Lifeboat Foundation

Contact electrification (CE) was humanity’s earliest and sole source of electricity until about the 18th century, but its real nature remains a mystery. Today, it is regarded as a critical component of technologies such as laser printers, LCD production processes, electrostatic painting, plastic separation for recycling, and more, as well as a major industrial hazard (damage to electronic systems, explosions in coal mines, fires in chemical plants) due to the electrostatic discharges (ESD) that accompany CE. A 2008 study published in Nature found that in a vacuum, ESDs of a simple adhesive tape are so powerful that they generate enough X-rays to take an X-ray image of a finger.

For a long time, it was believed that two contacting/sliding materials charge in opposing and uniform directions. However, after CE, it was discovered that each of the separated surfaces carries both (+) and (-) charges. The formation of so-called charge mosaics was attributed to experiment irreproducibility, inherent inhomogeneities of contacting materials, or the general “stochastic nature” of CE.

What is driving the mulitverse theory? Are the multiverse stories only a sticky-plaster solution to the Big Bang theory problem? Leading thinkers Sabine Hossenfelder, Roger Penrose and Michio Kaku debate.

00:00 Introduction.
02:22 Michio Kaku | Multiverse theory has now dominating cosmology; it is unavoidable.
06:03 Sabine Hossenfelder | Believing in the multiverse is the logical equivalent to believing in God.
07:57 Roger Penrose | Universes are sequential and so are not independent worlds.
16:36 Theme 1 | Do scientifc theories need to be testable?
28:45 Theme 2 | Are tales of the multiverse solutions to the Big Bang theory in trouble?
42:49 Theme 3 | Will theories of the universe always be bound by untestable elements?

Continue reading “Should we abandon the multiverse theory? | Sabine Hossenfelder, Roger Penrose, Michio Kaku” »

Sean Carroll: We might solve free will one day. But here’s why I doubt it.

Up next, The great free will debate ► https://youtu.be/3O61I0pNPg8

Continue reading “Does free will violate the laws of physics? | Sean Carroll” »

Sometimes astrophysics gets super weird.

A recent study of the star’s surface, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, says that we’re seeing Gamma Columbae in a short, deeply weird phase of a very eventful stellar life, one that lets astronomers look directly into the star’s exposed heart.

What’s New – The mix of chemical elements on the surface of Gamma Columbae look like the byproducts of nuclear reactions that should be buried in the depths of a massive star, not bubbling on its surface.

The observations could not be explained by Newton’s law of universal gravitation. An alternative theory of gravity might provide the answer. Astrophysicists observed mysterious behavior in star clusters that could lead to a rewrite of fundamental principles of the theory of gravity and even disprove the existence of dark matter, a press release explains.

The new findings challenge existing preconceptions based on widely-accepted principles from Newton’s law of universal gravitation, which explain the large-scale structure and movements of the universe.

We’re cautiously optimistic about our new findings.

An analysis of more than two decades’ worth of supernova explosions convincingly boosts modern cosmological theories and reinvigorates efforts to answer fundamental questions.

A powerful new analysis has been performed by astrophysicists that places the most precise limits ever on the composition and evolution of the universe. With this analysis, dubbed Pantheon+, cosmologists find themselves at a crossroads.

Pantheon+ convincingly finds that the cosmos is made up of about two-thirds dark energy and one-third matter — predominantly in the form of dark matter — and is expanding at an accelerating pace over the last several billion years. However, Pantheon+ also cements a major disagreement over the pace of that expansion that has yet to be solved.

A team of astrophysicists has revealed an unusual discovery they say appears to challenge our current understanding of gravity based on Newton’s law of universal gravitation, according to a newly published paper.

The controversial claim, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, appears to be consistent with alternative interpretations about one of physics’ most mysterious fundamental interactions.

In their new study, an international team of astrophysicists says that they came upon the discovery while investigating open star clusters. These formations are created as a gas cloud emerges following the birth of thousands of stars within a relatively short time, the remnants of which are ejected as these clusters of stars ignite and begin to expand, which can result in the formation of anywhere from several dozen, to several thousands of new stars.

Experts from the Astrophysics Research Institute at LJMU, with help from colleagues from the University of Montpellier, have conceived of an ‘early warning’ system to alert to when a massive star is about to end its life.