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St. Louis County authorities said 29-year-old Tio Robinson is facing a felony stealing charge (Class C felony) because the value totaled more than $25,000. Investigators said Robinson, along with other men, were able to obtain winnings from the machines by altering a $100 bill with a string attached, then pulling it out, ultimately tricking the machine into thinking money had been inserted.

String theory is perhaps the most controversial big idea in all of science today. On the one hand, it's a mathematically compelling framework that offers the potential to unify the Standard Model with General Relativity, providing a quantum description of gravity and providing deep insights into how we conceive of the entire Universe. On the other hand, its predictions are all over the map, untestable in practice, and require an enormous set of assumptions that are unsupported by an iota of scientific evidence. For perhaps the last 35 years, string theory has been the dominant idea in theoretical particle physics,...

On June 25, Timm Wrase awoke in Vienna and groggily scrolled through an online repository of newly posted physics papers. One title startled him into full consciousness. The paper, by the prominent string theorist Cumrun Vafa of Harvard University and collaborators, conjectured a simple formula dictating which kinds of universes are allowed to exist and which are forbidden, according to string theory. The leading candidate for a “theory of everything” weaving the force of gravity together with quantum physics, string theory defines all matter and forces as vibrations of tiny strands of energy. The theory permits some 10,500 different solutions:...

The problem with string theory, according to some physicists, is that it makes too many universes. It predicts not one but some 10500 versions of spacetime, each with their own laws of physics. But with so many universes on the table, how can the theory explain why ours has the features it does? Now some theorists suggest most—if not all—of those universes are actually forbidden, at least if we want them to have stable dark energy, the supposed force accelerating the expansion of the cosmos. To some, eliminating so many possible universes is not a drawback but a major step...

Mysterious Filament is Stretching Down Towards the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Article written: 23 Dec , 2017 by Matt Williams The core of the Milky Way Galaxy has always been a source of mystery and fascination to astronomers. This is due in part to the fact that our Solar System is embedded within the disk of the Milky Way – the flattened region that extends outwards from the core. This has made seeing into the bulge at the center of our galaxy rather difficult. Nevertheless, what we’ve been able to learn over the years has proven to be immensely...

Pondering Gravitational Wavesby Paul Gilster on February 11, 2016 "Einstein would be beaming," said National Science Foundation director France Córdova as she began this morning's news conference announcing the discovery of gravitational waves. I can hardly disagree, because we have in this discovery yet another confirmation of the reality of General Relativity. Caltech's Kip Thorne, who discussed black hole mergers way back in 1994 in his book Black Holes and Time Warps, said at the same news conference that Einstein must have been frustrated by the lack of available technologies to detect the gravitational waves his theory predicted, a lack...

Stephen Hawking's New Black-Hole Paper, Translated: An Interview with Co-Author Andrew Strominger The Harvard string theorist explains the collaboration's long-awaited research on the black-hole information paradox Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit Email Print Share via Google+Stumble Upon Penrose diagram for a semiclassical evaporating black hole, as presented in "Soft Hair on Black Holes." CREDIT: Prahar Mitra In the mid 1970s, Stephen Hawking made a string of unnerving discoveries about black holes—that they could evaporate, even explode, and destroy all information about what had fallen in. Physicists spent the next 40 years sorting through the wreckage. Then last year, at a...

There are a lot of different ways to define science, but perhaps one that everyone can agree on is that it’s a process by which: 1.knowledge about the natural world or a particular phenomenon is gathered, 2.a testable hypothesis is put forth concerning a natural, physical explanation for that phenomenon, 3.that hypothesis is then tested and either validated or falsified, 4.and an overarching framework — or scientific theory — is constructed to explain the hypothesis and that makes predictions about other phenomena, 5.which is then tested further, and either validated, in which case new phenomena to test are sought (back...

The Universe we know and love — with Einstein’s General Relativity as our theory of gravity and quantum field theories of the other three forces — has a problem that we don’t often talk about: it’s incomplete, and we know it. Einstein’s theory on its own is just fine, describing how matter-and-energy relate to the curvature of space-and-time. Quantum field theories on their own are fine as well, describing how particles interact and experience forces. Normally, the quantum field theory calculations are done in flat space, where spacetime isn’t curved. We can do them in the curved space described by...

A Fight for the Soul of Science String theory, the multiverse and other ideas of modern physics are potentially untestable. At a historic meeting in Munich, scientists and philosophers asked: should we trust them anyway? Laetitia Vancon for Quanta MagazinePhysicists George Ellis (center) and Joe Silk (right) at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich on Dec. 7. By: Natalie WolchoverDecember 16, 2015 Comments (17) Share this: facebooktwitterredditmail PDF Print Physicists typically think they “need philosophers and historians of science like birds need ornithologists,” the Nobel laureate David Gross told a roomful of philosophers, historians and physicists last week in Munich, Germany,...

Mathematicians Chase Moonshine’s Shadow Researchers are on the trail of a mysterious connection between number theory, algebra and string theory. In 1978, the mathematician John McKay noticed what seemed like an odd coincidence. He had been studying the different ways of representing the structure of a mysterious entity called the monster group, a gargantuan algebraic object that, mathematicians believed, captured a new kind of symmetry. Mathematicians weren’t sure that the monster group actually existed, but they knew that if it did exist, it acted in special ways in particular dimensions, the first two of which were 1 and 196,883.McKay, of...

The largest physics experiment ever built is now testing the nature of reality. String theory, supersymmetry and other theories beyond the Standard Model are under scrutiny. More than 10,000 people have been involved. Total cost is nearing $10 billion. This, of course, is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which helped discover the Higgs Boson. Simultaneously, the ACME experiment, run by a team of less than 50, built for a few million dollars (and much, much smaller), has created a more precise test of these advanced theoeries. This experiment hinges on an extremely painstaking and precise method to picture the shape...

When he died on September 7, 2012, theoretical physicist Claud W. Lovelace left behind a house filled with parakeets. With no family or close companions, the eccentric Rutgers professor loved to be surrounded by his colorful fine-feathered friends and listen to classical music as he contemplated the nuances of unified field theory. A loner not particularly close to his colleagues, members of the Physics and Astronomy department were astounded and delighted when he willed his entire fortune of $1.5 million to it. The funds were used to help establish endowed positions in practical fields of physics, a far cry from...

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco police are looking for five men and a woman who they believe robbed and assaulted numerous people after the Pink Saturday gay pride event. In the most egregious incident - which was captured on video footage that police released Friday - one of the men robs a woman and then kicks her in the head after she falls to the ground, knocking her unconscious, said Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman.

My 6 year old DSL modem is apparently dying. Turning the power on and off to the modem immediately brings it back for a while, but it is unreliable. I added on a router for a workstation and a hardwired network printing and an access point for wireless, but I would like to replace all of these pieces with a single unit. Requirements are compatibility with AT&T DSL, a hardwired network printer and workstation, and N and G wireless. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks.

BRIAN GREENE spent a good part of the last decade extolling the virtues of string theory. He dreamed that one day it would provide physicists with a theory of everything that would describe our universe - ours and ours alone. His bestselling book The Elegant Universe eloquently captured the quest for this ultimate theory. "But the fly in the ointment was that string theory allowed for, in principle, many universes," says Greene, who is a theoretical physicist at Columbia University in New York. In other words, string theory seems equally capable of describing universes very different from ours. Greene hoped...

How old is a piece of string? In this case, 8,000 years - making it the oldest length of string ever found in Britain. Our ancestors made it by twisting together what seem to be fibres of honeysuckle, nettles, or wild clematis, and used it in their struggle for survival as the last ice age ended. This early piece of technology, measuring about 41/2in must have been a revolutionary advance at the time, useful for binding together weapons or tools. Found in the mud: The ancient string It has only survived thanks to the huge floods that followed the melting...

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani has confronted a spate of bad news in recent days, from the drug indictment of his South Carolina chairman to criticism for skipping meetings of the Iraq Study Group. Every campaign faces bad news at one time or another, but with a fundraising deadline looming Saturday, the timing couldn't be worse. Most voters are not tuned in, but for those who are giving and raising money for the former New York mayor, the heartburn-inducing headlines may make them think twice. The string of events — some Giuliani's making, some out of his hands...

A party favor has been found to save lives in the Iraq war and now, the Rural Metro Fire Department and Canoa Homes are teaming up to get as many cans of it as possible shipped to the troops. When you think of the gear protecting our troops overseas, you probably wouldn't think of a can tattooed in hot colors proudly displaying the word goofy. Anne Marie Sweeney/Rural Metro Fire: "An innovative attempt by one of our soldiers over there to figure out a way to save lives." Goofy, silly...whatever you want to call it...these cans of silly string are...

January 15, 2007 The Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is relatively new to the theatre of war as a mainstream weapon. It was first used en masse by Belarusian guerillas against German supply trains during World War II. Since then, explosive devices have been used to great effect in a number of asymmetrical conflicts. The IED has achieved main weapon status in the current Iraq War, and as usual, some ingenious improvisations have evolved to overcome them. As ludicrous as it may for a soldier in body armour to be carrying a weapon such as the one pictured, that’s just what...