Article 3BGHF Physics Week in Review: December 23, 2017

Physics Week in Review: December 23, 2017

by
JenLucPiquant
from on (#3BGHF)

6a00d8341c9c1053ef01b8d2c99a6d970c-800wiA new proposed solution to the black hole firewall paradox, a new twist in the most famous fluid equations, and why bridges ice over before roads are among this week's physics highlights.

The black hole firewall paradox has been vexing physicists for years. But if quantum laws lead to the creation of other universes, the headache disappears, according to Sean Carroll (a.k.a. my Time Lord) and his co-authors. You can also read my 2012 Quanta article on black hole firewalls for more in-depth background to this debate, as well as the accompanying 2012 blog post.

Mathematicians Find Wrinkle in Famed Fluid Equations: To physicists, the Navier-Stokes equations are as reliable as a hammer. To mathematicians, they're as uncertain as the weather.

The Science Of Why Bridges Ice Before Roads.

Physicists Demonstrate How to Reverse the Arrow of Time. The extraordinary experiment opens the door to a new generation of devices and reveals a deeper relationship between time, entropy, and entanglement.

An international team of physicists has stumbled upon an entirely new material, which they have called "Weyl-Kondo semimetal".

How to Run Up a Wall-With Physics. "This move is based on the momentum principle and friction. Could you pull it off? Probably not. But you can at least do the math."

Why Is M-Theory the Leading Candidate for a Theory of Everything? The mother of all string theories passes a litmus test that, so far, no other candidate theory of quantum gravity has been able to match.

How Physicists Recycled WWII Ships and Artillery to Unlock the Mysteries of the Universe.

Space-time and gravity might be born from the quantum world.

Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program. Related: How Accurate Were Tom DeLonge's Alien Claims? Here's The Truth About Those 'Alien Alloys' in The New York Times' UFO Story. Is the government really stockpiling materials in a Nevada building that scientists cannot identify? "I don't think it's plausible that there's any alloys that we can't identify," Richard Sachleben, a retired chemist and member of the American Chemical Society's panel of experts, told Live Science. "My opinion? That's quite impossible." Also: What We've Learned From 60 Years of U.S.-Funded UFO Probes. The newly revealed Pentagon program is certainly not the first federally funded project to hunt for signs of advanced intelligence in the galaxy.

How local disturbances can lead to cascading failure in networks such as power grids, financial systems & food webs.

Flu Season Is Here Early. Why Didn't We See It Coming? The best flu models still can't project the infection's trajectory more than a couple of weeks into the future. Here's how that could change.

Leidenfrost drops - droplets deposited onto a surface much hotter than their boiling point - can be propelled, trapped, and even guided through a maze, by directing the vapor layer that cushions them.

Give Thanks for the Winter Solstice. You Might Not Be Here Without It.

6a00d8341c9c1053ef01bb09e25967970d-320wiThe First Photographs of Snowflakes: Discover the Groundbreaking Microphotography of Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (1885). "He took his first photograph of a snowflake, the first ever taken, in 1885, by adapting a microscope to a bellows camera, after years of making sketches and much trial and error."

Clifford W. Ashley: The Artist Who Preserved the Vanishing Technology of Knots.

Precious Gems Bear Messages From Earth's Molten Heart. "We may covet gemstones for their beauty, but their real value lies in what they tell scientists about the extreme forces at work deep underground."

Branching, tree-like structures are found throughout nature, including in fluids.

Ferroflow, An Art Display That Creates Amazing Visuals Using Ferrofluid and Magnetic Fields.

Space Tech Oddity: An Astronaut, a VC, and a Space Writer Discuss Space Exploration.

This Fish Emits Damaging Decibels. The Gulf corvina produces a chattering chorus that's one of the loudest underwater animal sounds on the planet.

The 1883 Krakatoa Explosion Made the Loudest Sound in History--So Loud It Traveled Around the World Four Times.

The Doodles in Leonardo da Vinci's Manuscripts Contain His Groundbreaking Theories on the Laws of Friction, Scientists Discover.

More haunting declassified scans of nuclear weapons test videos from between 1945 and 1962 released.

Research shows that when a bomb bursts, it alters long-term soil formation, vegetation growth, and hydrology. It's a phenomenon so disruptive that it has given rise to a new field of science with an evocative name: bombturbation.

Scientists model the climate in Game of Thrones. "The only way to create a model that behaves like the world described in the books is to assume the planet in Game of Thrones "tumbles" as it orbits its sun." Paper (by the fictional Samuel Tarley).

A Believable Universe: Any good space opera needs to take place in a version of reality that, although not necessarily scientifically accurate, at least makes some kind of sense.

Breaking the Sound Barrier, Quietly: NASA wants to make sonic booms a little less"boom-y.

How can I see the quantum universe at home? Here are some experiments you can do to see it for yourself.

Build a Thermoelectric Generator, Like the Ones That Power Deep Space Missions.

Quantum Computers Barely Exist-Here's Why We're Writing Languages for Them Anyway.

Only two nuclear reactors are under construction in the United States. Regulators just approved plans to continue building them, despite delays and cost overruns.

When Null Results Produce Important Science. What can we learn from finding nothing at all?

This sweet chocolate in the shape of the vibrations of your voice waves sounds even better than it tastes.

Planetariums seem old-school, but they have a surprisingly lively future.

And since Christmas is just two days away: Forget A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens And Michael Faraday Created 'A Chemistry Carol'. Related: What Was the Christmas Star? Was it a comet? A supernova? A planet? Or some otherwordly phenomenon? Everyday Einstein examines the possibilities. Also: Using science to wrap oddly-shaped gifts, with BBC's Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Hannah Fry.

The Christmas Carols Made by Alan Turing's Computer: Hear Cutting-Edge Versions of "Jingle Bells" and "Good King Wenceslas" (1951). Related: 'Carol of the Bells' Played on an Ugly Christmas Sweater Equipped With Multiple Bells. Finally, sing alone with "The 12 Days of Physicsmas" and Add some science to your holiday carol:

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