Speak Up. Keep Focused. Carry On...

MANY YOUNG SCIENTISTS ATTEND AAAS’ ANNUAL MEETINGS AND THE ONE HELD IN WASHINGTON, D.C. EARLIER THIS YEAR WAS NO DIFFERENT IN BEING A DRAW FOR EARLY-CAREER SCIENTISTS ACROSS SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES. | AAAS/ATLANTIC PHOTO

Topics: Commentary, Diversity, Physics, Politics, Research, Science

CEO Rush Holt was a congressional representative from New Jersey. Prior to that, he worked at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab as a researcher. In his capacity as congressman, he had been one of the few members of our government that had a background in a STEM field. As I said before, sadly and poignantly now there are none.

I thought it appropriate as an end-of-year post. It looks like Dr. Holt is trying to rally the troops (if you're reading this, "us"). Don't be discouraged; don't stop pursuing your dreams. Our love and pursuit of STEM - and I'll include STEAM for artists - is more important now than ever. The future of humanity may well depend upon it.

His encouraging words speak for themselves at the link below.

“If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.” Marcus Tullius Cicero

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." Unknown

In the wake of the presidential election, AAAS CEO Rush Holt acknowledged the concerns of young scientists and engineers in an op-ed calling on them to “Speak up, keep calm and carry on.”

Early-career scientists and engineers may be understandably apprehensive about change in Washington, particularly since “attention to science during the presidential campaign was neither appreciable nor appreciative,” wrote Holt for Motherboard. Still, he urged the next-generation of innovators not to despair.

“Science has faced challenges throughout history, from one administration to the next, but year in and year out it has led to human progress, enriching our culture by improving quality of life and human knowledge about our place in the universe,” Holt wrote.

AAAS CEO to Young Scientists: “Speak Up. Keep Focused. Carry On.”
Ginger Pinholster

2 of 2 blog breaks. I'll resume posting in the New Year on Monday, 2 January 2017.

Subatomic Motion Detector...

Images Sources: See link below

Topics: Atomic Force Microscopy, Nanotechnology, NEMS, NIST, Thin Films

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new device that measures the motion of super-tiny particles traversing distances almost unimaginably small—shorter than the diameter of a hydrogen atom, or less than one-millionth the width of a human hair. Not only can the handheld device sense the atomic-scale motion of its tiny parts with unprecedented precision, but the researchers have devised a method to mass produce the highly sensitive measuring tool.

It’s relatively easy to measure small movements of large objects but much more difficult when the moving parts are on the scale of nanometers, or billionths of a meter. The ability to accurately measure tiny displacements of microscopic bodies has applications in sensing trace amounts of hazardous biological or chemical agents, perfecting the movement of miniature robots, accurately deploying airbags and detecting extremely weak sound waves traveling through thin films.

NIST physicists Brian Roxworthy and Vladimir Aksyuk describe their work (link is external) in the Dec. 6, 2016, Nature Communications.

The researchers measured subatomic-scale motion in a gold nanoparticle. They did this by engineering a small air gap, about 15 nanometers in width, between the gold nanoparticle and a gold sheet. This gap is so small that laser light cannot penetrate it.

However, the light energized surface plasmons—the collective, wave-like motion of groups of electrons confined to travel along the boundary between the gold surface and the air.

The researchers exploited the light’s wavelength, the distance between successive peaks of the light wave. With the right choice of wavelength, or equivalently, its frequency, the laser light causes plasmons of a particular frequency to oscillate back and forth, or resonate, along the gap, like the reverberations of a plucked guitar string. Meanwhile, as the nanoparticle moves, it changes the width of the gap and, like tuning a guitar string, changes the frequency at which the plasmons resonate.

NIST Device for Detecting Subatomic-Scale Motion Has Potential Robotics, Homeland Security Applications
Ben Stein

Electrospinning...

A schematic diagram of a needleless twisted wire electrospinning setup showing the main components in the system. The polymer solution is fed to the top of twisted wire that acts as the spinneret. The fibers are collected on the cylindrical collector around the wire. Courtesy Nanotechnology

Topics: Materials Science, Metamaterials, Nanotechnology

Electrospinning works by ejecting liquid through a needle at the end of a cone. By applying an electric field, interaction between the charges in the liquid and the field provides the tensile force that would be exerted by spindles and reels in conventional spinning. Meanwhile the surface tension of the liquid – if it is sufficient – stops the ejected liquid breaking up into droplets. The result is long, extremely narrow fibres. While the textile industry has used the process since the 1930s, its potential for producing fibres with nanoscale diameters only came to light in the 1990s.

Like any other spun yarn, electrospun nanofibres can be woven, and the resulting nanoporous fabric can have huge advantages. Porous materials allow diffusion of molecules – useful for a number of applications, among them drug delivery. In 2006 Pattama Taepaiboon, Uracha Rungsardthong and Pitt Supaphol in Thailand were first to publish on the potential of electrospun hydrogel polymers for drug delivery through the skin. Their study of drug-loaded poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) electrospun mats not only showed that the chemical integrity of the drugs was unimpeded by electrospinning, but provided insights into the effect of drug solubility on the morphology of mat formed, as well as on the drug release characteristics. Ten years later use of electrospun mats for drug delivery remains a hot topic of research.

Nanotechweb: Electrospinning forms a common thread in new technologies Anna Demming

Quantum and Heat...

Image Source: Link Below

Topics: Bell's Theorem, Quantum Mechanics, Theoretical Physics, Thermodynamics

John Stewart Bell’s famous theorem is a statement about the nature of any theory whose predictions are compatible with those of quantum mechanics: If the theory is governed by hidden variables, unknown parameters that determine the results of measurements, it must also admit action at a distance. Now an international collaboration led by Adán Cabello has invoked a fundamental thermodynamics result, the Landauer erasure principle, to show that systems in hidden-variable theories must have an infinite memory to be compatible with quantum mechanics.

In quantum mechanics, measurements made at an experimenter’s whim cause a system to change its state; for a two-state electron system, for example, that change can be from spin up in the z-direction to spin down in the x-direction. Because of those changes, a system with hidden variables has to have a memory so that it knows how to respond to a series of measurements; if that memory is finite, it can serve only for a limited time. As an experimenter keeps making observations, the system must eventually update its memory, and according to the Landauer principle, the erasure of information associated with that update generates heat. (See the article by Eric Lutz and Sergio Ciliberto, Physics Today, September 2015, page 30.) In the electron example, if all spin measurements must be made along the x– or z-axis, each measurement dissipates a minimum amount of heat roughly equal to Boltzmann’s constant times the temperature. Cabello and colleagues show, however, that if an experimenter is free to make spin measurements anywhere in the xz-plane, the heat generated per measurement is unbounded—obviously, an unphysical result.

Physics Today: Thermodynamics constrains interpretations of quantum mechanics
Steven K. Blau

Federalist 68...

Alexander Hamilton: Portrait and Lin-Manuel Miranda

Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, Politics

I will let Mr. Hamilton speak for himself (excerpt from paragraphs 5 and 8)...

Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union? But the convention have guarded against all danger of this sort, with the most provident and judicious attention. They have not made the appointment of the President to depend on any preexisting bodies of men, who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment. And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office. No senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be of the numbers of the electors. Thus without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task free from any sinister bias. Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it. The business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a number of men, requires time as well as means. Nor would it be found easy suddenly to embark them, dispersed as they would be over thirteen States, in any combinations founded upon motives, which though they could not properly be denominated corrupt, might yet be of a nature to mislead them from their duty.

The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States. It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue. And this will be thought no inconsiderable recommendation of the Constitution, by those who are able to estimate the share which the executive in every government must necessarily have in its good or ill administration. Though we cannot acquiesce in the political heresy of the poet who says: "For forms of government let fools contest That which is best administered is best,'' yet we may safely pronounce, that the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.

Yale Law School: Federalist Papers: No. 68

Of Deer and Headlights...

Clean Technica: Tesla "Competitors Like Deer In The Headlights"

Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, Politics

Since it's the holiday season, I am dragged by my better half to two back-to-back parties.

Invariably, two things will happen without fail: 1) someone will ask me what I do; 2) I'll tell them. It's better to keep it simple: "I make the chips that go in your I-phone" or something like that. I usually get excited and go into way too much detail. It reminds me of the blank stares I got in the Air Force (of all places) when one of my fellow officers asked me about physics. If they're honest, they'll say something to the effect of "I don't understand a thing you just said" and laugh nervously, finding other conversations to their suit, or as I learned in the AF, I'll change the subject to sports.

Unfortunately in the instant, I have no idea when what I've answered is at all political.

In an off comment due to the cold weather (18 degrees at the time), someone quipped about "wanting global warming."

I commented that the physics is a little more complicated than that, and proceeded to explain it in a cursory fashion. I mentioned the surface area of the Arctic pole reflecting heat and light into space. I didn't go in much detail about the massive amount of peer reviewed research, and made what I thought was a humorous joke: "when we're the Sahara desert, we're (humans) kinda screwed."

Science despite its claim to dispassionate aloof distance is political, but it shouldn't necessarily be so. Belief and "purity" have become the zeitgeist; decades of conspiracy theory and the de-legitimization of expertise at all levels has affected our relationship with traditional forms of reliable information and what used to be called "truth, the whole truth and nothing BUT the truth."

It saddens me that in order to be civil, we must "tip-toe" and be sensitive to another's view.

But...what if your understanding is wrong? Should we allow incorrect understanding to fester until it becomes a belief system, usually impenetrable by quaint things like "facts"?

The world is a lot more complicated, and it's imperative that we as a species get a little more acumen in the massive technology that surrounds us.

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." Carl Sagan

The societal equivalent of choosing ignorance over information is illustrated above; the headlights being a future we're not prepared for, despite its inexorable coming. 

Quantum Ampere...

Figure 1: A simplified circuit diagram showing a quantum current source. The circuit connects a Josesphson voltage source (V_J, red) to a conventional resistor (R, orange) whose resistance can be expressed in terms of a quantum Hall resistance, producing a quantum current I_Q. This current is then fed into an amplifier (G, green) that increases the current by a gain factor G. The resistance of the connecting wires (r_lead) limits the accuracy of this simplified approach. [Credit: APS/Alan Stonebraker]

Topics: Electrical Engineering, NIST, Quantum Mechanics, Research, Science

Metrologists are conservative by nature, knowing that the premature adoption of a new measurement standard could lead to confusion in both science and commerce. So it is a big deal that the International System of Units (SI) is poised to undergo its first major overhaul since its birth in 1960. Two years from now at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Paris, officials will adopt a new SI in which every unit can be obtained from fixed values of several fundamental constants [1]. All eyes are on the kilogram, which will no longer be defined by the mass of a cylinder of platinum-iridium alloy that has been kept in a Parisian vault since it was fabricated in 1889. Somewhat overlooked, however, are advances in standards for electrical resistance and voltage, without which the new SI would not be possible. A new report [2] from Wilfrid Poirier and colleagues at France’s metrology and testing laboratory, LNE, puts these electrical standards in the spotlight by combining them to create a current source based on the electron charge e (as opposed to Ampère’s law). The source, which has an unprecedentedly low uncertainty, will enable current calibrations that are consistent with the redefined SI and boost efforts to close the so-called quantum metrology triangle [3].

The new current source is essentially a quantum realization of Ohm’s law, I=V∕R, where I is current, V is voltage, and R is resistance. The electron charge e enters because V and R are each provided by a quantum electrical device whose outputs involve e [4]. The voltage source is an array of n_J superconducting Josephson junctions, which, when driven by microwaves at frequency f_J, produces a voltage V_J=n_Jf_J(h∕2e)VJ=nJfJ(h∕2e), where h is the Planck constant. The resistance comes from a two-dimensional electron gas that is placed in its i^th quantum Hall state by a large magnetic field, in which it has a Hall resistance R_H=(h∕e²)∕i. Ohm’s law for the quantum current then becomes I_Q=(n_Jf_Ji∕2)e. Since n_J and i are known exactly and the uncertainty of f_J is negligibly small, the uncertainty of I_Q is limited by such seemingly little things as the “lead resistance” contributed by connecting wires and various sources of random noise.

These technical details are, however, the crux of why it’s challenging to make a high-precision quantum current source. To understand the problem, consider a simplified diagram of the device (Fig. 1). Here, a Josephson voltage source connects directly to a conventional resistor whose resistance can be calibrated in terms of the quantum Hall resistance. The output of this circuit is then fed into a conventional current amplifier that provides a variable amount of gain. (An adjustable current for practical calibrations can thereby be achieved by varying the gain and/or the voltage source.) This circuit has two big problems when it comes to producing currents with relative uncertainties below one part in a million. First, the resistance of the leads increases the circuit’s effective resistance by an amount that cannot be determined with high enough accuracy. Second, the gain of even the best conventional amplifier is not sufficiently stable. Poirier and colleagues’ tour de force achievement is realizing a circuit (Fig. 2) that overcomes both hurdles simultaneously.

Figure 2: The quantum current source that Poirier and colleagues implemented. Each element—the Josephson voltage source (V_J), the quantum Hall resistor (R_H), and the amplifier based on a superconducting cryogenic current comparator (CCC)—is in a separate cryostat (blue circle). The quantum Hall resistor must also be placed in a large magnetic field B. Each dotted line on the quantum Hall resistor indicates a uniform electrostatic potential for electrons. The existence of such equipotential lines minimizes the contribution of lead resistance, enabling a more accurate output current than in Fig. 1.

APS Physics Viewpoint: A New Era for the Ampere
Mark W. Keller, Quantum Electromagnetics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
José Aumentado, Applied Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, USA

Chairmen of the Board...

Image Source: Giant Magellan Telescope Organization

Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Diversity in Science, Research

In the spirit of full disclosure, my apologies for missing this last month. I happened upon it at UT Austin's website looking for something else completely. A happy find!

Pasadena, CA – November 16, 2016 – The Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMTO) today announced the appointment of Walter E. Massey, PhD, and Taft Armandroff, PhD, to the positions of Board Chair and Vice Chair, respectively. Continuing their involvement in new leadership capacities, Massey and Armandroff will guide the GMTO Board, overseeing the construction of the 24.5 meter Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) in the Chilean Andes and working to complete the partnership of universities, research institutions and private donors who will contribute to the construction and operation of the GMT.

Poised to be the first of a new generation of extremely large telescopes, the GMT will be the largest optical telescope in the world when it comes online in 2022. The project is a distinguished collaboration of US institutions and international partners from Australia, Brazil and Korea. The telescope will be constructed at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

“With his exceptional leadership and wisdom Dr. Massey will guide the GMTO Board with a steady hand as the telescope moves through the construction phase,” said Nobel Laureate Prof. Brian Schmidt, Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University. “Dr. Massey has an outstanding record of enabling breakthrough science through stewardship of major research facilities, including the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).”

Armandroff serves as the director of The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory and as a Professor in the Department of Astronomy. Prior to this, Armandroff was Director of the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii for eight years. During his leadership there, the two 10-meter Keck telescopes played a key role in many astronomical discoveries. Armandroff also worked as an astronomer and eventually Associate Director for 19 years at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, Ariz. After a successful year as GMTO Board Chair, he will be stepping into the Vice Chair position, where he will partner with Massey to lead the Board as it advances the GMT through construction.

McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin:
Walter E. Massey and Taft Armandroff Selected to Lead Giant Magellan Telescope Board of Directors

Open SESAME...

Image Source: Symmetry Magazine, Credit: Noemi Caraban, SESAME

Topics: High Energy Physics, Theoretical Physics, Research

I guess one miracle is where it's located and WHO will be a part of it, proving at least in the science world we can all play together in the same sandlot.

Primer on synchrotrons here.

When fully operational, the facility in Allan, Jordan, called SESAME, will mark a major victory for science in the region and also for its international backers. Like CERN, SESAME was established under the auspices of UNESCO, but it is now an independent intergovernmental organization and aims to facilitate peace through scientific collaboration that might supersede political divisions. Countries and labs the world over have responded to that vision by contributing to SESAME’s design, instrumentation and construction.

SESAME, which stands for The Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, is a 133-meter circumference storage ring built to produce intense radiation ranging from infrared to X-rays, given off by electrons circling inside it at high energies. At the heart of SESAME are injector components from BESSY I, a Berlin-based synchrotron that was decommissioned in 1999, donated to SESAME and upgraded to support a completely new 2.5-GeV storage ring. With funding provided in part by the European Commission and construction led by CERN in collaboration with SESAME, the new ring is on par with most modern synchrotrons.

Over the past decade, SESAME has organized regular users meetings each year to discuss and develop proposed research plans. That community is now over 200 strong. The international facility hosts members from Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority and Turkey.

Symmetry Magazine: SESAME to open in 2017, Troy Rummler

LIGO's Breakthrough...

Image Source: LIGO.Caltech.edu/detection

Topics: Einstein, General Relativity, Gravitational Waves, Research, Theoretical Physics

The Physics World 2016 Breakthrough of the Year goes to "the LIGO Scientific Collaboration for its revolutionary, first-ever direct observations of gravitational waves". Nine other achievements are highly commended and cover topics ranging from nuclear physics to material science and more.

Almost exactly 100 years after they were first postulated by Albert Einstein in his general theory of relativity, gravitational waves hit the headlines in 2016 as the US-based LIGO collaboration detected two separate gravitational-wave events using the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (aLIGO). The first observation was made on 14 September 2015 and was announced in February this year. A second set of gravitational waves rolled through LIGO's detectors on 26 December 2015, and this so-called "Boxing Day event" was announced in June this year. Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space–time, and these observations mark the end of a decades-long hunt for these interstellar undulations.

The measurements also herald the start of the era of gravitational-wave astronomy and multi-messenger astronomy, whereby gravitational-wave observations are combined with those made by optical and radio telescopes and other detectors observing the cosmos. Indeed, LIGO's twin detectors will soon be joined by a global network of gravitational-wave detectors.

The top 10 breakthroughs were chosen by a panel of four Physics World editors and reporters, and the criteria for judging included:

• fundamental importance of research;
• significant advance in knowledge;
• strong connection between theory and experiment; and
• general interest to all physicists.

Physics World:
LIGO's gravitational-wave discovery is Physics World 2016 Breakthrough of the Year

PreCrime...

Image Source: Link below

Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Commentary, Politics, Science Fiction, Research

In the science fiction short story and 2002 film "Minority Report" (also a short-lived series with Megan Good), by the legendary Philip K. Dick, using psychics (you can get away with that in science fiction) as "PreCogs," they could apprehend citizens guilty of "PreCrime." In other words before you even THINK you're going to commit a crime, you are guilty before proven innocent. I guess civil liberties go out the window in 2054.

One part of this report gave me some pause:

With the advent of photography, a tiny fraction of 19th-century scientists believed they could develop methods of accurately identifying criminals by their facial features. While their hypotheses were eventually discredited, new artificial intelligence technology suggests their claims might’ve been valid after all.

Xiaolin Wu and Xi Zhang from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China have resurrected this facial recognition tradition and built a neural network that can supposedly pick out criminals by simply looking at their faces.

To accomplish this, the researchers used an array of machine-vision algorithms to examine a series of facial juxtapositions between photos of criminals and non-criminals with the goal of finding out whether a neural network can reliably tell them apart.

As MIT Technology review explains, there are three defining facial features the neural network factored in to make its classifications:

[T]he curvature of upper lip which is on average 23 percent larger for criminals than for noncriminals; the distance between two inner corners of the eyes, which is 6 percent shorter; and the angle between two lines drawn from the tip of the nose to the corners of the mouth, which is 20 percent smaller.

I might have such an upper lip, as may many other ethnicities.

Artificial intelligence like its original biological intelligence model could be taught by condition and repetition: biased prejudice in service of the state. 😨

The Next Web:
This scary artificial intelligence has learned how to pick out criminals by their faces
by Mix

One of two breaks in December, the second around Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa. See you for this one the 12th.

Diamonds Are Forever...

Image Source: Entrepreneur.com, a similar photo is also at the link below.

Topics: Condensed Matter Physics, Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Power

Well, not exactly forever, but at least past our lifetimes.

Scientists from the University of Bristol Cabot Institute are hitting two birds with one stone, thanks to their lab-made diamond that can generate electricity and is made from upcycled radioactive waste.

In nuclear power plants, radioactive uranium is split in a process called nuclear fission. When the atoms are split, heat is generated, and that heat then vaporizes water into steam that turns electricity-generating turbines.

A severe downside of this process is the creation of dangerous radioactive waste, which ultimately deposits in the graphite core that it is housed in. Today, this nuclear contamination is safely stored away until it stops being radioactive…and with a half-life of 5,730 years, that takes quite a while.

The scientists found a way to heat the radioactive graphite to release most of the radioactivity in a gaseous form. The gas is subjected to high temperature and low pressures that turn it into a man-made diamond.

Futurism:
Diamond Batteries Made of Nuclear Waste Can Generate Power For Thousands of Years
Author: Jess Vilvestre, Editor: Patrick Caughill