Caltech physicist Sean M. Carroll has been wrestling with the mystery of time. Most physical laws work equally well going backward or forward, yet time flows only in one direction. Writing in this month’s Scientific American, Carroll suggests that entropy, the tendency of physical systems to become more disordered over time, plays a crucial role. Carroll sat down recently at Caltech to explain his theory. More
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“This is the most innovative thing I’ve seen Microsoft do in years. It had a huge emotional impact on me, as I realized the way my son will see the Universe will forever change, thanks to the work of two guys in Microsoft Research (Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay). We meet both of them and get a look at why the WorldWide Telescope created a stir at last week’s TED Conference. Coming soon, you’ll get another look inside Microsoft Research as we get a tour of the new building that the researchers themselves help design. Tons of innovative ideas there that you’ll appreciate learning from.”

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“The cell image is micrometers wide. The image of the universe is billions of light years across. The cell image shows neurons in a mouse brain. The other is a simulated image of the universe. Together the images suggest the surprisingly similar patterns found in vastly different natural phenomena.”—David Constantine.
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