97. Second week of November on NEQNET

Physics

* Quintessence on the string theory landscape?

I discuss the recent paper by Kaloper and Sorbo explaining how quintessence can be realized on the string theory landscape, as follows from the title. The post also contains small introduction explaining what is quintessence field and why we want so hard to find it on the landscape

* Hard thermal loops: what is it?

I briefly explain what is hard thermal loop effective field theory.

* Leptophilic dark matter

I discuss the recent paper by Poppitz and Fox, where they introduce the model of dark matter that somewhat resembles Arkani-Hamed’s model.

* Belavin and Zamolodchikov on 2D quantum gravity

Belavin and Zamolodchikov study the correspondence between minimal 2D quantum gravity and p-critical one-matrix model.

* Unidentified extended sources of gamma ray emission

I discuss some unidentified sources of gamma ray emission recently found by H.E.S.S.

* A new theory of galaxy formation needed

It is claimed in the recent paper by Disney et al. that gaseous galaxies actually represent 1-parametric set. To explain it, a new theory of GF is needed.

* Second order hydrodynamic coefficients in some field theories (like QCD)

I am explaining how to calculate second order hydrodynamic coefficients in field theories and why we actually need to calculate them

* Quantum scale invariance on the lattice

As Shaposhnikov and Tkachev state, they have found a scheme leading to a non-perturbative definition of lattice field theories scale invariant on quantum level. Let us try and see whether this scheme works.

* One second order phase transition: video

Video of a second order phase transition. Can you guess what is the phase transition and what is the medium it happens in? Well, Lubos Motl and Theoreticalminimum have identified it as the one in supercritical . The phase transition is actually of higher order.

Biology

* Replication DNA in the cell

Just have found a very nice video explanation how DNA is replicated and wanted to share it with you… Enjoy

* Life cycle of stem cells

This video did help us to visualize how our baby is growing (Basically, the first stage of the human embryo growth is presented.)

Ramblings

* Academia: is it really a cult?

Does academia possess features of a cult? I discuss several pro- and contra- arguments. Featuring the Bug Girl in comments!

* So sorry, but I cannot help hacking Google Blog Search

This stupid hack did bring us about 25% of traffic we are enjoying now, but it did not came from the Google Blog Search