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It’s an idea straight out of the schoolyard: that you might one day accidentally count so high that you break the laws of math. A new preprint (that has not yet been peer-reviewed) seems to have done just that, however – and it could have huge ramifications for how we ought to understand infinity. It’s fitting that such a baffling result would have come from set theory: it’s an area with a reputation for being abstract and often counter-intuitive; it has its own esoteric alphabet and language; and it’s famous for results that seem either too basic to have even...

The M87 Galaxy, as seen via the Hubble Space Telescope (NASA/Hubble). For the first time in a decade, the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy has erupted in an enormous gamma-ray flare, a rare and significant event that defied expectations in the latest analysis by astrophysicists. Several large collaborations, including the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), as well as the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope, and the MAGIC, VERITAS, HESS, and EAVN telescopes pooled their resources to observe the massive cosmic event, detailed in a new paper published in Astronomy and Astrophysics. M87 Black Hole Messier 87 is...

Scientists report the first known observation of a variety of quasiparticle that exhibits a very peculiar behavior: it appears to have mass, but only while moving in one direction. Scientists at Pennsylvania State University recently succeeded in detecting the unusual quasiparticle while conducting studies involving a semi-metallic crystalline material. Known as a semi-Dirac fermion, this unique formation of particles was first theorized more than a decade ago, but until now had never been directly observed. The discovery potentially paves the way toward future advances in a range of emerging technologies that include power storage and novel forms of sensor technologies....

Google’s quantum computing breakthrough on Monday has left the physicist who heads the project a believer in ‘the idea that we live in a multiverse.’

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope to peer back in time into the farthest reaches of the universe have found stunning evidence for an alternate theory of gravity. Current models of galaxy formation in the early cosmos predict the presence of excess gravity caused by dark matter to pull material into slowly forming galaxies. However, an alternate theory of gravity first proposed in 1998 called Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) suggests that structures in the early universe formed very quickly without the need for theoretical dark matter. Now, researchers from Case Western Reserve University say that scans of ancient galaxies...

The James Webb Space Telescope (Credit: NASA) The James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed controversial Hubble Telescope measurements that seemingly contradict the standard model of cosmology, giving rise to what is known as the ‘Hubble Tension,’ according to new findings involving the most extensive study of the universe’s expansion ever conducted. Confirmation of the decades-long Hubble Tension, which reveals that the universe is expanding faster than cosmological models predict, has sent astrophysicists back to the drawing board in search of previously unknown physics that could account for the measurements, potentially rewriting the standard model. “The discrepancy between the observed expansion...

Europe’s ultra-powerful new WEAVE telescope, undergoing its inaugural ‘first-light’ instrument activation, recorded a collision between galaxies in a region of deep space called Stephan’s Quintet, where one of the galaxies was traveling at two million miles per hour. Designed to study the composition of stars and galaxies, the William Herschel Telescope is a 20-million Euro collaboration between France, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands, and Spain, with the latter hosting the actual facility in La Palma. The facility’s Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE) wide-field spectrograph’s Large Integral Field Unit (LIFU) is the first of the telescope’s instruments to be activated and...

Einstein’s General Relativity holds firm as DESI data confirms its predictions on cosmic scales, while also revealing new insights into neutrino masses and galaxy clustering. Credit: SciTechDaily.com ========================================================================== Albert Einstein’s prediction about how gravity behaves has been tested on a cosmic scale. Albert Einstein’s prediction about how gravity behaves has been supported by an international team of researchers who studied how the force acts on cosmic scales. Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) researchers found that the way galaxies cluster is consistent with our standard model of gravity and the predictions from Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. A complex analysis of...

The Central Neutron Detector installed in Experimental Hall B. Silvia Niccolai and her team at the Laboratory of the Physics of the two Infinities Irène Joliot-Curie (IJCLab), a joint research unit of CNRS in Orsay, France, Paris-Saclay University, and Paris-City University, began constructing the detector in 2011 with funding from the French National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics. Credit: Silvia Niccolai ================================================================================= Recent advancements at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility have enabled physicists to explore the internal structure of neutrons in unprecedented detail. Using a new detector, researchers have achieved a deeper understanding of how quarks and gluons...

Moscovium and nihonium have been identified as more reactive than flerovium, demonstrating the significance of relativistic effects in superheavy elements. Research on moscovium and nihonium shows they are more reactive than flerovium and subject to notable relativistic effects, broadening our understanding of superheavy elements and their potential uses. An international team led by scientists from GSI/FAIR in Darmstadt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz has successfully determined the chemical properties of the artificially produced superheavy elements moscovium and nihonium (elements 115 and 113). Moscovium is now the heaviest element ever to be chemically studied. Their research, published...

credit: NASA/CSA/ESA, M. Xiao & P. A. Oesch (University of Geneva), G. Brammer (Niels Bohr Institute), Dawn JWST Archive Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered three massive galaxies from the early universe, revealing them to be as massive as the Milky Way and forming stars with surprising efficiency. This finding, which contradicts earlier models of slow stellar formation, suggests that star formation in the early universe was much more productive than previously believed. Three Galactic “Red Monsters” Discovered in the Early Universe An international research team, led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), has discovered three ultra-massive...

Laura Helmuth, the editor-in-chief of Scientific American, has resigned after receiving fierce backlash for her online expletive-filled tirade where she called Trump voters “f–king fascists” on election night. “I’ve decided to leave Scientific American after an exciting 4.5 years as editor in chief,” Helmuth announced on her Bluesky account Thursday. “I’m going to take some time to think about what comes next (and go birdwatching).” The president of the magazine, Kimberly Lau, said that Helmuth decided to step down on her own. She thanked Helmuth for her time leading Scientific American, noting that the magazine “won major science communications awards...

To combat tungsten sputtering in tokamaks, researchers have developed a method using boron powder to protect the plasma, demonstrated effectively in global experiments and supported by new computer modeling. Credit: SciTechDaily.com ============================================================================ Tungsten, the preferred material for tokamak fusion reactors, poses challenges due to sputtering that cools plasma, making fusion hard to sustain. Researchers at PPPL suggest that sprinkling boron powder into tokamaks could prevent this by shielding walls and preventing tungsten entry into the plasma. Recent experiments across global tokamaks and a new computer model support the potential of boron powder in maintaining optimal plasma conditions for fusion. Tungsten...

This simulation shows a top-down view of how different light patterns in red and green are generated when fed with input from a waveguide on the left. Credit: Md Nafiz Amin =================================================================================== A new miniature spectrometer combines cutting-edge technology with affordability, offering high precision in fields such as astronomy and health diagnostics. This device promises to bring complex spectral analysis into more frequent use by reducing size and cost, without sacrificing performance. Spectrometers, tools for analyzing light, have been around since the time of 17th-century physicist Isaac Newton. They function by splitting light waves into their various colors, or spectra,...

Spiral galaxy IC 3225, captured in this dynamic image by the Hubble Space Telescope, is seen speeding through space within the dense Virgo galaxy cluster. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun =============================================================================== This week, the Hubble Space Telescope brings us the stunning image of IC 3225, a spiral galaxy soaring through the cosmos resembling a comet with a tail of gas. The spiral galaxy featured in this stunning Hubble Space Telescope image is IC 3225. It looks as though it’s been shot from a cannon, racing through space like a comet, with a stream of gas trailing from its disk....

This image, taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, shows an ancient quasar (circled in red) with fewer than expected neighboring galaxies (bright blobs), challenging physicists’ understanding of how the first quasars and supermassive black holes formed. Credit: Christina Eilers/EIGER team ===================================================================================== Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to detect ancient lonely quasars with murky origins. They appear to have few cosmic neighbors, raising questions about how they first emerged more than 13 billion years ago. A quasar is an incredibly bright region at the center of a galaxy, powered by a supermassive black hole. As this black hole...

A research team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), led by Prof. Jianwei Pan, Qiang Zhang, and Kai Chen, in collaboration with CHEN Jingling from Nankai University, has achieved the loophole-free test of Hardy's paradox for the first time. The team successfully demonstrated Hardy's nonlocality, closing both the detection efficiency loophole and the locality loophole...Hardy's paradox, introduced by Lucien Hardy in the 1990s, offers a simplified test of local realism—the classical idea that physical properties exist independently of observation and that no signals exceed the speed of light. This...

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 galaxy NGC 1549, seen 700 million years after the Big Bang. Credit: JADES Collaboration =================================================================== Scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted an ‘inside-out’ galaxy that formed around 13 billion years ago. Like a large city, the galaxy has its densest collection of stars at its core. However, that density decreases as one moves from the city center to the galactic ‘suburbs,’ giving the galaxy its inside-out shape. Although scientists have seen similarly shaped galaxies form in the last 10 million years, the unique ability of the JWST to peer billions of years back in time has...

Two symbols of the Cold War, nuclear explosions and U2 spy planes, combine in new storm research investigating the radioactive nature of lightning. NASA satellites that are usually pointed at the stars detected something entirely unexpected coming from the Earth; gamma radiation bursts. Now, scientists are getting to the bottom of the decades-long mystery of those readings from the 1990s. Discovering that thunderstorms were the cause of the bursts didn’t take long, but many questions remained. The scale and frequency of radioactive lightning storms were unknown. Existing satellites were designed to look for energy coming from space, not the Earth....