Article by Edwin Cartlidge, science writer based in the UK

The first detection of gravitational waves in 2015 created huge excitement because it confirmed a long-standing prediction of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and opened up a completely new way of observing the universe. Physicists have also been scrutinizing data from the growing number of gravitational-wave detections for “echoes” – the existence of which could mean that our understanding of relativity is incomplete. Physicists in Canada and Iran have found tentative evidence for such echoes gravitational waves from colliding black holes, and now say a stronger signal exists in data from colliding neutron stars.

“So far everyone who has looked for echoes has found them, including the LIGO group.”

—Niayesh Afshordi of the University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Many physicists believe that general relativity is incomplete...

By Dr. Amira Val Baker, Resonance Science Foundation Astrophysicist

The biggest map of our galaxy just got revealed and it confirms the intriguing discrepancy in the value of the Hubble constant, further questioning our understanding of the expanding Universe.

Hubble’s constant – which is essentially a measure of the speed of the expanding universe – is determined by two different methods. One method looks at the early universe through the observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and the other method looks at the local universe through the light emitted by Cepheid variables.

In a recent news post, we described how Nobel laureate Adam Reiss and his team at the Space Telescope Science Institute determined a value for the Hubble constant 9% higher than that found by the CMB method. This value was found to an improved accuracy compared to previous studies and thus brings into question the reason for such a discrepancy.

Now with the help of Gaia, the...

As reported in phys.org by Gemini Observatory, March 2018

Galaxies and dark matter go hand in hand; you typically don't find one without the other. So when researchers uncovered a galaxy, known as NGC1052-DF2, that is almost completely devoid of the stuff, they were shocked.

"Finding a galaxy without dark matter is unexpected because this invisible, mysterious substance is the most dominant aspect of any galaxy," said lead author Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University. "For decades, we thought that galaxies start their lives as blobs of dark matter. After that everything else happens: gas falls into the dark matter halos, the gas turns into stars, they slowly build up, then you end up with galaxies like the Milky Way. NGC1052-DF2 challenges the standard ideas of how we think galaxies form."

The research, published in the March 29th issue of the journal Nature, amassed data from the Gemini North and W. M. Keck Observatories, both on Maunakea, Hawai'i, the Hubble...

By Resonance Science Foundation Research Team

The accuracy of the Hubble constant has been a topic of debate since its discovery in the 1920’s. When an agreement seemed to be finally on the horizon a new measuring technique showed a discrepancy and now that discrepancy has just been verified to even more accuracy.

The Hubble constant was discovered by Edwin Hubble in 1929 through his observational studies of the recession velocities of galaxies. Hubble found that the recession velocity of galaxies increased with increasing distance at a proportional rate, now known as the Hubble constant.

The Hubble constant has since been measured with varying degrees of accuracy from 500km/s/Mpc to 100 km/s/Mpc until finally agreeing on ~70 km/s/Mpc. However, the alternative method for measuring the Hubble constant – from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – yields a slightly lower number. This discrepancy has now been confirmed with even greater accuracy by Nobel...

Article by Dr. Amira Val Baker, Resonance Science Foundation Research Scientist

When something seems a little mysterious or we just don’t understand what is going on we like to describe it with the adjective ‘dark’.

This is one of the reasons why the term ‘dark’ matter got coined which was first proposed to explain the anomaly observed in the rotational velocities of galaxies. That is – the observed rotational velocities of the gas and dust at the outer edges of a galaxy is rotating just as fast as the gas and dust near its center. This anomaly was first noted in 1978 by Vera Rubin and W. Kent Ford who made precise measurements utilizing a new instrument that Ford himself had designed. At first, they thought their data could be erroneous, but then their results were corroborated by subsequent observations of galactic rotational velocities, suggesting that there was indeed an anomaly between what is expected and what was observed!

So, what is going...

Article by William Brown, Resonance Science Foundation Research Scientist

Conventionally consciousness is explained as emerging from electrochemical computational activity of cells in complex neural networks. Prima facie, this is a logical theory as sensory inputs can be de-constructed into data / information—computations are what sorts and processes data—and thus the computational activity of the brain produces phenomenal experiences from sensory data. The only problem is that it is not at all clear how a series of computations can produce phenomenal experience, that aspect of consciousness that is the observer—the experiencer of sensations and mental qualia. Undoubtedly, neuromorphic computations can result in machine learning, and this is most likely an integral aspect of the process of synaptic remodeling (plasticity) that occurs in the brain as one learns.

However, the ability to process data input, execute a response, and optimize that response...

Article by Dr. Amira Val Baker, Astrophysicist, Resonance Science Foundation Research Scientist

Cosmic rays can mean any high energy from the cosmos and were only referred to as rays for historical reasons – in that they thought cosmic rays were electromagnetic radiation. However generally cosmic rays refer to high energy particles with mass whereas high energy in the form of gamma rays and/or X-rays are photons. These cosmic particles were discovered in 1912 by Victor Hess when he ascended to 5300 meters above sea level in a hot air balloon and detected significantly increased levels of ionization in the atmosphere.

Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) are extremely energetic sub-atomic particles with energies of the order 100 PeV (that is 100,000 trillion electron volts). Their origin has long remained a mystery. However, an intriguing coincidence in the energy generation rates of UHECRs, cosmic neutrinos and gamma rays are comparable – indicating a unified picture....

Article by Dr. Olivier Alirol, Physicist, Resonance Science Foundation Research Scientist

Since 1992 and the declassification of Pluto for a dwarf planet, our solar system has only eight planets. However, astronomers are still looking for a ninth planet, the so-called planet X, analyzing the trajectories of all the objects beyond Neptune’s orbit. At this distance, a large population of small, rocky objects is having an anomalous collective structure meaning they are possibly interacting with a massive object. Many of these rocks appear to occupy a region close to the plane containing the eighth known planets, leading to this region being called the Kuiper Belt. It is difficult make observation in this region far remote from any light source and astronomers have yet discovered only a small fraction of the objects orbiting beyond Neptune.

In 2016, Caltech researchers found new evidence about “Planet X”. This hypothetical Neptune-sized planet would be orbiting our sun...

Article by Dr. Olivier Alirol, Resonance Science Foundation Research Scientist

The consequences of human activity on our environment has been proven and sadly can be observed on a daily basis. Even the Chinese government is taking action to face the ongoing problematic smog spread all across Chinese Cities. They recently decided drastic measures closing up to 40% of their factories [1]. One of the problems we are all facing is global warning. New data from NASA experts resulting from satellite photography shows that the Greenland ice sheets are melting two times faster than previously expected. However, in a recent paper published last September, scientists exposed new results showing a much lower impact of CO₂ on climate change [2]. They reviewed their model and announced their previous estimation for the impact of CO₂ was 50% overestimated meaning the emission budget is now 2 to 3x higher than announced making Paris agreement more feasible.

Of course releasing...

Article by William Brown, Resonance Science Foundation Research Scientist

It is often assumed that a structure’s surface can be appropriately represented as a two-dimensional area, completely flat and devoid of any depth. However, in reality, two-dimensional surfaces do not exist in nature, if zoomed in sufficiently even the most seemingly flat surface has 3-dimensional structure. This can pose a problem when physics that have been formulated with two-dimensions are re-examined using a more realistic 3D model.

Just such a situation arose when astronomer Martin Asplund forewent the usual 2D model of the Sun’s surface, and instead used a supercomputer to model it as 3-dimensional surface. Asplund was hoping to formulate a more accurate model for analyzing spectral and seismological data to better understand the Sun’s interior.

Since the interior cannot be directly observed, sound and light emissions emanating from the Sun’s surface are a window into the...