Random Science News Thread

[Hashi Lebwohl]

[Cord Hurn]

[peter]

Damn sure there is a thread on the subject of quantum computing somewhere but blessed if I can find it.....

But anyway, apparently the research boffins at Google have carried out the first for real quantum calculation on a prototype machine (the only one it is capable of doing apparently, so widescale application is still some way off) that did what the currently most advanced conventional computer would take thousands of years to achieve in three and a half minutes. It was I believe something to do with establishing that a computer was generating truly random numbers (which is apparently really frikkin hard as is proving that it is actually doing so).

A paper has supposedly been published, but the brief article I read said that the company were being unusually coy about it and were declining to comment.

Oh let it be so!


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If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it. (Mark Twain)

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

[peter]

A good old 👽 story!

A story in our daily newspaper The Independent which reports of claims by ex NASA head scientist (of something or other) Gilbert Levin that exploratory missions to Mars in the 1970's found evidence of life on the planet, but ignored it. The Labelled Release experiment desighned to search for evidence of life, according to Gilbert, came back with positive results, but because it did not find the specific hydrocarbons that we associate with life here on earth, the decision makers of the organisation decided not to follow it up. Most interestingly to me, Levin went on to say that as examining for the presence of life was one of the top priorities of NASA, he thought it a grave miscalculation on their part. "The presence of microbial life on Mars might represent a serious threat to any future colonists of the planet, and by extension to us back on the Earth, and should have been investigated to the extent of our capabilities".

Well yes, but I'm interested that he instictively frames the question in terms of a) confrontation and b) threat to us rather than the other way around. I do understand where he is coming from, it's just a shame it has to be this way is all.
_________________
If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it. (Mark Twain)

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

[Cord Hurn]

A star ejected from the black hole at our galaxy's center will be passing by our part of the Milky Way at high speed:

https://astronomynow.com/2019/11/13/milky-ways-central-black-hole-flings-star-from-galaxy/

[Avatar]

https://projectyourself.com/blogs/news/scientists-have-discovered-a-multidimensional-universe-inside-the-brain

--A
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It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

[Skyweir]

What???? Wow 😮 😮😮😮😮
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[peter]

Shame on me for not knowing how to post a link,but apparently a team of physicists in Hungary have published a paper outlining what may - may, I repeat - turn out to be a fifth fundamental force to add to the four we already have (gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear, weak nuclear). Calling it the 'photophobic' force because it apparently makes two particles (photons?) separate at an angle that cannot be explained in any other way than a repulsion of light, the team have now recorded the phenomenon in two different elements (one being beryllium, cannot remember the other) and say that if it can be confirmed in one more then the thing is effectively a done deal. Physicists from all over are apparently trying to find errors in their results - their speculation of a fifth fundamental force would effectively overturn physics as we currently understand it - but as yet without success. A Harvard physicist commenting said that if the work is corroborated by the rest of the physics community then it's a Nobel Prize no-brainer.

(Update; apparently it was an 'exited decaying helium atom' that displayed emmision of the erant photon (it's all about the angle's man) and have caused the team to postulate the existence of a new particle (dubbed X-17) and proof of whose existence would overturn the much maligned standard model, long considered to be seriously adrift, but still in place in the absence of anything better to replace it with. The feeling is that the work may be the first step on the pathway toward the linking of normal everyday matter with the fabled 'dark matter' that well, nobody seems to know shit about (to put it crudely).)
_________________
If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it. (Mark Twain)

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

[Skyweir]

lols 😂

Will google it 😉
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health and healing

'Smoke me a kipper .. I'll be back for breakfast!'

EZBoard SURVIVOR

[peter]

Maria Bergmann's team at the Max Planck Institute are by all accounts coming up with some very interesting stuff in respect of how bright stars can actually be. They seem to think that the current limits put on stellar brightness may be way too small, and as this limit is used in many calculations from the Hubble constant through to the quantity of dark matter in the universe, a change in the accredited upper value could have wide reaching effects on how we view the universe we inhabit. In fact, there are numbers of areas in astronomy/cosmology where the indications are that our picture of the universe might be significantly adrift. In the aforementioned Hubble constant for example, there are discrepancies in the results of it's value depending upon which method you use to arrive at it. This kind of thing and our as yet inability to get to grips with the 'dark matter/dark energy' conundrum tell us that in this field of science at least, we have a ways to go before it is nailed down.
_________________
If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it. (Mark Twain)

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

[Cord Hurn]

"A star orbiting the Milky Way's massive black hole proves Einstein was right." https://www.sciencenews.org/article/star-orbiting-milky-way-giant-black-hole-confirms-einstein-was-right

[Cord Hurn]

It seems our hearts have their own brain centers. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-3-d-map-illuminates-little-brain-nerve-cells-within-heart

[Cord Hurn]

Now they've invented power-generating devices that can supply electricity for small gadgets using the small electric potential differences between light and shade: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-device-can-produce-electricity-using-shadows

[Avatar]

[peter]

Russians lay claim to Venus

Last week it appeared that the Russians laid claim to a new slice of territory, albeit one that they have never set foot on - Venus.

In an address to the press announcing their intention to mount a mission to the planet the head of the space agency Roscosmos, Dimitri Rogozin, referred to the planet as a "Russian Planet" and stressed that it was Russia that had made the first landing there in the 1970's. Given the surface temperature of Venus - around 470 C - perhaps this is the first sign of a resumption of the hot/cold war? (Shouldn't even joke about such things really! )
_________________
If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it. (Mark Twain)

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

[Rigel]

NGL, it would be pretty cool to see them land on Venus.

Kind of like when Japan said they were going to bomb the moon.
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[Fist and Faith]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/10-awesome-science-discoveries-you-may-have-missed-in-2020/ar-BB1bBEzx?ocid=msedgdhp

Some cool discoveries in 2020. Is it possible that 2020 was actually a good year??
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We are not required to save the world. We are required to stand up as truly as we can for what we love. -SRD

All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon

[Cord Hurn]

[Fist and Faith]

How cool is a humming planet?!?
_________________
We are not required to save the world. We are required to stand up as truly as we can for what we love. -SRD

All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+


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--> --> Maybe 'dark matter' doesn't exist after all, new research suggests [In-Depth]
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