Until recently, magnetic fields in the outskirts of galaxies were too faint to be detected. Although it’s still not clear what causes them or how they’re maintained, astronomers have started to create images of their observations of galaxies’ magnetic fields producing beautiful aurora-like effects. See them here. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/images-of-magnetic-fields-in-galaxies…
Tag: polarization
Surround Sound From Lightweight Roll-To-Roll Printed Loudspeaker Paper
“Researchers from the fields of print media technology, chemistry, physics, acoustics, electrical engineering, and economics from six nations developed a continuous, highly productive, and reliable roll production of loudspeaker webs,” reports project manager Georg C. Schmidt. [For those unfamiliar with roll-to-roll processing, it is the process of creating electronic devices on a roll of flexible plastic or metal foil, which, among…
A new look at the universe’s oldest light
New work agrees with older research suggesting the oldest light in the universe – from the most distant galaxy yet known – started its journey toward us 13.77 billion years ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/a-new-look-at-the-universes-oldest-light…
Metasurface enabled quantum edge detection
Metasurfaces provide unique platforms to realize exotic phenomena including negative refraction, achromatic focusing, and electromagnetic cloaking due to the engineered dielectric or metallic architectures. The intersection of metasurfaces and quantum optics can lead to significant opportunities that remain to be explored. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Junxiao Zhou, Shikai Liu and a research team in quantum information,…
Facebook Rebuts Netflix Documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’
Facebook on Friday offered a rebuttal to the hit Netflix documentary-drama, “The Social Dilemma.” The movie revealed, perhaps for the first time to some viewers, how social networks use algorithms to keep people coming back. It also addressed how tech companies have influenced elections, ethnic violence and rates of depression and suicide. Some viewers said they were deleting Facebook and Instagram…
AI-Generated Text Is the Scariest Deepfake of All
An anonymous reader shares a report: In the future, deepfake videos and audiofakes may well be used to create distinct, sensational moments that commandeer a press cycle, or to distract from some other, more organic scandal. But undetectable textfakes — masked as regular chatter on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and the like — have the potential to be far more subtle, far…
Probing the properties of magnetic quasi-particles
Researchers have for the first time measured a fundamental property of magnets called magnon polarization—and in the process, are making progress towards building low-energy devices. …
New view of old light adds twist to debate over universe’s age
Observations of the cosmic microwave background by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in Chile suggest that the universe is 13.8 billion years old. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/new-view-old-light-twist-debate-universes-age…
Hundreds of Hyperpartisan Sites Are Masquerading as Local News
The growth of partisan media masquerading as state and local reporting is a troubling trend we’ve seen emerge amid the financial declines of local news organizations. But what do these outlets mean for journalism in American communities? NiemanLab: Using previous research and news reports as a guide, we’ve mapped the locations of more than 400 partisan media outlets — often funded…
To Keep Trump From Violating Its Rules…Facebook Rewrote the Rules
“Starting in 2015 Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook rewrote their rules in order to not sanction then-candidate Donald Trump,” writes Rick Zeman (Slashdot reader #15,628) — citing a new investigation by the Washington Post. (Also available here.) After Trump’s infamous “the shooting starts” post, Facebook deputies contacted the White House “with an urgent plea to tweak the language of the post or…