Susskind Quashes Hawking in Quarrel over Quantum Quandary

California Literary Review has a rather interesting interview with Leonard Susskind on his argument with Stephen Hawking over the nature of "information" and how it is lost (or not) when it enters a black hole. This debate was highlighted in Susskind's book "The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics", which was the main reason for the CLR interview with Susskind, I would think.

I think the whole issue can be summed up in this particular question and answer.

Why was this so important?

Well it’s probably not important for curing cancer, or knocking down enemy missiles, or speeding up your computer. But it is important to the future of physics and cosmology. The universe is controlled by two fundamental laws: Einstein’s gravity theory (the General Theory of Relativity) and Quantum Mechanics. Stephen argued very convincingly that the two (GTR and QM) were on a collision course. Gravity and Quantum Mechanics were just plain incompatible. One or the other would have to give, at least by Hawking’s logic.

Stephen was wrong, but his astonishing question has changed the history of physics, and there is much more to come.

Yup! There's definitely more to come...

Zz.

Do Cosmic Rays Get Bogged Down in the Cosmos?

A new report out of the Auger Observatory collaboration seems to indicate the presence of the GZK cutoff (link requires free registration to Physics World website) that was earlier claimed by the the HiRes observatory.

Physicists are closer to understanding how ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays make their way to Earth thanks to new measurements made at the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. The study shows that the number of such cosmic rays reaching Earth drops off rapidly for rays with energies of more than about 4 x 10^19 eV.

The observations are consistent with a 40-year-old theory that ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays cannot travel very far through the universe without losing energy as they scatter off the cosmic microwave background.

4 x 10^19 eV... hum.. quick! How many orders of magnitude is that higher than the highest energy the LHC can ever reach?! And people are rabidly worried about the LHC creating blackholes?

Zz.

Glut of Iron-Arsenide Superconductor Papers

Whoa! I looked at the ArXiv this morning in the Condensed Matter section and saw a glut of preprints on this iron-arsenide-based superconductors. The first 4 preprints, and 8 of the first 20 listed, are all on it.

This is as good as any of an indicator that this compound is the hottest thing to hit this field since MgB2 revealed itself to be a superconductor several years ago.

Zz.

Ambitious 1.9 Billion UK Science Funding Programme is Announced

We now have a bit more detailed (and links) to the recent announcement of the UK science funding by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

The funding includes support to universities and research facilities for fundamental science, research facilities and technology development in nuclear physics, particle physics, neutrino science, neutron scattering, lasers and light sources, space exploration and astronomy.

Highlights include support for UK participation in global astronomy projects, particle physics experiments at CERN, a neutrino physics project in Japan, a nuclear physics facility in Germany, the search for gravitational waves and exploring whether life has ever been present on Mars.

Still no "highlights" on whether they're coming back to the ILC.

Zz.

Hawk-Eye Ball Tracking

Being a tennis nut, I was obviously glued to the TV whenever I can during major tennis tournament, such as Wimbledon that has been going on the past 2 weeks. The most significant progress in tennis during the past couple of years has been the more rapid introduction of the Hawk-Eye system into various tournaments, including Wimbledon. This is the ball-tracking system that can "replay" where the tennis ball lands on the court in case there is a disputed call.

Now, what is interesting is that it doesn't involve the actual picture of a ball landing on the court. Rather, it is more complicated than that. It takes a series of video frames of the trajectory of the ball and then calculates where it will land on the court. So it isn't a direct picture of where there ball lands, but rather, using mechanics, calculate where it would have landed. Of course, the factors involved in producing such calculation is a bit more complicated since a number of parameters must be considered.

Tests have always been conducted outdoors, encompassing situations that take the following factors into consideration:

* Wind (and therefore camera wobble);
* Bright sunlight at different times of the day;
* Shadows covering part or the majority of the court;
* Dark or overcast conditions;
* Artifical floodlights.

Still, considering how winds can be swirling in different directions, and how many of these tennis balls are hit with a variety of spins, one would tend to wonder if some of the very, very close calls (ball landing 1/4 inch on the line, etc.) are valid. The problem with this is that there isn't any kind of documentation of the degree of accuracy of its call. Where are the "error bars"?

Still, I suppose it is better than the human judgment call, especially on the very close one. At the very least, it stopped the players from arguing with the umpire. Would have been interesting to see how this would have changed how John McEnroe behaved on the courts if it had been around back then. :)

Zz.

Home Photovoltaic Systems for Physicists

Just in time for $150 per barrel oil, this is a fun and timely article by Tom Murphy in this month's issue of Physics Today. It deals with the setting up of a modest photovoltaic system to run a suite of appliances. But what is interesting is that it deals with it from the background of what a physicist know. We are not electrical engineers, and while we do know the physics of semiconductor, the practical aspect of setting up something that needs to work at this level isn't trivial.

It was with those concerns in mind that I decided to explore the practical side of photovoltaic energy: In 2007 I built a PV system to power my living room. Though reasonably well informed on the semiconductor physics of PV junctions, I felt unsuitably prepared to evaluate the practical realities of owning and operating a personal solar PV system. Because I believe physicists can play a role in our energy future that extends beyond the confines of advanced research, I want to share my experiences in the hope that others might develop home PV projects. What better way to motivate innovation in the alternative-energy sector than to get a talented pool of physicists engaged on a personal level?

A recommended reading if you don't get a subscription to Physics Today.

Zz.

A Quiet Revolution in SEM

This is a good review of the current advancement in Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technology.

However, there has been a quiet revolution in the world of the SEM, and slowly but surely, its capabilities are expanding. The instrument can now be used to study the surface of just about any bulk material at nanometre resolution and regardless of whether it is clean or dirty, wet or dry, hot or cold, conducting or insulating. Under the most favourable conditions, sub-nanometre resolution has been achieved — especially for thin specimens imaged in transmission mode.

If you're like me and have made frequent use of a SEM facility, you'll appreciate what this workhorse can do in a pinch.

Zz.

More Verification of Einstein's General Relativity

The more they test it, the more it is verified.

For the past 4 years, an international team has been carefully tracking the signals of one of the pulsars and monitoring the signals' direction during eclipses--a observational technique "that has never been employed before," says astrophysicist and co-author Rene Breton of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The researchers determined that the precession of the pulsar's orbital axis advances by 4.77 degrees per year, plus or minus 0.66 degrees. Calculations based on Einstein's theory predicted it should advance by 5.07 degrees per year, well within the margin of error.

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US Presidential Candidates Receive Questions on Science

The two US Presidential candidates received 14 questions related to science and science policy/funding.

According the ScienceDebate website, the 14 questions are designed to be “broad enough to allow wide variations in response, but specific enough to help guide the discussion towards many of the largest and unresolved challenges currently facing the US.”

You can read the actual wording of all of the 14 questions here.

Let's see if they have the courage to actually answer these questions AND also participate in the Science Debate. But based on previous attempts at having one, I'm not that confident. Even answers to these questions may not say much, since science funding is nowhere near the top of the priority for most people. Just look at the current election campaign and see if this has ever been mentioned. What we had instead are issues of "faith".

Zz.

Winners and Losers in UK Funding

This could possibly stir another round of unhappiness with the physics funding in the United Kingdom.

The body overseeing UK astronomy and physics says some of its programmes will be cut back to save £81m by 2011.

Areas that will lose money are those deemed to be a low priority in a recent programmatic review.

They include support for the Integral space telescope and the Veritas observatory, both of which are concerned with the investigation of gamma-ray light; and Bison, an observatory network pursuing solar-terrestrial physics.

No word in this news report if funding is going to be restored to the UK's involvement in Gemini and the International Linear Collider, both of which they pulled out of during this last budget debacle.

Zz.

Communicating With Your PhD Supervisor

In Chapter X of my "So You Want To Be A Physicist" essay, I mentioned the process of selecting your research adviser/supervisor for your graduate work. This is possibly the most important person in your academic life and selecting someone compatible is an extremely important aspect of your education.

In last week's Science, there's a wonderful essay on the same issue that focuses on your interaction with your PhD supervisor. It deals with communicating with your supervisor no matter what style he/she adopts. This is very important especially if your supervisor is a well-known scientist that is in very high demand. So this is definitely a useful essay if you are about or just starting your graduate program.

Zz.

High-Tc Superconductors Are Very Kinky - Update 2

A new update to my first essay on the kink feature in the ARPES spectra of high-Tc superconductors. This time, it could throw a major wrench into the analysis done previously on this high-energy kink feature that has been seen around 500 meV. The new paper[1] disputes the idea that this high energy kink is intrinsic to the band dispersion of the material. Rather, they argued that it is an artifact of the momentum distribution curve (MDC) method. Their analysis of the energy distribution cureve (EDC) does not show the same effect for that energy range.

It would be interesting to see if the previous authors who have done the analysis on this high energy kink would respond to this paper.

Zz.

[1] W. Zhang et al., Phys. Rev. lett. v.101, p.017002 (2008).

Science and Maths Exams are Harder Than Arts Subjects, Say Researchers

Oooh.. now this is bound to stir up a whole bunch of hornet's nests.

Researchers at Durham University in the UK think they have evidence that shows that science and math subjects are harder than arts subjects such as English, social studies, etc. They used the grading scale in the UK's A-Level examinations as their data.

They analysed the GCSE and A-level results of almost a million students who sat exams in the summer of 2006, comparing marks in traditional sciences and maths with those in arts and humanities.

There were "substantial differences in the average grades achieved by the same or comparable candidates", they found.

A-levels in physics, chemistry and biology were marked a grade lower than A-levels in drama, sociology and media studies and three-quarters of a grade harder than English, religious education and business studies, the researchers said.

Examiners were half a grade more generous when marking students of the same ability in psychology A-level, compared with biology A-level.

For many of us, this isn't really that surprising. There have been plenty of anecdotal studies on a general consensus that the science subjects are more "difficult" both in high school and in college. However, there hasn't been any kind of systematic studies on this. Furthermore, I don't know if it is a fair comparison between the two, and certainly it is comparing apples and oranges.

Still, with the UK system, it may reinforce the fact that teachers or even parents may encourage students to take the easier subjects in their A-level exams, which may explain why the number of students in the UK taking the more difficult subjects has been declining for the past several years.

Zz.

Supplemental Spending Bill Signed

The President signed the $186 billion supplemental spending bill which includes $338 million for science agencies in the US. Quick! What percentage of the total supplemental bill is that?! The majority of the money in the bill goes to you-know-where.

This is only a stop-gap measures that will prevent further layoffs at Fermilab and SLAC. The inherent problem not only in the budget, but in the fundamental philosophy of those in Congress hasn't changed. So there really isn't that many reasons to be optimistic at all.

Michael Lubell, a physicist at the City College of New York and APS director of public affairs, also points out that three key issues that physicists raised last December with budget makers remain “largely unaddressed”. These are cuts in funding for particle physics, the lack of support for national facilities, and the damage to America’s credibility as an international partner because of the decision to cut funds for ITER.

“Unless these issues are addressed some time in the next six months, the country will pay a heavy penalty,” said Lubell, who plans to continue lobbying over the 2009 budget.

Zz.

Scientific Fraud

Is there more of it than you think? This article seems to think so.

The data presented in the article were restricted to the US health and biological science, so it simply "extrapolated" into the rest of science. Now, even if this is true, that there are "... three incidences of fraud for every 100 researchers...", one needs to evaluate two important things as far as physics is concerned:

(1) were these part of important, high-profiled work and publications?

(2) did it get through to the stage where it was being used as a valid source?

The two instances mentioned in the article (the Schon and Ninov debacles) certainly fit #1, but this is out of how many high-profiled work? The thing we need to keep in mind here is that these high-profiled work, published in major journals, are usually highly scrutinized. So one certainly cannot get away with a lot of things, much less, fraudulent results, since someone is bound to try and reproduce your results. This is why it is still a major puzzlement why Schon did what he did, as if he didn't think someone was going to try and reproduce his results. So these important works in physics usually are not affected by frauds, because it is just way too difficult to get away with it.

Now, certainly such things are less scrutinized in lesser journals. But most of these very seldom become significant work that we rely on. And this brings us to #2. How many of these frauds actually made it "out" and into the stages where they were applied and used? I don't know of any. Why? Because if it is fraudulent, it would not work, no matter how much you try! That was the problem with the Schon results, no one could reproduce it! It could not get out of the scrutiny part and into the applied/application part.

The point here is that fraudulent work in physics hasn't made it out too far for it to mislead or fool enough people. (I'm distinguishing this from outright crackpottery such as the "hydrino".) If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, no matter how one tries to hide the fraud. Science, and certainly physics, is still a slave to Mother Nature.

Because the PRACTICE of science is a human endeavor, it is why we have peer-reviewed process, and then further scrutiny by others in the field. If not, why bother with all of the circus? The public and the media should be made aware of this, and this is why any results or discoveries should be given the proper "gestation period" for the system to work. The fact that something has been published isn't really the end of the story, but rather the beginning of a detailed, careful scrutiny. It is when the public and the media forget about this is when they are "misled".

Zz.

Physics Teacher Shortage in the UK

More physics secondary education problem in the UK. A new report indicates that one in for secondary schools in the UK no longer have a physics specialist teacher.

The survey shows substantial differences in the availability of physics teachers - both regional differences and by the type of school. And it raises concerns about the viability of physics as a separate subject.

In inner London, there is a tendency to have general science teachers rather than specialist physics teachers - and 50% of secondary schools do not have any physics teachers.

In contrast, in the Yorkshire and Humberside region, only about 10% of schools do not have any specialist physics teachers.

If we couple with with an earlier report and something that I truly believe that the problem with physics education is the way it is being taught in high schools, then the situation in the UK not very good. It is not just a matter of conveying the material. It is also the enthusiasm, creativity, and interest in the material. Presumably, someone who specialized in physics would tend to have those elements and would show it in his/her teaching.

Zz.

Recapturing The Excitement Of Science

This article is all over the place and going in all directions. Its main emphasis is on the refurbishing of the Faraday Lecture Theatre at the Royal Institution in London. Still, it is an interesting read, especially on the historical aspect. Even more interesting, however, is that the impression that I have regarding the teaching of physics, and how the importance of physics is communicated to the general public, are articulated exactly in the article.

What a contrast with today. Last week, Ofsted reported that at both primary and secondary school level, science lessons were dull and there were not enough practical experiments. Teachers no longer entertain classes with explosions of powdered magnesium; gone are the bunsen burners for heating noxious mixtures in fragile test-tubes.

"Science is a fascinating and exciting subject," said Chief inspector Christine Gilbert. "Yet for many pupils, it lacks appeal because of the way that it is taught."

So why are so many people today happy to admit that they find science difficult and dull? Some of the blame may be laid at the doors of our education system, as the Ofsted report suggested. But there must be more to the flight from science.

People who would never admit to a lack of understanding of art or literature are happy to confess to total incomprehension where science is concerned. Yet our lives today depend as never before upon the outcomes of innovative science and technology. Without medical science, our lives would be shorter and more painful; without physics and chemistry, domestic conveniences that ease our everyday lives could never have been developed.

If, however, the reason for the general public's disenchantment with science is to be laid at the door of scientists unable or unprepared to communicate their subject so as to engage the interest and enthusiasm of non-specialists, then the Royal Institution is continuing a long tradition actively to counter such a trend.

This person in that speeding case may be exactly the product of such an environment, resulting in a complete disconnect between the advances in physics and the way we live our lives today.

Zz.

SCOAP3 Expands

The push for having open-access peer-reviewed journal articles in high-energy physics now includes 3 more US National labs: SLAC, J-Lab, and Lawrence Berkeley.

Eventually, everyone will have access to those high-energy physics papers. So no one can claim any ignorance because he/she has been unable to access these peer-reviewed articles. :)

Zz.

The Laws Of Physics Do Not Apply Here?

I was casually reading this article, which started out to be rather amusing. But then, it got VERY annoying especially when the ignorant judge started to give out his opinion.

A couple in England was contesting a speeding ticket when the wife was caught using a speed camera. Her husband, who happened to be a physicist, challenged the speeding ticket because the speed camera wasn't used according to instruction.

Now I have no idea who's right or who's wrong here, and this isn't really the focus of this blog post. However, what caused my jaw to drop was what the judge then said.

West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership spokesman, Philip Gwynne, said Mr Fielden appeared to be "defending his wife's honour" by "using the laws of physics."

He said: "However, the judge has ruled that in speeding cases it is the law of the land that matters – not the law of physics.

"Maybe it's time that we left physics in the classroom and allowed cameras to get on with their job which is to reduce injury and death on our roads and encourage people to drive within the speed limits," he continued.

Er... hello? Didn't the camera actually used physics to measure a vehicle's speed in the first place? And what's with confining physics to only "in the classroom" nonsense? Is he out of his mind making such a silly statement like that?

I hate to say this, but I shouldn't be shocked by such stupidity anymore. However, it also a reflection on those in physics to evaluate on whether we have done enough to emphasize the relevance of physics in our world today. Too often, big news on physics have come from very esoteric areas of physics. This includes high energy physics (the LHC is in the new a lot lately), astrophysics, etc., all of which are definitely important, but have a major disconnect between the subject area and what the general public are familiar with. They don't see how such things are applicable in their daily lives, and so have the impression that physics only deals with things that they don't use. They forget that their basic electronics, and most of their modern conveniences, came out of discoveries in physics, especially solid state/condensed matter physics.

Confining physics to the classroom is the last thing we want to do.

Zz.

EDIT/UPDATE: There's a bit of confusion on my part on who said that idiotic passage that I quoted from the news article. From this report, it appears that it is the person by the name of

Philip Gwynne, a spokesman for West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership, which runs the camera, said: "Maybe it's time we left the physics in the classroom. The cameras are there to encourage people to drive safely."

If this is true, than I apologize to the presiding judge, and this Philip Gwynne character has a serious problem. The "West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership" can't possibly want someone this ignorant to be their spokesman..... can they?

Zz.

Public Outreach Program For Gravitational Wave Astronomy?

It could happen! It certainly isn't a very well-known area of physics/astronomy, so any kind of publicity and public outreach can certainly help in making the field more familiar to students and the public.

This preprint highlights the effort in introducing gravitational wave research by the LIGO collaboration to students, educators, and the public.

Abstract: The nascent field of gravitational-wave astronomy offers many opportunities for effective and inspirational astronomy outreach. Gravitational waves, the "ripples in space-time" predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity, are produced by some of the most energetic and dramatic phenomena in the cosmos, including black holes, neutron stars and supernovae. The detection of gravitational waves will help to address a number of fundamental questions in physics, from the evolution of stars and galaxies to the origin of dark energy and the nature of space-time itself. Moreover, the cutting-edge technology developed to search for gravitational waves is pushing back the frontiers of many fields, from lasers and materials science to high performance computing, and thus provides a powerful showcase for the attractions and challenges of a career in science and engineering. For several years a worldwide network of ground-based laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors has been fully operational, including the two LIGO detectors in the United States. These detectors are already among the most sensitive scientific instruments on the planet and in the next few years their sensitivity will achieve further significant improvement. Those developments promise to open an exciting new window on the Universe, heralding the arrival of gravitational-wave astronomy as a revolutionary, new observational field. In this paper we describe the extensive program of public outreach activities already undertaken by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and a number of special events which we are planning for IYA2009.

Zz.

Rising Cost of Oil 'Due to Speculation'

Finally, a research work done in the field of econophysics that I've actually found to be "relevant" and interesting! :)

This is a preprint by a group from ETH Zurich and the East China University of Science and Technology. In it, they claim that the rising cost in oil cannot be explained simply via supply and demand, that the major cost for the increase is due to oil speculation. You can read a review of this preprint at the Physics World website (free registration is required).

In an economy without speculation, the price of commodities tends to grow by a fixed percentage every year; this is an exponential rate of growth. But when an economy is influenced by speculation, the percentage increase can grow too. This gives rise to a power-law growth or, as the researchers call it, a “super-exponential growth”.

Sornette’s group has looked at three different models to see if oil prices exhibit super-exponential growth. Each of these models is based on a “log-periodic power law”, which characterizes the super-exponential growth, and contains three main parameters: the time when the bubble is expected to end; the exponent of the power law; and a scale factor. The researchers found that all three models fitted the oil-price data well, implying that the growth has indeed been a bubble.

Apparently, this group also predicted back in 2005 of the burst of the US housing market. And look at where we are now?

Zz.

A Celebration of Learning?

I don't think so.

OK, so this is another one of those where I know that I am being overly critical here, and possibly nit-picking the issue. But still, based on my experience, the important distinction here is lost on many people who are not familiar with science and science education.

This story is reporting a group of high school and college students reading out loud various books in an effort to highlight the love of learning.

Inside the gazebo at Goettel Park was not the place Monday for anyone with a headache: Sebastian Notaro's voice boomed chapters from "College Physics" while Kate Sheldon read a cookbook. Andrea Catania recited from a Harry Potter book, and Chelsea Meredith read from the Quran.

Five others were reading aloud - all at the same time.

They even explained the reason why they are doing this silly exercise.

The event, which didn't have a name, had two purposes, including the collection of donations for a food pantry.

"It's a great way to revitalize intellectual spirit among our youth and show we are interested in learning," Miller said.

The food pantry drive thing, I have no problem with, and certainly can be effective if advertised. But the "we are interested in learning" part has a lot of things wrong with it especially as far as learning physics and mathematics are concerned.

First of all, just because someone can read something, doesn't mean he/she understands the content. Give a high school student a copy of Jackson's Classical E&M text and I can easily see that student reading it. He may stumble over a few words, but he can read it. But did he understood what he just read? I bet you cash the weight of that book that he did not. So just because someone reads off "College Physics" is meaningless as far as "learning" is concerned. That is why you never see authors of a college physics text at bookstores or coffee lounges reading chapters off their books. That would be absurd.

Secondly, one does not study physics and mathematics simply by reading it similar to what one would do when reading a novel, or a cookbook. You don't just sit in a chair with nothing else, and read Griffith's Quantum Mechanics text. While you can get some superficial knowledge out of doing something like that, you do not get the clear grasp of the content without actually working it out while reading the book. One learns and understand the material via working out the examples and following along the mathematics with pen and paper. It is also why these texts have exercise problems to test one's understanding of the material. This is the only way to really get a grasp of the physics. There are no shortcuts.

So while I can appreciate this as being nothing more than "symbolic" or a publicity stunt, the way it is done to emphasize "learning" is all wrong for understanding "College Physics". They could have done better if they read and understood the book and showed a demonstration instead. It certainly would have been a lot more exciting for the audience and may even had prevented headaches!

Zz.