Please Help Reverse Lack of Science Funding

If you are a US resident (and especially if you are a registered voter) and are concern about the recent budget debacle in the US, please help!

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From: Arthur Bienenstock, President, the American Physical Society
To: Members of the American Physical Society
Re: Federal Funding Alert: http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/alerts


I am writing to request that you contact your elected representatives and let them know that the 2008 federal budget deals a devastating blow to basic research. You can make this contact quickly and easily at:
http://www.aps.org/policy/tools/alerts

There, you will find pre-written messages to your Senators, Representatives and President Bush. You may send these letters as they are, modify them, or write your own. While individualizing your letter is not essential, please at least make minor edits to the subject line and the first line of the text of each email so that these emails are more individualized. (See webpage pointers below for further instruction.)

Congress wrapped up the Fiscal Year 2008 (FY08) budget just before adjourning for the year. The budget, which wipes out $1 billion in increases approved last summer for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE Science) and the NIST laboratories, does irreparable damage to science and abandons the Innovation/Competitiveness initiatives of Congress and the Administration.

While DOE Science programs received a 2.5 percent increase overall (exclusive of earmarks), they will decline by about one percent after inflation. High-energy physics and fusion will feel the greatest pain. High energy physics will likely have to eliminate hundreds of jobs, halt work on both the NOvA, the next step in neutrino physics at FermiLab and partially furlough many remaining employees. The Omnibus bill for FY08 also stopped R&D on the International Linear Collider project, an international high-precision step beyond the Large Hadron Collider, and zeroed out the U.S. contribution to the international ITER project, designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. These actions are severely damaging to the U.S. standing in the international scientific community.

The NSF, with only a 1.2 percent increase for Research and Related Activities, will lose almost three percent in level of effort after inflation is taken into account. Moreover, with new facility projects coming online, their administrative costs will have to be paid out of the research accounts. As a result, university proposal funding rates will inevitably fall.

The request in the attached letters is to restore that funding in an FY08 supplemental appropriations bill, and to support the FY09 budget at the levels authorized in the COMPETES act, efforts that the APS Washington Office are pursuing with both Congress and the Administration.


WEBPAGE POINTERS:
(1) While individualizing your letter is not essential, we ask that you make minor edits to the subject line and the first line of the text of each email.
(2) If you are a government employee, please do not use government resources to send a communication.
(3) Your browser will take you to a page where you will enter your name and address.
(4) After entering your address, click the “Edit/Send Email button.” A window with an individual email message to the four offices will appear. Click “Send Emails” to transmit the communication.
(5) Electronic submission is preferred.
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Since this was intended for APS members, the letter should be modified accordingly to reflect who you are. Again, individualize it to your case. Please do not underestimate the effectiveness of your letter. It WILL make a difference!

Thank you for your support.

Zz.

The Physics of Potholes.

I'm not scraping the bottom of the road here to find this story (pun intended). Still, this news article does have a fairly accurate description of the formation of potholes that you often see on the street, especially in areas of the world that have freezing climates during certain times of the year.

Pothole formation comes down to basic physics. Water gets into the subsurface below the pavement, often through cracks, and expands as it freezes.

If everything freezes in a consistent way, it's not as much of a problem, Berry said. But often water distributes itself unevenly through the subsurface, meaning some areas expand more than others.

Then, when the ice melts, the pavement contracts and weakens. Add the weight of heavy vehicles to the mix, and the weak spot can become a hole.

That hole, in turn, can grow as car and truck tires chip away at the damaged asphalt.

Actually, there is also another factor to this. I often see potholes a couple of days after a snow storm. Why? All those freezing and thawing tends to loosen clumps of asphalt and concrete, especially those that were used to patch up a street. When a snow plow comes along to plow away the snow, these loose patches also tend to get caught in the plow and voila! You have a pothole. So while the weather certainly plays a factor in creating potholes, snow plowing simply accelerates such creations.

Didn't think you'd read about potholes in a physics blog, did you? :)

Zz.

Direct Measurement of Critical Casimir Forces

This is an amazing work. A group of physicists in Germany has made a "direct" measurement of the critical Casimir forces[1]. I suppose this is as direct as it can get, as of now.

There is a News and Views coverage of this paper in the same issue of Nature, and also on the Physics World website.

Zz.

[1] C. Hertlein et al, Nature v.451, p.172 (2008).

Illinois Governor Writes To Pres. Bush To Restore Science Spending

Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich, wrote a letter to President Bush urging him to restore the intended budget for Argonne and Fermilab, both national laboratories in his state. This is just after Bush visited an elementary school in Chicago.

Yesterday, as you visited Chicago, you toured Greeley Elementary School and saw first hand the success we’ve had in promoting math and science based education. Ironically, because of major funding reductions to some of the nation's leading research facilities within the Department of Energy’s budget, the students you saw today may have a hard time starting a technical or scientific career in Illinois.

The omnibus spending bill that you recently signed could cause dramatic funding cuts at Argonne National Laboratory, one of the nation’s largest and most important research centers. In addition to these cuts, the bill includes significant cuts to Illinois’ other federal research facility, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. These two institutions put Illinois and the United States at the forefront of scientific research. Without adequate federal funding, hundreds of people will lose their jobs while the United States will risk falling behind in science and technology leadership.

When politicians starts wondering why we seldom believe in what they say, point them to this debacle. Not even 6 months after they all agreed that more funding should be given to science via that joke America COMPETES Act, what did they do? They cut science spending, and cut it with impunity. Essentially, THEY LIED! They plainly lied in front of our faces, and knew that they'll get away with it too!

Of course, you could say "What else is new?" Maybe this is their standard operating procedure. I can only hope that one day, one of these lies would really come back and haunt them.

Zz.

Science, Evolution, and Creationism

If you haven't found this and downloaded it yet, you might find it useful. This is the document produced by the US National Academy of Sciences addressing the Evolution vs. Creationism in terms of science. It addresses things in a straight-forward manner, and produces not only rebuttals against several popular points brought up by creationists, but also points to several strong evidence in support of evolution that many people may not realize.

Most of the documents and reports can be obtained for free.

Zz.

When Superconductivity Became Clear (to Some)

I mentioned last October (2007) of the conference being held at UIUC to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the BCS Theory of Superconductivity. Well now the NY Times has an article related to that, and includes a delightful anecdotal history on how Bardeen recruited Cooper to come to UIUC to work on the superconductivity problem. I think most people are not aware that some of the giants in physics at that time had tried to solve the superconductivity problem and failed!

After wrapping up special and general relativity, Albert Einstein tried, and failed, to devise a theory of superconductivity. Werner Heisenberg, the physicist who came up with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, struggled with the problem, as did other pioneers of quantum mechanics like Niels Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli. Felix Bloch, another thwarted theorist, jokingly concluded: Every theory of superconductivity can be disproved.

You seldom hear in any of Einstein biography of him dabbling in trying to solve this.

This is a terrific story. Don't miss it.

Zz.

What Is It That Makes Us Believers?

This article examines the possible reason that people believe so strongly on things that have no scientific evidence for being valid.

The first reason magical beliefs continue to exist is it feels good to believe in them. It’s a sort of mental stimulation when one thinks there is something magical out there that can’t be explained that is going to show ‘them’ that they’ve been wrong all along.

It’s pleasing to believe that you know of some alternative medical practice that, while irreproducible in science, miraculously heals people while tens of thousands of physicians worldwide ignore it. These things don’t have to be medical, they could even be knowledge of a ‘magnetic’ hill where cars in neutral roll UP hill instead of down. Magic!

The second reason is that once a person buys into many of these beliefs their ego prevents them from deviating from this line of thinking. This is especially true if fundamental religious beliefs tie into these belief systems. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not knocking religion, but in the case of faith healing (I’m talking about the televangelist type of money-grubbing stuff) there is a familiar thread of magical thinking involved.

For me, there's another reason - the inability to differentiate between a valid scientific evidence, versus anecdotal evidence. They don't know the criteria on what constitute a scientific evidence, and WHY we have such criteria.

Zz.

Japanese Particle Physics Is In Good Health

At least we have some positive news for the high energy physics community. The Japanese high energy physics lab, KEK, has revealed its future roadmap that certainly is more optimistic than what is going on with the UK and US budget debacle.

The 20-page roadmap report outlines an ambitious five-year plan that includes a major upgrade to KEK’s flagship "B-factory" and a strong commitment to the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC) — two areas that have suffered greatly as a result of the recent cuts in the UK and US.

I'd say along with China that continues to pour money into various areas of physics, that part of the world may end up with future high energy physics projects (ILC anyone?)

Zz.

"Absolute Zero" on NOVA Tonight

If you are in the US or could receive the US Public Broadcasting stations, here's an announcement that I received from NOVA about the program premiering tonight on PBS:

Starting tonight, January 8, NOVA will be presenting the first part of a two-part series on low-temperature physics. "Absolute Zero" explores four centuries of cold science, opening in the 1600s, when the nature of cold was a complete mystery, and continuing on to the modern race to create the first Bose-Einstein condensate in the laboratory. We think readers of the Physics and Physicists blog will be interested in the show!

Tonight's episode, "The Conquest of Cold," includes Cornelius Drebbel’s spooky trick of turning summer into winter for the English king, achieved in much the way that homemade ice cream is produced; Antoine Lavoisier’s battle with Count Benjamin Rumford over the caloric theory of heat, an intellectual contest set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, in which Lavoisier unfortunately lost his head to the guillotine and his wife to Rumford; and Michael Faraday’s explosive experiments to liquefy gasses, which established the principles that make refrigerators possible.

Next Tuesday, NOVA will air "The Race for Absolute Zero," which picks up the story in the late 19th century, with James Dewar and Heike Kamerlingh Onnes racing to liquefy hydrogen and helium, before moving a century ahead to meet the scientists who competed to produce a Bose-Einstein condensate, including Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Wolfgang Ketterle of MIT.

You can watch a preview of this show at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zero/. "Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold" will premiere tonight at 8PM ET/PT on most PBS stations. Please check your local listings to confirm when it will be broadcast near you: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/schedule-local.html.

It sounds fascinating. Hopefully, if you do watch this, that you'd write back with a comment.

Zz.

Big Trouble For Big Science

Alan Boyle at MSNBC has essentially given a summary of all the major research areas affected severely by the recent Omnibus budget. It covers essentially what I have highlighted separately here.

The cuts came in the omnibus spending bill patched together by Congress and signed by President Bush just before Christmas. Among the institutions hit hardest were Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois; and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, or SLAC, in California.

It is INSANE!

Zz.

The Quantum Spin Hall Effect: Theory and Experiment

More review article. This is a rather extensive overview of the quantum spin Hall effect. This effect has similarities to the traditional quantum Hall effect that involves charge transport. Coupled with the review article on spintronics that I highlighted recently, the QSHE shows how spin current is now a rather important factor not just in the possible application in advanced electronics, but also in fundamental understanding.

Zz.

Quantum Behavior of Light In Undergraduate Laboratory

While the Compton effect and the photoelectric effect are often used as "evidence" of photons, they actually cannot rule out completely the wave picture. The more definitive experiment would be the which-way experiment or the coincidence experiment. I find it rather amazing that such experiments are now within the realm of an undergraduate laboratory exercise.

There were 2 papers published in the American Journal of Physics that provided a very detailed description of such experiments suitable for such undergraduate laboratory. The first one is by J.J. Thorn et al. Here, they did the coincidence measurement that basically reproduced (with better equipment) an earlier Graingier et al. experiment. The second one by C.H. Holbrow et al. describes 5 different possible experiments (and theory to accompany them) to illustrate the photon pictures. No experimental result was reported in this paper.

Both papers contain a wealth of references, especially to other similar experiments that have already been done. That alone is worth keeping these two papers handy.

Zz.

SLAC Facing Budget Cuts and Layoffs

I reported last Friday of the impending consequences of the recent budget cuts at SLAC. They had their all-hands meeting today, and the anticipated scenario has become true.

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) staff learned in an "all-hands" meeting today that its budget is being cut by Congress and the center will have to reduce its workforce by 15 percent, or the equivalent of 225 full-time positions.

High energy physics in the US is dying.

Zz.

Atomic Force Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Wow. This is one of the most comprehensive overview (other than buying a book on AFM itself) of Atomic Force Microscopy and Spectroscopy.

Yongho Seo and Wonho Jhe, Rep. Prog. Phys. v.71 p.016101 (2008).

It would certainly be something one should read if one intends to use this technique.

Zz.

Science and the Presidential Election

The the tedious US Presidential Election in full swing right now with the primaries and caucuses for each party, science continues to take a back seat in terms of importance. I'll have more to say on this later, but for now, it might be useful to see if there's anything we can infer regarding each candidate's view on science. The Jan. 4th 2008 issue of Science has a summary for the leading candidates in each party regarding their views of science, and possible science policy. Hillary Clinton turns out to have the most detailed and comprehensive policy on science, which isn't surprising since she probably got the same network of advisers that Bill Clinton had. Still, she has stated that the Presidential Science Adviser will report directly to her, and not through several layers of commands the way George Bush currently has it.

Anyhow, you might want to pick up this issue of Science. This might be one of the few places that have such a concise description of the candidates' views on science and science policy. It is also why we should have a presidential debate on just science.

Zz.

The Spintronics Challenge

If you haven't read this yet, then you should click the link PhysicsWorld has a good article on Spintronics and the challenges it still has to face in producing something that can be used. It's a good article to get you up to speed on this amazing area of study.

Because the spin of an electron can be switched from one state to another much faster than charge can be moved around a circuit, spintronic devices are expected to operate faster and produce less heat than conventional microelectronic components. One of the ultimate goals is to build a spin-based transistor that would replace conventional transistors in integrated logic circuits and memory devices, thus allowing the miniaturization trend to continue. However, spintronics also opens the door to entirely new types of device, such as a light-emitting diode (LED) that generates left or right circularly polarized light for use in encrypted communication (see "Spin-based devices"). Looking further into the future, spintronic devices could even be used as quantum bits, the units of information processed by quantum computers.

It is also interesting to note, with ties to the previous blog entry that I made on the theoretical possibility of monopoles in a strongly-correlated magnetic system, that the spin current can move separately than the charge current in certain conditions. This fractionalization is expected to occur in 1D system, and could even possibly occur in 3D system. So this area is certainly not just an active area in the possible application of it, but also a hotbed in basic, fundamental physics studies.

Zz.

Alternative Medicine and the Laws of Physics

Another classic text on debunking many aspect of alternative medicine. This time it is an essay written by Bob Park, who I will freely admit, is one of my "heroes".

He and Richard Dawkins should get together. :)

Zz.

The Physics Behind Four Amazing Demonstrations

Skeptical Enquirer has listed 4 amazing demonstrations and gave each one of them a plausible and reasonable physical explanation. This should be quite handy if you ever encounter anyone using any of them as "proof" of some supernatural phenomenon.

Zz.

SLAC Cuts May Be Near

I've already highlighted the debacle with the budget cuts at Fermilab and Argonne. Next comes the news report about the possible cuts at SLAC. A all-hands meeting is scheduled for this coming Monday, and most are expecting rather gloomy news similar to that received at Fermilab.

Y'know, at some point, someone will wake up and realize what is going on. Still, I wouldn't hold my breath on that happening.

Zz.

Budget Cuts to Hit Argonne

The devastating budget cuts will impact almost every single US National Lab. We have see how this will almost cripple Fermilab with its planned layoffs of 200 people. It may even hasten its demise.

This Chicago Tribune article focuses on the other lab in the Chicago area besides Fermilab - Argonne National Laboratory. The premature shut down of the IPNS and the reduced operations at the APS are just the beginning of the awful mess created by this thoughtless omnibus bill.

Zz.

Physics World's "Physics Quiz of 2007" Contest

Do you want to a chance to win £50? Then be the one who gives the most correct answers to this quiz organized by Physics World.

Closing date is Jan 14, 2008. So you don't have that much time left!

Zz.

Magnetic Monopoles in Spin Ice?

When I wrote about the Kondo effect a while back, I mentioned that there were many fundamental physics that came out of the field of condensed matter, one of them being the inspiration for the Higgs mechanism.

Now comes another theoretical discovery from condensed matter that could shed light on the on-going search for the magnetic monopoles. It appears that such a thing could be found in, of all places, a magnetic material called the spin ice. Again, just like the fractional quantum hall system, the dimensional effect in a strongly-correlated electron system can produce such a rich set of phenomena, it is just a zoo of basic, fundamental physics waiting to be discovered.

This paper has been published in Nature[1]. Also don't miss the News and Views review of this paper by Oleg Tchernyshyov in the same issue of Nature.

One environment in which monopoles might pop up is crystalline solids. In a crystal at a low temperature, excitations above the ground state often behave like elementary particles: they carry a quantized amount of energy, momentum, electric charge and spin. In their theoretical study, Castelnovo et al. find the first instance of such an excitation with a non-zero magnetic charge. Under certain conditions, these magnets behave as a gas of independent magnetic poles. There is even a phase transition at which a thin vapour of these monopoles condenses into a dense liquid.

Moral of the story: you CAN study some of the most fundamental aspect of our world in Condensed matter physics. It is as fundamental as any. Just because the field has a direct application to the study of the properties of materials doesn't make it any less fundamental.

Zz.

[1] C. Castelnovo et al, Nature v.451, p.42 (2008).

CODATA Recommended Values of the Fundamental Physical Constants: 2006

Here are the latest CODATA set of values and measurements of the fundamental constants. I am guessing that this will appear in an issue of Rev. Mod. Phys. When that occurs, I will edit this post to include the exact citation.

Zz.

The Physics of Lawrence Krauss

First of all, I've never met Lawrence Krauss, so I have no idea if this reporter's description of him is accurate. I've met many well-known physicists and have seen them in "action", so to speak, both in public and in private, and many of them do not have the same persona that they project. So trying to deduce the nature of someone in this case is rather difficult. In addition, very brilliant physicists (or scientists for that matter) are often eccentric, and they don't intend to be rude on purpose.

Now, if you've followed what has been happening, you'd have heard about the bit of a pickle that Lawrence Krauss got himself into recently based on a preprint that he co-authored. Needless to say, he had to do quite a bit of explaining after it blew up in all the papers.

This article is sort of a follow-up of this. A reporter is basically giving his view of Lawrence Krauss based on his encounter with this physicist. While I don't quite agree with everything being written here (and I certainly can't vouch for the accuracy of his description of Krauss), I must admit that this was a rather entertaining reading. (Oh crap! Maybe this is why people read those supermarket tabloids!) For example:

First of all, Lawrence Krauss is kind of a dick. He really is. He has little patience for reporters who show up at his office at Case asking for an interview. He answers questions while sitting at a computer and corresponding via e-mail with people more important than reporters. And who can blame him? After all, reporters have been screwing up science for decades. Just look at the mess they're making of climate change and evolution. Reporters - daily reporters especially - try to balance interviews when reporting on these topics; they interview him and then they interview someone at the Creation Museum or GOP headquarters for counterpoint. But, in science, there is no "other side." Evolution exists. Global warming exists. Period. Why are reporters giving equal time to crackpots?

Secondly, this man has an ego the size of the Eta Carinae Nebula. He coats his office door and inner sanctum with newspaper clippings about Lawrence Krauss and papers written by Lawrence Krauss and books authored by Lawrence Krauss (pick up the Physics of Star Trek, by the way - it'll blow your Vulcan mind!).

Well, at least he got the description of reporters accurate!

{ka-ching!} :)

You should just read the whole thing and make up your own mind. All I can say is that I now want to meet Krauss more than ever. :)

Zz.

Helium Supplies Endangered, Threatening Science And Technology

If you think we have an energy crisis with the oil supply, wait till you hear about the impending crisis with the helium supply. Helium, you say? Yes, helium!

"Helium is non-renewable and irreplaceable. Its properties are unique and unlike hydrocarbon fuels (natural gas or oil), there are no biosynthetic ways to make an alternative to helium. All should make better efforts to recycle it."

With large facilities such as the LHC at CERN, and the proposed ILC (the latter may be moot since it is on life-support right now) using superconducting technology, be it in the magnets and/or the accelerating structure, the use of helium will certainly shoot up, even if these facilities have a recycling program.

Zz.

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year, everyone.

2008 promises to be a very challenging year for physics and physicists in the US and UK. With severe budget cuts and outright pull-outs of several major projects, physicists from both nations are facing a degrading of the importance of their work. High energy physics and astronomy bears the largest brunt of budget cutbacks, and it is difficult to see how they can survive through this period. We can only hope that they will.

Zz.

Law Round the Bend, Says Fined Physicist

Y'know, I kept thinking that it's only going to be a matter of time before something like this happens, and it has (at least it is the first time I've seen reported in the news media). A physicist is challenging his speeding fine that was based on a "speed camera".

Dr Fielden, 41, said: "Speed cameras are designed only to work on a straight line. As a physicist, I know that radars, which the cameras use, travel in straight lines. If you set one up on a curve, it is going to be inaccurate."

I wish the news report had more details on this "speed camera", i.e. how it determines the speed of a vehicle. If all it does is detects either "incoming" or "outgoing" motion, then there's something not quite right with this physicist's argument. Let's say it has a radar-type detection that can only detect how fast something is coming or going away from it. Now, if a vehicle is going at 30 mph but going around a bend, the speed detected will ALWAYS be less than 30 mph. One can see this if one looks at a vehicle moving in a circular motion. Only when it is moving in a tangential path towards where the detector is will it register the actual speed. At other locations along the circular path, the speed that the object is either moving towards or away from the detector will always be less than the actual speed.

So if this physicist was caught with a speed of 36 mph while going around in a bend, then if the scenario that I've argued here is correct, it means that he was actually going FASTER than 36 mph, which wouldn't help his case. But like I have said, it depends on how the speed is detected here. Without knowing anything more, I'm just making speculation on how this is done. Does anyone else know how such a "speed camera" work?

Zz.

How a Catholic Priest Gave Us the Big Bang Theory

This is a rather interesting article on Georges Lemaitre, a Catholic priest who, this article claim, to have been the first who originated the "Big Bang Theory" of cosmology. You might want to read this and judge for yourself if it is accurate.

I have no issues with such claims. However, I do have a problem with the underlying tone of the article. It appears as if the author of the article tries very hard to imply that the Big Bang Theory itself has "religious" origins, simply because the first person who made such a scenario happens to be a catholic priest. That's as absurd as the Nazi during World War II trying to erase Einstein's Theory of Relativity because it had "Jewish" elements. It seems that Lemaitre was being just a good scientist and examined the evidence available at that time to come up with a scientific description, something that Galileo had done a long time ago. Even the article itself described this process:

Returning to Belgium in 1925, where he worked at the Catholic University of Leuven as a part-time lecturer, his big break came two years later in 1927 when he proposed his theory of an expanding Universe to explain the movement of the galaxies, published in the Annals of the Scientific Society of Brussels.

In other words, he came up with the theory to explain the observation, and not based on some pre-conceived religious view of the universe. The fact that he happened to be a catholic priest is incidental and irrelevant, at least from the story. I would bet that the paper that he published never cited any religious sources to justify the impetus for the theory.

Strangely enough, while the author wants christians to "take credit" for the Big Bang theory, he seems to have ignored the incompatibility between the cosmological age of the universe based on the Big Bang Theory, and the biblical age of the universe that various christians sects have stuck to. I mean, 14 billion years old is hugely different than 60,000 years old! Even if one were to fudge a few numbers here and there, and make rough estimates of many things, there's no way one can make those two numbers approach even remotely the same order of magnitude. To me, this also points to the "non-religious" origin of the Big Bang theory in cosmology.

To associate the origin and impetus of a theory simply to the religion of the originator is taking a rather large leap of logic. Unless one can specifically cite the exact impetus that subsequently becomes the theory, then simply using the argument that a theory has catholic origin because so-and-so is catholic is logically faulty.

Zz.

Andrew M. Sessler Posdoctoral Fellowship for Excellence in Accelerator Research

A fellowship for anyone going into Accelerator physics.

The Accelerator and Fusion Research Division (AFRD) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) invites applications for the Andrew M. Sessler Postdoctoral Fellowship for excellence in accelerator research. The research is to be carried out within AFRD's Center for Beam Physics (CBP) and/or the Lasers, Optical Accelerator Systems Integrated Studies (LOASIS) Program, and offers the successful applicant the opportunity to work in a rich scientific environment at the forefront of a broad range of accelerator physics studies. Ongoing research activities include experimental and theoretical work with applications in near-term and future projects, and the successful applicant will be expected to make significant contributions to one or more areas, depending on experience and interests.

The Sessler Fellow will have the opportunity to choose topics of original research in consultation with members of CBP and LOASIS. The Sessler Fellowship is for a two-year term. For more information and to apply, please go to *http://jobs.lbl.gov*, select "Search Jobs," and enter job number *21132* in the keyword search field. Once you have located the position, click "Apply Now" and follow the online instructions. Applications must be received by January 11, 2008. LBNL is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to workplace diversity.

Zz.

Stephen Hawking Joins Attack on Science Cuts

Is it just a mere awful coincidence or was it planned that both the UK and the US suddenly decided to make a severe slash of physics funding almost at the same time?

With the UK slashing major parts of its high energy and astrophysics/astronomy projects, it has practically ended its participation in the International Linear Collider project. Physicists in the UK have denounced this cutbacks and have started an online petition. Stephen Hawking is the last one to join this list.

Zz.

NOvA Project on Hold in Wake of Budget Cuts

More fallout of the recent Omnibus spending bill that has just been signed by President Bush. The NOvA neutrino project is now on hold after it was, get this, flat-lined in the budget. It means that it got NO MONEY whatsoever. The project now is currently on hold, when it should be starting construction this coming year.

The sad thing about this is that this is just nothing more than nickle-and-diming. It is a drop in the bucket when compared to the whole budget, and yet, it has such a huge ramification in terms of the US involvement in high energy physics.

They probably thought they are "saving money" from a project that isn't important, without realizing the damage they are doing.

Zz.

American Scientists 2008 Stamps

The US Post Office has announced a slew of new stamps for 2008. The series on American Scientists this coming year will include John Bardeen and Edwin Hubble.

American Scientists

Some of the most impressive scientific achievements of the 20th century will be recognized in April when the American Scientists stamps are issued. The series honors four scientists:

-- Theoretical physicist John Bardeen (1908-1991) co-invented the transistor, arguably the most important invention of the 20th century. Bardeen also collaborated on the first fundamental explanation of superconductivity at low temperatures, a theory which has had a profound impact on many fields of physics.

-- Biochemist Gerty Cori (1896-1957), in collaboration with her husband Carl, made important discoveries that later became the basis for our knowledge of how cells use food and convert it into energy. Among her discoveries was a new derivative of glucose, a finding that elucidated the steps of carbohydrate metabolism. Their work also contributed to the understanding and treatment of diabetes and other metabolic diseases.

-- Astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) played a pivotal role in deciphering the vast and complex nature of the universe. His meticulous studies of spiral nebulae proved the existence of galaxies other than our own Milky Way, paving the way for a revolutionary new understanding that the cosmos contains myriad separate galaxies, or "island universes."

-- Structural chemist Linus Pauling (1901-1994) determined the nature of the chemical bond linking atoms into molecules. He routinely crossed disciplinary boundaries throughout his career and made significant contributions in several diverse fields. His pioneering work on protein structure was critical in establishing the field of molecular biology and his studies of hemoglobin led to many findings, including the
classification of sickle cell anemia as a molecular disease.

For each stamp, artist Victor Stabin of Jim Thorpe, PA, with the assistance of art director Carl Herrman of Carlsbad, CA, created a collage featuring a painted portrait of each scientist combined with diagrams or photographic representations associated with their major contributions.

I'm glad to see that John Bardeen is being recognized, considering that many still are not familiar with his name.

Zz.

More Bad Physics

OK, Christmas is over. So no more peace and goodwill towards others. It's time we get back to exposing bad physics!

:)

First of all, I know this is just nitpicking, but I'm in the mood to do one, so here goes a nitpicking.

This blog article in a newspaper describes what the author believe to be the difference in perception of other drivers depending on what car one is driving. He's comparing how he sees other drivers around him react if he's driving a big old Mercury Grand Marquis versus a small car. One of the reason he gave for such differences is this:

First, the size of the car. The bigger the car, the more damage it can do in an accident at any given speed. That is simple physics of energy equals mass times velocity. Not that I think most people are really aware of that.

Well, I'd say not a lot of physicists are aware of that either. "mass times velocity" is MOMENTUM, not "energy".

Like I said, this is nitpicking. However, this is BASIC, simple physics that any high-schoolers would have learned. One should not get something this simple, or this obvious, wrong.

Zz.

Hospitals Chase a Nuclear Tool to Fight Cancer

This is a New York Times article on the rush of a number of hospitals to build a proton therapy center to treat a number of diseases. I'm not so sure if one can call these things a "nuclear" facility rather than a particle physics facility. Whatever it is, the physics of these facilities are what is done in the field of Accelerator Physics, not nuclear or particle physics. So I thought I should point out another application of accelerator physics that was never mentioned in the article.

So next time the US Govt. decides to fund only the Medical/Biological/Health/etc. aspect of science, where do they think the equipment and facilities those scientists benefited from originated?

Zz.

Hurting U.S. Research Labs

A "Letter to the Editor" in the New York Times by Leon Lederman regarding the devastating impact on the recent US Omnibus bill. It ends with something that could be a distinct possibility, and which something the US Govt. needs to decide now.

Before World War II, American scientists had to go to Europe to get their graduate degrees and participate in the revolutionary physics of the atom. Is it our leaders’ wisdom that this epoch should be repeated?

Zz.

The Physics of Christmas

With Santa expecting to arrive tonight, here's a recap of something I posted last year at this time of the year.

The Physics of Santa discusses how the jolly old guy will complete his task tonight. There is also another article that discusses this, so you can compare them. On a newer front, this website on About.com has all the physics you want to know associated with Christmas. And here's another article on the physics of santa, including the aerodynamics question on how he could fly.

Plenty of stuff to read if you are bored with the holidays. :)

Happy Holidays everyone!

Zz.

Illinois Delegation Responds To Fermilab's Predicament

This has been distributed for immediate release:

December 21, 2007

DURBIN, OBAMA, BIGGERT CALL ON BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO INCREASE FUNDING AT FERMILAB

In light of recent funding cuts, Illinois members will meet to discuss strategy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Barack Obama (D-IL) and Representative Judy Biggert (R-IL) today sent the following letter to Jim Nussle, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), calling on him to increase next year’s funding for the High Energy Physics (HEP) program, which supports research at Fermilab in Illinois, and at several other laboratories and universities across the nation that are doing vital, cutting edge research.

Durbin, Obama, and Biggert are in discussions with Congressional appropriations and authorization committees and the Department of Energy to address the current funding situation and avoid potential layoffs during fiscal year 2008. They also plan to call for an Illinois delegation meeting in January with representatives from Illinois labs and organizations to discuss a strategy to avoid potential job loss at Fermilab. The spending bill, approved by Congress this week, provided the HEP program with $88 million less than was requested. This challenges Fermilab's ability to remain one
of the world's preeminent research facilities after it has achieved outstanding success in research on neutrinos, the high energy frontier, and particle astrophysics.

Adequate funding for the labs is critical to ensure that our country maintains its technological edge and that we continue to add to our high-tech manufacturing base. Fermilab is the nation’s premier high-energy physics laboratory. The laboratory leads U.S. research into the fundamental nature of matter and energy, and in 2007, Fermilab’s researchers and facilities achieved results judged by the American Institute of Physics as among the Ten Top Physics Stories from around the world.

-30-

[text of the letter is below]

Dear Director Nussle:

We are writing to you concerning a matter of critical importance to our country, to science in America, and to our global competitiveness. As you continue to develop the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2009, we respectfully request that you increase funding for the High Energy Physics (HEP) program in the Office of Science at the Department of Energy.

As you know, the budget approved this week by Congress dealt a severe blow to HEP, which received $88 million less than requested. This budget rejected funding for the NOvA neutrino experiment at Fermilab, and drastically cut funding for research and development on the International Linear Collider. These cuts could cripple Fermilab's ability to remain one of the world's preeminent research facilities. And this is at a time when Fermilab has achieved outstanding success, with significant results in each of its central areas of research: neutrinos, the high energy frontier, and particle astrophysics.

The facilities at Fermilab are essential for the basic scientific research that nurtures technological and scientific advances, and that fuels American innovation. Fermilab is one of a handful of our nation's premier training sites for scientists, and a centerpiece of the system of DOE National Laboratories. Disruptive funding
shortfalls have ripple effects throughout the American scientific community, displacing today's scientists and discouraging tomorrow's. We must work together to restore funding in basic physics research to maintain America's role as the innovator in technology, to retain our leading scientific institutions and their skilled workforces, and to provide opportunities for future scientists.

While we recognize the formidable challenges you face regarding the demands on the federal budget, we respectfully encourage you to increase the funding request for the Office of Science, particularly for the HEP program, in the President’s FY2009 Budget.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
Richard J. Durbin
Judy Biggert

One hopes that they can do something not just for Fermilab, but for high energy physics funding in general. In the scheme of things, $88 million is merely pittance and does not make or break the US budget, especially in light of the humongous defense spending. We we are nickle-and-diming things here. Yet, that small amount means survival or closure of many HEP research projects. Like I said earlier, if Fermilab survives this, none of the current members of Congress (save for Judy Biggert) deserves to bask in any of Fermilab's future glory, because they tried to kill it.

Zz.

Instead of Celebrating Christmas, Would You Celebrate Newtonmas?

This is a rather amusing article on Wired Blog. While Dec. 25th is more popularly associated with Christmas, it is also the date that Isaac Newton was born. The author puts forth a suggestion that we should take this opportunity to teach the kids some basic physics to celebrate Newton's birthday.

I think it's a great idea!

Zz.

The APS Press Release On The 2008 Omnibus Spending Bill

The American Physical Society put out a press release in response to the disastrous US spending bill.

APS Urges Congress and White House to Revisit Fiscal Year 2008 Science Funding in January

Current legislation is disastrous for U.S. physical sciences and technology enterprise.

(Press release issued 4:45 pm, December 19, 2007)

The American Physical Society, representing more than 46,000 physicists in universities, industry and national laboratories, regards the fiscal year 2008 omnibus spending bill as extraordinarily damaging to the nation's science and technology enterprise. The bill fails to fund appropriately the research and education programs authorized in the bipartisan America COMPETES Act, which President Bush signed into law only four months ago. The consequential layoffs of scientists and engineers throughout the nation will discourage American youth from pursuing these fields, just as the country needs their participation to sustain economic growth and national security.

While other nations are aggressively challenging American leadership in physical sciences and technology, the omnibus bill sets our country on the wrong course. It fails to provide the necessary resources for long- term research in the physical sciences and engineering. It fails to provide the requisite resources for developing new cutting-edge scientific laboratories and even for operating existing national user facilities. It fails to provide adequate funding for university- based research that is so essential for educating the next generation of scientists and engineers. It also fails to provide the appropriate incentives for American industry to innovate at an accelerated pace.

Furthermore, as we as a nation strive to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, mitigate global warming and put a lid on escalating energy costs, the omnibus bill abandons the long- term transformational research that is necessary to achieve all these essential goals. The bill is bad for our energy future and economic future.

Finally, apart from its failings on global competitiveness and energy, the omnibus legislation also places at grave risk committed U.S. participation in two large international scientific collaborations. Just one year ago, the United States made a major commitment to the construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Today, Congress has pulled the plug. In so doing, it critically damages American credibility as a reliable scientific partner throughout the world and compromises the nation's standing as a host of future international scientific facilities. Congress has also cut the lifeline of the International Linear Collider, which represents the future of American high- energy physics. This action sends a strong message to the world: The U.S. is prepared to jettison support for one of our flagship areas of science that probes fundamental laws of the universe.

The APS notes with some dismay that had Congress applied the same discipline to earmarking as it did last year, the damage to the science and technology enterprise could have been avoided.

For these reasons, the American Physical Society strongly urges Congress and the White House to revisit Fiscal Year 2008 science funding after Congress convenes in January with an eye to reflecting better the nation's long term needs and obligations.

... and here are more news coverage on the disaster that will take into effect at Fermilab starting in January. I tell ya, if they survive this, and that there are new discoveries made at Fermilab, none of the current legislator should attend to bask in the glory, because all of them tried to kill not only this laboratory, but also high energy physics.

Zz.

Introduction to the Photon Collider

With the International Linear Collider (ILC) on life-support system due to the pull-out of the United Kingdom and the severe funding slash by the US Congress, maybe it is a bit moot to talk about possible experiments at the ILC. Still, it one can always dream of what could have been. The ILC would certainly be the most logical facility to start considering the possibility of having a photon collider. This article gives a rather thorough "introduction" to the physics we gain out of a photon collider.

Ah, the good old days of optimism.....

Zz.

It Only Takes Two

This is a rather interesting and provocative conclusion. A group of physicists in Brazil have claimed that we only need a minimum of 2 fundamental constants to be able to arrive at all the other constants, thus, to describe our universe. {Link may be open for a limited time}

The two can be chosen, according to taste, from a list of three: the speed of light, the strength of gravity, and Planck’s constant, which relates the energy to the frequency of a particle of light, say George Matsas of the São Paulo State University and his colleagues.

Once two constants have been chosen from that list, they say, those are the only parameters that need have units of measurement ascribed to them. Everything else — for example, the charge or the mass of an electron, or the strength of nuclear forces — can be described in relation to these two 'dimensional' constants.

So far, as far as I know, this work hasn't been published yet, only appearing on the e-print arXiv. So we will have to wait until it does to see the kind of reaction and feedback it will get.

It would be interesting to compare this to an earlier manuscript titled "Trialogue on the number of fundamental constants" by M. J. Duff, L. B. Okun, G. Veneziano, where they also argue with each other on the actual number of fundamental constants that is really needed to describe our universe. It certainly would make a very interesting reading if one is getting sick of the upcoming holiday festivities!

:)

Zz.

Fermilab Is In Deep, Deep Trouble

I mentioned earlier about the spending bill that just passed the US House of Representative. This news article from Science's website clearly spells out the doom and gloom picture at Fermilab. While we all know that the Tevatron will shut down after 2009, Fermilab as a facility had hoped to remain as a high-energy physics laboratory via its neutrino experiment, which include the upcoming NOvA.

Now, even its survival as a laboratory is in question after the proposed severe cuts in the budget. But I think what is frustrating is that most people would just wish that those who are in power would just make up their freaking minds! I think this sums up best:

The budget decisions, part of a $550 billion omnibus spending package that Congress approved this week, call into question the U.S.'s commitment to particle physics as a whole, says Fermilab Director Pier Oddone. "There's a policy question for the government and for Congress," he says. "Do we want to stay in particle physics or not?"

They need to decide now because with the LHC looming in the near future, they either should give sufficient funding, or simply declare that the US will no longer be in particle physics and close up shop. This way, they can take the "credit" later on in the history of human civilization as being the group of legislator responsible for killing high energy physics work in the US. Maybe that is something they want to be proud of.

Edit: More related news story on this matter.

Zz.

Ten Top Physics Stories for 2007

The Physics News Update at the AIP has compiled a list of their Top 10 physics stories of 2007.

I think I covered most of them on here this year! :)

Zz.

Ampere Could Be Defined One Electron At A Time

This is another very clever technique and experiment.

The Ampere unit might possibly be defined more accurately using a single-electron transistor.

The current flowing through the device is simply the number of electrons that tunnel per gate cycle multiplied by the charge of the electron and the frequency of the gate voltage. The gate frequency and number of electrons per cycle can be determined and the charge on the electron is fixed – which means that the device is a very precise source of current.

The team believe that the device could form the basis of a "metrological current pump", which could be used to define the ampere from the fact that

Very nice!

Zz.

The Religious and Other Beliefs of Americans

I thought that during this "joyous" time of the year with the holidays approaching, that I throw in a piece of coal into the celebration by bringing some depressing statistics (just call me the Grinch that is trying to ruin Christmas).

This Harris poll was just recently published, and a follow up to its earlier similar poll in 2005. It asked about the beliefs (religious or otherwise) of Americans. Here are some of the interesting results:

* 82 percent of adult Americans believe in God – unchanged since the question was last asked in 2005;
* Large majorities of the public believe in miracles (79%), heaven (75%), angels (74%), that Jesus is God or the son of God (72%), the resurrection of Jesus (70%), the survival of the soul after death (69%), hell (62%), the devil (62%), and the virgin birth (Jesus born of Mary) (60%);
* Roughly equal numbers – both minorities - believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution (42%) and creationism (39%);
* Sizeable minorities believe in ghosts (41%), UFOs (35%), witches (31%), astrology (29%) and reincarnation (21%);
* While many of these numbers for people who hold these beliefs are the same or little changed from 2005, the overall trend is upwards with slightly more people believing in miracles, angels and witches than did so two years ago.

So, compare that with the survey on science literacy of the public that was conducted by the National Academies, and you now have a very clear idea of the kind of public you are dealing with as far as science is concerned. Just something to think about during the festive season.

:)

Zz.

From High Temperature Superconductivity to Quantum Spin Liquid: Progress in Strong Correlation Physics

This is a fascinating review article by Patrick Lee of MIT[1], even if you don't agree with his take on the mechanism of cuprate superconductivity. He covers the outstanding issue in strongly-correlated electron system, which is the main area of study in condensed matter physics since it covers essentially that whole field of study.

What is interesting is that at the end of the article, he has a question-answer section that addresses specific issues and his take on the answer. This is always something I like to read because even if you disagree with him, at least you know clearly where he stands and why he disagrees. In many instances, it can be vague on what exactly people are disagreeing on. Here, it is rather clear.

In any case, I would think anyone in this field of study would want to read this article. At the very least, it'll get you up to speed on the theoretical progress in this area.

Zz.

[1] P.A. Lee, Rep. Prog. Phys. v.71, p.012501 (2008).

New Budget A Blow to Physics Funding

The budget that was passed in the USHouse of Representatives, and that President Bush intended to sign, is a MAJOR SETBACK for physics, and especially High Energy Physics funding.

The ILC effort was severely reduced, and zero money has been allocated for the NOvA project at the Tevatron. This is horrendous!

With all the talk about trying to make US more competitive, etc... etc.. and all the initiatives to raise funding for basic science, they all come to zilch.

Zz.

Using Physics to Learn Mathematica to Do Physics

About a week ago, I highlighted a physics education paper that studied the impact of using symbolic mathematical software packages such as Mathematica on the way physics students think about physics problems. It was an enjoyable reading.

This time, there is another paper on using Mathematica specifically in advanced undergraduate physics classes. The author describes how Mathematica is used in junior-senior level physics courses. Too bad he does not have the same transcript of the students' struggle with solving the problems. :)

Zz.

Laws Of Nature, Source Unknown

I have mixed feelings after reading this article. On one hand, it is a compact, brief summary of the differing opinions among physicists on the issues surrounding how we comprehend our world. On the other hand, I don't think someone without a good background in physics would read it with the same comprehension as a physicist, and that could create a whole different perspective that may not be entirely accurate.

The problem here is that it is trying to "describe" the problem using a series of short, quick quotations from various sources. Such a thing is never accurate, especially on something as complex as this. This is where a physicist read this does see the actual physics associated with the quote being shown, while the general public ONLY see the quote and take it at face value without realizing the underlying physics. This is where the differing perspective from reading the same article comes from.

Still, I suppose this is an interesting enough article. At least, it reminded me again that hilarious quote attributed to Feynman:

These kinds of speculation are fun, but they are not science, yet. “Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds,” goes the saying attributed to Richard Feynman, the late Caltech Nobelist, and repeated by Dr. Weinberg.

I have to remember to use that one of these days. :)

Zz.

Photonic Crystal Bends Light Round Corners

Another cool experiment that has plenty of possible application. A photonic band gap material has been fabricated to cause light to be directed around as if it is in a waveguide.

Paul Braun and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign have pioneered a flexible process for a fabricating 3D photonic-crystal waveguide by using a focused laser to mark it out.

Zz.

The Physics of Magic Carpet

Just when you thought you've read everything....

It seems that physicists at Harvard, no less, have found an aerodynamics solution in which one can make a "carpet" fly.

The researchers have studied1 the aerodynamics of a flexible, rippling sheet moving through a fluid, and find that it should be possible to make one that will stay aloft in air.

No such carpet is going to ferry people around, though. The researchers say that to stay afloat in air, a sheet measuring about 10 centimetres long and 0.1 millimetres thick would need to vibrate at about 10 hertz with an amplitude of about 0.25 millimetres. Making a heavier carpet 'fly' is not forbidden by the laws of physics. But the researchers say that their "computations and scaling laws suggest it will remain in the magical, mystical and virtual realm", as the engine driving the necessary vibrations would need to be so powerful.

I will stick to commercial airlines, though. Just think how difficult it is to eat powdered doughnuts during an open-air magic carpet ride? :)

Zz.

Compact Synchrotron Is Unveiled

This is another advancement in the wakefield accelerating technique for particle accelerators. This time, using a laser plasma wakefield and an undulator, they have managed to create the same type of radiation produced at large synchrotron centers (free registration required to view article), all inside a standard-sized laboratory.

Now, Dino Jaroszynski of Strathclyde University in the UK, together with colleagues at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in Jena, Germany, and Stellenbosch University in South Africa are the first to have combined a laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerator with an undulator to make a compact source of synchrotron radiation.

The team’s wakefield accelerator can accelerate electrons to 1 GeV, which can create X-ray synchrotron radiation with a very narrow bandwidth. What's more, the wavelength of the radiation can be tuned from the far infrared (terahertz frequencies) to hard X-rays by simply changing the energy of the electron beam.

Such technique, such as plasma wakefield, laser-plasma wakefield, and dielectric wakefield, are show more promises of being a feasible technique for new acceleration scheme. The next few years should be very interesting, especially if the delay in the ILC might cause some people to start thinking of other accelerating structures.

Zz.

Lee Teng Undergraduate Internship in Accelerator Science and Engineering

Lee Teng is a distinguished physicist in accelerator physics and received the Wilson award at this year's Particle Accelerator Conference.

An internship in his honor has be set up for undergraduates intending to go into accelerator physics. The following is the official announcement:

Applications are now being accepted for the Summer 2008 Lee Teng Undergraduate Internship in Accelerator Science and Engineering, sponsored jointly by Argonne National Laboratory, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the US Partice Accelerator School.

The internship will provide a unique research opportunity to select students from US universities who are currently in their Junior year in physics, engineering, or computer science. Each intern will work closely with a mentor from one of the two laboratories on a project related to accelerator science and/or engineering.

The ten week program includes a generous stipend, as well as travel and housing allowances. In addition, the program includes full tuition and travel expenses to the two week US Particle Accelerator School, which will be held at the University of Maryland. For more information and to apply, visit www.illinoisacceleratorinstitute.org

Vladimir D. Shiltsev
Director, Accelerator Physics Center
FNAL, PO Box 500, MS221
Batavia, IL 60510 USA
Ph. +1(630)840-5241
Fax +1(630)840-6039

Zz.

The Tiny, Mighty Transistor

The transistor turns 60 this coming week. This news article describes the importance and the impact of the invention of the transistor in our digital world of modern electronics.

A transistor is a little electronic switch capable of amplifying electric current, invented by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley at Bell Labs in New Jersey on Dec. 16, 1947. They jury-rigged the first transistor using a paper clip, some germanium and gold foil, and found that it boosted electrical current a hundredfold. They kept the discovery to themselves for a bit, and showed their bosses the device just before Christmas. Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1956.

Of course, I've mentioned this earlier in the context of the most under-rated physicist of them all, John Bardeen, who I consider to be http://physicsandphysicists.blogspot.com/2006/09/most-influential-physicist.html.

Zz.

Rising Above "The Gathering Storm"

This promises to be a fascinating, if not provocative, reading reading with the issue of science education and the perceived shortage of qualified scientists and engineers in the US.

If you're familiar with the report from the US National Academies titled "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future", you would have read the gloomy outlook for America's competitiveness in science and engineering. In most cases, this was a very influential report and has produced several legislative actions to halt this decline.

Now, however, comes a report from another organization that challenges this perception. A report titled "Into the Eye of the Storm: Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand" by the Urban Institute, a policy-research organization, points out several inconsistencies of the first "Gathering Storm" report.

You may read more about this conflict (and read the reports yourself) at this Science Career webpage. It would be interesting to see if the National Academies write a response to this new development.

Zz.

Stored Light in an Optical Fiber via Stimulated Brillouin Scattering

A new paper appearing in this week's Science[1] advances the possible practical application of storing light pulses and using it at later. This time, light pulses in an optical fiber are converted to slow-moving vibrations in the fiber itself, before converting it back into light. The efficiency of the conversion depends only on the lifetime of the acoustic vibration.

What is different than the earlier light-storing scheme done by Lene Hau is that this technique doesn't employ purely quantum-mechanical phenomena and thus, is more robust. it can't do some of the exotic gymnastics that the other earlier techniques can do, but at the same time, it is relatively easy to implement, using standard equipment already available and works at room temperature. Further, it can work on any frequency of light that is transparent to the fiber, whereas the atomic/resonator technique of storing light so far is restricted to only one particular frequency.

A review of this work can be found here (link may be open without restrictions only for a limited time).

Zz.

[1] Z. Zhu et al, Science v.318, p.1748 (2007).

Snow and Ice Crystals

It's winter around here (at least, for most of us in the upper Northern hemisphere). So what better time to read about snow and ice crystals. It is a good quick study on snow and ice crystals from this month's issue of Physics Today. It's everything you wanted to know about such a thing within 5 minutes, but were afraid to ask! :)

Zz.

ILC Reference Design Report Volume 1 - Executive Summary

I don't know if this is now moot, especially after the future of ILC is in jeopardy with the pullout of the United Kingdom, which is a major blow to the ILC effort. Still, if you're interested, this is Volume 1 of the ILC Design Report Executive Summary. It should tell you everything you wanted to know about the ILC design, but were afraid to ask.

:)

Zz.

Bill Foster for Congress

OK, politics.

It is no surprise that the US legislators lack scientific expertise. As far as I know, only 2 members of the US Congress are scientists. Well, let's hope there could be one more addition to that.

I received this e-mail from the Bill Foster for Congress campaign.

There has never been a more important time to improve the quality of scientific and technical judgment in our government. I am asking for your support as a scientist who has taken up this challenge – specifically, by campaigning for the now-open seat of former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert in the U.S. Congress.

Dennis Hastert has now resigned from Congress and a Special Election is scheduled for March 8, 2008.

This election offers a rare opportunity to send a clear signal of national disapproval for the continuation of the policies of President Bush and a Republican party that refuses to change course.

Since I announced my candidacy in May 2007, 24 Nobel Laureates have endorsed my campaign and we are making news. Over 650 scientists from across the country have so far contributed to our campaign.

Political endorsements for the campaign include Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the Majority Whip in the U.S. Senate.

Like many other scientists, I have felt the frustration of a government that has abandoned the basic principles that we in the scientific community take for granted. Logic, reason, and demonstrable facts have been suppressed and ignored by an administration and congress more interested in pleasing its ideological patrons than in governing effectively. Our country will be suffering the consequences for decades.

In addition to the War in Iraq, our nation faces complex issues in energy policy, arms control, global warming, cost-effective delivery of health care, intellectual property rights, and individual privacy in the age of networked computers. Stem cell research represents only the leading edge of a wave of issues that will challenge and divide the most thoughtful of us – but has been used so far only as a political football in the abortion rights debate. Essentially every issue we face has a technological edge to it, and there is no substitute for adequate scientific competence in congress.

I believe that my background as both a successful physicist and businessman makes me well qualified to address the economic and technological challenges we face.

* As a particle physicist, I worked 22 years at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory where I was involved in the discovery of the Top quark and the design and construction of the latest of Fermilab’s giant synchrotrons.
More information: Foster08.com/about/?id=science
* Before becoming a scientist, I was a successful businessman. When I was 19 years old, my younger brother and I started a company in our basement that now manufactures about 70% of the theater lighting equipment in the United States.
More information: Foster08.com/about/?id=business

A competent, dedicated, and experienced campaign staff has been assembled to win this race. Polling data is favorable. The hard-eyed political viability of this campaign is addressed in our campaign prospectus Foster08.com/cp (.pdf version)

HOW YOU CAN HELP

· Contribute to the campaign at www.foster08.com/donate

· Endorse the campaign at http://www.foster08.com/action/endorse.cfm

· Sign up for our newsletter at http://www.foster08.com/action/emailalerts.cfm

It is no secret that winning a campaign in our democracy requires money. Many thousands of personal telephone calls by the candidate are typically required to raise the millions of dollars needed to wage a competitive congressional campaign. The necessity of fundraising has been a major barrier to the participation of more scientists and others in our democracy. You generous support lowers that barrier, and will encourage other scientists to follow the path to public service.

More information can be obtained at www.foster08.com

I look forward to your strong support.

Sincerely,

Bill Foster
Candidate for Congress (IL-14)

Looks like he has a clear vision of what he wishes to accomplish.

Zz.

Free For All For Particle Physics Journals?

There's a movement to make all journals publishing particle/high energy physics papers to be open accessed.

The issue surrounding this isn't as trivial as it might appear, as one can read in the article itself. While such an aim might be feasible for high energy physics, it is still an open question if it can be done with other fields, such as condensed matter which produces probably the largest percentage of published papers. There aren't a lot of "large groups" in condensed matter, and most research work are done by small groups with small budgets.

Zz.

Disagreement Over Fractal Technique In Pollock's Painting Isn't Over

.. and not by a long shot.

Recall earlier that I mentioned that the fractal analysis technique used to "authenticate" a Jackson Pollock's art has been discredited. Most of us thought that was the end of that. Not so fast...

It appears that the original authors have posted a rebuttal to this. Read it for yourself to see if you're convinced. I am sure that the Jones-Smith et al. camp will be reading this carefully and it would not surprise me if they have a response to this rebuttal.

So stay tune, the fun may not be over just yet! :)

Zz.

Neutrino Physics

This is a review article on the latest news in the field of neutrino physics by S. King. The comment says that this is suitable for a general audience. Don't you believe that! :) A general PHYSICS audience, maybe, but not the general public.

Still, anyone with a physics background might find this highly useful to get caught up in the fast-moving area of study in neutrino physics.

Zz.

ScienceDebate2008

With the US Presidential election looming, the whole political process has been active for the past few months. However, one conspicuous element here is missing - a clear view on the candidates' science and technology knowledge and policy. As usual, science takes a back seat (way back) in these matters.

Lawrence Krauss and Chris Mooney want to change that. They are organizing a ScienceDebate2008 for the presidential candidates.

This fact -- combined with the undisputed importance of scientific research and innovation to national prosperity and competitiveness -- explains the recent emergence of a group called ScienceDebate2008. Under its auspices, scientists, university presidents, industry leaders, elected representatives and others have endorsed a call for the current U.S. presidential candidates to participate in a debate, or a series of debates, dedicated to issues in science and technology. More specifically, the candidates should answer questions about the environment, medicine and health, and science and technology policy.

I hope this takes off. However, I don't quite know how big of an influence it would be to the general public. Are these the issues that would sway their votes one way or the other? Would the perceived importance of science be a factor when these candidates debate about science issues?

Zz.

UK Pulls Out Of The ILC

This is a MAJOR bombshell and could spell doom to the International Linear Collider project.

The United Kingdom has decided to pull out of the ILC due to budget cutbacks.

The ILC, which will collide beams of electrons and positrons, is being planned as the next accelerator following the Large Hadron Collider, which is set to come online at CERN in 2008. The UK has played a significant role in building the LHC and the withdrawal will come as a blow for the particle-physics community.

The US, via the Dept. of Energy, has already indicated that no decision on the building of the ILC will be made before 2020 (or even later), prompting Fermilab to come up with an interim Project X. With the withdrawl of the UK, would the US (or maybe Japan) be next to pull out? Any one of these countries pulling out will signal the death of the ILC, I would think.

Zz.

Relativity Visualized

I came across this paper in the European Journal of Physics:

"First-person visualizations of the special and general theory of relativity", U. Kraus, Eur. J. Phys. v.29, p.1 (2007).

The author presents a description of a class in which he tries to impart a visualization of various aspects of Special and General Relativity. I suppose this can make the conceptually-difficult aspects of Relativity easier to illustrate. But what is neat is that he also have a website that has all of these illustrations.

You can check out all the visualizations yourself. Some of them are in German, but from what I've read, more English versions are coming.

This website might be useful to students trying to learn Special and General Relativity.

Zz.

Symbolic Manipulators Affect Mathematical Mindsets

This preprint is a rather "entertaining" reading, and you don't say that very often with things like this.

This work examines the impact of the availability of symbolic calculators, such as Mathematica, on physics students. It appears that the students are more "free" to explore the mathematical solutions using different paths. However, the study concluded that the students appears to not be able to make the connection between the mathematics and the physical meaning of the mathematics.

The students show admirable flexibility and creativity as they try different calculation strategies and representational forms. Rather, the difficulties associated with Mathematica use appears to arise from more subtle issues. They arise from a local coherence in their thinking that leads them to focus on computational aspects of the problem while suppressing the connection with the physics and with extended mathematical meanings.

I got very fascinated with several of the transcripts of the conversation between the students as they struggle to solve physics problems. I just hope they knew they were being recorded. :)

Zz.

UK Physics Professors Criticise Cuts in Budget

Looks like all those promises of more support for science funding in the UK isn't coming true.

Professors from Cambridge, Oxford and more than 20 other universities issued an unprecedented statement criticising ministerial plans to cut scientific research grants by 25 per cent over the next three years.

That is dreadful.

Zz.

Physics Laws Flawed?!

Not so fast, Mister!

There is a major concern when a news report doesn't do a COMPLETE reporting and make it appear as if this is a done deal.

One of the continuing controversy and continuing area that is still being investigated is the idea that the fine structure constant might be different during the earlier time of the universe than what it is now. Most of the evidence that seems to point to such possible variation has come from astrophysical observation, whereas most of the terrestrial-based observations have placed a more stringent upper limit on possible such variation.

This news report is presenting the "rebuttal" from the J.K. Webb camp[1] of a paper by Srianand et al.[2] that contradicted their earlier report[3].

Physicists have been chasing results like these for a number of years, but since 1999, Murphy and his co-researchers have been ahead of the pack. They’ve published a series of observations from the Keck Telescope in Hawaii as further evidence of a varying fine structure constant. But, a few years ago, another research team claimed that data from a different telescope contradicted Murphy’s observations.

However, he’s been able to prove that the contradictory work itself was flawed. “We’ve shown that the way the data was analysed was faulty,” he said. “Their procedures were faulty so the numbers that came out are meaningless. Our paper points this out. When you replicate their analysis and fix their problems, you get a very very different answer indeed.”

This is fine and dandy. However, by leaving it as is, it gives a very misleading impression that this "proof" done by them is a done deal. This is false because in the same issue of PRL, Srianand et al. gave their own comment[4] against the analysis done by Murphy et al. In it, they made the argument on why they stand by their earlier results.

Regardless on who you believe, this issue isn't settled, especially considering the nature of the "evidence" and the degree of certainty. This is certainly different than the impression one gets after reading this news article. It is unfortunate that they only reported on the first comment but not on the response to that comment. Someone has not been doing his/her homework on this.

Zz.

[1] M.T. Murphy et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. v.99, p.239001 (2007).
[2] R. Srianand et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. v.92, p.121302 (2004).
[3] J.K. Webb et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. v.82, p.884 (1999).
[4] R. Srianand et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. v.99, p.239002 (2007).

Oppeneimer Comes To The Opera

I mentioned earlier that Dr. Atomic will be making its operatic debut at the Chicago Lyric Opera this coming January. The Chicago Tribune has a preview of this work that is currently in rehearsal.

I'm not much of an opera buff, but I am certainly considering attending this one. It isn't often that there's something related to either physics or physicists on stage. The last one that I attended was "Copenhagen" on Broadway, and it was outstanding. So if this is as good as the original review of the San Francisco premier, maybe I can sit through an opera for a couple of hours. :)

Zz.

Woman to Lead SLAC

It's sad that in 2007, we still have headlines when a woman is appointed for a top position. Still, this is a noteworthy accomplishment. Persis Drell has been appointed as the new director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator laboratory. This comes at such an important turning point in SLAC's history as it morphed itself from a high-energy particle collider into a light source.

It is a bit amusing that the San Jose Mercury News that this news report came from is still calling SLAC as an "atom smasher". It's transformation into the LCLS smashers nothing at all. :)

Zz.

Knot Physics

This is the kind of "string" theory that I can deal with. :)

A couple of physicists have studied how a piece of string eventually end up with knots, and how that depends on its length.

In the end, one law emerged: The longer the string, the more likely it is to form a knot. String that was 1.5 feet or shorter never got tangled up. But “as the string gets longer, the probability of a knot forming goes up and up,” Smith says, at least to 18 feet. Flexibility matters, too. The more pliable the string, the more likely it is to knot spontaneously.

I'm not quite sure how such a knowledge would be useful elsewhere (topology?).

Zz.

Dark Energy: The Decade Ahead

This is a terrific article on the physics of Dark Energy, and what we can expect in the next decade or so. It was written by two of the leading figures in this field, Eric Linder and Saul Perlmutter.

There's also a rather good article on the history of the discovery of the accelerating universe that led to the idea of dark energy. It was written by Robert Crease. Not only is the story interesting, but it tells you of the workings and the competition between different groups within the same field and trying to study almost the same thing.

Zz.

No, Science Does Not 'Rest On Faith'

This is a very pointed and sharp rebuttal to Paul Davis' New York Times essay that claimed that science also practice a degree of "faith".

The public and repeatable testing of hypotheses distinguishes science as the most successful form of inquiry ever. Among other things it shows that it is officially not in the business of accepting anything "without question, without examining the grounds". Davies and others who describe science as "ultimately resting on faith" are thus not only wrong but do much irresponsible harm to it thereby.

I very much agree. I think it is highly irresponsible to make such a statement, because those who seek to undermine science will use it without understanding the differences.

Zz.

Major Physics Breakthrough In Understanding Supersolidity

I guess one of the major news of this week is the new discovery of the sheer modulus characteristic of a He in the "supersolid" phase[1] (assuming that it did become a supersolid).

Day and Dr. Beamish have taken this research a different direction. In an experiment not done before, they cooled the solid helium and manipulated the material another way -- by shearing it elastically. In doing so, they found that the solid behaved in an entirely new and unexpected way -- it became much stiffer at the lowest temperatures.

A perspective of this work in Nature[2] has a bit more info:

A supersolid can exhibit other anomalies, for instance in the speed at which sound passes through it. Sound speed depends on the shear modulus of the solid, as well as the density of the superfluid component. To assess why the solid behaves in the way it does, it is thus important to measure the shear modulus independently of the superfluid density. This is precisely what Day and Beamish have now done with solid helium.

Again, the authors' experiment3 is conceptually simple. They placed solid 4He between two parallel plates, known as piezoelectric shear transducers. They moved one plate, the driving transducer, in a direction parallel to the second plate. The solid helium transmits the resulting elastic shear stress between the plates, and this is measured by the second transducer. Day and Beamish find3 that the shear modulus of helium rises by up to 10% as the temperature is reduced from 0.2 to 0.02 kelvin. More significantly, the temperature dependence of this large increase in shear modulus closely tracks the changes in period in the torsional-oscillator experiments.

Fascinating stuff coming out of supersolidity lately.

Zz.

[1] J. Day and J. Beamish, Nature v.450, p.853 (2007).
[2] A.T. Dorsey and D. A. Huse, Nature v.450, p.800 (2007).

String Theory In the Era Of The Large Hadron Collider

Whether you buy into String Theory or not, this is a good article to read in this month's issue of Physics Today. Michael Dine discusses the issues surrounding String Theory, and whether the LHC can produce anything to verify String Theory.

Zz.

Physics of Information: From Entanglement to Black Holes

So, if you're in Waterloo, Canada tomorrow (Dec. 5th, 2007), you might want to see if you can attend this. It sounds like such a fun thing to do for physics geeks! :)

Do ideas about information and reality inspire fruitful new approaches to the hardest problems of modern physics? What can we learn about the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, the beginning of the universe and our understanding of black holes by thinking about the very essence of information? The answers to these questions are surprising and enlightening, but also controversial. The topic of information within physics has involved some of the 20th century’s greatest scientists in long-running intellectual battles that continue to the present day. In this special debate, hosted by the CBC’s Bob McDonald of ‘Quirks and Quarks’, you will enjoy a lively discussion between four prominent physicists who have thought long and hard about these questions.

With a high-powered panalist consisting of Anthony Leggett, Leonard Susskind, Seth Lloyd, and Chris Fuchs, this discussion could be very fascinating.

Zz.

Girl Power Dominates at Siemens Competition

For the first time ever, the girls swept the competition at this year's 9th Annual Siemens Math, Science, and Technology Competition.

With their work on a new treatment for tuberculosis, Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff, both 17-year-old seniors, became the third straight team from Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy HS to make it to the finals - but the first from the school to win the prestigious competition.
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Isha Jain, 16, of Freedom HS in Bethlehem, took the top individual prize for her ground-breaking research on bone growth in zebrafish, which could lead to better understanding of bone disorders and injuries in humans.

Hum... so I've noticed that it is "easier" to win this competition when one's project is in biology/medicine. Not that easy to carry out a physics project that can wow the judges, is it?

Zz.

A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down

I have mentioned many times on the issue of emergent phenomena, why the so-called Theory of Everything may be nothing more than a TOE for reductionism, and the arguments put forth by Robert Laughlin regarding this. I have also highlighted his book on such emergent phenomena.

An excerpt of this book is one of the essay on PhysicsCentral. So if you haven't read it yet, this might give you a "flavor" on what he is tackling. I wish they had done a longer excerpt, because the issue of collective behavior and emergent phenomena are only covered in the final paragraph. I believe is PNAS paper and his Nobel Prize speech have a lot more "teeth" in his argument.

In any case, you should really read the whole book if you haven't come across such argument before.

Zz.

The Race To Study Dark Energy

This news article describes the competition and race to be the one selected to design and build the necessary observatory to study dark energy. It gives some idea not only of the problem at hand, but also a feel for what usually is involved in science when such a large (and expensive) project is involved. Many things have to occur first (workshops, pre-proposals, etc.. etc..) before something is selected and the green light to build is given.

And even then, you still don't know that you'll get to the finish line, as can be seen with the Superconducting Supercollider, and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

Zz.

Neutrinos Could Probe Earth’s Structure

This is certainly an ambitious proposal, but not that outrageous in terms of implementation.

A group of physicists have proposed to use the atmospheric neutrinos to study the structure of our Earth.

Now, Concepcion Gonzalez-Garcia from the University of Barcelona in Spain and colleagues say that atmospheric neutrinos may have been dismissed too hastily. Their calculations show that, although the proportion of atmospheric neutrinos above the 10 TeV absorption criterion is low, the sheer number of them could make up for it (arXiv:0711.0745). “It would be better to have a localized beam rather than a disperse one, but the point is that there is no such localized beam in nature that is intense enough,” Gonzalez-Garcia told physicsworld.com.

They hope to detect these few events at IceCube, the neutrino detector project at the South Pole.

It sounds daunting, but who knows.

Zz.

$1.5 Billion Space Experiment Could Be Grounded

I mentioned earlier the cancellation by NASA to bring the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer into orbit at the International Space Station. This is the latest news coverage on this.

It is too bad that the one project that could almost justify the building of the ISS is the one that is being canceled.

Zz.