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

This week, researchers reported an effective way to protect working dogs from heat stress: training them to dunk their heads in cool water. A new computational technique provided a breakthrough in understanding the so-called “pseudogap” in quantum physics, a development that could lead to room-temperature superconductivity. And a bunch of scientists agree: Evidence now supports global action to combat microplastics. And a few other things happened, too. Among them:

Physics guys 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 measuring quantum systems: Bohr wanted, nay, 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 measurement apparatuses.

Physicists have historically regarded this as the physics world’s version of two CG football helmets clashing together in an exciting broadcast NFL segment. But a new paper argues that maybe those two football helmets were actually rubbing affectionately against each other like happy kittens. Specifically, the author, Federico Laudisa of the University of Trento, suggests that a close analysis of von Neuman’s conceptual approach was actually in alignment with Bohr’s views.

The CMB/distance ladder rivalry

OK, the possible reconciliation of Bohr and von Neumann is all well and good, but a more recent contradiction in astrophysics plagues, um, astrophysicists: Two measures of the universe’s rate of expansion, which should theoretically agree, emphatically refuse to get on the same page. This has even been called a “crisis for cosmology” that researchers have addressed with paradigm-shifting demands for new physics and proposals of different shapes for the universe.

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

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

The cosmic microwave background consists of light emitted when the universe’s little skull bones hadn’t yet knitted together over its vulnerable fontanel—at only a few hundred thousand years old, when a hot, perfectly uniform plasma filled all of space, disrupted only by sound waves believed to have originated with the Big Bang. The CMB, combined with precision measurement techniques, provides a robust measure of universal expansion.

However, those two CG football helmets really are crashing violently together, as the measurements they produce differ by around 10%, which is enormous to scientists and their desire for a 5 sigma statistical threshold. Anyway, the article provides a kind of pre-game show for the forthcoming struggle to reconcile the two measurements.

Horse knowledge applied to rhino injury

A large team of horse doctors at the University of Liverpool’s Leahurst Equine Hospital conducted a rare procedure on a large, non-horse mammal at Knowsley Safari in Merseyside, successfully treating the broken leg of a juvenile southern white rhino.

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

The vets treated the anesthetized rhino in her enclosure in a five-hour procedure that included keyhole surgery. “Amara’s operation is unlike anything we’ve experienced previously. We knew we could position the camera inside her joint, but due to the unprecedented nature of the procedure, we didn’t know how much room we would have to operate, or how much of the affected area we would be able to see,” said Dr. David Stack, senior lecturer in equine surgery at the University of Liverpool.

Over a period of 27 weeks, Amara, wearing a full leg cast, lived in her enclosure to prevent reinjury, accompanied by her mother. She’s now reported to be living and playing outdoors at Knowsley Safari with her rhino contemporaries; the vets are documenting the treatment and recovery for similar future scenarios.

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