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Submission + - Experiment confirms that causality is fuzzy (physicsworld.com) 2

Submitted by UpnAtom
UpnAtom writes: The Institute of Physics' online magazine writes:

"In classical physics – and everyday life – there is a strict causal relationship between consecutive events. If a second event (B) happens after a first event (A), for example, then B cannot affect the outcome of A. This relationship, however, breaks down in quantum mechanics because the temporal spread of a particles’s wave function can be greater than the separation in time between A and B."

They report on an published study by the University of Queensland which "confirmed that quantum mechanics allows events to occur with no definite causal order."

What are the implications?
Science

Submission + - 2011 World Science Festival Begins in NYC (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: For the next five days, New Yorkers will be learning about science not from a PowerPoint presentation but by watching it firsthand. The World Science Festival is taking over New York City from June 1 to 5, bringing together scientists, celebrities, researchers and more to discuss the fascinating world of science. Celebrating its fourth year, the fledgling festival has turned into a seasoned veteran, attracting over 185,000 attendants last year, and the festival creators expect the numbers to be even more impressive this year.

The main goal of the festival: to highlight a topic that creators feel hasn't been given proper credit in both the media and mainstream society.
Programming

Submission + - Modeling Security Software to Mimic Ant Behavior (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Researchers from universities and national laboratories in the United States are developing software that mimics ant behavior, as a new approach to network security.

The concept has been in action for a while, but this summer researchers are working to train the “digital ants" to turn loose into the power grid to seek out computer viruses trying to wreak havoc on the system.

So how will these cyber-warrior ants combat threats? "The idea is to deploy thousands of different types of digital ants, each looking for evidence of a threat," Erinn Fulp, one of the researchers, said. "As they move about the network, they leave digital trails modeled after the scent trails ants in nature use to guide other ants. Each time a digital ant identifies some evidence, it is programmed to leave behind a stronger scent. Stronger scent trails attract more ants, producing the swarm that marks a potential computer infection." When the digital ants detects a threat, it can bring that threat to the attention of human operators to investigate.

The concept has proven successful in testing on a small scale, but will it still work when it's scaled up to protect something as large and complex as the nation's power grid?

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