Football metaphors in physics; vets treat adorable baby rhino’s broken leg

This week, researchers demonstrated an effective way to protect working dogs from heat stress: training them to submerge their heads in cold water. A new computational technique has led to a breakthrough in understanding pseudo-cap in quantum physics, a development that could lead to room-temperature superconductivity. And a group of scientists agree: The evidence now supports global action to combat microplastics. And a few other things have happened, too. Among them:

Physicists were arguing the same point, actually.

Niels Bohr, the father of electron energy levels, and John von Neumann, the father of the quantum mathematical framework, independently developed concepts about the measurement of quantum systems: Bohr wanted, and even demanded, a distinction between the quantum systems being analyzed and the classical measurement system used to measure them. von Neumann argued that quantum physics should apply universally to everything, including classical measuring devices.

Physicists have long thought of this phenomenon as the physical version of two computer-generated football helmets smacking each other in an exciting segment of an NFL broadcast. But a new paper argues that those two football helmets may have actually been affectionately rubbing against each other like happy kittens. Specifically, the author, Federico Laudisa of the University of Trento, suggests that a closer look at von Neuman’s conceptual approach actually matched Bohr’s views.

The rivalry between CMB and distance scales

While the possible reconciliation of Bohr and von Neumann is a good thing, a more recent contradiction in astrophysics is plaguing astrophysicists: two measurements of the expansion rate of the universe, which should theoretically agree, categorically refuse to get on the same wavelength. There has even been talk of a “crisis in cosmology,” to which researchers have responded by demanding a paradigm shift to a new physics and proposing different shapes for the universe.

Imagine, if you will, two CG American football helmets (I’m paid by the metaphor, but I’m not allowed to go over budget). One helmet is for the Distance Ladder team. The other is for the Cosmic Microwave Background team.

In physics, the distance scale is based on the redshift of light from distant galaxies caused by the Doppler effect. The more distant a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away, the greater the redshift. The measurement of the redshift of extremely distant type 1a supernovae provides definitive evidence that the rate of universal expansion is increasing.

The cosmic microwave background is light emitted when the tiny bones of the Universe’s skull were not yet welded together at its vulnerable fontanel—that is, only a few hundred thousand years ago, when a hot, perfectly uniform plasma filled all of space, disturbed only by sound waves thought to have originated at the Big Bang. The cosmic microwave background, combined with precision measurement techniques, provides a reliable measure of the universe’s expansion.

However, these two CG football helmets really do collide violently, as the measurements they produce differ by about 10%, which is huge for scientists and their desire for a 5-sigma statistical threshold. Regardless, the paper provides a sort of pre-game show for the upcoming struggle to reconcile the two measurements.

Horse knowledge applied to rhinoceros injuries

A large team of equine doctors from the University of Liverpool’s Leahurst Equine Hospital have carried out a rare procedure on a large non-equine mammal at Knowsley Safari in Merseyside, successfully treating the broken leg of a young southern white rhino.

Earlier this year, staff at Knowsley Safari noticed that Amara the rhino was limping on her right front leg; radiology revealed a fractured ulna. Unable to find a documented treatment for such an injury in a rhino, they turned to another large animal specialty: equine veterinarians, who already had expertise in similar injuries in horses.

Vets treated the anaesthetised rhino in her pen during a five-hour procedure that included mini-percussion surgery. “Amara’s operation was unlike anything we’ve ever done before. We knew we could get the camera inside her joint, but because of the novel nature of the procedure, we didn’t know how much space we would have to operate in, or how much of the affected area we would be able to see,” said Dr David Stack, a lecturer in equine surgery at the University of Liverpool.

For 27 weeks, Amara, who wore a full-leg cast, lived in her enclosure to avoid re-injury, accompanied by her mother. She is now reportedly living and playing outdoors at Knowsley Safari with her rhino contemporaries; vets are documenting the treatment and recovery for similar future scenarios.

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