News tagged with theory
Puzzling asymmetries in B decays hint at deviations from the Standard Model
(Phys.org) -- In a recently published paper, the LHCb Collaboration has reported on a possible deviation from the Standard Model. Theorists are now working to calculate precisely this effect and to evaluate ...
May 28, 2012 |
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New understanding of terrestrial formation has significant and far reaching future implications
The current theory of continental drift provides a good model for understanding terrestrial processes through history. However, while plate tectonics is able to successfully shed light on processes up to 3 billion years ago, ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 01, 2012 |
3.5 / 5 (2) |
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Finnish researchers find explanation for sliding friction
Friction is a key phenomenon in applied physics, whose origin has been studied for centuries. Until now, it has been understood that mechanical wear-resistance and fluid lubrication affect friction, but the fundamental origin ...
May 29, 2012 |
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Does the quantum wave function represent reality?
(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 ...
Apr 25, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (38) |
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Why we've got the cosmological constant all wrong
(PhysOrg.com) -- Some scientists call the cosmological constant the "worst prediction of physics." And when today’s theories give an estimated value that is about 120 orders of magnitude larger than the ...
Mar 05, 2012 |
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Physicists propose test for loop quantum gravity
(PhysOrg.com) -- As a quantum theory of gravity, loop quantum gravity could potentially solve one of the biggest problems in physics: reconciling general relativity and quantum mechanics. But like all tentative ...
Jan 03, 2012 |
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Researchers reveal unseen planet by its gravity
More than a 150 years ago, before Neptune was ever sighted in the night sky, French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier predicted the planet's existence based on small deviations in the motion of Uranus. In a ...
May 10, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
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Prediction or cause? Information theory may hold the key
(PhysOrg.com) -- "A perplexing philosophical issue in science is the question of anticipation, or prediction, versus causality," Shawn Pethel tells PhysOrg.com. "Can you tell the difference between something predicting an eve ...
Sep 30, 2011 |
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New finding may hold key to Gaia hypothesis of Earth as living organism
(Phys.org) -- Is Earth really a sort of giant living organism as the Gaia hypothesis predicts? A new discovery made at the University of Maryland may provide a key to answering this question. This key of sulfur ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 15, 2012 |
3.4 / 5 (33) |
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Shedding light on complex mathematical group theories
EU researchers contributed important knowledge to the field of modular representation theory in the form of proofs and pioneering analyzes.
May 29, 2012 |
4 / 5 (2) |
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Chemists merge experimentation with theory in understanding of water molecule
(Phys.org) -- Water is the most abundant and one of the most frequently studied substances on Earth, yet its geometry at the molecular level – the simple two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, and how ...
May 18, 2012 |
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Could the combination of general relativity and quantum mechanics lead to spintronics?
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the early 20th century, two famous discoveries about spin were made. One of them, discovered by Albert Einstein and Wander Johannes de Haas, explains a relationship between the spin of elementary particles. ...
Mar 03, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (26) |
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Model shows how scientific paradigms rise and fall
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientific concepts such as climate change, nanotechnology, and chaos theory can sometimes spring up and capture the attention of both the scientific and public communities, only to be replaced ...
Feb 22, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (17) |
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Origin of magnetic fields may lie in special relativity's spacetime distortions
(PhysOrg.com) -- Magnetic fields play an important role on scales ranging from the sub-atomic to the cosmic, from particle spins to galaxy clusters. Although scientists know how to create and manipulate magnetic ...
Sep 09, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (47) |
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Don't have all the information? In the quantum world, that doesn't matter
(PhysOrg.com) -- When it comes to the rules of the quantum world, it seems that almost everything goes against intuition. In the case of the way ignorance of the whole implies ignorance of at least one of its parts, the situation ...
Jul 26, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (14) |
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