#physics

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Happy birthday Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827), French mathematical physicist (who incidentally, did invaluable work in geophysics). He was pretty hard-headed and probably didn’t really have any imaginary friends, but nonetheless Laplace’s Demon is my 3rd in the series of Imaginary Friends of Science. In 1814, when he envisioned an entity such
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My linocut print of Laplace’s Demon. The demon, who looks like Laplace with giant long-horn cattle horns seated in the lotus position with his palms together as in prayer, is printed in black. Between his horns is space in black with comets, galaxies, stars and planets carved away showing in white. Around him are deep yellow radiating triangles and the words “Laplace’s Demon” following the shape of the horns.

"My methods are really methods of working and thinking; this is why they have crept in everywhere anonymously."

Happy Birthday Emmy Noether!!

She made many important contributions to abstract algebra. She proved Noether's 1st and 2nd theorems, which are fundamental in mathematical physics. She developed theories of rings, fields, & algebras. In physics, Noether's theorem explains the connection between symmetry & conservation laws.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Noether

Portrait of Emmy Noether, around 1900. Unknown author Publisher: Mathematical Association of America [3], Brooklyn Museum [4], Agnes Scott College [5], [6] - Emmy Noether (1882-1935), Archived The photograph shows Noether as a poised young woman, reflecting the academic environment of the era. Dressed in period attire typical of the late 19th to early 20th century, she appears composed and introspective, a visual contrast to the intellectual revolution she would later ignite in mathematics.

Filtering by Sea Sponge

Gathering oil after a spill is fiendishly difficult. Deploying booms to corral and soak up oil at the water surface only catches a fraction of the spill. A recent study instead turns to nature to inspire its oil filter. The team was inspired by the Venus’ flower basket, a type of deep-sea sponge with a multi-scale structure that excels at pulling nutrients out of complex flow fields. The outer surface of the sponge has helical ridges that break up the turbulence of any incoming flow, helping the sponge stay anchored by reducing the force needed to resist the flow. Beneath the ridges, the sponge’s skeleton has a smaller, checkered pattern that further breaks up the flow as it enters into the sponge’s hollow body. Within this cavity, the flow is slower and swirling, giving plenty of time for nutrients in the water to collide with the …

A deep-sea sponge known as Venus' flower basket.

HH 30: A Star System with Planets Now Forming
* Image Credit: James Webb Space Telescope, ESA, NASA & CSA, R. Tazaki et al.
https://ryotazaki1205.wixsite.com/astro
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025ApJ...980...49T/abstract
https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/
https://www.esa.int/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/
https://www.nasa.gov/

Explanation:
How do stars and planets form? New clues have been found in the protoplanetary system Herbig-Haro 30 by the James Webb Space Telescope in concert with Hubble and the Earth-bound ALMA. The observations show, among other things, that large dust grains are more concentrated into a central disk where they can form planets. The featured image from Webb shows many attributes of the active HH-30 system. Jets of particles are being expelled vertically, shown in red, while a dark dust-rich disk is seen across the center, blocking the light from the star or stars still forming there. Blue-reflecting dust is seen in a parabolic arc above and below the central disk, …

2025 February 19 A dark field has a single, colorful, blurry structure in its center. Red-colored jets extend out from the center toward the top and bottom of the frame. A dark disk covers the center. Blue outflows appear on both sides of the horizontal disk. To the lower left, a larger blue outflow extends. HH 30: A Star System with Planets Now Forming * Image Credit: James Webb Space Telescope, ESA, NASA & CSA, R. Tazaki et al. Explanation: How do stars and planets form? New clues have been found in the protoplanetary system Herbig-Haro 30 by the James Webb Space Telescope in concert with Hubble and the Earth-bound ALMA. The observations show, among other things, that large dust grains are more concentrated into a central disk where they can form planets. The featured image from Webb shows many attributes of the active HH-30 system. Jets of particles are being expelled vertically, shown in red, while a dark dust-rich disk is seen across the center, blocking the light from the star or stars still forming there. Blue-reflecting dust is seen in a parabolic arc above and below the central disk, although why a tail appears on the lower left is currently unknown. Studying how planets form in HH 30 can help astronomers better understand how planets in our own Solar System once formed, including our Earth. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.