Here is my attempt at a proper definition of Ontic Vagueness:
"Ambiguity within concepts that must either be redefined for consistency with fundamental principles or recognized as placeholders for future understanding."
Here is my attempt at a proper definition of Ontic Vagueness:
"Ambiguity within concepts that must either be redefined for consistency with fundamental principles or recognized as placeholders for future understanding."
A Pitcher Plant’s Rain-Triggered Trap
Pitcher plants all use slippery rims and sticky digestive juices to capture and trap their insect prey. But two species of pitcher plant independently evolved an extra trap: a rain-activated springboard lid. Both the Seychelles pitcher plant and the slender pitcher plant — separated geographically by 6000 kilometers — have a springy, near-horizontal “lid” that sticks out over their pitcher. The underside of the surface is slippery, though less so than the pitcher’s lip and walls. Unsuspecting ants crawl under the lid, confident that they can keep their footing, and then — bang — a rain drop hits the springboard. That impact catapults the insect directly into the drink. There’s no escaping now.
How did two widely separated, independently evolving plants both settle on this technique? Scientists think it was random chance. Pitcher plants are highly variable in their pitcher size, shape, and features. The scientists suggest that by trying lots of random combinations, these two species hit upon a particular arrangement that works really well for them. (Video and image credit: Science)
I contributed my first AMA.question for Sean Carroll's mindscape podcast today, let's see if you can spot it, it is towards the end ;-)
The Brighter Side of News: New theory unites Einstein’s theory of relativity with quantum mechanics
For over a century, #quantummechanics and #Einstein ’s general #relativity have stood as the cornerstones of modern #physics, yet their unification remains one of science’s greatest challenges...
New @DAAD_worldwide “science in a nutshell” video about @LISA!
Got four minutes to spare? Why not use them to listen to Marie-Sophie Hartig explain how @LISA will observe the gravitational-wave Universe?
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=ObK0-COD9Zk [Invidious]
It's a very important day today at #NMROnline.
Important meetings with influential people, offering life changing potential.
We have the experience and are fully prepared, so fingers crossed, and let's see how it goes, NMR spectroscopy friends.
If I ask you "Which are you going to believe, peer reviewed papers or your own eyes viewing math and experiments?" and you answer "The peer reviewed papers, because they are the authorities on the subject", then what does that tell us about you?
It tells us you are an authoritarian follower who does not practice scientific method.
New #openaccess publication #SciPost #Physics
Semi-visible jets, energy-based models, and self-supervision
Luigi Favaro, Michael Krämer, Tanmoy Modak, Tilman Plehn, Jan Rüschkamp
SciPost Phys. 18, 042 (2025)
https://scipost.org/SciPostPhys.18.2.042
New #openaccess publication #SciPost #Physics
ABJ anomaly as a U(1) symmetry and Noether’s theorem
Valentin Benedetti, Horacio Casini, Javier M. Magan
SciPost Phys. 18, 041 (2025)
https://scipost.org/SciPostPhys.18.2.041
"[I]n their 1924 paper Bohr and his colleagues argued that the discovery of the “quantum of action” might require the abandonment of nothing less than the first law of thermodynamics: the conservation of energy. [...] Bohr’s 1924 paper offers a lens through which to look at how the quantum revolution unfolded."
New #openaccess publication #SciPost #Physics
Learning the simplicity of scattering amplitudes
Clifford Cheung, Aurélien Dersy, Matthew D. Schwartz
SciPost Phys. 18, 040 (2025)
https://scipost.org/SciPostPhys.18.2.040
Wow. They are shooting the nuclei of Lead (Pb+82 ions) in the LHC.
"Once a year, the Large Hadron Collider smashes lead ions. But how do scientists get a heavy metal into a particle accelerator?"
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/how-do-scientists-get-lead-into-the-lhc
It’s #BlackHistoryMonth so it’s a good time to celebrate the extraordinary mathematician and NASA scientist Katherine Johnson (née Coleman; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020). One of the first Black women employed as a NASA scientist (and its predecessor NACA), she was known for her mastery of complex manual calculations of orbital mechanics and played a pivotal role in the success of
If you are a fan of classic COSMOS with Carl Sagan, you will probably love the UK’s Open University S354 “UNDERSTANDING SPACE & TIME”
https://alecmuffett.com/article/111090
#OpenUniversity #astronomy #physics #vintage
Breakthrough in materials research: an alloy of several #metals has been developed that shows practically no thermal expansion over an extremely large temperature interval.
#MaterialScience #Chemistry #Physics #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2025/02/ms02032501.html
Heureka: Meton, my virtual mechanical moon phase calculator, now also tracks the Draconic period as well as solar and lunar eclipses. Meton will deviate by one day every 60.5 years (synodic) and every 21.2 years (draconic) respectively. Feel free to drop me a message for details.
AI to revolutionise fundamental physics and ‘could show how universe will end’ https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/feb/03/ai-to-revolutionise-fundamental-physics-and-could-show-how-universe-will-end #Artificialintelligence(AI) #LargeHadronCollider #Particlephysics #Technology #Science #Physics #UKnews
New header picture:
This month the volunteer distributed computing project @einsteinathome turns 20 years old.
The Einstein@Home volunteers have already discovered more than 90 new neutron stars, and we hope to discover many more in the future. Our long-term goal is the first direct detection of continuous gravitational waves.
More about Einstein@Home on our homepage: https://www.aei.mpg.de/43575/einstein-home
Project homepage: https://einsteinathome.org/
Saturday Citations: Spider zombies; the morphology of cute dogs; entropy is coming for everyone
https://phys.org/news/2025-01-saturday-citations-spider-zombies-morphology.html