In 1951, physicist Julian Schwinger theorized that by applying a uniform electrical field to a vacuum, electron-positron pairs would be spontaneously created out of nothing, through a phenomenon called quantum tunneling.
Condensed Matter
15 hours ago
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Few ideas in modern science have reshaped our understanding of reality more profoundly than space-time—the interwoven fabric of space and time at the heart of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
Astronomy
Aug 25, 2025
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This month, George Tiley began his NC State appointment as an assistant professor of plant and microbial biology. Right before his Aug. 1 start date, Tiley and colleagues published a Perspectives piece in the Proceedings ...
Evolution
Aug 25, 2025
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A simple model developed by a RIKEN researcher and a collaborator predicts the emergence of self-organized institutions that manage limited resources such as fisheries or irrigation water. This model provides a window into ...
Mathematics
Aug 22, 2025
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We're often told it is "unscientific" or "meaningless" to ask what happened before the Big Bang. But a new paper by FQxI cosmologist Eugene Lim, of King's College London, UK, and astrophysicists Katy Clough, of Queen Mary ...
Astronomy
Aug 21, 2025
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They feel like lightning—sudden, brilliant and seemingly impossible to predict. But according to new research, those mind-flashing "aha" moments of insight may leave detectable traces before they strike.
Mathematics
Aug 18, 2025
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A team of international researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Johns Hopkins University and Duke University has discovered that a century-old theory describing turbulence in fluids also applies ...
Soft Matter
Aug 18, 2025
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How can the behavior of elementary particles and the structure of the entire universe be described using the same mathematical concepts? This question is at the heart of recent work by the mathematicians Claudia Fevola from ...
Mathematics
Aug 13, 2025
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369
Skyrmions are localized, particle-like excitations in materials that retain their structure due to topological constraints (i.e., restrictions arising from properties that remain unchanged under smooth deformations). These ...
Personalized pricing, where merchants adjust prices according to the pile of data about a consumer's willingness to pay, has been criticized for its potential to unfairly drive-up prices for certain customers.
Economics & Business
Aug 13, 2025
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