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Portillo

Science

Is Quantum Mechanics Selectively Erasing Our Memory?

By Susannah F. Locke Posted on 8.28.2009 20 Comments
In a paper published last week, MIT physicist Lorenzo Maccone hypothesizes that, yes, quantum physics is messing with our minds. The laws of physics work just as well if time is running forwards or backwards. But we all seem to experience time running in only one direction, and in the same direction as everyone else -- a mystery of physics that's yet to be solved.

8.28.2009 at 09:54am - Comment by Portillo

This is assuming we have "memory" at all. It could be something as made up as the monetary system. It's kind of like Merlin, aging backwards, remembering the future, can't see the past. We think of time as moving, but I don't even know what that means. If time was a direction then we could go two ways, but it's more like a one way street for us. What scares me is, knowing how you can't change the past, and if the past is a direction of time, then I'm assuming you can't change the future and free will is an illusion. ???
Science

Experiment Looks to Bridge Classical Physics and Quantum Mechanics

By Jeremy Hsu Posted on 7.30.2009 14 Comments
Pity the science students who can't just learn about Newtonian laws of physics and falling objects. No, there's also the small-scale world of quantum physics where atoms can exist in two states at once, or remain connected across millions of light years. But researchers may have found relief in a potentially groundbreaking experiment that could demonstrate quantum mechanics in large objects. It's not just for atoms!

7.30.2009 at 11:29am - Comment by Portillo

Wouldn't this mean the cat's already dead? Does that mean we're all already dead? I hate quantum mechanics...
Science

USB 3.0: A Primer

By Dan Smith Posted on 7.2.2009 26 Comments
That Universal Serial Bus port in your computer is about to get an upgrade. You know, the one where you plug in all your external hard drives, digital cameras, MP3 players, thumb drives, and USB heated-slippers? If you bought your computer any time after the year 2000, it probably came equipped with a USB 2.0 port. However, later this year computers will start shipping that include USB 3.0 ports, which can transmit data up to ten times as fast. Here's what to expect.

7.6.2009 at 01:44am - Comment by Portillo

Why are we still using wires? Why aren't they getting these speeds wirelessly. I don't want to be bothered with plugging things in.
Technology

DARPA's "Programmable Matter" Project Creating Shape-Shifting Materials

By Dan Smith Posted on 6.8.2009 9 Comments
"Programmable matter" is such a far-out concept that it’s difficult to imagine it even existing outside the movies. But, thanks to some creative work done by scientists funded by DARPA (who else?), it might actually become a reality, creating materials that can be programmed to alter themselves at the molecular level into various shapes and then disassemble to form entirely new ones.

6.8.2009 at 10:37pm - Comment by Portillo

I can imagine this being used for things like house floors, shape shifting furniture depending on how much company you had over or how comfy you wanted to be. Coat Racks, Walls, extra rooms, stairs, whatever...
Entertainment & Gaming

WoW Pod Meets All (Seriously, All...) of a Sedentary Gamer's Biological Needs

By Jeremy Hsu Posted on 5.1.2009 5 Comments

5.1.2009 at 11:38am - Comment by Portillo

Disturbing music... even more disturbing creation. It was just a matter of time before humans became permanently attached to a computer, I was just hoping they'd be doing something productive on it like writing software to save the world, not grinding warthogs to ding.
Technology

Flying Up to Meet Asteroids

By Rebecca Boyle Posted on 3.25.2009 7 Comments
Partly to help explain solar eclipses, the ancient Egyptians had a story about the serpent god Apep, the Uncreator, who tried to swallow the sun god Ra as he crossed the sky. Apep -- the Greeks called him Apophis -- personified death, destruction and chaos. His opponent was the goddess Ma'at, who represented all that was light and truth. Now, a group of NASA scientists is hoping Ma'at will once again help humans ward off the harbinger of destruction.

3.27.2009 at 11:08am - Comment by Portillo

I like this idea Hawkman4, why build fancy space ports when we can just grab big rocks and make them do our bidding?
Science

Dormant Supercollider Generates Star Power

By Posted on 2.18.2009 5 Comments
The troubled Large Hadron Collider, switched on last fall and then off again when its magnets broke, has a bright future. Tom Hanks, star of Big and The Polar Express, has been invited to turn on the system when its repairs are complete, in what may be history's first celebrity restarting of a particle accelerator.

2.18.2009 at 05:18pm - Comment by Portillo

Ugh, I've been reading a lot of articles on scientists trying to manufacture a star on Earth and I really thought thats what this article was talking about... OOPS.
Science

An Apple By Any Other Name

By Christina Hurtado Posted on 2.5.2009 7 Comments
A few weeks ago, some kids in New Jersey were removed from their home by Child Protective Services because their parents named them after Nazis. When the story got out, their dad told reporters that he didn’t think there was anything wrong with naming a kid Adolf Hitler Campbell. The media coverage around this story created an interesting new controversy. Is giving your child a bad name really a form of abuse?

2.6.2009 at 12:20am - Comment by Portillo

Too bad that one guy had to ruin that name for everyone... I don't see anything wrong with the actual name... it was just that person.. what if his parents named him Mike or Bob or something like that? Would that name be taboo forever?
Science

Threat Watch, LHC?

By Abby Seiff Posted on 2.5.2009 16 Comments
After decades of work, the Large Hadron Collider went live 143 days ago and went down 139 days ago. Its being offline, however, has hardly put an end to speculation over what exactly will happen when the repairs are completed and the switch is flipped on the world's largest particle accelerator. Scientists from the Universities of Bologna and Alabama recently submitted a paper to Cornelll's arXiv.org exploring the possibility that those (harmless) microscopic black holes we'd heard so much about could stick around longer than previously believed. No matter that their conclusion was basically, still: "so what? Ain't gonna do nothin." News outlets,as SciAm notes, jumped over the story and the anti-LHC kook-contingent resurfaced. So here's to you, naysayers and doomsdayers alike. After the jump, a very special episode of "Science of YouTube," wherein the LHC goes online and the Earth is destroyed. Enjoy!

2.5.2009 at 12:25pm - Comment by Portillo

Oh I HOPE that happens! AWESOME!!!!! The Dragons would be cool too.
The Environment

The Big Thaw

By SciIll Staff Posted on 9.11.2009 20 Comments
One hundred thirty miles north of Nome, a small coastal village on Sarichef Island is feeling the effects of climate change. Shishmaref, Alaska, is falling into the sea. Rising temperatures are melting the permafrost, the layer of frozen ground beneath the surface. Without this firm base, waves have eroded the land on which Shishmaref’s villagers make their home. They must relocate their houses inland or start all over somewhere else.

2.2.2009 at 07:19pm - Comment by Portillo

Hopefully and with a little luck, these predictions will be underestimating the emmisions just like the last predictions were. This way by the time I retire I won't have to move to Florida to enjoy the beach.