Quantum Physics

Stories

15 Stories

October 2008
- Hawking To Retire From Cambridge Post
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Oct 25, 08 2:15 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Stephen Hawking will retire from his chair at Cambridge University at the end of this academic year, the Telegraph reports. But the esteemed physicist will continue working at the college in an emeritus position. Cambridge requires profs to step down when they reach 67, and Hawking’s birthday is in January. He is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, the same position held by Isaac Newton. More »
- Physics Nobel to 3 Who Studied World's Origin
  
  Guardian (UK) | Oct 7, 08 7:48 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Nobel Prize for physics was awarded today to three researchers whose work on "broken symmetry" has clarified the origins of the universe. Their theories—a cornerstone of the so-called Standard Model of physics—explain how the world came into being after the Big Bang; although huge amounts of matter and antimatter canceled each other out, a small deviation in proportions allowed the cosmos to survive. More »
September 2008
- Balky Collider Offline Into '09
  
  Times (UK) | Sep 23, 08 3:52 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A serious malfunction, and the necessarily slow progress of repairs, will keep the Large Hadron Collider from starting its first experiments until spring, the Times reports. A major problem Friday shut down the European atom-smasher, and officials said the heating, repair and recooling of the giant magnets would take 2 months. But scheduled winter maintenance will intervene, effectively shuttering the huge experiment into 2009. More »
- Atom Smasher Out 2 Months
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Sep 20, 08 10:53 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - It turns out that the glitch with the Large Hadron Collider is worse than originally thought and will keep the massive atom smasher out of commission for at least 2 months, the Telegraph reports. The collider, which seeks to replicate the Big Bang and solve mysteries of creation, began to malfunction the day after its first test last week. More »
- Glitch Stalls Atom Smasher
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Sep 19, 08 12:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Large Hadron Collider, the $5-billion, 17-mile experiment seeking answers to the universe’s deepest mysteries, hit a snag within hours of its Sept. 10 launch, but its overseer did not report the malfunction for a week, the Daily Telegraph reports. A 30-ton transformer in the cooling system broke, causing tests to cease just a day after it fired its first proton beam. More »
- Supercollider 'Beautiful' So Far, Scientists Say
  
  Bloomberg | Sep 10, 08 5:50 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Scientists working with the massive atom-smasher buried under the French-Swiss border have already “seen some beautiful tracks coming off” the beams of protons circling the 17-mile loop, Bloomberg reports. “Things can go wrong at any time, but luckily this morning everything went smoothly,” one scientist told National Geographic . With the first test behind them, scientists will now gradually ramp up the experiments. More »
- 'Big Bang' Machine Switched On, We're Still Here
  
  Reuters | Sep 10, 08 5:09 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Large Hadron Collider was switched on today and the world did not end, as some doomsayers predicted, Reuters reports. Scientists at CERN in Switzerland now plan to use the giant particle-smashing machine to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang and shed light on the origins of the universe. Interest in the experiments soared after doomsday writers predicted the machine could spawn a black hole and destroy the world. More »
- Huge Particle Collider Ready for Debut
  
  New York Times | Sep 9, 08 11:00 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Physicists across the world will spend the wee hours of tomorrow morning watching with bated breath as the world’s most expensive science experiment gets under way, the New York Times reports. At 3:30am Eastern, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider will switch on for the first time, sending particles racing through a 17-mile track underneath Geneva, with nothing less than the core of particle physics at stake. More »
- Physics and Improv Collide
  
  Wall Street Journal | Sep 4, 08 2:43 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Physicists trying to explain the nature of the universe using the largest particle accelerator ever built are also trying to learn something else: communication skills to help them explain what they’ve learned to the rest of world. And they’re going about it in a unique way, the Wall Street Journal reports—through improv comedy. More »
March 2008
- NOVA | Teachers | Elegant Universe, The | Resources | PBS
  
  PBS | Mar 10, 08
  
  The Elegant Universe: ResourcesGeneral Physics Books, General Physics Web Sites, String Theory Books, String Theory Articles, and String Theory Web Sites.
- Quantum Computing Works in Experiment
  
  Ars Technica | Mar 4, 08 11:44 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - In theory, a quantum supercomputer would be insanely powerful. By manipulating atoms, quantum bits—qubits, for short—would never be definite 1s or 0s. Instead, they would be both at once, in theory allowing a device using them to solve nigh-impossible problems. That theory is getting closer to reality, Ars Technica reports. In recent as-yet-unpublished research, scientists report they've made a tiny two qubit computer. More »
February 2008
- NOVA | The Elegant Universe | PBS
  
  PBS | Feb 10, 08
  
  NOVA | The Elegant Universe | PBSA Theory of Everything In this excerpt from his book The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene explains why string theory might hold the key to unifying the four ...
August 2007
- Scientists Breach Einstein's Theory
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Aug 16, 07 11:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Two German physicists claim to have sent microwave photons zooming past the speed of light , a feat Albert Einstein said would require an infinite—and impossible—amount of energy, reports the Daily Telegraph . "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of," said one of the scientists. More »
- Physicists Float a New Theory of Levitation
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Aug 7, 07 7:32 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Two Scottish physics professors have published a report on forces of attraction that could be used to make objects levitate, writes the Telegraph . They've engineered a way to reverse the Casimir force, which normally causes elements to stick together. The discovery may lead to frictionless levitating parts in small mechanical systems. More »
May 2007
- King of Supernovas Sheds Light on Early Stars
  
  Space.com | May 8, 07 8:19 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Researchers are reporting the biggest stellar explosion ever recorded—a discovery which could shed light on how the universe was shaped. The star, 150 times more massive than the sun, went out with a bang 100 times more powerful than typical supernovas. Astronomers think the first stars after the Big Bang, which were also gargantuan, met similar fates. More »