Science News

This IFLS article points to a team that have found that the random walk in the molecules of graphene cause a single sheet of it on a micro scale to flex/snap back and forth from concave to convex from time to time. Put between conducting plates this oscillation causes a trickle charge of power that could be used to power small devices and do away with the need for a replaceable battery. A 10 micron square of graphene sheet produces about 10 micro watts of power continuously apparently. Presumably these could be stacked to produce more. http://www.iflscience.com/technology/graphene-loophole-could-provide-clean-and-limitless-energy-in-the-future/ I thought it look…

This IFLS article points to a team that have found that the random walk in the molecules of graphene cause a single sheet of it on a micro scale to flex/snap back and forth from concave to convex from time to time. Put between conducting plates this oscillation causes a trickle charge of power that could be used to power small devices and do away with the need for a replaceable battery. A 10 micron square of graphene sheet produces about 10 micro watts of power continuously apparently. Presumably these could be stacked to produce more. http://www.iflscience.com/technology/graphene-loophole-could-provide-clean-and-limitless-energy-in-the-future/ I thought it look…

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1711.03323.pdfReversing the thermodynamic arrow of time using quantum correlations: 9 Nov 2017: Abstract:The second law permits the prediction of the direction of natural processes, thus defining a thermodynamic arrow of time. However, standard thermodynamics presupposes the absence of initial correlations between interacting systems. We here experimentally demonstrate the reversal of the arrow of time for two initially quantum correlated spins-1/2, prepared in local thermal states at different temperatures, employing a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance setup. We observe a spontaneous heat flow from the cold to the hot system. This process is enabled b…

Professor Arjun Berera from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy has authored a paper suggesting that life on earth may have been seeded by cosmic dust streams. And not only that but Earth may be seeding other planets in the same way. A link to the abstract. https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.01895 So apparently we are stardust transported by cosmic dust. Heres an article on the paper. http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/11/life-in-dust Now click on the link above and go look at the picture of a tardigrade. Please!

I find this astonishing. Decades of a deep regime seem to be taking a horrible toll. "We are struggling with treatment as we found a large number of parasites in the soldier's stomach, invading and eating into the wounded areas," Lee Guk-jong, the physician who treated him, told the Review. We have also discovered a parasite never seen in Koreans before," Lee said. "It is making the situation worse and causing tremendous complications. It's unclear whether the parasite has been seen in other parts of the world. https://businessinsider.com.pl/international/surgeons-find-parasite-unlike-any-theyve-seen-in-body-of-defector-shot-5-times-while/2fesrj2

i stumbled on a video on the internet (https://youtu.be/MBeMcgars_w), a stone that melts an iron nail in a few seconds. in another video, it showed there that the iron nail after being exposed to the stone/rock became very brittle. whats the explanation? please help. someone asked me this and i cant give an answer. thank you.

Source: Cosmos 23 October 2017. It seems like a pretty sensational claim...and title for the article..?

This post paraphrases a youtube video, "Are We Approaching Robotic Consciousness?" by ColdFusion. An experiment was done to demonstrate limited AI consciousness. Consciousness: aware of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc. , by dictionary.com. Consciousness is the state or quality of awareness, or, of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. by Wikipedia However, this experiment did not claim AI sentience. Equipment: 3 small robots that can walk, talk, and listen networked with an AI consciousness application running on a computer. Each robot ran a copy of the AI consciousness application. Procedur…

Electronic engineers see the Electron as an Electrical Phenomenon . Physicists , as a Photon of Energy , NOW , Biologists as a Key Quantum function in living cells !

As reported on the Wits University website: Complex life evolved out of the chance coupling of small molecules “Life was a chance event, there is no doubt about that,” says Dr Pierre Durand from the Evolution of Complexity Laboratory in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University, who led a project to find out how exactly these molecules linked up with each other. Their results are published today in the journal Royal Society OS, in a paper entitled "Molecular trade-offs in RNA ligases affected the modular emergence of complex ribozymes at the origin of life”. Very simple ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules (compounds similar to Deoxyribonucleic acid (DN…

According to this article in The Atlantic, based on a paper published in Nature: This BBC News article provides a diagrams of the location and size of the newly discovered void. Enjoy!

Physicists propose test of quantum gravity using current technology October 27, 2017 by Lisa Zyga Proposed experimental setup to probe the effects of noncommutative structure. Credit: S. Dey et al. ©2017 Nuclear Physics B Physicists have proposed a way to test quantum gravity that, in principle, could be performed by a laser-based, table-top experiment using currently available technology. Although a theory of quantum gravity would overcome one of the biggest challenges in modern physics by unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics, currently physicists have no way of testing any proposed theories of quantum gravity. Read more at: htt…

An energy release so powerful physicists considered keeping it a secrete. Fusing two bottom quarks release 8 times as much energy as hydrogen fusion! https://www.livescience.com/60847-charm-quark-fusion-subatomic-hydrogen-bomb.html?

In a recent discussion here at science forums, in a thread related to a similar discussion I explained how some scientists consider all observable matter as just ''longer lived'' fluctuations of the vacuum. This article seems to be related to these kinds of discussions. Scientific American is no stranger to the discussion of virtual particles. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/something-from-nothing-vacuum-can-yield-flashes-of-light/?utm_content=bufferbfd4d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Interesting slightly pop paper on the subject of Gravitons. (which is still a hypothetical particle) https://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-ph/0701186.pdf

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/why-haven-t-we-had-alien-contact-blame-icy-ocean-worlds Just an interesting (to me) thought.

According to this National Geographic Article: The article also contains a link to the original paper published on this finding, which definitively doesn't "rewrite human history". Enjoy!

Scientists have discovered India's first ever Ichthyosaur according to this AFP article. It's believe that this "groundbreaking discovery" could "shed light on a possible marine seaway between India and South America when the ancient continents were fused together millions of years ago". Enjoy!

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/press-release-gw170817

I know this question refers to another site that is similar in function to ScienceForums for diseminating information and understanding though they follow a different format and cover a broader scope of topics. I imagine that many who post here also post as experts at the other site. I just now discovered that all links to threads on their server are timing out and wanted to confirm that their site is down to others as well and if there is any news about this? Sorry if this is not an appropriate topic, but I think such an outage would qualify as news. Update: it seems to be running again after being down from 30-60 minutes in California. One…

https://phys.org/news/2017-10-heavy-chemical-elements-theory-quantum.html A series of complicated experiments involving one of the least understood elements of the Periodic Table has turned some long-held tenets of the scientific world upside down. Florida State University researchers found that the theory of quantum mechanics does not adequately explain how the heaviest and rarest elements found at the end of the table function. Instead, another well-known scientific theory—Albert Einstein's famous Theory of Relativity—helps govern the behavior of the last 21 elements of the Periodic Table. This new research is published in the Journal of the American Chem…

Good summary of five popular physics hypotheses that just haven't panned out https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/10/06/five-brilliant-ideas-for-new-physics-that-need-to-die-already/#13d3f59357b7 Plus the kicker at the end

Today I saw a documentary program on television proposing politicians to be robots running artificial intelligence. It left me thinking...

https://phys.org/news/2017-10-gravitational-detectors-dark.html Gravitational wave detectors could shed light on dark matter October 3, 2017 Schematic illustration of the cloud formed around a spinning black hole. The black hole loses energy E_S and angular momentum L_S through the growth of the cloud and emission of gravitational waves. Accretion of gas from the disk transports energy E_ACC and angular momentum L_ACC. The balance between these phenomena depends on the mass of the particles forming the cloud, and it determines whether the cloud can grow. Credit: University of Mississippi A global team of scientists, including two University of Mississi…

https://phys.org/news/2017-10-scientists-elusive-giant-black-hole.html Astronomers have identified a bumper crop of dual supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies. This discovery could help astronomers better understand how giant black holes grow and how they may produce the strongest gravitational wave signals in the Universe. The new evidence reveals five pairs of supermassive black holes, each containing millions of times the mass of the Sun. These black hole couples formed when two galaxies collided and merged with each other, forcing their supermassive black holes close together. The black hole pairs were uncovered by combining data from a su…