#physics

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A Sandy Spine

Where sea and sand meet, Gaia’s spine rises. Photographer Satheesh Nair captured this striking image in western Australia, where wind and wave action have dragged a dune into vertebrae-like cusps. Notice how the size and shape of the curves differs between the under- and above-water sections. Those differences reflect the differing forces that shape them — just water for one set, water and air for the other. (Image credit: S. Nair/IAPOTY; via Colossal)

Where sea and sand meet, a spine forms.

replied to franco_vazza's status

I have seen now dozens of cool experiments (fluids, forces, angular momentum, waves, energy etc) and I truly enjoyed them as a physicists. But without the actual explanation of what's behind, which sadly requires a minimum of math, no one could understand what is going one.

However, I understand that organising a museum with goal of teaching something, might make it boring and less profitable (no criticism here: museums to survive need to cash in)

At the University of Innsbruck, the quantum computer era has already begun in teaching: starting in the fall semester, students from all faculties can attend an introductory course on quantum computer programming.

For this a quantum computer from spin-off Alpine Quantum Technologies (AQT) was integrated into the university's high-performance computing infrastructure.

More details (in German): https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/newsroom/2025/fur-studierende-beginnt-das-quantencomputer-zeitalter/

📸 Dieter Kühl, AQT

A person with long hair sitting in front of 4 monitors.

Todavía no entiendo el mecanismo que produce el color del cielo porque no he pasado por todos los detalles de cálculo, pero al menos ahora sé cómo entenderlo, un importante avance.

1. Ni siquiera en un día completamente despejado y limpio el cielo es azul en todas direcciones

Hay que explicar por qué es cada vez más blanquecino a medida que desciendes la vista hacia el horizonte.

Se aprecia perfectamente en esta simulación

https://ebruneton.github.io/precomputed_atmospheric_scattering/demo.html

(1/3)

In a bit of shameless self-promotion, I'm proud to announce that I've a new book out!

"Synchrotron Light: a Physics Journey from Laboratory to Cosmos", was written together with my co-author Prof. David Paganin and published by Oxford University Press.

Target audiences include users of terrestrial synchrotrons, those studying astrophysical sources of synchrotron radiation, and high-energy physicists.

In the next few days/weeks, I'll introduce some of the topics and other tidbits in this thread.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/synchrotron-light-9780192846280

The cover of the book "Synchrotron Light: A Physics Journey from Laboratory to Cosmos" by Daniele Pelliccia and David M. Paganin, to be published by Oxford University Press. The cover has an abstract background in blue/purple shades with diagonal white strikes in the top-right corner.

LOL

"In this paper we showed how to replicate current quantum factorisation records using first a
VIC-20 8-bit home computer from 1981, then an abacus, and finally a dog....[W]e rank a VIC-20 above an abacus, an abacus above a dog, and a dog above a quantum factorisation physics experiment. Finally, we provided standard evaluation criteria for future claimed quantum factorisations."

https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1237.pdf

What a pity not to have known about the physics book Matter & Interactions in the past. It is further proof that the idea that nobody understands quantum mechanics can even be applied to the elementary physics taught in high school that every science and engineering graduate thinks to know well.

There is also a series of interesting articles on the book's website to show how little we all understand basic physics.

https://matterandinteractions.org/articles-talks/

This month's Distributed Proofreaders blog delves into the newly uploaded "Newton's Principia."

"In it, Newton expounds, with mathematical proof, what is now the bedrock of modern physics: his groundbreaking laws of motion and universal gravitation, and his explanations of the motion of planets, moons, comets, tides, fluids, and other physical phenomena."

https://blog.pgdp.net/2025/08/01/newtons-principia/

Newton's Principia at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76404

Painting of Isaac Newton by an unknown author.