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In his seminal paper ``Computing Machinery and Intelligence'', Alan Turing introduced the ``imitation game'' as part of exploring the concept of machine intelligence. The Turing Test has since been the subject of much analysis, debate,…
The article is an historical overview of some of the major contributions from different areas of Science with which, for centuries, it has been built up a scientific, sound and consistent vision of the atom. Some experiments that led us to…
This article discusses the life and work of Professor Ola Bratteli (1946--2015). Family, fellow students, his advisor, colleagues and coworkers review aspects of his life and his outstanding mathematical accomplishments.
Physics and mathematics are difficult enough without the aditional burden of bad habits. In this article, we examine some helpful habits that tend to be underemphasized by many physics teachers (mainly because they seem so obvious!).
We review the discovery of the neutrino and outline the history of neutrino physics. Many interesting phenomena involving the neutrino are exhibited. We also discuss the long-standing solar neutrino puzzle and the properties of the neutrino…
Gravity plays an important part in the experiments and discoveries of the modern world. But how was it discovered? Surely Newton and Einstein were not the only people to observe it and account for it. It had been a long path before the full…
The results of several papers concerning the \v{C}ern\'y conjecture are deduced as consequences of a simple idea that I call the averaging trick. This idea is implicitly used in the literature, but no attempt was made to formalize the proof…
Physical theories must stem from observation. The possibility that perceived events are simulated, not real, raises a crucial dilemma about the credibility of known physics, known as the simulation hypothesis. To analyze this hypothesis in…
The technological singularity refers to a hypothetical scenario in which technological advances virtually explode. The most popular scenario is the creation of super-intelligent algorithms that recursively create ever higher intelligences.…
The talk presents the main lines of biography of the prominent physicist and bright personality. Also given is a necessarily brief description of Gribov's scientific work.
Computers are quickly gaining on us. Artificial systems are now exceeding the performance of human experts in several domains. However, we do not yet have a deep definition of expertise. This paper examines the nature of expertise and…
This is a (very) personal attempt to summarize the status of neutrino astronomy: its scientific motivations, our understanding of natural water and ice as particle detectors and, finally, the detector technology.
The purpose of this article is to provide a novel approach and justification of the idea that classical physics and quantum physics can neither function nor even be conceived one without the other - in line with ideas attributed to e.g.…
Superfluidity is a remarkable manifestation of quantum mechanics at the macroscopic level. This article describes the history of its discovery, which took place at a particularly difficult period of the twentieth century. A special emphasis…
Classical statistical mechanics of macroscopic systems in equilibrium is based on Boltzmann's principle. Tsallis has proposed a generalization of Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics. Its relation to dynamics and nonextensivity of statistical systems…
On the occasion of the birth centenary of the discovery of electron, I discuss its role in the area of Elementary Particle Physics. I emphasize that the discovery of electron marks the end of the speculation era lasting more than 2500…
This presentation goes beyond celebratory narration of the life and scientific achievements of Russia's first modern scientist Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (1711-1765). Coming from the notion of complexity of sciences, we introduce "a…
It appears paradoxical that science is producing outstanding new results and theories at a rapid rate at the same time that researchers are identifying serious problems in the practice of science that cause many reports to be irreproducible…
One of the greatest experimental mathematicians of all time was also one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, the great Leonhard Euler. Usually he had an uncanny intuition on how many "special cases" one needs before one can…
Aristotle was the first to declare himself in the class of natural philosophers ({\em physiologoi}) and he was the first physicist because he spelled out the first definitions of some basic physical concepts. Moreover, he was the first…