MPJ

Rarely do I get a chance and a real opportunity to revive an old article from the past and to update it to fit better in the present day. Actually, the quantum weirdness is still where it was four years ago—science is not something that changes overnight, especially with quantum mechanics, so I am not going to update the post with any new physics or breakthroughs. Instead, what's new and what pushed me to repost today is one extraordinary novel in the field. The book that kept me from sleeping last weekend was "Quantum Space" by Douglas Phillips, and in short, it is by far one of the best titles I read this year. It is one of those true sci-fi stories that follows the real science and, in this case, the weirdness of the quantum world I wrote about in this post, and I would add it is one of those articles I enjoyed writing the most in the history of the blog. But, before a couple of my glimpses at the book itself, followed by my warm recommendation, and especially if you w...

I have an old friend who, a couple of years ago, made a decision to radically change his way of life. What he did is almost unreal for the rest of us. He simply stopped eating food we are all familiar with, and instead he eats only fruits, vegetables, and various grains and nuts. All that in its raw and natural form without any cooking, baking, or frying. Of course, as a practical man (he is a math teacher in my wife's school), he didn't do this overnight and instead used a methodical approach so his switch from "ordinary" food to this final stage of the strictest vegetarian diet possible lasted a couple of years in order to adapt his organism better and to avoid potential dangers on the way. Contrary to other vegetarians I know, he didn't do this because of some illness or because his organism is not capable of digesting meat and thermally processed food. Instead, this was an act of free will and strong belief that he is doing a good thing. I strongly admire him ...

Do you know what one significant difference is between Uranus and all the other planets in the solar system? Unlike the other seven planets, which, more or less, rotate in a "normal" up-down position (or down-up in the case of Venus), Uranus is quite abnormal. Its north-south pole rotational axis lies almost in the ecliptic because it is tilted by 97.8 degrees and rotates in an almost vertical direction toward the orbiting plane. In simple words, Uranus is one giant rolling ball where, if you are located on its pole, you would be experiencing only one day and one night during its 84-year-long orbit, while if you are settled near the equator, thanks to the ultra-fast rotation time (for a giant planet) of 17 hours, you would be experiencing fast switching between day and night, and during both solstices, the Sun would always be on the horizon. Thanks to this strange position of Uranus' axis (probably due to some cosmic collision that happened in the early solar system), the...

Recently, my five-year-old boy asked me the question I knew it would eventually come. The very question all parents are inevitably faced with when the right time comes. With my son it came in the simplest form: "What is God?" popped occasionally after tons of OMGs he heard everywhere in his realm of cartoons, video games, YouTube channels, and TV shows. I wasn't prepared completely. I mean, I had a pretty good idea of how to explain mythical phenomena, unknown and unexplainable tales, and the very concept of belief, but I didn't know how to do it without destroying Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and other fairy tales he enjoys every year. To me, it's much too early for that age in life. It would only add disappointment and confusion, and it's better to leave it for a little later. So I performed good old evasive maneuvers, and in a couple of curves, I succeeded in changing the topic and postponing the inevitable for the next time, which will come probably soon...

In the last post of Beth's Q&A ,we tried to understand four basic forces and their corresponding particle carriers, or bosons. With almost certain discovery of the Higgs boson, physicists completed the search for this last mystery of the standard model, and we now know how larger particles get their mass and how they interact with each other. Now is the time to bring this story up one level and write about chemical elements representing basic 'Lego' blocks of almost everything in the universe we currently comprehend. Hmm, everything but mysterious dark matter, which we still don't have a clue what it's made of. Every now and again in media (mostly internet), we can read about how we all are made out of stars and other violent events in the universe dating back in time even so far in the past to the Big Bang itself. Following some of these articles, Beth posted another idea for the thread, and I am paraphrasing her thoughts: "I keep reading we are mad...

Starting with this post, I would like to introduce something new to the blog. Something different and yet written in a similar fashion compared to my previous stories. This would be a new thread dedicated to science only, with my own narration, style, and write-up. When I started with the blog years ago, all I wanted was to have a place where I could be able to write my public thoughts, something that could give random readers a good description of me and my view of the world and beyond. That goes to both random readers, either the one living in the present day or the one reading this from some different point in future time. But now with this post I am trying to expand the blog a little bit further. I am still doing it off work and in my spare time, but nevertheless it is always fun and inspirational for me. CMS Particle Detector The idea for the new thread I got after my post about human relations, genographic projects, and conversation with my dear Facebook friend Beth Perr...