Lifeboat Foundation

Quantum field theory doesn’t get much coverage in popular science and if you open any textbook on the subject you’ll see why. It looks like an unholy crossbreed between quantum physics in a bad mood and every button you never push on a calculator. The idea of summarising it in 1,500 words or less for this article sounded daunting at first (it took a whole chapter to cover it in my recent book) but then again if I really did have to present it to a jury of aliens I wouldn’t have a choice.

Therefore, your honour, I request that you give me five minutes of your intergalactic attention. My presentation may not feature Jason Statham roundhouse kicking a shark in the eyeball, but I am going to try and justify the continued existence of the human race. Here goes…

Continue reading “Quantum field theory: ‘An unholy crossbreed between quantum physics in a bad mood and every button you never push on a calculator’” »

A team of scientists in Hungary recently published a paper that hints at the existence of a previously unknown subatomic particle. The team first reported finding traces of the particle in 2016, and they now report more traces in a different experiment.

If the results are confirmed, the so-called X17 particle could help to explain dark matter, the mysterious substance scientists believe accounts for more than 80% of the mass in the universe. It may be the carrier of a “fifth force” beyond the four accounted for in the standard model of physics (gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force).

Taking a cue from the self-cleaning properties of the lotus leaf, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have shed new light on microscopic forces and mechanisms that can be optimized to remove dust from solar panels to maintain efficiency and light absorption. The new technique removed 98 percent of dust particles.

In a new study published in Langmuir, the researchers confirmed that modifying the surface properties of solar panels may greatly reduce the amount of dust remaining on the surface, and significantly increase the potential of solar energy harvesting applications in the desert.

Dust adhesion on solar panels is a major challenge to energy harvesting through photovoltaic cells and solar thermal collectors. New solutions are necessary to maintain maximum collection efficiency in high dust density areas such as the Negev desert in Israel.

After decades of miniaturization, the electronic components we’ve relied on for computers and modern technologies are now starting to reach fundamental limits. Faced with this challenge, engineers and scientists around the world are turning toward a radically new paradigm: quantum information technologies.

Quantum technology, which harnesses the strange rules that govern particles at the atomic level, is normally thought of as much too delicate to coexist with the electronics we use every day in phones, laptops and cars. However, scientists with the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering announced a significant breakthrough: Quantum states can be integrated and controlled in commonly used electronic devices made from silicon carbide.

“The ability to create and control high-performance quantum bits in commercial electronics was a surprise,” said lead investigator David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering at UChicago and a pioneer in quantum technology. “These discoveries have changed the way we think about developing quantum technologies—perhaps we can find a way to use today’s electronics to build quantum devices.”

Nuclear physics usually involves high energies, as illustrated by experiments to master controlled nuclear fusion. One of the problems is how to overcome the strong electrical repulsion between atomic nuclei which requires high energies to make them fuse. But fusion could be initiated at lower energies with electromagnetic fields that are generated, for example, by state-of-the-art free electron lasers emitting X-ray light. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) describe how this could be done in the journal Physical Review C.

During nuclear fusion two atomic nuclei fuse into one new nucleus. In the lab this can be done by particle accelerators, when researchers use fusion reactions to create fast free neutrons for other experiments. On a much larger scale, the idea is to implement controlled fusion of light nuclei to generate power – with the sun acting as the model: its energy is the product of a series of fusion reactions that take place in its interior.

For many years, scientists have been working on strategies for generating power from fusion energy. “On the one hand we are looking at a practically limitless source of power. On the other hand, there are all the many technological hurdles that we want to help surmount through our work,” says Professor Ralf Schützhold, Director of the Department of Theoretical Physics at HZDR, describing the motivation for his research.

So where did the antimatter go?

This question is one of the biggest mysteries of modern science, and the answer is unknown. Something happened in the earliest moments of the universe to make the antimatter disappear. From our best current measurements of the primordial radiation of the Big Bang (called the cosmic microwave background radiation, or CMB), something tilted the scales in favor of matter, with the ratio of for every three billion antimatter particles, there were three billion and one matter particles. The two sets of three billions cancelled and made the CMB, and the remaining tiny amount of matter went on to form the stars and galaxies that we see in our telescopes today. For this to happen, some physical process had to favor matter over antimatter.

Continue reading “Have Scientists Cracked One Of The Biggest Mysteries Of Modern Physics?” »

The applications of spin dynamos, which could potentially power complex nanoscopic devices, have so far been limited owing to their extremely low energy conversion efficiencies. Here, we present a unique plasmonic diabolo cavity (PDC) that dramatically improves the spin rectification signal (enhancement of more than three orders of magnitude) under microwave excitation; further, it enables an energy conversion efficiency of up to ~0.69 mV/mW, compared with ~0.27 μV/mW without a PDC. This remarkable improvement arises from the simultaneous enhancement of the microwave electric field (~13-fold) and the magnetic field (~195-fold), which cooperate in the spin precession process generates photovoltage (PV) efficiently under ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) conditions. The interplay of the microwave electromagnetic resonance and the ferromagnetic resonance originates from a hybridized mode based on the plasmonic resonance of the diabolo structure and Fabry-Perot-like modes in the PDC. Our work sheds light on how more efficient spin dynamo devices for practical applications could be realized and paves the way for future studies utilizing both artificial and natural magnetism for applications in many disciplines, such as for the design of future efficient wireless energy conversion devices, high frequent resonant spintronic devices, and magnonic metamaterials.

In 2007, Y. S. Gui, et al.¹ first proposed and demonstrated the spin dynamo, first proposed and demonstrated the spin dynamo, is constructed that provides a new and interesting way to generate direct current via spin precessions to locally power nanoscopic devices and for future applications such as wireless energy conversion. Compared with the spin-driven currents in semiconductors², spin dynamos are based on ferromagnetic materials¹ or spin-torque diodes^{3, 4}, which feature a much higher current/power ratio coupled with a much smaller internal resistance. However, the reported works are limited to sophisticated waveguide couplings (and therefore to wires), such as coplanar waveguides (CPWs)^{5, 6}, microstrip lines^{7, 8}, and bias Tees^{3, 9 –12}, to in-couple radio-frequency or microwave electromagnetic waves. Free space direct illumination has rarely been studied, despite its excellent suitability for wireless energy conversion.

Called XLEAP, the new method will provide sharp views of electrons in chemical processes that take place in billionths of a billionth of a second and drive crucial aspects of life.

The higgs boson is most likely the greatest particle because it could allow for antigravity because it turns off the mass of an object. Basically it would be the master key for even understanding the dimensions of physics. Simply by allowing a near genesis. It can essentially allow for matter creation a sorta building block for creation. It is one of the greatest particles ever discovered. A particle so powerful that when harnessed it would almost allow for anything to happen. You could have crispr teleportation with higgs field dampening. Let’s say that myth is real then if it were real then it would lead to a particle like the higgs boson. Once harnessed it could allow for alien like technologies essentially a very powerful particle to allow to true impossibilities. I think even in a grain of sand we can find endless possibilities which is proof evident of something beyond understanding. Some have said that we started out in just hydrogen but the physics created the universe. Which would mean once the higgs is harnessed it could allow for creation technology or what the exterrestials knew for generations that we are never alone the universe is filled with wonder. Basically the higgs would allow for antigravity but all the mythological things. It would prove the existence of aliens even god most likely. Science could prove the most important thing that it could bring civilization into a new level technology no longer bound by terrestrial things but essentially it could allow for anything once harnessed.

Theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss explains the possible meaning and significance of finding the Higgs.