Physics

The reality of disembodied souls would necessarily overturn everything we know about physics. Any scientist would be itching to find evidence for the supernatural—evidence that never seems to turn up, despite the most adamant and most confident protestations of believers.

As a non-hipster science fan, I find it heartwarming that a scientific discovery made in the French-Swiss underground scene is finally making it into the mainstream. However, I noticed that many people are at a loss when it comes to comprehending the excitement surrounding this Higgs thingy. After all, where in the big picture of science does this so-called “God particle” fit in?

...up here in the world of familiar objects -- bouncing basketballs, falling apples, orbiting planets -- the laws that govern our universe make it tick like clockwork. Down in the world of Amber the electron, things can seem very different. We must use a different set of rules to explain the behavior of Amber the electron and similarly small objects like protons, neutrinos, and positrons. These are the rules of quantum mechanics, and objects governed by these rules can be called “quantum objects”.

Meet Amber. She is an electron... Where’s Amber? Also, how fast is she going and where is she headed? Where can we find her later? Well, answering these questions is not as easy as it sounds. This is because Amber’s behavior is governed by the rules of quantum mechanics, which are quite different from the rules that govern the behavior of familiar objects like falling apples, swinging pendulums or flying cannon balls.

PART 3 How are laser beams produced? Laser beams are the product of stimulated emission of light. But what is stimulated...

PART 2   What do we mean by "highly coherent, usually monochromatic beam of electromagnetic waves"?   For the sake of brevity, from now on...

What in the world is laser? PART 1     We use them to point at things in a slide presentation; snipers use them...

Warning: For those who haven’t seen this episode yet, spoiler alert! This is the first, and hopefully won’t be the last, of...

The premise: a problem It has been said over and over again, as a defense or even as a backlash, by religious...