Happy 80th birthday, sir! You are one of my heroes...
Biography: "Hammering" Hank Aaron
Reginald L. Goodwin's Posts (3128)
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Energy could be moved over long distances by quantum teleportation, according to calculations done by a team of physicists in Japan. While energy teleportation is not a new concept, it had been thought that the amount of energy that could be sent dropped rapidly beyond short distances. The new proposal removes this shortcoming, allowing energy to be transferred much farther. The team believes that the theory could be verified in a semiconductor device and that similar energy teleportation could have occurred in the early universe.
Quantum teleportation is a remarkable idea that was first proposed by IBM's Charles Bennett and colleagues in 1992. It involves two parties, usually called Alice and Bob, who "teleport" a quantum state between each other. The scheme allows Alice to send information about an unknown quantum state to Bob, who is then able to construct a perfect copy of that state. To do so, the pair exchange classical information while sharing particles that are entangled quantum mechanically with each other. Physicists have since been able to teleport atomic states over distances of several metres and photon states over distances greater than 100 km.
While this formulation of quantum teleportation does not provide a means to exchange energy, in 2008 Masahiro Hotta of Tohoku University unveiled a theory explaining how energy could be teleported. In Hotta's formulation, Alice sends Bob the information that he needs to extract energy from the vacuum. This extraction is possible because in quantum field theory the vacuum is not devoid of energy but contains virtual particles that continually bubble-up and then vanish.
Physics World: Energy can be teleported over long distances, say physicists
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| WCPO 9, Cincinnati, Ohio |
From "The African History Network":
Did you know that Crest Toothpaste, Folgers Coffee, Bounce Fabric Softener and Safeguard Soap were all created by an African-American Man? I have talked about Dr. Herbert Smitherman Sr. before on The African History Network Show before. In 2011 I spoke at an 8th grade graduation and told the audience about him to show them their potential. Most of the audience including parents had never heard of him and were amazed by his story.
Dr. Herbert Smitherman was a pioneering executive and professional chemist at Proctor & Gamble who led the way for other African-Americans at the prestigious company in the 1960s. He was the first black person with a doctorate hired at Proctor & Gamble.
With a PhD in physical organic chemistry, Dr. Smitherman developed a number of incredibly popular patents, including Crest toothpaste, Safeguard soap, Bounce fabric softeners, Biz, Folgers Coffee and Crush soda, to name a few. Not only are they still on the shelves, but many of them are on display at the Cincinnati Museum Center in the featured exhibit, “America I AM: The African-American Imprint.”
Nicknamed the “Jackie Robinson of Proctor & Gamble,” Dr. Smitherman spent 29 years there before turning in his labcoat to work as a professor at Wilberforce University. But after serving at the historically black college, Smitherman turned his attention to starting a high school called the Western Hills Design Technology School to help black students perform better in math and science.
A child of the south, Dr. Smitherman’s family lived in Birmingham, Alabama, where his father served as a reverend. A young Smitherman would see his father’s church burn down twice during their push for voting registration and voting rights.
He died on Oct. 9, 2010.
Black America Web: Dr. Herbert C. Smitherman Sr.
Cincinnati Herald: Dr. Herbert C Smitherman Sr broke barriers
Cincinnati NAACP: Dr. Herbert C. Smitherman
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| Image credit: Physics arXiv link below |
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Quantum teleportation is the ability to transmit from one location to another without travelling through the space in between. Matter itself doesn't make this journey, only the information that describes it. This is transmitted to a new body that takes on the identity of the original.
But while science fiction fans have focused on body involved, quantum physicists are more interested in the information. For them, teleportation is the enabling technology behind a new generation of information processing technologies including a quantum internet that allows information to be transmitted with perfect security.
One of the building blocks of the quantum internet will be quantum routers that can receive quantum information from location and route it on to another without destroying it. So the race is on to demonstrate this kind of technology, which has the potential to revolutionise communications.
Today, Felix Bussières at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and a few pals say they’ve taken an important step towards this. These guys have teleported quantum information to a crystal doped with rare-earth ions—a kind of quantum memory. But crucially they’ve done it for the first time over the kind of ordinary optical fibre that telecommunications that are in use all over the world.
Physics arXiv:
Quantum teleportation from a telecom-wavelength photon to a solid-state quantum memory
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Meanwhile, the US has yet to get a clue...
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| T-shirt Guru |
Further details have emerged of a new £270m initiative being funded by the UK government to convert quantum-physics research into commercial products. The five-year initiative, which will include the creation of a network of quantum-technology centres, was one of a number of measures revealed by the government in its Autumn Statement in early December 2013 to boost the UK's science base. The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne says that the money was "additional investment" in research and that science was a "personal priority" of his.
The initiative, which will begin in 2015, will focus on areas such as chip-scale atomic clocks for improved GPS communication, quantum-enabled sensors, quantum communication and quantum computing. Some cash will go to existing university research groups, while about £30m per year will go to the Technology Strategy Board – the UK's national innovation agency – to support immediate commercialization of technology. There will also be money for PhD students and postdocs, while some £4m will go on equipment for the new Advanced Metrology Laboratory being built at the National Physical Laboratory.
Physics World: UK splashes out £270m on quantum technology
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| Source: Memory Alpha link below |
Reading for Uhura...
Naming Uhura...
Discussing Uhura...
Memory Alpha: Nyota Uhura, literally "star freedom" or "freedom star," an allusion to the Underground Railroad. In some translations, Uhuru also means "truth."
The book Ms. Nichols refers to: "UHURU: A Novel of Africa Today," Hardcover – January 1, 1962, Robert Ruark.
Frontiers of Quantum Information Science was the theme for the 31st Jerusalem winter school in theoretical physics, which takes place annually at the Israeli Institute for Advanced Studies located on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The school took place from December 30, 2013 through January 9, 2014, but some of the attendees are still trickling back to their home institutions. The common denominator is that our very own John Preskill was the director of this school; co-directed by Michael Ben-Or and Patrick Hayden. John mentioned during a previous post and reiterated during his opening remarks that this is the first time the IIAS has chosen quantum information to be the topic for its prestigious advanced school–another sign of quantum information’s emergence as an important sub-field of physics. In this blog post, I’m going to do my best to recount these festivities while John protects his home from forest fires, prepares a talk for the Simons Institute’s workshop on Hamiltonian complexity, teaches his quantum information course and celebrates his birthday 60+1.
The school was mainly targeted at physicists, but it was diversely represented. Proof of the value of this diversity came in an interaction between a computer scientist and a physicist, which led to one of the school’s most memorable moments.
Quantum Frontiers: Reporting from the ‘Frontiers of Quantum Information Science’
Physics Database: In this course from the Perimeter Institute Carl Bender introduces the basics of mathematical physics. The covered topics include: perturbation theory, asymptotics, Schrodinger equation, Shanks transform, eigenvalue problems, Euler summation, divergent series and others. For more physics lectures check out our lecture page.
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| Source: Omega Deone Wilhite on FB |
The Challenger Disaster happened 28 years ago last month, 28 January 1986. Dr. McNair, along with Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Christa McAuliffe, and Gregory B. Jarvis became the sad reminders of the sometimes grim price of exploration and adventure.
I open African American/Black History Month ("ouverture" - en Francais) with some recollections I've posted previously on this blog, as well as Langston Hughes' "I Too" poem reenactment, born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. Mr. Hughes and Dr. McNair were fraternity brothers in the Greek Letter organization known as Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc (part of the "Divine Nine"). I do not know if either man ever met the other...
Discovery article: The Physics of...Karate
I recalled having met Dr. McNair when I was an undergraduate Engineering Physics major at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro back in '84. He's an alumni of the university, and we celebrated him being the 1st black astronaut from an HBCU. I was in Air Force ROTC, marched in the parade in his honor after his first mission, and introduced him at the Army/Air Force ROTC joint banquet. It was a busy weekend.
"Whenever you're in Texas, you should give me a call."
So I did. I lived in Austin, Texas at the time, stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base (now the airport). Back then, I called information; asked for Dr. Ronald E. McNair in Houston, Texas. That was as close to "Google it" as we got back then.
I got to speak to him for a good three hours. I found out some things:
- 5 weeks before his dissertation defense, someone purged his data (also known as sabotage). Without data, he'd essentially have failed to get his PhD. He said he stayed up for 3 weeks and re-accomplished 5 years of research. He slept for a week after that.
- He was planning to leave NASA and go into academia. Challenger would be "his last mission." That was sadly true. It devastated me, and inspired some creative writing in his honor.
- A lot of his determination he learned as a participant on the school karate team, which a the time. According to my Calculus instructor and his teammate Dr. Gilbert Casterlow (Sensei), you could get a disqualification for "unnecessary redness of the skin." The rule was designed not to favor African Americans, obviously.
Recalling this makes me determined to stay in science, contribute, help when and if I can, and stand on the shoulder of this and other giants (he was actually only 5'6", but you get the idea).
“When getting an education is a revolutionary act & dreams are the province of men,” Stanley Tucci.
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| The "one-shot" memory devices that recent NIST research might make possible can be envisioned as physical keys that can only be used a single time, a useful feature for computer security applications. Credit: Talbott/NIST |
Computer security systems may one day get a boost from quantum physics, as a result of recent research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Computer scientist Yi-Kai Liu has devised a way to make a security device that has proved notoriously difficult to build—a "one-shot" memory unit, whose contents can be read only a single time.
The research, which Liu is presenting at this week's Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science conference,* shows in theory how the laws of quantum physics could allow for the construction of such memory devices. One-shot memories would have a wide range of possible applications such as protecting the transfer of large sums of money electronically. A one-shot memory might contain two authorization codes: one that credits the recipient's bank account and one that credits the sender's bank account, in case the transfer is canceled. Crucially, the memory could only be read once, so only one of the codes can be retrieved, and hence, only one of the two actions can be performed—not both.
"When an adversary has physical control of a device—such as a stolen cell phone—software defenses alone aren't enough; we need to use tamper-resistant hardware to provide security," Liu says. "Moreover, to protect critical systems, we don't want to rely too much on complex defenses that might still get hacked. It's better if we can rely on fundamental laws of nature, which are unassailable."
Unfortunately, there is no fundamental solution to the problem of building tamper-resistant chips, at least not using classical physics alone. So scientists have tried involving quantum mechanics as well, because information that is encoded into a quantum system behaves differently from a classical system.
NIST: Quantum Physics Could Make Secure, Single-Use Computer Memories Possible
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| FIG. 2. SEM micrographs of the KTN thin films deposited on (a) MgO and (b) LaAlO3. Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 115, 024103 (2014); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4858388 |
ABSTRACT
The dielectric properties of a KTa0.65Nb0.35O3 ferroelectric composition for a submicronic thin layer were measured in the microwave domain using different electromagnetic characterization methods. Complementary experimental techniques (broadband methods versus resonant techniques, waveguide versus transmission line) and complementary data processing procedures (quasi-static theoretical approaches versus full-wave analysis) were selected to investigate the best way to characterize ferroelectric thin films. The measured data obtained from the cylindrical resonant cavity method, the experimental method that showed the least sources of uncertainty, were taken as reference values for comparisons with results obtained using broadband techniques. The error analysis on the methods used is discussed with regard to the respective domains of validity for each method; this enabled us to identify the best experimental approach for obtaining an accurate determination of the microwave dielectric properties of ferroelectric thin layers.
© 2014 AIP Publishing LLC
Scitation:
Intercomparison of permittivity measurement techniques for ferroelectric thin layers
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| “For the first time, we will identify continents and oceans—and perhaps the signatures of life—on distant worlds,” says NASA in its 30-year vision for astrophysics. (Credit: Technology Review) |
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: The past 30 years has seen a revolution in astronomy and our understanding of the Universe. That’s thanks in large part to a relatively small number of orbiting observatories that have changed the way we view our cosmos.
These observatories have contributed observations from every part of the electromagnetic spectrum, from NASA’s Compton Gamma Ray Observatory at the very high energy end to HALCA, a Japanese 8-metre radio telescope at the low energy end. Then there is the Hubble Space Telescope in the visible part of the spectrum, arguably the greatest telescope in history.
It’s fair to say that these observatories have had a profound effect not just on science , but on the history of humankind.
So an interesting question is: what next? Today, we find out, at least as far as NASA is concerned, with the publication of the organisation’s roadmap for astrophysics over the next 30 years. The future space missions identified in this document will have a profound influence on the future of astronomy but also on the way imaging technology develops in general.
So what has NASA got up its sleeve? To start off with, it says its goal in astrophysics is to answer three questions: Are we alone? How did we get here? And how does our universe work?
It is a vision I will most likely not live to see the full fruition, but I will delight in seeing its "baby steps" forward. For the young that will take up this mandate: I wish you well.
Be kind to our neighbors...
Physics arXiv: Enduring Quests-Daring Visions (NASA Astrophysics in the Next Three Decades)
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| Source: Link below |
Researchers at Harvard University in the US have made an optical antenna structure on graphene that can be tuned over a broad wavelength range. The device might find use in applications such as reconfigurable “metasurfaces”, adaptive optics and optoelectronics.
Conventional antennas are used to transmit radio or TV signals, but they can be made to work at optical frequencies if shrunk to the nanoscale. Nanoantennas possess "plasmonic modes" that can be tuned to resonate with the optical transitions in molecules nearby and it is these modes that increase the interaction between light and matter on sub-wavelength scales in the near field region of the antennas. However, although normal antennas are easy to tune, these nanodevices are not because of their small size.
Graphene, a monolayer of hexagonally arranged carbon atoms, comes into its own here. Its conductivity and optical constant can be tuned by simply applying a gate voltage applied to it. This is because the applied voltage changes the carrier (electron and hole) concentration in the material. Indeed, earlier this year, a team of scientists at Harvard, led by Federico Capasso, found that graphene placed in the nanogap of a dipole antenna acts as an electrically tuneable nanocircuit element and can therefore be used to control the resonance of the antenna.
Nano Tech Web: Optical nanoantenna goes wide wavelength
You just didn't know you were doing it. Baseball season is coming...
World Science Festival: The Calculus of Catching Fly Balls
From the National Science Education Standards: a succinct definition.
The COSMOS reboot in March needs our viewership, support, conversation...and literacy. A lot of myths and untruths are being pushed for an agenda that enriches a few and damages many (and the planet). Prepare for the self-deluded and ignorant to be lit. I speak from experience, and don't want anyone surprised.
Quoting part 3 of Bill Moyers' interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson:
January 24, 2014
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson unwittingly triggered a controversy in the blogosphere last week when he said this on our show: “If you have a religious philosophy that is not based in objective realities that you then want to put in the science classroom, then I’m going to stand there and say no, ‘I’m not going to allow you in the science classroom.’”
This week on Moyers & Company, Bill weighs in on that debate with an essay on politicians and others who refuse to accept the reality of evolution and climate change.
And in part three of their conversation, Bill and Tyson discuss why science literacy is important for the future of our democracy, economy and standing in the world: “Science literacy is an inoculation against charlatans who would exploit your ignorance of scientific law to then take your money from you or your opportunity from you.” And that literacy is at risk, Tyson concludes.
More on COSMOS, and a little commentary:
I've personally encountered the impassioned defense of "creationism/intelligent design" and personal direct attacks on me as "I don't know science." Holding my ground, it turned out these particular individuals didn't know much at all.
My questions are simple:
1. What other country is addressing this "debate" of creationism/intelligent design"?
2. What other country has attempted to introduce this "debate" into their science classrooms and curriculum?
3. What other country has a tax-funded "Creation Museum" (apparently, in financial difficulty)?
4. Are the top countries in the O.E.C.D. results advancing this in their science classrooms?
5. If not, why are WE insisting on doing this?
The Founding Fathers were at most Deists and Free Thinkers that crafted a Constitution separating Church and State, despite David Barton's refuted obfuscations. Deity does not need "talebearers," and there are more noble pursuits: income disparity, gender equality and the reduction of violence towards women in society and the media; gang violence, imprisonment inequity, re-fighting the Civil War to our own detriment as corporations ship jobs overseas are good fields to till; science and politics are not.
We are inundated with sociopathic, manipulative shysters - that we tend to sadly elect because of insincere, memorized 3-point sermons on "family values" - encouraging all to chase chimeras and unicorns; dueling windmills as the republic crumbles.
Quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Huffington Post) regarding science and religion:
"Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary. Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism."
Not only was the late Isaac Asimov a writer of great science fiction, he was a biochemistry professor. His assessment of whether there will be a reconciliation between the two in an interview with Bill Moyers leads into tomorrow's posting (more COSMOS, and part 2 of his interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson).
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| Source: Discovery link below |
The fastest object ever built by the human species is the Voyager 1 space probe, moving at a speed of 18 miles per second. If it were heading toward Proxima Centauri (which it’s not), Voyager 1 would reach our nearest stellar neighbor in about 80,000 years.
Clearly, if interstellar travel is to be accomplished on human timescales, much greater speeds are required. At 10 percent of the speed of light (a thousand times faster than Voyager 1, but a conceivable speed for likely soon-to-be-realized fusion engines), Proxima Centuri could be reached in approximately 45 years -- less than a human lifetime.
In his 1955 paper Geons, John Wheeler, one of the pioneers of the theory of black holes, coined the term "Kugelblitz" -- which translates literally to "ball lightning." He suggested that if enough pure energy could be focused into a region of space, that energy would form a microscopic black hole, which could be described by the equations of Karl Schwarzschild -- a "Schwarzschild Kugelblitz" (or SK).
Fast forward 19 years to the ground-breaking work of Stephen Hawking, who realized that quantum mechanical effects near a black hole’s event horizon (the boundary beyond which no light or other radiation can escape) would give rise to the emission of radiation, so-called "Hawking Radiation." The smaller the black hole, the greater its radiated power and the less its mass, but the shorter its lifetime until it completely evaporates.
To be useful, a SK would need to be small enough to expel the required energy, light enough to be reasonably accelerated, but large enough to have a sufficiently useful lifetime. Such a Schwarzschild Kugelblitz would be incredibly small, smaller than even a proton, which is one of the basic constituents of an atom.
Despite being so miniscule, Schwarzschild Kugelblitzes are incredibly heavy. A typical SK weighs more than two Empire State Buildings, and has a power output of approximately 129 petawatts (1 petawatt = 10 quadrillion watts). This is 10 million times the July 2013 power consumption record of New York City!
In 1993, Schwarzschild Kugelblitzes pierced the realm of popular culture, albeit under a pseudonym. In the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Timescape", an artificial quantum singularity (i.e. Schwarzschild Kugelblitz) is revealed to be a Romulan Warbird’s power source.
Thermodynamics: the study of energy and its transformations (description from my undergraduate textbook). Along with fusion power eventually becoming a reality, this could substantially change the way we generate power, wean us of our need for fossil fuel from countries not-to-friendly and change the Calculus of our geopolitics...hopefully for the better.
Discovery: Kugelblitz! Powering a Starship With a Black Hole
Jeff Lee, Icarus Interstellar
Harvard Abstracts: Geons, by John Wheeler
(Note: Dr. Wheeler taught at UT Austin, Texas)
Hidden inside nearly every modern electronic is a technology -- called power electronics -- that is quietly making our world run. Yet, as things like our phones, appliances and cars advance, current power electronics will no longer be able to meet our needs, making it essential that we invest in the future of this technology.
Today, President Obama will announce that North Carolina State University will lead the Energy Department’s new manufacturing innovation institute for the next generation of power electronics. The institute will work to drive down the costs of and build America’s manufacturing leadership in wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor-based power electronics -- leading to more affordable products for businesses and consumers, billions of dollars in energy savings and high-quality U.S. manufacturing jobs. 1
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President Obama has declared 2014 a year of action, and while he will continue to work with Congress on new measures to create jobs and grow the economy, he will also use his executive authority to get things done. After shedding jobs for a decade, our manufacturers have added 568,000 over the past nearly four years, including 80,000 over the past five months. Manufacturing production has grown since the end of the recession at its fastest pace in over a decade. The President is committed to building on that progress.
In last year’s State of the Union address, the President proposed a series of three new manufacturing institutes that the Administration can create using existing resources—this is the first of those institutes. In May, President Obama launched a competition for these three new manufacturing innovation institutes with a Federal commitment of $200 million across five Federal agencies—Defense, Energy, Commerce, NASA, and the National Science Foundation, building off the success of a pilot institute headquartered in Youngstown, Ohio. The additional two institutes led by the Department of Defense—focused on Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation and Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing—are still in the selection process and will be awarded in the coming weeks. 2
