The Queen of Sciences...

Discover Magazine

1 The median score for college-bound seniors on the math section of the SAT in 2011 is about 510 out of 800. So right there is proof that there are lots of unsolved math problems.

2 The great 19th-century mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss called his field “the queen of sciences.”

3 If math is a queen, she’s the White Queen from Alice in Wonderland, who bragged that she believed “as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” (No surprise that Lewis Carroll also wrote about plane algebraic geometry.)

4 For example, the Navier-Stokes equations are used all the time to approximate turbulent fluid flows around aircraft and in the bloodstream, but the math behind them still isn’t understood.

5 And the oddest bits of math often turn out to be useful. Quaternions, which can describe the rotation of 3-D objects, were discovered in 1843. They were considered beautiful but useless until 1985, when computer scientists applied them to rendering digital animation.

My favorite Calculus problem:

More at the link below:

Discover Magazine: 20 Things You Didn't Know About...Math

R-E-S-P-E-C-T...

PhDComicsdotcom

EURODOC: Recognising doctoral candidates as professional employees rather than students is one way of doing this. At the moment, only Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands give those working towards a PhD in Europe this status. For PhD candidates in these countries, their employee status benefits both them and their employer. The employee gets job benefits such as social security rights, access to personnel health care and internal internet systems (one candidate on a short term contractor we spoke to was not able to access the intranet because she was not a proper employee) while the employer gets a more productive and involved employee, who has a stake in the successful performance of the research institution. Treating PhDs as equals from the get-go means that further down the line, these highly motivated employees should be more likely to continue in research.

I'm sure postdocs with school bills would agree!

New Scientist Big Wide World: Make PhDs employees not students

NOT Angry Birds...

SCIENCE MAG: The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research are investing millions of dollars into so-called micro air vehicles and nano air vehicles, as well as basic research into how birds and insects fly. While the theory of airflow over a flapping wing remains surprisingly rudimentary, humans are now making significant progress in understanding how to fly, control, and land flapping-wing aircraft.

Snow Flake Physics...

A MULTIFACETED PROBLEM: Realistically simulating the growth of snowflakes has proved a huge challenge. Above, two examples of faceted snowflake structures.
Image: Barrett/Garcke/Nürnberg

Scientists as far back as Johannes Kepler have pondered the mystery of snowflakes: Their formation requires subtle physics that to this day is not well understood. Even a small change in temperature or humidity can radically alter the shape and size of a snowflake, making it notoriously difficult to model these ice crystals on a computer. But after a flurry of attempts by several scientists, a team of mathematicians has for the first time succeeded in simulating a panoply of snowflake shapes using basic conservation laws, such as preserving the number of water molecules in the air.

Kind of late for this article, but it was a very mild winter in the northeast. To next winter:

1000 Awesome Things

Scientific American: Snowflake Growth Successfully Modeled from Physical Laws

So Free...

Trimming uncertainty. Results of climate simulations that best match observations since 1960 (those depicted in darker shades of blue) suggest that global average temperature in 2050 will be between 1.4°C and 3°C warmer than the global average measured between 1961 and 1990.

Credit: D. J. Rowlands et al., Nature Geoscience, Advanced Online Publication (25 March)

By 2050, global average temperature could be between 1.4°C and 3°C warmer than it was just a couple of decades ago, according to a new study that seeks to address the largest sources of uncertainty in current climate models. That's substantially higher than estimates produced by other climate analyses, suggesting that Earth's climate could warm much more quickly than previously thought.

Many factors affect global and regional climate, including planet-warming "greenhouse" gases, solar activity, light-scattering atmospheric pollutants, and heat transfer among the land, sea, and air, to name just a few. There are so many influences to consider that it makes determining the effect of any one factor—despite years and sometimes decades of measurements—difficult.

The Internet as we know it: started as a project by the so-called, forewarned "military-industrial-complex" (DARPA). Think of a wagon wheel: most military communications for command, control, communications and countermeasures (C³CM*) had the headquarters element in the center, and/or two hours rear of the "forward edge of the battle area" (FEBA). Hence, we and the Soviets had a "hub-spoke" wagon wheel configuration to our [then] C³CM, thus finding out where ours or the Soviet's HQ was was a matter of espionage; nuking it out of existence presented...problems.

Away with hub-spoke! DARPA's solution was a "spider's web" where destroying one base had nothing to do with your overall communications. There would be an alternate route to get word to your battle field elements; you'd never be "radio silent" i.e. without communication. It started quite humble: big, bulky (and, ugly) Zenith computers on puke-green screens with the equivalent communication of what teens now do with their thumbs almost at a whim - texting. This, along with FORTRAN on key punched, computer index cards that you had to have in the right order, or you'd just be starting over (ugh - you can tell this used to be the source of engineering nightmares), I'm glad it is a part of our distant history.

The first commercial user sold to the public was Netscape as a browser, soon followed by AOL (yes, people still use it), followed by others...

Judging from the commentary at the foot of the article, the science is once again "poo-poohed" by loud opinions to the contrary. That will be picked up and broadcast as the "doubt" as in evolution in the classroom "teaching the controversy."

Senior Master Sergeant Roland S. Wilkins was one of my AFJROTC instructors at North Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem, NC. He was fond of a quote that at the time many of us couldn't quite understand. It's clearer now in the age of the Internet, blogs, tweets and sound bites cum "news":

"We're going to become 'so free,' we're not going to be able to do anything."

* Now: Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence - C⁴I.

AAAS Science Mag: Earth Warming Faster Than Expected

I AM...

I’ve posted on this elsewhere: “Old Tapes”; “BWB”; “Self-Portrait.” I’ve changed my Facebook profile photo to Trayvon, and spoken with my sons. Let me explain:

In “Old Tapes,” I revisited an incident in which I was forcibly frisked by a store detective. He didn’t care if I had a microscope, a telescope, a tool kit, a chemistry set at home, physics and science books nor did he ask if I had a complete set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. No, I was a suspect for shoplifting for merely combing my hair: guilty until proven innocent. “BWB” was an admittedly emotional response directly to the absurdity of a teenager losing his life over his dress, an iced tea and skittles; “Self-Portrait” was written earlier, but reflected the same concerns.

In Nanos Gigantium Humeris Insidentes, I did describe my background a bit, but not so the photo. I became Brigade Commander of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools '79 - 80 on the negative answer to what I thought was a rhetorical question to the Commander for the ’76-77 school year: “what would it take for someone to rise to your rank?” His answer was specifically addressed (to my ethnicity and potential): “Your kind will NEVER get to this rank!” (Never) say never: the complete irony was he went in an enlisted, I an Air Force officer. We saw each other on active duty at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas. He had a Constitutional obligation to salute me.

Women and men of a certain age in my culture can trace back to when we lived in humble conditions on a segregated side of of our respective towns, I recall numerous times when the sight of drug dealers and runners; switch blades, kitchen hatchets (both directed at me) or guns threatened our lives. Despite these challenges, many of us went to college – HBCUs, Ivy League, Graduate Schools – and attained degrees for a better life. Our parents, and leaders of the Civil Rights movement (like my sister) inspired us to do this.

Tony Morrison said: "In this country American means white. Everyone else has to hyphenate." So, I am classed as African-American because Negro/Black wasn’t definitive enough for Malcolm X. As he went on his own pilgrimage of self-discovery to Mecca, he coined “Afro American,” founding the Organization of Afro American Unity (dissolved after his assassination). Reverend Jesse Jackson is credited as the source of “African-American,” since as a fellow engineering student from A and T pointed out: “there’s no such country as ‘Afro.’” And to be sure: Africa is a continent of 53 different nationalities, as diverse as this nation in cultures and ethnicity.

Yet, all this effort towards equity, to “pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps,” we as our parents must have “the talk” with our male sons, how to behave in public, how to talk to the police if stopped, how not to appear “a threat.” Yet, I still get quick looks when I get on an elevator, shifted purses, I must put others at ease; apologize when professionally embarrassed in email. Guilty until [I've] proven [myself] innocent...

I AM: the father of two statistics: The risk of dying from homicide among non-Hispanic black male teenagers (39.2 per 100,000 population) is more than twice that of Hispanic males (17.1 per 100,000 population) (Figure 4) and about 15 times that of non-Hispanic white males (2.6 per 100,000 population); at current levels of incarceration a black male in the United States today has greater than a 1 in 4 chance of going to prison during his lifetime, while a Hispanic male has a 1 in 6 chance and a white male has a 1 in 23 chance of serving time. That has nothing to do with their locale (suburbs); nothing to do with my education, their education or career choices. It is the aftermath of what historians tastefully describe as “the peculiar institution,” of the antebellum South, as with South Africa’s Apartheid, based on pigmentation, its wages and legacy. What happened to Trayvon is the unspoken nightmare; the uttered prayer each night, Psalms and Glossolalia. We do not have the luxury, or security to be blithely skeptic or agnostic. The slaughter of male children by Pharaoh and Herod are not biblical illustrations, but an evidential, everyday concern.

All I ask, all WE ask: is to be considered not as a threat, but for our potential.

Related links:

BlackAmericaWeb
TheGrio
TheRoot

Bottoms Up!...

The story goes: Donald A. Glaser developed the idea for the bubble chamber - a means of tracking atomic particles (alpha, mu mesons) staring at a bottle of beer. Or, er several bottles of beer at the University of Michigan Student Union. If you're looking for the physicists... He mentions beer as well as Ginger Ale and soda (I guess he was "designated driver") in his Nobel Prize speech.

Now...it appears Beaujolais helps with superconductivity. Looks like they had several trials...

And, you thought physics was boring? Remember, soda for the DD's.

Physics arXiv: Red Wine, Tartaric Acid, and the Secret of Superconductivity

Edison's Last Jam...

Good Technology

la vengeance se mange très-bien froide, or "revenge is very good eaten cold." Khan Noonian Singh in Wrath of Khan quotes "revenge is a dish best served cold," is alas not from the Klingons, but the 1841 French novel Mathilde by Marie Joseph Eugène Sue (Wikipedia)

In the late 19th century, two competing electricity systems jostled for dominance in electric power distribution in the United States and much of the industrialized world. Alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) were both used to power devices like motors and light bulbs, but they were not interchangeable.

A battle for the grid emerged from the Apple and Microsoft of the Gilded Age. Thomas Edison, who invented many devices that used DC power, developed the first power transmission systems using this standard. Meanwhile, AC was pushed by George Westinghouse and several European companies that used Nikola Tesla's inventions to step up current to higher voltages, making it easier to transmit power over long distances using thinner and cheaper wires.

The rivalry was fraught with acrimony and publicity stunts -- like Edison electrocuting an elephant to show AC was dangerous -- but AC eventually won out as the standard for transmission, reigning for more than a century.

When we visited the Architectural Engineering Department at North Carolina A and T, Dr. Singh (absolutely no relation to Ricardo Montaban's fictional character, but an interesting aside), spoke to my son of "off-grid" buildings, self-sufficient and generating their own power. I see this as a part of the effort towards energy independency.

However, It is my sincerely hope that no elephant is injured in this latest incarnation of DC power.

Scientific American: Edison's Revenge - Will DC Make a Comeback in the US?

Real-Life ESPER...

Technovelgydotcom

The ESPER machine in the Sci-Fi Blade Runner allowed bounty hunter Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) to see around corners in search of his prey (replicants). Dutiful as we Sci-Fi fans tend to be, we suspend belief subconsciously to both enjoy the movie and help the plot along.

Until.

Bats, whales and dolphins (and, some very adept humans) use a sonar form of this: echolocation, where most likely, the sonar images are not exact or precise, but each group has enough experience to know friend from foe.

Gizmag: MIT researchers create camera that can see around corners

Nanopower and MEMS...

NIST Photo

In our bodies, an electrolyte "any substance containing free ions that make the substance electrically conductive." (Wikipedia) Our muscles and neurons respond to this when we replenish it with a solution that has a salt like sodium, potassium, calcuim, magnesium (ibid). It made the University of Florida famous (Gatorade), and most likely quite wealthy.

It turns out you can be too thin—especially if you’re a nanoscale battery. Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the University of Maryland, College Park, and Sandia National Laboratories built a series of nanowire batteries to demonstrate that the thickness of the electrolyte layer can dramatically affect the performance of the battery, effectively setting a lower limit to the size of the tiny power sources.* The results are important because battery size and performance are key to the development of autonomous MEMS—microelectromechanical machines—which have potentially revolutionary applications in a wide range of fields.

NIST Tech Beat: Nanopower: Avoiding Electrolyte Failure in Nanoscale Lithum Batteries

One-Minute Physics...

Starts With a Bang!

"Designer" Graphene...

Ars Technica - link below

A new experiment involving a graphene-like material has shown that it's possible to perform some spectacular manipulations of the properties of these quasiparticles. The work is described in a Nature letter by Kenjiro Gomes, Warren Mar, Wonhee Ko, Francisco Guinea, and Hari C. Manoharan. The team arranged carbon monoxide molecules to form the same hexagonal pattern found in graphene, except that they could change the spacing slightly.

This produced an environment where the material's electrons behave remarkably like relativistic particles, with a "speed of light" that they can adjust. Additionally, the researchers could change the spacing between molecules in a way that the masses of the quasiparticles changed, or cause them to behave as though they are interacting with electric and magnetic fields—without actually applying those fields to the material. This setup will potentially help us explore new physics that may arise in these environments.

Wikipedia: Higgs mechanism
Ars Technica: Researchers mimic relativity and the Higgs field in graphene-like material

Ouch!...

Full report here

At a panel discussion at the conference, a number of scientists and science policymakers said these poll figures reveal a startling degree of public skepticism toward the United States's ability to compete globally in scientific research. They blamed the public's perception of the United States as a dwindling science powerhouse on a lack of long-term thinking by lawmakers tasked with funding national science endeavors. While China and the European Union have taken steps to increase their research budgets, the United States more recently has struggled to keep its research budget from declining...

No sooner than yesterday's posting. I thought to scale back my comments. I'm glad I didn't!

To be fair and elucidate: the chart above and a the link below the picture seems at first glance we're OK having the proverbial "biggest piece of the pie." Adding all the other parts, it merely says collectively there is skepticism regarding our collective ability to do anything of significance or visionary leadership. A collective sigh; a national shoulder-shrug.

Cosmological Age, Evolution, Global Warming: we've become a sound-bite culture where journalism is meaningless, coreligionist rather than reasoned or rational, more concerned with scoring political points than solving critical problems: and jingoism is not patriotism! It makes Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" and "Parable of the Talents" almost prophetic.

Prophecy, nor predictive models have to be destiny: it only occurs when either go unheeded.

AAAS Science Mag - Poll: Many U.S. Voters Have Gloomy View of America's Science Future

No Scientists Need Apply?...

John Paulos is a Mathematics Professor at Temple University. Writing in the New York Times:

NYT Photo

I’ve visited Singapore a few times in recent years and been impressed with its wealth and modernity. I was also quite aware of its world-leading programs in mathematics education and naturally noted that one of the candidates for president was Tony Tan, who has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics. Tan won the very close election and joined the government of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who also has a degree in mathematics.

China has even more scientists in key positions in the government. President Hu Jintao was trained as a hydraulic engineer and Premier Wen Jiabao as a geomechanical engineer. In fact, eight out of the nine top government officials in China have scientific backgrounds. There is a scattering of scientist-politicians in high government positions in other countries as well. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has a doctorate in physical chemistry, and, going back a bit, Margaret Thatcher earned a degree in chemistry.

I personally think it's a matter of motivation. For example, Einstein refused the position of Israel's second president. It's kind of in the "nerd blood," with the notable NYT article exceptions.

Usually, politics is not seen as a "STEM Career," so many don't even think to pursue such a path beyond the lab/fab. Dealing with a circuit/test tube/sample is far simpler than saying the right sound-bite-tested phrase for the cameras. It's quieter than a political rally.

It's also my observation that politicans have "emotional intelligence," meaning they can "move a crowd," a skill they need if they want to maintain a job. A skill unnecessary in a laboratory. Tech types tend to be self-motivated.

From Wikipedia: The term technocracy was originally used to designate the application of the scientific method to solving social problems, in counter distinction to the traditional economic, political or philosophic approaches. According to the proponents of this concept, the role of money and economic values, political opinions, and moralistic control mechanisms would be eliminated altogether if and when this form of social control should ever be implemented in a continental area endowed with enough natural resources, technically trained personnel, and installed industrial equipment so as to allow for the production and distribution of physical goods and services to all continental citizens in an amount exceeding the individuals' physical ability to consume.

This would, unfortunately create a new "class" of being that only specialized knowledge would allow the ascendancy to the governing body. Since it would only require a select few, much as our current system of governance, it would become quite evident that the shift of power would favor one group (s) over others. The world does not work like Star Trek, or Vulcan. Our baser instincts would prevail. (Besides, it ultimately didn't work so well on the fictional home of Superman - they, er... blew up.)

However, the current pandering to focus groups and "the base" needs to cease. Our leaders need SOME appreciation of science for clear decision-making, else they will model an anti-intellectualism that will soon become the "new normal," one we will not recover from...for maybe a generation.

New York Times: Why Don't Americans Elect Scientists?

ET Don't Phone?...



Screeneddotcom



Star Trek made us fawn over Vulcans; loath Klingons (who in a wierd Worf way, turned out to be cool), and Romulans (not-so-much).

ET gave us the cute beneficent alien, we didn't get a whole lot of tech from him/her, but a good feeling after seeing him/her with a young, screaming Drew Barrymore; we rooted for ET when we thought its life force left.

SETI has three links on this blog page: each starts with, er "SETI" on "Cool Physics Links." However, with the current political climate of "other-ness," my predictions are gloomy, but succinct:

- gun sales would increase along with survivalists and militias;

- a new invective -- like "Slag" in Alien Nation -- would be invented;

- the new-new concern would be inter species marriages;

- Ragnorok, End-Time, Mayan Prophecies et al would become prominent immediately.

I'm watching a lot of episodes on Science Channel on the subject: "Are We Alone"; "Alien Encounters." It's in the nerd Zeitgeist (a very small fraction of said Zeitgeist, mind you).

An interesting paper is making its way across the net asking if "first contact" will help or harm humanity: Acta Astronautica. I'm reminded of the Twilight Zone episode: "To Serve Man."

I think sadly, we only have ourselves as reference, and how we evolved as the top of the predatory scale, similar to H.G. Wells' recollection of Britain's foray into Australia inspiring War of the Worlds. A feeling of universal reciprocity; "karma" that we would reap the whirlwind: what we've collectively sown in the winds of time...with one another.

Quantum Cognition...

Quantum Biology

The aim of [quantum cognition] is to use quantum theory to develop radically new models of a variety of cognitive phenomena ranging from human memory to decision making. Although speculative, this research is gaining momentum. For instance, later this year, the highly regarded Journal of Mathematical Psychology will publish a special issue of quantum models of cognition. In addition, quantum cognition is a prominent theme within the Quantum Interaction Symposia, which provide a forum for a growing body of researchers applying quantum theory to non-quantum domains.

I recall a reporter interviewing me for a fitness magazine (I owned a martial arts studio at the time) describing themselves as "mental." Explains a lot...

This kind of lends to either a step towards quantum computing, or the "woo woo" physics I blogged on earlier. Although: Paris in June sounds nice (see Symposia link above).

PhysOrgdotcom:

Scientists Model Words as Entangled Quantum States in our Minds

Physics arXiv links:

Entangled Quantum States In A Local Deterministic Theory

Extracting Spooky-activation-at-a-distance from Considerations of Entanglement

Graphene Battery...

Researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic University claim to have invented a new kind of graphene-based "battery" that runs solely on ambient heat. The device is said to capture the thermal energy of ions in a solution and convert it into electricity. The results are in the process of being peer reviewed, but if confirmed, such a device might find use in a range of applications, including powering artificial organs from body heat, generating renewable energy and powering electronics.

Hope...for my laptop!

Physics World: Graphene in new 'battery' breakthrough?
Physics arXiv:
Self-Charged Graphene Battery Harvests Electricity from Thermal Energy of the Environment
Zihan Xu1^†*, Guoan Tai1,^3†, Yungang Zhou², Fei Gao², Kim Hung Wong¹

SST...

Since its launch in July 1986, Semiconductor Science and Technology (SST) has grown to become one of the leading international journals on semiconductor physics. This year marks the 25th anniversary and to celebrate, we highlight some of the top contributions in this time and chart the progress of this effervescent field.

Introduced to fulfill the needs of the semiconductor physics community whose research was becoming more applied, SST has gone from strength-to-strength over the years under the leadership of its eminent Editors-in-Chief, Tony Stradling, Erich Gornik, Gareth Parry and Laurens Molenkamp.

With the field of semiconductor physics continuing to explode with exciting new research areas—driven by talented researchers—the future of SST looks very bright.

This is something I enjoyed reading at the technical library in Austin in the analog/magazine days.

This site has PDF reports you can download and read at your leisure. It's a good resource for your curiosity, and how/where you can see contributing to the acumen and intellectual conversation if you work/publish/study in the field.

IOP Science: Semiconductor Science and Technology

"Heat" Pump...

LED

A light-emitting diode (LED) that emits more light energy than it consumes in electrical energy has been unveiled by researchers in the US. The device – which has a conventional efficiency of greater than 200% – behaves as a kind of optical heat pump that converts lattice vibrations into infrared photons, cooling its surroundings in the process. The possibility of such a device was first predicted in 1957, but a practical version had proved impossible to create until now. Potential applications of the phenomenon include energy-efficient lighting and cryogenic refrigeration.

Physics World: LED converts heat into light

KSTAR...

National Fusion Research Institute Image

KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research), the most recently built among global tokamak facilities, is a superconducting tokamak facility developed in Korea with the purposes of 'long-term fusion plasma operation' and 'acquisition of controlling technology,' which are tasks that must be solved in order to commercialize fusion energy. To be operated as an international joint research facility for fusion, KSTAR is expected to take the role of performing preceding research using pilot devices during the construction phase of ITER and the role as a satellite during the operation phase of ITER as the first tokamak facility in the world developed using the same superconducting material as ITER, Nb3Sn, and as a hub for the global fusion research.

The primary element for fusion is Deuterium, found in sea water.

It could literally power the planet for millions of years, relieve our global dependency on fossil fuels.

The engineering problem of all time: create a sun on Earth, and control it.

National Fusion Research Institute: KSTAR

Odds Are Good...

The J-Walk Blog

This, is our fork in the road
Love's last episode
There's nowhere to go, oh no

You made your choice, now it's up to me
To bow out gracefully
Though you hold the key, but baby

Whenever you call me, I'll be there
Whenever you want me, I'll be there
Whenever you need me, I'll be there
I'll be around

I, knew just what to say
Now I found out today
That all the words had slipped away, but I know

There's always a chance
A tiny spark remains, yeah
And sparks turn into flames
And love can burn once again, but I know you know

Whenever you call me, I'll be there
Whenever you want me, I'll be there
Whenever you need me, I'll be there
I'll be around...yeah

Whenever you call me, I'll be there
Whenever you want me, I'll be there
Even if I have to call, I'll be there
I'll be around

Just call me at home, I'll be there
I'll never leave you alone, I'll be there
Just call out your name you know I know you know
I'll be around

Spinners,
"I'll Be Around"

TEC...

Topological qubits imagined as lanterns

An international team of physicists is the first to implement in the lab an important "error correction" technique that could play a vital role in the development of practical quantum computers. Known as topological error correction (TEC), the technique is based on "clusters" that each contain eight highly entangled photons. These clusters are useful for this purpose because a measurement on one photon does not destroy the entire entangled state.

The multiparticle cluster state at the centre of the current work was first proposed in 2001 by Robert Raussendorf and Hans Briegel, who were then at the University of Munich. Now at the University of British Columbia in Canada, Raussendorf is also involved in this latest research. Such a cluster could be used to perform "one-way" quantum computing, in which the states of individual particles are measured in a specific sequence so that the quantum state of the remaining particles gives the result of the computation.

Physics World: Topological quantum computing moves closer

"Spukhafte Fernwirkung..."

"Spooky action at a distance" - Einstein

Artist's view of a single molecule sending a stream of single photons to a second molecule at a distance, in quantum analogy to the radio communication between two stations. Image: Robert Lettow

In the past 20 years scientists have shown that single molecules can be detected and single photons can be generated. However, excitation of a molecule with a photon had remained elusive because the probability that a molecule sees and absorbs a photon is very small. As a result, billions of photons per second are usually impinged on a molecule to obtain a signal from it. One common way to get around this difficulty in atomic physics has been to build a cavity around the atom so that a photon remains trapped for long enough times to yield a favorable interaction probability. Scientists at ETH Zürich and Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen have now shown that one can even interact a flying photon with a single molecule.

The results of the study published in Physical Review Letters provide the first example of long-distance communication between two quantum optical antennas in analogy to the 19th century experiments of Hertz and Marconi with radio antennas. In those early efforts, dipolar oscillators were used as transmitting and receiving antennas. In the current experiment, two single molecules mimic that scenario at optical frequencies and via a nonclassical optical channel, namely a single-photon stream. This opens many doors for further exciting experiments in which single photons act as carriers of quantum information to be processed by single emitters.

Research and Development: Two molecules communicate via single photons

Physics Apps and Caveats...

It's simply called the New Apple iPad. According to Technabob.com, it uses "a new chip called the A5X, a quad-core CPU/GPU designed to run significantly faster than the existing A5 CPU." That means definition, on the order of "2048×1536, or a total of 3.1 million pixels at a density of 264 pixels per inch."

Be that as it may: Technology Review lists the 800-lb Caveat Emptor in the room - gigabyte downloads.

The world may clearly not be like Star Trek, but it has been influenced by it:


TheFlickCastdotcom



"Hacking a Loogie"...

Eh: that's how CNN described it, as in "hacking a loogie" at the Earth (I know we're made of "star stuff," but that's taking the analogy a bit far):

A Change in BMI?...

Dr Ian Robinson with the NPL watt balance

NPL (National Physical Laboratory) has produced technology capable of accurate measurements of Planck's constant, which is a significant step towards changing the international definition of the kilogram – currently based on a lump of platinum-iridium metal kept in Paris, France.

I doubt it will change our BMI, but "hope springs eternal"...

NPL: One step closer to a new kilogram

Closer to MORE than Moore...

1st Single Atom Transistor - University of New South Wales

...8 years earlier than predicted!

Physicists at Purdue University and the University of New South Wales have built a transistor from a single atom of phosphorous precisely placed on a bed of silicon, taking another step towards the holy grail of tech research: the quantum computer.

Revealed on Sunday in the academic journal Nature Nanotechnology, the research is part of a decade-long effort at the University of New South Wales to deliver a quantum computer — a machine that would use the seemingly magical properties of very small particles to instantly perform calculations beyond the scope of today’s classical computers.

...the New South Wales team — lead by professor Michelle Simmons — advanced the cause by demonstrating that Ohm’s Law of electrical resistivity extends to the world of very small particles, and now, together with Gerhard Klimeck and his team at Purdue, they’ve made a more significant breakthrough by placing a single-atom transistor exactly where they want to place it.

Wired: Physicists Foretell Quantum Computer With Single-Atom Transistor

10 African Tech Voices to Follow on Twitter...

Maps of the World - Africa

Africa is quietly undergoing a tech revolution that could transform the continent. CNN's African Voices has highlighted 10 leading tech voices from different African countries. Each one comments on the role technology plays in boosting entrepreneurship and empowering communities in Africa.

CNN links:

African Voices

10 African tech voices to follow on Twitter

Beyond Bird's Eye View...

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF

"High Flight"

Conundrum...

Todd's Quantum Intro

I recently gave a lecture, screened on the BBC, about quantum theory, in which I pointed out that “everything is connected to everything else”. This is literally true if quantum theory as currently understood is not augmented by new physics. This means that the subatomic constituents of your body are constantly shifting, albeit absolutely imperceptibly, in response to events happening an arbitrarily large distance away; for the sake of argument, let’s say on the other side of the Universe.

This statement received some criticism in scientific circles. Not because it’s wrong, because it isn’t; without this behavior, we wouldn’t be able to explain the bonds that hold molecules together. The problem is that it sounds like woo woo, and quantum theory attracts woo-woo merde-merchants like the pronouncements of New Age mystics attract flies – metaphorically speaking.

This is an article that appears in the Wall Street Journal (link below) by Professor Brian Cox on how Quantum Mechanics can be so misunderstood. Of course, at the end of the article is the obligatory Amazon link to the book on the subject he co-authored.

I've run into a few physicists - in-person and online, that take a dim view of popular books on physics.

Largely, because science is a field of inquiry, so value is given to how you pursue said inquiry, and how many people reference your research in their inquiries (in the right technical journals by all the right people). Kind of incestuous, but essentially how it works. Nobel Prizes in the sciences are awarded for a lifetime of plodding along (in the right direction), and peer review.

Oddly, the conundrum is that popular books on science tend to sell better than free downloads on physics arXiv; also science fiction short stories that sometimes birth movies that nerds and graduate students motivated by common cause (and hormones) go pay money to see.

I agree that inspiring the wonder of science is what is needed now. We've become consumers and not anticipant producers. I've been criticized on this point before, that education is not so "utilitarian."

Science, however is primarily a way of thinking, of organizing one's thoughts around The Scientific Method towards problem-solving. Plays, opera, poetry, sermons, concerts: these things are also enjoyed by scientists as welcome respite from the lab, a break from the questions raised in the lab/fab to tackle problems refreshed; anew.

However, as a society, we are motivated by the entertainment-industrial-complex: all must be show biz - education, science, religious life, engineering, politics, governance or, it is not valued. "Walking Encyclopedia" is replaced by "Walking Google" in the lexicon, answers not instant ≠ value.

Pity [not] the Billionaire: but the researcher striving to strenghten her/his signal; in so much noise.

WSJ: Why Quantum Theory Is So Misunderstood

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