BREAKING NEWS
Tweets by @FQXi
Quantum Properties of Spacetime
May 29, 2020
FQXi's Francesca Vidotto talks in-depth to JSTOR Daily about feminist epistemology, white holes, string theory, and her book (with Carlo Rovelli) on loop quantum gravity.
Gravity Winners
May 29, 2020
The winners of the Gravity Research Foundation essay contest have been announced. Congrats to our members who have won prizes: Eduardo Guendelman (for "Lorentzian Quintessential Inflation" with David Benisty), Craig Hogan (for "Cosmological Constant in Coherent Quantum Gravity"), Thanu Padmanabhan (for "Principle of Equivalence at Planck Scales and the Zero-Point-Length of Spacetime"), and Maulik Parikh & Frank Wilczek (first prize for "The Noise of Gravitons" with George Zhariade).
INSPYRE!
Mar 23, 2020
FQXi is proud to support INSPYRE 2020, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the…Universe’”, which is dedicated to the hottest topics from particle physics to cosmology. This year lectures (in English) are online from 30th March to 3rd April. Open to all, especially students & teachers! The course is organised by FQXi's Catalina Oana Curceanu, senior researcher at the National Laboratory of Frascati (LNF), and you can read more here.
NEW IN BLOGS
Interview: Information Fueled Engines -- with...
By JOHN BECHHOEFER
Information as Fuel awardee John Bechhoefer joins "BIV Today" to discuss the prospect of developing microscopic engines. Research published this week delves into how this can be accomplished. Tyler Orton...
How does the brain generate pain? by Markus Ploner
By JOE SCHINDLER
How does the brain generate pain? by Markus Ploner
Abstract: The lecture will provide a pain researcher’s, neuroscientist’s and neurologist’s perspective on how pain emerges from brain activity. Pain is a highly subjective experience...
3D Virtual Tour of the Lund NanoLab
By ZEEYA MERALI
Have you ever wanted to visit a quantum physics lab? Given many of us are in various stages of lockdown, I can’t offer you an actual trip, but here’s the next best thing: a cool tour of Lund University’s Nano Lab, in Sweden, where FQXi member...
FORUM UPDATES
Ultimate Reality
A Physical Theory based on Sets, Not Vectors
By JOE SCHINDLER
Thank you to Dr. Gerard Rinkus for suggesting we open a discussion of their recent essay A Physical Theory Based On Sets, Not Vectors.
Abstract:
This essay questions what is perhaps the most fundamental assumption of quantum theory,...
Ultimate Reality
The Nature of Time
By ZEEYA MERALI
I'm opening up this thread, following requests from users, as a place to discuss general questions and ideas about the nature of time.
Enjoy!
Ultimate Reality
Alternative Models of Reality
By ZEEYA MERALI
If you have an unconventional, alternative model of reality, then this is the place to discuss it. (This is for contributors who have preliminary ideas and would like feedback, but do not have an academic paper or arXiv preprint and have not given a...
Interview: Information Fueled Engines -- with...
By JOHN BECHHOEFER
Information as Fuel awardee John Bechhoefer joins "BIV Today" to discuss the prospect of developing microscopic engines. Research published this week delves into how this can be accomplished. Tyler Orton...
How does the brain generate pain? by Markus Ploner
By JOE SCHINDLER
How does the brain generate pain? by Markus Ploner
Abstract: The lecture will provide a pain researcher’s, neuroscientist’s and neurologist’s perspective on how pain emerges from brain activity. Pain is a highly subjective experience...
3D Virtual Tour of the Lund NanoLab
By ZEEYA MERALI
Have you ever wanted to visit a quantum physics lab? Given many of us are in various stages of lockdown, I can’t offer you an actual trip, but here’s the next best thing: a cool tour of Lund University’s Nano Lab, in Sweden, where FQXi member...
NEW PODCAST EPISODES
The End of Everything: Astrophysicist Katie Mack on her book describing ways to destroy the universe, & on hints of new physics at the LHC; a quantum engine that heats & cools simultaneously; how the thermodynamic gradient may have driven the evolution of intelligence through culture; & the UK's physics of life network.
'Quantum dots' can teach us about thermodynamics in the nanorealm.
Information as Fuel. Quantum physicist Natalia Ares describes her quest to test thermodynamics in the quantum realm with carbon nanotubes. Philosopher Owen Maroney and theoretical physicist Janet Anders explain what such experiments can teach us about the foundations of physics and biology.
Most Recent:
FORUM UPDATES
Ultimate Reality
A Physical Theory based on Sets, Not Vectors
By JOE SCHINDLER
Thank you to Dr. Gerard Rinkus for suggesting we open a discussion of their recent essay A Physical Theory Based On Sets, Not Vectors.
Abstract:
This essay questions what is perhaps the most fundamental assumption of quantum theory,...
Ultimate Reality
The Nature of Time
By ZEEYA MERALI
I'm opening up this thread, following requests from users, as a place to discuss general questions and ideas about the nature of time.
Enjoy!
Ultimate Reality
Alternative Models of Reality
By ZEEYA MERALI
If you have an unconventional, alternative model of reality, then this is the place to discuss it. (This is for contributors who have preliminary ideas and would like feedback, but do not have an academic paper or arXiv preprint and have not given a...
NEW ARTICLES
The Quantum Clock-Maker Investigating COVID-19, Causality, and the Trouble with AI
By NICOLA JONES • Jun 23, 2021
Sally Shrapnel, a quantum physicist and medical practitioner, on her experiments into cause-and-effect that could help us understand time’s arrow—and build better healthcare algorithms.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(24 posts)
Connect the Quantum Dots for a New Kind of Fuel
By COLIN STUART • Jun 20, 2021
'Artificial atoms' allow physicists to manipulate individual electrons—and could help to reduce energy wastage in electronic devices.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(0 posts)
Can Choices Curve Spacetime?
By SOPHIE HEBDEN • Mar 16, 2021
Two teams are developing ways to detect quantum-gravitational effects in the lab.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(24 posts)
The Quantum Engine That Simultaneously Heats and Cools
By COLIN STUART • Mar 1, 2021
Tiny device could help boost quantum electronics.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(2 posts)
The Quantum Refrigerator
By NICOLA JONES • Feb 9, 2021
A tiny cooling device could help rewrite the thermodynamic rule book for quantum machines.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(0 posts)
Time to Think
By JOHN FARRELL • Sep 17, 2020
Philosopher Jenann Ismael invokes the thermodynamic arrow of time to explain how human intelligence emerged through culture.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(7 posts)
Lockdown Lab Life
By COLIN STUART • Jun 19, 2020
Grounded physicists are exploring the use of online and virtual-reality conferencing, and AI-controlled experiments, to maintain social distancing. Post-pandemic, these positive innovations could make science more accessible and environmentally-friendly.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(4 posts)
Is Causality Fundamental?
By BRENDAN FOSTER • Jun 18, 2020
Untangling how the human perception of cause-and-effect might arise from quantum physics, may help us understand the limits and the potential of AI.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(118 posts)
Building Agency in the Biology Lab
By MIRIAM FRANKEL • Apr 10, 2020
Physicists are using optogenetics techniques to make a rudimentary agent, from cellular components, which can convert measurements into actions using light.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(3 posts)
Think Quantum to Build Better AI
By COLIN STUART • Mar 6, 2020
Investigating how quantum memory storage could aid machine learning and how quantum interactions with the environment may have played a role in evolution.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(5 posts)
Outside the Box
By COLIN STUART • Mar 5, 2020
A proposed quantum set-up that could predict your game-playing strategy resurrects Newcomb’s classic quiz show paradox.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(8 posts)
The Quantum Agent
By NICOLA JONES • Feb 11, 2020
Investigating how the quantum measurement process might be related to the emergence of intelligence, agency and free will.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(18 posts)
First Things First: The Physics of Causality
By KATE BECKER • Jul 16, 2019
Why do we remember the past and not the future? Untangling the connections between cause and effect, choice, and entropy.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(197 posts)
Can Time Be Saved From Physics?
By JOHN FARRELL • Apr 27, 2019
Philosophers, physicists and neuroscientists discuss how our sense of time’s flow might arise through our interactions with external stimuli—despite suggestions from Einstein's relativity that our perception of the passage of time is an illusion.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(145 posts)
Thermo-Demonics
By M. MITCHELL WALDROP • Mar 4, 2019
A devilish new framework of thermodynamics that focuses on how we observe information could help illuminate our understanding of probability and rewrite quantum theory.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(69 posts)
Gravity's Residue
By GEORGE MUSSER • Feb 15, 2019
An unusual approach to unifying the laws of physics could solve Hawking's black-hole information paradox—and its predicted gravitational "memory effect" could be picked up by LIGO.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(6 posts)
Could Mind Forge the Universe?
By SOPHIE HEBDEN • Jan 18, 2019
Objective reality, and the laws of physics themselves, emerge from our observations, according to a new framework that turns what we think of as fundamental on its head.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(42 posts)
Dissolving Quantum Paradoxes
By KATE BECKER • Aug 31, 2018
The impossibility of building a perfect clock could help explain away microscale weirdness.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(109 posts)
The Quantum Clock-Maker Investigating COVID-19, Causality, and the Trouble with AI
By NICOLA JONES • Jun 23, 2021
Sally Shrapnel, a quantum physicist and medical practitioner, on her experiments into cause-and-effect that could help us understand time’s arrow—and build better healthcare algorithms.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(24 posts)
Connect the Quantum Dots for a New Kind of Fuel
By COLIN STUART • Jun 20, 2021
'Artificial atoms' allow physicists to manipulate individual electrons—and could help to reduce energy wastage in electronic devices.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(0 posts)
Can Choices Curve Spacetime?
By SOPHIE HEBDEN • Mar 16, 2021
Two teams are developing ways to detect quantum-gravitational effects in the lab.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(24 posts)
The Quantum Engine That Simultaneously Heats and Cools
By COLIN STUART • Mar 1, 2021
Tiny device could help boost quantum electronics.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(2 posts)
The Quantum Refrigerator
By NICOLA JONES • Feb 9, 2021
A tiny cooling device could help rewrite the thermodynamic rule book for quantum machines.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(0 posts)
Time to Think
By JOHN FARRELL • Sep 17, 2020
Philosopher Jenann Ismael invokes the thermodynamic arrow of time to explain how human intelligence emerged through culture.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(7 posts)
Lockdown Lab Life
By COLIN STUART • Jun 19, 2020
Grounded physicists are exploring the use of online and virtual-reality conferencing, and AI-controlled experiments, to maintain social distancing. Post-pandemic, these positive innovations could make science more accessible and environmentally-friendly.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(4 posts)
Is Causality Fundamental?
By BRENDAN FOSTER • Jun 18, 2020
Untangling how the human perception of cause-and-effect might arise from quantum physics, may help us understand the limits and the potential of AI.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(118 posts)
Building Agency in the Biology Lab
By MIRIAM FRANKEL • Apr 10, 2020
Physicists are using optogenetics techniques to make a rudimentary agent, from cellular components, which can convert measurements into actions using light.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(3 posts)
Think Quantum to Build Better AI
By COLIN STUART • Mar 6, 2020
Investigating how quantum memory storage could aid machine learning and how quantum interactions with the environment may have played a role in evolution.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(5 posts)
Outside the Box
By COLIN STUART • Mar 5, 2020
A proposed quantum set-up that could predict your game-playing strategy resurrects Newcomb’s classic quiz show paradox.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(8 posts)
The Quantum Agent
By NICOLA JONES • Feb 11, 2020
Investigating how the quantum measurement process might be related to the emergence of intelligence, agency and free will.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(18 posts)
First Things First: The Physics of Causality
By KATE BECKER • Jul 16, 2019
Why do we remember the past and not the future? Untangling the connections between cause and effect, choice, and entropy.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(197 posts)
Can Time Be Saved From Physics?
By JOHN FARRELL • Apr 27, 2019
Philosophers, physicists and neuroscientists discuss how our sense of time’s flow might arise through our interactions with external stimuli—despite suggestions from Einstein's relativity that our perception of the passage of time is an illusion.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(145 posts)
Thermo-Demonics
By M. MITCHELL WALDROP • Mar 4, 2019
A devilish new framework of thermodynamics that focuses on how we observe information could help illuminate our understanding of probability and rewrite quantum theory.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(69 posts)
Gravity's Residue
By GEORGE MUSSER • Feb 15, 2019
An unusual approach to unifying the laws of physics could solve Hawking's black-hole information paradox—and its predicted gravitational "memory effect" could be picked up by LIGO.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(6 posts)
Could Mind Forge the Universe?
By SOPHIE HEBDEN • Jan 18, 2019
Objective reality, and the laws of physics themselves, emerge from our observations, according to a new framework that turns what we think of as fundamental on its head.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(42 posts)
Dissolving Quantum Paradoxes
By KATE BECKER • Aug 31, 2018
The impossibility of building a perfect clock could help explain away microscale weirdness.
Read article
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum
(109 posts)