Horizons in World Physics

Volume 303 begins by examining hyperacute vision experiments based on the eye of a house fly which use solid state electronics to obtain a 10-fold improvement over digital camera technology. This contradicts neuroscience models of hyperacuity based on cortical processing because the house fly does not have a cortex. Following this, the protocol of the seventh dialogue with Uranus inhabitants, including the invitation procedure, is presented and logically analysed, along with the method for generating gravitational radiation by a neutrino graser. The authors consider the features of the formation of quasi-standing waves in resonators in the presence of factors not previously considered, including: the motion of media filling the resonators, the influence of the magnetisation fields on resonators with gyrotropic media and the motion of the boundaries of resonators. Next, a general and pure wave theory of image formation for all types of stellar interferometers, including hypertelescopes, is developed in the frame of Fresnels paraxial approximations of diffraction. Additionally, the gravitational mass spectroscopy method is used to study the long-range reaction of ovalbumin to the gravitational noise of the Sun and the centre of our galaxy. Some aspects of spectrophotometry are discussed, including fast spectrophotometry with a low-resolution imaging spectrograph and the spectral variability of individual stars. The authors present the basic elements of Chern-Simon theory and review some recent aspects of developments in Chern-Simon gauge field theory as a topological quantum field theory on a three-manifold. Lastly, the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin and anti-BRST symmetries of gauge theories are recapitulated. This symmetry plays an important role in proving the unitarity and renormalisability of the theories.