Our resident scientist reviews all the latest scientific news of interest
To be honest, given the super storms in the Gulf, the gigantic wildfires out west and crazy spring-like weather that we’re experiencing here in mid-October, I strongly considered turning in a column that just said, “Climate Change is Real And It’s Going To Kill Us All!” over and over and over again.
But, I’m fairly certain that this wouldn’t get past my editor. So! It’s time for another Research Roundup! (Which will hopefully see print before, you know, Climate Change Kills Us All.)
Missing Matter Found!
One of the great mysteries in Cosmology is that there doesn’t seem to be enough matter in the universe to hold it all together.
That is, looking at galaxies and the speeds at which stars move inside them, there doesn’t seem to be enough matter (and therefore, gravity) inside them to keep the galaxies holding their shape and prevent those stars from flying apart.
Now, two different teams of researchers have announced that they’ve found some of that missing matter, which exists as massive filaments of “warm-hot” gas stretching between galaxies. This matter wasn’t easily detectible by previous instruments, and even today it’s not easy to spot. But, now that it’s been spotted, it’s added a bit more to the total amount of “normal” matter (that is, the same type of matter that you and I are made of) that we know exists in the universe. That still leaves about 80 percent of the matter in the universe unaccounted for, which means the hunt for “Dark Matter” is still on.
Game Over, Man!
I’ve written in the past about the hypothesis that we, and everything we experience may be some sort of computer simulation. Like a really detailed version of “The Sims,” but with less debauchery.
Now, two theoretical physicists at Oxford University, Zohar Ringel and Dmitry Kovrizhin have proven, they say conclusively, that such a simulation is impossible using what we think of as computers.
The problem is with simulating the behaviors we see in Quantum Mechanics. Whenever we try to simulate some of these behaviors with our computers, the resource requirements grow exponentially.
Basically, every time we add a particle to the simulation, the number of required components (CPUs, memory, etc.) doubles. Add in enough particles to your simulation and soon the number of CPUs required is greater than the number of atoms in the universe.
However, this conclusion doesn’t rule out some sort of Quantum Computer solution, or some super-futuristic type of computer that we can’t yet imagine, let alone build.
Reboot That Brain!
Depression is a problem that affects more and more people in our modern society, so a lot of research is done on how to combat it.
Now, researchers experimenting with “Magic Mushrooms” have published a study where they claim that the brains of depressed individuals were basically “rebooted” after being treated with the chemical psilocybin which is found in the mushrooms.
This was followed by a period of time where feelings of anxiety and depression were lifted and the patients were able to make significant progress moving past them.Unfortunately, the study was small and there was apparently no control group or placebo group, so, the researchers have advised that larger studies are needed and that no one should self-medicate with such a dangerous substance. (I’m looking at you, Kevin.)
Making Waves…Again!
Remember the LIGO observatory, and how it detected gravitational waves back in 2015? Well, since then a third detector, VIRGO, has come on line in Italy and the number of gravitational waves that have been detected has increased to four since then. (Mostly from black holes colliding, which is, y’know, a super awesome thing to be able to detect.)
Now, the folks that run these facilities have announced that they’ve made an “unprecedented discovery” and they were set to announce it just hours after we went to press with this edition of The Pulse. So, if you haven’t already heard what it is, be sure to hop on the inter webs and check it out. (And I’ll be sure to mention it next month as well!)
Steven W. Disbrow is a programmer who specializes in e-commerce and mobile systems development, an entrepreneur, comic-book nerd, writer, improviser, actor, sometime television personality and parent of two human children.