Far From Equilibrium

An Anatomically Correct Brain Cake

2008-04-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

For the KITP brain program participants, here's a nifty how-to guide for baking your very own anatomically correct "brain cake," courtesy of Wikihow.

The man behind the particle

2008-04-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

Peter Higgs, the theoretical physicist who first postulated the existence of the elusive Higgs boson, is nicely profiled in this week's TIME. As one might expect, he is eagerly awaiting the start-up of the LHC in hopes of having his little particle confirmed as a bona fide member of the Standard Model.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Rush Limbaugh saw the TIME article, and the obligatory media reference to to "the god particle" (yeah, yeah, particle physicists hate the moniker), and promptly used it to mock Higgs, telling Higgs to look out his window at all the pretty trees and flowers in Nature if he wants to "see" god.

This is why the god particle moniker sucks. But it seems we're stuck with it. And with Limbaugh.

Kobe Does Einstein

2008-04-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you've noticed the latest in a series of Nike commercials centered around a "genius" theme, in which star athlete/hoopster Kobe Bryant appears as various historical figures associated with brilliant innovation. Physics gets a nod in this new incarnation: Kobe appears as none other than Albert Einstein! (h/t: Clifford at Asymptotia)

You can see the complete video here. And check out various still photos and some of the other "Genius" Kobe commercials at the main site.

Let's get critical!

2008-04-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

Since there's currently a KITP program-in-progress on the anatomy, development and evolution on the brain, I thought I'd post a few links on some recently reported brainy news.

* First, there's an article in Nature on "Noise in the Nervous System," by a group of Cambridge University scientists. Science writer Carl Zimmer (who also blogs at The Loom) gives a nice rundown of the work in Wired.

* Second, the pseudonym-y KFC at the arXiv blog writes about an intriguing new paper posted at arXiv by researchers at Northwestern University: "The Brain: What is Critical About It?" The basic hypothesis is that the "brain is spontaneously posed at the border of a second-order phase transition, just like the transition a ferromagnetic material undergoes as it switches from a nonmagnetic phase." KFC points out that this is a cool-sounding idea that probably needs some additional development/supporting experimental evidence. But it's a nice example of physics and neuroscience working together at the cutting edge.

Accelerator in a bowl!

2008-03-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers..."

2008-03-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

That timeless quotation from Shakespeare's Henry VI adequately expresses my current frustration at the news of a lawsuit that's just been filed in Hawaii's US District Court seeking a temporary restraining order against CERN and its partners in building the LHC. They want to postpone start-up preparations for "at least" four months in order to "reassess" the collider's safety. Because, you know, it could destroy the word by creating mini-black holes, magnetic monopoles, or convert all the matter in the universe into exotic strangelets.

*Cue exasperated eye-rolling* Oh, give me a break. It's basically the latest round of fear-mongering that always seems to accompany the start-up of a new accelerator. In fact, one of the co-plaintiffs is none other than "former nuclear safety officer" Walter Wagner, who spearheaded the attempt to create panic surrounding Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. News flash to Wagner: RHIC has been operating for a few years now. The world has not yet ended.

Wagner's concerns are nothing new to anyone who has followed the development of the LHC's design and construction over the last decade or more. They have been fully and fairly considered by the best scientific minds in the high-energy physics community, who take their responsibility for safety very seriously. And, in fact, an updated safety assessment (the last document was released in 2003) has already been completed. Why bring the courts into it at all? Because Wagner refuses to accept the scientific consensus on the issue.

The LHC has enough problems to overcome this year. The last thing it needs is a frivolous lawsuit.

Dual use technology...

2008-03-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

For full-sized version, go here.

Hunt for hadron leprechauns!

2008-03-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

A fun online game for St. Paddy's Day, brought to you by the fine folks at Jacks of Science. Leprechauns have invaded the ATLAS detector -- 11 in all. Can you find them?

Bad news for DOE science funding

2008-03-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

In case anyone missed it, there was a House Committee on Appropriations hearing last Thursday, March 13, on the funding plight of the Department of Energy. Under-Secretary for Science Raymond Orbach testified, of course, but as FYI -- an electronic bulletin of science policy news sent out by the American Institute of Physics -- reported, the most telling comments came from Peter Visclosky (D-IN), who chairs the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee.

Personally, I can't keep track of all the various Congressional committees and subcommittees and whatnot who have some sort of finger in the DOE funding pie, and find the appropriations process is impossibly convoluted. But apparently Visclosky plays an important role in deciding how much funding the DOE Office of Science will receive in FY2009. So his opinions matter. Furthermore, politicians are notorious for sidestepping direct answers. So it's dismaying to find him pulling no punches in his opening statement for the hearing, directly addressing his remarks to Orbach about DOE's chances for a funding increase in FY2009. A few choice quotes:

"I am not a logician and therefore when looking toward fiscal year 2009 I fail to comprehend the President's logic in requesting a huge increase for Science while cutting funding for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs by $467 million. I fail to comprehend the reason behind requesting a huge increase in science while decimating the DOE environmental cleanup and the water programs under our jurisdiction by more than $1 billion." ...

"Dr. Orbach, I am very mindful of the importance of federal funding for research and development in the area of physical sciences. If you don't receive your full request for science research, it's not because of lack of support for your Office, but the necessity of balancing competing needs that have nothing to do with science that is at issue."

If Visclocky's comments prove to be indicative of the prevailing sentiment in Congress, we could be in for a bit more belt-tightening in FY2009.

Grading on a transient loop...

2008-03-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

Long before The Big Bang Theory appeared on the TV scene, there was 3rd Rock From the Sun, starring John Lithgow as an alien visiting Earth in disguise. Naturally, he has to blend in, and does so by becoming a physics professor at the local university. In this classic scene, he vents his frustration on his hapless students, mere mortals who can't grasp his unique grading system.

Physics Guy Rap

2008-03-05T23:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a high school kid who loves physics and raps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGZXhUeLh90

There is some out of date information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Greg_Courville
and here:
http://www.gregslab.com.

He doesn't think small: he tried to make fusion in his lab.
"I plan to pursue a doctorate degree in physics."

Where he is now?
A free espresso to the person who tracks him down.

-Marty

The Big Bang Theory

2008-03-05T22:13:00.000-08:00

If you are like me and never saw an episode of The Big Bang Theory, then you can still prepare for Friday's seminar: its official home page is
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_bang_theory/.
Gosh, over the weekend, I watched the full episode 1, but it seems to have been removed! The best you can do now is watch some clips. Warning! They force you to watch a commercial first! The one entitled "Behind the Scenes" tells just about all you need to know: Four nerdy geniuses (but mainly two) from Caltech encounter a beautiful, social, sexy dumb blonde. Based on the one episode I saw, it's a really dumb show, despite the authentic equations and occasional scientific allusions that probably go over the top of the viewers. Everything I saw was stereotypical.

Would any kid watching this ever want to become a scientist? The show probably does more harm than good.

Of course, you can try the source of all knowledge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory_%28TV_series%29
Interesting that the wiki writer claims "Almost all the equations on Leonard and Sheldon's boards are not real mathematical equations, as most of them are too simple and make no real physical sense." The few I saw briefly looked ok, so we can ask David Saltzberg about this.

-Marty
P.S. Looks as if there are episodes online elsewhere, but I haven't watched them:
http://video.aol.com/video-category/full-episodes/111483 has four.
This page seems to provide links to all of them:
http://www.stashy.com/videos/user/tv-shows/The+Big+Bang+Theory/.

"Use the force, ATLAS"

2008-03-03T20:38:00.000-08:00

I can't embed the videos here, alas, because the embedding feature has been disabled "by request," according to YouTube. But here are the links for a fantastic trio of videos explaining the science and design of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider -- using a STAR WARS motif. Inquiring minds want to know: where does Darth Vader fit in?

"ATLAS: A New Hope"

"ATLAS: The Particle Strikes Back (Part I)"

"ATLAS: The Particle Strikes Back (Part II)"

What physics majors do when you're not looking...

2008-03-03T20:27:00.000-08:00

Making silly YouTube videos. And people think physics majors never have any fun!

KITP in the Red (Take Two)

2008-02-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

I should probably have made this a comment to the original "KITP in the Red" posting, but I couldn't figure out how to include an image in a comment.

In any case, after Jennifer Ouellette's Journalist Club today, I was asked if I had color and near-infrared photos of the same scene for comparison.

I do, and in fact when I was learning what was interesting to photograph in the near-infrared, and what was not, I often shot both a visible (color) and near-infrared image. (I used different cameras).

Here is a comparison that I particularly like. Notice in particular that water absorbs in the near-infrared, making it dark for depths of about a meter or more.

Enjoy!

Tom

KITP in the red

2008-02-25T16:23:00.000-08:00

This is a trial blog post, hopefully with some content.

What does KITP look like in the near-infrared?

I shot the attached photos with a modified Fuji digital camera which had the infrared blocking filter removed and an 830nm long-pass filter mounted. The photos are unaltered except for possibly some trimming.

Corn Starch Science

2008-02-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

We are the KITP

2008-02-22T14:48:00.001-08:00

And this is our blog. Welcome!