Reginald L. Goodwin's Posts

Small Solutions For Big Problems...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 5, 2015 at 7:24am

Image source: National Physical Laboratory

Topics: Carbon Nanotubes, Diversity, Diversity in Science, Engineering Physics, Materials Science, Nanotechnology, Semiconductor Technology, Women in Science

Stephanie Moroz and I share the same background in Engineering Physics and both in the same industry at the moment (she has extensive experience in other areas as well, and I'm not a CEO). She gives an excellent primer presentation at TEDx:

What is nanotechnology? Stephanie Moroz explores some of the ways that designing materials at an incredibly small scale can address global challenges in fields such as energy, medicine and electronics.

Stephanie Moroz is the CEO of Nano-Nouvelle, a Sunshine Coast company developing high-performance battery electrodes. Her international career has been dedicated to commercializing new technologies, particularly in the areas of energy efficiency and nanomaterials.

Stephanie is a truly global citizen. With her education in engineering physics, she has worked in Canada and then Germany where she led the integration of hydrogen fuel cells into the Mercedes F-CELL vehicle. From there she moved to France, developing systems to reduce the pollution generated by conventional vehicles. Finally, she was lured to Australia by opportunities in nanotechnology: first in solid-state hydrogen storage and now innovative battery materials at Nano-Nouvelle.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Times Dark and Terrible...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 4, 2015 at 10:30am

Topics: Black Holes, CERN, God Particle, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, Humor, Large Hadron Collider, Particle Physics

Realize that the site Addicting Info usually titles its post with bombastic themes for equally outrageous stories. My response to this one regarding the latest conspiracy provocateur to enjoin that the Large Hadron Collider will "open other dimensions" or in a new twist, it's the "new Tower of Babel," and that its operation is a "dark and terrible chapter in human history." I posted the above meme sentiment and the following statement:

The "dark and terrible" chapter in human history is the willful choice of scientific ignorance in the 21st Century.

That got a lot of responses on Facebook, hundreds mostly positive with the exception of two trolls: one that ranted and the other that chimed in. They had their say and were brief and silent after that for the most part. The only dark and terrible time I can think of is the dark ages.

Willful meaning that with our access to the Internet and before that a public library, this kind of bombast without qualification is rather inexcusable. The only motivation is to pull a certain section of society towards your worldview; the only strength of your position is their ignorance, which unlike Thomas Gray's Ode on a Distant Prospect at Eton College, is not "bliss" or necessity: it is control.

A brief history of accelerators and particle physics:

Accelerators: John D. Cockcroft and Ernest Walton at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, sought a way into the nucleus through a prediction of quantum mechanics. George Gamow had suggested that a particle with too little energy to overcome the electrical repulsion of the nucleus through the barrier. (The trick was that the energy of the particle was not actually well-defined, according to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle). In 1930 Cockcroft and Walton used a 200-kilovolt transformer to accelerate protons down a straight discharge tube, but they concluded that Gamow's tunnelling did not work and decided to seek higher energies. [1] The Bubble Accelerator was designed by Donald A. Glaser, a popular apocryphal story about him contemplating the design over beer: it's something you hear as an undergrad and never, ever forget! He did win the Nobel Prize in 1960 for the Bubble Chamber.

Some examples:

Van der Graaf generator: If your high school physics teacher had you touch it and your hair stood on end like an Afro, THAT was a particle accelerator, no dimensions were opened or damaged in these experiments.

X-rays and nMRI: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging comes to mind. If you've had these procedures in a medical event, you have particle physics to thank for it.

Related info:

Black Holes: The byproduct of Red Giant stars that collapse after their nuclear fuel is spent at the end of their lifetimes. Our own sun at its end will likely become a Brown or White Dwarf, as it's not that massive. A large part of the analysis to even propose Black Holes was developed during the Second World War in the development of the atomic bomb. It was once so extreme, not even Einstein believed they could exist, though General Relativity pretty much predicted it. [2, 3]

CERN: European Organization for Nuclear Research. Here's a link that is a PDF on technological spin offs, some of which are things like, I don't know: the World Wide Web. The rants I've seen on web sites (or, even responses to some of my posts in the past) are breathtaking in their hypocrisy. I'd have more respect for a group that sincerely went back to snail mail, the Abacus and Slide Rule (I have the latter). There's even spin offs for treating cancer and solar panels.

The God Particle: Also known as the Higgs Boson. It was coined by Nobel Prize winning physicist Leon M. Lederman and science writer Dick Teresi in a book by the same name, the subtitle an obvious nod to "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy": The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What Is the Question? Lederman often joked due to the frustration at the time not having found it - with a colorful metaphor what else he would like to have called it. In this case, 42 didn't quite cover it.

Particle Physics: "Particle physics is the branch of physics that studies the nature of the particles that constitute matter (particles with mass) and radiation (massless particles). Although the word "particle" can refer to various types of very small objects (e.g. protons, gas particles, or even household dust), "particle physics" usually investigates the irreducibly smallest detectable particles and the irreducibly fundamental force fields necessary to explain them. By our current understanding, these elementary particles are excitations of the quantum fields that also govern their interactions. The currently dominant theory explaining these fundamental particles and fields, along with their dynamics, is called the Standard Model. Thus, modern particle physics generally investigates the Standard Model and its various possible extensions, e.g to the newest "known" particle, the Higgs boson, or even to the oldest known force field, gravity." Wikipedia

Wormholes: See Kip Thorne's book below [2]. It was the Einstein-Rosen Bridge seen in the movies Contact from Carl Sagan's novel and most recently, Marvel's Thor. An advanced civilization that lived beyond its technological adolescence (i.e., they didn't blow themselves to kingdom come) could probably engineer one.

So, rather than a soundbite, I thought it important to give longer explanations. It's easier to find out How Accelerators Work [4] by simply going to a site where experts give an explanation for consumption by the general public.

As a country, we have a historic fear and loathing of science - the aforementioned bomb [3] and the Tuskegee Experiments didn't help. This "dark and terrible chapter" for the most part had a lot of positive spin offs that have benefited everyone. Now, ignorance is a choice, but not a permanent state of affairs. As Carl Sagan said, "We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." That state can be remedied.

1. American Institute of Physics: Early Particle Accelerators
2. "Black Holes and Time Warps-Einstein's Outrageous Legacy," Kip Thorne
3. #P4TC: M.A.D...
4. CERN: How Accelerators Work

Ultracold Atom Reservoir...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 3, 2015 at 7:56am

The ultracold atom reservoir. The 3D MOT is located in the centre of the region of cross-hatched copper pipes at the bottom left of the L-shape. Atoms are then guided to the right along the middle pipe in the trio of pipes, which dips into the differential pumping stage (in the U-bend) before rising upwards. The reservoir of ultracold atoms is at the centre of the region of cross-hatched copper pipes at the top of the L-shape. (Courtesy: Jan Mahnke)

Topics: Bose-Einstein Condensate, Condensed Matter Physics, Lasers, Quantum Mechanics, Thermodynamics

A reservoir of ultracold atoms that is topped-up continuously has been unveiled by physicists in Germany and Denmark. The system can store 38 million rubidium atoms at a temperature of 102 μK, and the team says that it could be adapted to work for a wide range of particles and trapping methods. Applications of the reservoir include using the cold atoms in metrology systems or to cool other gases or even tiny objects.

Gases of ultracold atoms and molecules are used in a wide range of applications, including atomic clocks and simulating quantum effects in solid materials. While physicists have come a long way in developing and perfecting techniques for cooling gases to temperatures as low as 50 pK, these are "one-shot" systems in which the gas is cooled in isolation and then the atoms are put to use until their numbers are exhausted or the gas is destroyed by making a measurement. In some cases, however, it would be useful to maintain a continuous reservoir of ultracold atoms that could be used to perform continuous metrology or to cool other systems.

Now, Jan Mahnke and colleagues at Leibniz Universität Hannover and Aarhus Universitet have created a continuously pumped reservoir of ultracold atoms that is integrated within an L-shaped device that is made from a copper block measuring several centimetres across (see image above). The cooling process begins in a separate device that functions as a 2D magneto-optical trap (MOT). This uses laser beams and magnetic fields to cool and guide about 10 billion rubidium-87 atoms at temperatures as low as 25 μK. Some of these atoms are then transferred to the first stage of the reservoir device, which is a 3D MOT that can store about 2 billion atoms.

Physics World: Reservoir of ultracold atoms is filled continuously, Hamish Johnston

We, Oligarchy...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 2, 2015 at 6:18am

Image Source: IMDb

Topics: Democracy, Exceptionalism, Internet, Oligarchy, Republic

We are now days from the first debates of the presidential cycle - The Cycle, NOW with Alex Wagner and the Ed Show cancelled on MSNBC due to executives kowtowing at the arcane Nielsen altar, which worked well when you had only ABC, CBS NBC and a few UHF channels: on-demand television and cable viewing, Net Flicks, Amazon Prime et al and pretty much NO ONE in America working a standard 9 - 5 whereby they can park and watch Walter Cronkite at 6:30 pm has somewhat changed the game for the non-Fox audience that's not older, whiter, more conservative and semi or fully retired. We've been in the throws of reality television since Candid Camera in 1948. It has been the recent advent of Internet technology; instantaneous gratification by pointing and clicking that allows us all to "vote" for our favorite dancer/singer from the comfort of our living rooms that have allowed us all to participate in what used to be merely voyeurism with the boob tube. I currently have several apps on my smart phone, one of them allowing me to order a sandwich - days in advance - and pick it up at the shop at an appointed time and on a "rapid pick up" shelf.

"The Donald": a self-made billionaire with cheap toupee or poor comb over inherited his fortunes from his self-made millionaire father, and continued in the family business. He's had a triplet series of traditional marriages and far more bankruptcies. Someone at a New Hampshire focus group said: "he's just like us" while another woman said "he was classy." Unless you are worth billions and have a string of marriages and business bankruptcies, he's not "just like us"; and madam: if a bloviating bigot is your definition of "classy," I fear you need to get out more.

Image source: Super Mario Wiki and this blog

The Donald is a reality TV star - part of a long list of reality shows I don't watch - host of The Apprentice - and publisher of several books on his business philosophy and self-importance. He's been around notoriety-wise since the 1980's when he was much thinner and had exceptionally more hair. And now, his time has come. We have been conditioned like Pavlov's dogs from the sixty-seven year onslaught of filler television programming to consider his bid for the presidency genuine. We had a B-movie actor - why not The Donald? Conventional wisdom is he would have imploded by now and slinked back to his show with a boost in draconian Nielsen ratings. He's not doing it now. The oligarchs are likely quite confused, amused and nervous. As the departing Jon Stewart remarked [paraphrased]: "as a 1%er, he's supposed to BUY politicians, not actually become one." For the likes of the Koch brothers, the sock puppets Scott Walker and Chris Christie are "their kind of guys." The Donald is a loose and unpredictable cannon, following the formula that gets your reality primary high ratings. By going with the top 10 averaged in national polls, it encourages bombast and outrageous behaviors such that it is essentially what the GOP primary has become.

From above: "I currently have several apps on my smart phone, one of them allowing me to order a sandwich - days in advance - and pick it up at the shop at an appointed time and on a 'rapid pick up' shelf." Question: if we can do this with apps to get food and vote for our favorite contestant on "reality TV," why are we NOT doing it for the voting franchise? With mobile technology, ~90% of 311 million people voting would be a far louder voice than "corporations are people" Citizens United decisions that ushered in this current non-democratic (or, republic for that matter) model. Former President Carter disabused us of any illusions if we weren't already.

Answer: it would be "too much democracy." Now, that sounds horrifying on its face, but as a nation, we're somewhat prone not to reason, examination of facts/details/data and debate, but someone who sounds confident; "the decider" who "goes with his gut"; rides tall in the saddle even though he had as many deferments as Dick Cheney during the Vietnam conflict. The aforementioned, underlined link in the first sentence is one of many I found just searching on the term itself. Carnival barkers of Trump's mold - like used car salesmen - don't have to BE genuine, but like reality TV, they MUST at least sound genuine. We are ripe for an authoritarian, carnival barker or otherwise.

George Carlin - public intellectual, ever timely and prescient of the current election cycle with his stand-up: "Dumb Americans." American Exceptionalism is the mythology we tell ourselves, and provocateurs like Trump - strides in and yells it loud to adoring crowds. He has no solutions; no specifics. His hand gestures have become caricature, yet his appeal is due to the systematic dumbing down we've experienced for a little over two generations now. Science and technology - paramount to our survival - will exist in a parallel reality, its warnings ignored, as obedient Pavlov hounds bay at the previous month's blue moon and the rich wolves count the dividends they will send overseas, away from these shores, its crumbling roads, schools and infrastructure.

To quote Lawrence Lessig, we are a Republic, Lost.

An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight. It is therefore imperative that the nation see to it that a suitable education be provided for all its citizens. It should be noted, that when Jefferson speaks of "science," he is often referring to knowledge or learning in general.

Thomas Jefferson on Politics and Government

"Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens," Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page

Kirigami Transistors...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 31, 2015 at 1:51pm

On the left is a paper model of the kirigami-inspired graphene pyramid, which is the square object in the microscope image on the right. Also shown in the microscope image are a spiral spring (top) and a number of cantilevers (right). The scale bar in the microscope image is 10 μm long. (Courtesy: McEuen Group, Cornell University)

Topics: Consumer Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Nanotechnology, Semiconductor Technology

A stretchable and bendable transistor has been made by researchers in the US by applying the principles of kirigami – the Japanese art of paper cutting – to graphene. The researchers have also made tiny graphene-based hinges and pyramids, and they are confident that they could reduce the size of their devices to the nanometre scale. The team also points out that the current micro-scale devices could be useful for biocompatible electronics, including probes for the study of neurons.

The mainstay of the electronics industry, silicon, is rigid and brittle, and is therefore not appropriate for making deformable electronics. The ability to deform is particularly useful for electronic devices that interface with biological organisms, for example sensitive prosthetic skin and subcutaneous sensors, which must bend and stretch with surrounding tissue. Graphene is a flexible sheet of carbon just one atom thick, and could offer a way to create deformable electronics because of its high electrical conductivity. One problem with graphene, however, is that it stretches very little.

Nanoscientist Paul McEuen and colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, were inspired to try graphene kirigami after they investigated the bending stiffness of the material. They used an infrared laser beam to press on a gold pad located on the tip of a graphene cantilever that is about 10 μm long. By measuring the displacement in response to the known force of the laser photons, they calculated the bending stiffness of the material. They also monitored the thermal oscillations of a graphene cantilever and calculated the stiffness from the oscillation amplitude.

Physics World: Stretchable graphene transistors inspired by kirigami, Tim Wogan

Millennials and Big Science...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 30, 2015 at 8:17am

Image Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science (link below)

Topics: Diversity, Diversity in Science, Economy, Education, Science, STEM, Research

It's easy to bash millennials until you're in two classrooms with them. I taught Algebra, Pre Calculus and Physics between two campuses in Texas: Hutto and Manor High Schools respectively.

They're a lively bunch; probably better than an Expresso if you "really" want to wake up (or, even if you don't).

It's nice when someone of Dr. Gate's stature recognizes and encourages it as well.

I have a selfish interest encouraging this observed collaborative spirit as well: I'd like to retire with the store "fully functional" on my departure from the workforce (one day).

I thoroughly enjoyed my "coming of age" in the 1980s, but I do envy millennials - this is your time: a time of both great perils to be solved and great wonders to be discovered. It depends on what you're willing to step forward and emphasize that will shape the future, quite literally for the entire planet and species.

The U.S. R&D enterprise needs more support, but millennials, born near the end of the 20th century, share characteristics that will serve them well if they become scientists, S. James Gates Jr. said at the AAAS-Hitachi lecture.

The United States used science and technology to great economic benefit after World War II and can continue to "master the innovation cycle" by drawing on the collaborative nature of millennials who started to come of age as the century turned, a leading physicist told a AAAS gathering recently.

S. James Gates Jr., a theoretical physicist at the University of Maryland and self-described policy wonk, shared his thoughts on the future of "big science" and the challenges the nation faces as it responds to increased scientific and economic competition from abroad.

He noted that millennials, those born between 1982 and 2000, now make up a larger percentage of the U.S. population than the baby boomers born after World War II. According to the Census Bureau, millennials number 83.1 million and account for more than one quarter of the U.S. population while the boomers number 75.4 million. The millennial generation also is more diverse, Gates said, offering the possibility that creative new approaches to science may emerge.

From Forbes: "Why You Can't Ignore Millennials," Dan Schawbel

The millennials show a willingness to embrace dramatic social shifts, are comfortable with the new technologies that have connected us via the Internet, and exhibit "a far more collaborative" streak than some previous generations, Gates said. That willingness to work in groups, share information and ideas, and collaborate on projects is highly compatible with the methods and goals of science, and Gates said it is something to be admired and fostered.

AAAS: Collaborative Spirit of Millennial Generation May Benefit Big Science, Earl Lane

Pig Fat Laser...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 29, 2015 at 7:15am

Technology Review: A piece of pig skin glows with laser light after being stimulated by an optical fiber.

Topics: Biomedicine, Humor, Laser, Modern Physics, Optical Physics, Photonics, Research

Yes, you read the post title right, and it's referenced in the title of the article at Technology Review. The technique has also apparently been done with human samples. I could only grin as I know a few of my Jewish and Muslim friends and family members who probably wouldn't think of such a device as "kosher."

Researchers have made pig-skin lasers. Yes, pig laser beams.

The technology, outlined in a paper published today in Nature Photonics, showed that pumping light into fat cells could turn them into tiny, self-contained lasers.

The microlaser technique could afford scientists new ways to study and use cells, but mostly it’s just “very cool,” says Russ Algar, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, who wasn’t involved in the work.

MIT Technology Review: Making Pig Fat into a Laser, Karen Weintraub

Qubits and Black Holes...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 28, 2015 at 9:34pm

Image Source: Fig 2, CERN Courier article

Topics: Black Holes, Cosmology, General Relativity, High Energy Physics, Particle Physics, Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, Theoretical Physics

Abstract

We demonstrate an algorithm for the retrieval of a qubit, encoded in spin angular momentum, that has been dropped into a no-firewall unitary black hole. Retrieval is achieved analogously to quantum teleportation by collecting Hawking radiation and performing measurements on the black hole. Importantly, these methods only require the ability to perform measurements from outside the event horizon and to collect the Hawking radiation emitted after the state of interest is dropped into the black hole.

Physics arXiv: How to Recover a Qubit That Has Fallen Into a Black Hole
Aidan Chatwin-Davies, Adam S. Jermyn, Sean M. Carroll

Weyl Fermions...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 27, 2015 at 8:29am

The surface of the double-gyroid photonic crystal used by Marin Soljačić and colleagues. A US dime is shown for scale. (Courtesy: Ling Lu)

Topics: Consumer Electronics, Particle Physics, Photonics, Quantum Computer, Theoretical Physics

Evidence for the existence of particles called Weyl fermions in two very different solid materials has been found by three independent groups of physicists. First predicted in 1929, Weyl fermions also have unique properties that could make them useful for creating high-speed electronic circuits and quantum computers.

In 1928 Paul Dirac derived his eponymous equation, which describes the physics of spin-1/2 fundamental particles called fermions. For particles with charge and mass, he found that the Dirac equation predicts the existence of the electron and its antiparticle the positron, the latter being discovered in 1932.

However, there are other solutions of the Dirac equation that suggest the existence of more exotic particles than the familiar electron. In 1937 Ettore Majorana discovered a solution of the equation that describes a neutral particle that is its own antiparticle: the Majorana fermion. Although there is no evidence that Majorana fermions exist as fundamental particles, Majorana-like collective excitations (or quasiparticles) have been detected in condensed-matter systems. Another solution of the Dirac equation – this time for massless particles – was derived in 1929 by the German mathematician Hermann Weyl. For some time it was thought that neutrinos were Weyl fermions, but now it looks almost certain that neutrinos have mass and are therefore not Weyl particles.

Now, a group headed by Zahid Hasan at Princeton University has found evidence that Weyl fermions exist as quasiparticles – collective excitations of electrons – in the semimetal tanatalum arsenide (TaAs).

Physics World: Weyl fermions are spotted at long last, Hamish Johnston

Existence...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 26, 2015 at 2:11pm

Topics: Astrobiology, Biology, Existentialism, Philosophy, Science, Research

Note: This is a series by Quanta Magazine titled "In Theory." Though intriguing, I almost hesitated because of the title. However, the theoretical discipline has been misunderstood and caricatured by self-described "Google professors"; pseudoscience and conspiracy provocateurs. I prefer that term (provocateurs) to "theorist" for that reason. All theories are eventually proven or disproved by experimental scientists, not opinions, cognitive dissonance, revelation, visions, hunches, hoopla or mumbo-jumbo.

About Quanta Magazine:

Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent online publication launched by the Simons Foundation to enhance public understanding of science. Why Quanta? Albert Einstein called photons “quanta of light.” Our goal is to “illuminate science.”

Our reporters focus on developments in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science and the basic life sciences. The best traditional news organizations provide excellent reporting on developments in health, medicine, technology and engineering. We strive to complement and augment existing media coverage, not compete with it.

Earth 2.0...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 23, 2015 at 6:17am

The artistic concept shows NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft operating in a new mission profile called K2. Using publicly available data, astronomers may have confirmed K2's first discovery of star with more than one planet. Image Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T Pyle

Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Climate Change, Exoplanets, Kepler Telescope, Planetary Science, Space Exploration

There's an announcement coming out today at 12 noon EST. True to form, IFLS and Hopes and Fears have given their usual breathless hyperbole. I don't know if it's "another Earth," or even if it matters. Since our fastest propulsion gets us to Pluto in ~ nine years, we currently don't have a spare hyper/warp drive to get us there in current human lifespans, though Monday's post is a good step in the interplanetary direction. Climate change is a slow-mo existential train wreck, and despite warnings by the Pentagon no less, we can't seem to get our leaders to act on: I fear we're already out of options. I don't plan to be here in fifty years when Greenland's ice sheet disappears, and Florida's coasts are under water. Neither of our presidential candidates, some of whom and their constituents are apparently willing to debate the Pope, but not science publicly. I'd rather, take care of the planet we're on as the expense would bankrupt the global economy; such an enterprise (pun intended) would take generations, not weeks.

NASA will host a news teleconference at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT) Thursday, July 23, to announce new discoveries made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope.

The first exoplanet orbiting another star like our sun was discovered in 1995. Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21 years ago. Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands of years -- another Earth.

The teleconference audio and visuals will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

JPL: NASA Hosts Media Telecon About Latest Kepler Discoveries

Smooth Operator...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 22, 2015 at 6:58am

Illustration of the programmable photonic circuit. Photons enter from the left, are processed and exit to the right. The connector at the centre top of the circuit is to the external control system. (Courtesy: Jacques Carolan et al./Science).

Topics: Consumer Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Nanotechnology, Optics, Photonics, Quantum Computer, Semiconductor Technology

Note: "Smooth operator" is in the link title of the above photo in the article. No insult or creative infringement to Helen Folasade Adu (the singer Sade) was intended.

A group of physicists in the UK has made a programmable photonic circuit that can be used to carry out any kind of linear optics operation. The researchers say that the device provides experimental proof of a long-standing theory in quantum information, and could help speed the development of photonic quantum computers, as well as establishing whether quantum computers are fundamentally different from their classical counterparts.

The research builds on work carried out back in 1897 by German mathematician Adolf Hurwitz, who showed how a matrix of complex numbers known as a unitary operator can be built up from smaller 2 × 2 matrices. A unitary operator provides a mathematical description of a linear optical circuit. This is any circuit that uses fairly standard optical components – such as mirrors, half-silvered mirrors and phase shifters – to route photons and cause them to interfere with one other. The operator has as many rows as there are output ports in the circuit and as many columns as there are input ports. With only one photon in the circuit, the probability that it travels from a particular input to a particular output is given by the square of the corresponding matrix entry.

Physics World: Physicists build universal optics chip, Edwin Cartlidge

The Scalpel and Rosie...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 22, 2015 at 6:55am

Image Source: da Vinci Robotic Surgery

Topics: Applied Physics, Biology, Computer Science, Medical Physics, Robotics

The paper describes the usage of robotics for minimally invasive surgery in mostly urology and gynecology; in my case it was sinus surgery. The 144 deaths out of 10,624 (1.4%) robotic surgeries is only small to the statisticians, not the families. I am not against these surgeries (and, if your medical provider is has experience in it, please go with their expertise and judgment), just that we obviously have a few kinks to work out yet. Even though my last thought before surgery was "this looks like Star Trek," I think we're still a few years away from Starfleet Medical.

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Robotic surgeons were involved in the deaths of 144 people between 2000 and 2013, according to records kept by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And some forms of robotic surgery are much riskier than others: the death rate for head, neck, and cardiothoracic surgery is almost 10 times higher than for other forms of surgery.

Robotic surgery has increased dramatically in recent years. Between 2007 and 2013, patients underwent more than 1.7 million robotic procedures in the U.S., the vast majority of them performed in gynecology and urology. “Yet no comprehensive study of the safety and reliability of surgical robots has been performed,” say Jai Raman at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and a few pals.

Physics arXiv:
Adverse Events in Robotic Surgery: A Retrospective Study of 14 Years of FDA Data
Homa Alemzadeh, Ravishankar K. Iyer, Zbigniew Kalbarczyk, Nancy Leveson, Jaishankar Raman

On A Roll...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 20, 2015 at 9:00am

Image Source: Science Alert

Topics: Boeing, Lasers, Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, Star Trek, Star Wars

Earlier this year, Boeing patented a force field. Now, companies pursue patents largely for protection of intellectual property, but these pursuits have been legitimate good press beyond just the occasional TV commercial that blurs by in 30 seconds or so. If it works (the force field), it would only be good at this time for jeeps on the ground in conflicts that involve Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). This fusion jet would change the game of propulsion terrestrially as well as for interplanetary travel. Like the previous patent filing, this is just a concept at the moment.

This is another neat idea that brings fusion propulsion a little closer. I don't think we'll be breaking the champagne bottles christening Utopia Planitia shipyards just yet.

Last week, the US Patent and Trademark Office approved an application from Boeing’s Robert Budica, James Herzberg, and Frank Chandler for a laser-and-nuclear driven aeroplane engine.

Boeing’s newly-patented engine provides thrust in a very different and rather novel manner. According to the patent filing, the laser engine may also be used to power rockets, missiles, and even spacecraft.

As of now, the engine lives only in patent documents. The technology is so out-there, that it’s unclear if anyone will ever build it.

Science Alert:
Boeing just patented a jet engine powered by lasers and nuclear explosions
Benjamin Zhang, Business Insider

Our Loss, The Universe's Gain...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 17, 2015 at 6:30am

As a research scientist, she inspired a generation, especially young women, to seek careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

This weekend was one of great excitement for the planetary science community as the New Horizons spacecraft moved in on Pluto following decades of hard work. But that optimism took on a somber tone Saturday as news quickly traveled that pioneering scientist Claudia Alexander had died at age 56. Friends and family writing online tributes reported she suffered from breast cancer, but no official cause of death was given.

Alexander was an employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the final project manager for NASA’s Galileo mission. But her public profile rose dramatically last fall due to her duties asproject scientist for NASA’s role in the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

"The passing of Claudia Alexander reminds us of how fragile we are as humans but also as scientists how lucky we are to be part of planetary science,” James Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said in a statement. “She and I constantly talked about comets. Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in particular. She was an absolute delight to be with and always had a huge engaging smile when I saw her. It was easy to see that she loved what she was doing. We lost a fantastic colleague and great friend. I will miss her."

I still can't believe it...

Astronomy: Pioneering Rosetta mission scientist Claudia Alexander dead at 56, Eric Betz

Tracking, Calculus and Mozart...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 17, 2015 at 6:13am

Image Source: Amazon.com, 1990 edition

Topics: Calculus, Cosmos, History, Humor, Research, Science, Scientific Method

Note: Post title derived from the paper by the author as it appeared in Skeptic Magazine (link below).

Louis Liebenberg does a really good job in his work "The Art of Tracking: The Origin of Science." The book actually came out three years ago on Amazon, and apparently an earlier version with not much fanfare (and surprisingly, FREE e-book versions at Cyber Tracker, 2nd link below). His premise - and experience learning tracking skills from native foragers - that it was the habits of hunter-gatherers, then and now that caused our brains to reason and develop what we now call science and The Scientific Method. I recall reading in Carl Sagan's Cosmos a similar observation of trackers.

Liebenberg goes a bit deeper into the differentiation between inductive-deductive reasoning and hypothetical-deductive reasoning. The first has to do with direct observations and conclusions from those observations. An example given is "the sun appears to rise in the east, so it must always rise in the east." It is a bit conservative and non-questioning. The hypothetical-deductive poses: "perhaps the Earth is rotating and not the sun moving, and if I were to travel to say, the North Pole, the sun wouldn't appear to move at all." Both are paraphrased quotes from an article I read by the author that appeared on Skeptic Magazine.

It takes nothing away from Ibn al-Haytham and his mighty contribution to The Scientific Method (or Monty Python). It takes nothing from the designers of pyramids in Egypt and the Americas (they just weren't "ancient astronauts" as the fuzzy-haired guy on H2 insists). It's a little expanded from the Ionian settlement (modern day Turkey) originating philosophy that led to debate; logic and the hypothesis of the atom as the smallest division of matter. Also, the author does an excellent job of the interrelation between inductive-deductive and hypothetico-deductive reasoning: one sticks with conventional wisdom and knowledge; the other asks questions and opens itself to debate. It's probably the origins of the combative art of peer review. It may be the reason we feel impelled to explore electronics, music; atoms, quarks and quasars.

All links below are from or relate to the author Louis Liebenberg:

Amazon.com: The Art of Tracking - The Origin of Science
Cyber Tracker: The Origin of Science
Skeptic Magazine:
Tracking Science: The Origin of Scientific Thinking in Our Paleolithic Ancestors

W. M. Keck Foundation Award...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 16, 2015 at 7:10am

Mark G. Raizen, Professor of Physics

Topics: Atomic Physics, Optical Physics, Laser Cooling, Nanotechnology, Nobel Prize, Research

In a society of near instantaneous gratification, this represents years of painstaking research and discipline. You can see more of Mark's research here at the research groups' home page. I salute this achievement and am proud to call he and his wife Alicia good friends of the family.

AUSTIN, Texas — The W. M. Keck Foundation has awarded scientists at The University of Texas at Austin two grants totaling $1.5 million to develop a powerful, alternative method for cooling atoms and involve more undergraduate students in using new advanced technologies for research.

Known for supporting high-impact research with the potential to reshape scientific understanding, the Keck Foundation’s contributions to The University of Texas at Austin total more than $7 million with the two new grants announced this month.

A grant of $1 million from the Keck Foundation’s Science and Engineering Research Grant Program will support the “Ultra-Bright Atom Laser” project led by Mark Raizen, a professor in the Department of Physics. The project proposes a new method for cooling atoms in a gas phase toward absolute zero.

Until now, laser cooling has been the standard method for cooling atoms and was recognized by a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997. Raizen's method could be far more effective than the existing laser-cooling practice and result in an ultra-bright atom laser, predicted to surpass the current state-of-the-art by a factor of 100 million. Applications of the powerful new atom laser include innovations in nanoscience, tests of fundamental physics and new, noninvasive detection of gravitational anomalies, such as underground tunnels or oil and gas reservoirs.

UT News:
Keck Foundation Awards $1.5 Million for New Method to Cool Atoms and Student Research

Pentaquark...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 15, 2015 at 2:28pm

CERN: An illustration of the possible layout of quarks in a pentaquark (Time)

Topics: Large Hadron Collider, LHC, Particle Physics, Quarks, Quantum Mechanics, Theoretical Physics

Actually, the idea of a pentaquark - penta = 5; quark, the building blocks of matter consists of 4 quarks and 1 antiquark bound together has been around for a while, at least quarks theoretically since the 1960s. The LHC - the celebrated particle accelerator of Higgs Boson fame, found strong evidence , but the Jefferson Lab in Newport News, Virginia saw experimental evidence in 2003, and hints at the LHC recently. I'm going to go with Time (also source of the illustration) and the BBC write ups, excerpted because of their gasping fan "cuteness." However, I do appreciate the attempt at increasing the physics literacy of the general public that's of late is hostile to all things science. Note on the link to "LHCb collaboration": there are a LOT of collaborators, but if you want, they're #2 on the page search results at the link.

Time: The discovery may provide hints as to what happens when giant stars collapse

Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN in Switzerland announced the discovery of a new particle, the pentaquark.

The Collider, which smashes atoms together, showed signs of the pentaquark in 2011 and 2012, but scientists wanted to make absolutely sure of its existence before announcing its discovery. Tanya Basu

BBC: Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider have announced the discovery of a new particle called the pentaquark.

It was first predicted to exist in the 1960s but, much like the Higgs boson particle before it, the pentaquark eluded science for decades until its detection at the LHC.

The discovery, which amounts to a new form of matter, was made by the Hadron Collider's LHCb experiment.

The findings have been submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters. Paul Rincon

Physics arXiv:
Observation of J/ψp resonances consistent with pentaquark states in Λ0b→J/ψK−p decays
LHCb collaboration

And Pluto...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 14, 2015 at 9:12am

Latest photos of Pluto's puzzling spots.
Source: John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Planetary Science, Space Exploration

..."and Pluto," the end of the memorized verse we recited to my teacher Mrs. Flynt showing our mastery of the [then] nine planets for a good grade. Pluto - apart from my elementary school science classes - has entered our imaginations again. By the time this auto posts, several images will have been broadcast around the globe. An ounce of the ashes of astronomer Clyde Tombaugh - the discoverer of Pluto - is on board poetically for this journey. I'll likely update this post with some video embed when available.

When New Horizons rocketed away from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 19, 2006, Pluto was the ninth planet in our solar system. It was demoted to dwarf planet a scant seven months later.

Tombaugh's widow and two children offered up an ounce of his ashes for the journey to Pluto. The ashes of the farm boy-turned-astronomer are in a 2-inch aluminum capsule inscribed with these words:

"Interned herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto and the solar system's 'third zone.' Adelle and Muron's boy, Patricia's husband, Annette and Alden's father, astronomer, teacher, punster, and friend: Clyde Tombaugh (1906-1997)" *

A truth from fiction, Clyde Tombaugh has gone "where no one has gone before." \\//_

The promised embed:

NASA: Pluto and Charon: New Horizons' Dynamic Duo
New Horizons: NASA's Mission to Pluto
* USA Today:
Astronomer's ashes nearing icy world he discovered: Pluto, Marcia Dunn, Associated Press

Blind Spotting...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 13, 2015 at 9:04am

Source: Technology Review

Topics: Acoustics, Humor, Materials Science, Radio Frequency Microelectronics, Sonar

I had the brief temptation to call the post "Bat Sonar," but for the youth that missed the exposure to the campy antics of Adam West/Burt Ward Batman and Robin, the metaphor would have been over their heads due to lack of exposure and severely dated me (not that I haven't numerous times already).

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Acoustic "Radar" Spots Stowaways Inside Metal Cargo Containers

Seeing people on the other side of metal walls has never been possible despite the array of high-tech sensors that can peer through other materials. That looks set to change.

The detection of stowaways in lorries, shipping containers, and train carriages is an increasingly important activity as countries all over the world attempt to tackle the illegal movement of people across borders. Various technologies are designed to help but all have significant limitations.

Passive millimeter wave sensors can see through walls but require a source of illumination such as the sky. That generally rules out the detection of stowaways hidden away from sunlight.

Microwave radar systems provide their own source of illumination but generally struggle to detect motionless people. In any case, these signals do not pass through metal walls and so are unsuitable for cargo containers and the such-like.

Then there are systems based on the detection gamma rays. These pass easily through metal walls and are designed primarily for the detection of nuclear materials. But they pose a significant health hazard for humans and so are not suitable for spotting stowaways.

Finally, there are acoustic sensors, which can certainly send signals through metal walls but have never been powerful or sensitive enough to detect humans accurately on the other side.

Until now. Today, all that changes thanks to the work of Franklin Felber at Starmark, a scientific consulting company based in San Diego, who has built and tested an acoustic sensor that is both powerful and sensitive enough to detect the breathing motion of an otherwise stationary human on the other side of a cargo container wall.

Physics arXiv: Demonstration of novel high-power acoustic through-the-wall sensor,
Franklin Felber