Time Crystals....Did scientists just discover a new form of matter?

[SonomaPatientsCoop]

May be time to rewrite our understanding of the law of physics. It's looking like scientists have created, observed, and measured "non-equlibrium matter" , Time Crystals - whose structure repeats not just in physical space but in time as well.

Researchers had published a blueprint for this in the journal Physical Review and not two differnt groups, one led out of Harvard and one from the University of Maryland have submitted papers for review apparently having created, observed, and measured this new form of matter.

Blueprint here: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstrac...ett.118.030401

Harvard team here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1610.08057v1.pdf

Univ of MD team here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1609.08684v1.pdf

And a general article on the matter from Science Alert here: https://www.sciencealert.com/scienti...-time-crystals

[lgr]

And how about the recent creation by Harvard scientists of a metal form of hydrogen said to have super duper superconductive capacity? If further experiments confirm the findings, then the law of physics will indeed need to be upgraded. Science...explains all natural phenomena...or it will do so eventually.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/27/...ritical-doubt/

[podfish]

.... If further experiments confirm the findings, then the law of physics will indeed need to be upgraded. Science...explains all natural phenomena...or it will do so eventually.....

Science explains all? maybe not so much: from my favorite hard-science source:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...sion/97249856/

on a more serious note - no-one really thinks that the laws of physics don't need to be upgraded. Newtonian physics was close-enough, good enough for artillery shells to hit in the right place and for predicting eclipses pretty accurately, but not good enough for GPS. Einstein got us to GPS, but no-one really thinks we understand all of physics yet. In fact, we know we don't really understand gravity vs. the other forces. It's not just things we don't yet know - it's pretty clear that some of what we know is wrong.

[occihoff]

"Explains?" The further we probe into the nature of things, the more attenuated the concept of "explanation" becomes.

The concept of "matter" or "material reality" is a perfect example. Matter is made of atoms, right? But what is an "atom?" "Protons" and "neutrons" in a "nucleus" "surrounded" by "electrons", right? But each of these entities is basically inconceivable to our everyday minds.

We form some kind of vague picture of them, based on the sort of objects we see and interact with in our daily lives. But the actual entities are nothing like that; they are beyond picturing. Scientists can manipulate and experiment with them. But does this really constitute "explanation?" And how about the "forces" that hold the "particles" of the nucleus together, or keep the electrons "attached" to the nucleus?

What about "gravity," or the bizarre "attraction" or "repulsion" between two magnets? These "forces" are clearly impossible! The concept of "explanation" crumbles and evaporates into mental dust in the face of them! And yet, there they are!

And how about the recent creation by Harvard scientists of a metal form of hydrogen said to have super duper superconductive capacity? If further experiments confirm the findings, then the law of physics will indeed need to be upgraded. Science...explains all natural phenomena...or it will do so eventually.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/27/...ritical-doubt/