Latest news with #theoreticalphysics
RNZ News
3 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
What if the Big Bang wasn't the beginning?
We're joined by theoretical physicist Niayesh Afshordi—professor at the University of Waterloo and associate faculty at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics—and science communicator Phil Halper, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society whose stunning astronomy images have appeared in The Washington Post, BBC, and The Guardian. Together, they've co-authored Battle of the Big Bang New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins , a book that challenges the boundaries of what we think we know about the origins of the Universe. Photo:
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
5 Universities Get $90 Million Gift For Science Research Amid Federal Cuts
In a time of uncertainty for federal science funding, the Leinweber Foundation has announced a landmark investment in theoretical physics. The Michigan-based foundation is endowing five leading institutions — MIT, UC Berkeley, the University of Chicago, the Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Michigan — with a total of $90 million to support curiosity-driven research and early-career scientists. The gift aims to strengthen American leadership in basic science through a coordinated network of research centers. Larry Leinweber, who grew up in rural northern Michigan and made his career in software, has had a lifelong interest in science. He wistfully recalled how deeply he felt the death of Albert Einstein during his adolescence, a moment that crystallized his fascination with physics. His foundation first supported theoretical physics at the University of Michigan in 2017. The new initiative expands that investment to the national scale, creating a unified network of leading institutions committed to advancing theoretical physics through collaboration and sustained investment. 'We wanted to have at least five research centers, including University of Michigan, to launch a broader effort,' said Leinweber, who hinted at his interest in expanding even further. Theoretical physics has long held a special place in the scientific imagination — not just for its foundational questions, but for its strangeness. It grapples with particles that tunnel through barriers, forces that bend space and constants that define the fate of the universe. It's the realm where Einstein reimagined time, Schrödinger proposed a cat both dead and alive, and today's physicists speculate about multiverses, quantum foam and dark matter. Even when its discoveries resist application, the field stirs both public fascination and scientific wonder. Its applications are typically decades away. But, from semiconductors to global positioning systems, history teaches us that today's basic discoveries become tomorrow's technological revolutions. The endowments will support early-career scientists, particularly postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, along with visiting scholars, conferences and collaborative meetings. Each center will have flexible funds to recruit talent, host events and pursue long-term theoretical work. Every two years, the centers will convene to discuss major challenges in the field — a modern echo of the early 20th-century Solvay Conferences that helped shape modern physics. Why prioritize early-career scientists? "Postdocs are the secret sauce of research," Leinweber said. "They run with ideas... they're young, energetic... they can explore... and interact with different faculty.' He emphasized the value of flexibility and independence. The model he supports enables these scholars to operate with unusual freedom, not only within their host institution but across the network. He calls the postdocs supported by his gifts "free-range chickens" who are not tied to any one faculty member, grant or deliverable. This kind of autonomy is rare in contemporary science, where early-career scientists are often structurally disincentivized from taking risks. Empirical studies indicate that flexible, long-term funding models — those that tolerate early failures and reward long-term success — can foster more innovative and impactful research, particularly when offered to scientists in the formative stages of their careers. Behind the scenes, the Science Philanthropy Alliance played a key role in shaping the initiative. Founded in response to a decade of stagnant federal budgets for science, the Alliance works with partners like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to identify research areas and institutions where their resources can have the greatest strategic impact. It advised the Leinweber Foundation throughout its multiyear planning process and helped organize campus visits that ultimately shaped the multi-institutional design. "Our mission is to advance science through visionary philanthropy," said France Córdova, the Alliance's president and former director of the National Science Foundation. 'We accompany philanthropists on that journey.' Córdova noted that theoretical physics is particularly underfunded in the current climate. 'We used to say that all of science is underfunded, and now we really mean it. Things are not going in a good direction,' she said, referencing proposed cuts to federal research agencies in the 2026 budget. In a period when public support for discovery is strained, the gift signals a long-view commitment to advancing fundamental understanding. 'We've come so far," Córdova said, again referencing the federal decline in science funding, "and then having science emerging on that path towards greatness… losing that and not being the world leader in any kind of science... it's a frightening prospect." This initiative offers a countercurrent: a bet on the future, powered by curiosity, collaboration and the enduring value of basic research. Philanthropy alone cannot fill the gap left by public retrenchment. But when done thoughtfully — grounded in long-term vision — it can provide the patient capital that fundamental research needs to pursue the kind of work that doesn't fit neatly into five-year plans. In an era of mounting pressure to produce short-term results, the new Leinweber endowments affirm the belief that the most consequential scientific advances begin with questions — not deliverables.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New theory could finally make quantum gravity a reality
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Physicists have developed a novel approach to solving one of the most persistent problems in theoretical physics: uniting gravity with the quantum world. In a recent paper published in the journal Reports on Progress in Physics, the scientists outline a reformulation of gravity that could lead to a fully quantum-compatible description — without invoking the extra dimensions or exotic features required by more speculative models, like string theory. At the heart of the proposal is a rethinking of how gravity behaves at a fundamental level. While the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces are all described using quantum field theory — a mathematical framework that incorporates uncertainty and wave-particle duality — gravity remains the outlier. General relativity, Einstein's theory of gravity, is a purely classical theory that describes gravity as the warping of space-time geometry by mass and energy. But attempts to blend quantum theory with general relativity often run into fatal mathematical inconsistencies, such as infinite probabilities. The new approach reinterprets the gravitational field in a way that mirrors the structure of known quantum field theories. "The key finding is that our theory provides a new approach to quantum gravity in a way that resembles the formulation of the other fundamental interactions of the Standard Model," study co-author Mikko Partanen, a physicist at Aalto University in Finland, told Live Science in an email. Instead of curving space-time, gravity in their model is mediated by four interrelated fields, with each one similar to the field that governs electromagnetism. These fields respond to mass in much the same way that electric and magnetic fields respond to charge and current. They also interact with each other and with the fields of the Standard Model in a way that reproduces general relativity at the classical level while also allowing quantum effects to be consistently incorporated. Related: 'Einstein's equations need to be refined': Tweaks to general relativity could finally explain what lies at the heart of a black hole Because the new model mirrors the structure of well-established quantum theories, it sidesteps the mathematical problems that have historically hindered efforts to quantize general relativity. According to the authors, their framework produces a well-defined quantum theory that avoids common problems — such as unphysical infinities in observable quantities and negative probabilities for physical processes — that typically arise when general relativity is quantized using conventional, straightforward methods. A key advantage of the approach is its simplicity. Unlike many models of quantum gravity that require undetected particles and additional forces, this theory sticks to familiar terrain. "The main advantages or differences in comparison with many other quantum gravity theories are that our theory does not need extra dimensions that do not yet have direct experimental support," Jukka Tulkki, a professor at Aalto University and co-author of the paper, told Live Science in an email. "Furthermore, the theory does not need any free parameters beyond the known physical constants." This means the theory can be tested without waiting for the discovery of new particles or revising existing physical laws. "Any future quantum gravity experiments can be directly used to test any (forthcoming) predictions of the theory," Tulkki added. Despite the promising features, the model is still in its early stages. Although preliminary calculations indicate that the theory behaves well under the usual consistency checks, a complete proof of its consistency remains to be worked out. Moreover, the framework has yet to be applied to some of the deepest questions in gravitational physics, such as the true nature of black hole singularities or the physics of the Big Bang. "The theory is not yet capable of addressing those major challenges, but it has potential to do so in the future," Partanen said. Experimental verification may prove even more elusive. Gravity is the weakest of the known forces, and its quantum aspects are incredibly subtle. Direct tests of quantum gravity effects are beyond the reach of current instruments. RELATED STORIES —In a first, physicists spot elusive 'free-range' atoms — confirming a century-old theory about quantum mechanics —Physicists create hottest Schrödinger's cat ever in quantum technology breakthrough —Scientists claim to find 'first observational evidence supporting string theory,' which could finally reveal the nature of dark energy "Testing quantum gravity effects is challenging due to the weakness of gravitational interaction," Tulkki said. Still, because the theory includes no adjustable parameters, any future experiment that probes quantum gravitational behavior could potentially confirm — or rule out — the new proposal. "Given the current pace of theoretical and observational advancements, it could take a few decades to make the first experimental breakthroughs that give us direct evidence of quantum gravity effects," Partanen said. "Indirect evidence through advanced observations could be obtained earlier." For now, Partanen and Tulkki's work opens up a fresh direction for theorists searching for a quantum theory of gravity — one that stays grounded in the successful frameworks of particle physics while potentially unlocking some of the most profound mysteries of the universe.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The Computational Limit of Life May Be Much Higher Than We Thought
A new paper written by a theoretical physicist at Howard University claims that aneural eukaryotic cells could process information up to a billion times faster than typical biochemical processes. This idea forms from the emerging evidence that biology and quantum mechanics may not be as mutually exclusive as scientists originally thought. Although this idea requires rigorous experimentation to be proven, it might show that biological computation is much more powerful that even the greatest quantum computers. What is the computational limit of biology? According to some technologists, the human brain is capable of 1016 computations per second, and if a super-advanced AI were to ever that threshold (and gain a whole host of other abilities), we'd enter hit what is known in tech circles as the singularity. However, a new article written by theoretical physicist Philip Kurian argues that this limit—and all other neuron-based estimations of life's computational abilities—have woefully underestimated the true abilities of biological brains. Kurian includes a controversial (but increasingly influential) idea in his calculations: that quantum processes in a biological system, when taken together, far exceed the computing power of even the most advanced quantum computer. Published in the journal Science Advances, this article expands on QBL's recent discovery of cytoskeleton filaments exhibiting quantum optical features and recalculates the computational capacity of carbon-based life on Earth. 'This work connects the dots among the great pillars of twentieth century physics—thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics—for a major paradigm shift across the biological sciences, investigating the feasibility and implications of quantum information processing in wetware at ambient temperatures,' Kurian said in a press statement ('wetware' is a term for organic material in the human body analogous to hardware in a computer). 'Physicists and cosmologists should wrestle with these findings, especially as they consider the origins of life on Earth and elsewhere in the habitable universe, evolving in concert with the electromagnetic field.' Biology and quantum mechanics typically don't mix, and for good reason. Artificial quantum systems generally require ultracold, approaching-absolute-zero temperatures to run, as qubits are incredibly sensitive to disturbances (this is why quantum computers also contain robust error correction measures). So, the warm and chaotic environment of, say, a human brain, is far from ideal for quantum processes. However, for decades, some theories (that have slowly become less out there with age) have suggested that quantum processes could in fact be occurring in the brain. In some hypotheses, they could even be responsible for consciousness itself. Kurian's paper focuses on the amino acid tryptophan, which is found in many proteins and can form large networks within structures like microtubules, amyloid fibrils, cilia, and neurons. Combined with QBL's discovery last year, an idea has taken shape that aneural organisms may be able to use these quantum signals to process information. Typically, biochemical signals involve neurons moving across cells, but in a quantum sense, tryptophan could be acting like quantum fiber optics. It would be able to perform operations in mere picoseconds, which would allow the cells to operate a billion times faster than chemical processing alone. This revised limit may sound humbling, but if these aneural cells are using quantum signals to process information, that's good news for both the quantum computing world and the world of artificial intelligence. 'And all this in a warm soup! The quantum computing world should take serious notice,' Kurian said in a press statement. 'In the era of artificial intelligences and quantum computers, it is important to remember that physical laws restrict all their behaviors.' Of course, much like many of the quantum theories of information processing and consciousness put forth in the past, Kurian's ideas still need rigorous testing before they completely upend our understanding of biological computation. However, what seemed inconceivable decades ago—combing the quantum world with the biological one—is quickly become less so as we learn more about the subatomic biological world. You Might Also Like Can Apple Cider Vinegar Lead to Weight Loss? Bobbi Brown Shares Her Top Face-Transforming Makeup Tips for Women Over 50
