Official "Science News" Thread

[jasong]

Since no one else has posted it, they've found a mathematical structure that describes subatomic interactions in a much simpler calculation. I understand it enought to go,"OMG, so cool," but it makes me wonder if it affects physics simulations in a major way. Will we have simulation speedups because of this?

https://www.simonsfoundation.org/qua...antum-physics/

[only_human]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

So long and thanks for all the data.
Voyager is out of this solar system.

Speaking of facepalms: Letters to the Sydney Morning Herald

Stick with facts, not sci-fi
I do wish that the Herald editorial team would stop presenting Carl Sagan science fiction gibberish dressed up as if it were fact (''The little spacecraft that could'', September 14-15). It occurred over the weekend, when we were fed a far-fetched story about a space vehicle named Voyager and interstellar exploration.

This is the same type of pseudo scientific mumbo jumbo that exploiters of the public purse have been doing with climate change over many years. It is arrant nonsense and has to stop right here and now. The Herald does itself no favours by printing it, pretending that the sci-fi exaggerations are factual.

Bill Thomas Cabramatta

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by only_human

Speaking of facepalms:

I need to dig out my Voyager belt buckle.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by only_human

Speaking of facepalms: Letters to the Sydney Morning Herald

What a bloody ignorant arse!

[cheesehead]

Originally Posted by kladner

What a bloody ignorant arse!

Typical example of the effectiveness of the decades-long campaign by right-wing billionaires to persuade conservatives not to trust mainstream science (wherever it interferes with their business interests, that is).

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by cheesehead

Typical example of the effectiveness of the decades-long campaign by right-wing billionaires to persuade conservatives not to trust mainstream science (wherever it interferes with their business interests, that is).

Or maybe the author of the letter is simply a bloody ignorant arse.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Or maybe the author...

Take ignorant out of that and it sounds like a real problem.

[only_human]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Or maybe the author of the letter is simply a bloody ignorant arse.

Photographs of that letter in the newspaper's in-print edition are on being spread around social sites. The kind thing would have been for the newspaper to ignore the author but his tone clearly did not win friends. Being ignorant is regrettable; being ignorant and arrogant and opinionated on the internet is a trifecta trainwreck.

The arse didn't hang his rear on the internet. The newspaper did it for him by posting his letter in both web and print editions. Letters to the editor are meant to be read and he wildly succeeded in that. It would suck to be his kid in school.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

Take ignorant out of that and it sounds like a real problem.

:)

...but one more amenable to medical treatment than rampant ignorance.

[only_human]

Originally Posted by jasong

Since no one else has posted it, they've found a mathematical structure that describes subatomic interactions in a much simpler calculation. I understand it enought to go,"OMG, so cool," but it makes me wonder if it affects physics simulations in a major way. Will we have simulation speedups because of this?

https://www.simonsfoundation.org/qua...antum-physics/

The mathematical community has a perception of hype. David Roberts essentially says yeah-but what can it do?

Unfortunately the article leaves the big, big caveat until near the end:

"Physicists must also prove that the new geometric formulation applies to the exact particles that are known to exist in the universe, rather than to the idealized quantum field theory they used to develop it, called maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory."

Getting a calculation for, say, the magnetic moment of the electron would be even more impressive.

Here are some mathematical community reactions: Physicists Discover Geometry Underlying Particle Physics and The Unitarihedron: The Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Computing. These are slides about the amplihedron that are mentioned in an update to the first article. The comments after the second article are a good survey of opinions.

Luboš Motl understands string theory and willingly expresses his opinions on breaking developments and publications. The comments from the second article above show that he stands in a different camp than much of the mathematical community-at-large and also that he is a lightning rod for controversy from laymen. Despite the suggestions of jewel article overhype, he feels that there these developments look potentially useful and has expanded his thoughts further in his blog entry here: Diaperhedron can't match amplituhedron

There are also a couple of videos. I've lost track of where I got these links. It was in a comment to one of the people or pages I mentioned above.
The Amplituhedron, http://media.scgp.stonybrook.edu/vid...0917_1_qtp.mp4

I'm taking a look at the second of these video's right now.

[rogue]

Raise a glass of beer — to your health

Don't try to fool goldfish: They know their Bach and Stravinsky

Four new species of ‘legless lizards’ discovered living on the edge

Small Animals See The World In Slow Motion

From the Deepest Coma, New Brain Activity Found

How Birds Got Their Wings: Fossil Data Show Scaling of Limbs Altered as Birds Originated from Dinosaurs

The truth IS out there: British scientists claim to have found proof of alien life

A Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics