How a tabletop experiment could test the bedrock of reality
Here’s a curious thought experiment. Imagine a cloud of quantum particles that are entangled—in other words, they share the same quantum existence. The behavior of these particles is chaotic. The goal...
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A new way to make quadratic equations easy
The ancient Babylonians were a remarkable bunch. Among many extraordinary achievements, they found a now-famous mathematical solution to an unpleasant challenge: paying tax.The particular problem for...
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A nanotube material conducts heat in just one direction
Heat is something of a nuisance for electrical engineers. It reduces the reliability of electronic devices and even causes them to fail completely. That’s why computer components are liberally smeared...
View ArticleDoes tapping the bottom of a beer can really stop it fizzing over?
Among the great questions in science, one stands sadly neglected: Is it possible to stop a shaken beer can from foaming by tapping it before opening?There are good theoretical reasons to think this...
View ArticleTidal forces carry the mathematical signature of gravitational waves
In February 2016, an international team of physicists announced the first direct observation of gravitational waves. The waves had been produced by the gigantic collision of a pair of black holes, each...
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Facebook has a neural network that can do advanced math
Here’s a challenge for the mathematically inclined among you. Solve the following differential equation for y: You have 30 seconds. Quick! No dallying.The answer, of course, is: If you were unable to...
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These are the stars the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft will encounter
During the 1970s, NASA launched four of the most important spacecraft ever built. When Pioneer 10 began its journey to Jupiter, astronomers did not even know whether it was possible to pass through the...
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Is 3D printing the future of battery design?
One of the enabling technologies of our 21st-century lifestyle is the lithium–ion battery. These energy packs make possible mobile phones and electric cars, laptops and health-care devices, robots and...
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A virtual version of da Vinci’s mystery glass orb has helped explain its...
Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci Back in 2017, an oil painting called Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) sold for $450.3 million at Christie’s auction house in New York. That made it the world’s...
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Why the quantum internet should be built in space
The quantum internet is a dream that many technologists have expounded in recent years. The idea is to exploit the strange quantum properties of photons and electrons to send messages with perfect...
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