Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum - General Science

Physicists separate a particle and its property at quantum level

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:45:11 +0000

Finally an empirical demonstration of the objective distinction between an object's noumenality and its phenomenality. Kant must be dancing a jig now!

"Think of a physical object. An apple, for example. Now imagine taking the red color off the apple, sending the apple down one hallway, and sending the redness down another. That is essentially what quantum physicists just did with a photon. It is called the Quantum Cheshire Cat effect. In Alice in Wonderland, the cat vanishes and leaves only its grin behind. In a controlled laboratory setting, researchers managed to send a particle down one path while sending its physical property—like its spin or polarization—down an entirely different route. Classical physics assumes an object and its traits are perfectly fused. A ball cannot separate from its roundness. But at the subatomic level, that rule breaks. By operating incredibly precise quantum detectors, researchers proved they could manipulate a particle separately from its own attributes without disturbing the overall system. If an object does not actually need to carry its own properties, the methods we use to encode and transmit data for quantum computing just changed completely."---"Evolved Chimp" Facebook

Views of science help explain partisan differences over vaccine safety & effectivenes

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:26:06 +0000

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1148192

EXCERPTS: How Americans view science and scientists is strongly associated with whether they think vaccines are safe and effective — and helps explain partisan differences in perceptions of some vaccines, according to a new study led by a team from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers found that Democrats viewed the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), flu, and Covid-19 vaccines as safer and more effective than Republicans did. But when the researchers accounted for respondents’ broader perceptions of science and scientists, the partisan differences for the MMR and flu vaccines were no longer statistically significant.

That wasn’t the case with Covid-19. Even after accounting for perceptions of science, political affiliation remained significantly associated with how people viewed the Covid-19 vaccine, highlighting the extent to which it has become politicized.

“The Covid-19 vaccine really stands apart,” said lead author Dror Walter, an associate professor of communication at Georgia State University and an APPC distinguished research fellow. “With MMR and flu, views of science and scientists largely explain the partisan gap in perceptions of vaccines. With Covid-19 they don’t. Something beyond how people see science and scientists is shaping how Democrats and Republicans judge that vaccine.”

The study, published this month in the American Journal of Public Health, was conducted by a team that also includes Yotam Ophir, an associate professor of communication at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and an APPC distinguished research fellow; Patrick E. Jamieson, director of APPC’s Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute; and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director emerita of APPC.

[...] One factor stood out. Seeing science as beneficial was consistently associated with believing that all three vaccines were both safe and effective. Other perceptions — including scientists’ credibility, prudence, and lack of bias — were associated with some vaccine evaluations but not others.

[...] he findings come amid concern among public health experts about vaccine hesitancy and declining childhood vaccination rates. They also suggest that vaccine communication should not treat hesitancy as a single phenomenon: People may respond differently depending on the vaccine, its history, and the political environment surrounding it.

The results suggest that “science communicators should tailor messages based on the specific vaccine addressed, accounting for each vaccine’s history and perceptions of its safety and effectiveness, as well as the political affiliation of the target audience,” the researchers write.

For the Covid-19 vaccine in particular, the researchers suggest that communications may need to address concerns about scientific bias. Messages could explain the mechanisms science uses to identify and correct for bias, although the authors emphasize that future research is needed to test whether such approaches are effective...(MORE - details, no ads)

My genius app continued

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 19:12:24 +0000

#include
#include "Sales_item.h"

int main; (
//We read and ensure that we have data to process

Sales_item total;

if (std::cin >> total) {

Sales_item trans;

while (std::cin > trans) {

if (trans.isbn () == total.isbn ())

return 0; )
etc.

This is the most complicated program we've seen so far, but it only uses facilities that we are already familiar with.

As usual we begin with our headers, from the library and our own sales_item.h. Inside main, we define an object named total, which will sum the data for a given transaction. Next we define an object named trans, which will hold the transactions as we read them. The while condition will read the remaining records. As in our earlier programs, the while reads a value from the standard input. That value is a sales_item object.
Assuming we have successfully read a record, we execute the block following the outermost if statement. That block starts by defining an object named trans, which will read our remaining records.
The if checks whether the isbn's are equal. If they are we use the compound assignment operator to add trans to total and update the running total.

Everything is a field..and excitations in those fields.

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 01:01:55 +0000

Basic conclusions of QFT.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comment...s_a_field/

How to assemble science

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 23:29:46 +0000

https://aeon.co/essays/the-life-saving-s...lain-sight

EXCERPTS: When reading the news, you may occasionally be bemused by the flip-flopping science and health stories: one week you’re told coffee is good for you, the next week that it’s bad. Red wine extends your life, then it doesn’t. Over time, new scientific studies seemingly contradict one another, leaving us unsure what evidence to believe.

[...] The causes are systemic. Scientists publish and promote one paper after another because that’s how they advance in their careers. Journalists breathlessly chase the latest, flashiest studies so their headlines get clicks online. Meanwhile, hardly any of us spend time trying to make sense of what the world already knows by carefully synthesising and taking stock of existing knowledge. Iain Chalmers, a doctor who co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration, an evidence-synthesis group based in London, once called this the ‘scandalous failure of science to cumulate evidence scientifically’.

[...] This failure was a key motivation to write my book Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works (2026). Researching it, I discovered better ways to make sense of the world – but these methods are not as widely known as they should be. If they were, we might pause before believing news stories based on single studies, and instead recognise the real work: finding, sorting and synthesising evidence. This unglamorous labour already shapes our lives far more than any individual study or news headline will. We might also realise that, for many of the wicked problems we face, humans already possess much of the knowledge needed to solve them. All it needs is the ability to assemble it – and then act... (MORE - details)

Firearm-owning parents often store at least one firearm without secure storage

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 16:49:37 +0000

Firearm-owning parents of young children often store at least one firearm without secure storage
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1145236

INTRO: About 44% of parents of young children who own firearms reported that they own both a handgun and a long gun, at least one of which is not stored securely, according to research presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2026 National Conference & Exhibition in San Diego Oct. 2-6.

The study, “Handgun and Long Gun Ownership and Storage in Families With Young Children,” found that most of the parents stated they kept firearms for their family’s protection. More than three-fourths (77%) of them reported that they stored at least one firearm unlocked and loaded or both unlocked and loaded.

“We found that many children under age 5 live in homes where firearms are not stored securely,” said Andrew Hashikawa MD, MS, FAAP, clinical professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the University of Michigan. “Families often own firearms to protect their loved ones, but leaving them unlocked can put young children at risk. Keeping every firearm locked and unloaded is an important part of keeping children safe.”

Storage was classified as secure if all household firearms were stored both locked and unloaded, and not secure if any firearm was stored loaded, unlocked, or both.

Hashikawa and senior author Alison L. Miller, PhD, questioned 843 U.S. firearm-owning parents of children ages 1 to 5 in an online survey. Eligible participants were ages 18 and older, English-speaking, and living in a household with firearms. The study investigated the types of firearms they own, why they own them, and how they store them. At least 49% of parents surveyed owned at least one long gun, and 44% owned both types.

The authors observe that firearm injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the United States, and the rates of unintentional firearm injury are increasing among young children. Given that most parents owned handguns and reported protection as their primary motivation for firearm ownership, they conclude there is a need for messaging that addresses the needs and concerns of these groups. (MORE - abstract)

Telling teenagers ‘just don’t send nudes’ doesn't work & can deepen shame

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 18:50:31 +0000

Simply telling teenagers ‘just don’t send nudes’ does not work and can deepen shame, researchers warn
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1146187

PRESS RELEASE: Blunt warnings telling teenagers not to share sexual images are failing to protect them and can make victims of image-based sexual abuse feel blamed, ashamed and unable to seek help, according to new research from the University of Surrey.

The study, published in Sexualities, found that current responses from schools, safeguarding services and the justice system are often fragmented, punitive and poorly equipped to address rapidly evolving threats such as sexual deepfakes and sextortion (blackmail involving sexual images).

Researchers argue that blanket ‘just say no’ messages ignore the reality that image-sharing can form part of young people’s relationships, intimacy and social lives. By treating all sharing in the same way, these approaches can shift responsibility onto victims rather than those who violate consent.

The research reviewed existing evidence alongside insights from a 2025 workshop involving 38 professionals from education, law enforcement, frontline services, academia, policy and the technology sector.

Participants reported that institutions can focus more heavily on confiscating devices, preserving evidence or protecting their reputations than addressing the emotional and social harm experienced by young people. Confusing legal and safeguarding frameworks can also mean the same incident could betreated as a consensual exchange, a safeguarding concern or a criminal offence depending on who handles it.

Dr Emily Setty, Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Surrey, said:

“Telling young people to ‘just don’t send nudes’ is no longer a credible safeguarding response. It ignores how digital intimacy actually works and places the burden of preventing abuse on potential victims. With AI-generated images, a young person can now be targeted even when they have never created or shared an intimate image.”

Researchers propose an approach called ‘safe uncertainty’, which allows professionals to act decisively while considering the circumstances, relationships and needs involved in each case. Rather than relying only on rigid rules or checklists, schools and safeguarding services would examine issues such as coercion, breached trust, shame, peer pressure and the young person’s emotional safety.

Dr Setty continued: “Young people who disclose abuse need to be met with care, not suspicion or a lecture about their choices. Schools and safeguarding professionals must be able to respond to the harm in front of them, even when a case does not fit neatly into an existing category. The priority should be restoring safety, dignity and trust.”

The science of not doing science

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 16:00:39 +0000

https://edzardernst.com/2026/09/the-scie...g-science/

EXCERPTS: There is a species of high-profile science experts who can ... denounce a poorly controlled trial and ctitque “peer review” with the weary authority ... These experts are, in many respects, on my side.

They oppose quackery.
They distrust miracle cures...

[...] Don’t get me wrong: the lack of hands-on experience is not necessarily disqualifying. One need not be a violinist to criticise a bad symphony, nor a chef to notice that a steak is tough like a shoe. But science is not merely a collection of conclusions waiting to be inspected. It is also the tiresome business of producing those conclusions...

[...] The armchair commentator, by contrast, experiences science in its finished form. For them, a clinical trial does not take 2 years of tedious work; for them it takes merely as long as they need to read the paper...

[...] Their great gift is the ability to identify error without ever having had to manufacture a result under conditions designed to make error inevitable...

[...] Still, let us be charitable. Every scientific community needs intelligent experts and critics. But perhaps, before delivering a definitive verdict, our heroes might spend one afternoon in a laboratory or a week organising a clinical study? No, not to actually do science, only to observe and replace arrogance with humility the next time they write about it... (MORE - missing details)

The James Webb Space Telescope

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 19:38:20 +0000

I went to the library today and read a Scientific American article about Little Read Dots (LRDs). These mysterious objects were captured by the James Webb Telescope and dated as far back as 600 million years after the Big Bang.

The reason they're red is because they're very old. Old objects are redshifted by light stretching into longer wavelengths during universal expansion.

These LRDs are speculated to be a never-before-seen stage of black holes in their last cycle. They stand to change our entire conception of the cosmos - just as quasars (black holes) did in the 1950's and 1960's.

[Image: 1790192530960-png.130803]

https://www.religiousforums.com/attachme...ng.130803/

The scientific method has left the building

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 13:47:49 +0000

https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/20...lding.html

EXCERPTS: There’s something ironic in this arrangement if you think about it. Science fiction imagined that advancements in computing and AI will one day free humans from the drudgery of physical work. If these trends continue, then we may end up with an opposite arrangement.

Imagine a world where there’s a machine, an AI model that searches the literature and generates a hypothesis. Based on the hypothesis, it recommends certain experiments be done. It would then gather the data from the experiments, interpret it, and suggest conclusions. The human scientists are then left to just do the experiments.

As strange as that sounds, there are even more parts of this process which could be automated. The next step would be automated laboratories, many of which already exist, but in this imagined near future, they will be tightly coupled with the hypothesis generation and experimentation process. This is not to say that scientists will disappear. However, how science is done will greatly change.

[...] Modern science works because understanding is distributed. One person understands the assay, another understands the statistical method, and another knows the instrumentation. Scientific institutions allow us to rely on this division of labor. Peer review, replication, professional specialization, and scientific reputation all help create trust between people who cannot independently verify everything they use.

The potential risk that we may be seeing here is that there may be parts of this process which cease to be understandable to humans at all. Thus, a machine could arrive at a reliable result through an inferential path involving an enormous number of interacting variables, simulations, model calls, searches, and intermediate representations. We might be able to test the output without being able to reconstruct the route that produced it.

It may be tempting. to treat this as a philosophical luxury. If a drug works, does it really matter whether anybody understands the route by which it was discovered? If a model predicts a hurricane accurately, the people in its path would presumably prefer a correct warning to an elegant explanation. Engineering has always tolerated a certain amount of pragmatism, and scientists themselves frequently use tools whose inner workings they do not fully understand.

[...] A sufficiently powerful machine could be extraordinarily productive while pursuing questions that human beings find utterly uninteresting. Scientific importance is not a property that can always be read directly from the natural world. It reflects human priorities, needs, aesthetics, and values. Even a system vastly better than us at solving scientific problems would still require some account of which problems ought to matter... (MORE - missing details)

Anti-transgender legislation causes psychological distress even in friendly states

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 18:20:29 +0000

Anti-transgender legislation causes psychological distress even in states with trans-friendly laws, according to VCU research
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1144600

INTRO: Legislation that impacts or discriminates against transgender and gender-diverse individuals can cause more psychological distress than personal experiences of discrimination, according to new Virginia Commonwealth University research published in the journal American Psychologist. The study also found that individuals with those identities experienced psychological distress from anti-transgender laws even if they lived in a state with legislation that is friendly toward transgender and gender-diverse individuals.

“We found that above and beyond everything else in the model, including active experiences of discrimination, that anti-trans legislation anxiety was driving psychological distress,” said Catherine Wall, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology in the College of Humanities and Sciences and the study’s lead author.

Over 2,000 laws that directly or indirectly discriminate against transgender and gender-diverse individuals have been proposed at both the state and federal level since 2020, many of which limit access to healthcare, public facilities and sports leagues. The researchers used survey data from 346 transgender and gender diverse adults in the United States, collected in early 2024, to assess participants’ anxiety levels around anti-transgender legislation, their experiences with discrimination based on their identities, their level of support and community connection, and other related statistics.

Through quantitative data analysis, the researchers found a strong relationship between psychological distress and anti-transgender legislation anxiety, and a moderate relationship between news anxiety and news exposure. The researchers also found that those with less community connectedness and familial support experienced greater psychological distress.

Notably, the study found that familial support and community support had equally strong relationships to an individual’s level of psychological distress, suggesting that non-familial friendships and connections can be just as strong as familial bonds in supporting a transgender person’s mental wellness.

“It’s not just enough to look at trans people within the light of deficit,” Wall said. “We also need to look at strength and resiliency factors as well.” (MORE - no ads)

Symmetry breaking

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 20:03:38 +0000

Symmetry breaking often appears in phase transitions, where a system moves from a high temperature phase to an ordered low temperature phase.

The early universe was characteristically known to be in a high temperature phase. As its entropy continues to increase, it settles into a less symmetric state. Energy, a well-known characteristic of our universe, remains constant throughout the universe.

A ball or pencil balanced on its tip, will undergo symmetry breaking when an imbalance in forces are applied to it. This is also an increase in entropy or disorder, the measure of which is a property of every physical system as the arrow of time increases.

Why do some chimpanzee mothers carry their dead infants for months?

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:50:04 +0000

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-09-16-why...for-months

EXCERPTS: Chimpanzee and bonobo mothers sometimes continue to carry their infants after they have died, a behaviour known as infant corpse carrying (ICC). It is widely documented, and many explanations have been proposed, but few have been quantitatively tested.

The research found that infants that were older when they died, and therefore more closely bonded with their mother, were carried for longer than younger infants and that infants who died from disease were carried for longer than those that died through infanticide.

The study brought together data from 83 published cases of ICC across 15 different sites. The cases document mothers that carried their dead infants for only about 30 minutes, through to periods as long as 126 days. The average ICC duration was about 11 days.

Chimpanzees and bonobos are our closest living relatives. Most experts think our last common ancestor lived between 6 and 8 million years ago, and studying death-related behaviours in these species may provide key insights into the evolutionary origins of human responses to death.

[...] The finding that older infants, who the carrying mother is more closely bonded to, are carried for longer suggests that the strong social bond between chimpanzee mothers and their infants drives ICC. The importance of maternal factors in driving the behaviour is also supported by the finding that mothers carry for longer at sites with longer average intervals between births.

However, of these factors, cause of death was the most consistent predictor. The strong association between disease-related infant deaths and prolonged periods of ICC supports the ‘cause of death’ hypothesis, which proposes that infants who die from disease are carried for longer than those who die from traumatic causes such as infanticide, because their death may be more ambiguous to the mother.

This assumes that chimpanzees can recognise death, a capacity which has yet to be scientifically demonstrated. However, things may not be so simple. In multiple cases, chimpanzee mothers have continued to carry their infants well beyond the point of mummification, a condition that probably provides a clear and persistent signal of death.

[...] Comparing how chimpanzees and bonobos respond to death with our own responses is informative about where human ideas of death came from. If death recognition is not needed to explain the behaviour in chimpanzees and bonobos, some of the complex cognitive frameworks required to recognise death’s finality may have emerged in the hominin lineage after our last common ancestor... (MORE - missing details)

Nostradamus' Great Genius Prophecy and inventions?

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:50:45 +0000

Short answer:
In Nostradamus lore, the Great Genius is a future figure described in later interpretations of the prophecies—not in Nostradamus’s own text—who is said to create inventions that dramatically help humanity. These inventions are not listed explicitly in Nostradamus’s quatrains; they come from modern interpretive works that expand on vague passages.
Below is a structured, evidence‑based breakdown of what the sources actually say.

? What Nostradamus actually wrote
Nostradamus’s quatrains do not name any inventions. They describe symbolic scenes, astrological imagery, and cryptic events. The idea of a “Great Genius” comes from later interpreters, not Nostradamus himself.
The quatrains cited in these interpretations (e.g., IV‑14, IV‑31, III‑94) contain no technological descriptions.

? What modern interpreters claim about the Great Genius
According to the interpretive source you’re referencing, the Great Genius is:

“One of the highest, most developed geniuses ever to appear in history.”
Someone who “is always inventing and envisioning things that will help man.”
A scientist who applies his abilities to heal the Earth after future wars.

These descriptions are general and symbolic. They do not specify devices, technologies, or inventions.

? Claimed inventions (interpretive, not in Nostradamus’s text)
The source does not list specific inventions. Instead, it implies categories of contributions:

Technologies that heal or restore the Earth
(Environmental remediation, planetary recovery—purely interpretive)
Scientific breakthroughs that uplift civilization for centuries
(General progress, not named inventions)
Advanced tools or knowledge that influence multiple future timelines
(Metaphorical, not literal engineering)

These are broad conceptual claims, not concrete inventions like machines, devices, or scientific formulas.

? Why no inventions are listed
The interpretive tradition treats the Great Genius as:

A symbolic counterbalance to the Antichrist
A nexus point in humanity’s future development
A teacher whose “discoveries” illuminate future centuries

Because Nostradamus’s quatrains are metaphorical and ambiguous, interpreters fill in the gaps with speculative futurism, not textual evidence.

? Bottom line
There are no specific inventions attributed to the Great Genius in Nostradamus’s actual prophecies.
All claims about his inventions come from modern interpretive works, which describe him as a future scientist whose contributions help humanity but do not name any particular technologies.
If you want, I can also:

Extract every quatrain associated with the Great Genius
Compare different authors’ interpretations of his role
Analyze whether the Great Genius resembles any real historical or modern figures

Nearly one third of college-age ‘BORG’ drinkers report blacking out

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:50:49 +0000

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1143266

INTRO: A newly popular college drinking trend, the blackout rage gallon (BORG), fosters binge drinking and can lead to a host of alcohol-related harms, according to a new study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, published at Rutgers University.

Prevalent in the drinking culture at many U.S. colleges and universities since around 2020, BORGs are one-gallon plastic jugs filled with alcohol and a choice of mixings and flavorings. Preparation for a BORG event, which is often a daytime gathering such as a tailgate or festival, typically involves decorating one’s personal BORG with a clever phrase or social-media-ready pun--for example, “It’s BORG o’clock somewhere” or “BORG to be wild.”

“Excessive drinking in young adults has been fueled by drinking games for many decades,” says lead researcher Andrea C. King, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago. “But the mixing of hard liquor and additive flavorings in BORGs may be particularly harmful given the sweetness of the beverage and the lure of sharing one’s BORG and tasting others’ concoctions.”

The gallon-sized drink can contain up to a fifth of liquor, or about 17 standard drinks, according to survey answers obtained from more than 100 study participants from a range of private and public U.S. colleges and universities. King’s study is the first to present data on BORG use, as well as users’ and non-users’ perceptions and attitudes, positive and negative consequences, and future intentions.

“Nearly one third of respondents said they experienced a blackout from a BORG event,” says King. “While almost all reported they got buzzed or drunk, some (17%) vomited, and many (59%) said or did embarrassing things, we know that blackouts—that is, disruptions in memory consolidation due to heavy imbibing of alcohol—are a more serious consequence.”

The study also refers to reports of BORG use resulting in injuries and emergency room visits in several instances.

Such findings underscore misconceptions about BORGs, which social-media influencers originally touted as supporting harm-reduction efforts: Some BORG recipe ingredients shared online include electrolytes, caffeine, and/or water to offset a hangover or minimize drunkenness. The study’s data show that BORGs do not support these positive effects... (MORE - no ads)