Francis in Mapping Ignorance: Transferencia anómala de calor de lo frío a lo caliente

Te recomiendo leer mi última contribución al blog Mapping Ignorance, «Read it twice: Heat transfer from a cooler body to a hotter body,» May 16, 2013. El primer párrafo, en inglés, dice «Without any conflict with the second law of thermodynamics, heat can flow from a cooler but constantly heated body to another thermally connected and constantly hotter body. This anomalous heat transfer has been demonstrated in a two-phase liquid-vapor system composed of a Rayleigh–Bénard convection (RBC) cell filled one-half with normal liquid helium and one-half with helium vapor.» Seguir leyendo…

Mi contribución se basa en el artículo de Pavel Urban, David Schmoranzer, Pavel Hanzelka, Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, and Ladislav Skrbek, “Anomalous heat transport and condensation in convection of cryogenic helium,” PNAS 110(20): 8036-8039, May 14, 2013; además recomiendo consultar a Joseph J. Niemela, “Weather and anomalous heat flow occurring near absolute zero,” PNAS 110(20): 7969-7970, May 14, 2013.

Francis in Mapping Ignorance: La velocidad de la gravedad

Mapping Ignorance es el nuevo blog de divulgación científica en inglés de la Cátedra de Cultura Científica de la Universidad del País Vasco y Euskampus. Si no lo conoces, merece la pena visitarlo con regularidad. He publicado dos artículos «ESA’s Planck satellite finds the missing baryons,» Dec. 13, 2012, y «The speed of gravity,» Jan. 04, 2013. Esta última entrada se hace eco del reciente artículo de K. Y. Tang, C. C. Hua , W. Wen, S. L. Chi, Q. Y. You, D. Yu, «Observational evidences for the speed of the gravity based on the Earth tide,» Chinese Science Bulleting, Open Access, Available Online, December 2012 [el artículo es de acceso gratuito].

«Newton’s theory of gravitation assumes that the speed of gravity is infinite and the gravitational interaction is instantaneous. However, Einstein’s theory postulates that it is exactly equal to the speed of light. A team of Chinese physicists lead by Tang Ke Yun, at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, has measured the speed of gravity with a relative error of about 5% by using Earth tides during three solar/lunar eclipses. The resulting value, between 0.93 to 1.05 times the speed of light, confirms the result postulated in Einstein’s theory. It is expected that new measurements using the same method, but with better gravimeters, could reduce the error by about an order of magnitude.» Leer más en Mapping Ignorance.