Physics Channel

@physics@newsmast.community
196 Followers
1 Following
1.3K Posts

Welcome to the Newsmast Physics Channel. A curated feed of posts from the Fediverse, handmade by @newsmast@newmast.social, and broadcasting to Bluesky (if you've opted-in via @bsky.brid.gy)!

To post to the community just add #physics to your post. You can create a list to follow this account, and exclude the posts from your home timeline.

Wondering why you’ve been boosted by this account? Check out this thread: https://newsmast.social/@newsmast/111963831495789541

Newsmast Foundation Websitehttps://www.newsmastfoundation.org/
Physics Channel26m ago
UK26m ago
https://www.europesays.com/uk/261751/ Puzzle World Shaken as Physicists Unveil Quantum Rubik’s Cube and Reveal the Most Efficient Solution Ever Achieved in Scientific History #Physics #Science #UK #UnitedKingdom
Physics Channel1h ago
ScienceCommunicator1h ago

Science models of the world are useful, but we know they're wrong (they're only models)

New Books in Physics and Chemistry: Grace Lindsay, "Models of the Mind: How Physics, Engineering and Mathematics Have Shaped Our Understanding of the Brain" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

Episode webpage: https://newbooksnetwork.com

Media file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK9061519438.mp3?updated=1742396295

#science #maths #physics

Homepage - New Books Network

New Books Network
Physics Channel1h ago
UK1h ago
https://www.europesays.com/uk/261588/ CERN scientists detect two elusive God particle decays #CERNATLAS #LHC #Physics #Science #UK #UnitedKingdom
Physics Channel3h ago
UK3h ago
https://www.europesays.com/uk/261421/ KATRIN experiment set new powerful limits on rare neutrino interactions #NeutrinoResearch #Physics #Science #StandardModelOfPhysics #UK #UnitedKingdom
Physics Channel4h ago
UK4h ago
https://www.europesays.com/uk/261247/ Coherence in resonance fluorescence | Nature Communications #AtomOptics #HumanitiesAndSocialSciences #multidisciplinary #PhotonicDevices #Physics #QuantumOptics #Science #SinglePhotonsAndQuantumEffects #UK #UnitedKingdom
Physics Channel6h ago
UK6h ago
https://www.europesays.com/uk/261080/ Magnets Could Become the Next Generation of Gravitational Wave Detectors #Physics #Science #UK #UnitedKingdom
Physics Channel6h ago
Sci-books.com6h ago
Walter Kohn: Personal Stories and Anecdotes Told by Friends and Collaborators by Matthias Scheffler (PDF)
Author: Matthias Scheffler
File Type: PDF
Download at https://sci-books.com/walter-kohn-personal-stories-and-anecdotes-told-by-friends-and-collaborators-3642556108/
#Physics, #MatthiasScheffler
Physics Channel6h ago
John Carlos Baez6h ago

China is carrying out the solar revolution at scale. Here panels float on a reservoir in northwest China. This is just one of many massive solar power plants. The photos look like something out of science fiction:

https://www.theatlantic.com/photography/archive/2025/07/photos-china-solar-power-energy/683488/

Meanwhile Trump is fighting solar and pushing coal. The Chinese call him 建国同志, "Comrade Jianguo". Literally this means "Comrade Building the Nation". It's a joke about "Make America Great Again". It hints that Trump is actually helping China.

Physics Channel11h ago
Paul E.11h ago

TIL about the super cool phenomenon of supercooled freeze pop popsicles when my son took one out of the freezer in a still liquid form and we watched it crystalize after he squeezed it. Physics is amazing!

#science #physics

Physics Channel12h ago
Bytes Europe12h ago
Lithuania bids to save Baltic seals as ice sheets recede https://www.byteseu.com/1188958/ #Lithuania #Materials #Nanotech #Physics #PhysicsNews #Science #ScienceNews #Technology #TechnologyNews
×
John Carlos Baez6h ago

China is carrying out the solar revolution at scale. Here panels float on a reservoir in northwest China. This is just one of many massive solar power plants. The photos look like something out of science fiction:

https://www.theatlantic.com/photography/archive/2025/07/photos-china-solar-power-energy/683488/

Meanwhile Trump is fighting solar and pushing coal. The Chinese call him 建国同志, "Comrade Jianguo". Literally this means "Comrade Building the Nation". It's a joke about "Make America Great Again". It hints that Trump is actually helping China.

Show threadSnark Week Global5h ago
@johncarlosbaez A reminder that China is doing nothing special, it's the society wide science denial here that's puzzling.
Show threadJohn Carlos Baez5h ago
@snarkweek - The US is indeed puzzling and depressing. But we have to admit that China is better organized than other countries when it comes to solar. They account for over 80% of global solar panel manufacturing capacity, and they have installed more solar capacity than the rest of the world combined in recent years.
Show threadSnark Week Global5h ago
@johncarlosbaez Only because we keep sabotaging our own renewable industry.
Show threadJohn Carlos Baez5h ago

@snarkweek - It's interesting to see how the Chinese proceed:

Ezra Klein: You had just come from China, and I had just come back from a book tour. And we were talking about something else, but then I asked you how your China trip was, and what you said to me was: Ezra, you have no idea how screwed we are.

Thomas Friedman: Yes, because what you see when you’re there is the product of 30 years of being in the fitness gym. It works like this: A new industry comes along. Let’s call it solar panels. Every major city in China decides they need a solar panel factory. The local government subsidizes it — maybe domestically born, maybe in partnership with a foreign one.

And you end up, in a very short period of time with — I’m making the number up, but 75 solar panel companies. They then compete like crazy against each other in the fitness gym, and five of them survive. Those five are so fit that they can then go global at a price and level of innovation that is very hard for a foreign competitor to deal with — which is why China today basically controls the global solar panel market.

But what you also don’t see is that process of winnowing down from a hundred of those solar panel companies to the five produced a massive explosion of supply chains domestically to feed that industry.

The same thing went on with cars. The same thing goes on with robots. So where you end up five years later is with an interlocking set of supply chains that now, if you’re a young Chinese and say: I just got this idea. I want to produce a shirt that has a pink polka dot button that can sing the Chinese national anthem backward — someone will have it for you tomorrow.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-thomas-friedman.html

Opinion | Why Trump Could Lose His Trade War With China

The Times Opinion columnist discusses what he thinks Trump — and American policymakers — misunderstand about China in the escalating trade war.

The New York Times
Show threadSnark Week Global5h ago
@johncarlosbaez So the state is helping the industry. Same thing in the USA and EU though, where the state is doing exactly these things, except only for the fossil empire. The subsidies our societies carry for fossil are larger than the much debated 5% NATO contributions. The power structures here, the old boys networks and other furniture of our societies, they're stuck in a deadly rut so reflexively starting trade and proxy wars is not going to help them this time.
Show threadJohn Carlos Baez5h ago
@snarkweek - I agree with you COMPLETELY about how dumb the US and (to a lesser extent) the EU is being when it comes to solar industrial policy, but you may be underestimating how smart China is being. I changed my quote to one a bit more illuminating.
Show threadSnark Week Global5h ago
@johncarlosbaez haha yes, agreed
Show threadJohn Carlos Baez5h ago
@snarkweek - okay, great!
Show threadBashStKid4h ago

@johncarlosbaez @snarkweek I’d suggest that Friedman is not seeing the whole picture. In a nutshell, building up the companies is competitive in depth, but not destructive, and the competitive focus is actual research and engineering, not marketing and financial hot air.

Chinese industry is coming out of Xi’s Gym actually fitter and faster, not just waving some team strips and branded fitness drinks shouting ‘Go Team’

Show threadJohn Carlos Baez4h ago

@BashStKid wrote: "Chinese industry is coming out of Xi’s Gym actually fitter and faster".

That's exactly what Thomas Friedman is saying.

Show threadMerry Christmas2h ago

@BashStKid @johncarlosbaez @snarkweek

Were you on Twatter, I seem to remember following you there.

Show threadma𝕏pool1h ago

@johncarlosbaez @snarkweek

I would argue that the US under Trumpism is following the Chinese path. Currently, the US is entering Maoism and Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976) phase. 🙃

Show threadMerry Christmas2h ago

@snarkweek @johncarlosbaez

Maybe if the USA had not voted Trump?

Show threadSnark Week Global2h ago

@lyndamerry484 @johncarlosbaez

If they had not voted in Trump, they would have had Harris. Harris would have extended Biden's policies, so virtue signaling with a tiny 0.4 tn renewables package while you refuse to transition because your fossil industry is making record profits. It's a golden cage, but a real mistake that stems ultimately from a refusal to understand how physics affect the economy.

Show threadma𝕏pool4h ago

@johncarlosbaez @snarkweek

(sometimes we forget that old puzzles have been solved)

Climate Science denial is a very Anglo-Saxon phenomenon[1]. It has has known explanations that connect it to other denials and science denial in general [2][3]. There was a network of individuals and organizations behind it.

In short:

It started in the 1950s. Anti-communism and associating government regulation with communism led to network of well funded denial. Denial of tobacco smoking causing cancer, acid rain, DDT, the hole in the ozone layer, climate change. Same organizations, lobby groups, and scientists.

It took long time to take a hold. Environmentalism remained bipartisan for a long time, Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, signed Clean Air Act extension, Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.

They triumphed under Ronald Reagan.

Orginal culprits: Bill Nierenberg, Fred Seitz, and Fred Singer. The Heritage Foundation https://www.heritage.org/, George C. Marshall Institute https://www.marshallcenter.org/en
CEI https://cei.org/

----

[1]: Poles Apart: The International Reporting of Climate Scepticism, by James Painter (2013) https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/research/files/Poles%2520Apart%2520the%2520international%2520reporting%2520of%2520climate%2520scepticism.pdf

[2] Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (2010), by , Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway

[3] Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth about Climate Change (2010), by Clive Hamilton

Show threadJohn Carlos Baez2h ago

@maxpool - America has become a sceptic tank. I predict that the next trend, now that weather disasters are rising unmistably, will be for climate change deniers to blame them on evil conspirators - Democrats, of course.

(1/2)

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/marjorie-taylor-greene-hurricane-helene-conspiracy-1235124836/

MTG Implies Dems Created Hurricane Helene: ‘They Can Control the Weather’

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed Hurricane Helene was a man-made disaster as conspiracies about the storm spread on social medial.

Rolling Stone
Show threadJohn Carlos Baez2h ago

@maxpool - Now the climate change deniers have latched onto the fact that a company called Rainmaker was doing cloud seeding in Pleasanton, Texas on July 2nd, about 150 miles southeast of the floods in Kerr County two days later.

(2/2)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/did-cloud-seeding-cause-texas-110138375.html

Did cloud seeding cause Texas floods? Misinformation spreads as severe flooding strikes US

In the aftermath of the Texas Hill Country flooding, as well as floods in New Mexico and North Carolina, misinformation about cloud speeding is surging.

Yahoo News
Show threadtrillytrill2h ago
@johncarlosbaez @maxpool
Someone actually attacked a weather radar tower in Oklahoma because of this. 🤦🏻‍♀️
Show threadDan Riley8m ago

@johncarlosbaez @snarkweek China sees opportunities in many directions. China has a huge air pollution problem and a rising middle class that's unhappy about it. Worldwide deployment of renewables lets them address the internal pollution problem and profit by selling to the rest of the world. Trump's stupidity adds on the opportunity to take a more central role in the world politics.

This was going to be China's century regardless, but Trump is making it a lot worse for the US.

Show threadSnark Week Global5h ago

@johncarlosbaez For people wondering, building solar on water helps with both reducing evaporation and it cools the panels making them significantly more efficient.

(also some evidence of benefits wrt algae formation)

Show threadMimsy Borogrove1h ago
@snarkweek @johncarlosbaez this was exactly my question when I saw this. Do you happen to have the research that shows the effect? I'm curious how big the effect is.
Show threadKassim5h ago

@johncarlosbaez You know those big, dumb ass buildings y'all enjoy making so many of? Why not put them there? Stop littering.

Temporary fix.

Show threadRowena Ball4h ago
@johncarlosbaez
In which China finally weans itself off Australian coal, only to find that Australia has the world's largest reservoirs of lithium.
Show threadJohn Carlos Baez4h ago

@Rowena - while China produces most of the rare earths.

Maybe cooperate? Yes, I'm being naively optimistic.

Show threadRowena Ball4h ago
@johncarlosbaez Oh, China is buying rare earths from Australian mines too. And anything else that can be dug up in fact. Only the other day I drove past a mine in remote NW Qld, out of which a contiguous stream of 4-skip road trains thundered towards the port at Bowen 500 km away. What is being mined there? Bentonite. An absorbent mineral used in kitty litter. The mine is doing a roaring trade with China. As millions of Chinese people enter the middle classes they all want to keep a pampered puss-cat in their city apartments.
Show threadmetalfabs3h ago
@Rowena @johncarlosbaez Bentonite is used a lot in construction (drilling) and industrial applications. I bet it's those that are driving demand and not so much kitty litter.
Show threadcwicseolfor4h ago
@johncarlosbaez @Rowena Battery tech may not rely on either before long, hopefully, because that would reduce harmful mining by both nations. We already have a lot of lithium in circulation that would continue to serve for high energy density applications like the devices we’re tapping on, but SO MUCH of industrial and household storage could be done with sodium, at drastically reduced fire risk.
Show threadCorvus1h ago
@cwicseolfor @johncarlosbaez @Rowena
Our house is old enough to have a coal room. Of course the coal shute has been filled in and I use the space to store stuff. I don't need the energy density of battery technology best reserved for portable objects and vehicles when the old coal room could be battery storage.
Show threadHugo4h ago
@johncarlosbaez this is so on point! Wake up US!
Show threadcontrasocial4h ago

@johncarlosbaez

Makes sense. The chinese government loves that the world is toppling into fascism it's what has enabled them to double their coal production since 2007 and export much of it. As always, they look to save face while being a significant participant in the problems we all face.

The campaign they've undertaken to normalize global fascism alongside Russia is finally paying off for them.

Show threadcwicseolfor4h ago
@johncarlosbaez Quick aside, the characters you copied are just the transliteration of his surname (Telangpu) by which he’s most neutrally referenced, not the epithet you reference in your toot.
Show threadJohn Carlos Baez2h ago
@cwicseolfor - I think I've got it right now. I don't know Chinese but Google Translate says it's right.
Show threadToni Aittoniemi3h ago
@johncarlosbaez This will be the Chinese century, perhaps because of Trump is completely gambling on US futures, sheer ego instead of sound policy. Will threats make it or break it? Because if US loses the dollar as world reserve currency, they’re going to go bankcrupt. Not chance in hell they’ll survive.
Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈22m ago

@gimulnautti @johncarlosbaez I hear European nations are pulling their gold out of the US as we speak, I mean would you have your gold kept with a madman who's mind is unravelling and is destroying the nation bit by bit?

#Politics #Trump

Show threadIanagol2h ago
@johncarlosbaez I shared a gifted version of this article here: (for people without a subscription). https://mathstodon.xyz/@Ianagol/114835860905798385
Ianagol (@Ianagol@mathstodon.xyz)

Pictures of Chinese solar panel installations. https://www.theatlantic.com/photography/archive/2025/07/photos-china-solar-power-energy/683488/?gift=G0hU6ohQGLGJfrFtwMSWpSkRLuezAs8cC81qdl8IIGE

Mathstodon
Show threadFat_Farang2h ago
@johncarlosbaez Floating solar cell also decreases water loss from evaporation.
Show threadΩ 🌍 Gus Posey2h ago
@johncarlosbaez Donald destroyed America but the motivation he provided to other countries will help Earth in the long term. It's not the deal I would have chosen but there is an upside.
Show threadPaul Schoe1h ago

Thanks for the correction of the name.
建国同志 as nickname for Trump makes more sense.

@johncarlosbaez

Show threadAlf No Problem44m ago
@johncarlosbaez
The picture is phenomenal and the scale is unparalleled. Thanks for sharing!
Show threadLuzzy 5m ago
@johncarlosbaez so... they are not putting them on top of roads? No solar roadways? But but but but- *explodes in 65535 pieces of garbage tech startup*