When John Cardy proposed a far-reaching principle to constrain all possible theories of quantum particles and fields, he expected it to be quickly rebutted. But for almost 25 years that hasn’t happened — and it now seems that his theorem may have been quietly proved earlier this year.
“A REALITY that would be impossible to imagine, even for the possessor of the most tortured and surreal imagination.” This does not refer to a horror film, or a war veteran’s recollections, but to the world revealed by science, according to physicists Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw.
To those uncomfortable with quantum theory’s picture of wavelike particles that are simultaneously everywhere, their message in The Quantum Universe is clear: tough. Scientists are, they tell us, “not mandated to produce a theory that bears any relation to the way we perceive the world at large”, although you might comfort yourself with the thought that even Einstein found quantum mechanics disturbing.
(thanks, Klint)
‘A Universe From Nothing’ by Lawrence Krauss, AAI 2009 (by richarddawkinsdotnet)
Lawrence Krauss gives a talk on our current picture of the universe, how it will end, and how it could have come from nothing. Krauss is the author of many bestselling books on Physics and Cosmology, including “The Physics of Star Trek.”
SEATTLE — Skateboard freaks know some righteous physics, dude. That’s because their hair-raising rides provide body-based insights into slope speeds that often elude those without a need for thrills and spills.
A ball travels faster down a relatively long incline that angles steeply downward in two sections separated by a flat stretch compared with a shorter incline that angles downward modestly but without changing slope. People generally don’t realize this, but experienced skateboarders often do, said psychologist Michael McBeath of Arizona State University in Tempe. Skateboarders call on motor memory to determine intuitively that a sharp early descent creates a speed advantage, he reported November 5 at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society.
well, this is pretty darn neat. and aesthetically pleasing too. (thanks, ally).
