All posts tagged: holes

Physicists look to power batteries with micro black holes

Physicists look to power batteries with micro black holes

Published by skeptic

Researchers delve into the mind-bending idea of harnessing microscopic black holes for ultimate energy storage. (CREDIT: AI Generated / Microsoft Designer) The growing demand for clean, sustainable energy is driving innovation in energy generation and storage. While advancements in solar panels and battery technology are promising, scientists are also exploring theoretical possibilities to push the boundaries of energy density. A recent study by physicists Espen Haug and Gianfranco Spavieri delves into the mind-bending idea of harnessing microscopic black holes for ultimate energy storage. Shattering Efficiency Limits: The Quest for Super-Batteries Our current energy landscape hinges on minimizing reliance on fossil fuels. This quest for clean energy sources is coupled with the challenge of efficient, large-scale energy storage. Battery technology is rapidly evolving, with increasing storage capacity and decreasing costs. However, existing lithium batteries have limitations. Despite their dominance, they only offer around 954,000 joules per kilogram, roughly equivalent to 22 times the energy from burning a kilogram of oil. Haug and Spavieri believe we are at the dawn of a “battery revolution,” with the potential to …

Black holes scramble information – but may not be the best at it

Black holes scramble information – but may not be the best at it

Published by skeptic

Previously, physicists theorised that black holes are the fastest possible scramblers of information MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Alamy When two quantum objects interact, all the information they carry becomes scrambled. Now, physicists have calculated a fundamental limit for how quickly this can happen. One striking example of information scrambling happens in black holes, says Victor Galitski at the University of Maryland. When objects fall into these super-dense bodies, some of the information they contain reemerges in the black hole’s emitted radiation – but in a highly scrambled form. In fact, physicists have theorised that black holes… Source link

Scientists reveal what exists beyond a black hole’s event horizon

Scientists reveal what exists beyond a black hole’s event horizon

Published by skeptic

Based on the holographic principle, the study postulates that the two fundamental theories of particles and gravity are equivalent. (CREDIT: Creative Commons) What lies at the center of a black hole? A team of scientists led by Enrico Rinaldi, an American physicist at the University of Michigan, has utilized quantum computing and computer learning to decipher the mathematical description of the quantum state of the matrix model, shedding light on what may lie inside a black hole. The study was based on the holographic principle, which postulates that the two fundamental theories of particles and gravity are equivalent to one another. However, the challenge lies in the fact that these ideas are constructed in different dimensions. Black hole theories Two theories offer explanations for different dimensions, with only one distinction between them. Gravity exists in three dimensions within a black hole’s geometry, whereas particle physics resides on its surface in two dimensions, similar to a flat disk. A black hole’s massive mass distorts space-time, creating its gravity that operates in three dimensions. This gravity links …

Black holes are common. So where are the white holes?

Black holes are common. So where are the white holes?

Published by skeptic

In our Universe, the laws of physics tell us all the possibilities for what’s allowed to conceivably exist, but only by actually observing, measuring, and experimenting with our Universe itself can we determine what’s truly real. In Einstein’s general relativity, one of the very first possibilities that was ever discovered was for a black hole: a region of space with so much matter-and-energy in one place that from within that volume, nothing, not even light, could ever escape. The flip side of that is an equally possible mathematical solution that’s the reverse of a black hole: a white hole, from which matter and energy will spontaneously emerge. Black holes have been demonstrated, through many different types of observations, to not only be physically real, but to be quite abundant all throughout the Universe. What about white holes? What are they, and are they physically real, too? That’s what Kristin Houser wants to know, as she asks: “[I] came across a random blog post about white holes and wondered if you’d ever written about them? […] …

Police busts, porn cinemas and glory holes: the wild art of sexual outlaw Dean Sameshima | Venice Biennale 2024

Police busts, porn cinemas and glory holes: the wild art of sexual outlaw Dean Sameshima | Venice Biennale 2024

Published by skeptic

Veer to your left in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale and you’ll come across a painting bearing the words: “Anonymous Homosexual.” Round the corner, there’s a row of black-and-white pictures showing transfixed male viewers, seen from the back, watching a screen. Ah, the magic of cinema, you might think – except for all the boxes of tissues, indicating that this is a particular kind of cinema. This is part of Being Alone, a body of work by the artist Dean Sameshima, an expanded version of which is also on show at Soft Opening in London. Sitting in an outdoor cafe in the Giardini, the Biennale’s main space, Sameshima says he visited five gay porn cinemas in Berlin, his adopted home, over a number of years, and decided to commemorate a culture that is disappearing due to hook-up apps. His pictures are enigmatic, melancholy and yet somehow seductive, the loitering silhouettes and shining screen expressing loneliness, escapism and perhaps a kind of defiance against the expectations of society. I became a morning drinker. I …

Supermassive black holes may provide a nursery for mini ones to grow

Supermassive black holes may provide a nursery for mini ones to grow

Published by skeptic

We may have a clearer understanding of why the accretion disc around large black holes is so bright Dana Berry/SkyWorks Digital/NASA Thousands of relatively small black holes may be circling the supermassive black holes that lurk at the centres of galaxies. The idea would not only help explain how small black holes grow larger, it would also give us a new understanding of why supermassive black holes appear so bright. The centres of galaxies are extraordinarily dense, so matter – including relatively small, or stellar-mass, black holes – tends to accumulate there. Some of… Source link

Red Eye viewers call out ‘preposterous’ plot holes after episode 1

Red Eye viewers call out ‘preposterous’ plot holes after episode 1

Published by Sam

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Viewers of the new ITV drama Red Eye have called out enormous plot holes and a lack of attention to detail in the show. The series follows Dr Matthew Nolan (played by Richard Armitage) who is extradited from the UK to Beijing to answer for the death of a woman found in the wreckage of his car. Chinese-British police officer Hana Li (played by Argylle actor Jing Lusi) is ordered to escort Nolan back on the “red eye” flight – but not everyone onboard is who they seem. In a part whodunnit, part conspiracy thriller, the unlikely duo start fighting crime together. As the first episode aired on Sunday night (21 April), viewers were quick to criticise the lack of attention to detail in the plot, such as the ad hoc extradition of Dr Nolan that happens almost instantaneously, in which he is not given any legal representation. …

City-country mortality gap widens amid persistent holes in rural health care access

City-country mortality gap widens amid persistent holes in rural health care access

Published by skeptic

In Matthew Roach’s two years as vital statistics manager for the Arizona Department of Health Services, and 10 years previously in its epidemiology program, he has witnessed a trend in mortality rates that has rural health experts worried. As Roach tracked the health of Arizona residents, the gap between mortality rates of people living in rural areas and those of their urban peers was widening. The health disparities between rural and urban Americans have long been documented, but a recent report from the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service found the chasm has grown in recent decades. In their examination, USDA researchers found rural Americans from the ages of 25 to 54 die from natural causes, like chronic diseases and cancer, at wildly higher rates than the same age group living in urban areas. The analysis did not include external causes of death, such as suicide or accidental overdose. The research analyzed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention death data from two three-year periods — 1999 through 2001 and 2017 through 2019. In 1999, the …

There are thousands of holes at the bottom of the sea

There are thousands of holes at the bottom of the sea

Published by skeptic

This article was originally featured on Hakai Magazine, an online publication about science and society in coastal ecosystems. Read more stories like this at hakaimagazine.com. In the North Sea, nearly 100 meters underwater, the seafloor is littered with more than 40,000 shallow pits in the sand. The pockmarks, sometimes spanning more than 10 meters, come in a variety of sizes and odd shapes. While some look like long furrows, half-moons, or concentric circles of sand, others are ringed by mounds of sediment. When he first saw the pockmarks, Jens Schneider von Deimling, a marine geophysicist at the University of Kiel in Germany, wondered whether they were evidence of methane seeping from the sediment. Methane seeps are often sites of unique seafloor communities that live off the gas the way plants live off sunlight. Methane is also a short-lived but potent, climate change–inducing molecule: over just 20 years, the greenhouse gas can trap 84 times more heat than carbon dioxide. So if a lot of methane were bubbling out of the North Sea, scientists would want to know about …

A 7-minute guide to the relationship between quantum mechanics and black holes

A 7-minute guide to the relationship between quantum mechanics and black holes

Published by skeptic

Physicist Brian Cox takes us into the mind-bending world where quantum mechanics, black holes, and the future of computing converge.  In this interview, Cox shares the engineering challenges behind building quantum computers and the intricate dance of storing information in their notoriously delicate memory. However, black holes have an unexpected link to quantum information storage. Cox discusses how Planck units, holography, and redundancy could shape the future of computing.  It is a mind-expanding discussion that pushes the boundaries of our understanding. Even Cox says, “You’re not meant to understand what I’ve just said because I don’t understand what I’ve just said because nobody understands what I’ve just said.” Welcome to the frontier where nature’s laws and technological innovation collide. BRIAN COX: There’s an engineering challenge in building quantum computers, which is how to store information in the memory of the quantum computer safely, robustly, because quantum computer memory is notoriously susceptible to any interference from the outside environment. If any of the environment in which the memory sits interacts with the memory in any way, then …