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Galactic Rotation Curves Revisited: A Surprise For Dark Matter

Historically, galactic rotation curves have suggested that galaxies are surrounded by a vast amount of invisible matter, otherwise known as a dark matter halo. A few weeks ago, a team of astrophysicists published a result that completely contradicts these halo models and could even change the popular understanding of dark matter. The team found that galactic rotation curves can be calculated explicitly from a simple … Continue reading Galactic Rotation Curves Revisited: A Surprise For Dark Matter

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Shrink to grow: on the road towards a 57-codon bacterium

“Shrink to grow” is a two-pronged business strategy where a company gets rid of unprofitable brands (“shrink”) to focus its resources on a few remaining or new brands (“grow”). Companies like P&G and Microsoft have used it, and a similar idea to “shrink to grow” is behind the George Church lab’s ongoing development of the synthetic bacteria rEcoli57. But while the executives at P&G were … Continue reading Shrink to grow: on the road towards a 57-codon bacterium

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New Experiment Chases the Elusive Magnetic Monopole

A new experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) seeks to detect the long theorized magnetic monopole. In 1931, physicist Paul Dirac showed that our theories of electromagnetism allow for the existence of a solitary magnetic charge. Just as protons and electrons represent unique electric charges (positive and negative), magnetic monopoles should similarly exist as manifestations of magnetic charge. Despite our best efforts, however, we … Continue reading New Experiment Chases the Elusive Magnetic Monopole

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Dark Matter Evades the World’s Most Sensitive Search

At the 11th Identification of Dark Matter Conference, LUX, the Large Underground Xenon experiment, announced the results of the world’s most sensitive search for dark matter. Physicists at LUX have been racing for a dark matter discovery since the collaboration’s inception. Observers in the field were aware that the LUX announcement would include more data with vastly improved performance compared to experiment’s initial run in … Continue reading Dark Matter Evades the World’s Most Sensitive Search

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NASA’s Kepler Discovers over 1000 New Planets

Recently, the Kepler mission announced the discovery of 1,284 new planets. The announcement represents the most planets ever discovered at a single time, and more than doubles the total number of planets discovered by the Kepler telescope. Launched into space by NASA in 2009, Kepler’s goal is to determine how many Earth-sized planets reside in or near habitable zones, and estimate how many of such planets might exist … Continue reading NASA’s Kepler Discovers over 1000 New Planets

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Streamlined 473-Gene Bacteria May Lead to Discoveries, Biochemical Production

Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute have created a fast-growing bacterial cell with a nearly-minimal number of genes necessary for survival – just 473 in total. These genes were entirely synthesized – not transplanted from a grown organism – and the creation of such a cell may allow big steps forward in gene function identification and efficient mass-production of biological molecules. Continue reading Streamlined 473-Gene Bacteria May Lead to Discoveries, Biochemical Production

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An InFusion of hope : Towards a cleaner planet Earth

In November 2015, Germany switched on the WX7 stellarator, their billion dollar nuclear fusion machine and produced stable helium plasma for the very first time. Just 3 months after their initial success, the German physicists were able to produce and sustain hydrogen plasma for the first time. The generation of hydrogen plasma is an important step towards carrying out nuclear fusion, a process where two … Continue reading An InFusion of hope : Towards a cleaner planet Earth

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LIGO and Gravitational Waves: Discovery of the Century

The Twitter rumors are true! In what some scientists are calling the discovery of the century, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) finally announced the first direct observation of gravitational waves.   Until a few days ago, gravitational waves were the only untested prediction of General Relativity. In General Relativity, space and time are not fixed. Spacetime curves around the matter and energy in the universe, … Continue reading LIGO and Gravitational Waves: Discovery of the Century

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The Physics of Football

Every year, the NFL makes rule changes that affect team strategy and game outcomes. Some of these rules are designed to maintain the safety of players, while others are designed to increase the competitiveness of the game. However, there is one aspect of the game that the NFL can never change: the laws of physics. In the new series by Forbes Science, “Football Physics,” Chad Orzel … Continue reading The Physics of Football

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