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For the first time, physicists have captured an enigmatic state of matter on video.

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Scientists have demonstrated how to structure light such that its polarization behaves like a collective of spins in a ferromagnet forming half-skyrmions (also known as merons). To achieve this, the light was trapped in a thin liquid crystal layer between two nearly perfect mirrors. Skyrmions, in general, are found, e.g., as elementary excitations of magnetization in a two-dimensional ferromagnet but do not naturally appear in electromagnetic (light) fields.

One of the key concepts in physics, and science overall, is the notion of a “field” that can describe the spatial distribution of a physical quantity. For instance, a weather map shows the distributions of temperature and pressure (these are known as scalar fields), as well as the wind speed and direction (known as a vector field). Almost everyone wears a vector field on their head — every hair has an origin and an end, just like a vector. Over 100 years ago L.E.J. Brouwer proved the hairy ball theorem which states that you can’t comb a hairy ball flat without creating whorls, whirls (vortices), or cowlicks.

Continue reading “Second Order Optical Merons, or Light Pretending to Be a Ferromagnet” »

Previous ideas about how to make these hypothetical devices have required exotic forms of matter and energy that may not exist, but a new idea for a warp drive that doesn’t break the laws of physics may be theoretically possible. However, it may not be practical in the foreseeable future because it requires ultra dense materials.

NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Scientists at Applied Physics are excited to announce they have recently constructed the first model of physical warp drives.

“While we still can’t break the speed of light, we don’t need to in order to become an interstellar species” Tweet this

Applied Physics is an independent group of scientists, engineers, and inventors that advise companies and governments on science and technology for both commercial and humanitarian applications.

Today, more than 90% of the indexed articles in the natural sciences are published in English. That wasn’t always the case.

Laser-cooled plasma-in-a-bottle could answer questions about the sun, fusion power. Rice University physicists have discovered a way to trap the world’s coldest plasma in a magnetic bottle, a technological achievement that could advance research into clean energy, space weather and astrophysics.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist, cosmologist, planetary scientist, author, and science communicator, gives one of the most eye opening interviews you will ever hear.
►Inspired? Get Neil’s book, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry: https://amzn.to/2Mm3YSc.

Thank you to Tom Bilyeu for providing the amazing interview! Check out his awesome channel here for more: https://www.youtube.com/TomBilyeu.

Continue reading “Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Life Advice Will Leave You SPEECHLESS — One of the Most Eye Opening Interviews” »

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Surprise in solid-state physics: The Hall effect, which normally requires magnetic fields, can also be generated in a completely different way – with extreme strength.

Electric current is deflected by a magnetic field – in conducting materials this leads to the so-called Hall effect. This effect is often used to measure magnetic fields. A surprising discovery has now been made at TU Wien, in collaboration with scientists from the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland), McMater University (Canada), and Rice University (USA): an exotic metal made of cerium, bismuth, and palladium was examined and a giant Hall effect was found to be produced by the material, in the total absence of any magnetic field. The reason for this unexpected result lies in the unusual properties of the electrons: They behave as if magnetic monopoles were present in the material. These discoveries have now been published in the scientific magazine PNAS.

A voltage perpendicular to the current.