Physics News

I am an experimental particle physicist working with the CMS experiment at CERN and the CDF experiment at Fermilab.

New research provides the first mathematical understanding of the shape of a ponytail and could have implications for the textile industry, computer animation and personal care products.

New research provides the first mathematical understanding of the shape of a ponytail and could have implications for the textile industry, computer animation and personal care products.

Vega will be carrying a total of nine spacecraft, including a fundamental physics experiment to test aspects of Einstein's theory of general relativity.

I am not surprised that Rick Santorum is an idiot. But I am amazed at how much mileage idiots get out of denying a reality that can kill you.

On Star Trek, the aliens often look so human that crew members fall in love with them.

Winter Weather Advisory issued February 12 at 11:52AM CST expiring February 13 at 6:00PM CST in effect for: Andrew; Atchison; Bates; Buchanan; Caldwell; Cass; Clay; Clinton; Daviess; DeKalb; Gentry; Harrison; Henry; Holt; Jackson; Johnson; Lafayette; Nodaway; Platte; Ray; Worth Winter Weather Advisory issued February 12 at 11:52AM CST expiring ... (more)

Solid science education is the best inoculation against ignorance. The Inoculation Project , founded in 2009 by hyperbolic pants explosion , is a group of Kossacks who gather weekly to combat the anti-science push in conservative America by providing direct funding to science and math projects in red state classrooms.

Thoughts on physics, politics, and pop culture, by a physics professor at a small liberal arts college, plus occasional conversations with his dog.

The two theories, comprising 21 equations each, define a new concept of reciprocal symmetry that attunes the theory of relativity with quantum mechanics, said the two scientists -- Two Bangladeshi scientists at an international seminar at Rajshahi University yesterday detailed their groundbreaking claim of reconstructing the 'theory of special ... (more)

Alaska scientist Davis "Dave" Sentman died in December 2011. The man who named "sprites," colorful discharges that burst upward from thunderclouds, was 66 years old.

Raymond E. Goldstein, a professor of complex physical systems at the University of Cambridge in England, does not have a ponytail, but he has been pondering the physics of the hairstyle for a couple of years.

SAN FRANCISCO — Looking for a promising career in a lousy economy? A new study suggests you're apt to find it in apps — the services and tools built to run on smartphones, computer tablets and Facebook's online social network. The demand for applications for everything ranging from games to quantum physics has created 466,000 jobs in the U.S. since 2007, according to an analysis released Tuesday by technology trade group TechNet. The estimate counts 311,000 jobs at companies making the apps and another 155,000 at local merchants who have expanded their payrolls in an economic ripple effect caused by increased spending at their businesses. The study asserts this so-called "app economy" is still in the early stages of a boom driven by the mobile computing and social networking crazes unleashed by Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Facebook's online hangout. "This is a telescope into what the future looks like," said Michael Mandel, the economist hired by TechNet to put together the report. "This is one part of the economy that is actually expanding and hiring. Once you point people in that direction, they can realign their compass pretty quickly." Apps makers were adding jobs even when the overall U.S. unemployment rate climbed to as high as 10 percent in late 2009, Mandel said. That bodes well for even more vigorous growth if the economy can extend a gradual recovery from the Great Recession. The national unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent in January, the lowest level in three years. Government labor statistics don't yet track jobs focused on apps, partly because the market is still relatively new. That prompted TechNet to try to fill the void. The 15-year-old group represents executives at companies that employ more than 2 million people and generate more than $800 billion in annual revenue combined. The app economy began to percolate in 2007 — the year that Apple introduced the iPhone and Facebook turned its website into a platform for other programs designed for its rapidly growing audience. Today, there are more than 500,000 apps available for the iPhone and Apple's iPad tablet. Some are given away for free in an attempt to make money from ads. Others are sold by young and old entrepreneurs, as well as major companies. As its audience has grown from about 58 million users in 2007 to 845 million today, Facebook has hatched perhaps the most successful apps company so far in Zynga Inc. The San Francisco-based maker of online games such as FarmVille and Words With Friends already employs about 2,800 people and has leased enough office space to hire thousands more during the next few years. The seeds for even more job growth have been planted by a proliferation of other mobile devices designed to run on operating systems made by Google Inc., Research in Motion Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. More apps are likely to be coming into homes as more TVs and appliances, including refrigerators and washing machines, are wired for Internet access. For all its progress and future promise, the app economy remains a small fraction of the broader technology industry. TechNet estimates about 3.5 million people are working in technology jobs — occupations revolving around computers and mathematics. But not all the jobs being created in the app economy require geeky credentials. TechNet reasons every apps programming job hatches another position in other non-technical areas such as sales, marketing, human resources and other administrative chores. The study also presumes the job growth in apps spurs more local spending on goods and services that encourages more hiring at neighboring businesses. Quantifying this domino effect can be tricky. Mandel, president of the consulting firm South Mountain Economics says he believes he was conservative in his calculations. He estimates that one peripheral job is created for every two jobs added to the payroll of an apps maker. The TechNet study found that the highest concentration of app jobs is in the technology hotbeds of the San Francisco Bay area (nearly 15 percent of the positions), New York (9 percent) and Seattle (nearly 6 percent). But the study also found app jobs cropping up in places such as Philadelphia (nearly 2 percent), Detroit (1 percent) and Phoenix (1 percent). All told, more than 60 percent, or about 290,000, of the app jobs are located outside California, New York and Washington state, according to the study. TechNet CEO Rey Ramsey is optimistic apps jobs will continue to be widely dispersed across the country because it's a specialty that doesn't require big factories, close proximity to railroads and highways or even other technology hubs. All that is really required, he said, is a good idea and online access.

The Chemical Rubber Company In 1900, Arthur Friedman, a student at Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, Ohio, started a part-time enterprise to produce rubber aprons and sell them to chemistry laboratories.

"The human world stands about midway between the infinitesimal and the immense. The size of our planet is near the geometric mean of the size of the known universe and the size of the atom.

Ethan Siegel is a theoretical astrophysicist in Portland, OR. You can learn about him, contact him, or just enjoy the site.

THE DAWN OF THE ENERGY AGE February 09, 2012 3:35 PM I'm sure that I've written things that you didn't agree with and probably thought were downright crazy.

Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.

Joey Arsenault never felt the world worked the way it should. Since he was in grade school, reading quantum physics at the age of 12, he's been looking for a way to make a change.

The future of one of Japan's leading cosmological research centres could be safe after it was awarded a massive $7.5m cash boost from the US-based Kavli Foundation.