Tag Archives: thermodynamics
Quantum clock breaks entropy barrier
In physics, the second law of thermodynamics says that a closed system tends to become more disordered over time. This disorder is captured in an entity called entropy. Many devices, especially clocks, are affected by this law because they need … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged coherent transport, dissipative transport, entropy, Hamiltonian, precision, quantum clock, quantum physics, second law of thermodynamics, spin chain, thermodynamic bias, thermodynamics, time reversal symmetry
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My heart of physics
Every July 4, I have occasion to remember two things: the discovery of the Higgs boson, and my first published byline for an article about the discovery of the Higgs boson. I have no trouble believing it’s been eight years … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes, Scicomm
Tagged ATLAS detector, Atomki, axions, CEPC, CERN, CMS detector, hedonism, Higgs boson, Higgs factory, Large Hadron Collider, particle physics, Quantum mechanics, Sabine Hossenfelder, thermodynamics, XENON excess
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Where is the coolest lab in the universe?
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) performs an impressive feat every time it accelerates billions of protons to nearly the speed of light – and not in terms of the energy alone. For example, you release more energy when you clap … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged blue hypergiant, Boomerang Nebula, Bose-Einstein condensate, cosmic microwave background, energy density, Eta Carinae, gas outflow, heat, International Space Station, kinetic energy, Large Hadron Collider, Nature News, red giant, temperature, thermal equilibrium, thermodynamics, vacuum, Vladivostok, white dwarf, Wolfgang Ketterle
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Journalistic entropy
Say you need to store a square image 1,000 pixels wide to a side with the smallest filesize (setting aside compression techniques). The image begins with the colour #009900 on the left side and, as you move towards the right, … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm
Tagged conspiracy theories, coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19, entropy, fact-checking, false balance, health journalism, image compression, Indian Council of Medical Research, information theory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Priyanka Pulla, pseudoscience, science journalism, thermodynamics, Washington Post
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The symmetry incarnations
This post was originally published on October 6, 2012. I recently rediscovered it and decided to republish it with a few updates. Geometric symmetry in nature is often a sign of unperturbedness, as if nothing has interfered with a natural … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged anastomosis, asymptote, Banach-Tarski paradox, Big Bang Theory, cellular automata, degrees of freedom, electro-weak symmetry breaking, fractals, Gilbreath's conjecture, hypercube, Large Hadron Collider, Mandelbrot sets, Mulliken symbols, Nambu-Goldstone bosons, prime numbers, surface tension, symmetry, thermodynamics, V.S. Ramachandran
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The Symmetry Incarnations – Part I
Symmetry in nature is a sign of unperturbedness. It means nothing has interfered with a natural process, and that its effects at each step are simply scaled-up or scaled-down versions of each other. For this reason, symmetry is aesthetically pleasing, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged anastomosis, asymptote, Banach-Tarski paradox, Big Bang Theory, cellular automata, degrees of freedom, electro-weak symmetry breaking, fractals, Gilbreath's conjecture, hypercube, Large Hadron Collider, Mandelbrot sets, Mulliken symbols, Nambu-Goldstone bosons, prime numbers, surface tension, symmetry, thermodynamics, V.S. Ramachandran
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Graphene the Ubiquitous
Every once in a while, a (revolutionary-in-hindsight) scientific discovery is made that’s at first treated as an anomaly, and then verified. Once established as a credible find, it goes through a period where it is subject to great curiosity and … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Andre Geim, Electromagnetism, graphene, Konstantin Novoselov, NEMS, non-volatile memory, revolution, thermodynamics
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