Category Physics

Researchers at UBC have found a way to mimic the elusive Schwinger effect using superfluid helium, where vortex pairs appear out of thin films instead of electron-positron pairs in a vacuum. Their work not only offers a cosmic laboratory for otherwise unreachable phenomena, but also changes the way scientists understand vortices, superfluids, and even quantum tunneling.

In 1951, physicist Julian Schwinger theorized that by applying a uniform electrical field to a vacuum, electron-positron pairs would be spontaneously created out of nothing, through a phenomenon called quantum tunneling.

The problem with turning the matter-out-of-nowhere theory into Star Trek replicators or transporters? Enormously high electric fields would be re...

A top Google scientist and 2024 Nobel laureate said Friday that the most important skill for the next generation will be “learning how to learn” to keep pace with change as Artificial Intelligence transforms education and the workplace.

Speaking at an ancient Roman theater at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s DeepMind, said rapid technological change demands a new approach to learning and skill development.

“It’s very hard to predict the...

Electronic devices lose energy as heat due to the movement of electrons. Now, a breakthrough in nanoengineering has produced a new kind of switch that matches the performance of the best traditional designs while pushing beyond the power-consumption limits of modern electronics.

Researchers from the University of Michigan have achieved what scientists have been trying to execute for a long time: designing electronics that harness excitons—pairs of an electron and a corresponding hole (a missing electron) bound together forming a charge-neutral particle—instead of electrons.

The newly designed nanoengineer...

Artists are always looking for new ways to create and express themselves. A growing trend is the use of multiple layers of see-through materials, such as Plexiglas, to create paintings that have real depth, transforming two-dimensional images into three-dimensional illusions that feel more realistic and lifelike. But can these layered works be made even more immersive?

A new study, published in Royal Society Open Science, answers this question by demonstrating a novel process to transform a multilayer acrylic painting into a fullcolor, three-dimensional hologram. In addition to offering a striking way to experience art, this technique provides a novel method for preserving and reproducing valuable works.

The researchers used a painting of a tiger titled “Taxonomy Test 1” by reno...