By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

Light and matter are an amazing ensemble and laden with a lot of interesting physics. Scientists have always pondered upon new and exciting effects that could be created using light-matter interaction and one of the related curiosity-driven questions is whether light and matter can coexist as a single entity. New research conducted at TU Wien’s Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ) in collaboration with the University of Innsbruck shows the possibility that it might do after all [1].

Utilizing the high polarizing ability of a laser, atoms were configured in a way that measurements resembled, in an unprecedented scenario, a special state of light and matter, much like a light-matter molecule.

Generally, dynamic atoms are in a high energy state which makes it difficult for a measurement to reveal an inherent attractive force between them. In order to overcome this challenge, the researchers...

By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

Perhaps one of the most noble pursuits that humankind engages in is observational astronomy, borne by unbounded curiosity and the pure enjoyment that comes from viewing the wonders of the cosmos, the discovery rewards the spirit and the intellect, because when we view the Universe, we are in fact coming to better understand ourselves. To further this noble and enlightening pursuit, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has successfully deployed one of humanity’s most technologically advanced “eye on the universe”, the James Webb Space Telescope—a technological marvel— with the first images having been revealed on July 11^th.

The stated mission:
The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST or Webb) is an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved...

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation}

Our universe is constantly undergoing an expansion phase which is accelerating in nature. There are several theories in the scientific literature that have been formulated to explain features of this accelerating expansion, one of which is cosmic inflation proposed by theoretical physicist Alan Guth in the late 1970s and later developed by Andrei Linde, Paul Steinhardt and others [1, 2, 3].

It is well suggested by the theory that the epoch of inflation lasted from 10⁻³⁶ seconds to sometime between 10⁻³³ and 10⁻³² seconds after the Big Bang. But in order to articulate the events following the Big Bang admirably, one needs to have a full-fledged quantum theory of gravity, which is still a substantial challenge for physicists.

Now our current picture of the universe is well approximated by the de Sitter framework, named after the Dutch astronomer Willem de Sitter. The de Sitter picture also...

By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

In a previous article RSF physicist Dr. Ines Urdaneta discussed a proposed study for probing the Unruh effect with quantum optics [1]. Because of the importance of experiments that will probe quantum effects in gravitational fields and to further elucidate the nature of the quantum vacuum, we will take another look at this proposed experiment and expound on some of the key insights of the study.

As Dr. Urdaneta explained in the previous article, the importance of probing the Unruh effect has to do with its relationship to quantum gravitational effects via the equivalence principle first described by Albert Einstein. Einstein is well known for his seminal work on the theory of relativity, which regards the behavior of clocks and rulers under accelerating and non-accelerating frames of reference, and the relativity of simultaneity that results from the invariance of the speed of light relative to any...

^{Image: Linden Gledhill, a Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical biochemist creates incredible cymatic pattterns with sound, water and light.} 

^{By Inés Urdaneta, Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

Resonance is experienced, and even identified as the process being responsible for the forms of what we perceive, observe, or infer based on it - an atom, a flower, planets, galaxies -. It binds together the different elements that make up physical reality and allows interaction between them. It is the main factor for feedback to be possible, the conduit, shall we say, through which the exchange of information happens: the external can penetrate the internal, and the internal can manifest outside. The condition for that channel to be available, is the coincidence in energy; that the inner and outer energies are compatible. i. e., that they have the same frequency.

^{Source of Image: https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/06/16/4022877.htm}

In general, we...

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation}

The quantum world essentially contains a myriad of intriguing phenomena and continues to add up to the imagination of science explorers. One such phenomenon concerns the oscillations at the level of atoms which forms the basis for the creation of quantum devices like atomic clocks and sensors. The elements that are used in modern day atomic clocks involve ytterbium, caesium among others. A significant part of the advances in contemporary atomic clocks research is mainly because of its usability in certain scenarios like dark matter and gravitational wave detections. 

Due to the subtle nature of these physical events, sometimes unwanted noise from the surrounding environment can cause distortions in the signal and negatively impact the results. In order to overcome this major challenge, physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a viable proposition and that is to use a...

By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

Stellar mass black holes, like elementary particles, are remarkably simple objects. They have three primary observable properties: mass, spin, and electric charge. The similarities with elementary particles, like the proton, doesn’t stop there, as stellar mass black holes in binary systems can also form bound and unbound states due to interaction of orbital clouds (from boson condensates), uncannily analogous to the behavior and properties of atoms.  

The spin of stellar mass black holes is a particularly significant property, as black holes have rapid rotations that generate a region of space called the ergosphere around the event horizon, where the torque on spacetime is so great that an object would have to travel at a velocity exceeding the speed of light just to stay in a stationary orbit. Analysis of this region has resulted in some interesting physics predictions, one being the phenomenon of...

^{By Inés Urdaneta, Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

Entanglement, coined by Einstein as “spooky action at a distance”, has achieved a new record for long distance communication, as a team from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) and Saarland University have reported in Nature [1].

Entanglement is the property by which two quantum objects, such as atoms, are connected in such a way that their quantum state can’t be described independently from the other. Hence, when a change happens in one of the objects, the other object modifies its state as to preserve the relationship between them, no matter the distance between them.  

This feature seems to defy Einstein’s special relativity, in which nothing, not even information could travel faster that the speed of light. It is as if the correlation between entangled particles was preserved “instantaneously” by some miraculous mechanism implying an intrinsic nonlocality of...

^{By Amal Pushp, Affiliate Physicist at the Resonance Science Foundation}

Why do apples fall from the trees? This was one of the first questions that led to a revolution in our understandings of physics in general and the fundamental forces of nature in particular. The answer according to eminent physicist Isaac Newton is the gravitational force. But what determines the strength of the gravitational force or for that matter any fundamental force? There is a coupling constant that is uniquely associated with every force and which is also responsible for determining the strength of its interaction.

Several experiments have been conducted to determine the value of the constant associated with the gravitational force but none have been accurate enough to the satisfaction of the physics community. Although the experiments have continually tried to advance the precision aspect, the value of G is the least precise of all the four basic forces, the reason being simple, that it interacts very...

By: William Brown, Biophysicist at the Resonance Science Foundation

Compared to humans the Octopus is in many ways alien, it is an invertebrate with the only hard part being a chitinous beak, it has eight arms where most of its neuronal tissue—or brain—is located, and in many species, it can shape-shift and change the color of its integument to match its surrounding with near perfect adaptive camouflage. However, despite the many differences, many octopus species do share one similarity with that of humans: sophisticated cognitive capabilities, including problem solving, fore-thought, and creative ingenuity.

Since Octopus species have a rather large evolutionary distance from humans, mammals, or even vertebrates, a study of the cellular and molecular underpinning of their sophisticated cognitive capabilities can give us insight into what specific mechanisms enable and drive intelligence in animals. Interestingly, the molecular underpinnings of neuronal plasticity...