Squeezed light a small step forward toward detecting gravitational waves
They stand as the last great prediction of general relativity: gravitational waves. They haven't been detected yet, but it seems almost unthinkable for them not to exist. Detecting them though... that is what might be described as a tough problem. These deformations of space are incredibly tiny. So tiny that making instruments to detect them has produced some of the most challenging engineering problems ever seen. What makes gravitational waves so hard to detect? Gravitational waves are generated by accelerating masses. It's not really possible to put this in perspective. LIGOs, or laser interferometer gravitational wave observatories, use light to detect these tiny deformations. The trick is to make the two paths absolutely identical, which results in absolutely no light exiting at the measurement point due to destructive interference. Unfortunately, the world is quantum, and with quantum comes fluctuations. Let me baffle you with quantum And, in fact, you don't really want to do that.
'Fast Money' Recap: 'Dawn of American Decade'
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The markets ended mixed Tuesday as disappointing housing sales data weighed on a strong consumer confidence report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.65, or 0.02%, to 12,291.35. The S&P 500 added 0.10, or 0.01%, to 1265.43. The Nasdaq added 6.56, or 0.25%, to 2625.20. The "Fast Money" gang were bullish on the prospects of the U.S. economy in 2012 and beyond. Brian Kelly said the U.S. economy, despite muddling along, is the best place to be next year. For a breakout of some stocks from a recent "Fast Money" TV show, check out Dan Fitzpatrick's "3 Stocks I Saw on TV." Michael Murphy agreed, saying the U.S., after surviving a terrible decade, is about to "hunker down" and show the rest of world "what we are made of." Anthony Scaramucci said investors should paid attention to the financials. Kelly qualified his optimism, saying his bullishness about the first quarter was tempered by concerns about a slowdown after that.
Speed-of-light results under scrutiny at Cern
23 September 2011Last updated at 18:03 By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News Enormous underground detectors are needed to catch neutrinos, that are so elusive as to be dubbed "ghost particles" A meeting at Cern, the world's largest physics lab, has addressed results that suggest subatomic particles have gone faster than the speed of light. The team has published its work so other scientists can determine if the approach contains any mistakes. If it does not, one of the pillars of modern science may come tumbling down. Antonio Ereditato added "words of caution" to his Cern presentation because of the "potentially great impact on physics" of the result. The speed of light is widely held to be the Universe's ultimate speed limit, and much of modern physics - as laid out in part by Albert Einstein in his theory of special relativity - depends on the idea that nothing can exceed it. "We look forward to independent measurement from other experiments."
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Authorization Required You need to have a membership to access Red Ice Members Either you entered the wrong account details or you're currently not a member with an active subscription. If you are not a member: Signup here . If you are a member, with an active subscription, but can't log in, check your registration details that you recieved via email when you first signed up. For further help go to the Login help page . Have you lost your password? If you're not a member, but want to have a look around, you can browse our Radio, TV and Extra archive or use the search function to see what you're missing. Why subscribe to Red Ice Members? You get full access to all our archives going back to April 2006. You can stream or download all: Radio Programs Films Red Ice TV Episodes Webcasts Videos and Video Interviews Audio Commentary Original Music Scores We pursue the truth - we don't claim we've found it! A selection of some of the peopel we've interviewed ... and many, MANY more!
First Quantum Computer With Quantum CPU And Separate Quantum RAM
Back in 1946, the world’s first general purpose electronic computer was switched on at the University of Pennsylvania. The huge processing power of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) stunned the world, or at least the few dozen people who had any idea what it was for and why it was important. But ENIAC had an important flaw. It could only be programmed by resetting a myriad switches and dials, a task that could take weeks. The solution was not hard to find. it had already been outlined by Alan Turing, John Von Neumann and others: have a unit for number crunching and a separate electronic memory that could store instructions and data. Today, almost all modern computers use this design, now known as the Von Neumann architecture. The exception is the quantum computer. Unfortunately, physicists have only a vague and fleeting power over the quantum world and this means has prevented them the luxury of designing a Von Neumann-type quantum computer. Until now.
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We may have glimpsed the Higgs boson, say Cern scientists | Science
Scientists at the European particle physics laboratory in Switzerland believe they have seen a hint of the so-called God particle Link to video: Higgs boson: Cern scientists may have glimpsed 'God particle' Scientists believe they may have caught their first glimpse of the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle that is thought to underpin the subatomic workings of nature. Physicists Fabiola Gianotti and Guido Tonelli were applauded by hundreds of scientists yesterday as they revealed evidence for the particle amid the debris of hundreds of trillions of proton collisions inside the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva. First postulated in the mid-1960s, the Higgs boson has become the most coveted prize in particle physics. Its discovery would rank among the most important scientific advances of the past 100 years and confirm how elementary particles acquire mass.
Hamilton Richardson's review of Mr. Messy (Mr. Men Classic Library)
This review is from: Mr. Messy (Mr. Men Classic Library) (Paperback) If '1984' or 'The Trial' had been a children's book, Mr Messy would be it. We meet Mr Messy - a man whose entire day-to-day existence is the undiluted expression of his individuality. That is, until a chance meeting with Mr Neat and Mr Tidy - the archetypal men in suits. This process is so thorough that by the end of it he is unrecognizable - a homogenized pink blob, no longer truly himself (that vibrant Pollock-like scribble of before). Somewhere behind this blank expression though is a latent anger - a trace of self-knowledge as to what he once was - in the barbed observation he makes to Neat and Tidy that they have even deprived him of his name. The book ends with a dry reminder from Hargreaves that just as with the secret police in some totalitarian regime, our own small expressions of uniqueness and volition may also result in a visit from these sinister suited agents.
