In the international system of units, the meter was once defined as the length of a pendulum with a half-period of 1 second. Since the period is 2π times the square root of (L/g), we arrive at π²=g when working in metric units, with L=1m.

A new quantum theory of gravity now aligns gravity with the other fundamental forces, marking significant progress toward a unified framework in physics. This breakthrough could transform understanding of black holes, the Big Bang, and the universe’s origins, with potential long-term impacts on technology and science.

Just finished watching Nolan's "Oppenheimer" and left feeling a bit underwhelmed. I was hoping for a deeper dive into the incredible academic strides made during that era, akin to Nolan's treatment in "Interstellar." However, the film did vividly portray the immense personal sacrifices made by brilliant minds like Oppenheimer. I'm in a bit of a quandary and curious to hear the community's thoughts on this movie. What did you all make of it?

Edit: So thanks for all the feedback already. It was interesting to see options are mixed as well and some had some interesting new perspectives on matter. Thanks

Reposting with the link

Inspired by a redditor, I created Feynman's AI Voice to voice-over anything in his voice. Here is the link for you guys to check out and let me know how can I improve it or roast me as much as you like.

Feynman Voice Clone Drive Link

Hi Reddit,

I'm a postdoc in theoretical physics at a major research University. My focus is in string theory, specifically holographic dualities. In the "mainstream media", I've increasingly seen non-specialists try to appeal to laypeople by describing string theory as "bullshit" or "unscientific". The anti-string theory crowd is unable to win their arguments on the academic stage of ideas, so they appeal to the inexperienced layperson. Take these books written by Lee Smolin and Peter Woit, for example; they appeal to a popular audience and disingenuously use this to smash string theory's stature. Neither is knowledgable in string theory. Peter Woit's blog, particularly, does great damage to my field.

String theory

• EXACTLY produces the known value of black hole entropy; no other theory can explain this aspect of nature

• Has yielded applications in pure math, e.g. Mirror Symmetry

• Produced AdS/CFT, one of the most important recent developments in SCIENCE

String theory has revealed fundamental relationships between pure mathematics and the physical world, but it's increasingly being portrayed in the sphere of "pop science" as just an unprovable hypothesis. I'm sick and tired of this.

Latest study of Raphael A. Abrahao, Henri P. N. Morin, Jordan T. R. Pagé, Akbar Safari, Robert W. Boyd, and Jeff S. Lundeen brings "light" to a very shadowy aspect of lasers.

https://opg.optica.org/optica/fulltext.cfm?uri=optica-11-11-1549&id=563468

Light, being massless, casts no shadow; under ordinary circumstances, photons pass right through each other unimpeded. Here, we demonstrate a laser beam acting like an object — the beam casts a shadow upon a surface when the beam is illuminated by another light source. We observe a regular shadow in the sense it can be seen by the naked eye, it follows the contours of the surface it falls on, and it follows the position and shape of the object (the laser beam). Specifically, we use a nonlinear optical process involving four atomic levels of ruby. We are able to control the intensity of a transmitted laser beam by applying another perpendicular laser beam. We experimentally measure the dependence of the contrast of the shadow on the power of the laser beam, finding a maximum of approximately 22%, similar to that of a shadow of a tree on a sunny day. We provide a theoretical model that predicts the contrast of the shadow. This work opens new possibilities for fabrication, imaging, and illumination.

Now correct me if I'm wrong: If the shadow effect is linked to the manipulation of photon absorption or scattering at the atomic level within the ruby crystal, it could lead to the development of novel types of quantum gates that leverage this phenomenon. Such gates could utilize controlled photon "shadows" to either allow or block the presence of quantum information carriers, effectively acting as a switch in a quantum circuit.

How do you think what other thing we can use that effect for?