The Historyscoper's Science & Technology News Blog. Daily links to the most eclectic hand-picked news for the elite minority of supergeneralists, plus occasional off-the-wall links.
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Monday, May 30, 2022
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Friday, May 20, 2022
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Monday, May 16, 2022
Most distant laser ever found in a galaxy 6.6 billion light-years away Forget about the terawatt lasers we’re making on Earth. This natural one is thousands of times more powerful than the Sun. Here on Earth, the very idea of a laser is relatively novel, having only been invented in 1958. The underlying physics is straightforward, as…
Ask Ethan: Why is the Universe electrically neutral? For some reason, the charges on the electron and proton are equal and opposite, and their numbers are equal, too. But why? Everywhere we look, on each and every one of the largest cosmic scales, it’s gravitation that dominates the structure that we form. From planets to stars, stellar systems…
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Is life possible on Mars? Was there ever life on Mars? Is there life on Mars now? Did it originate there or here, on Earth? All possibilities are fascinating. For as long as humanity has been watching the skies, we’ve been fascinated with the possibility that other worlds — much like Earth — might contain living organisms. While our visits to the Moon…
Saturday, May 14, 2022
Origin of the Universe: Is Absence of State Possible? "Why is there something rather than nothing?" is a question that has puzzled some of the most prominent philosophers for centuries. Why is there something, when it intuitively seems easier that nothing would exist? This “something” must have caused the Big Bang too, right? Everything around us and everything we can sense suggests that we live in a world of…
What we wish we knew about the origin of life Shortly after planet Earth formed, life took a permanent hold on our surface. But just how common is such an outcome? Out there in the Universe, there are hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, each with their own set of planets, moons, and opportunities for life to arise. Beyond the Milky Way…
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Where do James Webb’s unique “spikes” come from? When we started imaging the Universe with Hubble, every star had four “spikes” coming from it. Here’s why Webb will have more. Less than three months after its initial launch, it finally happened: the James Webb Space Telescope revealed its first telescope alignment evaluation image. For the first…
Can Floating Nuclear Reactors Save The World? Can a nuclear ship turn the tide on climate change and fight Russia? Right now, the world seems pretty messed up. The Earth is dying before our very eyes and World War III seems imminent. Both of which threaten not only our health but also this gorgeous planet we call home. However, Samsung recently partnered with Seabord to create a…
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
The Fusion Reactor You Can Carry In A Backpack Could a new fusion reactor design finally unlock this ultimate energy source? Nuclear fusion power could save the world. With it we would have, on-tap, near-limitless energy with zero carbon emissions. We could power our modern lives and beyond without fear of killing Mother Earth. In our quest to unlock this elusive power we have…
Monday, May 9, 2022
“Negative Capacitance” reduces power consumption in transistors. New phenomenon could save energy in computer chips A negative capacitance transistor consumes 30 % less energy than conventional devices. A capacitor is a device that stores charge. The amount of charge stored is proportional to the voltage applied across its terminals.
Saturday, May 7, 2022
Invisibility cloaks are not just possible, they’re becoming reality. Two types of nanotechnology, metalenses and metamaterials, could soon make Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak a reality. For as long as human beings have been writing about fantasy, myth, and science fiction, the dream of invisibility has always been a top priority. While…
Thursday, May 5, 2022
What we’ve learned after 32 years of NASA’s Hubble When the Hubble Space Telescope first launched in 1990, there was so much we didn’t know. Here’s how far we’ve come. On April 24, 1990, NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope into Earth’s orbit.
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
On the Conservation of Information and the Second Law of Thermodynamics How can these fundamental laws be consistent? The conservation of quantum information, quantified in term of von Neumann entropy, is a fundamental consequence of the linearity and unitarity of quantum mechanics. As the terms information and entropy are often used interchangeably in several branches of sciences, this may sound very strange to anyone familiar with the second law of thermodynamics, which says that entropy generally increases with time. How can these claims be…
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Monday, May 2, 2022
Intel Lineup Might Shatter The GPU Market An old but one of the leading companies of microprocessors and microcontrollers which has stepped into the world of GPU. Intel has long been recognised as one of the world’s most dominant microprocessor manufacturing enterprises. These companies manufacture high-quality microprocessors in a variety of pricing…
Canadian anthropologist says Homo floresiensis species not extinct at all — Where would a “hobbit” hide? In his new book, Gregory Forth claims that a species that has been called a “hobbit” still lives on the Indonesian island of Flores. According to the professor, the legend of Ebu Gogo is actually H. floresiensis.
Sunday, May 1, 2022
Do Pistol Shrimps Hold The Key To Nuclear Fusion? Biomimicry of a deadly sea creature could soon provide us with near limitless clean energy. In theory, nuclear fusion is the perfect energy source, simply put hydrogen in and get copious amounts of energy and helium out. There is no vast habitat loss like solar and no horrific carbon emissions like coal or gas. The…
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