Reginald L. Goodwin's Posts

Quantum Biomimetics...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 20, 2015 at 3:12pm

Image Source: Technology Review and Physics arXiv

Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Biology, Biomimetics, Computer Science, Humor, Quantum Computers, Quantum Mechanics

This reminded me of the Old Star Trek episode "The Devil in the Dark." It was unique in that it posited the Horta wasn't carbon-based (as we are), but silicon-based life, and a mother. Talk about "seek out new life." The write up and the paper are intriguing in that it does speculate something we altogether have never encountered, and if we did - or, in this case, create it, what then? What would we call it; what would it call us (mom/dad, or irrelevant/obsolete?), and how would we deal with our uncomfortable insignificance as a species in current 21st Century geopolitics? It's Wednesday, and I probably shouldn't think too deeply on such things. I just hope I haven't broken the three rules of Gremlins, and inadvertently fed the trolls...

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Computer scientists have long known that evolution is an algorithmic process that has little to do with the nature of the beasts it creates. Instead, evolution is set of simple steps that, when repeated many times, can solve problems of immense complexity; the problem of creating the human brain, for example, or of building an eye.

And, of course, the problem of creating life. Put an evolutionary algorithm to work in a virtual environment and it doesn’t take long to create life-like organisms in silico that live and reproduce entirely within a virtual computer-based environment.

This kind of life is not carbon-based or even silicon-based. It is a phenomenon of pure information. But if the nature of information allows the process of evolution to be simulated on an ordinary computer, then why not also on a quantum computer? The resulting life would exist in virtual quantum environment governed by the bizarre laws of quantum mechanics. As such, it would be utterly unlike anything that biologists have ever encountered or imagined.

But what form might quantum life take? Today we get an insight into this question thanks to the work of Unai Alvarez-Rodriguez and a few pals at the University of the Basque Country in Spain. They have simulated the way life evolves in a quantum environment and use this to propose how it could be done in a real quantum environment for the first time. “We have developed a quantum information model for mimicking the behavior of biological systems inspired by the laws of natural selection,” they say.

Physics arXiv: Artificial Life in Quantum Technologies
U. Alvarez-Rodriguez, M. Sanz, L. Lamata, E. Solano

Related Link
Science Alert:
An Electronic Memory Cell Has Been Created That Mimics the Human Brain
Fiona MacDonald

Pairing Without Superconductivity...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 19, 2015 at 8:14pm

Schematic diagram of the single-electron transistor. The long green line on the right of the diagram is the gate. The two green lines connected to the yellow structures are the source and drain. The nanodot is the isolated green line between the source and drain. (Courtesy: Guanglei Cheng et al./Nature)

Topics: Electrical Engineering, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics, Superconductivity

Electron pairing without superconductivity has been seen for the first time by a team of physicists in the US. Confirming a prediction made in 1969, the electron pairs were spotted in strontium titanate using a single-electron transistor. The observation could provide useful insights into the nature of superconductivity, and perhaps even help in the design of new high-temperature superconductors.

In a conventional superconductor, electrons with opposite spin come together to form Cooper pairs that pass through the atomic lattice without scattering. This interaction occurs because the presence of one electron pulls in positive ions from the lattice, and this in turn attracts the next electron. These pairs then interact with each other to form a condensate from which individual electrons cannot be easily scattered. For this to work, however, the electrons have to be relatively close together. This is not the case in strontium titanate, which has a very low electron density yet is a superconductor at temperatures below a critical temperature (T_C) of about 300 mK (millikelvin).

Physics World: Electron pairing without superconductivity seen at long last, Tim Wogan

Quantum Shortcut...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 18, 2015 at 11:05pm

A shortcut to adiabaticity (STA) offers a fast route to quantum state preparation, similar to how a toll road offers a fast route to a traveler’s destination; both shortcuts involve costs, but the costs are hopefully worth the time saved. (The image depicts a road sign produced by the Swedish Transport Agency.)

Topics: Adiabatic Processes, Computers, Consumer Electronics, Cryptography, Quantum Mechanics

Quantum technologies come in a wide variety of forms, from computers, sensors, and cryptographic systems to simulations and imaging systems. But one thing that all current and future quantum systems have in common is the need to achieve reliable control over physical systems such as atoms or photons. A frequently used method to prepare quantum systems in the desired quantum state is a quantum adiabatic process, but these processes often take so long that environmental noise causes the quantum state to decohere and lose its "quantumness."

To speed up quantum state preparation and minimize decoherence, physicists have devised so-called "shortcuts to adiabaticity" (STA), which refer to any process that prepares quantum states in a shorter time than adiabatic processes without losing the benefits of being adiabatic. Originally developed for simple systems consisting of a single particle, STA has recently been extended to many-body systems, which are more relevant for applications. However, the implementation of STA in many-body systems is still very challenging due to the inherent complexity of these systems.

Phys.org: Quantum shortcut could speed up many quantum technologies, Lisa Ziga

Dreaming Electric Sheep...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 15, 2015 at 9:35am

Image Source: Headbirths - Technology, Neuroscience, Philosophy

Topics: Computer Science, DARPA, Humor, Robotics, Science Fiction, Virtual Reality

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," by Philip K. Dick, a rather colorful and disturbed science fiction writer, whose novel was the inspiration for the Dystopian movie: "Blade Runner." Like all good science fiction, it ask the question quite literally: "what does it mean to be 'human,' especially in light of self-aware androids in our midst. You'll see this is more about simulation than dreaming, but in thinking of a title, I fell for the poetic irony. DARPA coincidentally, played an early important role in the concept and development of the Internet.

In a month’s time, a motley assortment of robots will attempt to navigate a punishing obstacle course laid out in a fairground park in Pomona, California. At the challenge, organized by the Defense Advanced Research Projects (DARPA), about two dozen machines will make their way through a series of tasks meant to push the limits of robot navigation, manipulation, and locomotion.

Before many of the robots set foot (or wheel) on the course, however, they will be put through their paces in a highly realistic virtual world. This 3-D environment, called Gazebo, makes it possible to try out robot hardware or software without having to power up the real thing. It’s a cheap and quick way to experiment without risking damage to valuable hardware components. And it allows many researchers to work on a single robot simultaneously.

“We are trying to mimic reality as closely as we can,” says Nate Koenig, CTO of the Open Source Robotics Foundation, which is developing Gazebo, and who has spent the last decade leading its development. “The goal is to easily switch over to a real robot.”

Technology Review: Even Robots Now Have Their Own Virtual World, Will Knight

Soft Matter Physics...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 14, 2015 at 8:07pm

The humble soap bubble – a whole new field of physics. Photograph: Alexander Boden/flickr

Topics: Materials Science, Soft Matter Physics, Theoretical Physics

Respectfully, in memory of Sir Sam Edwards...

Many of the objects in the everyday world around us are squidgy when squashed, flow easily, or are very sensitive to changes in temperature. These sorts of materials – ranging from paint to frogspawn, from yogurt to snot – fall into the category of ‘soft matter’: materials whose dynamics are governed by timescales of seconds rather than hugely longer or shorter times.

The study of these systems, which are often complex and heterogeneous, grew out of the more traditional field of condensed matter physics. Whereas condensed matter physicists of the early-mid twentieth century traditionally studied in minute detail the properties of simple, one-phase materials such as copper or silicon, as soft matter grew as a discipline the range of material types studied expanded enormously.

There are two towering figures, both theoretical physicists, who are usually identified with the birth of this new field: Pierre Gilles de Gennes and Sir Sam Edwards. Both were trained as conventional theorists, both saw the richness of the newer materials and how the mathematical tools they were familiar with could be taken over to the study of this new class of materials.

It was the Frenchman de Gennes who won the 1991 Nobel Prize for this work with a citation that read “for discovering that methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers”. But his friend and friendly rival the Welshman Sir Sam Edwards, who died last week at the age of 87, was equally active and influential; many felt he was unlucky not to share the prize.

The Guardian: The birth of soft matter physics, the physics of the everyday,
Athene Donald

Witnessing A Birth...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 13, 2015 at 8:38pm

The Antennae galaxies, shown in visible light in a Hubble image (upper image), were studied with ALMA, revealing extensive clouds of molecular gas (center right image). One cloud (bottom image) is incredibly dense and massive, yet apparently star free, suggesting it is the first example of a prenatal globular cluster ever identified.

NASA/ESA Hubble, B. Whitmore (STScI); K. Johnson, U.Va.; ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ); B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Topics: ALMA, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Molecular Gases, Proto Stars, Radio Astronomy

Globular clusters — dazzling agglomerations of up to a million ancient stars — are among the oldest objects in the universe. Though plentiful in and around many galaxies, newborn examples are vanishingly rare and the conditions necessary to create new ones have never been detected until now.

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered what may be the first known example of a globular cluster about to be born: an incredibly massive, extremely dense, yet star-free cloud of molecular gas.

“We may be witnessing one of the most ancient and extreme modes of star formation in the universe,” said Kelsey Johnson from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. “This remarkable object looks like it was plucked straight out of the very early universe. To discover something that has all the characteristics of a globular cluster, yet has not begun making stars, is like finding a dinosaur egg that’s about to hatch.”

This object, which the astronomers playfully refer to as the “Firecracker,” is located approximately 50 million light-years away from Earth nestled inside a famous pair of interacting galaxies — NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 — which are collectively known as the Antennae galaxies. The tidal forces generated by their ongoing merger are triggering star formation on a colossal scale, much of it occurring inside dense clusters.

Astronomy Magazine: ALMA discovers proto super star cluster,
NRAO, Charlottesville, VA

NIST News...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 12, 2015 at 8:27pm

NIST Director Willie E. May
Credit: NIST

Topics: Chemistry, Diversity in Science, Optics, National Institute of Science and Technology, Photonics

Washington, D.C. – On May 4, 2015, the U.S. Senate confirmed Willie E. May as the second Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and the 15th director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). May has been serving as acting director since June 2014. He has worked at NIST since 1971, leading research activities in chemical and biological measurement science activities prior to serving as associate director for laboratory programs and principal deputy to the NIST director.

“Willie has been a partner and champion in our efforts to strengthen America’s manufacturing sector and promote innovation, key drivers to spurring economic growth, and core pillars of the Department’s ‘Open for Business Agenda.’ In addition to serving as a world-class research institute, NIST has taken the lead on several major Department of Commerce and Obama Administration priorities, including implementing a national network of manufacturing institutes and working with industry and other stakeholders to develop the NIST Cybersecurity Framework,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.

Among many other awards and honors, May was elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2011. He has been recognized with the Department of Commerce's Bronze (1981), Silver (1985) and Gold (1992) medals. The National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) has recognized him with both the Percy Julian Award for outstanding research in organic analytical chemistry and the Henry Hill Award for exemplary work and leadership in the field of chemistry. May received the 2007 Alumnus of the Year Award from the College of Chemical and Life Sciences at the University of Maryland, and in 2010 he was among the first class of inductees into the Knoxville College Alumni Hall of Fame. He was the keynote speaker for the 2002 winter commencement ceremonies for the University of Maryland's College of Life Sciences, and for Wake Forest University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences commencement exercises in 2012. [1]

* * * * *

The science and technology of light are essential to a multitude of applications that have transformed our society, and there is much promise that optics and photonics will remain at the forefront of the world’s innovations well into this century.

Moreover, the general excitement in and impact of optics and photonics is growing dramatically. This presentation will highlight: (a) past breakthroughs, present advances and potential future growth in the science and technology of light, (b) the convergence of the International Year of Light, the Nobel Prizes based on light and the various U.S. government initiatives in photonics, and (c) the critical nature of metrology to harnessing the exquisite capabilities of high-frequency, coherent light for different industries. This talk is part of an afternoon NIST program celebrating World Metrology Day. [2]

1. Senate Confirms May as 15th NIST Director, Jennifer Huergo
2. Optics and Photonics: Essential for Our World, May 20, 2015

Nanoneedles and Nanodots...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 12, 2015 at 8:24pm

Scanning electron mictographs of a uniform array of conical Polysilicon nanoneedles, with a < 100nm tip diameter, 600nm base diameter, 5 micron length and 2 micron pitch (Courtesy ACS Nano).

Topics: Biology, Nanotechnology, Photolithography, Quantum Dots

Biocompatible silicon nanoneedles, which can efficiently deliver nucleic acids and nanoparticles into biological cells without damaging them, have been developed by an international team of researchers. The porous needles are capable of delivering these drugs into live cells that are normally difficult to penetrate, and the technique could help damaged organs and nerves to repair themselves, and could also act as intracellular pH sensors.

The researchers, based at Imperial College London and the Houston Methodist Research Institute in Texas, made their nanoneedles using photolithography techniques. The structures can be patterned onto standard silicon chips in different ways, and the length and width of the needles can also be adjusted. Because they are porous, they can be made to take up a significantly greater amount of nucleic acid, nanoparticles and other therapeutics. Importantly, the porous silicon from which they are made is biocompatible – unlike ordinary silicon – and it clears the body in about two days, without leaving behind any toxic residue.

The plasma membrane and "endo-lysosomal compartment" of a cell are major biological barriers that limit the therapeutic efficiency of many drug-delivery vehicles by preventing nanostructures from entering the cells. According to team member Ennio Tasciotti from the Department of Nanomedicine at the Houston Methodist Research Institute, the new nanoeedles can "successfully deliver nucleic acids into cells, bypassing their plasma membrane and endo-lysosomal compartments without damaging the cell".

Physics World: Silicon 'nanoneedles' deliver nanodots and nucleic acids, Belle Dumé

The Calendar...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 12, 2015 at 8:21pm

Image Source: ACGHS.org

Topics: Anniversary, Calendar Quirk, Diversity in Science, Mother's Day (originally posted 7 May)

Given time, you may notice the calendar repeats itself quite literally every six years - date and day of the date.

Today (7 May), I lost my mother six years ago. I'm currently in the process of moving to another apartment. I've gained appreciation for the expression "tote that barge; lift that bail!" as engineering and science textbooks can be quite hefty!

Staying busy will keep me focused on the task at hand. A few things I'll never forget:

The impressive explosion I made with my chemistry set wasn't enough to discourage me from science. I did notice however, my mother and father made sure to buy erector sets, electronics kits, a microscope, a telescope, tool boxes...i.e., things that couldn't blow up! I also noticed the absence of the chemistry set in about two years.

You can never forget the loss of your parent, no matter how hard you might try. The next day, I saw the reboot of Star Trek: Mr. Spock lost his mother in spectacular fashion. I at least didn't lose my planet to a vengeful Romulan (not much of a spoiler since it's out on DVD).

I don't think its for humans to forget, just remember and honor the sacrifices made to make you successful in wherever you are in life.

For her sacrifices, for her love, I am grateful to have been her son. I will always love her.

I'll be unpacking from the move, so hopefully I'll get back online Monday. Enjoy the following related posts:

#P4TC:
Dear Mrs. Flynt...January 17, 2014
Mother's Day (repost)...May 12, 2013
Identity Crisis...August 15, 2012

Accelerators...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 6, 2015 at 8:00pm

Image Source: Rob's capibara.com techblog

Topics: Accelerators, Particle Physics, Physics Humor, Semiconductor Technology, STEM

It's interesting most don't know how particle accelerators were "born" and how they affect our everyday lives. I happen to work in a semiconductor manufacturing facility - AKA a wafer "fab" (short for fabrication) facility. The accelerators I see often are called Ion implanters, which in device physics is how an impurity is introduced into a semiconductor's energy band gap - usually rather wide as it would appear in nature (Silicon, Germanium) otherwise, you wouldn't have your laptop or smartphone; your microwave, essentially everything electronic around us we normally take for granted.

Particle accelerators even have a fun history of their beginnings, or as you've probably experienced in a high school physics class - a Van de Graaff Generator. It's more fun if you (ahem, unlike me) have hair...

American Institute of Physics: History of Accelerators

Europe To The Moon...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 5, 2015 at 10:28pm

The European Space Agency has been looking at what it takes to construct a moon outpost.
Credit: ESA/ Foster + Partners

Topics: European Space Agency, Humor, ISS, Moon Colony, Space Exploration

Living on our closest neighbor has some advantages. I've seen articles about how long-term radiation would alter our astronauts' brains on a trip to Mars, for example. There's a low probability of getting "super powers," e,g. the fictional "Fantastic Four," but an extreme likelihood of dying prematurely - a rather unpleasant outcome for the astronauts and their families. The International Space Station does have shielding, but its exposure to radiation is by far not as harsh as would be encountered by a crew on an interplanetary flight. We'll have to come up with some knew design configurations/materials for shielding, and being a mere 238,900 miles (384,400 km) from Earth is probably a good place to start. Although I must admit: the representative photo looks like a graphic from a "Doctor Who" episode (explain to your non-nerd friends if that completely went over their heads).

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — The incoming leader of the European Space Agency is keen on establishing an international base on the moon as a next-step outpost beyond the International Space Station (ISS).

Johann-Dietrich Wörner expressed his enthusiasm for a moon colony at the Space Foundation’s National Space Symposium, a gathering of global, commercial, civil, military and "new space" experts that was held here from April 13 to April 16.

"It seems to be appropriate to propose a permanent moon station as the successor of ISS," Wörner said. This station should be international, "meaning that the different actors can contribute with their respective competencies and interests." [Living on the Moon: What It Would Be Like (Infographic)]

Space.com:
Europe's Next Space Chief Wants a Moon Colony on the Lunar Far Side,
Leonard David

Liquid Nanolaser...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 4, 2015 at 9:30pm

Image Source: Wienberg College of Arts and Sciences

Topics: Chemistry, Laser, Nanotechnology, Semiconductor Technology

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University scientists have developed the first liquid nanoscale laser. And it’s tunable in real time, meaning you can quickly and simply produce different colors, a unique and useful feature. The laser technology could lead to practical applications, such as a new form of a “lab on a chip” for medical diagnostics.

To understand the concept, imagine a laser pointer whose color can be changed simply by changing the liquid inside it, instead of needing a different laser pointer for every desired color.

In addition to changing color in real time, the liquid nanolaser has additional advantages over other nanolasers: it is simple to make, inexpensive to produce and operates at room temperature.

Nanoscopic lasers -- first demonstrated in 2009 -- are only found in research labs today. They are, however, of great interest for advances in technology and for military applications.

“Our study allows us to think about new laser designs and what could be possible if they could actually be made,” said Teri W. Odom, who led the research. “My lab likes to go after new materials, new structures and new ways of putting them together to achieve things not yet imagined. We believe this work represents a conceptual and practical engineering advance for on-demand, reversible control of light from nanoscopic sources.”

Northwestern University: Northwest Scientists Develop First Liquid Nanolaser, Megan Fellman

Omerta...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 3, 2015 at 7:43am

Image Source: Memes.com

Topics: #BlackLivesMatter, Baltimore, Commentary, Civil Rights, Economy

We are inheriting what we have sown in the wind. Charlotte, North Carolina; Sanford, Florida; Staten Island, New York; Ferguson, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland: Angela Davis dropped the mike on this ages ago.

Last Wednesday was the 23rd anniversary of the Rodney King riots. There have been riots since then. There have been Rodney Kings, Trayvon Martins, Jordan Davis'...ad nauseum. My post last Tuesday was similar to my complaint of Occupy Wall Street: web sites are generally informative and entertaining. The Tea Party have that, and got some of their "believers/insane inmates" elected to public office. That trumps web sites, no matter how much smarter you are. The Bernie Sanders endorsement is a noted recent exception. Equivalently, the wanton violence as I stated was understandable, but neither strategic or politic. In Hegelian theory: thesis - antithesis - synthesis - King was "thesis"; Malcolm was "antithesis"; The Civil Rights and Voting Rights and Fair Housing Acts were the "synthesis." This dialectic logic is absent from any goal or strategies I see thus far. Now,"thug" is the new n-word as Stanford Honor Graduate and NFL champion Richard Sherman pointed out, and has sadly been misused by the powerful that should know better.

These are the "chickens that have come home to roost" (Malcolm X quote) in America. The systematic dumbing down of American education is deliberate; the collective powers of critical thinking reduced to cliché, jingoism and sloganeering. Our stupidity is being engineered to devastating effects economically and nationally. We will soon not be able to compete globally.

What we're not asking since the greatest financial meltdown post the Great Depression is why we're testing our youth to the point educators feel they have to cheat to get them through, and, unlike Wall Street thugs - an appropriate label given the magnitude of the malfeasance, the teachers were convicted for their crimes; the Wall Street thugs were not.

SIX multinational companies control everything entertaining and informative - print media, the Internet, radio, music channels - that we see and hear, and thus think. The fact that the "successful" presidential candidate from either major party has to now raise a billion dollars to win a $400,000 job means our democratic republic is a broken memory; its only balm our participation.

What does ALL this have to do with Baltimore and Freddy Gray?

This: Every trade policy since 1980 has focused on one thing: increasing corporate profits. That has resulted in a pretty steady formula recited like a cult mantra: tax cuts. Locally, it siphons funds from municipalities that must gather funds by other means, usually by harassment of the poor and on the backs of the dwindling middle class. It is a policy devoid of any regard for not just ethnic underclasses, but citizens as a whole, exacerbating income inequality; turning the wage gap into an echoing canyon. When corporate taxes are either cut or deferred, everyone becomes members of the "taxed enough already" party, yet few realize their libertarian rants are being orchestrated by the same entities that benefit from it; the poor in rural and urban neighborhoods alike suffering the most from this dodge. Roads are not repaired; schools, teachers and public servants (like the police) are underfunded; factory jobs are shipped overseas (no need to educate for employment that's not there); housing and office buildings are shuttered; neighborhoods either fall to crack or meth respectively, irrespective of the dominant culture present. The "Corporations are People" predates Citizen's United, piggybacking on the 14th Amendment intended to establish the personhood of African Americans, using it arrogantly for themselves. Every effort is made to maximize profit over the commodity that replaced the barter system - monetary wealth, now in ones and zeros and socked away in foreign shores' tax havens. As human chattel/capital, we are all discarded. Our police have been militarized to "protect and serve" not citizens, but oligarchy; cutting taxes has turned the beat cop of my youth into Robocop: mechanized, weaponized; ruthlessly cold and methodical. We are all targets of opportunity; "trickle-down" economics having the acrid, ammonia smell of golden-flow.

The answer is: the conditions that created the neighborhood/hood that Freddie Gray lived in were the result of decisions made in boardrooms that if they had someone that looked like Freddie, she or he probably had to "go along to get along." Beyond that boardroom and their companies Affirmative Action goals, their exclusive neighborhoods are likely that, and homogeneous. During the South's "peculiar institution," it is fact that every white person could not afford to own even one slave. They were the beneficiaries of an apartheid system - slave codes cum black codes cum poll tax cum Jim Crow - supported by domestic terrorists in white sheets who at that particular dark time wanted to "take their country back" before the humiliating surrender at Appomattox. The hierarchy of capitalism-status quo-ethnic supremacy remains intact as a Moloch altar, even for those who will never partake of the inner sanctum of the temple's wealth, and it requires an underclass on which to lay blame for all ills and obedient serfs that can easily be duped by propaganda. Like the poor southerner, they are not "them" (blacks); but believe they could be like "them" (slave owners), without any evidence they would suddenly own a plantation; a work crew and overseers with whips - or in the modern case, a multinational corporation. It was an early version of "magical thinking" without the presence of knowledge they were no different than the people they were conditioned to disdain. After the Civil War, land grabs reminiscent of the promised "40 acres and a mule" allowed the zombie devotees of inequality to benefit from government largess. In that case, reparations met out did its work, and reinforced the system still in effect. Now of course, the "other" include Hispanics, LGBT, Women's Rights - any shell to shift on the table in the great game. Now of course, Freddie "broke his own back" - a LIE, the typical leak to the aforementioned concentrated media; the scripted attack on the dead like an act of social necrophilia. I held my breath baited Friday when the promised release of information on his death was instead turned over to the district attorney - I was pleasantly surprised. The second prisoner in the van along with Freddy will hopefully not also have his character assassinated on this side of the grave as this flagrant canard failed to deliver.

The technology of mobile devices simply reveals what used to exist as rumor and innuendo. Hence, states like Texas are moving to outlaw that 1st Amendment Right (they can apparently only count to and count the 2nd). Sadly related, the state possesses far more firepower than any anarchist. What the powerful fear is the vote; what they fear is civics knowledge propagated and acted upon; what they fear most is accountability and that any reparations - fairly distributed - goes not to merely a culture, but a number: 99%. Until there is a reckoning on this point of ignored history, until we can seize our rightful place in governing a democratic republic; until we can stop treating fellow humans as lesser beings, there will always be riots! Lastly, we need not spread "democracy and freedom" around the world, until we clean up our own house.

Amazon.com:
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and American Capitalism,
Edward E. Baptist

IceCube Neutrinos...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 1, 2015 at 6:42am

Image Source: Berkley Lab

Topics: Cosmic Rays, Neutrinos, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole is a large array of photodetectors buried in ice. In 2013, the instrument reported signals from the highest energy neutrinos ever observed. Now, two teams of researchers have independently estimated the type, or flavor, of these neutrinos. As opposed to an earlier analysis, these new results are consistent with the neutrinos coming from cosmically large distances. Further work may begin to probe the physics going on at the neutrino sources.

APS: Synopsis: IceCube Neutrinos Pass Flavor Test, Michael Schirber
Site: IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Bare Bones...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 30, 2015 at 7:56am

The Belle II detector and the upgraded accelerator SuperKEKB make up Japan’s new B factory for studying flavor physics and CP violation. Following some delays, the accelerator is set to start up next January, and full data-taking will begin in 2018.

KEK

Citation: Phys. Today 68, 4, 18 (2015); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.2743

Topics: Fukushima Daiichi, Economy, Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Power, Research, Quantum Mechanics

Unfortunately, scientific advances costs money, along with the political will and cultivated, collective public vision to pursue it. This relates to something we're all subject to, lab and person alike: the cost of energy consumption. The National Ignition Facility or Lockheed's Skunk Works, if either or both are successful, could alleviate some concerns about power consumption of laboratories in general, and all of us in particular. If electrical power - used for heating and cooling homes and laboratories; directly related to the cost at the grocery store (the cost of the fuel truck is transferred to us by increasing prices), and the reason for "wars and rumors of wars": fossil fuels, could be generated by other means, then the human costs of commercial consumption of products and service; post-conflict warrior attrition - via death, PTSD and traumatic brain injury - would greatly decrease. We can only hope it's not opposed as vigorously as solar and renewable energy has been so far.

Getting the green light to restart accelerators and other large scientific facilities in Japan took up to three years following the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in eastern Japan on 11 March 2011. (See Physics Today, November 2011, page 20, and November 2013, page 20.) Now tight budgets, bloated electricity prices, and a sprinkling of mishaps threaten to cripple science at the country’s world-class facilities.

Before the triple disaster, about 30% of Japan’s power came from 54 nuclear plants. Since then, as plants have come up for routine maintenance, they’ve been turned off, and none has been turned back on, although a few have been approved to do so. For a while the country had a shortage of electricity. Now, other sources, mainly fossil fuels, have been arranged, but the costs have skyrocketed: Officials at KEK, Japan’s accelerator research institute, and at RIKEN and other science facilities report that the price of electricity has gone up by 30% or more. Electricity is a big chunk of their total operating costs, so they have been forced to reduce running times.

Masanori Yamauchi, the new KEK director, notes that SuperKEKB, the B factory set to start up this year, will consume twice as much power as its predecessor. And the price per kilowatt-hour has nearly doubled. “It has a serious impact to the running schedule of the new accelerator,” he says. Studying quantum mechanical phenomena requires collecting large statistics, he adds. “The power bill problem in Japan is very unfortunate for our physics program.”

Under Japanese law certain programs are largely shielded from the rising electricity costs. Those spared are SPring-8, the synchrotron light source; materials and life sciences neutron studies at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC); and petascale computing in Kobe. Industry makes heavy use of them—about 20% in the case of SPring-8, for instance—whereas the affected facilities are used mainly by academic researchers.

Physics Today: Scientific facilities in Japan struggle on bare-bones schedules, Toni Feder

Manhattan...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 29, 2015 at 11:01am

Shiva. Image Source: Hiroshima Poetry, related to the embed below

Topics: Existentialism, Manhattan Project, Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Power

Having lived through the "duck-and-cover" drills of the sixties and seventies (for me at least), the fact we don't do them anymore doesn't reduce the existential danger. We have the unique position in species of intelligence on this Earth, a way - as Carl Sagan would have said - for the Cosmos to "know itself." We're also the only species that could take the other sentient ones on our globe into oblivion by myriad, maddening means. The drama isn't too accurate, and some of the characterizations aren't spot-on or accurate (like Oppenheimer as "jerk" - he wasn't in what I've read), but it should spark some interest in the project in general, and nuclear physics in particular.

Physics Buzz: This fall (2014), a new primetime drama appeared on the television network WGN America, featuring scientists at Los Alamos working tirelessly--desperately, even--to develop nuclear weapons during World War II, all while maintaining utmost secrecy. Manhattan draws on the rich underlying history of its namesake, the Manhattan Project, but steers clear of documentary tendencies. Whereas the premise of the show and several key figures are largely based on their real-life counterparts, the main cast is populated by fictional characters, whose personal and scientific struggles acquaint us with the broader themes of privacy, government surveillance, and trust. Today on the podcast, we discuss how Manhattan brings nuclear physics to primetime TV, and what’s gained or lost along the way.

It was a great scientific triumph, and we won the war. It had many spin-offs in peaceful space program (even as that was essentially the Cold War above our heads) and nuclear physics applications - fission initially, then hopefully fusion eventually - as well as the analysis of what is now known as Black Holes. I suspect however, it was also Dr. Oppenheimer's greatest regret:

The Long View...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 28, 2015 at 6:30am

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Topics: #BlackLivesMatter, Baltimore, Civil Rights, Commentary

I really get the anger. I've penned it on the anniversary of the surrender of the South in the Civil War, and the needless death of Walter Scott. Dr. King once said: "a riot is the language of the unheard." That I think assumes you've tried - through legitimate means - to have your voice heard.

You seem to have a rich history of rioting: 1812; 1868. If you must get angry: why didn't you ask why the city of Baltimore hasn't fully recovered economically from the riots of 1968 when Dr. King was assassinated? I was five, but I remember that day well: Confederate flags, honking horns riding past my kindergarten, shouting very clearly "I'm glad that n-----r's gone!" Some memories don't leave you. They stay with you and shape your worldview. I remember well the anger from older teenagers that took to the streets in North Carolina, but specifically of note in Baltimore, Maryland. Why haven't you gotten angry with the jobs that have been shipped out of this country to save money on the highest expense of any company: salaries? Why haven't you gotten angry at the substitution of science courses with pseudoscience, that puts this country at a disadvantage globally in the competition for employment and high-paying jobs? Why haven't you gotten angry about the socially-engineered achievement gap that ensures a De Facto apartheid in this country? Why haven't you gotten angry for an increase in the minimum wage, or that some would rather there be NONE? And lastly, why if you're 18, not in at least a two-year college and registered to vote?

How many of you ACTUALLY knew Freddie Gray? Actually went to school with him, or his twin sister? Lived next to him? Attended his funeral? An 80% severed spine is an outrage, and in a sane world, should result in indictments. But the Baltimore Police Department Bill of Rights gives them 10 days before they have to speak to anyone. Hint: that's 10 days to get their story straight; they are suspended with pay. We're 50 years from the 1965 Voting Rights Act, for which the movie Selma dramatized. It's voting the 21st Century Poll Tax cum voter ID laws are trying to inhibit. It's voting, or lack thereof, that determines civilian oversight, and local laws: the Police and/or the Police Association can't come up with that kind of "right" whole cloth. The current law that will soon exist in Maryland is martial...your anger, though genuine, has no more power of resurrection anymore than the anarchy of terrorists will magically form mythical caliphates.

I was angry after Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Rodney King, Travon Martin, Renisha McBride...trust me, I have decades of anger, high blood pressure, feelings of helplessness and sleepless nights over any and all of you. I have children I worry about as well; my lifespan shortens with every report - of yet another senseless death - that always goes national. You now have the Maryland National Guard deployed in your city to restore order. A CVS pharmacy and other businesses burned to the ground. Your grandmothers who had their prescriptions filled there have nowhere to go now. I don't know if indictments will immediately come down (or not), and neither do you. If it does go before a Grand Jury, it is secret by law, the jury of your "peers" will be active, registered voters who've followed this recent news, and possibly not look like you. The social media, political and propaganda machine has already labeled you "thugs." If you had a point, you may have already blown it away like chaff in the wind, and falling into negative stereotypes hasn't proved a good strategy in the long view.

I applaud the peaceful demonstrations; that doesn't mean you can't be angry, paste a placid grin on your faces while singing "we shall overcome." I'm sure Dr. King and a lot of young people who were your age back then bitten, beaten, hosed and jailed, and a lot of them killed had a few instances of being angry. The cameras caught the brutality of authorities against us, and soon turned world opinion against the violence perpetrated on innocent, law-abiding citizens. The cameras are catching your activities as well, it makes for a lot of views on YouTube and negative, stereotypical memes.

Yesterday was the first day of the first African American woman appointed Attorney General, Loretta Lynch (after a woefully sophomoric delay); yesterday was the birthday of Civil Rights activist Coretta Scott King. I'm sure her husband, Dr. King, my older sister who was one of those young people bitten, beaten, hosed and jailed, and a lot of them killed for Civil Rights, Voting Rights were angry - are angry, so you can do property damage, loot for your own benefit; express breathtaking episodes of pyromania and call it "protest."

Sorry for the post-Sunday rant. I'll do physics Wednesday.

3-D Proteins...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 27, 2015 at 7:06am

Image Source: Technology Review

Topics: 3-D Objects, Algorithm, Biology, Computer Science, Molecular Biology

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: One of the great challenges in molecular biology is to determine the three-dimensional structure of large biomolecules such as proteins. But this is a famously difficult and time-consuming task.

The standard technique is x-ray crystallography, which involves analyzing the x-ray diffraction pattern from a crystal of the molecule under investigation. That works well for molecules that form crystals easily.

But many proteins, perhaps most, do not form crystals easily. And even when they do, they often take on unnatural configurations that do not resemble their natural shape.

So finding another reliable way of determining the 3-D structure of large biomolecules would be a huge breakthrough. Today, Marcus Brubaker and a couple of pals at the University of Toronto in Canada say they have found a way to dramatically improve a 3-D imaging technique that has never quite matched the utility of x-ray crystallography.

The new technique is based on an imaging process called electron cryomicroscopy. This begins with a purified solution of the target molecule that is frozen into a thin film just a single molecule thick.

This film is then photographed using a process known as transmission electron microscopy—it is bombarded with electrons and those that pass through are recorded. Essentially, this produces two-dimensional “shadowgrams” of the molecules in the film. Researchers then pick out each shadowgram and use them to work out the three-dimensional structure of the target molecule.

Abstract

Discovering the 3D atomic structure of molecules such as proteins and viruses is a fundamental research problem in biology and medicine. Electron Cryomicroscopy (Cryo-EM) is a promising vision-based technique for structure estimation which attempts to reconstruct 3D structures from 2D images. This paper addresses the challenging problem of 3D reconstruction from 2D Cryo-EM images. A new framework for estimation is introduced which relies on modern stochastic optimization techniques to scale to large datasets. We also introduce a novel technique which reduces the cost of evaluating the objective function during optimization by over five orders or magnitude. The net result is an approach capable of estimating 3D molecular structure from large scale datasets in about a day on a single workstation.

Physics arXiv:
Building Proteins in a Day: Efficient 3D Molecular Reconstruction
Marcus A. Brubaker, Ali Punjani, David J. Fleet

NExSS...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 26, 2015 at 6:43am

Image Source

Topics: Aliens, Astrophysics, Biology, Exoplanets, Heliophysics, NASA, SETI

L’infini est infiniment infini: "The infinite is infinitely infinite."

The Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, or “NExSS”, hopes to better understand the various components of an exoplanet, as well as how the planet stars and neighbor planets interact to support life.

“This interdisciplinary endeavor connects top research teams and provides a synthesized approach in the search for planets with the greatest potential for signs of life,” says Jim Green, NASA’s Director of Planetary Science. “The hunt for exoplanets is not only a priority for astronomers, it’s of keen interest to planetary and climate scientists as well.”

NExSS will tap into the collective expertise from each of the science communities supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate:

-Earth scientists develop a systems science approach by studying our home planet.

-Planetary scientists apply systems science to a wide variety of worlds within our solar system.

-Heliophysicists add another layer to this systems science approach, looking in detail at how the Sun interacts with orbiting planets.

-Astrophysicists provide data on the exoplanets and host stars for the application of this systems science framework.

NExSS will bring together these prominent research communities in an unprecedented collaboration, to share their perspectives, research results, and approaches in the pursuit of one of humanity’s deepest questions: Are we alone?

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”

― Arthur C. Clarke

I posited a thought experiment, the post title inspired by the last two words of Sir Arthur C. Clarke's quote above.

Honestly, I saw this on my Facebook news feed and shared it. I then looked for the official NASA write up I italicize above.

I am prepared to review the data once its published, read also the papers and look at the presentations if they find things like (I'm assuming), spectrographic analysis of alien atmospheres and evidence of water; the telltale wobble of planets orbiting distant suns. I am looking forward to how this exploration will have application to our own planet. On that, I am hopeful.

I am also sadly, bracing for the kind of backlash that claimed Giordano Bruno*, though a bit of license was taken in presenting his story in the Cosmos reboot. I am prepared for the denialist, the conspiracy theorist; the flat earthers cum universe birthers. As I've gotten older, the hope of an expanding enlightenment has been snuffed by present darkness authoritarians that want others to grope in their caves; rammed down our collective throats.

* In 1584 Giordano wrote a thesis entitled "On the Infinite Universe and Worlds." Bruno argued that if a person believes it logical that even one other world likely exists, that it reasonably follows that all other worlds exist.

NASA: NASA’s NExSS Coalition to Lead Search for Life on Distant Worlds

Evolution of Television...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 25, 2015 at 6:19am

Image Source - Starts at Sixty: How the Jetson's Predicted the Future

Topics: Consumer Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Humor, Technology

The first television I remember my family owning was black and white, and so largely was society's views of social interaction, equality, etc. It used cathode ray tube technology, and as I recall looking in with my father, a lot of vacuum tubes - if they blew, you had to replace them - precursors to integrated circuits now, their usage in the space program fostered by NASA's need to reduce launch payload size into space (tubes are also quite heavy). They are not extinct, and do still have their specialized uses. We needed "rabbit ear" antennas to receive a radio frequency (RF) signal on the television; a large antenna connected by an analog cable usually on the roof. To attenuate a signal properly for my parents, sometimes I had to hold the ears and stand - absolutely still - next to the set while Walter Cronkite delivered after the sound of teletype actual NEWS completely devoid of theme songs, bombast and "infotainment," because as voiced by his signature line: "that's the way it was." I was also the resident channel surfer, AKA the analog remote control and sometimes dishwasher. Absolutely NO ONE looked at television during a lightning storm (and, really shouldn't now), but surge and electrical fire during the age of fuses was a far more prevalent danger back then before better power distribution schemes and GFCI. There was ABC, CBS, NBC and maybe a few local UHF channels if you were lucky. Television played the Pledge of Allegiance, and went OFF at midnight to a pattern, or static snow.

However, it was Saturday morning cartoons where I saw my first flat screen. Jane, Judy, Elroy, George, Rosie the robot maid and Astro the dog: The Jetsons got a lot of things right about the future - as the link below the picture above attests. There's a lot going on in that image: a video chat with a doctor (we call Skype, among others now); a hint of 3-D technology - the doctor "leaning out" of the screen - and nanotechnology (though I'm dubious on the article's claim: Secret Squirrel did the same trick, after all). And since I'm not too far from my sixth decade, I'm very fortunate to find out it won't be over for me. Sadly though, with the advent of 24-hour news closely followed by hundreds (thousands?) of 24-hour cable channels with appropriate-age cartoon channels, I've noticed a casualty of this advance in technology: one of the very mediums that probably started a lot of future designers, engineers and scientists dreaming up how to bring about what was artists' imaginations to pass...

...Saturday morning cartoons! May they rest in peace (and syndication).

Institute of Physics: Flat Screen Displays (PDF); Television (History)
The Royal Society:
Flat-panel electronic displays: a triumph of physics, chemistry and engineering, Cyril Hilsum

Post script: I will be moving to new apartments for this reason, apparently legal, but unfortunate nonetheless. I have a few posts "in the hopper" that can auto-post, but because I will be packing, I may take a blog-break if the boxes prove overwhelming. I'll let you know how it goes.