QUANTUM PHENOMENA AND HUMAN CIVILIZATION: Exploring the Intersection of Quantum Physics and Its Impact on Technology, Society, and Culture

 

QUANTUM PHENOMENA AND HUMAN CIVILIZATION: Exploring the Intersection of Quantum Physics and Its Impact on Technology, Society, and Culture

 https://www.amazon.com/QUANTUM-PHENOMENA-HUMAN-CIVILIZATION-Intersection-ebook/dp/B0F9T9NPDS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=G7DP9DOS7NYS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._n0thEjcjVEy1BtcaNxPJ6Z6d5eIloLIsAOPf2BDjOHGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.0Zsi4ExtaF5cp8cDfIxW85gVk9UJvTHaGStnf64T0e0&dib_tag=se&keywords=quantum+phenomena+and+human+civilization&qid=1748610565&s=books&sprefix=quantum+phenomena++%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C221&sr=1-1

QUANTUM PHENOMENA AND HUMAN CIVILIZATION: Exploring the Intersection of Quantum Physics and Its Impact on Technology, Society, and Culture Kindle Edition

by KONSTANTINOS TSIANTIS (Author) 

 

Molecular engineering and battery recycling: developing new technologies in quantum, medicine and energy

08 May 2025 Hamish Johnston

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast comes from the Chicago metropolitan area – a scientific powerhouse that is home to two US national labs and some of the country’s leading universities.

Physics World’s Margaret Harris was there recently and met Nadya Mason. She is dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, which focuses on quantum engineering; materials for sustainability; and immunoengineering. Mason explains how molecular-level science is making breakthroughs in these fields and she talks about her own research on the electronic properties of nanoscale and correlated systems.

Harris also spoke to Jeffrey Spangenberger who leads the Materials Recycling Group at Argonne National Laboratory, which is on the outskirts of Chicago. Spangenberger talks about the challenges of recycling batteries and how we could make it easier to recover materials from batteries of the future. Spangenberger leads the ReCell Center, a national collaboration of industry, academia, and national laboratories advancing recycling technologies along the entire battery life cycle.

FROM PHYSICSWPRLD.COM  12-05-2025

 

Quantum twisting microscope measures phasons in cryogenic graphene

05 May 2025 Anna Demming

Carbon layers Artist’s impression of two graphene layers before a twist is applied. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Rost9)

By adapting their quantum twisting microscope to operate at cryogenic temperatures, researchers have made the first observations of a type of phonon that occurs in twisted bilayer graphene. These “phasons” could have implications for the electron dynamics in these materials.

Graphene is a layer of carbon just one atom thick and it has range of fascinating and useful properties – as do bilayer and multilayer versions of graphene. Since 2018, condensed-matter physicists have been captivated by the intriguing electron behaviour in two layers of graphene that are rotated relative to each other.

 

Bilayer optical lattices could unravel the secret of high-temperature superconductivity

14 Apr 2025 Yash Wath 

Diagram showing the bilayer geometry Δ represents the potential energy offset between the two layers; J_∥ and J_⊥ are the intra-layer and interlayer magnetic coupling energy respectively; and t_∥ represents the intra-layer atom hopping energy. (Courtesy: Henning Schlömer and colleagues)

A proposed experiment that would involve trapping atoms on a two-layered laser grid could be used to study the mechanism behind high-temperature superconductivity. Developed by physicists in Germany and France led by Henning Schlömer the new techniques could revolutionize our understanding of high-temperature superconductivity.

Superconductivity is a phenomenon characterized by an abrupt drop to zero of electric resistance when certain materials are cooled below a critical temperature. It has remained in the physics zeitgeist for over a hundred years and continues to puzzle contemporary physicists. While scientists have a good understanding of “conventional” superconductors (which tend to have low critical temperatures), the physics of high-temperature superconductors remains poorly understood. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms responsible for high-temperature superconductivity could unveil the secrets behind macroscopic quantum phenomena in many-body systems.

Mimicking real crystalline materials

 

Tiny sensor creates a stable, wearable brain–computer interface

15 Apr 2025 Tami Freeman

Microscale brain sensor The tiny sensor enables thought control of external devices, even during intense motion. (Courtesy: W Hong Yeo)

Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) enable the flow of information between the brain and an external device such as a computer, smartphone, or robotic limb. Applications range from use in augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) to restoring function to people with neurological disorders or injuries.

Electroencephalography (EEG)-based BCIs use sensors on the scalp to noninvasively record electrical signals from the brain and decode them to determine the user’s intent. Currently, however, such BCIs require bulky, rigid sensors that prevent use during movement and don’t work well with hair on the scalp, which affects the skin–electrode impedance. A team at Georgia Tech’s WISH Center has overcome these limitations by creating a brain sensor that’s small enough to fit between strands of hair and is stable even while the user is moving.

Loop quantum cosmology may explain smoothness of cosmic microwave background

 

Loop quantum cosmology may explain the smoothness of the cosmic microwave background

09 May 2025 Sponsored by EPL

Repulsive gravity at the quantum scale would have flattened out inhomogeneities in the early universe

First light: The cosmic microwave background, as imaged by the European Space Agency’s Planck mission. (Courtesy: ESA and the Planck Collaboration)

In classical physics, gravity is universally attractive. At the quantum level, however, this may not always be the case. If vast quantities of matter are present within an infinitesimally small volume – at the centre of a black hole, for example, or during the very earliest moments of the universe – spacetime becomes curved at scales that approach the Planck length. This is the fundamental quantum unit of distance, and is around 1020 times smaller than a proton.

In these extremely curved regions, the classical theory of gravity – Einstein’s general theory of relativity – breaks down. However, research on loop quantum cosmology offers a possible solution. It suggests that gravity, in effect, becomes repulsive. Consequently, loop quantum cosmology predicts that our present universe began in a so-called “cosmic bounce”, rather than the Big Bang singularity predicted by general relativity.

In a recent paper published in EPL, Edward Wilson-Ewing, a mathematical physicist at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, explores the interplay between loop quantum cosmology and a phenomenon sometimes described as “the echo of the Big Bang”: the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This background radiation pervades the entire visible universe, and it stems from the moment the universe became cool enough for neutral atoms to form. At this point, light could suddenly travel through space without being continually scattered by the plasma of electrons and light nuclei that existed before. This freshly liberated light makes up the CMB, so studying it offers clues to the early universe.

 

Abnormal ‘Arnold’s tongue’ patterns appear in a real oscillating system

22 Apr 2025 Isabelle Dumé

Synchronization studies: When the experimenters mapped the laser’s breathing frequency intensity in the parameter space of pump current and intracavity loss (left), unusual features appeared. The areas contoured by blue dashed lines correspond to strong intensity, and represent the main synchronization regions. (right) Synchronization regions extracted from this map highlight their leaf-like structure. (Courtesy: DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads3660)

Abnormal versions of synchronization patterns known as “Arnold’s tongues” have been observed in a femtosecond fibre laser that generates oscillating light pulses. While these unconventional patterns had been theorized to exist in certain strongly driven oscillatory systems, the new observations represent the first experimental confirmation.

Scientists have known about synchronization since 1665, when Christiaan Huygens observed that pendulums placed on a table eventually begin to sway in unison, coupled by vibrations within the table. It was not until the mid-20th century, however, that a Russian mathematician, Vladimir Arnold, discovered that plotting specific parameters of such coupled oscillating systems produces a series of tongue-like triangular shapes.