archive
13.7: Cosmos And Culture
Who's Afraid Of The Quantum Ghost?
May 1, 2013 How do you explain it when unseen forces act across time and space? The fact is that reality is far stranger than we can suppose when we step into the quantum world. Physicist Marcelo Gleiser lays out the bones of this modern ghost story.
The Salt
The Wonderful World Of Whisky Art
March 27, 2013 Photographer Ernie Button has been taking pictures of the dried residues left in empty whisky glasses for six years. The resulting images are compellingly abstract, and maybe just a little bit otherworldly.
13.7: Cosmos And Culture
One Step Closer To The Quantum Future
October 17, 2012 This year's Nobel Prize in physics celebrates amazing experiments that have the potential to elucidate some of Nature's deepest secrets. They also and have the potential to lead us down the path to a world transformed by revolutionary quantum applications.
13.7: Cosmos And Culture
Are The Mind And Life Natural?
October 12, 2012 Can natural science find a place for us in its vision of the cosmos? Thomas Nagel, in a new book, demands we take this question seriously. He is right to do so.
Shots - Health News
Fun With Physics: How To Make Tiny Medicine Nanoballs
October 10, 2012 Scientists have long toyed with the idea of putting medicine inside microscopic capsules that could travel to hard-to-reach places inside your body. Now, researchers have come up with a method to assemble tiny nanospheres.
All Tech Considered
To This Agency, There's Only One Way To Operate: Precisely
October 9, 2012 David Wineland of the National Institute of Standards and Technology is one of this year's two Nobel physics winners. NIST is the federal agency known for keeping accurate time using the atomic clock, and Wineland's Nobel has implications for even more accurate time-keeping. But what else does NIST do?
13.7: Cosmos And Culture
Physics And Cities: View From The Street
July 5, 2012 Cities are defined, in large part, by physics. It may not be obvious at first glance. But look closer and you'll see evidence everywhere that humans have used their understanding of physics to design and build the machines we call cities.
13.7: Cosmos And Culture
Blackboard Rumble: Why Are Physicists Hating On Philosophy (and Philosophers)?
May 1, 2012 There are those in the physics community who have no room for philosophy. At stake in their stance is a critical question living deep in the foundations of modern physics: What are the limits of science?
The Two-Way
Math + Physics + Fancy Language + Sneeze = Beating Traffic Ticket
April 16, 2012 Dmitri Krioukov, a physicist based at the University of California San Diego, used a four-page paper to make his case that physics could explain why an officer thought he didn't stop at an intersection. But a sneeze also played a key role.
13.7: Cosmos And Culture
The Smallest Bits Of Things: A Brief History Of Matter
March 28, 2012 Have we found the smallest bits of matter? Are there smaller particles we haven't identified? What are the most fundamental particles? A final, ultimate answer may not be attainable.
13.7: Cosmos And Culture
The End Of A Physics Worldview: Heraclitus And The Watershed Of Life
August 8, 2011 Heraclitus once said that life "bubbles forth" in a natural magic beyond the confines of entailing law and mathematization. We stand to be re-enchanted and may find our way beyond modernity to something very new.
13.7: Cosmos And Culture
The Physics Of Real Debt Ceilings: When Nature Says No
August 2, 2011 Physics has known for a long time that there are real physical ceilings in the physical world. Perhaps when our imaginary worlds of economics take those real constraints seriously it will give our beleaguered politicians firmer ground to stand on.
Blog Of The Nation
Shaking The Nuts Will Only Make It Worse
November 29, 2010 I'm constantly frustrated by mixed nuts. To me, the peanuts are the least interesting part, so I want to eat them first. But they're always at the bottom of the can. Turns out, physics can explain: The Brazil Nut Effect.
