Tag: Physics

Quantum computing 101with D-Wave’s Vern Brownell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq-mRNaV-sc I found this to be an interesting primer on quantum computing.  One take away for me is that quantum processors will be useful for specific purposes, not necessarily as general purpose devices.  This implies to me that we might someday have computers with separate quantum processors with specific jobs delegated to it by the classic … Continue reading Quantum computing 101with D-Wave’s Vern Brownell →

Fluid tests and quantum reality

The other day, I mentioned that I had some sympathy for the deBroglie-Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics, namely an interpretation that there isn't a wave-function collapse as envisioned by the standard Copenhagen interpretation, but a particle that always exists but is guided by a pilot-wave. It turns out that there are some people doing experiments with … Continue reading Fluid tests and quantum reality →

Sean Carroll defends philosophy

Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist, has a post up on his blog telling his fellow physicists to "stop saying silly things about philosophy". The last few years have seen a number of prominent scientists step up to microphones and belittle the value of philosophy. Stephen Hawking, Lawrence Krauss, and Neil deGrasse Tyson are well-known examples. To redress the balance a … Continue reading Sean Carroll defends philosophy →

BICEP2 team publishes results, backpedals on certainty

The BICEP2 team have officially published their results.  They had announced to much fanfare back in March, that they had detected primordial gravitational waves, and hence cosmic inflation.  But the results have increasingly been met with doubt, primarily centered on the possibility of interstellar dust causing the observed results. From a New Scientist article on the published paper: It … Continue reading BICEP2 team publishes results, backpedals on certainty →

I Was Promised Flying Cars – NYTimes.com

AS an astronomy-obsessed kid in the 1970s, I subsisted on a steady diet of science fiction. It promised a future filled with technological wonders: talking computers, bionic limbs, flying cars. Forty years later, though much of that future has arrived, it’s still missing what I consider its most important ingredient. Sure, we’ve got the iPhone’s … Continue reading I Was Promised Flying Cars – NYTimes.com →

Pseudophysics: The New High Priesthood

Wow.  Somewhat in balance to yesterday's reblog of part one of Coel Hellier's post defending multiverse theories as scientific, here's Amir Aczel skewering many of the proponents of multiverses and other untestable cosmological theories.  He takes aim at Brian Greene, Max Tegmark, Lawrence Krauss, and others, for presenting metaphysical assertions as science. The universe is a marvelous … Continue reading Pseudophysics: The New High Priesthood →

The Big Bang’s Identity Crisis – The Nature of Reality

Think of the Big Bang, and you probably imagine a moment in time when matter, energy and space itself all burst into existence at once. Yet many astrophysicists now believe that the “Big Bang” was actually two distinct events: first the inaugural instant of space and time, and second the generation of most of the … Continue reading The Big Bang’s Identity Crisis – The Nature of Reality →

Max Tegmark and MinutePhysics on the mathematical universe

This is a subject that we've discussed repeatedly here, so I thought you might find Tegmark's narration of this video interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGG4HmlotJE I'm pretty sure that mathematics are not only something humans created, that they are based on relations we observe in the world, but beyond that, I remain largely agnostic on the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis … Continue reading Max Tegmark and MinutePhysics on the mathematical universe →

The theoretical preference for a timeless and eternal reality

Ethan Siegel has an excellent post up contemplating the various models of the timeline of the universe. It’s only human to ask the most fundamental of all questions: where did all this come from? And we like to think we know the answer; it all came from the beginning. But if you think about it … Continue reading The theoretical preference for a timeless and eternal reality →