Rumors erupt over Higgs Boson discovery

After gazillions of particle collisions in the LHC and countless rumors of Higgs discoveries, we have... yet another rumor of a Higgs discovery.

Four reasons why the quantum vacuum may explain dark matter

(PhysOrg.com) -- Earlier this year, PhysOrg reported on a new idea that suggested that gravitational charges in the quantum vacuum could provide an alternative to dark matter. The idea rests on the hypothesis that particles and antiparticles have gravitational charges of opposite sign. As a consequence, virtual particle-antiparticle pairs in the quantum vacuum form gravitational dipoles (having both a positive and negative gravitational charge) that can interact with baryonic matter to produce phenomena usually attributed to dark matter. Although CERN physicist Dragan Slavkov Hajdukovic, who proposed the idea, mathematically demonstrated that these gravitational dipoles could explain the observed rotational curves of galaxies without dark matter in his initial study, he noted that much more work needed to be done.

In the quantum world, diamonds can communicate with each other

Researchers working at the Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford in England have managed to get one small diamond to communicate with another small diamond utilizing "quantum entanglement," one of the more mind-blowing features of quantum physics.

Two record-breaking black hole behemoths spotted

Two gargantuan black holes -- weighing in at nearly 10 billion times the mass of our sun -- have been discovered, possibly revealing a "missing link" in the galactic evolution puzzle.

Star Trek holodecks are here, sort of

Using a Sony Move controller and pico projectors, two British studios film a Holodeck-like experience, without post-production tricks.

Astronomers find 18 new planets: discovery is the largest collection of confirmed planets around stars more massive than the Sun

Discoveries of new planets just keep coming and coming. A team of astronomers has found 18 Jupiter-like planets in orbit around massive stars. The discoveries further constrain theories of planet formation.

Astronomers discover new exoplanet similar in size to Earth; planet Kepler-21b found using space and ground-based observations

The NASA Kepler Mission is designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way Galaxy to discover Earth-size planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist, and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets. It now has another planet to add to its growing list. Researchers have shown that one of the brightest stars in the Kepler star field has a planet with a radius only 1.6 that of Earth

Astronomers take a photograph of the youngest supernova right after its explosion

Astronomers have obtained a never-before achieved radio astronomical photograph of the youngest supernova. Fourteen days after the explosion of a star in the galaxy Galàxia del Remolí (M51) last June, coordinated telescopes around Europe have taken a photograph of the cosmic explosion in great detail – equivalent to seeing a golf ball on the surface of the moon.

Birth of famous black hole: longstanding mysteries about object called Cygnus X-1 unraveled

A precise distance measurement by the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) allowed astronomers to accurately calculate the mass and spin of a famous black hole, thus providing a complete description of the object.

Lightning sprites are out-of-this-world: 'sprites' predicted in atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn and Venus

Lightning sprites are out-of-this-world: 'sprites' predicted in atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn and Venus

Racing to be the first to create the world's heaviest element

All heavy elements are created in gigantic supernova explosions. Now scientists are competing to create the world

Large differences in the climate impact of biofuels, swedish research finds

When biomass is combusted the carbon that once was bound in the growing tree is released into the atmosphere. For this reason, bioenergy is often considered carbon dioxide neutral. Research from Sweden, however, shows that this is a simplification. The use of bioenergy may affect ecosystem carbon stocks, and it can take anything from 2 to 100 years for different biofuels to achieve carbon dioxide neutrality.