Over 150 years after the famous Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell first introduced the idea, the concept of Maxwell's demon continues to perplex physicists and information scientists. The demon he dreamed up in a thought ...
Paul Davies' newest book, The Demon in the Machine, takes aim at one of the great outstanding scientific enigmas—what is life, how and why does it emerge and what distinguishes the living from the non-living? The book, ...
General Physics
Dec 20, 2019
6
423
One of the fundamental challenges of physics is the reconciliation of Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. The necessity to critically question these two pillars of modern physics arises, for example, from ...
Quantum Physics
Oct 7, 2019
0
646
If "Why?" is the first question in science, "Why not?" must be a close second. Sometimes it's worth thinking about why something does not exist.
Evolution
Oct 2, 2019
3
489
In 2007 the then President of China, Hu Jintao, delivered a speech to South Africans acknowledging the benefits of a strategic partnership. He also stressed that the connection is not merely pragmatic. It must, he argued, ...
Other
Sep 16, 2019
0
5
An exotic physical phenomenon, involving optical waves, synthetic magnetic fields, and time reversal, has been directly observed for the first time, following decades of attempts. The new finding could lead to realizations ...
Quantum Physics
Sep 5, 2019
23
4918
Dead or alive, left-spinning or right-spinning—in the quantum world particles such as the famous analogy of Schrödinger's cat can be all these things at the same time. An international team, including researchers from ...
Quantum Physics
Aug 13, 2019
4
584
Picture this: A bacteria-carrying asteroid is ejected from the center of the galaxy into the far reaches of space only to be "captured" by a distant solar system, potentially bringing life to a new world.
Space Exploration
Jul 9, 2019
5
70
If we want to get rid of fossil fuels nationwide, there is a lot to do. It will be a generation project, that much is clear. Empa researchers Martin Rüdisüli, Sinan Teske and Urs Elber have now calculated how long and steep ...
Energy & Green Tech
Jul 8, 2019
12
1
Heat flows from hot to cold objects. When a hot and a cold body are in thermal contact, they exchange heat energy until they reach thermal equilibrium, with the hot body cooling down and the cold body warming up. This is ...
General Physics
Jun 27, 2019
1
914
