Tuesday, October 8
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Shohei Ohtani homers in first-ever postseason game, leading Los Angeles Dodgers to Game 1 win over San Diego Padres in NL Division Series (More) | See latest MLB playoff bracket (More) | New York Liberty tops Las Vegas Aces to advance to WNBA Finals (More)
> Allan Blye, two-time Emmy-winning writer and actor, dies at age 87 (More) | Christopher Ciccone, artist and younger brother of Madonna, dies at age 63 (More)
> "Joker" sequel tops domestic box office with $40M revenue, falling short of expected $50M-$60M haul; film topped overseas box office with $81M (More)
Science & Technology
> Nobel Prize week begins, with the winners in physiology and medicine announced at 5:30 am ET this morning; see selections here (More) | The history of the Nobel Prize (More, w/video)
> mRNA vaccine shown to protect against C. difficile bacteria in mice; roughly one in 11 elderly patients who contract the infection in healthcare settings dies within one month (More)
> Engineers demonstrate artificial plant capable of generating electricity, clean indoor environments; researchers hope to eventually be able to charge cell phones and similar devices (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher Friday (S&P 500 +0.9%, Dow +0.8%, Nasdaq +1.2%) following September jobs report showing highest jobs growth in six months (More) | See previous write-up (More)
> European Union member states vote to raise tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports to 45%, up from 10% (More) | Rivian misses Q3 delivery expectations, lowers production target for 2024, blaming shortage of components (More)
> Boeing, production workers restart negotiations today to end three-week strike (More, free w/email) | Jeep and Chrysler parent company, Stellantis, sues United Auto Workers union for threatening to strike mid-contract (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Supreme Court reconvenes for 2024-25 term, with oral arguments scheduled on ghost guns case tomorrow; see biggest cases to watch (More)
> Former President Donald Trump speaks at site of July assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, accompanied by billionaire Elon Musk (More) | See latest poll data (More)
> Tunisia's incumbent President Kais Saied expected to win reelection in yesterday's election following disqualification and jailing of an opponent last month; turnout estimated at less than 30% (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
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General Relativity is the basic idea is that instead of being an invisible force that attracts objects to one another, gravity is a curving or warping of space. The more massive an object, the more it warps the space around it.
Many scientists are trying to combine both these concepts to create what they call A THEORY OF EVERYTHING...
If physics controls the large universe and the small universe as well, it can be logically concluded that physics controls them both simultaneously so that they are interdependent upon each other.
It makes a little bit of sense to the non-scientific layman until one looks off into the horizon and sees a clear delineation between the sky and the ground.
By looking at this horizon one can clearly see a line between the two, indicating what is on top and what is on the bottom. In so doing, one can also see that the sky operates the way the sky does, and the land operates the way the land does, even though the two entities can and often do, influence each other.
Where there is lots of gravity, time moves slower so one might conclude that space seeks out gravity. Whereas in the quantum world of sub-atomic particles there is electromagnetism which causes an acceleration in these particles as they move closer together, increasing the passing of time in order that atoms and molecules are combined faster.
This horizon line can also be detected when we see solid objects in front of us, but not so much as we feel wind pass by.
Perhaps it is a similar force (seen or unseen) that pulls the quantum world into the general relativity world in which we are currently living, balanced in some kind of suspended animation while we brief exist in spacetime.
Controlling Light
One of the most complex problems scientists face while working with quantum information is ensuring qubits remain protected. This is because every time they reset, measure, or delete even a single qubit, neighboring qubits can be damaged, leading to loss of information.
A new study from the University of Waterloo researchers proposes a solution to this problem. The study authors have devised a way to precisely control the laser light used to manipulate qubits.
They even performed an experiment to perform this almost impossible task. The experiment involved measuring and resetting a trapped ion qubit to a known state without causing any damage or disturbance to adjacent qubits located only a few micrometers away.
“This demonstration has the potential to significantly impact future research in the field, including advancing quantum processors, enhancing speed and capabilities for tasks like quantum simulations in machines that already exist today, and implementing error correction.” the study authors note. READ MORE...
Monday, October 7
Television Commercials
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Commercials on television are necessary in that they pay for the programs that we, or some of us, want to watch. The fees that these broadcast networks can charge is predicated upon the number of viewers that watch that particular show.
For instance, FOX NEWS, draws more viewers for news than the other stations like CBS, CNN, ABC, and MSNBC, so FOX can demand more money be paid to them for airing those commercials.
Therefore, broadcast networks are in constant competition with each other to increase their viewership so they can increase their ad revenues.
Even though the recent VP debate was aired on CBS and sold to other networks, more viewers watched the debate on FOX than they did on all the other networks. Not sure why that happened but it did.
But let's get back to commercials.
Companies that pay broadcast companies to air their commercials, do so for one purpose and one purpose only and that is to sell their products to the viewers of that commercial.
Therefore, these commercials must be clever enough to capture your attention in the hopes that you will retain that information so that when you need a particular product or item, your memory will kick in and prompt you to buy this product because of what you remember.
But not necessarily because it is good or it works, or it provide quality at the lowest possible cost.
Commercials are intentionally designed not to just mislead you or deceive you by not giving you all the facts, but they are designed to GET YOU TO BUY WHAT YOU DON'T REALLY NEED OR WANT.
After you have watched a particular commercial, you might tell yourself, "I think I would like one of those. Don't really need it, but it would be nice to have, I think."
Once, you start thinking like that, you will no doubt eventually buy the product... of course, you will also tell your friends and encourage them to have one as well, so you both can play with what you have, if play is what the product was designed for.
Other products will put you in a better position to get the female that you always wanted, or the male. When in reality that product does not really help at all.
You are left with a product you don't need, never needed actually, don't use anymore and never will, but these companies have your money.
If these companies can sell a million products to unsuspecting customers over and over again, there is no reason why they become extraordinarily wealthy, and you are left with debt because you overspent this month.
Negative Time Found
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: photons, wave-particles of light, can spend a negative amount of time zipping through a cloud of chilled atoms. In other words, photons can seem to exit a material before entering it.
“It took a positive amount of time, but our experiment observing that photons can make atoms seem to spend a *negative* amount of time in the excited state is up!” wrote Aephraim Steinberg, a physicist at the University of Toronto, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) about the new study, which was uploaded to the preprint server arXiv.org on September 5 and has not yet been peer-reviewed. READ MORE...
“It took a positive amount of time, but our experiment observing that photons can make atoms seem to spend a *negative* amount of time in the excited state is up!” wrote Aephraim Steinberg, a physicist at the University of Toronto, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) about the new study, which was uploaded to the preprint server arXiv.org on September 5 and has not yet been peer-reviewed. READ MORE...
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