News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
A conjecture called superdeterminism, outlined decades ago, is a response to several peculiarities of quantum mechanics: the apparent randomness of quantum events; their apparent dependence on human observation, or measurement; and the apparent ability of a measurement in one place to determine, instantly, the outcome of a measurement elsewhere, an effect called nonlocality. Einstein, who … Read more
Only a handful of supermassive black holes have been confirmed by scientists, but the universe could be filled with billions of these gravitational giants. Theoretically, if you compress a sufficient amount of matter into a small enough space, it will create such a powerful gravitational field that nothing — not even light — can escape … Read more
It is easy to assume that most people who get the COVID-19 vaccine do so without a shred of trepidation, while those who are hesitant about it choose never to get vaccinated. But a recent set of findings blows up this binary and provides insights that could make vaccination campaigns more successful. The studies cut … Read more
The wreck of the steam-yacht Endurance, which famously sank in 1915 during an Antarctic expedition by the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, has been rediscovered by searchers using autonomous underwater vehicles. The shipwreck was found at a depth of 9,869 feet (3,008 meters) beneath West Antarctica‘s Weddell Sea, according to the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (FMHT), … Read more
Have you ever wanted to eat breakfast sitting across from a dire wolf or watch a saber-toothed cat roar from the comfort of your living room? These ice age animals have been extinct for more than 10,000 years, but scientists are bringing them back to life—virtually. The team developed three-dimensional, animated models of some of … Read more
“Star Wars” fans worldwide must have sensed a ripple in the Force on Wednesday as Disney Plus revealed a new teaser trailer for its six episode “Obi-Wan Kenobi” live-action series and it’s packed with geeky sci-fi goodness. The adventure begins on May 25, the iconic calendar date that represents the 45th anniversary of the original … Read more
Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of “Ask a Spaceman” and “Space Radio,” and author of “How to Die in Space.” Globular clusters are like astronomical coelacanths — mysterious living fossils. These densely packed collections of ancient stars may hold the ultimate secrets to the formation of … Read more
To find features like groundwater under Earth‘s surface — or under the surface of another world — scientists can sense the subtle marks those features leave in the planet’s gravitational field. But those measurements aren’t easy to get; you need very sensitive instruments, and even the slightest vibrations can throw off the measurements. Now, a … Read more
Childhood lead exposure in the United States is ubiquitous and much more concerning than previous estimates have suggested, according to a new study. When researchers analyzed leaded gas use from 1940 and combined it with data on blood-lead levels from the mid 1970s, they found more than 54 percent of Americans alive in 2015 had … Read more
What happens to information after it has passed beyond the event horizon of a black hole? There have been suggestions that the geometry of wormholes might help us solve this vexing problem – but the math has been tricky, to say the least. In a new paper, an international team of physicists has found … Read more