I wrote about this topic for Scientific American back in 2011, and also last March at Gizmodo: A Violin's Warm, Mellow Sound Comes From Its Varnish.

The secret of dark matter could be revealed by the U.S. military's GPS satellite constellation. Related: Hubble Views The Final Frontier For Dark Matter. Also: Does Dark Matter Harbor Life? An invisible civilization could be living right under your nose, writes Lisa Randall for Nautilus.

New CERN Particle Accelerator Will Help Identify Art Forgeries. Could this be the latest in art authentication?

Self-Spinning Grains Prove Granular Theory: Measurements of a two-dimensional "gas" made up of particles that spin when shaken bolsters a gas-like theory for granular materials.

Bird feathers inspire researchers to produce vibrant new colors.

6a00d8341c9c1053ef01b7c8f7988a970b-320wiLaser-Printed Nanotech Structures 'Sculpt' Colors That Never Fade. Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark made a sheet of polymer and semiconductor metal that would reflect different colors and never need repainting. [Image: Technical University of Denmark]

The Physics of Poop: Why it takes you and an elephant the same amount of time to defecate.

Want to know how long a fidget spinner spins? Get a laser and some physics.

A Handy Way to Solve Crime: "what if the only evidence available is a grainy image of a suspect's hand?"

The Physics Behind What A Chicago Skyscraper Possibly Did To Clouds This Week.

Physicists Outline 10 Different Dimensions and How You'd Experience Them.

How astrophysicists can use cutting-edge field theory to simplify their calculations.

How to Make Molecular Movies: Scientist Thomas Allison Explains.

What is quantum entanglement? Part 1: Waves and particles. Part 2: Randomness and measurement. Part 3: Entanglement, at last.

The Higgs Boson: A Not-So-Godlike Particle.

Physicist Maura McLaughlin explains how the electromagnetic signals from fast-spinning neutron stars could be used to detect gravitational waves.

A Debate Over Cosmic Inflation (and Editing at Scientific American) Gets Heated: In a recent article for the magazine, three physicists took aim at a prevailing theory of the early universe. Other scientists didn't like that: Thirty-Three Famous Physicists Signed an Angry Letter About the Origin of the Universe. Related: Is Inflationary Cosmology Science? tl;dr: Sean Carroll says sure, but happy to have public debate. Curmudgeonly Counterpoint: Chad Orzel says at Forbes that A "Cosmic Controversy" Is Mostly A Distraction.

Where do you put the line between science and pseudoscience? Some pseudoscience can be tested, though still wrong.

Trapped when stirred -- how industrial mixing can trap particles in the flow.

Atom and Archetype - how psychoanalyst Carl Jung and Nobel-winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli invented synchronicity.

Fascinating biographical sketch of Hugh Everett, inventor of the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

6a00d8341c9c1053ef01b7c8f79906970b-320wiEarth's rotation spins the Milky Way around the south pole: a clever new take on star trails by Christian Sasse. [Image: Christian Sasse]

Can Math Can Save You From the Slow Line? "The intuitive strategy seems to be to join the shortest line. After all, a short line could indicate it has an efficient server, and a long line could imply it has an inexperienced server or customers who need a lot of time. But generally this isn't true."

You'll want to read all 4700 words of this excellent analysis by 538's Maggie Koerth-Baker. The Tangled Scientific Story Behind Trump's False Claims Of Voter Fraud.

Visualization of the Week: 150,000 years of the changing shapes of constellations, plotted by Martin Vargic.

Summer Blockbusters from a Nerdier Timeline. EG: Spiderman: Replication. "I'm sorry, the analysis found no statistically significant effect of 'Spidey Sense.'"

Emergency Declared At Nuclear-Contaminated Site In Washington State. Related: Gizmodo's Maddie Stone reported on this last April: We Should Be Very Worried About That Leaky Nuclear Waste Facility in Washington. Also: Watch Motherboard's 360/VR Documentary Power on How Nuclear Energy Is Made.

A thermonuclear bomb slammed into a North Carolina farm in 1961 - and part of it is still missing.

Was Edward Teller Really The Nuclear Hawk He Was Made Out To Be?

No, we haven't found signs of life - alien or otherwise - in the solar system.

5 Reasons Why The 21st Century Will Be The Best One Ever For Astrophysics.

Colliding clusters of galaxies make waves ... gorgeous, gorgeous waves.

A scientist explains how to take pictures on Mars.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong: 'I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer.'

Watch Dot of Light, an inspiring documentary on female astronauts.

The Scientific Truth About Planet Nine, So Far.

An Amazing Hypothesis for Why the Trappist-1 System Hasn't Destroyed Itself. Related: Music Based on Trappist-1 Planetary Orbits is a Cosmic Symphony:

Stitching a Supernova: A Needlepoint Celebration of Science by Cecilia Payne, First Ph.D. in Astronomy.

Decoding a Tiffany Glassmaker's Secret Notebook: The small leather-bound book was used by Tiffany Studios glassmaker Leslie Nash to record recipes, designs, and personal notes on glass chemistry.

Study: to beat science denial, inoculate against misinformers' tricks. A new study finds that explaining the techniques of science denial makes people resistant to their effects.

This is fine. EPA fires members of science advisory board. "The agency quietly forced out some members of the Board of Scientific Counselors..."

The Pioneering Physics TV Show, The Mechanical Universe, Is Now on YouTube: 52 Complete Episodes from Caltech.

Celestial Spheres, Smog Charts, and Radial Cartography in a New Book About Circles.

Tattoo Artist Creates "Soundwave Tattoos" That You Can Actually Listen to with a Smart Phone app.

Watch Someone Play with Electricity and Water in Super Slow Motion. (And don't try this at home.)

Neil deGrasse Tyson Answers Science Questions While Eating Progressively Spicy Wings.

Finally, here's Nerdist's Kyle Hill on 8 ways science changes what a space battle would look like:

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