http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Mathematics students at the University of Leicester have calculated that archaeologists had less than a 1 percent chance of finding King Richard III when they began their historic search. http://phys.org/news282214428.html Other Sciences Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:53:57 EST news282214428 (Phys.org)—Ever since Austrian scientist Erwin Schrodinger put his unfortunate cat in a box, his fellow physicists have been using something called quantum theory to explain and understand the nature of waves and particles. http://phys.org/news279299158.html Physics Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:06:07 EST news279299158 (Phys.org)—Come rain or shine, or even snow, some glaciers of the Himalayas will continue shrinking for many years to come. http://phys.org/news272271386.html Space & Earth Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:30:01 EST news272271386 A recent study by a team of scientists from the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest research stations, and the University of Idaho confirms the important role climate plays on bark beetle outbreaks. Based on three decades of bark beetle outbreaks in Oregon and Washington, the researchers developed a statistical probability model to quantify the contribution of various climate conditions, such as temperature and precipitation, on outbreak levels and to estimate expected amounts of damage to lodgepole pine forests (e.g. total area with beetle outbreaks). http://phys.org/news271935768.html Biology Mon, 12 Nov 2012 09:42:53 EST news271935768 People are more likely to install a solar panel on their home if their neighbors have one, according to a Yale and New York University study in the journal Marketing Science. http://phys.org/news269795770.html Technology Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:17:57 EST news269795770 Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new method for forecasting seasonal hurricane activity that is 15 percent more accurate than previous techniques. http://phys.org/news266583205.html Space & Earth Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:56:00 EST news266583205 (Phys.org) -- For the first time scientists at ETH Zurich have examined globally the connection between soil moisture and extreme heat with measured data. Their study shows that precipitation deficits increase the probability of hot days in many regions of the world. The results will help to better assess heat risks. http://phys.org/news261725233.html Space & Earth Tue, 17 Jul 2012 06:27:23 EST news261725233 In a paper recently published in European Physical Journal C, researchers hypothesised the existence of mirror particles to explain the anomalous loss of neutrons observed experimentally. The existence of such mirror matter had been suggested in various scientific contexts some time ago, including the search for suitable dark matter candidates. http://phys.org/news258974972.html Physics Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:29:43 EST news258974972 Scientists at the Florida State University Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) have released their fourth annual Atlantic hurricane season forecast, using a unique computer model with a knack for predicting hurricanes with unprecedented accuracy. http://phys.org/news257762171.html Space & Earth Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:36:23 EST news257762171 (Phys.org) -- Back in November, a paper posted to a preprint server arXiv by three British physicists prompted some heated debate regarding the nature of the quantum wave function, a probability function that physicists use to help them better understand the quantum world. At the time, the three refrained from joining in on subsequent discussions on the paper due to pending acceptance of the paper in the journal Nature Physics. Now that the paper has been accepted and printed, the three, Matthew Pusey, Jonathan Barrett and Terry Rudolph are openly defending their assertion that the wave function is real, not some function that is dependent on available information for the user when using it. http://phys.org/news255774529.html Physics Wed, 09 May 2012 09:29:04 EST news255774529 (Phys.org) -- At the heart of quantum mechanics lies the wave function, a probability function used by physicists to understand the nanoscale world. Using the wave function, physicists can calculate a system's future behavior, but only with a certain probability. This inherently probabilistic nature of quantum theory differs from the certainty with which scientists can describe the classical world, leading to a nearly century-long debate on how to interpret the wave function: does it representative objective reality or merely the subjective knowledge of an observer? In a new paper, physicists Roger Colbeck of the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, and Renato Renner who is based at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, have presented an argument strongly in favor of the objective reality of the wave function, which could lead to a better understanding of the fundamental meaning of quantum mechanics. http://phys.org/news254575239.html Physics Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:21:12 EST news254575239 Researchers have found a way to measure the likelihood of global stock market losses by identifying periods in which shocks may be more likely to spread across many national markets. http://phys.org/news252856598.html Other Sciences Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:56:52 EST news252856598 Tourists who drift aimlessly during a sightseeing tour are moving randomly - just like electrons that move from one atom to the next. To obtain a better understanding of these random motions it is often useful to reduce their complexity. Physicists do this by simulating random walks. These simulations can bring new insights in the quantum world as well. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light and the University of Paderborn and their colleagues are now the first to successfully realize an arrangement for a quantum walk in two dimensions. The experimental setup can be used to investigate many quantum phenomena. http://phys.org/news251533026.html Physics Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:17:34 EST news251533026 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA has rescheduled the launch of five suborbital sounding rockets from the Wallops Facility in Virginia as part of a study of the upper level jet stream to no earlier than Tuesday night, March 20. http://phys.org/news251363753.html Space & Earth Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:16:02 EST news251363753 Blue whale vocal behavior is affected by man-made noise, even when that noise does not overlap the frequencies the whales use for communication, according to new research published Feb. 29 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The whales were less likely to emit calls when mid-frequency sonar was present, but were more likely to do so when ship sounds were nearby, the researchers report. http://phys.org/news249762422.html Biology Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:27:16 EST news249762422 Scientists realize one of the most elementary and oldest "gedanken" experiments in modern physics, namely, excitation of a single molecule with a single photon. This paves the way for further investigations in which single photons act as carriers of quantum information to be processed by single emitters. http://phys.org/news249651712.html Physics Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:42:01 EST news249651712 Newly awarded a 2012 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, Allan Sly, assistant professor of statistics, talks about his research into probability theory, his students and his own days as a UC Berkeley graduate student. http://phys.org/news248599231.html Other Sciences Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:20:41 EST news248599231 Potentially key fingerprint evidence is currently not being considered due to shortcomings in the way it is reported, according to a report published today in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association. Researchers involved in the study have devised a statistical model to enable the weight of fingerprint evidence to be quantified, paving the way for its full inclusion in the criminal identification process. http://phys.org/news247920214.html Other Sciences Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:43:43 EST news247920214 NBA players may be too conservative with their shots, according to a comparison with a theoretical model describing shot selection reported Jan. 25 in the online journal PLoS ONE. http://phys.org/news246710549.html Other Sciences Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:00:12 EST news246710549 (PhysOrg.com) -- The difference between an intersection controlled by flashing lights and one controlled by a stop sign can play a big role in accident prevention, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. http://phys.org/news243590494.html Other Sciences Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:01:50 EST news243590494 The system created by these researchers can be used to automatically adapt the dialogue to the user's situation, so that the machine's response is adequate to the person's emotional state. "Thanks to this new development, the machine will be able to determine how the user feels (emotions) and how s/he intends to continue the dialogue (intentions)", explains one of its creators, David Grill, a professor in UC3M's Computer Science Department. http://phys.org/news241094456.html Technology Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:41:04 EST news241094456 At the end of last year, there was a flurry of activity from astronomers Gurzadyan and Penrose that considered the evidence of alternate universes or the existence of a universe prior to the Big Bang and suggested that such evidence may be imprinted on the cosmic microwave background as bruises of concentric circles. Quickly, this was followed by an announcement claiming to find just such circles. Of course, with an announcement this big, the statistical significance would need to be confirmed. A recent paper in the October issue of the Astrophysical Journal provides a second opinion. http://phys.org/news237461695.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:35:06 EST news237461695 In the study, UC Davis researchers compare seven different earthquake forecasts (including their own) that were submitted to a competition organized by the Southern California Earthquake Center. http://phys.org/news236422949.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:02:34 EST news236422949 It had to happen: the property bubble burst and the global financial market experienced its biggest crisis in the last hundred years. In retrospect, many suspected it was coming, but nobody could have known for sure. The traditional investment strategy failed, as all forms of investment suddenly collapsed at the same time. In order to calculate the probability of several such extreme events occurring at the same time, three scientists at the RUB have developed a new method. Prof. Dr. Holger Dette, Dr. Axel Bücher und Dr. Stanislav Volgushev from the Institute of Statistics (Faculty of Mathematics at the Ruhr-Universität) published their findings in the prestigious scientific journal "The Annals of Statistics". http://phys.org/news236253904.html Other Sciences Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:05:17 EST news236253904 (PhysOrg.com) -- Thanks to advances in experimental design, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have achieved a record-low probability of error in quantum information processing with a single quantum bit (qubit)—the first published error rate small enough to meet theoretical requirements for building viable quantum computers. http://phys.org/news234000304.html Physics Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:05:14 EST news234000304 (PhysOrg.com) -- As far as astrophysicists can tell, the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, and will likely continue to do so indefinitely. But now some physicists are saying that this theory, called eternal inflation, and its implication that time is endless pose a problem for scientists calculating the probability of any event occurring. In a recent paper, they calculate that time is likely to end within the next 5 billion years due to some type of catastrophe that no one alive at the time will witness. http://phys.org/news205133042.html Physics Fri, 01 Oct 2010 06:24:21 EST news205133042 Knowing which skills to develop and use is a key element to an athlete?s success. Brigham Young University statistics professor Gilbert Fellingham recently published an article in the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports that answered such questions as: Which skills matter most for women volleyball athletes? What is most important: hitting or passing? http://phys.org/news203853275.html Other Sciences Thu, 16 Sep 2010 10:55:15 EST news203853275 (PhysOrg.com) -- Lyric Semiconductor has unveiled a new type of chip that uses probability inputs and outputs instead of the conventional 1's and 0's used in logic chips today. Crunching probabilities is much more applicable to many computing task performed today rather than binary logic. http://phys.org/news201433331.html Technology Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:42:51 EST news201433331 (PhysOrg.com) -- Having devoted his career to using statistical analysis to make accurate predictions, Professor David Spiegelhalter will this week attempt to explain how Paul the 'psychic' octopus appears to be beating him at his own game. http://phys.org/news199375962.html Other Sciences Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:40:01 EST news199375962 Soon Americans nationwide will begin poring over NCAA men's basketball tournament brackets in their annual attempt at glory -- and maybe even a little cash -- in winning the ubiquitous, albeit illegal, office pool. http://phys.org/news186901682.html Other Sciences Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:30:01 EST news186901682