Hacker News with Generative AI: Physics

Microsoft Says It Has Created a New State of Matter to Power Quantum Computers (nytimes.com)
Microsoft now says it has created a new state of matter in its quest to make a powerful machine, called a quantum computer, that could accelerate the development of everything from batteries to medicines to artificial intelligence.
Quantum Computing, Microsoft, Physics, Artificial Intelligence
4 points by meistro 2 days ago | 1 comments
Gravitational Effects of Small Primordial Black Hole Passing Through Human Body (arxiv.org)
The gravitational effects of a primordial black hole (PBH) passing through the human body are examined, with the goal of determining the minimum mass necessary to produce significant injury or death.
Physics, Black Holes, Space, Human Body, Medical
100 points by bookofjoe 2 days ago | 102 comments
Opposing arrows of time can theoretically emerge from certain quantum systems (surrey.ac.uk)
What if time is not as fixed as we thought? Imagine that instead of flowing in one direction – from past to future – time could flow forward or backward due to processes taking place at the quantum level. This is the thought-provoking discovery made by researchers at the University of Surrey, as a new study reveals that opposing arrows of time can theoretically emerge from certain quantum systems.
Quantum Mechanics, Physics, Time, Science
96 points by jnord 5 days ago | 95 comments
New technique generates topological structures with gravity water waves (phys.org)
A team of physicists at Fudan University, working with colleagues from Henan University, both in China, and from Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore and Donostia International Physics Center, in Spain, has developed a way to generate topological structures in surface water using gravity water waves.
Physics, Fluid Dynamics, Topological Structures, Water Waves
56 points by bryanrasmussen 6 days ago | 10 comments
Sabine Hossenfelder: I was asked to keep this confidential (youtube.com)
Physics, Science, YouTube, Interviews
40 points by ta8645 6 days ago | 29 comments
What situations in classical physics are non-deterministic? (2018) (stackexchange.com)
Classical Physics, Determinism, Physics
57 points by squircle 6 days ago | 101 comments
Conciousness May Be Retrocausal (popularmechanics.com)
In the quantum realm, the past, present, and future blur into a boundless structure. But consciousness may operate on a plane beyond this timeless mist.
Consciousness, Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Time
13 points by OmarShehata 6 days ago | 2 comments
Terabytes Encoded Within a Millimeter-Sized Crystal (bioengineer.org)
In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have made significant strides toward enhancing the efficiency of classical computer memory by harnessing the properties of crystal defects.
Storage, Nanotechnology, Materials Science, Physics
27 points by geox 7 days ago | 7 comments
Physicists decipher structure of antimony melt, explain structural anomalies (phys.org)
Physicists decipher structure of antimony melt, explain nature of observed structural anomalies
Physics, Materials Science, Chemistry
4 points by PaulHoule 8 days ago | 0 comments
How Hans Bethe Stumbled Upon Perfect Quantum Theories (quantamagazine.org)
By 1928, quantum physicists seemed poised to unravel matter’s final secrets. The German researcher Walter Gordon had applied the emerging theory of quantum mechanics to the hydrogen atom, the universe’s simplest atom, and worked out exactly how it behaved. A mastery of all atoms seemed sure to follow.
Quantum Physics, Science, History, Physics
18 points by rbanffy 8 days ago | 1 comments
Magnetic field sorting of superconducting graphite particles with Tc>400K (2024) (arxiv.org)
It has been claimed that graphite hosts superconductivity at room temperature, although all efforts to isolate it have been vain. Here we report a separation method that uses magnetic field gradients to sort the superconducting from normal grains out of industrial graphite powders.
Superconductivity, Graphite, Materials Science, Physics
72 points by ykch 8 days ago | 39 comments
Hans Bethe Stumbled Upon Perfect Quantum Theories (quantamagazine.org)
Quantum calculations amount to sophisticated estimates. But in 1931, Hans Bethe intuited precisely how a chain of particles would behave — an insight that had far-reaching consequences.
Quantum Physics, Physics, History, Science
30 points by nsoonhui 8 days ago | 1 comments
How Hans Bethe stumbled upon perfect quantum theories (quantamagazine.org)
By 1928, quantum physicists seemed poised to unravel matter’s final secrets. The German researcher Walter Gordon had applied the emerging theory of quantum mechanics to the hydrogen atom, the universe’s simplest atom, and worked out exactly how it behaved. A mastery of all atoms seemed sure to follow.
Quantum Mechanics, Physics, History, Science
80 points by abe94 9 days ago | 7 comments
First Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Detected in Deep-Sea Telescope (phys.org)
An extraordinary event consistent with a neutrino with an estimated energy of about 220 PeV (220 x 1015 electron volts or 220 million billion electron volts), was detected on February 13, 2023, by the ARCA detector of the kilometer cubic neutrino telescope (KM3NeT) in the deep sea.
Physics, Astronomy, Neutrinos, Telescopes
8 points by kregasaurusrex 9 days ago | 1 comments
Spanish 'running of the bulls' festival reveals crowd movements can be predicted (phys.org)
The collective motion of large crowds may be predictable past a certain density of people in a given area, according to a study published in Nature.
Crowd Behavior, Physics, Spain, Festivals
117 points by gmays 9 days ago | 55 comments
Noether's Theorem and Machine Learning (lee-phillips.org)
Emmy Noether discovered her eponymous theorem in the context of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. A couple of decades after her death, it became the foundation for modern particle physics. In the final chapter of my book about Noether’s Theorem I survey some of its recent applications far afield from either of these physics contexts—including applications outside of the physical sciences.
Mathematics, Physics, Machine Learning
9 points by leephillips 10 days ago | 0 comments
Did LIGO just see its most important gravitational wave? (bigthink.com)
It’s hard to believe, but here in 2025, we’re less than a full decade into the era of gravitational wave astronomy.
Gravitational Waves, Astronomy, Science, Physics
11 points by xqcgrek2 10 days ago | 0 comments
Relational Quantum Mechanics (plato.stanford.edu)
Relational Quantum Mechanics (RQM) is the most recent among the interpretations of quantum mechanics that are widely discussed today.
Quantum Mechanics, Physics, Philosophy
103 points by hackandthink 11 days ago | 27 comments
Lisa: What the Revolutionary Gravitational Wave Observatory Will See (gizmodo.com)
LISA, a $1.6 billion gravitational wave observatory set to launch next decade, will revolutionize the way we see gravitational waves—the infinitesimal perturbations of spacetime first predicted over a century ago and only detected eight years ago.
Space Exploration, Astronomy, Physics, Gravitational Waves
4 points by rbanffy 11 days ago | 0 comments
Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley (ycombinator.com)
What should one consider while signing up for a Physics PhD program, with an focus on experimental Quantum/Molecular optics, program at either university if both of them offer?
Academia, Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Graduate School
76 points by Bang2Bay 11 days ago | 84 comments
Euclid telescope captures Einstein ring revealing warping of space (theguardian.com)
The Euclid space telescope has captured a rare phenomenon called an Einstein ring that reveals the extreme warping of space by a galaxy’s gravity.
Space, Astronomy, Einstein, Physics, Gravity
30 points by xps 11 days ago | 1 comments
Emergence of collective oscillations in human crowds (nature.com)
Dense crowds form some of the most dangerous environments in modern society1. Dangers arise from uncontrolled collective motions, leading to compression against walls, suffocation and fatalities2,3,4.
Crowd Dynamics, Safety, Physics, Social Science, Human Behavior
95 points by shalg 13 days ago | 40 comments
Gravitron: Gravity is your only weapon (jaredforsyth.com)
Game Development, Physics, Creativity
6 points by memalign 13 days ago | 2 comments
The other 99% (cerncourier.com)
Ultraperipheral collisions are shedding light on gluon saturation, gluonic hotspots and nuclear shadowing.
Physics, Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics, CERN
40 points by rbanffy 14 days ago | 7 comments
Noether's Theorem Revolutionized Physics (quantamagazine.org)
In the fall of 1915, the foundations of physics began to crack. Einstein’s new theory of gravity seemed to imply that it should be possible to create and destroy energy, a result that threatened to upend two centuries of thinking in physics.
Physics, Mathematics
139 points by MindGods 14 days ago | 79 comments
Competition and survival in modern academia: A bibliometric case study (arxiv.org)
We study the career lengths of researchers in theoretical high-energy physics from 1950 to 2020. Using a cohort-based analysis and bibliometric data from 30,149 authors in three physics disciplines we observe a dramatic increase in the ratio of academic dropouts over time.
Academia, Physics, Research, Science, Data Analysis
14 points by jakobschwich 14 days ago | 3 comments
Guiding Electricity with Sound (phys.org)
A recent study published in Science Advances uncovers a way of transporting electricity through air by ultrasonic waves.
Physics, Science, Acoustics, Electricity
18 points by gummy23 15 days ago | 3 comments
The superconductivity of layered graphene (newscientist.com)
Why do cold thin sheets of carbon offer no resistance to electric currents? Two experiments are bringing us closer to an answer – and maybe even to practical room-temperature superconductors.
Superconductivity, Materials Science, Physics, Graphene
134 points by westurner 15 days ago | 33 comments
Antimony Atoms Function as Error-Resistant Qubits (ieee.org)
University of New South Wales and Melbourne University researchers were inspired by cats to create a new kind of qubit that could be more resistant to errors.
Quantum Computing, Physics, Materials Science
33 points by rbanffy 15 days ago | 2 comments
The Supersonic Trebuchet (hackaday.com)
Have you ever sat down and thought “I wonder if a trebuchet could launch a projectile at supersonic speeds?” Neither have we. That’s what separates [David Eade] from the rest of us. He didn’t just ask the question, he answered it! And he documented the entire build in a YouTube video which you can see below the break.
Engineering, DIY Projects, Physics
10 points by MrBuddyCasino 15 days ago | 0 comments