Posts tagged physics
Study suggests life may have originated before Earth itself.
A new paper suggests that life on Earth could be 9.7 billion years old - more than 5 billion years older than Earth itself.
The authors argue that it may be possible to measure the rate at which the genetic complexity of life has increased on Earth, as measured by the number of non-redundant functional nucleotides in organisms. This growth has continued exponentially, in a similar way to Moores Law, allowing the team to work backwards to a date when just a single base pair indicates the start of life on Earth.
Let’s suppose for a minute that these guys are correct and ask about the implications of the idea. They say there is good evidence that bacterial spores can be rejuvenated after many millions of years, perhaps stored in ice.
Space station proposed for quantum communications test.
A new paper published in the New Journal of Physics proposes adapting the camera on the international space station for the first space-based quantum optics test.
D-Wave sells ‘D-Wave Two’ for $10 million.
D-Wave Systems has reportedly sold their next-generation ‘D-Wave Two quantum computer’ to Lockheed Martin for an estimated US$10 million. Lockheed Martin bought the first ‘D-Wave One’ computer two years ago for the same price.
The new machine is said to be 500,000 times faster than the first version. Lockheed Martin will use it to create and test complex radar, space, and aircraft systems.
D-Wave plan to release a new processor every two years.
Time reversal technique could allow for some pretty crazy tech.
Researchers at the University of Maryland have demonstrated a method that allows power, sound, or images to be transmitted to an object without knowing exactly where it is, and without affecting objects around it.
One day the technology may be able to be used to direct microwaves to cancer cells to heat and destroy them, without affecting nearby tissue. It could also be used to transmit power to a smartphone, without even knowing where it is.
So how does it work?
![Kilograms gaining weight around the world.
Kilograms are defined by the mass of the International Prototype of the Kilogram (IPK), which is stored in Paris, with 40 replicas around the world also used when precise weight measurements are required.
These replicas are taken out and handled more frequently than the IPK, which has led to concern that they may have gained weight by as much as 50 micrograms each.
To combat this problem, scientists at Newcastle University have published a method for cleaning the replicas, by exposing them to ultraviolet light and ozone about once a decade. The replicas are then given a pure water rinse to remove dust particles.
The IPK is also used when defining the mass of one pound, and Live Science notes that if “each country that has one of these standard masses has a slightly different definition of the kilogram, [that] could throw off science experiments that require very precise weight measurements or international trade in highly restricted items that are restricted by weight, such as radioactive materials.”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/2d24de53e26a7d8d57f324813e018b07/tumblr_mhgs8fQUQC1qft3eko1_400.jpg)
Kilograms gaining weight around the world.
Kilograms are defined by the mass of the International Prototype of the Kilogram (IPK), which is stored in Paris, with 40 replicas around the world also used when precise weight measurements are required.
These replicas are taken out and handled more frequently than the IPK, which has led to concern that they may have gained weight by as much as 50 micrograms each.
To combat this problem, scientists at Newcastle University have published a method for cleaning the replicas, by exposing them to ultraviolet light and ozone about once a decade. The replicas are then given a pure water rinse to remove dust particles.
The IPK is also used when defining the mass of one pound, and Live Science notes that if “each country that has one of these standard masses has a slightly different definition of the kilogram, [that] could throw off science experiments that require very precise weight measurements or international trade in highly restricted items that are restricted by weight, such as radioactive materials.”
Lightspeed travel sounds exciting, looks boring.
Physics students at the University of Leicester have calculated what the view would look like from the window of a spacecraft travelling at the speed of light. Thanks to the Doppler effect, the frequency of light waves change as you move relative to the source, leading to the uninteresting blob of light, which is actually leftover glow from the big bang.
If you’re moving at (say) 99.99995 percent of the speed of light, which is what these students used for their calculations, light from stars will be shifted so far towards the blue end of the spectrum that it’ll end up way past what we can see with our eyes, turning into x-rays that are effectively invisible. Meanwhile, very long wavelength light that we ordinarily can’t see, like cosmic background radiation, is shifted up into the visible. So essentially, stars disappear, and all we see is the leftover glow from the Big Bang as a formless blob of light.
Atoms cooled to “colder than absolute zero”.
German physicists have demonstrated a way to cool atoms to a point below minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 degrees Celsius), and into a realm described as ‘negative temperatures’.
To achieve the feat, the team cooled atoms to near absolute zero in a vacuum chamber, to avoid heating from any external influence. They then used lasers and magnetic fields to push the atoms into “negative nanokelvin”.
To comprehend the negative temperatures scientists have now devised, one might think of temperature as existing on a scale that is actually a loop, not linear. Positive temperatures make up one part of the loop, while negative temperatures make up the other part. When temperatures go either below zero or above infinity on the positive region of this scale, they end up in negative territory.
A potential use for the discovery could be to create ‘heat engines’ that are more than 100% efficient:
Such engines would essentially not only absorb energy from hotter substances, but also colder ones. As such, the work the engine performed could be larger than the energy taken from the hotter substance alone.
New microchips are a “tool for secret agents”.
A new type of microchip developed at Caltech will allow devices such as smartphones or handheld scanners to easily scan and ‘see’ in inside objects using terahertz waves. The tiny chips (pictured above next to a penny) can be manufactured “Using the same low-cost, integrated-circuit technology that’s used to make the microchips found in our cell phones and notepads today”, according to the team.
Caltech describe the development like something from a spy novel, but the technology could soon feature in smartphones as well:
A secret agent is racing against time. He knows a bomb is nearby. He rounds a corner, spots a pile of suspicious boxes in the alleyway, and pulls out his cell phone. As he scans it over the packages, their contents appear onscreen. In the nick of time, his handy smartphone application reveals an explosive device, and the agent saves the day.
Invisibility cloaking demonstrated.
A new study has demonstrated perfect cloaking for the first time - with a few catches. The demonstration was shown to make a cylinder of 7.5cm (3 inches) in diameter invisible to microwaves, but researchers point out the technique would be difficult to apply to light at visible wavelengths. It’s also only perfectly invisible from one direction only.
The technique involves using a diamond shaped cloak, carefully matched up at the corners, to direct light perfectly around the cylinder being hidden. “This to our knowledge is the first cloak that really addresses getting the transformation exactly right to get you that perfect invisibility,”
The design principles that make the cloak work in microwaves would be difficult to implement at optical wavelengths. But microwaves are important in many applications, principally telecommunications and radar, and improved versions of cloaking could vastly improve microwave performance.
“I think it’s something that a lot of people can build on. Everything in this field is going to come down to what you can make, what you can design. And I think this steps up the design.”
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