Free Republic

For the first time, physicists have demonstrated a phenomenon known as the Terrell-Penrose effect, which causes an object moving close to the speed of light to warp before our eyes. The new findings, a collaboration between TU Wien and the University of Vienna, once again confirm a key prediction of Einstein’s theory of relativity by making an optical illusion of relativistic motion observable for the first time. Terrell-Penrose Effect According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, objects moving close to the speed of light experience unusual effects, including changes in length and time compared to objects at rest. Many relativistic...

Is there anything after death? What is the meaning of life? Are we just a bag of atoms? The scientist Sabine Hossenfelder, born in Frankfurt (Germany) 48 years ago, is convinced that if there is a branch of science capable of finding answers to humanity’s existential questions, it is physics. Specialized in theoretical physics and quantum gravity, Hossenfelder combines her research work with science communication (she is the creator of the YouTube channel Science without the gobbledygook). Her latest book, Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions (published in English in 2022, and out in Spanish this year)...

The image of Stephen Hawking – who has died aged 76 – in his motorized wheelchair, with head contorted slightly to one side and hands crossed over to work the controls, caught the public imagination, as a true symbol of the triumph of mind over matter. As with the Delphic oracle of ancient Greece, physical impairment seemed compensated by almost supernatural gifts, which allowed his mind to roam the universe freely, upon occasion enigmatically revealing some of its secrets hidden from ordinary mortal view.

Sir Roger Penrose is a highly respected English mathematical physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science. He received the 1988 Wolf Prize for physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for their work in showing the necessity for cosmological singularities. But this brilliant scientist didn't stop there. Penrose is now convinced there is human consciousness beyond the grave, and his conclusion is based upon scientific evidence. As reported by Sean Martin, Penrose "believes he and his team have found evidence that protein-based mircotubules — a structural component of human cells — carry quantum information stored at a sub-atomic level. Sir Roger...

The mathematical physicist and cosmologist Roger Penrose, now professor emeritus at Oxford University, is best known to mathematicians for his discovery of Penrose tiles. These are two four-sided polygons that tile the plane only in a nonperiodic way, that is, without a fundamental region that repeats periodically like the hexagonal tiling of a bathroom floor, or the amazing tesselations of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher. To everyone’s surprise, including Penrose’s, his whimsical tiling turned out to underlie a previously unknown type of crystal. You can read all about this in my book Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers. Penrose’s two...