schrodingerscat
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Scientists catch Schrödinger's cat with quantum physics
Schrodinger's cat, the good ole thought experiment that's been twisting (non-Quantum physicist) brains for decades. Scientists might have just caught it. Or not. Typical. What you see above is a combined image where a stencil was bombarded with cosmic rays photons, but the photons that generated the image actually never interacted with the stencil -- stay with us. It was separate photons (which shared the same quantum state as the ones that hit the camera) which arrived at the stencil. The science goes that when two separate particles are entangled, their physical properties appear to correlate and they share a single quantum state.
Quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger gets Google Doodle, is definitely dead
Erwin Schrödinger, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who bent our minds with his quantum mechanics theories, is being celebrated today with a Google Doodle. He's perhaps best known for his "Schrödinger's Cat" thought experiment involving a feline that's both alive and dead until its box is opened. Though it had nothing to do with his famous wave equations describing the energy levels of atoms, he used the metaphor to criticize an interpretation of quantum mechanics that was becoming popular at the time. It helped prove that a quantum system could exist in two states at once until measured, and he took pains to point out it was reductio ad absurdum and unrelated to cat murder. The creatures have enough to worry about, after all.
Fedora 19 Schrodinger's Cat released with 3D printing, Developer's Assistant, paradoxes
Fedora 19 Schrodinger's Cat may have a name that suggests it's both alive and dead, but there's no uncertainties about its release -- the finished Linux distribution is now available on Fedora's servers. The oddly-nicknamed OS mostly improves content creation. It beats Microsoft to the punch on 3D printer support by including object design and printing tools; budding programmers will also like Node.js support and a Developer's Assistant that simplifies learning new code languages. While there's many more updates than we can list here, it's safe to say that Fedora 19 is a big update for many Linux fans, whether or not they appreciate Schrodinger's quantum mechanics. You can grab the new build and its release notes at the source links.
Alt-week 10.13.12: is the Universe a simulation, cloning dinosaurs and singing mice
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. Are you reading this? Seriously, are you? Sure, we know you think you are, but what if you're just a sub-feature of a complex computer program. A sprite, nothing more than the creation of software. The problem with this question is, how would you ever know? You wouldn't, right? Well, not so fast there. Turns out, maybe there is a way to unravel the matrix (if there is one). It'll come as no surprise, that this is one of the topics in this week's collection of alternative stories. Think that's all we got? Not even close. We'll explore the truth behind cloning dinosaurs, as well a rare performance by singing mice -- all before dinner. Or is it really dinner? This is alt-week.
Breakfast Topic: The joy of phasing
Rayless on the General Forums asks a question that I've always wondered about but never poked into; how exactly does phasing work? If you've leveled through the Death Knight starting area, done the Wrath Gate questline, or quested in Icecrown (and you should really do all three), you've had the opportunity to see Blizzard's most intricate phasing in action. However, Zarhym and Crygil are pretty cryptic on how it's done, and it's up to players to fill in the details. In a nutshell, phasing is all about the information that's sent (or not sent) to your computer by the game server; Blizzard can toy with anything that's not client-side, affecting which buildings and NPCs you can "see" but not affecting the game's basic geography. I was surprised to discover that phasing has technically been in the game since launch -- ghosts and stealth are a form of phasing, as are (I would assume) the ghosts of Caer Darrow -- but the hugely elaborate set pieces of Wrath are simply a more complicated evolution of the same mechanic. Given the success of phasing, players have been kicking around suggestions for instances or zones that could do with a touch of it, and Gnomeregan seems to be a pretty consistent pick. I'd have to agree, but I'd also add the Echo Isles (the Gnomes and Trolls have overcome their low-level foes by now, surely?) and perhaps Duskwood for starters. Is there any other zone or instance that you think would benefit from a little reality-bending?
