Page 10 - Physics Today News Today

A team of scientists demonstrated something back in 2019 that might shock you: Mercury, not Venus, is the closest planet to Earth on average. The researchers presented their results back in March 2019 in an article in the magazine Physics Today. They explain that our methods of calculating which planet is “the closest” oversimplifies the matter. But that’s not all. “Further, Mercury is the closest neighbour, on average, to each of the other seven planets in the solar system,” they wri...

From about 1100 to 1700 CE, there was a widely accepted method of weather prediction called astrometeorology. Posted: May 8, 2021 8:09 AM Posted By: Kevin Orpurt From about 1100 to 1700 CE, there was a widely accepted method of weather prediction called astrometeorology. As the name suggests, it was weather forecasting based on the positions of objects in the sky, such as planets and the Moon. The April 2021 issue of Physics Today has a wonderful article outlining the history of astrometeorol...

Since scientists first demonstrated nuclear power 70 years ago, the second stage of nuclear power has remained just beyond our fingertips: nuclear fusion power. While promising, the ETA on the technology required to develop and build viable nuclear fusion has remained decades away. Until now. Probably. A company claims to have hit a critical milestone in the development of a new technology capable of generating power from nuclear fusion, according to a recent press release. Called TAE Technolog...

NEW DELHI: As Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” What happened to Sir Isaac Newton in 1720 might have a lesson for tip-hungry Robinhood traders in India and elsewhere, who sometimes try to judge a stock based on its name, or shun an IPO because of bad publicity only to discover that it has ended up delivering 75 per cent returns in just five months of listing. Minneapolis-based mathematics professor Andrew Odlyzko dug out archives to find out how n...

The University of Rochester April 20 announced that a group of its researchers were honored with National Science Foundation CAREER Awards, with Ranga Dias among them. Dias was among five researchers at the university to receive the honor, NSF’s most prestigious recognition for early-career faculty members. The award “embodies NSF’s commitment to encourage faculty and academic institutions to value and support the integration of research and education” and recognizes individ...

Conclusion (~1,700 words). All backed up by over 200 references (~6,500 words). We must stop crediting the wrong people for inventions made by others. Instead lets heed the recent call in the journal Nature: "Let 2020 be the year in which we value those who ensure that science is self-correcting"[SV20]. Like those who know me can testify, finding and citing original sources of scientific and technological innovations is important to me, whether they are mine or other peoples [DL1][DL2][HIN]...

Why the cyclotron in Chandigarh has a special place in science history The insides of the cyclotron (Image courtesy Jahnavi Phalkey)Premium 9 min read Share Via Read Full Story In 1967, one of the world’s oldest particle accelerators, built in the 1930s, was sent from the University of Rochester, USA to be housed at Panjab University, Chandigarh. Invented by American nuclear scientist Ernest O. Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, this particular type of particle...

Catalysts And Photoreactivity: Discoveries From The Life Of Elizabeth Fulhame, Europe’s First Woman Chemical Researcher Sometimes, the presence of a third party allows two people to accomplish something they either could not pull off, or would take an agonizingly long time to achieve, on their own. We are used to these human mediators, therapists and coaches and advisors, to help us navigate the complexities that one lifetime of experience is just not enough to guide even the best intentioned...

The K7RA Solar Update 02/05/2021 Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: We just witnessed 5 days in a row with zero sunspots, but on February 2 a small sunspot group (2801) appeared on our sun’s northwest limb. It soon rotated off the sun’s visible area, and on February 4, the sunspot number was back to zero. We will probably see a few more days with no sunspots, but a return after February 11 is possible, when increased solar flux is forecast. Average daily sunspot numbers declined from 28...

A team of scientists demonstrated something back in 2019 that might shock you: Mercury, not Venus, is the closest planet to Earth on average. The