The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

Rosetta Space Mystery Could Be a Clue to New Laws of the Universe

Scientists are eagerly anticipating the ROSETTA probe's next pass of Earth, because they know that something they don't know about might happen.  Probes passing by Earth to pick up a gravitational slingshot have been experiencing unexplained extra accelerations, and the reasons could reveal fundamental facts of existence - if we ever work them out.

New Model of Reality Discovered?

Fermilab physicists found a brand new particle, and even better, it's one the theorists weren't expecting.  Which is kind of the point of spending millions of dollars to smash things together at close to the speed of light.

Will the Laws of Physics Extend Beyond Our Universe? A Galaxy Classic

Chris Knight, the finest fictional physicist of our time, once said "All science.  No Philosophy.  Wrong."  It's true that an understanding of existence outside of equations is vital for scientists, both in terms of enjoying life and avoiding things like Agent Orange, but beware careless combination of the two.  A science/philosophy mixture can lead to metaphysical claims that the laws of physics are nothing but local zoning ordinances, as demonstrated by Lee Smolin.

Chris Knight, the finest fictional physicist of our time, once said "All science.  No Philosophy.  Wrong."  It's true that an understanding of existence outside of equations is vital for scientists, both in terms of enjoying life and avoiding things like Agent Orange, but beware careless combination of the two.  A science/philosophy mixture can lead to metaphysical claims that the laws of physics are nothing but local zoning ordinances, as demonstrated by Lee Smolin.

Quantum Gravity: The Ultimate Theory of Everything or SciFi?

Quantum Gravity: as well as allowing sci fi writers claim anything plus impossibility, it could be the ultimate theory of everything.  The thing is, such reality-Rosetta stones aren't easy to come by, which is why recent "advances" are often working out that previous postulations aren't actually so.

Quantum mechanics works awesomely at the small scale, while general relativity matches all our observations of the incredibly large - but both break down if you try to make them play together.  Any attempt to merge quantum mechanics with gravity leads to things like infinite density spikes, and even bigger problems than that (proving that English is comparative instead of analytical). 

"Are Black Holes Actually White?" Dartmouth Team Seeks to Validate Stephen Hawking's Theory

Stephen Hawkings great discovery was that the mysterious regions in space we call black holes radiate heat through quantum effects. Hawking has said that "black holes are not really black after all: they glow like a hot body, and the smaller they are, the more they glow." Hawking's famous theory says that the temperature of a black hole varies inversely to its mass. The mathematician Louis Crane proposed a scifi-like scenario back in 1994 that billions of years in the future, after all the stars have burned out, that small black holes could be created to generate heat and guarantee survival of the species.

Antimatter: "Angel or Demon"?

Antimatter destroys any matter that it touches in a pyrotechnic flash, an explosion that releases all the energy that had been locked inside for billions of years. Antimatter thus could become a wonderful source of power, the technology of the 21st century. Or instead, its potential to consign matter to oblivion could make it the ultimate weapon,

Frank Close, University of Oxford, author of Antimatter

Antimatter destroys any matter that it touches in a pyrotechnic flash, an explosion that releases all the energy that had been locked inside for billions of years. Antimatter thus could become a wonderful source of power, the technology of the 21st century. Or instead, its potential to consign matter to oblivion could make it the ultimate weapon,

Frank Close, University of Oxford, author of Antimatter

Black Hole in a Lab? Yes, from the UC Berkeley "Believe It or Not Factory"

A table-top black hole might sound the worst (and shortest-lived) idea since a Tiger-based daycare, but Berkeley scientists have made it happen.  They're using brand new metamaterials to create simulated black holes in a chip, and we'd like to repeat that, but can't because that much coolness in one paragraph could be damaging to the reader.

Was the Speed of Light Faster in the Early Universe?

A brilliant young physicist João Magueijo  asks the heretical question: What if the speed of light—now accepted as one of the unchanging foundations of modern physics—were not constant?

Parallel Universes: Are They More Than a Figment of Our Imagination? A Galaxy Classic

"The multiverse is no longer a model, it is a consequence of our models.”

~Aurelien Barrau, particle physicist at CERN

The Hollywood blockbuster, The Golden Compass, adapted from the first volume of Pullman's classic sci-fi trilogy, "His Dark Materials" portrays various universes as only one reality among many, but how realistic is this kind of classic sci-fi plot? While it hasn’t been proven yet, many highly respected and credible scientists are now saying there’s reason to believe that parallel dimensions could very well be more than figments of our imaginations.

Hawking vs Higgs: Heavyweight Bout at CERN's LHC -A Galaxy Insight

A scientist took a major offense at Stephen Hawking's quip that it might be more interesting if the Large Hadron Collider didn't find any Higgs bosons. Getting upset at Stephen Hawking might not sound like a smart thing for a scientist to do, but when you consider that it's Professor Peter Higgs himself you can sort of see his point.  This sets the scene for the ultimate scientific showdown - and while the old days might have settled such a matter of honor with pistols, these days we use twenty-seven kilometers of superconducting magnets.  These days are much, much more awesome than the old days.

Rosetta Space Mystery Could Be a Clue to New Laws of the Universe

Scientists are eagerly anticipating the ROSETTA probe's next pass of Earth, because they know that something they don't know about might happen.  Probes passing by Earth to pick up a gravitational slingshot have been experiencing unexplained extra accelerations, and the reasons could reveal fundamental facts of existence - if we ever work them out.

New Model of Reality Discovered?

Fermilab physicists found a brand new particle, and even better, it's one the theorists weren't expecting.  Which is kind of the point of spending millions of dollars to smash things together at close to the speed of light.

Will the Laws of Physics Extend Beyond Our Universe? A Galaxy Classic

Chris Knight, the finest fictional physicist of our time, once said "All science.  No Philosophy.  Wrong."  It's true that an understanding of existence outside of equations is vital for scientists, both in terms of enjoying life and avoiding things like Agent Orange, but beware careless combination of the two.  A science/philosophy mixture can lead to metaphysical claims that the laws of physics are nothing but local zoning ordinances, as demonstrated by Lee Smolin.

Chris Knight, the finest fictional physicist of our time, once said "All science.  No Philosophy.  Wrong."  It's true that an understanding of existence outside of equations is vital for scientists, both in terms of enjoying life and avoiding things like Agent Orange, but beware careless combination of the two.  A science/philosophy mixture can lead to metaphysical claims that the laws of physics are nothing but local zoning ordinances, as demonstrated by Lee Smolin.

Quantum Gravity: The Ultimate Theory of Everything or SciFi?

Quantum Gravity: as well as allowing sci fi writers claim anything plus impossibility, it could be the ultimate theory of everything.  The thing is, such reality-Rosetta stones aren't easy to come by, which is why recent "advances" are often working out that previous postulations aren't actually so.

Quantum mechanics works awesomely at the small scale, while general relativity matches all our observations of the incredibly large - but both break down if you try to make them play together.  Any attempt to merge quantum mechanics with gravity leads to things like infinite density spikes, and even bigger problems than that (proving that English is comparative instead of analytical). 

"Are Black Holes Actually White?" Dartmouth Team Seeks to Validate Stephen Hawking's Theory

Stephen Hawkings great discovery was that the mysterious regions in space we call black holes radiate heat through quantum effects. Hawking has said that "black holes are not really black after all: they glow like a hot body, and the smaller they are, the more they glow." Hawking's famous theory says that the temperature of a black hole varies inversely to its mass. The mathematician Louis Crane proposed a scifi-like scenario back in 1994 that billions of years in the future, after all the stars have burned out, that small black holes could be created to generate heat and guarantee survival of the species.

Antimatter: "Angel or Demon"?

Antimatter destroys any matter that it touches in a pyrotechnic flash, an explosion that releases all the energy that had been locked inside for billions of years. Antimatter thus could become a wonderful source of power, the technology of the 21st century. Or instead, its potential to consign matter to oblivion could make it the ultimate weapon,

Frank Close, University of Oxford, author of Antimatter

Antimatter destroys any matter that it touches in a pyrotechnic flash, an explosion that releases all the energy that had been locked inside for billions of years. Antimatter thus could become a wonderful source of power, the technology of the 21st century. Or instead, its potential to consign matter to oblivion could make it the ultimate weapon,

Frank Close, University of Oxford, author of Antimatter

Black Hole in a Lab? Yes, from the UC Berkeley "Believe It or Not Factory"

A table-top black hole might sound the worst (and shortest-lived) idea since a Tiger-based daycare, but Berkeley scientists have made it happen.  They're using brand new metamaterials to create simulated black holes in a chip, and we'd like to repeat that, but can't because that much coolness in one paragraph could be damaging to the reader.

Was the Speed of Light Faster in the Early Universe?

A brilliant young physicist João Magueijo  asks the heretical question: What if the speed of light—now accepted as one of the unchanging foundations of modern physics—were not constant?

Parallel Universes: Are They More Than a Figment of Our Imagination? A Galaxy Classic

"The multiverse is no longer a model, it is a consequence of our models.”

~Aurelien Barrau, particle physicist at CERN

The Hollywood blockbuster, The Golden Compass, adapted from the first volume of Pullman's classic sci-fi trilogy, "His Dark Materials" portrays various universes as only one reality among many, but how realistic is this kind of classic sci-fi plot? While it hasn’t been proven yet, many highly respected and credible scientists are now saying there’s reason to believe that parallel dimensions could very well be more than figments of our imaginations.

Hawking vs Higgs: Heavyweight Bout at CERN's LHC -A Galaxy Insight

A scientist took a major offense at Stephen Hawking's quip that it might be more interesting if the Large Hadron Collider didn't find any Higgs bosons. Getting upset at Stephen Hawking might not sound like a smart thing for a scientist to do, but when you consider that it's Professor Peter Higgs himself you can sort of see his point.  This sets the scene for the ultimate scientific showdown - and while the old days might have settled such a matter of honor with pistols, these days we use twenty-seven kilometers of superconducting magnets.  These days are much, much more awesome than the old days.