The anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence is a conjecture in theoretical physics that relates two kinds of physical theories. On one side of the correspondence are conformal field theories, including theories similar to the Yang–Mills theories that describe elementary particles. On the other side of the correspondence are anti-de Sitter spaces (cross section depicted), which are used in theories of quantum gravity, formulated in terms of string theory or M-theory. Proposed by Juan Maldacena in late 1997, the AdS/CFT correspondence represents a major advance in our understanding of string theory and quantum gravity. This is because it provides a non-perturbative formulation of string theory and because it is the most successful realization of the holographic principle, an idea in quantum gravity originally proposed by Gerard 't Hooft. In addition, it provides a powerful toolkit for studying strongly coupled quantum field theories and has been used to study many aspects of nuclear and condensed matter physics by translating problems in those subjects into more mathematically tractable problems in string theory. (Full article...)

Recently featured: Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi – Law school of Beirut – Ambohimanga

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that Rogier van der Weyden's polyptych painting The Last Judgment (detail pictured), commissioned for the Hospices de Beaune, was intended to both comfort and warn the dying?
• ... that English football presenter Darren Tulett – "the Austin Powers of French television" – is almost unknown in England?
• ... that it is unknown whether the dinosaur Nankangia was carnivorous or herbivorous?
• ... that the University of Wisconsin–Madison has a tradition of encouraging "that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found"?
• ... that Lord Chunshen, a nobleman who was assassinated in 238 BC, is the source of Shanghai's nickname "Shencheng", the city of Shen?
• ... that, in 2009, Los Angeles police detectives investigating a 23-year-old murder found that the killer was a fellow detective?
• ... that the pupae and larvae of the ant Formica pallidefulva may be stolen from the nest during a raid by slave-making ants?

• The World Trade Organization unanimously adopts the Bali Package, aimed at liberalizing world trade.
• Former President of South Africa and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela (pictured) dies at the age of 95.
• The United Nations Security Council passes resolution 2127, creating MISCA in response to civil conflict in the Central African Republic.
• China's first lunar rover mission, Chang'e 3, launches successfully.
• Clashes between anti-government protesters and government supporters leave four people dead and fifty-seven injured in Bangkok.

Recent deaths: Paul Walker – Tabu Ley Rochereau

December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Roman Catholic Church); Bodhi Day in Japan

• 1854 – In his apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX (pictured) proclaimed the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was conceived free of original sin.
• 1941 – The Holocaust: The Chełmno extermination camp in occupied Poland, the first such Nazi camp to kill the Jews of the Ghetto Litzmannstadt and the Warthegau by poison gas, began operating.
• 1963 – After being hit by a lightning strike while in a holding pattern, Pan Am Flight 214 crashed near Elkton, Maryland, US, killing all 81 people on board.
• 1987 – Arab–Israeli conflict: An Israeli army tank transporter killed four Palestinian refugees and injured seven others during a traffic accident at the Erez Crossing on the Israel–Gaza Strip border, sparking the First Intifada.
• 2009 – Bombings carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq in Baghdad, Iraq, killed 127 and injured 448.

More anniversaries: December 7 – December 8 – December 9