Nature: Physics papers reveal few serious breaches but some duplication.
Preprint analysis quantifies scientific plagiarism
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Monthly Archives: November 2006
The Supreme Court melts down over greenhouse gasses
Slate.com: If there is anything stranger than writing up your story on global warming in a T-shirt … in late November … in the District of Columbia, I can’t quite think what it is. In fact nothing about this morning’s oral argument, in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, is normal. The justices are perhaps deciding, after all, the most urgent scientific question facing the planet: They are deciding Bush v. Gore’s Movie.
Scientists decode ancient astral computer
Sydney Morning Herald: A mysterious device salvaged from an ancient Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unlocked its secrets.
CERN takes next step towards completing the LHC
Wired: The elevator buttons in front of me, hand-labeled in black marker, speak volumes: “Sky,” says one, the other, “Hell.”
Sky is the Swiss-French border, pastoral Geneva countryside in the shadow of soaring Alpine mountains. Hell is “The Machine” — a 16.8-mile underground ring where, in almost precisely a year, superconducting magnets will begin accelerating atomic particles to within a hairsbreadth of the speed of light, and smash them into each other.
Astronomers discuss opportunities from planned return to moon
International Herald Tribune: Astronomers are meeting this week to put together their wish list for deep-space astronomy projects when the United States resumes exploration of the Moon with a new crew vehicle, the Orion, and new Ares rockets.
Silicon Nanowires to Reduce Size of Microchips
AZoNano.com: Silicon nanowires can help to further reduce the size of microchips. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics in Halle have for the first time developed single crystal silicon nanowires that fulfil the key criteria to this end. The researchers used aluminium as a catalyst to grow the nanowires. To date, scientists have usually deployed gold for this purpose. However, even traces of the precious metal have a drastically detrimental effect on the function of semiconductor components. This is not the case with other metals, which catalyse the process, but only at temperatures that would not enable economically viable processes. On the other hand, aluminium is an effective catalyst even at relatively low temperatures and does not impair the quality of electronic components
Scientists foresee quantum computing
Monsters and Critics: British physicists say they`ve proven, theoretically, how to build a simulator that can recreate the way atoms and particles behave in a quantum system.
Energy Use Can Be Cut by Efficiency, Survey Says
The New York Times: The growth rate of worldwide energy consumption could be cut by more than half over the next 15 years through more aggressive energy-efficiency efforts by households and industry, according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute, which is scheduled to be released today.
Carbon emissions show sharp rise
BBC: The rise in humanity’s emissions of carbon dioxide has accelerated sharply, according to a new analysis.
Build Your Own Universe
NPR: Is this a joke? No, say a bunch of physicists. One day, it may be possible for a person to create a universe!
This is not going to happen tomorrow. Not even close. But according to Columbia University physics professor Brian Greene, it is theoretically not impossible (which is his way of saying the possibilities are not zero) that one day, a person could build a universe.