Attention to the Unseen

Dennis Dieks writes: The world we perceive every day is full of things, objects, which we can distinguish from one another, follow in time, and often grasp and manipulate. This experiential fact so imposes itself on us that it is hard to imagine a world without objects. How could we reach out and make contact with the external world if there were no things to touch and see? It is no wonder, then, that from the very beginning of natural…

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Mario Barbatti writes: The camera zooms in on the person’s arm to reveal the cells, then a cell nucleus. A DNA strand grows on the screen. The camera focuses on a single atom within the strand, dives into a frenetic cloud of rocketing particles, crosses it, and leaves us in oppressive darkness. An initially imperceptible tiny dot grows smoothly, revealing the atomic nucleus. The narrator lectures that the nucleus of an atom is tens of thousands of times smaller than…

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AFP reports: Scientists have long known that light can sometimes appear to exit a material before entering it – an effect dismissed as an illusion caused by how waves are distorted by matter. Now, researchers at the University of Toronto, through innovative quantum experiments, say they have demonstrated that “negative time” isn’t just a theoretical idea – it exists in a tangible, physical sense, deserving closer scrutiny. The findings, yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, have attracted both…

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Zack Savitsky writes: Life is an anthology of destruction. Everything you build eventually breaks. Everyone you love will die. Any sense of order or stability inevitably crumbles. The entire universe follows a dismal trek toward a dull state of ultimate turmoil. To keep track of this cosmic decay, physicists employ a concept called entropy. Entropy is a measure of disorderliness, and the declaration that entropy is always on the rise — known as the second law of thermodynamics — is…

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SciTechDaily reports: A groundbreaking quantum theory has allowed researchers to define the exact shape of a single photon for the first time. Scientists at the University of Birmingham, whose work is featured in Physical Review Letters, have delved into the intricate behavior of photons — individual particles of light. Their research reveals how photons are emitted by atoms or molecules and how their shape is influenced by the surrounding environment. This complex interaction gives rise to infinite possibilities for light…

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Anil Ananthaswamy writes: Imagine standing on a railway platform watching a trolley go past. A girl on the trolley drops a bright red ball. To her, the ball falls straight down. But from the platform, you see the ball traverse an arc before hitting the trolley floor. The two of you observe the same event, but from different reference frames: one anchored to the trolley and the other to the platform. The idea of reference frames has a storied history…

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Science Alert reports: From the winding down of clocks to the death of stars, everything seems destined to eventually grind to a halt. But there’s one really, really big thing to which this doesn’t seem to apply, at all. That’s the Universe itself, getting bigger and bigger all the time. According to our physical descriptions of how the cosmos should behave, that growth should be slowing down. Instead, measurements show it is speeding up, driven by a mysterious force known…

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Charlie Wood writes: Detecting a graviton — the hypothetical particle thought to carry the force of gravity — is the ultimate physics experiment. Conventional wisdom, however, says it can’t be done. According to one infamous estimate, an Earth-size apparatus orbiting the sun might pick up one graviton every billion years. To snag one in a decade, another calculation has suggested, you’d have to park a Jupiter-size machine next to a neutron star. In short: not going to happen. A new…

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Rupendra Brahambhatt writes: According to the theory of general relativity, a galaxy must have a certain amount of mass to be held together by gravity. However, scientists don’t see enough visible mass in many galaxies in the universe, yet gravity keeps such galaxies intact. How’s this even possible? This is where the concept of dark matter comes into play. Scientists believe that galaxies have invisible mass in the form of matter that doesn’t interact with light. The gravity holding these…

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Live Science reports: Quantum physicists are familiar with wonky, seemingly nonsensical phenomena: atoms and molecules sometimes act as particles, sometimes as waves; particles can be connected to one another by a “spooky action at a distance,” even over great distances; and quantum objects can detach themselves from their properties like the Cheshire Cat from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland detaches itself from its grin. Now researchers led by Daniela Angulo of the University of Toronto have revealed another oddball quantum outcome:…

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Amanda Gefter writes: When Johnny Wheeler was 4 years old, splashing in the bathtub in Youngstown, Ohio, he looked up at his mother and asked, “What happens when you get to the end of things?” The question would haunt him for the rest of his life. What happens when you get to the bottom of space? What happens when you get to the edge of time? It would lead him to suggest that space-time can’t be the true fabric of…

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