Sunday, April 30, 2006
NASA's 20-G centrifuge machine
NASA scientists are using a 20-G centrifuge machine that can simulate up to 20 times the terrestrial gravity to evaluate the effects of hypergravity on humans. The goal of these experiments is to reduce the adverse effects that space travel can have on astronauts' physical heath but also to help the rapidly growing senior population.
We are having a field trip to a roller-coaster nearby in the high school. NASA has a big roller-coaster.
read more | digg story
We are having a field trip to a roller-coaster nearby in the high school. NASA has a big roller-coaster.
read more | digg story
B_s oscillation
A few days ago I reported the experimental measurements of CDF at Fermilab. Now I explain the meaning of these results.
The article in the electronic repository at Los Alamos National Laboratory:
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0604112
gives more information.
The catchy line of the result was that the particle of matter turn into anti-matter many times per second. It takes this particle 0.0577 pico seconds to change. One picosecond is:
0.000 000 000 001 second.
This must be one of the smallest times ever measured by man.
This process is so fast that we have a window to new physics. The article above informs us that no new physics is necessary, the so-called Standard Model predicts this very small time interval, and the prediction was confirmed by CDF, and previously by D_0 at Fermilab.
Unfortunately New Physics cannot be completely rejected either. Even if we know more now, we are still in limbo. The Standard Model will be tested at CERN starting in 2007.
The article in the electronic repository at Los Alamos National Laboratory:
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0604112
gives more information.
The catchy line of the result was that the particle of matter turn into anti-matter many times per second. It takes this particle 0.0577 pico seconds to change. One picosecond is:
0.000 000 000 001 second.
This must be one of the smallest times ever measured by man.
This process is so fast that we have a window to new physics. The article above informs us that no new physics is necessary, the so-called Standard Model predicts this very small time interval, and the prediction was confirmed by CDF, and previously by D_0 at Fermilab.
Unfortunately New Physics cannot be completely rejected either. Even if we know more now, we are still in limbo. The Standard Model will be tested at CERN starting in 2007.
Nobel Prize winner sent to Prison for Manslaughter
It may win you fame and fortune, but a Nobel Prize sure doesn't get your speeding ass out of prison time. Nobel prize winner and co-founder of superconductor BCS theory John Schrieffer sent to prison for manslaughter.
This happened last year to an ex-professor of my Alma Mater, the University of Californai Santa Barbara.
read more | digg story
This happened last year to an ex-professor of my Alma Mater, the University of Californai Santa Barbara.
read more | digg story
Complexity Theory Guru
Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel Prize winner writes a note for Time magazine on Geoffrey West, a great complexity theory scientist.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Saturday, April 29, 2006
A Day without a Mexican
Next Monday is a day without a Mexican.
You can read Sergio Arau's interview in Mexico City in spanish here:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/imprimir.php?fecha=20060429¬a=056n1mig.php&seccion=nota
He is the director of the movie. The march's name is "A Day without a Mexican"
Why is this Relevant Science?
The reality of the mexican presence is a scientific, historic, and geographic fact. Looking at the time scales involved, you could get a frame of reference also.
First americans, 20 000 years.
First european americans, 500 years.
Which one has more staying power as a biological process?
You can read Sergio Arau's interview in Mexico City in spanish here:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/imprimir.php?fecha=20060429¬a=056n1mig.php&seccion=nota
He is the director of the movie. The march's name is "A Day without a Mexican"
Why is this Relevant Science?
The reality of the mexican presence is a scientific, historic, and geographic fact. Looking at the time scales involved, you could get a frame of reference also.
First americans, 20 000 years.
First european americans, 500 years.
Which one has more staying power as a biological process?
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Einstein and Poincaré
These two gentlemen worked on time synchronization at the beginning of last century, but did not write a paper together. I wonder why? I am reading Peter Galison book: "Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps.
Time sync was economically important for France and Switzerland, not just a past time for philosophers.
Time sync was economically important for France and Switzerland, not just a past time for philosophers.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
Memeland in Wikipedia
Now memeland exists in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memeland
This item was deleted from Wikipedia, and I wrote it back. The staying power of the meme, memeland is already being tested. I expect it to be deleted again. I have to learn how to convince the authorities in Wikipedia that the idea has merit.
It was deleted again. Now there is a record, and my name is there. I guess I can keep developing the idea.
This is the place with more authority in the Internet about Memeland.
There is a blog with that name already:
Memeland
But the creator has not done anything with it yet.
Prof. Susan Blackmore, has contributed to the meme concept invented by Prof. Richard Dawkins.
Memeland is a meme.
Almost any juxtaposition of words is a construct with possible uses. Memespace does exist already. My first task is to differentiate memland from memespace.
Land and Space can be used as synonyms. Land though has more of a human touch. England as opposed to Engspace. Disneyland as opposed to Disneyspace. Cyberland as opposed to Cyberspace.
Which side of the similar word one falls depends on human presence, it seems to me.
Therefore Memeland, will be the place for memes, where they live like organic beings.
Fairyland is a Memeland.
Memeland
The word came to me while I was writing one of these posts. Then it occurred to me that somebody must have used it before. I googled it and there it was; memeland exists.
My contribution to the term is:
digg.com and google.com help us navigate memeland, and as the great Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote:
http://www.los-poetas.com/a/mach1.htm
Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace camino
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
By walking on memeland using digg.com or google.com, we make a path, a path in culture, and a path in our minds. Those paths, "caminos", are our minds in memeland.
My contribution to the term is:
digg.com and google.com help us navigate memeland, and as the great Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote:
http://www.los-poetas.com/a/mach1.htm
Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace camino
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
By walking on memeland using digg.com or google.com, we make a path, a path in culture, and a path in our minds. Those paths, "caminos", are our minds in memeland.
Global Warming
Mario Molina. Mexican chemist, MIT professor, and expert on environmental science.
I mentioned him in my previous note. Now I have two articles one in english:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/weekinreview/23revkin.html?pagewanted=print
and one in spanish:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/imprimir.php?fecha=20060424¬a=029n2eco.php&seccion=nota
This is relevant science.
I mentioned him in my previous note. Now I have two articles one in english:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/weekinreview/23revkin.html?pagewanted=print
and one in spanish:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/imprimir.php?fecha=20060424¬a=029n2eco.php&seccion=nota
This is relevant science.
May 2004 - May 2006
A movie was released two years ago; "A Day Without a Mexican". Next Monday May 1st there is a day without a mexican. This movie by mexican director Sergio Arau in collaboration with Yareli Arizmendi, asks a simple question: What would happen in California if the mexicans disappeared?
The economies and histories of Mexico and the United States are intertwined; the interaction goes back a long time. Americans may or may not like mexicans, and viceversa; but that does not change the geographical and historical fact of this interdependence.
Keep your eyes and ears open for next Monday May 1st.
Relevant Science in the making. Knowing the other is part of anthropology. On a more human level, I can mention Prof. Mario Molina, Nobel Prize winner in chemistry. He predicted in the late seventies, together with Prof. Rowland then at the University of California at Irvine; that artificial fluorocarbons could endangered the ozone layer which protects us against harmful solar radiation.
This prediction was confirmed and fluorocarbons banned. Thank you Drs. Rowland and Molina. Now we are a little safer because of your work.
The economies and histories of Mexico and the United States are intertwined; the interaction goes back a long time. Americans may or may not like mexicans, and viceversa; but that does not change the geographical and historical fact of this interdependence.
Keep your eyes and ears open for next Monday May 1st.
Relevant Science in the making. Knowing the other is part of anthropology. On a more human level, I can mention Prof. Mario Molina, Nobel Prize winner in chemistry. He predicted in the late seventies, together with Prof. Rowland then at the University of California at Irvine; that artificial fluorocarbons could endangered the ozone layer which protects us against harmful solar radiation.
This prediction was confirmed and fluorocarbons banned. Thank you Drs. Rowland and Molina. Now we are a little safer because of your work.
Hawking-Hartle-Hertog's Universe
The HHH universe is very interesting.
In the Los Alamos National Laboratory electronic archive:
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0602091
You can find an intriguing article by Hawking and Hertog, using the Hartle-Hawking wave function of the Universe, they predict inflation given that we live in three space and one time dimension.
Also New Scientist has an article on this idea.
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/mg19025481.300.html
In the Los Alamos National Laboratory electronic archive:
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0602091
You can find an intriguing article by Hawking and Hertog, using the Hartle-Hawking wave function of the Universe, they predict inflation given that we live in three space and one time dimension.
Also New Scientist has an article on this idea.
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/mg19025481.300.html
Wormholes
Time travel and wormholes are ideas that can be studied with the General Theory of Relativity, which is Einstein's version of gravitational force theory. Before getting into wormholes I look into escape velocity first.
All of us have thrown objects up. What we see is that the object invariably stops and starts to go down. This does not have to be like that. Humans sent an artificial satellite to orbit in the late fifties, this was the Sputnik. The speed of this object must have been bigger or equal to eight kilometers per second. At eleven kilometers per second or more, throwing the object up, it does not come back to the surface of the Earth.
This escape velocity can be calculated with the law of conservation of mechanical energy for the case of the gravitational force. Newton proposed in the seventeenth century that a body getting far from the Earth is pulled down with a force that gets smaller as the distance increases. For every doubling of the distance the force is one quarter of what it was before. This inverse squared relationship is very important and predicts closed orbits for the planets.
Kinetic energy is a measure of the motion of the object under study, the Sputnik say. Besides kinetic or motion energy, this artificial satellite of the Earth has potential energy. The higher up the Sputnik is, the bigger its potential energy gets. The sum of the kinetic energy and the potential energy of the Sputnik is constant. It goes high, the potential energy increases, and the kinetic energy has to go down. At some height the object stops, i.e., its kinetic energy is zero. At this point in time, the object starts to fall and its velocity increases. Now the kinetic energy is increasing and the potential energy is decreasing, the sum of these two energies remains constant. This sum is called the mechanical energy.
It stands to reason that there is a velocity for which the sum of the potential plus kinetic energy is zero. Potential energy could be defined as zero when the obejct is at an infinite distance from the Earth. If when the object reaches this infinite distance it also stops, its kinetic energy would be zero. Zero plus zero is zero. This object reaches an infinite distance and stops; its total mechanical energy is zero. This projectile has the so-called escape velocity. It escapes the gravitational force of the Earth. When the escape velocity is equal to the speed of light in magnitude we have reeached a fundamental limit. No observational evidence exists for an object moving faster than light in free space. Therefore if the planet, or more likely the star, has such a big mass in such a small volume to have an escape velocity equal to the speed of light. Nothing can escape from that star. We have a black hole.
The idea of a star so massive that not even light could escape is prior to Einstein; but only with Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was it possible to find a mathematical solution that satisfies this condition. This solution was found by Schwarzschild in 1916, almost a hundred years ago. You can read about it in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_solution
Wormholes are other solutions to Einstein's equations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole
All of us have thrown objects up. What we see is that the object invariably stops and starts to go down. This does not have to be like that. Humans sent an artificial satellite to orbit in the late fifties, this was the Sputnik. The speed of this object must have been bigger or equal to eight kilometers per second. At eleven kilometers per second or more, throwing the object up, it does not come back to the surface of the Earth.
This escape velocity can be calculated with the law of conservation of mechanical energy for the case of the gravitational force. Newton proposed in the seventeenth century that a body getting far from the Earth is pulled down with a force that gets smaller as the distance increases. For every doubling of the distance the force is one quarter of what it was before. This inverse squared relationship is very important and predicts closed orbits for the planets.
Kinetic energy is a measure of the motion of the object under study, the Sputnik say. Besides kinetic or motion energy, this artificial satellite of the Earth has potential energy. The higher up the Sputnik is, the bigger its potential energy gets. The sum of the kinetic energy and the potential energy of the Sputnik is constant. It goes high, the potential energy increases, and the kinetic energy has to go down. At some height the object stops, i.e., its kinetic energy is zero. At this point in time, the object starts to fall and its velocity increases. Now the kinetic energy is increasing and the potential energy is decreasing, the sum of these two energies remains constant. This sum is called the mechanical energy.
It stands to reason that there is a velocity for which the sum of the potential plus kinetic energy is zero. Potential energy could be defined as zero when the obejct is at an infinite distance from the Earth. If when the object reaches this infinite distance it also stops, its kinetic energy would be zero. Zero plus zero is zero. This object reaches an infinite distance and stops; its total mechanical energy is zero. This projectile has the so-called escape velocity. It escapes the gravitational force of the Earth. When the escape velocity is equal to the speed of light in magnitude we have reeached a fundamental limit. No observational evidence exists for an object moving faster than light in free space. Therefore if the planet, or more likely the star, has such a big mass in such a small volume to have an escape velocity equal to the speed of light. Nothing can escape from that star. We have a black hole.
The idea of a star so massive that not even light could escape is prior to Einstein; but only with Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was it possible to find a mathematical solution that satisfies this condition. This solution was found by Schwarzschild in 1916, almost a hundred years ago. You can read about it in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_solution
Wormholes are other solutions to Einstein's equations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Widget not working
This blogger widget is misbehaving. Now it worked. So many things go wrong, as one uses more and more complex tools, there are more ways to go wrong. Now the widget I use to post works again.
Time Travel
In the May 1st issue of Newsweek, you can read about time travel:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12440783/site/newsweek/
Kurt Godel many years ago together with Einstein at Princeton found solutions to the General Relativity equations that had unorthodox time behavior. Now we are just wainting for an able experiementalist to check the work of those two great minds of last century.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12440783/site/newsweek/
Kurt Godel many years ago together with Einstein at Princeton found solutions to the General Relativity equations that had unorthodox time behavior. Now we are just wainting for an able experiementalist to check the work of those two great minds of last century.
Binary Pulsars
General Relativity predicts that any pair of objects moving around each other must lose energy throug gravitational radiation. Binary Pulsars have been observed doing that. The energy lost this way is so little that most stars will live a long time before losing their energy to gravitons, the so far undetected carriers of the gravitational force.
I wonder if the energy in gravitons all around the Universe itself attracts gravitons producing some graviton balls of pure energy; just a thought.
I wonder if the energy in gravitons all around the Universe itself attracts gravitons producing some graviton balls of pure energy; just a thought.
Alternative Certification for High School Teachers
Alternate
Other, different
Certification
Process of granting Official Document attesting the truth of a claim
Yesterday I gave a presentation at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois, to qualify for an alternative certification license to teach middle school and high school in the state of Illinois.
I do not know the decision the jury is going to reach. I am sure I still have plenty of work before I can claim that I am a certified high school science teacher. Nevertheless I write here some thoughts on the process of alternative certification and the state of science teaching in high school.
Alternate means that I did not take four years of courses in the education department of an accredited university in the United States. I did take four years of courses at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City in Communications and Electronics Engineering. Am I qualified to teach physics to high school students in Illinois?
If any of my current students is reading this, he or she is a better person to answer. I believe I am and this is why.
I love physics precisely because it explains physical happenings. I want to explain to everybody how is it that I understand physical phenomena. Have I succeeded in helping high school students understand physics?
The answer to that question in part has to do with the second question I want to answer here. Science teaching in my school has at least one problem I can see. Not all the students in the classroom are that interested in this knowledge.
The next step for me is to make it relevant to them. When I post a story that makes it to the top forty list of digg.com I will know that I have succeeded; keep coming back to this blogspot, I will announce the event.
Other, different
Certification
Process of granting Official Document attesting the truth of a claim
Yesterday I gave a presentation at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois, to qualify for an alternative certification license to teach middle school and high school in the state of Illinois.
I do not know the decision the jury is going to reach. I am sure I still have plenty of work before I can claim that I am a certified high school science teacher. Nevertheless I write here some thoughts on the process of alternative certification and the state of science teaching in high school.
Alternate means that I did not take four years of courses in the education department of an accredited university in the United States. I did take four years of courses at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City in Communications and Electronics Engineering. Am I qualified to teach physics to high school students in Illinois?
If any of my current students is reading this, he or she is a better person to answer. I believe I am and this is why.
I love physics precisely because it explains physical happenings. I want to explain to everybody how is it that I understand physical phenomena. Have I succeeded in helping high school students understand physics?
The answer to that question in part has to do with the second question I want to answer here. Science teaching in my school has at least one problem I can see. Not all the students in the classroom are that interested in this knowledge.
The next step for me is to make it relevant to them. When I post a story that makes it to the top forty list of digg.com I will know that I have succeeded; keep coming back to this blogspot, I will announce the event.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
In a nutshell, relativity is based on two hypotheses. All inertial reference frames are equivalent, and the speed of light is the same in all these frames. Quantum mechanics is based on one axiom. There is a minimum action.
Like in previous posts, these statements are cryptic for most regular guys. I was a regular guy before I got intrigued about the concept of time, and how is it possible that an electron could be both a particle and a wave. Here I write a few words that may beef up, these three axioms.
An axiom is a beginning point of argumentation. I call them in this note axioms or hypotheses. There are technical differnces between the two concepts. What I mean to say here is that we start there, they are a beginning point. A hypothesis is proven by the conclusions. If we do not reach any contradiction we add the hypothesis to the list of statements that we can use with certain confidence. There is some interesting problem of thought, that goes by the name of ``the problem of induction". As I understand this problem, it means that by only knowing many cases, we cannot be sure that the statement is always true. If one wants to go from the particular to the general, one does it at one's own risk.
There are experiments and mathematical derivations that convinced scientists around a hundred years ago; of the reasonableness of these three statements; but at the end of the day only experiments can decide.
Like in previous posts, these statements are cryptic for most regular guys. I was a regular guy before I got intrigued about the concept of time, and how is it possible that an electron could be both a particle and a wave. Here I write a few words that may beef up, these three axioms.
An axiom is a beginning point of argumentation. I call them in this note axioms or hypotheses. There are technical differnces between the two concepts. What I mean to say here is that we start there, they are a beginning point. A hypothesis is proven by the conclusions. If we do not reach any contradiction we add the hypothesis to the list of statements that we can use with certain confidence. There is some interesting problem of thought, that goes by the name of ``the problem of induction". As I understand this problem, it means that by only knowing many cases, we cannot be sure that the statement is always true. If one wants to go from the particular to the general, one does it at one's own risk.
There are experiments and mathematical derivations that convinced scientists around a hundred years ago; of the reasonableness of these three statements; but at the end of the day only experiments can decide.
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