Quantum field theory has been the paradigm of modern physics since it was formulated in the first half of the last century. It is based on the idea that everything in physics corresponds to the interaction of some fundamental fields that permeate all space and the excitations of which represent the particles we see in […]
The wave nature of light expresses itself in the propagation all over space, showing an intrinsic limitation to be localized beyond the so-called diffraction limit which is of the order of half the wavelength of the photons propagating. However when interacting with matter, light often gets reflected, diffracted, scattered or absorbed depending on the interactions […]
A translucent material allows light to pass through, but if we try to look an object behind such a material, the image will appear blurred or distorted. Think, for example, of the semitransparent glasses commonly used as showers screens. The reason why the image deforms when passing through the glass is the scattering of light […]
Thermodynamics is one of the oldest and more fruitful fields of science. Quantum mechanics, on the other hand, is less than one hundred years old, but it is also useful and well accepted. They can look very different. Thermodynamics treats with macroscopic systems, composed by an Avogadro number (6.023×1023) of atoms or molecules, and quantum […]
Quantum mechanics is one of the most fruitful and accepted physical theories. Nevertheless, its foundations and philosophical implications are still a vivid topic of debate. Because of that reason, during the conference “Quantum Physics and the Nature of Reality,” held in July 2011 and organized by Anton Zeilinger, a set of experts were polled. A […]
We are almost sure: we have discovered the Higgs boson. Or at least, that is the most reasonable comment to do after the usual Winter Report given by the scientists that work on the two main experiments placed at the ring of the Large Hadron Collider (CERN, Switzerland), named CMS and ATLAS, the last December […]
Quantum mechanics and biology are very different fields. The first one studies things that are very small, like atoms, molecules or particles. Biology, on the other hand, deals with complex and big systems, the living beings. Of course, that does not mean that there is no connection at all. Big, complex systems are composed always […]
Easter Island is an amazingly mysterious destination due to the moais, megalithic statues resembling human figures that were built by the Rapa Nui people between the 12th and 17th centuries. These magnificent volcanic rock statues can be found all over the island, mainly in the coastline. There are over 1 000 of them, and some […]
Back in the decade of 1950, and inspired by the beauty of the formulation of Quantum Electrodynamics, carried out by Feynman among others in the first half of the twentieth century; scientists thought that all physics had to be invariant under three fundamental symmetries that could relate different physical processes between them. These symmetries were […]
Where is the half of the ordinary matter in the universe not observed yet? Computer simulations of cosmological galaxy formation predict the existence of large intercluster filaments of hot and low-density gas, the so-called cosmic web. For the first time, ESA’s Planck satellite has observed one of such filaments in the merging cluster pair A399-A401 […]