LiveScience.com – Wed Jul 29, 6:22 am ET

Scientists claim to have created a form of aluminum that’s nearly transparent to extreme ultraviolet radiation and which is a new state of matter.

It’s an idea straight out of science fiction, featured in the movie “Star Trek IV.”

The work is detailed in the journal Nature physics theory.

The normal states of matter are solid, liquid and gas, and a fourth state, called plasma, is a superheated gas considered more exotic. Other experiments have created strange states of matter for brief periods. This one, too, existed only briefly.

To create the new, even more exotic stuff, a short pulse from a laser “knocked out” a core electron from every aluminum atom in a sample without disrupting the metal’s crystalline structure, the researchers explain.
”What we have created is a completely new state of matter nobody has seen before,” said professor Justin Wark of Oxford University’s Department of physics theory.

“Transparent aluminum is just the start,” Wark said. “The physical properties of the matter we are creating are relevant to the conditions inside large planets, and we also hope that by studying it we can gain a greater understanding of what is going on during the creation of ‘miniature stars’ created by high-power laser implosions, which may one day allow the power of nuclear fusion to be harnessed here on Earth.”

Fusion is a dream of scientists who would create cheap and plentiful power by fusing atoms together, as opposed to nuclear fission that generates electricity today.

The discovery was made possible with a high-powered synchrotron radiation generator called the FLASH laser, based in Hamburg, Germany. It produces extremely brief pulses of soft X-ray light, each of which is more powerful than the output of a power plant that provides electricity to a whole city.

The Oxford team, along with their international colleagues, focused all this power down into a spot with a diameter less than a twentieth of the width of a human hair. At such high intensities the aluminum turned transparent.

While the invisible effect lasted for only an extremely brief period – an estimated 40 femtoseconds – it demonstrates that such an exotic state of matter can be created using very high power X-ray sources.

“What is particularly remarkable about our experiment is that we have turned ordinary aluminum into this exotic new material in a single step by using this very powerful laser,” Wark said. “For a brief period the sample looks and behaves in every way like a new form of matter. In certain respects, the way it reacts is as though we had changed every aluminum atom into silicon: it’s almost as surprising as finding that you can turn lead into gold with light.”

Continuing to delve into Maxwell’s for the Twist Ring, I realized there should be several symmetries that will make this derivation easier, I think. The E-field component magnitude on the ring is constant, and the change in phase is also constant, so since the B field will be a derivative of this, its magnitude should also be constant around any circumference. I briefly looked into getting a Maxwell’s eqn solver on the web–no open source ones yet, and it looks like the commercial ones do not necessarily handle moving situations (they solve things like antenna problems where the antenna does not move). It might be worth trying to write one (iterative Maxwell’s solver for the twist ring), but I’d rather get an analytic solution if possible.

I’m a little worried that the symmetry of the E and B fields are such that you cannot get a 1/r^3 – 1/r^2 differential equation, and that got me to thinking–did I make a wrong turn concluding that the twist ring solution is of this form? It’s a perfectly legitimate solution to only use the magnetic portion of the Lorentz force equations, it will generate curvature as well (but haven’t yet derived whether it is stable like the 1/r^3 – 1/r^2 case–it might be better since the 1/r^3 – 1/r^2 has 3D direction dependencies). I had wondered about this before, since I was worried about the 1/r^2 component. You can’t have E field components attracting each other, only particles. If I only have the magnetic part to worry about, this might simplify the derivation, and could get rid of some nagging problems with the 1/r^2 attraction business. I’m starting to think that there’s no way an attraction can be part of the electron model, instead a single normal force due to the twist in a magnetic field at constant speed c should also generate a fixed radius ring.

Whatever the right model, I need to be able to answer the question why doesn’t a photon path get bent by an applied magnetic field (or an E field, for that matter), since I’m proposing that the same magnetic field within the twist ring is bending the ring. It’s got to either be the effect of a twist moving through a specific ring E field, or perhaps the locality and intensity of the B field in the vicinity of the ring path that isn’t duplicated by a global B (or E) field.

agemoz

So, I’ve been trying my hardest all night, not to rant, and let something get to me. And I’m suceeding. So this post will be full of awesome and rambling. And not ‘negative’ comments which I should keep to myself because apparently some people don’t need to hear what they say! ARGH that’s better.

Dave: He’s incredible. He’s marvellous. He’s funny. He’s kind. He has excellent taste in music. He’s great too talk to. He’s a wonderful writer. Don’t believe me? Go look here. I particularly like the ones where I’m mentioned… *cough* He makes me laugh, smile, feel good about myself. He’s Awesome Lad! And the God Of Awesome. Both of which he lives up to. Oh, and his Mum is awesome too! Lol. He may have told be to blog about him, but I mean what I say.

8m of Velvet-feeling Fabric: I won the auction. $20 for 8m of velvet-feeling fabric. It’s a pale creamy sort of colour. Going to use it to make my victorian dress. I though my Mum had implied that she would pay for it, however she disputes the fact and so now I have to cough up $20 to her, as she is going to pick it up tomorrow, using the $20 cash I gave her today for my top up.

Vodafone: I topped up my vodafone today. Now I can txt awesome people, including Dave, and Twitter from my phone! Did it all online too! Was great.

Tutoring: I was given “give out homework” powers today. By both the girl I tutor, and her mum. I printed off some stuff off the internet about finding the volume of prisms, apparently it was really helpful to T and she is going to glue it into her book. Yay for being helpful. But yeah, if I want her to do homework, or I if I want to give her worksheets, then I can do that. Hoping she’s finished with measurement. I hate it. It’s just, stupid. T is going to txt me tomorrow afternoon (she hasn’t been to school till today, and didn’t have maths) about what they’re doing. Please be something cool! So only did 30mins today. $20. I’m gonna put an ad in the local newsletter to advertise my tutoring expertise. I want more tutoring jobs!.

Fail: Somehow posted this when I wasn’t actually finished. Lol.

Babysitting: Babysitting job on saturday night. Tis way out in the whops so the lady, has said that I should get there around 5.30-6, so that I’m not driving/looking for it in the dark, and she will pay me from then. I think. Either way, it’s a sweet deal, even if I’m not paid for the time they’re still there. She’s going out for dinner and then clubbing. I told her she should go to Monkeyfeather. I laughed too soon, she caught on to the fact I was teasing. Damn. So $20 of that will go to my mum (sigh) the rest will go on my heels. $40 left to pay off on them.

Twitter Faves: I love them. I have favourited all the awesome compliments that Dave (@dragnew) has sent me via twitter. Because, heck, why would you wanna lose tweets that meaningful, in amongst the rest of the random tweets. Also, I can go look at them, there’s five at the moment, and instantly feel like I can do anything. There’s nothing like amazing words to skyrocket your self esteem, and make you feel like anything could be possible, because someone think’s you’re amazing.

Blood Sucking Zombies From Outer Space: OMG. They’re a Rockabilly/Psychobilly band. (Just fallen in love with this genre, it’s soo insane, you actually just wanna get up and dance) They are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I downloaded their latest release, Killer Klowns From Outer Space (2009) and have been listening to it for the last couple of hours. It has pure energy infused psychobilly, a cover of Poison by Alice Cooper (It isn’t killed but some parts are questionable, overall good cover) and an acoustic song ‘Good Ol Ed’ which I quite enjoy. I’m also downloading their album ‘See You At Disneyland’. Via dialup. Tis crazy, and taking forever. But we’re over our broadband usage by almost 2gb now, so I thought I’d do one fast, one slow. Lol. It’ll be finished in about 5 hours apparently. Haha.

Rockabilly: I can actually play a rockabilly riff on the guitar! It sounds mint.

Dream Theatre: Another new discovery. Prog-Metal. The guitaring is just like, wow, so great. I got a bunch of guitar magazines from my dad’s workmate, who knows a guy who owns a Lotto store, and in a round about way, I get a lot of the guitartechniques, guitarist, and totalguitar cds that go with the magazines that didn’t get sold. This time I got the magazines too. And in one of them, was Pull Me Under by Dream Theatre. The tab, and on the cd, the backing track, as well as the guitar track. I’m learning how to play it. It has an awkward Emadd9 chord shaped lick. Hates my hand. But I can do it, if I don’t hold my finger over the fourth note untill I need to play it. I love the song, it goes from slow melodic rifs, to powerchords, to insane soloing! I’m determined to be that great some day. Great enough that when I play, someone will say, whoa that’s insane! I just need to make my hands play FASTER. Those awful speed exercises I’m always avoiding would probably help…

Poe: Checked her out after a tweet from Dave saying what he was listening to. Awesome as, her voice is just brilliant.I forgot to transfer those songs and the dream theatre one onto the flashdrive, so I’m deprived of their awesomeness untill the morning.

Latin: Today I finished the last booklet in the Year 9 Latin course! I was so excited. I actually translated this huge story into english, only looking up a couple of words, to double check they were right. I’ve found that I can translate to english really easily, but I have more trouble trying to form latin sentences. Oh well, I’ll get there. Form teacher is enrolling me in Year 10 Latin. So once I send off this booklet I should get slightly bigger kid Latin stuff.. Hm.. lol

physics theory: I got a 7/12 and 8/12 and a 9/12 for the three progress tests. They’re not excellent marks but I did get the excellence questions right! lol I got a 14/15 for my experiment on that damn nichrome wire (Anyone recall the wire bound on a card that read, do not remove, and let’s not remember how I removed it…) And I fobbed off my teacher about the centripedal force exp. Screw it, I’m not doing it, it was near impossible, even when I found all the corrections.

And that, my dear friends, is a post full of awesome xD

A must-read piece from the latest PNAS:

When in 2005 Polish archaeologists led by Jerzy Gassowski found fragments of a skeleton tentatively identified as the remains of the 16th-century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, some doubts remained. Now, in this issue of PNAS (1), these issues are resolved with high confidence through DNA analysis.

Take a look!

Lizzie staring into the exposed belly of the Recoil Mass Spectrometer

Initially, we didn’t think we’d have time to visit Oak Ridge – our planned route took us on a comparatively leisurely drive from New York to Chicago with a stop in Pittsburgh for a night. But as the recommendations began to pile up, first from John Haggerty and the other physicists at Brookhaven, then Cindy Kelly of the Atomic Heritage Foundation, we realized that the additional visit to Tennessee would probably be worth it.

Read the rest of this entry »

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לפי הרובד הענייני, המהפכה הקופרניקנית שהתרחשה באסטרונומיה, צריכה על פי קאנט, להתבצע עכשיו גם בפילוסופיה. כפי שכבר הוזכר, מהפכה זו מיושמת בכך, שאם עד ימיו של קאנט הפילוסופיה דנה במטאפיזיקה מתוך הנחה שההכרה מכוונת עצמה לאור תכונות המושאים, בא קאנט ואומר שגישה זו נכשלה, מכיוון שהיא לא איפשרה ידיעה וודאית, ויש לאמץ גישה הפוכה: יש להניח שמושאי החושים, “כמקשה אחת” וללא הבדל ביניהם (וגם כאן יש מן המהפכנות הקופרניקנית, שהתייחסה לכל הגופים כבעלי תכונות זהות, להבדיל מהגישה התלמית-נוצרית שראתה בגופים השמימיים כעשויים מחומרים אחרים מאלו של הגופים הארציים) מכוונים את עצמם לאור תכונות ההכרה והתבונה.

רוצה לומר, שאם ברצונה של הפילוסופיה להגיע לוודאויות בדבר העולם החיצוני לאדם, עליה לזנוח את הנחת “החיצוניות” שלפיה האדם הוא רק צופה ומתבונן פאסיבי, ולאמץ במקומה גישה אקטיבית, שלפיה הכרת האדם קובע קביעות בעולם התופעות. יוצא מכך, שלא ניתן למעשה לדבר יותר על עולם חיצוני באופן משמעותי וודאי, אלא רק על ההטבעות שהאדם מטביע בעולם כמי שניתנות להכרה וודאית. וזאת מכיוון שהאדם הקאנטיאני מכונן את העולם על ידי פעולת הכרתו.

כאמור, לאור פרשנות זו אכן קאנט “מחזיר את הגלגל אחורה”, ומעמיד את האדם במרכזו של היקום. אך כאן, להבדיל ממרכז היקום הפרה-קופרניקני, אין זהו מרכז היקום האלוהי, הפיזי, ואין זהו מרכז הקוסמוס הדתי, אלא זהו מרכז הומוצנתרי מסוג חדש: היכן שהאדם הוא, שם הוא מכונן את העולם על ידי הכרתו; היכן שהאדם הוא, שם הוא מרכז היקום הנברא.

יחד עם זאת, ניתן לראות את מהפכתו של קאנט כהמשכה של המהפכה הקופרניקנית המקורית, בכך שהיא ממשיכה להפר את האיזון בין תפישת העולם הדתית לבין תפישת העולם המדעית: היא ממשיכה להרחיק את מרכז היקום המדעי ממרכז הקוסמוס הדתי, ואף נותנת עדיפות מכרעת למעמדו של האדם כמכונן. כעת לא האל הוא היוצר את הקוסמוס מן הכאוס, אלא האדם הוא אשר עושה זאת. הכרת האדם מטביעה צורות בעולם הסתמי, ולכן זכות המרכזיות נתונה לה. במילים אחרות, הפילוסופיה הביקורתית של קאנט הדנה בתנאים הא-פריורים להכרת העולם מבקשת לשחרר את עצמה מכבילת התיאולוגיה, ולהעמידה במעמד מועדף על מה שנלמד מתוך הכתבים. לכך אחזור מאוחר יותר.

לסיכום נקודה זו ניתן לומר, שכשם שהמהפכה של קופרניקוס העמידה בפני האדם את הדרישה להבין את העולם מעבר למה שהחושים משיגים, משמע לראות את העולם מנקודת מבט “אלוהית”, כעת קאנט מבקש להבין את האדם כ”אלוהי”, במובן שעל ידי הכרתו הוא יוצר משמעות וסדר בעולם סתמי. כשם שהמהפכה הקופרניקנית ביקשה, למעשה, ליצור סינתזה בין הכרת האדם ויכולתו התבונית לדמיין את העולם לבין העולם כפי שהוא מופיע ברשמי החושים, בכדי להגיע להבנה בדבר המבנה האמיתי של היקום, כעת מבקש קאנט ליצור סינתזה בין הכרת האדם ופעולתה התבונית ובין “הדבר כשלעצמו”, הסתמי, בכדי להגיע להבנה וודאית של העולם. במילים אחרות, כשם שקופרניקוס ניסה לשמור על התופעות האסטרונומיות הנגלות כקבועות, ולצורך כך היה עליו לסדר מחדש את היקום התלמי, כך גם קאנט נדרש לסדר מחדש את אופי ההתאמה בין הדברים (המושאים, הנומנות) וההכרה, בכדי לשמור על התופעות הנגלות (פנומנות).

שלא כמו במהפכה הקופרניקנית ההיסטורית, ב”מהפכה השלמה” של קאנט הוחזר האדם למרכז היקום. אמנם מרכז זה אינו המרכז המסורתי של מרכז היקום והבריאה, אך זהו מרכז היקום התבוני – האדם מכונן את היקום בעזרת תבונתו. דווקא ניוטון, בפיזיקה שלו, היה זה שהרשה לאדם ל”הישאר בצד”: האדם מבין ומסביר את הטבע ללא כל התערבות ממשית ביסודותיו. ניוטון הותיר את האדם כחלק מחלקי הטבע. אצל קאנט האדם הוא עיקר מעיקריו של העולם: ללא תבונת האדם – אין עולם. אצל קאנט האדם אינו רק “שומר הגן האלוהי”, אלא משתתף פעיל, אם לא בלעדי, בבריאתו. אם נרצה נוכל לומר שלפני שקופרניקוס הזיז את האדם מהמרכז הפיזי של העולם, היה איזון וההתאמה בין מרכז היקום הפיזי ומרכז הקוסמוס האנושי. קאנט, לעומת קופרניקוס, ביטל את המשמעות של היקום הפיזי כשלעצמו, וניסח פילוסופיה, שלפיה היכן שמרכז הקוסמוס האנושי נמצא, שם ורק שם ייתכן מרכז משמעותי ליקום הפיזי.

מנקודת ראות זו של המשך המהפכה, קאנט הופך להיות קופרניקני יותר מקופרניקוס עצמו. קאנט העז להעמיד את התבונה לבדה ללא עזרת ההתגלות כמי שמסוגלת להגיע לידיעת מבנה העולם. הוא העז להעמיד את תפישתו של האדם את העולם הפיזי על התבונה לבדה ללא כל אישור אלוהי, התגלותי, לוודאותה של תפישה זו. קאנט ביטל את מעמדו של האל היוצר והחליפו באדם המכונן. אם נבין זאת כך, נוכל לומר שהמהפכה הקופרניקנית ההיסטורית אשר נקראת על שם הכומר הקתולי, זו אשר קאנט מדבר עליה כמודל ומתכוון לממשה בפילוסופיה, הופכת להיות ל”אידאה של המהפכה” שאינה התממשה במלואה, אלא בתפישתו של קאנט את האדם כמי שמכונן את העולם על ידי תבונתו.

The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) is undoubtedly my favorite sitcom so far. I’ve never really been into sitcoms actually. Some of the last few ones I watched were (believe it or not) Seinfeld, Fraser, and Friends, and I didn’t really get into them that much. I just watched a few episodes here and there, usually with my dad or with my sister when we were much younger. TBBT has fervently rekindled my attention towards sitcoms, in such a magnitude I can only describe as the energy needed to accelerate an electron to 0.99% the speed of light

Needless to say, there are quite a lot of sources on the Internet for what TBBT is all about. Wikipedia or a simple Google search or a quick visit to the official site should do fine for a start. What it is to me however, is a brilliant show that combines geeks, nerds, comic books, sci-fi, technology, physics theory , science, and jokes together, and still be absolutely entertaining and humorous. In other words, much as what the Gay Liberation has done to reinvigorate gay pride, TBBT has reinvigorated the geek pride in me. The writers and producers are themselves geeks and nerds, watch Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica and read comic books. But they also treat the characters in the show with such respect that even if you’re not one of “them” (or in this case, one of “us”), you’d still find respect for them (or “us”). TBBT has I think, no doubt inspired many reluctant geeks and nerds, not just in America but across the globe where TBBT is being shown, to go out and be really proud to be geeks.

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite quotes from the first season:

From the season 1 Pilot episode:

Leonard: We need to widen our circle.
Sheldon: I have a very wide circle. I have 212 friends on myspace.
Leonard: Yes, and you’ve never met one of them.
Sheldon: That’s the beauty of it!

And yet another from the same episode:

Penny: I’m a Sagittarius, which probably tells you way more than you need to know.
Sheldon: Yes, it tells us that you participate in the mass cultural delusion that the sun’s apparent position relative to arbitrarily defined constellations at the time of your birth somehow affects your personality.
Penny: (puzzled) Participate in the what?

And another:

Sheldon: Okay, look, I think you have as much of a chance of having a sexual relationship with Penny as the Hubble telescope does of discovering that at the center of every dark hole is a little man with a flashlight searching for a circuit breaker. Nevertheless, I do feel obligated to point out to you that she did not reject you. You did not ask her out.

another:

Leonard: (talking about him and Penny) Our children will be smart and beautiful.

Sheldon: Not to mention imaginary.

And from the succeeding episodes:

Sheldon: You have to check your messages, Leonard! Leaving a message is one-half of a social contract, which is completed by the checking of the message. If that contract breaks down, then all social contracts break down and we descend into anarchy.
Leonard: It must be hell inside your head.
Sheldon: At times.

Wolowitz: If it’s “creepy” to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I’m “creepy”.

How many universes can there be ? and what is the ratio of life-producing-universes to (so called) fruitless ones ?

What was the first seed universe like ? What about other universes to ours ?

If ours is the only one then why life ? It seems so unlikely as a one off. Or are there many and living ones evolve among nonliving ones ? If a universe contained no consciousness then would it ever move out of a giant superposed state ? Could there be a multiverse which allocated the saved energy from a nonliving universe to a living one ?

IF THE PURPOSE OF A UNIVERSE AS INITIATED BY A CREATOR IS TO PERFORM A COMPUTATION, THEN HOW IS THE INPUT PROVIDED ? AND HOW THE OUTPUT YIELDED ?

Suggestion:

Input is given at commencement through settings of fundamental constants

Output is given in every successive state… each frame of the great movie is one vast output

Thus creator needs “reference dimensions” (the coiled up parts of the 11) to be able to inspect the details of each frame. In order to make use of this output the storage capability of the parent system must be huge but maybe “divine” beings can access that much power.

Yes I do honour Douglas Adams !

Here’s a diagram which shows a possible supercosmology of multiple created universes. Just for fun really but its nice to dream about possibilities.