At The Schrödinger Sessions a couple of weeks ago, where we gave science fiction writers a “crash course” on quantum physics, several of the talks and most of the discussion focused on how we know the strange phenomena described are an accurate description of reality. The drum is used in quantum information experiments and ultraprecise measurements of mechanical motion. Of course, there is a sense in which “everyday experience” really is quantum- you can’t make toast without quantum mechanics. When people ask for direct experimental proof of quantum physics, what they want is something that clearly and unambiguously shows behavior that’s inconsistent with our everyday classical intuition about how the world works.
Particle physics finds itself in testing times. This branch of science aims to describe the universe by pulling it apart into its most fundamental building blocks, or particles, and putting them back together in a way that explains how everything works. Its most robust attempt to do this, the standard model, explains the subatomic world to incredible precision - but it falls short in some big ways, lacking the parts to explain gravity and the mysterious realms of dark matter and dark energy. Theories such as supersymmetry, and on extra dimensions and new forces of nature, seek to provide the missing pieces. Almost all of these predict new particles that mighty accelerator the Large Hadron Collider
Scientists have found a mysterious object orbiting just beyond Neptune, and it's breaking all the rules. Astronomers have nicknamed it "Niku," which means rebellious in Chinese, because of the object's reckless behavior. An international team of scientists discovered the object using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) in Maui, Hawaii. The study announcing their discovery hasn't been peer-reviewed yet, so the finding should be considered preliminary. "I hope everyone has buckled their seatbelts because the outer Solar System just got a lot weirder, " Michele Bannister, an astronomer at Queens University, tweeted on Monday. Orbiting to the beat of a different
