Reuters Business Today: December 6, 2016

Click to View in Browser Tuesday, December 6, 2016 U.S. productivity in third quarter fastest in two years WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - U.S. worker productivity rebounded sharply in the third quarter as initially estimated, marking its quickest rate of growth in two years, but the trend remained weak. Oil dips as OPEC, Russian output rises ahead of production cut LONDON (Reuters) - Global oil prices slipped on Tuesday as data showed crude output rose in most major export regions despite plans by OPEC and Russia to cut production, triggering fears the fuel glut that has dogged markets for over two years might last well into 2017. Euro and global stocks hold Italy-related gains ahead of ECB LONDON (Reuters) - Wall Street's record run looked set for a pause on Tuesday as oil saw its first fall in five days and the euro held most of the wild three-cent gains it had seen in the wake of Italy's referendum. Exclusive: McDonald's to keep up to 25 percent stake in China, HK stores - source HONG KONG (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp is looking to raise $1 billion to $2 billion with the sale of its China and Hong Kong stores after the U.S. fast-food chain decided to keep "a significant minority stake in the business," a person with direct knowledge of the plans said on Tuesday. Chipotle to make announcement about board changes 'shortly' LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc expects to make an announcement shortly about a new slate of board members, Steve Ells, the burrito chain's co-chief executive, said at an investor conference on Tuesday. Oil firms and carmakers diverge in costly debate LONDON (Reuters) - Many carmakers are predicting a significant shift to electric vehicles in the next decade. Advances in battery technology and the growth of autonomous driving and ride sharing - suited to electric vehicles - will power this expansion, they reason. Top Actelion shareholder says backs J&J deal above 246 Sfr/share LONDON (Reuters) - A top-30 investor in Swiss pharmaceutical company Actelion said he would back a takeover approach for the whole company from U.S. rival Johnson & Johnson above 246 Swiss francs. Janus' Gross sees Trump trade view hurting long-term stock prices NEW YORK (Reuters) - One of the world's most prominent investors, Bill Gross, predicted an end to the post-election stock rally, saying that Donald Trump's anti-globalization policies would restrict trade and reduce corporate profits over the long term. Verizon to sell data centers to Equinix for $3.6 billion (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc , the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier, is selling 29 data centers to Equinix Inc for $3.6 billion, as the telecom giant focuses on its core business. Exclusive: Novartis in talks to sell some central nervous system drugs - sources ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis is in talks about the sale of some older neuroscience drugs, people close to the matter said, as the Swiss drugmaker clears the decks to concentrate on promising new medicines it hopes will help to restore sales growth. Related Video Renzi delays resignation Dow hits new record high Counterparties is a curated snapshot of the best finance news and commentary around the web. Register Today News you can use with actionable, timely advice for managing your financial life, including retirement, taxes, real estate, education and more. Register Today » » MORE NEWSLETTERS - 3 Times Square New York, NY 10036 USA © Copyright 2016 Thomson Reuters Ensure delivery of Reuters Newsmails, add newsletters@email.reuters.com to your address book. Subscribe to other Reuters newsletters. Unsubscribe from this newsletter. Follow us on Twitter Friend us on Facebook

Quasar Light Confirms Consistency Of Electromagnetism Over 8 Billion Years

Matt Williams द्वारा Back in November, a team of researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Cambridge published some very interesting findings about a galaxy located about 8 billion light years away. Using the La Silla Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT), they examined the light coming from the supermassive black hole(SMBH) at its center. In so doing, they were able to determine that the electromagnetic energy coming from this distant galaxy was the same as what we observe here in the Milky Way. This showed that a fundamental force of the Universe (electromagnetism) is constant over time. And on Monday, Dec. 4th, the ESO followed-up on this historic find by releasing the color spectrum readings of this distant galaxy - known as HE 0940-1050. To recap, most large galaxies in the Universe have SMBHs at their center. These huge black holes are known for consuming the matter that orbits all around them, expelling tremendous amounts of radio, microwave, infrared, optical, ultra-violet (UV), X-ray and gamma ray energy in the process. Because of this, they are some of the brightest objects in the known Universe, and are visible even from billions of light years away. Artist’s interpretation of ULAS J1120+0641, a very distant quasar. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser But because of their distance, the energy which they emit has to pass through the intergalactic medium, where it comes into contact with incredible amount of matter. While most of this consists of hydrogen and helium, there are trace amounts of other elements as well. These absorb much of the light that travels between distant galaxies and us, and the absorption lines this creates can tell us of lot about the kinds of elements that are out there. At the same time, studying the absorption lines produced by light passing through space can tell us how much light was removed from the original quasar spectrum. Using the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) instrument aboard the VLT, the Swinburg and Cambridge team were able to do just that, thus sneaking a peak at the "fingerprints of the early Universe". What they found was that the energy coming from HE 0940-1050 was very similar to that observed in the Milky Way galaxy. Basically, they obtained proof that electromagnetic energy is consistent over time, something which was previously a mystery to scientists. As they state in their study, which was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: "The Standard Model of particle physics is incomplete because it cannot explain the values of fundamental constants, or predict their dependence on parameters such as time and space. Therefore, without a theory that is able to properly explain these numbers, their constancy can only be probed by measuring them in different places, times and conditions. Furthermore, many theories which attempt to unify gravity with the other three forces of nature invoke fundamental constants that are varying." A laser beam launched from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. Credit: ESO Since it is 8 billion light years away, and its strong intervening metal-absorption-line system, probing the electromagnetic spectrum being put out by HE 0940-1050 central quasar - not to mention the ability to correct for all the light that was absorbed by the intervening intergalactic medium - provided a unique opportunity to precisely measure how this fundamental force can vary over a very long period of time. On top of that, the spectral information they obtained happened to be of the highest quality ever observed from a quasar. As they further indicated in their study: "The largest systematic error in all (but one) previous similar measurements, including the large samples, was long-range distortions in the wavelength calibration. These would add a ?2 ppm systematic error to our measurement and up to ?10 ppm to other measurements using Mg and Fe transitions." However, the team corrected for this by comparing the UVES spectra to well-calibrated spectra obtained  from the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) -  which is also located at the at the La Silla Observatory. By combining these readings, they were left with a residual systematic uncertainty of just 0.59 ppm, the lowest margin of error from any spectrographic survey to date. High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher at the ESO La Silla 3.6m telescope. Credit: ESO This is exciting news, and for more reasons that one. On the one hand, precise measurements of distant galaxies allow us to test some of the most tricky aspects of our current cosmological models. On the other, determining that electromagnetism behaves in a consistent way over time is a major find, largely because it is responsible for such much of what goes on in our daily lives. But perhaps most importantly of all, understanding how a fundamental force like electromagnetism behaves across time and space is intrinsic to finding out how it - as well as weak and strong nuclear force - unifies with gravity. This too has been a preoccupation of scientists, who are still at a loss when it comes to explaining how the laws governing particles interactions (i.e. quantum theory) unify with explanations of how gravity works (i.e general relativity). By finding measurements of how these forces operate that are not varying could help in creating a working Grand Unifying Theory (GUT). One step closer to truly understanding how the Universe works! Further Reading: ESO