Spooky Entanglement

One of the strangest predictions of the theory of quantum mechanics is that particles can become "entangled" so that even after they are separated in space, when an action is performed on one particle, the other particle responds immediately.

In June 2009 scientists announced they had measured entanglement in a new kind of system - two separated pairs of vibrating particles. Previous experiments had entangled the internal properties of particles, such as spin states, but this was the first time scientists had entangled the particles' pattern of motion, which is a system that resembles the larger, everyday world.

In layman explanation I think it means particles can share properties, when the property of one changes, hence "position", the other also follows that same pattern.

You can do this in programming where you can two objects with entangled properties, when you change one object, the other also changes. The Universe is amazing.

Knots of Light

Light may seem to travel a straight line, but sometimes it gets twisted into knots. In January 2010 researchers reported using a computer-controlled hologram to twist beams of laser light into pretzel shapes. The holograms, which direct the flow of light, were specially created to send light in certain directions and shapes.

The researchers used a field of mathematics known as knot theory to study the resulting loops. These swirls of light, called optical vortices, could have implications for future laser devices, the physicists said.

I don't know why this is Mind Blowing, but hey, what ever makes you happy.

A New Antimatter Particle Created

By smashing particles together at close to light speed inside an atom smasher, scientists created a never-before-seen type of matter: an anti-hypertriton.

This particle is weird in many ways. First, it's not normal matter, but its eerie opposite, called antimatter, which annihilates whenever it comes into contact with regular mass. Second, the anti-hypertriton is what's called a "strange" particle, meaning it contains a rare building block called a strange quark, which isn't present in the protons and neutrons that make up regular atoms.

The experiment was conducted at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. The results were announced in March 2010.

I love this, I wonder what is the practical use for anti-matter, well this is a new type of anti-matter which makes it even weirder. Not long ago we didn't believe in anti-matter, or only knew it as theory, now we have different types of anti matter.

WOW.

Levitating Magnet Points to Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear fusion - the melding of atomic nuclei that happens inside stars - is a long-sought goal on Earth. If scientists can achieve it, it could offer a powerful source of energy with few negative environmental consequences.

Scientists took a step closer to this goal in January 2010 when they announced they'd built a levitating magnet that created some of the conditions thought to be necessary for fusion. By suspending a giant donut-shaped magnet in midair, researchers were able to control the motion of an extremely hot gas of charged particles contained within the magnet's outer chamber. The density of this gas was close to what's needed for nuclear fusion, the researchers said.

SpirderMan anyone? If you don't know what this is talking about, watch SpiderMan, this is damn interesting.

Light Bends Matter

While it's easy to see matter bending light - just look through a prism - it's rare to find light bending matter. But scientists saw just that in an experiment reported in March 2010. Researchers assembled flat ribbons of nanoparticles - tiny bits of matter only billionths of a meter long - in a darkened laboratory.

Then when the ribbons were exposed to light, they curled up into spirals. The results could help engineers design new types of optics and electronics.

Who knew? We are advancing too fast, more secrets are being exposed, and it is good to know.

Amazing Particle Triplets

Using lithium atoms, scientists recreated an ancient mathematical symbol that had been seen as far back as the second century in Afghan Buddhist art. The symbol, called the Borromean rings, depicts three rings linked together. [color=yellow]If any ring were removed, they would all come apart[/color=.

Physicists predicted that particles should be able to form this same arrangement, but no one had been able to achieve it until now. The final realization, announced in December 2009, came 40 years after the prediction.

A great scientific achievement, with a great tale behind it.

And Last but not least, the latest Amazing Discovery to date:

Quark-gluon Soup

Another amazing feat of physics came out of Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider this year. In February 2010 scientists announced they'd created a "quark-gluon soup" where protons and neutrons had broken up into their constituent building blocks - quarks and gluons.

It took extremely powerful collisions of gold atoms in the accelerator to achieve the temperatures necessary - about 7 trillion degrees Fahrenheit (4 trillion degrees Celsius). These conditions are 250,000 times hotter than the center of the sun and similar to temperatures seen just after the birth of the universe. They were the hottest temperatures ever reached on Earth.

I never thought I would say this, but this collide is very useful. It has helped us achieve conditions needed for certain events to occur, which can only be proven by creating those conditions, otherwise it would just be a theory.

I honestly don't see how it's physically possible for temperatures inside of a supercollider to reach the temperature they describe with 1. the machine still working and 2. the planet being melted... literally. How do they contain that kind of HEAT?

Two atoms, in a vacuum- nothing nearby, smash into each other. We already have some knowledge that things heat up when you compress them. So take that 7 trillion degrees- two atoms... then start spreading that heat out around all the other particles they will encounter through the detectors and such and you'll see the temperature drop radically.

Need an analogy? Take a teaspoon of coffee heated to 150F then spill it on the ground... bet none of it is hot enough to burn, much less feel more than barely warm, within 1/2 second.

If these kooky scientists keep discovering this stuff, their brains are going to melt, like mine just did.

I believe that all of the recent discoveries tend to have a couple of things in common: they challenge existing theories, and they appear to be exotic and difficult to understand with current ways of thinking. It's been said before, but I think we're at the precipice of some new major breakthroughs in our understanding - breakthroughs that won't be so much a continuation of existing models, but newly formed ones.

i'm not entirely sure why these people are doing what they are doing and i don't know what they hope to achieve. i try not to be afraid of what they are creating, and maybe their success depends on some of us being ignorant of what it is they are doing.

seriously, how far does one have to be from their destination when one measures the distance from the objective not by numbers, not by numbers and letters, but rather by numbers, letters, and other symbols?

furthermore, with all the televised problems we supposedly have with us and our relationship with the planet..

why spend $10+ Billion dollars trying to prove particles that have no mass and no structure exist? why spend billions and millions of man/women/computer hours to prove "nothing" literally exists? can't we believe our eyes when we look up into the void of space and see enough nothing?

wierd priorities, interesting agenda, but why are we going this way?
to what ends, for what purposes?

are we going to like who we are after we have literal proof of nothing?

but, yes i do pay it a little mind and try to understand, but i just don't understand the why of it. if they are going to be doing stuff like this i would rather live on a planet where everyone is permitted to know and understand what it is they are doing and why, before we start dissecting the atom into as many parts as we can. why not re-enforce education and schooling first, and blowing up stuff second, not the other way around so we ar blowing up un-schooled children?

i know ... i know... deny ignorance.

"deny" is a synonym for "ignore"
if you deny something exists you are ignoring it.

"ignorance" is a synonym for "innocence"

so one interpretation of "deny ignorance" can be: "ignore innocence", or in other words: ignore babies/children

those are some of my thoughts,
et

Originally posted by oozyism

Knots of Light

I don't know why this is Mind Blowing, but hey, what ever makes you happy.

I guess some minds are more easily blown than others but I agree, I don't find that mind blowing at all.

Light Bends Matter
Then when the ribbons were exposed to light, they curled up into spirals.

Another finding which doesn't blow my mind anymore than wetting a sheet of paper, placing it in the sunlight, and watching the paper curl up. In both instances one might claim that light is bending matter but I find the claim equally disingenuous in both instances.

The spooky action at a distance is mind blowing, especially the new, larger distances over which this quantum entanglement has been observed and verified to to not be limited by the speed of light.

Originally posted by oozyism

Knots of Light

Light may seem to travel a straight line, but sometimes it gets twisted into knots. In January 2010 researchers reported using a computer-controlled hologram to twist beams of laser light into pretzel shapes. The holograms, which direct the flow of light, were specially created to send light in certain directions and shapes.

The researchers used a field of mathematics known as knot theory to study the resulting loops. These swirls of light, called optical vortices, could have implications for future laser devices, the physicists said.

I don't know why this is Mind Blowing, but hey, what ever makes you happy.

theres a very simple reason why this part of light knots is important and mind blowing, just think.... LIGHTSABERS,

we already can make lightsabers of powerful lasers that cut just the same, but we cant stop the beam of light from projecting on for great distances, in order to turn this long beam into a short sword like length, then we need some light knotting technology.

i wanna lightsaber.