Scientists detect collision of two supermassive black holes

 Astrophysicists and astronomers have detected the strange vibrations in space-time itself, caused by the collision of two supermassive black holes! These are the black holes at the centers of galaxies, with large masses from millions to billions of times more than the Sun. Gravitational wave detectors like LIGO have been sensing these since 2015, but now new techniques were used for the latest discovery. By looking at minute changes in the timing of a sample of pulsars, which are fast-spinning neutron stars that emit periodic, clock-like bursts of radio waves, the distortions of those precise bursts are measured by radio wave detectors, and are consistent with what Einstein's theory of general relativity predict. Amazing, and this constant 'churning' of the space-time sea is now being studied for all sorts of different events and signals! 

Quantum Computing - Want to learn about it? Here's a book and course anyone can take

 Quantum computing is already here in prototype form, and is rapidly evolving into a next generation computing technology, the consequences of which we do not fully understand. But let's also recognize that many companies, universities, national labs, the military, finance and business sectors, medical research and most other fields you can think of, will be in great need of workers who know what this is and how to use it. And the day is also coming where quantum computing and AI become mixed. 

If you are curious about this field and technology, here is an online textbook that is setup as a course in quantum computing. Use it and go at your own pace. Have fun! 

Countries and Institutions with most top Physics personnel

 The productivity and 'success' of scientists can be measured several ways, and perhaps the most popular is looking at the number of publications and citations a scientist has. This makes sense because to be  published in peer reviewed journals shows the work is considered strong, and people cite it when they find it useful, valuable, and well done. Citations mean the work is affecting the field. There is a measure called the D-index based on these criteria.

So you can find the countries and institutions with the most physics personnel with high D-index values. By far, the United States leads for countries, followed by Great Britain. For institutions, Caltech leads the way, and the only non-US institutions in the top ten are the Max Planck Institute and University of Cambridge.