Wednesday, August 6
Famous double-slit experiment holds up when stripped to its quantum essentials
CaptionSchematic of the MIT experiment: Two single atoms floating in a vacuum chamber are illuminated by a laser beam and act as the two slits. The interference of the scattered light is recorded with a highly sensitive camera depicted as a screen. Incoherent light appears as background and implies that the photon has acted as a particle passing only through one slit. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
MIT physicists have performed an idealized version of one of the most famous experiments in quantum physics. Their findings demonstrate, with atomic-level precision, the dual yet evasive nature of light. They also happen to confirm that Albert Einstein was wrong about this particular quantum scenario.
The experiment in question is the double-slit experiment, which was first performed in 1801 by the British scholar Thomas Young to show how light behaves as a wave. Today, with the formulation of quantum mechanics, the double-slit experiment is now known for its surprisingly simple demonstration of a head-scratching reality: that light exists as both a particle and a wave. Stranger still, this duality cannot be simultaneously observed. Seeing light in the form of particles instantly obscures its wave-like nature, and vice versa.
Tuesday, August 5
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Tesla awards Elon Musk $29 billion worth of stock to keep the CEO focused. The electric car maker granted Musk 96 million restricted shares, saying it was a “first step, good faith” gesture toward retaining its CEO and keeping his focus on the company amidst his other projects. Musk had previously threatened to turn his attention to developing AI elsewhere if he didn’t get more control of Tesla. The company said Musk, who is currently the world’s richest person, hadn’t been paid in years because of legal disputes over his $56 billion 2018 pay package (which a Delaware court tossed out as improperly granted twice, prompting Tesla to appeal), noting that the company’s value on the stock market has gone up by $735 billion since 2018. The shares will be forfeited if Tesla prevails in getting the earlier compensation package restored. The big payday comes despite Tesla’s recent falling sales amid Musk’s public turn to politics.
AI pushes Palantir’s quarterly revenue up to $1b. The data analysis software company beloved by both retail traders and government spies is on a roll: Palantir’s revenue rose 48% last quarter, hitting $1 billion for the first time, which its CEO Alex Karp said was thanks to “the astonishing impact of AI.” Palantir also upped its guidance for the year, saying it now expects to make $4.14 billion to $4.15 billion. While some on Wall Street have warned that the company’s shares are overvalued, Karp said, “The skeptics are admittedly fewer now, having been defanged and bent into a kind of submission.”
Trump threatens India with high tariffs for buying Russian oil. He hasn’t revealed an exact number, but with President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff headed to Russia this week to try to encourage it to negotiate a ceasefire with Ukraine, Trump said he plans to “substantially” raise tariffs on India’s goods. Last week, the president said he would impose a 25% tariff on Indian imports, but this would likely be on top of that since he has threatened “secondary tariffs” on Russia’s trading partners. India called targeting it “unjustified and unreasonable,” saying the US and the EU had also traded with Russia.—AR
Robert Reich
Friends,
I’m in New York today, peddling my new book. It’s officially out today.
I loathe book tours.
The first book tour I ever went on, in the early 1980s, brought me to a bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin, where they sat me in the window under a spotlight next to a sign “Come In and Have Your Book Signed By Robert Reich.”
No one came in. For two hours, people passed on the street, a few gazing at the pathetic author in the window. I felt like a piece of merchandise, which I was.
That’s what you are when you go on a book tour: merchandise. A traveling salesperson selling a book. But not just any book — it’s your book. It’s something you’ve worked on and sweated over for several years. It’s your baby. And now you have to flog it like a can of dog food.
At A Glance
The wild origins of the word "dude."
Inside North Korea's new beach resort.
What's the difference between hot sweat and cold sweat?
How a coding flaw led to a billion-dollar crypto heist. (via 1440 Topics)
What to know about flesh-eating bacteria and brain-eating amoebas.
Classify clouds with AI—or draw and find shapes in the clouds.
See lifelike reconstructions of two Stone Age sisters.
Miniature therapy horses play keyboards in hospitals.
The drink of the summer: a "billion-dollar smoothie."
Clickbait: Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are wolves’ nightmare fuel.
Historybook: Space pioneer Neil Armstrong born (1930); Marilyn Monroe found dead in her Los Angeles home (1962); The US, the UK, and the Soviet Union sign Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963); Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison dies (2019).
In The News
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> US track and field star Sha'Carri Richardson arrested for allegedly assaulting boyfriend and fellow Olympian Christian Coleman (More) | USA Track and Field Championships wrap up; see full results (More)
> Flaco Jiménez, six-time Grammy-winning Tejano music legend, dies at age 86 (More) | Jeannie Seely, Grammy-winning country musician, dies at age 85 (More)
> The 2025 World Swimming Championships wrap with Team USA leading all countries with 29 medals (More) | WNBA's Connecticut Sun reportedly to be sold for $325M; would be highest price ever for a professional women's sports franchise (More)
Science & Technology
> Google unveils Gemini Deep Think AI, a reasoning platform the company says can process multiple ideas at once (More) | Anthropic revokes OpenAI's license to the Claude large language model, claiming OpenAI engineers were using its coding tools to develop its next product (More)
> Sugar molecules used by cancer cells to evade the immune system may provide new treatment for type 1 diabetes; coating helps insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells evade autoimmune responses (More) | Type 1 diabetes explained (1440 Topics)
> Scientists build digital library of pollen from more than 18,000 plant species; archive will allow quick identification of pollen species, a task that typically takes hundreds of hours (More) | The evolution of flowers and bees (1440 Topics)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower Friday (S&P 500 -1.6%, Dow -1.2%, Nasdaq -2.2%) amid weaker-than-expected jobs report and downward revisions to past months' data, new tariff announcements (More) | See previous write-up (More)
> OPEC+ countries agree to raise oil production by over 547,000 barrels per day next month (More) | Berkshire Hathaway's operating earnings drop 4% in Q2 to $11.2B; holds $344B in cash (More) | Warren Buffett 101 (More)
> Delta tells lawmakers it will not use AI and customers' personalized data to set custom airfare (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Special counsel's office launches investigation into former special counsel Jack Smith over alleged violations of the Hatch Act, which restricts federal employees' political activity; Smith led investigations into President Donald Trump's handling of the 2020 election, classified documents (More) | Hatch Act 101 (More, w/video)
> Dozens of Texas Democrats leave the state to block Republican-led redistricting effort (More) | Search continues for 45-year-old suspected gunman who killed four people at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, Montana, Friday (More)
> Israel's national security minister prays on Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, on Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av, violating decades-old arrangement with Jordanian religious foundation (More) | Hamas releases video of hostage Evyatar David saying he is digging his own grave (More)
SOURCE:1440 NEWS
Adjusting to Life
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Seeing the positive side is not as easy as it sounds, especially when it involves finances and/or one's health, and maybe one's relationships although that is not a critical aspect of one's life.
I remember someone telling me: HOPE FOR THE BEST, EXPECT THE WORST AND YOU ARE NEVER DISAPPOINTED... because it is always going to be one of those two. I suppose this is the humorous side of life to think like this.
When I get bad news, I immediately start to think how is this going to impact my life and what do I need to do to counter that impact. I suppose that is a good approach to take because you are not looking at it positively or negatively, just dealing with it as it happens.
When I was told I had cancer and then five years later when I was told I had contracted a second cancer, I had no positive or negative feelings; I just lived my life as if nothing was wrong. For six months, I got treatments on back-to-back days and then two days after that, I vomited so much my wife had to take me to the ER.
While throwing up that much is not very much fun and after the first time, I knew to expect it and could not stop it, I never felt MY LIFE IS OVER - THE END IS NEAR. I just dealt with it and went about living my life once it was behind me.
I don't know if the way I deal with life is the right way; I just know that the way I deal with life is the right way for me.
Moon's first-ever radio telescope ready for the dark side
Radio astronomers like a bit of peace and quiet, so they're sending an historic first radio telescope to the Moon. To block out Earthside radio signals, the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment (LuSEE-Night) will set up shop on the far side of the Moon.
Radio astronomy has revolutionized our understanding of the universe by opening up the vast electromagnetic spectrum that is invisible to the human eye. With giant radio telescopes to help, we have discovered pulsars, quasars, radio galaxies, interstellar molecules, supermassive black holes, and the microwave echoes of the Big Bang.
Unfortunately, listening to the music of the spheres is a frustrating task because Earth isn't exactly a quiet neighborhood when it comes to radio waves. Never mind terrestrial radio and television broadcasts, or even satellite signals or the ubiquitous presence of cell phones. There are also sparking car engines, microwave ovens, lightning strikes, GPS signals, reflections off the ionosphere, and even bird poop on the antenna to muck things up.
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