Hacker News with Generative AI: Physics

Show HN: Physically accurate black hole simulation using your iPhone camera (apple.com)
What would the world around you look like if you were staring at a black hole? This application places a black hole in the field of view of your iPhone’s camera and gravitationally "lenses" the resulting live video feeds just as a black hole would warp the light from surrounding stars.

Black Holes, Augmented Reality, Physics, Mobile Apps

313 points by yunyu 2 days ago | 114 comments

Feynman on Scientific Method [video] (youtube.com)

Science, Physics, Education, Video

5 points by nickpsecurity 2 days ago | 0 comments

James Webb Space Telescope finds evidence for alternate theory of gravity (thedebrief.org)

Space Exploration, Physics, Astronomy, Gravity

354 points by jchanimal 5 days ago | 171 comments

Scientists discover laser light can cast a shadow (phys.org)
Can light itself cast a shadow? It may sound like a philosophical riddle, but researchers have found that under certain conditions, a laser beam can act like an opaque object and cast a shadow.

Physics, Science, Optics, Lasers

53 points by passwordoops 6 days ago | 20 comments

Hafnium Controversy (wikipedia.org)
The hafnium controversy was a debate over the possibility of "triggering" rapid energy releases, via gamma-ray emission, from 178m2Hf, a nuclear isomer of hafnium.

Physics, Nuclear Energy, Controversy, Science

10 points by _Microft 7 days ago | 0 comments

Four-wave mixing could boost optical communications in space (physicsworld.com)
A new and practical approach to the low-noise amplification of weakened optical signals has been unveiled by researchers in Sweden.

Space Communications, Optical Communications, Physics, Research, Technology

50 points by mgl 10 days ago | 2 comments

The Particle Data Group (pdg.lbl.gov)
The Review of Particle Physics (2024)

Physics, Science, Data, Particle Physics

8 points by limbicsystem 11 days ago | 2 comments

Gravity's Eastern Voyage (royalsociety.org)
My study, "Gravity's Eastern Voyage", traces the complex journey of Newtonian mechanics in imperial China from 1727 to 1912. It examines how Newtonian ideas were introduced, translated, and adapted within the Chinese context over nearly two centuries.

History, Physics, China, Science

41 points by XzetaU8 13 days ago | 3 comments

Toy Models of Superposition (2022) (transformer-circuits.pub)

Quantum Mechanics, Physics, Machine Learning

45 points by tessierashpool9 13 days ago | 0 comments

Imaging shapes of atomic nuclei in high-energy nuclear collisions (nature.com)
Atomic nuclei are self-organized, many-body quantum systems bound by strong nuclear forces within femtometre-scale space.

Physics, Nuclear Physics, Science, Quantum Mechanics

60 points by bookofjoe 14 days ago | 5 comments

Physics-informed Shadowgraph Network: End-to-end Density Field Reconstruction (arxiv.org)
This study presents a novel approach for quantificationally reconstructing density fields from shadowgraph images using physics-informed neural networks

Physics, Machine Learning, Image Processing, Neural Networks

19 points by mixeden 14 days ago | 1 comments

A comic uses fluid dynamics to explain how groups of people move (nautil.us)
A comic uses fluid dynamics to explain how groups of people move—and how that could help make large gatherings safer.

Fluid Dynamics, Physics, Crowd Dynamics, Safety

10 points by dnetesn 14 days ago | 3 comments

What if everyone pointed a laser pointer at the moon? [video] (youtube.com)

Space, Science, Physics, Astronomy, Visual Phenomena

14 points by wanderingmind 14 days ago | 2 comments

Physicists spot quantum tornadoes twirling in a ‘supersolid’ (quantamagazine.org)
In a lab nestled between the jagged peaks of the Austrian Alps, rare earth metals vaporize and spew out of an oven at the speed of a fighter jet. Then a medley of lasers and magnetic pulses slow the gas nearly to a halt, making it colder than the depths of space. The roughly 50,000 atoms in the gas lose any sense of identity, merging into a single state.

Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Superfluidity

113 points by elsewhen 15 days ago | 16 comments

Bach, Mozart or jazz: Quantitative measure of variability in music pieces (phys.org)
Physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) have investigated to which extent a piece of music can evoke expectations about its progression.

Music, Science, Physics, Artificial Intelligence

10 points by pseudolus 15 days ago | 2 comments

Sabine Hossenfelder – The crisis in physics is real: Science is failing [video] (youtube.com)

Physics, Science, Video, Criticism

5 points by skydowx 17 days ago | 0 comments

The Shape That Could Replace Space-Time –- Maybe [Amplituhedron] [video] (youtube.com)

Physics, Mathematics, Theoretical Physics, Geometry, Video

5 points by peter_d_sherman 17 days ago | 0 comments

Creating Interactive and Embedded Physics Simulations from Static Textbooks (arxiv.org)
We introduce Augmented Physics, a machine learning-integrated authoring tool designed for creating embedded interactive physics simulations from static textbook diagrams.

Physics, Machine Learning, Education, Textbooks, Simulation

11 points by stonlyb 18 days ago | 0 comments

The Crisis in String Theory Is Worse Than You Think (math.columbia.edu)
Curt Jaimungal has a piece out, an interview with Lenny Susskind, with the title The Crisis in String Theory is Worse Than You Think…. Some of what Susskind has to say is the same as in his recent podcast with Lawrence Krauss (discussed here). These days, Susskind sometimes sounds like Peter Woit:

Physics, String Theory, Science, Theoretical Physics, Interviews

43 points by bobismyuncle 20 days ago | 35 comments

It might be possible to detect gravitons after all (quantamagazine.org)
A new experimental proposal suggests detecting a particle of gravity is far easier than anyone imagined. Now physicists are debating what it would really prove.

Physics, Gravitational Waves, Science, Experiments

259 points by elsewhen 21 days ago | 158 comments

Recursion, Tidy Stars, and Water Lilies (planktonvalhalla.com)
We live in a universe of forces eternally straining to crush things together or tear them apart. There is no physical law for “forming shapes”, no law for being separated from other things, no law for staying still.

Physics, Nature, Art

44 points by mrcgnc 22 days ago | 3 comments

Ask HN: Is a Carnival sized application of Lenz's law possible? (ycombinator.com)
I've wondered for a while if it's possible to make a giant Lenz's law ride. Like a blown up version of this [1] video.

Physics, Engineering, Amusement Parks, Creative Projects

12 points by zakstal9 23 days ago | 24 comments

Gravity is not a force (superposer.substack.com)
The debate about whether gravity is a force since it has just flared up yet again so I thought now would be a good time to give Substack a start, and wade in. The debate is partly semantics, and sometime a bit of physics-trolling but it’s weirdly heated, I think because it hinges on differing attitudes to geometry and field theory.

Physics, Science, Semantics, Debate

53 points by Luc 24 days ago | 147 comments

First look at prototype telescope for the LISA gravitational-wave mission (physicsworld.com)
NASA has released the first images of a full-scale prototype for the six telescopes that will be included in the €1.5bn Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission.

Space Exploration, Physics, Telescopes, Gravitational Waves, Astronomy

6 points by sandwichsphinx 24 days ago | 1 comments

Room-Temperature Superconductivity Heats Up (cacm.acm.org)
Workable technology could all but eliminate energy losses while significantly advancing neuromorphic AI computing.

Superconductivity, Physics, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, Computing

13 points by pseudolus 25 days ago | 12 comments

Ion engines could take us to the solar gravitational lens in less than 13 years (phys.org)
Sending an object to another star is still the stuff of science fiction. But some concrete missions could get us at least part way there. These "interstellar precursor missions" include a trip to the solar gravitational lens point at 550 AU from the sun—farther than any artificial object has ever been, including Voyager.

Space Exploration, Solar System, Physics, Technology

94 points by rbanffy 26 days ago | 79 comments

Theory of Everything Could Work: Wolfram's Hypergraphs (youtube.com)

Physics, Wolfram Alpha, Math

10 points by belter 28 days ago | 0 comments

Yes, we did discover the Higgs (theoryandpractice.org)

Physics, Science, Particle Physics

281 points by EvgeniyZh 29 days ago | 150 comments

Highest-Voltage Electron Gun (bnl.gov)
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have designed and tested the world’s highest-voltage polarized electron gun, a key piece of technology needed for building the world’s first fully polarized Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).