Don't forget to turn your scales back ten pounds this weekend...
Featured Posts (3487)
Sort by
 |
| davidope for Quanta Magazine |
Topics: Biology, Neuroscience, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics
Note: With the exception of the historical links below, I don't have anything related to physics and Thanksgiving. Enjoy the food and links. Travel safe.
The mere mention of “quantum consciousness” makes most physicists cringe, as the phrase seems to evoke the vague, insipid musings of a New Age guru. But if a new hypothesis proves to be correct, quantum effects might indeed play some role in human cognition. Matthew Fisher, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, raised eyebrows late last year when he published a paper in Annals of Physics proposing that the nuclear spins of phosphorus atoms could serve as rudimentary “qubits” in the brain — which would essentially enable the brain to function like a quantum computer.
As recently as 10 years ago, Fisher’s hypothesis would have been dismissed by many as nonsense. Physicists have been burned by this sort of thing before, most notably in 1989, when Roger Penrose proposed that mysterious protein structures called “microtubules” played a role in human consciousness by exploiting quantum effects. Few researchers believe such a hypothesis plausible. Patricia Churchland, a neurophilosopher at the University of California, San Diego, memorably opined that one might as well invoke “pixie dust in the synapses” to explain human cognition.
Quanta Magazine: A New Spin on the Quantum Brain, Jennifer Ouellette
Completely unrelated to anything but the day:
Manataka American Indian Council on Thanksgiving
What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving? The Wampanoag Side of the Tale
Gale Tourey Toensing
 |
| Diagram showing how a BEC (red dot) is created at the top of the chip. It then falls and is split into two BECs that take separate paths to the bottom of the chip. (Courtesy: S Abend/Phys. Rev. Lett.) |
Topics: Bose-Einstein Condensate, Gravity, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics, Semiconductor Technology
A new sensor that measures the local acceleration due to gravity using a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) of ultracold atoms has been made by physicists in Germany, the US and Canada. While the prototype device is not as accurate as commercial gravimeters, its makers say it could be made much smaller and much more accurate than existing devices.
Atoms can be used to measure the acceleration due to gravity by cooling a gas of them to near absolute zero and then dropping them along two different paths in an interferometer. The quantum interference that occurs when the paths converge at a detector provides a very good measure of gravity, with commercial atom interferometers able to measure the acceleration to within one part in 108. Such measurements are invaluable for geological exploration because the presence of certain minerals can be spotted by seeking tiny variations in gravity at the Earth's surface.
While these ultracold atom gravimeters are on a par with conventional absolute gravimeters based on macroscopic falling masses, their accuracy could be improved a lot by using a BEC. In a conventional atomic gravimeter, the ultracold atoms form a diffuse gas roughly a millimetre in size and a major cause of uncertainty is that the laser pulses used to control the atoms are not spatially uniform on that length scale. A BEC – formed by cooling a gas of atoms with integer spin until they condense into a single quantum state – reduces this uncertainty because it squeezes the atoms into a region that is about 100 times smaller.
Physics World: Gravity measured using a Bose–Einstein condensate on a chip
Hamish Johnston
 |
| Phosphorene is a graphene-like material that is a hot research topic, according to a new study. (Courtesy: Robert Brook/Science Photo Library) |
Topics: Dark Matter, Materials Science, Neutrinos, Research
China is performing "outstanding" research in a number of emerging scientific topics, putting the country's output on a par with the UK but still behind the US. That is the conclusion of a new study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the scientific data company Clarivate Analytics. The Research Fronts 2016 annual report identifies 100 "hot" and 80 "emerging" research areas based on citation analysis of papers published in 2015.
The research areas – divided in various fields of science – reflect global interest in specific topics that have resulted in "core" journal articles. These articles are defined by an algorithm that takes into account, among other things, the time of publication and how frequently an article is cited by other papers in the same area. In physics, for instance, the hottest research pursuits last year included the detection of dark matter and experiments that measure neutrino oscillations. Research into properties and applications of black phosphorus – a 2D material also called phosphorene because of its similarity to graphene – was also identified. The study of topological materials called Weyl semimetals was also named as a hot topic in physics.
Six countries – China, France, Germany, Japan, UK and US – made the greatest contributions in the 180 research areas, according to the report. The US retained its leadership, with its researchers publishing core papers in 152 of the 180 areas, ranging from the hunt for dark matter to the health impact of electronic cigarettes. The UK, meanwhile, contributed core papers in 90 research topics, covering more areas than China's 68. However, China had top-cited papers among the core papers in 30 research areas, which is more than twice that of the UK. "China has a significant gap with the US, and fierce competition with the UK," the report says, adding it was likely that China would soon overtake the UK.
Physics World: China forges ahead in global research
Binglin Chen is a science writer based in Beijing
 |
| It takes increasingly powerful computing resources to perform more and more complex simulations of nuclear reactor fuel assemblies. This image shows the coolant-flow pressure distribution in a 217-pin wire-wrapped subassembly. (Image by Paul Fischer) |
Topics: Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Research
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE's) Exascale Computing Project (ECP) today announced that it has selected four co-design centers as part of a 4-year $48 million funding award. The first year is funded at $12 million, and is to be allocated evenly among the four award recipients.
The ECP is responsible for the planning, execution and delivery of technologies necessary for a capable exascale ecosystem to support the nation’s exascale imperative, including software, applications, hardware and early testbed platforms.
Exascale refers to computing systems at least 50 times faster than the nation’s most powerful supercomputers in use today.
According to Doug Kothe, ECP Director of Application Development: “Co-design lies at the heart of the Exascale Computing Project. ECP co-design, an intimate interchange of the best that hardware technologies, software technologies and applications have to offer each other, will be a catalyst for delivery of exascale-enabling science and engineering solutions for the U.S.”
Argonne National Laboratory:
Exascale Computing Project announces $48 million to establish four exascale co-design centers
Brian Grabowski
 |
| Leonard Nimoy (R.I.P.) as mirror universe Spock, "Mirror, Mirror," Star Trek, S2, E4 |
Topics: Holograms, Optical Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Star Trek
When you look in the mirror, the image you see looks a lot like you—not exactly the same, because when you raise your right hand, your mirror-self raises its left. What’s more, the mirror image is merely an assemblage of reflected light, without a physical body behind it. Despite these differences, you can see an important connection between you and your reflection.
This type of mirror relation is a familiar and powerful form of symmetry. We can say that a Valentine heart is symmetrical because the left side is a reflection of the right. But the symmetry of your mirror image is different and deeper. A heart is symmetrical because the left and right side happen to have a similar shape. The symmetry between you and your reflection is due to the laws of physics. The nature of light requires your reflection to be symmetrical to you. It is an example of a powerful and subtle type of symmetry known as duality.
The duality between particles and waves is a central part of quantum theory. Light is clearly a wave: It has a wavelength that determines its color, and light waves can interact with each other to produce things like lasers. Light is also clearly a particle: It interacts with atoms as discrete photons; a single photon can be deflected like a billiard ball. Particle-wave duality means that quantum objects like light have a symmetry between their particle and wave aspects. They are particles with wave properties and waves with particle properties. They are both, and they are neither. The power of quantum theory is that you don’t need to distinguish between particles and waves. They are simply quantum objects with a duality between their particle and wave natures.
Does that mean that the universe is a hologram? Not quite. It means there is a duality...
Nautilus: What It Means to Live in a Holographic Cosmos
Brian Koberlein is an astrophysicist and physics professor at Rochester Institute of Technology.
I just posted this question on some of my social media and it’s one asked daily.
Growing up under ” Jim Crow-lite ” while desegregation was brand spanking new, my ambitious spirit met an ( integrated, by the way ) chorus of limitation imposers whom I resisted.
Imagine being a Black book worm who secretly wanted to be, of all things, a superhero??? My folks were teachers and education was one of the few professions intelligent Black people could choose where their intellect wasn’t demonized.
Fast forward to the 21st Century and everyone, regardless of background, has more opportunity to find their ” super ( unique potential and help others ) ” and unite with like mindedness than at any time in recorded history.
As economic pressures and racial tension challenge public confidence, now is the perfect time to find your ” super ” and inspire fellow dreamers to do the same.
So, that’s the thinking behind today’s post and the Life Fantastic I live. As history awaits writing by super citizens, the question remains:
Who wants 2B #SUPER?
-Nadra Enzi aka Cap Black, RLSH. @nadraenzi on twitter.
 |
| Artist's conception of how the "nearly naked" supermassive black hole originated. Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF. |
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Black Holes, Cosmology
Astronomers using the super-sharp radio vision of the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) have found the shredded remains of a galaxy that passed through a larger galaxy, leaving only the smaller galaxy's nearly-naked supermassive black hole to emerge and speed away at more than 2,000 miles per second.
The galaxies are part of a cluster of galaxies more than 2 billion light-years from Earth. The close encounter, millions of years ago, stripped the smaller galaxy of nearly all its stars and gas. What remains is its black hole and a small galactic remnant only about 3,000 light-years across. For comparison, our Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 100,000 light-years across.
The discovery was made as part of a program to detect supermassive black holes, millions or billions of times more massive than the Sun, that are not at the centers of galaxies. Supermassive black holes reside at the centers of most galaxies. Large galaxies are thought to grow by devouring smaller companions. In such cases, the black holes of both are expected to orbit each other, eventually merging.
National Radio Astronomy Observatory:
Close Galactic Encounter Leaves "Nearly Naked" Supermassive Black Hole
Dave Finley, Public Information Officer
 |
| Xiaolin Zeng for Quanta Magazine Particle collisions are somehow linked to mathematical “motives." |
Topics: Large Hadron Collider, LHC, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Richard Feynman, Research
An unexpected connection has emerged between the results of physics experiments and an important, seemingly unrelated set of numbers in pure mathematics.
At the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, physicists shoot protons around a 17-mile track and smash them together at nearly the speed of light. It’s one of the most finely tuned scientific experiments in the world, but when trying to make sense of the quantum debris, physicists begin with a strikingly simple tool called a Feynman diagram that’s not that different from how a child would depict the situation.
Feynman diagrams were devised by Richard Feynman in the 1940s. They feature lines representing elementary particles that converge at a vertex (which represents a collision) and then diverge from there to represent the pieces that emerge from the crash. Those lines either shoot off alone or converge again. The chain of collisions can be as long as a physicist dares to consider.
To that schematic physicists then add numbers, for the mass, momentum and direction of the particles involved. Then they begin a laborious accounting procedure — integrate these, add that, square this. The final result is a single number, called a Feynman probability, which quantifies the chance that the particle collision will play out as sketched.
“In some sense Feynman invented this diagram to encode complicated math as a bookkeeping device,” said Sergei Gukov, a theoretical physicist and mathematician at the California Institute of Technology.
Quanta Magazine: Strange Numbers Found in Particle Collisions
JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Steve Bellinger, author of "The Chronocar: An Urban Adventure in Time"
(Barking Rain Press)
Imagine being born the son of a slave with the mind of a genius. That was Simmie Johnson in the years following the Civil War. After a perilous escape from lynch mobs in Mississippi, he manages to earn a PhD in physics at Tuskegee, and in his research, discovers the secret of time travel. He develops a design for a time machine, called a Chronocar, but the technology required to make it work does not yet exist.
Fast forward one hundred and twenty-five years. A young African American Illinois Tech student in Chicago finds Dr. Johnson’s plans and builds a Chronocar. He goes back to the year 1919 to meet the doctor and his beautiful daughter, Ollie, who live in Chicago’s Black Belt, now known as Bronzeville. But, he has chosen an unfortunate time in the past and becomes involved in the bloodiest race riot in Chicago’s history.
Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the inspiration to write The Chronocar: An Urban Adventure in Time?
Steve Bellinger: I’ve been a fan of science fiction since I was 12 years old. I’ve also loved writing all my life. By the time I was in high school, I dreamed of writing the “great American Science Fiction novel.” On the way, I wrote several short stories, radio dramas and even fan fiction. Once I decided it was time to write a novel, I wanted it to be “real” science fiction and feature not just Black characters but the Black experience...
[ Read more: http://knipj.com/mc7j ]
 |
| Artist's impression of nanophotonics. Courtesy: NanoPhotonics Cambridge/Bart deNijs. |
Topics: Nanotechnology, Optics, Picocavity
Researchers in the UK and Spain have succeeded in confining light to a volume smaller than the size of a single atom for the first time – a feat that seemed completely impossible even just a few years ago. The “picocavity”, which can be thought of as the world’s smallest magnifying glass, could be used to study how light and matter interact at tiny scales and even to observe individual chemical bonds forming and breaking between atoms. The cavity might also be used to make new optomechanical data storage devices in which information can be written and read by light and stored in the form of molecular vibrations.
For a long time, scientists thought that visible light could not be focused to less than half its wavelength – the so-called diffraction limit. In recent years, however, they have learnt how to use nanostructured metals like gold and silver that support surface plasmons (oscillations of electrons at the metal surface) to confine optical fields to much smaller than their wavelength.
Now, a team led by Jeremy Baumberg at Cambridge University in the UK has used highly conductive gold nanoparticles to make the world’s tiniest optical cavity. This cavity is so small that only a single atom can fit in it. “We will never do any better than this!” says Baumberg.
Nanotechweb: Picocavity confines light to smallest volume ever, Belle Dumé
14 Easy Ways Authors Can Promote Their Books
Book marketing doesn't have to cost thousands.
In the book marketing world what works today can be considered old news tomorrow and won’t work because ‘everybody’ is doing it. Some tactics continue to be effective over time. As a book publicist I keep an eye out for the latest tips and techniques. Here’s a list of ‘easy’ ways authors can promote their books.
TV news. Few mediums reach as many people as TV news. I’ve spent the better portion of my life placing clients on TV news programs and interview shows. It’s extremely effective in letting people know about your book. The easiest way to land a TV interview is to send your book with a personally addressed cover letter/pitch and press release about the book to the news director of the station. Provide your photo and send it in. Do that for every TV station you want to appear on. Start local first then go after the big shows.
Talk radio. Listeners turn to talk radio to be fully informed on topics that are not covered completely in newspapers or on TV and to have an actual conversation with the host and you, the guest. Talk radio show hosts will in most cases ask you to share your website, e-mail address or toll-free phone number or they’ll mention it themselves. Use the same methods discussed to solicit TV News above.
Kickstarter. Need money to promote your book? Many authors have successfully turned to Kickstarter to fund their book marketing.
Goodreads. 50 Million readers find books to read on Goodreads so it makes sense for authors to find out as much as possible about how it can help sell books. One way is to make sure reviewers post their reviews on Goodreads. Also ask readers to add your book to Listopia lists where books are grouped together by genre and subject. Get active on Goodreads. Write reviews of books you’ve read and add books you’d like to read to your ‘Want to Read’ list. Buy an ad on Goodreads. Target your ad by book genre, location, gender or age.
Amazon Author page. Make sure you are utilizing your Amazon Author page. Are all your books listed? Have you added your author photo and bio? What about including your book trailer, blog and tour schedule? Take advantage of all the tools you can that cost nothing!
Amazon KDP Select. This is where you give away your ebook on Amazon for up to five days. When this first started it was amazing how effective it was in getting exposure for authors. While not as effective today, it’s still worth doing.
Book awards. You have to enter to win. It’s well worth your time and money giving you media opportunities as it distinguishes you when you become ‘an award-winning author.’
Book Fairs. Meet fellow authors and readers who love books. It’s where the rubber meets the road in the book business. You’ll find out what readers like and what’s on the mind of authors. You may find out some good info about effective marketing methods. Make it a point to hit a few during your next vacation.
Writer’s Conferences. Where serious authors go to hone their craft, meet fellow authors and listen to experts in the field. Well worth your time to find out how others are progressing in the writing field. Writers are quite nice people so you’re bound to make long term friends who collectively can change your life for the better. When you look back after a few years you’ll remember bits of advice that made all the difference in your success.
Social Media. Become active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Create specific content for each of the mediums using blurbs, your book trailer, memes and book reviews. It’s a major project no doubt, but it’s one of the best low cost ways to reach readers. Plus, Facebook offers advertising directly to fans of authors in your genre or specific authors themselves. Get busy and just do it!
Book trailer. Just as a movie trailer is used to get consumers interested in a movie, a book trailer does the same for a book. If a picture is worth 1000 words then a book trailer must be worth 100,000 words! Get one for your book and post it to social media and include the URL in all pitches.
Read a book. You want people to buy your book then go out and buy and read books about book marketing. You can’t know everything on book promotion so read books to find out what you need to learn.
ProfNet. A reporter, freelance writer or television producer is assigned a story and places a query on ProfNet requesting an expert who could speak to the topic. Queries come from the NY Times, Good Morning America, Women’s World Magazine, NPR etc. Authors are perfect for ProfNet because of their built-in credibility since they wrote about the subject matter covered in their book. The media likes people who have credentials and are authorities and experts.
Book signing event. Often we’ll land a media interview because we have an event such as a book signing. The event gives the media a ‘reason’ to talk about your book right now. Since book stores are solicited by authors and publishers incessantly, try another retail outlet. One client of mine set up a book signing in a bake shop. We got TV and newspaper coverage for that one!
The Bottom Line: Authors, recheck your marketing mix and take advantage of all the ‘easy’ ways to promote your book. Do it today!
 |
| Left: Plasmoid formation in simulation of NSTX plasma during startup without solenoid. Right: Fast-camera image of NSTX plasma shows two discrete plasmoid-like structures. Credit: NSTX |
Topics: Applied Physics, Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, Research
The tokamak is an experimental chamber that holds a gas of energetic charged particles, plasma, for developing energy production from nuclear fusion. Most large tokamaks create the plasma with solenoids—large magnetic coils that wind down the center of the vessels and inject the current that starts the plasma and completes the magnetic field that holds the superhot gas in place. But future tokamaks must do without solenoids, which run in short pulses rather than for weeks or months at a time as commercial fusion power plants will have to do.
Recent computer simulations have suggested a novel method for launching the plasma without using solenoids. The simulation modeling shows the formation of distinct, current carrying magnetic structures called plasmoids that can initiate the plasma and complete the complex magnetic field.
Everything starts with magnetic field lines, or loops, that rise through an opening in the floor of the tokamak. As the field lines are electrically forced to expand into the vessel, a thin layer, or sheet, of electrical current can form. Through a process called magnetic reconnection, the sheet can break and form a series of ring-shaped plasmoids that are the magnetic equivalent to the bubble rings created by dolphins.
Phys.org: Launching fusion reactions without a central magnet, or solenoid
 |
| Electron snapshot: the probable position of the remaining helium electron after photoionization. (Courtesy: M Ossiander/ TUM, M Schultze/ MPQ) |
Topics: Applied Physics, Bose-Einstein Condensate, Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science
Fresh evidence for a new state of matter called a supersolid has been put forth by two independent teams of physicists. Supersolidity has been a controversial concept whereby some atoms in a solid material are able to form a superfluid at very low temperatures – allowing them to flow ghost-like through the solid without any resistance. While initial observations of supersolidity in solid helium-4 in the 2000s have since been explained in terms of more mundane physics, some physicists believe that supersolids should exist – at least in principle. Now, Wolfgang Ketterle and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US and Tilman Esslinger and colleagues of ETH Zürich in Switzerland have created supersolid analogues using ultracold atoms. Both systems comprise Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC), which are already superfluids. The teams used different optical techniques to make the atoms arrange themselves into crystalline structures of high and low density resembling a solid. They then showed that the atoms can flow freely through such crystals, while the regions of high and low density do not move. While these experiments involve dilute gases, rather than actual solids, both studies show that the supersolid state of matter is possible. Both experiments are described in preprints on arXiv.
Physics World: Have supersolids been seen at last? Hamish Johnston
If you are an author, and you have published a book, JoeyPinkney.com is a viable outlet to speak about the importance of your book.
Please contact Joey Pinkney at joey.pinkney @ gmail.com for details.
 |
| Figure 1. A three-layer steam generator consists of a selective absorber insulated above with bubble wrap and below with polystyrene foam. Because conductive, convective, and radiative losses are suppressed, most of the solar heat captured by the absorber is channeled to a small slot where the absorber is in contact with water. (Adapted from ref. 1 .) Citation: Phys. Today 69, 11, 17 (2016); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3351 |
Topics: Climate Change, Global Warming, Green Energy, Green Tech, Solar Power
A combination of inexpensive materials collects and concentrates heat from the Sun.
Heating water to its boiling point is an important first step not only for preparing a cup of tea or a bowl of pasta, but for a range of applications fundamental to an industrial society, including distillation, sterilization, and power generation. In a solar economy, one could boil water with an electric heater powered by a photovoltaic cell. But it would be far more efficient to use solar energy to heat the water directly.
That’s manifestly possible. For decades solar steam turbines in wide-open sunny spaces have used arrays of mirrors to concentrate sunlight from a large area onto a small volume of water. But those mirrors are expensive: They must be precisely machined to focus light over several hundred meters, and they must be mounted on motors to track the Sun’s position in the sky. Because the motors require that a powerful source of electricity already be available, optical concentrating arrays aren’t suitable to smaller-scale or off-the-grid applications, such as sterilizing medical instruments in a clinic in the developing world.
Now MIT’s Gang Chen, George Ni, and their colleagues have demonstrated a different approach: concentrating not the Sun’s light but its heat.1 Because their steam generator consists entirely of commonly available materials—a conscious choice on their part—they estimate that per unit area, it could be built for just 1–3% of the cost of an array of motorized mirrors.
The device is sketched in figure 1. It works by absorbing solar energy over a large area but giving it nowhere to escape except through a small slot where the absorber is in contact with a reservoir of ambient-temperature water. If the absorption area is large enough and the contact area is small enough, the water is locally brought to a boil to release steam before the heat can diffuse out into the bulk liquid. The challenge, then, is to keep the absorber from losing too much heat to conduction, convection, and radiation. Normally—and not unfortunately—those losses prevent any object heated by unconcentrated sunlight from getting anywhere near 100 °C.
To limit conductive and convective losses, the researchers insulated the top and bottom of the absorbing layer. For the bottom layer, they used ordinary polystyrene foam, which also kept the device afloat. The choice of top layer was a bit more constrained, because they needed something optically transparent. So they tried bubble wrap. “I was surprised by how well the bubble wrap worked,” said Ni. “Most researchers are using high-performance materials, and here we were, testing out bubble wrap, which wasn’t designed for maximum optical clarity.” Indeed, the bubble wrap transmits only 80% of the light that hits it. But its insulation benefits far outweighed that modest optical inefficiency.
Physics Today: Solar steam generator needs no lenses or mirrors, Johanna L. Miller
My grand daughter (7) is filling up her sketchbook with comics
Stupid question, I know. Why else would you be on this blog? A better question might be "Do you like to read sci-fi for free?" If the answer to that is HELL TO THE YEAH!! then head over to my site, link below, and click on the short stories page. I put up a bunch of my, previously released, stuff for you to peruse. Of course, if that bonus check is burning a hole in your wallet, my comic book, LEGENDS PARALLEL, and my novel, THE BRITTLE RIDERS, are for sale on their respective pages. I'm more than willing to let you buy them.
Let me know your thoughts if you check anything out.
