Reginald L. Goodwin's Posts

Freedom and Responsibility...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 30, 2017 at 5:14am

Image Source: Link below

Topics: Civil Rights, Human Rights, Science, Research

As a no-knock raid (s) may be going on in Washington, DC or surrounding suburbs, this is a follow-up from the piece "The Right to Science," the material sourced from the American Association for the Advancement of Science as is this post.

In the era of "doubling down" on inanity at 140 characters in wee hours of the mornings (paired with septuagenarian bowel movements), AAAS is being very explicit and direct with reality, not "alternative facts," lies and propaganda.

A quote from my professor in Nano Safety:

"All science and engineering has a moral and philosophical component. It is imperative that as future scientists you pursue your research ethically, thinking also of your impact on society going forward." (I have omitted his name for his privacy)

BTW: The interpolation homework wasn't that bad, and we finished the project report. On to the others in Nano Physics and Safety. I will hibernate after finals.

The freedom to pursue science, apply its findings and share its discoveries is linked to the obligation of the scientific community to conduct its work with integrity and keep the interest of humanity as a core tenet, according to a new statement adopted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Board of Directors.

The AAAS Board of Directors adopted the “Statement on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility” on Oct. 12 to govern the organization, its members and guide scientists across the globe – the first known such position adopted by a scientific organization, according to members of the AAAS committee that developed the statement.

“Scientific freedom and scientific responsibility are essential to the advancement of human knowledge for the benefit of all. Scientific freedom is the freedom to engage in scientific inquiry, pursue and apply knowledge, and communicate openly,” the statement says. “This freedom is inextricably linked to and must be exercised in accordance with scientific responsibility. Scientific responsibility is the duty to conduct and apply science with integrity, in the interest of humanity, in a spirit of stewardship for the environment, and with respect for human rights.”

The four-line statement is meant to be a lasting and widely applicable affirmation, recognizing that freedom necessary to extend the global scientific enterprise requires the scientific community to adhere to and apply high ethical standards, interlocking two longstanding pillars of science.

AAAS Adopts Statement Binding Scientific Freedom with Responsibility Anne Q. Hoy, AAAS

Possible Go Wrongs...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 24, 2017 at 9:00pm

Image Source: TV Tropes: The All-Devouring Pop Culture Wiki

Topics: Climate Change, Existentialism, Global Warming

Note: I'm writing a report and Power Point presentation on a project in MATLAB on Numerical Methods (Trapezoid Rule, Simpson's Rule and Gauss Quadrature, not that you asked), AND a homework on interpolation (joy). I will resume next Monday on All Hallow's Eve, for no particular superstitious or zombie apocalypse reason.

Tomorrow (October 7th, so this is long past), the EPA is expected to take a first formal step in repealing the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), a regulation designed to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by approximately 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. This is a terribly irresponsible decision. Recent ferocious storms, intensified by warming oceans and air, remind us of the urgent need to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan is a sensible, flexible, cost-effective rule addressing one of one of the biggest sources of US carbon emissions, and one of the least expensive sources to control.

Notably, it appears from a leaked draft that the EPA does not base its proposed repeal on a change in policy goals, or on any of the usual considerations such as the rule’s costs, feasibility, or impacts. Rather, the EPA hangs its repeal hat entirely on a legal hook—the EPA now claims that the Clean Power Plan violated the law because it regulates “beyond the fenceline” of individual power plants—a claim that is directly contrary to what the EPA and the Department of Justice argued in court just last fall. With this legal sleight of hand, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt once again forsakes the mission of the agency he heads—to safeguard human health and the environment—to pander to fossil fuel interests.

As I've stated before: N = N₀ * e^rt is the exponential growth formula. N₀ = initial number; N = final number; r = 0.02 (growth rate for humans); t = years. With a little algebra, you can solve for t and find the population doubles in roughly 35 years, our current world population estimate at 7.6 billion. N = 15,256,782,730 (roughly) in 35 years. The problem with climate change and population is our politics like our enterprise are both myopically focused on business quarters and the next election cycle, not mid or the next century. More people simply mean more competition for limited resources, one of which - for LIFE and social stability - is potable water.

The poet T.S. Elliot is the author of the famous poem "The Hollow Men." How apropos a title to relate to this subject. You owe yourselves beyond my meager excerpts to read the full text here, Source: AllPoetry.com, other sources: Biography, Wikipedia

I

We are the hollow men

We are the stuffed men

Leaning together

Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

Our dried voices, when

We whisper together

Are quiet and meaningless

As wind in dry grass

Or rats' feet over broken glass

In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,

Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed

With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom

Remember us-if at all-not as lost

Violent souls, but only

As the hollow men

The stuffed men.

III

This is the dead land

This is cactus land

Here the stone images

Are raised, here they receive

The supplication of a dead man's hand

Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this In death's other kingdom

Waking alone

At the hour when we are

Trembling with tenderness

Lips that would kiss

Form prayers to broken stone.

(Elliot's last, most quoted stanza)

V

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Scott Pruitt’s Cynical Move to Rescind the Clean Power Plan Ken Kimmell, Union of Concerned Scientist, President, Oct 9, 2017, 12:47 PM EDT

Atoms and Josephson Junctions...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 23, 2017 at 5:15am

An electron microscope image of a quantum simulator made from a 1D array of Josephson junctions (light dots). (Courtesy: Philip Krantz, Krantz NanoArt, adapted by APS / Alan Stonebraker)

Topics: Modern Physics, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics, Superconductors

A theory that describes how quantum particles interact with each other in 1D has been put to the test by two independent teams of physicists. In one experiment, aspects of the Tomonaga–Luttinger theory were verified using laser-trapped ultracold atoms. The other study made use of superconducting devices. Confirmation of the theory could lead to the development of new technologies based on nanowires and other 1D systems. Applications include electronics, sensing, energy harvesting and quantum information.

Tomonaga–Luttinger theory describes a 1D ensemble of interacting quantum particles in terms of a Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid (TLL). It predicts properties of 1D quantum systems such as how electrons behave in a nanowire. Testing these predictions in a systematic way has not been possible, however, because it is very difficult to control how particles interact in 1D systems such as nanowires.

Atoms and Josephson junctions simulate 1D quantum liquid, Hamish Johnston, Physics World

Oligarchy...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 20, 2017 at 5:24am

Image Source: Foundations of Government, Slide Player, Slide 5

Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, History, Politics

I let the previous post last Friday stand without any other comment. I'm also working on reports for three projects in graduate school. I have a limited amount of hope that things will change. It is partly the subject of today's commentary.

I read "Letters at 3 AM: 'O' is for Oligarchy" in the print version of The Austin Chronicle when I lived in Austin, Texas. As in the date in the online version, I remember reading it in 2010. The premises it raised have aged very well, unfortunately.

*****

The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite.

So concludes a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page.

This is not news, you say.

Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion. Here's how they explain it:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

In English: the wealthy few move policy, while the average American has little power. Source: BBC News, Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy, 17 April 2014

*****

The U.S. government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country's citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern universities has concluded.

The report, "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens" (PDF), used extensive policy data collected between 1981 and 2002 to empirically determine the state of the U.S. political system.

After sifting through nearly 1,800 U.S. policies enacted in that period and comparing them to the expressed preferences of average Americans (50th percentile of income), affluent Americans (90th percentile), and large special interests groups, researchers concluded that the U.S. is dominated by its economic elite. Source: Business Insider, Zachary Davies Boren, The Telegraph, April 16, 2014

*****

Ganesh Sitaraman carried on this traditional observation of the obvious in The Guardian:

While the ruling class must remain united for an oligarchy to remain in power, the people must also be divided so they cannot overthrow their oppressors. Oligarchs in ancient Greece thus used a combination of coercion and co-optation to keep democracy at bay. They gave rewards to informants and found pliable citizens to take positions in the government.

These collaborators legitimized the regime and gave oligarchs beachheads into the people. In addition, oligarchs controlled public spaces and livelihoods to prevent the people from organizing. They would expel people from town squares: a diffuse population in the countryside would be unable to protest and overthrow government as effectively as a concentrated group in the city.

They also tried to keep ordinary people dependent on individual oligarchs for their economic survival, similar to how mob bosses in the movies have paternalistic relationships in their neighborhoods. Reading Simonton’s account, it is hard not to think about how the fragmentation of our media platforms is a modern instantiation of dividing the public sphere, or how employees and workers are sometimes chilled from speaking out.

Greece, the birthplace of our ideas on democracy as Rome was our ideals of a republic is an apropos historic comparison.

In my March 31 post, The Shattering, oligarchy wasn't mentioned, but implied. I observe the former head of the KGB, he and the other former members of the Politburo have abandoned the ideals of the Communist Manifesto. They don't appear at all interested in "sharing their wealth," but in its avaricious accumulation.

Perhaps their American counterparts have left the "quaint" notion of a federal republic.

Ventrella Quest Cartoon - Free Speech

"We have 'given them the store' of white supremacist bigotry, and our republic. I'm concerned apathy, racism, stupidity and tribalism may well not allow us... to get it back." The Shattering, March 31, 2017

*****

“The really dangerous American fascist... is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power... They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

~quoted in the New York Times, April 9, 1944, Vice President Henry Wallace, Good Reads

Polite Society...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 13, 2017 at 6:30am

Image Source: Cap Times, Amy Goodman, Dennis Moynihan related article

Topics: Commentary, Politics, Research

"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life." Robert A. Heinlein

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre

On the night of October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire on a large crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in the State of Nevada, leaving 58 people dead and 489 injured. Between 10:05 and 10:15 p.m. PDT, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada, fired hundreds of rifle rounds from his suite on the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel. About an hour after Paddock fired his last shot, he was found dead in his room from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His motive is unknown.

The incident is the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in the United States. The crime reignited the debate about gun laws in the U.S., with attention focused on bump firing, a technique Paddock used to allow his semi-automatic rifles to fire at a rate similar to that of a fully automatic weapon. Source: Wikipedia

The claim that gun ownership stops crime is common in the U.S., and that belief drives laws that make it easy to own and keep firearms.
But about 30 careful studies show more guns are linked to more crimes: murders, rapes, and others. Far less research shows that guns help.
Interviews with people in heavily gun-owning towns show they are not as wedded to the crime defense idea as the gun lobby claims.

Guns took more than 36,000 U.S. lives in 2015, and this and other alarming statistics have led many to ask whether our nation would be better off with firearms in fewer hands. Yet gun advocates argue exactly the opposite: that murders, crimes and mass shootings happen because there aren't enough guns in enough places. Arming more people will make our country safer and more peaceful, they say, because criminals won't cause trouble if they know they are surrounded by gun-toting good guys.

Is there truth to this claim? An ideal experiment would be an interventional study in which scientists would track what happened for several years after guns were given to gun-free communities and everything else was kept the same. But alas, there are no gun-free U.S. communities, and the ethics of doing such a study are dubious. So instead scientists compare what happens to gun-toting people, in gun-dense regions, with what happens to people and places with few firearms. They also study whether crime victims are more or less likely to own guns than others, and they track what transpires when laws make it easier for people to carry guns or use them for self-defense.

Most of this research—and there have been several dozen peer-reviewed studies—punctures the idea that guns stop violence. In a 2015 study using data from the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard University reported that firearm assaults were 6.8 times more common in the states with the most guns versus those with the least. Also in 2015 a combined analysis of 15 different studies found that people who had access to firearms at home were nearly twice as likely to be murdered as people who did not.

This evidence has been slow to accumulate because of restrictions placed by Congress on one of the country's biggest injury research funders, the CDC. Since the mid-1990s the agency has been effectively blocked from supporting gun violence research. And the NRA and many gun owners have emphasized a small handful of studies that point the other way.

"For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things." Isaiah 59:3

More Guns Do Not Stop More Crimes, Evidence Shows Melinda Wenner Moyer, Scientific American

Carbon Nanotube FET...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 11, 2017 at 2:24pm

Figure 1. A three-dimensional integrated circuit, made possible with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The circuit senses and classifies ambient gases using a multilayered stack of devices that are connected by platinum wires known as interlayer vias. In the top layer, roughly 1 million CNT field-effect transistors (FETs) register a change in electrical resistance when the gas molecules adsorb on a CNT. The second layer hosts memory cells that read and store the signals created by the FETs just above them. The third layer contains another million FETs that process the sensor data and implement a machine-learning algorithm to identify the type of gas picked up. Conventional silicon CMOS circuitry on the bottom acts as an interface to external devices. (Adapted from ref. 2.)

Topics: Carbon Nanotubes, Computer Engineering, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics

In 2013 graduate student Max Shulaker, his adviser Subhasish Mitra, Philip Wong, and their Stanford University colleagues built the first computer made entirely of carbon nanotube (CNT) field-effect transistors (FETs). ¹ The achievement was eagerly anticipated. Even before their first incorporation into FETs in 1998, CNTs had been touted as a superior substitute for the silicon channel that shuttles current between the traditional FET’s source and drain electrodes.

The intrinsic thinness of single-wall CNTs—essentially graphene sheets rolled into hollow cylinders a nanometer wide—enables superb control over power dissipation in the transistor’s off state and allows the transistor to switch off and on with much lower energy consumption than is possible with any other material. Moreover, thanks to that one-dimensionality, which suppresses scattering, charge carriers in CNTs have a much higher velocity for a given electric field than in Si. (See the article by Phaedon Avouris, Physics Today, January 2009, page 34.)

The 2013 computer was modest: It contained fewer than 200 FETs, ran at a clock speed of just 1 kHz, and implemented a single instruction. Nonetheless, the instruction was a conditional statement that qualified the computer as “Turing complete,” able to make any calculation given enough memory and time. The achievement also reassured Shulaker, now a professor at MIT, and his Stanford colleagues that CNTs could form the foundation for a much more complex system.

The researchers have now built a prototype system that embodies a vision of a transformative computer architecture—one in which computing, data storage, and input and output technologies are each fabricated into two-dimensional layers that are built up into a 3D integrated circuit.² Shown schematically in figure 1, the circuit consists of more than 2 million CNT FETs and more than 1 million memory cells. The components are divided among three layers—stacked on the same chip atop a layer of Si CMOS circuitry and interconnected by a forest of fine platinum wires.

The carbon nanotube integrated circuit goes three-dimensional R. Mark Wilson, Physics Today

QuantumWise...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 10, 2017 at 2:00pm

Image Source: Link below

Topics: Education, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics, Semiconductor Technology

Note: This will hopefully catch up my posting hiatus this Thursday (last midterm).

QuantumWise develops commercial software for fast and reliable atomic-scale modeling of nanostructures, fully supported and delivered in an easy-to-use interface, tailored from state-of-the-art methods, and developed by experts to the specifications of our customers.

Who we are

QuantumWise is a self-funded, privately owned company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with local representation in Japan, Singapore and the United States. We sell our software products to several hundred companies, government labs, and universities around the world. QuantumWise was started in 2008, built on the company Atomistix (founded in 2003), which brought the academic transport code TranSIESTA into the commercial marketplace.

At present, QuantumWise has more than 20 employees world-wide, working with developing the code and supporting our users. Most of our employees have a Ph.D. in physics or chemistry, and/or are seasoned programmers with long experience in numerical modeling and GUI development.

QuantumWise, Physics Connect Website: QuantumWise.com

2017 Nobel Prize Economic Sciences...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 9, 2017 at 2:00pm

Image Source: Scroll.in and NobelPrize.org

Topics: Economics, Nobel Laureate, Nobel Prize

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2017 was awarded to Richard H. Thaler "for his contributions to behavioural economics".

Integrating economics with psychology

Richard H. Thaler has incorporated psychologically realistic assumptions into analyses of economic decision-making. By exploring the consequences of limited rationality, social preferences, and lack of self-control, he has shown how these human traits systematically affect individual decisions as well as market outcomes.

Link: 2017 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

2017 Nobel Peace Prize...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 6, 2017 at 7:30pm

Image Source: Daily Mirror Original: Ill: N. Elmehed. © Nobel Media 2017

Topics: Nobel Laureate, Nobel Prize, Peace

I can't think of a more timely and apropos prize for the current zeitgeist. I hope it has impact.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2017 was awarded to International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons".

Link: Nobel Peace Prize

2017 Nobel Prize Literature...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 5, 2017 at 7:30pm

Image Link: Source below

Topics: Literature, Nobel Laureate, Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2017 is awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".

Link: Nobel Prize Literature

2017 Nobel Prize Chemistry...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 4, 2017 at 8:27pm

Image Source: Link below

Topics: Chemistry, Nobel Laureate, Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 was awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson "for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution".

Link: Nobel Prize Chemistry

2017 Nobel Prize Physics...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 3, 2017 at 7:48am

Image Source: Link below

Topics: Nobel Laureate, Nobel Prize, Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 was divided, one half awarded to Rainer Weiss, the other half jointly to Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".

Link: Nobel Prize in Physics

2017 Nobel Prize Physiology or Medicine...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 2, 2017 at 6:10am

Image Source: Link below

Topics: Nobel Laureate, Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2017 was awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young "for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm".

Link: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 29, 2017 at 6:01am

Image Source: Seminar link below

Topics: Diversity, Diversity in Science, Education, STEM

I saw Dr. Oluseyi speak at the National Society of Black Physicists, Austin, Texas in 2011 (where I met Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg). I signed up to hear him speak again today, obviously scheduled as a pick-me-up for graduate students before midterms. We could all use it.

And there, at Tougaloo College, you had a breakthrough.

Yes.These three grad students from MIT and Harvard came to Tougaloo, where I was one of two physics students in 1986. They were all black physics students from the Cambridge area – and each of them thought they were the only one! They came to realize that kids from certain communities just have no idea that physics as a career exists. They decided they’d start the National Council of Black Physics Students, to help the most down-and-out kids in the country. So where did they go? Mississippi. They showed up on our campus.

Because of them, I ended up meeting recruiters from Stanford University that ended up accepting me to Stanford for grad school. In all of Stanford’s history, at that time, there were only two black professors in all of the six schools of natural sciences and mathematics. One was my PhD advisor, Art Walker, who was also the PhD advisor of Sally Ride. Just being in his presence showed me a different model of how I could be.

But in the end, Art’s support changed it for me. It was like two different lives. I ended up changing my name from James Edward Plummer to reflect how my life had changed so drastically. I wanted my middle name to reflect how I am. So my middle name is Muata and it means “He seeks the truth.” I wanted my first name to reflect what I want to become. My first name Hakeem means “wisdom.” And my last name is from the West African Yoruba people, and it means “God has done this.”

Rise of a gangsta nerd: Fellows Friday with Hakeem Oluseyi, TED Blog

NC A&T Seminar link: NCAT.edu/oluseyi

Evaporation Caveat...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 28, 2017 at 6:20am

Researchers at Columbia University created an evaporation engine, driven by bacterial spores that swell as they absorb moisture from evaporating water. XI CHEN

Topics: Environment, Green Tech, Research

"Caveat emptor is the only motto going, and the worst proverb that ever came from the dishonest stone-hearted Rome." Anthony Trollope

Please note I'm not quoting Trollope (an apropos name for our times as malapropism) as a critique of the study. All science is preliminary, in iterative steps. "Rome was not built in a day," and neither will sustainable energy solutions that will hopefully replace our current fossil model. It is unfortunate that our easy access to information via search engines have made us all attention deficit as a species and unappreciative of process, either political or scientific.

Technology that can tap into the renewable power of natural water evaporation could produce a huge portion of the nation's energy needs—at least theoretically (see "Scientists Capture the Energy of Evaporation to Drive Tiny Engines").

Prototype "evaporation-driven engines" generate power from the motion of bacterial spores that expand and contract as they absorb and release air moisture. If it could be done efficiently and affordably, the devices could provide more than 325 gigawatts of electricity-generating capacity, outpacing coal, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications.

That, however, would require covering the surface of every lake and reservoir larger than 0.1 square kilometers in the lower 48 states, excluding the Great Lakes, with arrays of the devices. Obviously, that would directly conflict with existing economic and recreational uses, and raise a host of serious aesthetic and environmental concerns. Notably, interfering with evaporation on a large enough scale, across a big enough lake, could even alter local weather.

But study coauthor Ozgur Sahin says that the paper is more of a thought experiment designed to underscore the potential of the technology and the importance of advancing it beyond lab scale, rather than any sort of literal development proposal.

Evaporation Engines Could Produce More Power Than Coal, with a Huge CaveatJames Temple, MIT Technology Review

Nano Mirror...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 27, 2017 at 5:59am

Credit: Joshua Edel

Topics: Optical Physics, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics

Note: My study group is preparing for midterms next week. I give my apologies for what will be an erratic posting schedule. I'm merging two colloquialisms: drinking from fire hoses and eating elephants one bite at a time. I should resume posting normalcy - as far as grad school goes - the 9th of October, until finals week in December.

From last Friday's posting, it's obvious what I thought of the (lack of) humanity pursuing the deaths of millions to give tax cuts for the few. I'm glad for the moment the Affordable Care Act hasn't met the zombie apocalypse. I have no doubt like the pertinacious walking dead, they will try again.

Surface plasmons—collective, light-driven oscillations of electrons in metal—have given us stained glass, flat lenses, and home pregnancy tests. Now they bring us the mirror–window, a liquid mirror whose reflectivity can be tuned, or eliminated altogether, with an applied voltage.

Developed by researchers led by Alexei Kornyshev, Anthony Kucernak, and Joshua Edel at Imperial College London, the device makes use of gold nanoparticles inside a cell filled with two immiscible electrolyte solutions—one aqueous, the other oily. Dispersed throughout one phase or the other, the nanoparticles interact negligibly with light, and the cell is transparent. But when the particles form a dense monolayer at the liquid–liquid interface, their plasmon resonances couple to each other and they become optically reflective.

Now you see this nanoplasmonic mirror. Now you don’t.A tunable assembly of gold nanoparticles can go from reflective to transparent with the flip of a switch.Ashley G. Smart, Physics Today

Kafkaesque Eugenics...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 22, 2017 at 5:02am

Image Source: YouTube, see embed

Topics: Commentary, Civil Rights, Diversity, Politics

Franz Kafka[a] (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-language novelist and short story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work, which fuses elements of realism and the fantastic,[3] typically features isolated protagonists faced by bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible social-bureaucratic powers, and has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity.[4] His best known works include "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis"), Der Process (The Trial), and Das Schloss (The Castle). The term Kafkaesque has entered the English language to describe situations like those in his writing. Source: Wikipedia

Kafkaesque: of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially :having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality - Kafkaesque bureaucratic delays Merriam Webster

Eugenics, the set of beliefs and practices which aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population[2][3] played a significant role in the history and culture of the United States prior to its involvement in World War II.[4]

Eugenics was practiced in the United States many years before eugenics programs in Nazi Germany,[5] which were largely inspired by the previous American work.[6][7][8] Stefan Kühl has documented the consensus between Nazi race policies and those of eugenicists in other countries, including the United States, and points out that eugenicists understood Nazi policies and measures as the realization of their goals and demands.[9]

During the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th century, eugenics was considered a method of preserving and improving the dominant groups in the population; it is now generally associated with racist and nativist elements as the movement was to some extent a reaction to a change in immigration from Europe rather than scientific genetics.[10] Source: Wikipedia

I posted on eugenics this year on 13 February featuring "The Myth of Race" by Robert Sussman. His thesis - as I remember the read - is still sound. The previous election was testament to Ta Nehisi Coates' essay observation on our current resident in Washington, that he does have an ideology: old, vile and ugly like grabbing genitals without permission; blatant in-your-face race-baiting, going from wink-and-nod dog whistles to foghorns. The 2016 election - Russian cum Facebook interference - has emboldened the darkest among us, evidenced by Charlottesville and its aftermath and the sympathies of our chief executive.

The repeal of the Affordable Care Act, known only by its pejorative, is in danger of being repealed yet again. It's to repeal, remove, replace any memory of the achievements of our first and only African American president in the history of the federal republic, all while stating the party is "not racist" with a straight faces and monochromatic instagram posts. The individual mandate in the ACA was a conservative idea originated by the Heritage Foundation - an effort to counter the expansion of Medicare-for-all (at the time called by the pejorative "HillaryCare"). The KGB/FSB saw "conditions and opportunity" that had not existed since the uprisings of the 1960s when the FBI had COINTELPRO violate the Civil Rights of Americans fighting for...their Civil Rights. Racial animus would serve their purposes of western instability far better.

The conditions were and are our own history we tend to whitewash and give "alternative facts" about. Cultural studies - African American, Hispanic/Latino, LGBT, Women - MUST be opposed, as they give a portfolio of researched facts that counters the official Pollyannaish self-delusional narrative. The only thing "conservative" is the status quo of white supremacy. The fact is, colonization results in indigenous peoples getting replaced by violence: murder, disease, "Trails of Tears." Disparate groups join the red trail, blocked from expressing their power at the ballot box and economically segregated for generations. The equivalent of Confederate generals celebrated in a war of treason would be replications on Hitler and swastikas in Germany and Israel. From cultural studies to science, it is why authoritarians oppose facts. Like Wednesday's post, these are the usual signs that points to diminution of democracy in a republic.

"Grandma-will-die-death-panels" as this repeal is a death panel, as millions of the GOP's supporters currently covered by the ACA will die. Like Hurricanes Katrina to Maria, such natural and political disasters illustrate the inequity of our society and how some well-heeled survive such changes - if you can afford healthcare with CASH, that IS your ACA! Those who cannot afford succumb to Darwinian extinction, a crass "survival of the fittest." Eugenics is what this is. It's what it's always been.

It's as clear as which group boards their property before a storm and starts consulting with architects to recover from the storm, to like many in New Orleans, stranded on roofs, figuratively and literally. Someone once told me "when you point one finger, three fingers point back at you," a hark to obvious, demonstrated hypocrisy. This nihilistic, Kafkaesque eugenics that will hurt "the least of these" should forever redefine us as not a "Christian nation," but a heartless and cruel one. Senator Cassidy has violated his Hippocratic Oath to "do no harm"; his party rejecting all claims to human decency.

Call:

Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121; 202-225-3121

Atom by Atom...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 21, 2017 at 4:28am

Fig. 1 Experimental schematic of the hybrid system and ToF apparatus.

(A) A schematic of the experimental apparatus, including the LQT, the high voltage pulsing scheme (shown as solid and dashed lines), and the ToF. (B) An illustrative experimental time sequence that depicts initialization of a Ba+ crystal, production of BaOCH3+ (visualized as dark ions in the crystal) through reactions with methanol vapor, and subsequent MOT immersion. (C) Sample mass spectra obtained after ejecting the LQT species into the ToF after various MOT immersion times, ti, along with an inset depicting a superimposed fluorescence image of an ion crystal immersed in the Ca MOT. (D) Mass spectra of photofragmentation products collected after inducing photodissociation of BaOCa+. The identified photofragments were used to verify the elemental composition of the product.

Topics: Atomic Physics, Modern Physics, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics

LA physicists have pioneered a method for creating a unique new molecule that could eventually have applications in medicine, food science and other fields. Their research, which also shows how chemical reactions can be studied on a microscopic scale using tools of physics, is reported in the journal Science.

For the past 200 years, scientists have developed rules to describe chemical reactions that they’ve observed, including reactions in food, vitamins, medications and living organisms. One of the most ubiquitous is the “octet rule,” which states that each atom in a molecule that is produced by a chemical reaction will have eight outer orbiting electrons. (Scientists have found exceptions to the rule, but those exceptions are rare.)

But the molecule created by UCLA professor Eric Hudson and colleagues violates that rule. Barium-oxygen-calcium, or BaOCa+, is the first molecule ever observed by scientists that is composed of an oxygen atom bonded to two different metal atoms.

Normally, one metal atom (either barium or calcium) can react with an oxygen atom to produce a stable molecule. However, when the UCLA scientists added a second metal atom to the mix, a new molecule, BaOCa+, which no longer satisfied the octet rule, had been formed. [1]

Abstract

Hypermetallic alkaline earth (M) oxides of formula MOM have been studied under plasma conditions that preclude insight into their formation mechanism. We present here the application of emerging techniques in ultracold physics to the synthesis of a mixed hypermetallic oxide, BaOCa+. These methods, augmented by high-level electronic structure calculations, permit detailed investigation of the bonding and structure, as well as the mechanism of its formation via the barrierless reaction of Ca (3PJ) with BaOCH3+. Further investigations of the reaction kinetics as a function of collision energy over the range 0.005 K to 30 K and of individual Ca fine-structure levels compare favorably with calculations based on long-range capture theory. [2]

1. In step toward ‘controlling chemistry,’ physicists create a new type of molecule, atom by atom, Stuart Wolpert, UCLA Newsroom2. Synthesis of mixed hypermetallic oxide BaOCa+ from laser-cooled reagents in an atom-ion hybrid trapPrateek Puri¹, Michael Mills¹, Christian Schneider¹, Ionel Simbotin², John A. Montgomery Jr.², Robin Côté², Arthur G. Suits³, Eric R. Hudson¹,*1 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.2 Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.3 Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.*Corresponding author. Email: eric.hudson@ucla.edu

Brazil, Reductio Ad Absurdum...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 20, 2017 at 6:19am

Image Source: See link [2] below

Topics: Commentary, Education, Physics, Research

Scientists in Brazil have protested devastating cuts to science that are threatening to close institutes and funding agencies across the country. Earlier this month about 900 people took to the streets in Rio de Janeiro to protest over budget reductions that have hit science this year. Meanwhile, around 80,000 people in Brazil have signed an online petition, set up in late August, calling on Brazil's president, Michel Temer, to reverse the cuts.

Brazil spent around R$10bn (£2.4bn) on science in 2014, but that figure has been steadily dropping. This year the budget was initially planned to be around R$6bn, but the new government that took over in August 2016 following the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff slashed it even further to R$3.4m.

Major scientific agencies are now starting to run out of money. The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, for example, may not be able to pay employees and researchers in October, while other major science and research centres such as the National Observatory and the National Institute for Space Research are also facing restrictions on cash flows. [1]

For empirical evidence of the changing mood, consider the chart above, drawn from a survey released in September by Latinobarómetro, a Chilean pollster. Every year, it asks people across the region whether they agree with the statement: “Democracy is preferable to any other form of government.” In 2016, just 32 percent of Brazilians agreed – a whopping 22 percentage point decline compared to 2015, by far the largest drop of any country in the survey. Only Guatemala – a country so plagued by violence and poverty that tens of thousands of its people flee every year – registered less support for democracy in 2016 than Brazil. Meanwhile, the number of Brazilians who agree that “I don’t mind a non-democratic government as long as it solves problems” rose to 55 percent – defying a downward trend across Latin America as a whole.

The reasons for this shift are fairly obvious. In the minds of some Brazilians, the worst recession in at least a century and the discovery of billions of dollars in graft at Petrobras and elsewhere have discredited not just the entire political class, but “democracy” as a whole. This may sound like an overreaction – and it is – but remember that Brazil’s democracy is barely 30 years old. Most of that period has been dominated by center-left governments of varying stripes which during the 1990s and 2000s successfully brought tens of millions of Brazilians out of poverty, virtually eliminated hunger, and consolidated many democratic institutions. But in a “What have you done for me lately?” kind of world, they are now collectively blamed for unemployment above 11 percent, some of Latin America’s highest taxes, seemingly daily revelations of corruption, and a horrifying 58,000 homicides per year. [2]

“Austria. Well then. G’day, mate! Let’s put another shrimp on the barbie!” — Lloyd, Dumb and Dumber

1. Budget crunch hits Brazilian physics, Henrique Kugler is a science writer based in Brazil, Physics World2. Brazil’s Authoritarian Side Makes a Comeback, Brian Winter, American Quarterly

PassGAN...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 19, 2017 at 5:43pm

A new tool in deep learning renders passwords less secure. weerapatkiatdumrong/iStockphoto

Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Commentary, Computer Science

"Locks are made for honest people." Robert H. Goodwin, June 19 (Juneteenth), 1925 - August 26, 1999 (Pop)

Last week, the credit reporting agency Equifax announced that malicious hackers had leaked the personal information of 143 million people in their system. That’s reason for concern, of course, but if a hacker wants to access your online data by simply guessing your password, you’re probably toast in less than an hour. Now, there’s more bad news: Scientists have harnessed the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to create a program that, combined with existing tools, figured more than a quarter of the passwords from a set of more than 43 million LinkedIn profiles. Yet the researchers say the technology may also be used to beat baddies at their own game.

The work could help average users and companies measure the strength of passwords, says Thomas Ristenpart, a computer scientist who studies computer security at Cornell Tech in New York City but was not involved with the study. “The new technique could also potentially be used to generate decoy passwords to help detect breaches.”

The strongest password guessing programs, John the Ripper and hashCat, use several techniques. One is simple brute force, in which they randomly try lots of combinations of characters until they get the right one. But other approaches involve extrapolating from previously leaked passwords and probability methods to guess each character in a password based on what came before. On some sites, these programs have guessed more than 90% of passwords. But they’ve required many years of manual coding to build up their plans of attack.

The new study aimed to speed this up by applying deep learning, a brain-inspired approach at the cutting edge of AI. Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, started with a so-called generative adversarial network, or GAN, which comprises two artificial neural networks. A “generator” attempts to produce artificial outputs (like images) that resemble real examples (actual photos), while a “discriminator” tries to detect real from fake. They help refine each other until the generator becomes a skilled counterfeiter.

Giuseppe Ateniese, a computer scientist at Stevens and paper co-author, compares the generator and discriminator to a police sketch artist and eye witness, respectively; the sketch artist is trying to produce something that can pass as an accurate portrait of the criminal. GANs have been used to make realistic images, but have not been applied much to text.

The Stevens team created a GAN it called PassGAN and compared it with two versions of hashCat and one version of John the Ripper. The scientists fed each tool tens of millions of leaked passwords from a gaming site called RockYou, and asked them to generate hundreds of millions of new passwords on their own. Then they counted how many of these new passwords matched a set of leaked passwords from LinkedIn, as a measure of how successful they’d be at cracking them.

Artificial intelligence just made guessing your password a whole lot easierMatthew Hutson, Science Magazine, AAAS