MSN Messenger users who may think they're getting a sneak peak at the latest version of Microsoft's instant messaging client are in for a nasty surprise, a Finnish security firm is warning.
A variation of the Virkel instant messaging virus has been circulating amongst MSN users, posing as a leaked beta version of MSN Messenger 8, according to F-Secure.
Science & Technology
Albert Einstein was correct in his prediction that E=mc2, according to scientists at the Commerce Department;s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who conducted the most precise direct test ever of what is perhaps the most famous formula in science.
Columbia, Mo. - A professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia is being recognized for solving a math problem that had stumped his peers for more than 40 years.
The achievement has landed Steven Hofmann an invitation to speak next spring at the 2006 International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid, Spain.
The achievement has landed Steven Hofmann an invitation to speak next spring at the 2006 International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid, Spain.
In the 1960s the Saturday morning American cartoon The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle introduced the world to upsidaisium, that fanciful antigravity element discovered by the uncle of Bullwinkle J. Moose. In the show the title characters triumphantly rode their upsidaisium mine (actually the mine AND the entire Mt. Flatten) to Washington D.C.
Sadly, upsidaisium does not exist, though the dream of antigravity flight endures.
Sadly, upsidaisium does not exist, though the dream of antigravity flight endures.
NASA scientists have observed an explosion on the moon. The blast, equal in energy to about 70 kg of TNT, occurred near the edge of Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains) on Nov. 7, 2005, when a 12-centimeter-wide meteoroid slammed into the ground traveling 27 km/s.
A solar wind stream is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field on Dec. 28th or 29th possibly triggering a geomagnetic storm. Northern sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
The discovery of new objects in the icy junkyard called the Kuiper Belt forces science to rethink the definition of a planet.
Get ready for a minute with 61 seconds. Scientists are delaying the start of 2006 by the first "leap second" in seven years, a timing tweak meant to make up for changes in the Earth's rotation.
Ever since Albert Einstein wondered whether the world might have been different, physicists have been searching for a theory of everything to explain why the universe is the way it is. Now string theory, one of today's leading candidates, is in trouble. A growing number of physicists claim it is ill-defined and based on crude assumptions. Something fundamental is missing, they say. The main complaint is that rather than describing one universe, the theory describes 10500, each with different constants of nature, even different laws of physics.
But the inventor of string theory, physicist Leonard Susskind, sees this landscape of universes as a solution rather than a problem. He says it could answer the most perplexing question in physics: why the value of the cosmological constant, which describes the expansion rate of the universe, appears improbably fine-tuned for life. A little bigger or smaller and life could not exist. With an infinite number of universes, says Susskind, there is bound to be one with a cosmological constant like ours.
The idea is controversial, because it changes how physics is done, and it means that the basic features of our universe are just a random luck of the draw. He explains to Amanda Gefter why he thinks it's a possibility we cannot ignore.
But the inventor of string theory, physicist Leonard Susskind, sees this landscape of universes as a solution rather than a problem. He says it could answer the most perplexing question in physics: why the value of the cosmological constant, which describes the expansion rate of the universe, appears improbably fine-tuned for life. A little bigger or smaller and life could not exist. With an infinite number of universes, says Susskind, there is bound to be one with a cosmological constant like ours.
The idea is controversial, because it changes how physics is done, and it means that the basic features of our universe are just a random luck of the draw. He explains to Amanda Gefter why he thinks it's a possibility we cannot ignore.
A team of researchers has just discovered a new macroscopic physical phenomenon governed by a quantum law: quantum magnetic deflagration. The discovery, published in November in the American journal Physical Review Letters, was made by a team led by Javier Tejada, Professor of Fundamental Physics at the UB, and Paul Santos, a researcher at the Paul Drude Institute in Berlin.
Comment: Comment: There is something fishy about this story:
"The researchers have discovered that the propagation speed at which the compass poles are reversed follows a law determined by quantum mechanics. In other words, and contrary to expectations, it is a macroscopic effect governed by a quantum law."Is it a surprise that something "follows a law determined by quantum mechanics"? What else would the researchers expect?
Comment: Comment: Why don't they check whether 2+2=4 and with what precision?