What I Do

So one of the reasons that I've been so busy recently is that I recently got a job at my local physics department on a collaboration called Boreixno; and it occurred to me that it would make a pretty good subject for a post.

A bit of context, the principle thing studied in this experiment is a thing called a neutrino. And what these neutrinos are, are tiny virtually mass less particles (which have never been measured in accuracy). Neutrinos are only affected by the weak nuclear force (the force that governs radioactive decay) and gravity. And they are created through special types of radioactive decay, or nuclear reactions. Most neutrinos on Earth come from the Sun, and that's where I come in.

Borexino is an experiment set out to study low energy solar neutrinos. The idea is to measure neutrino flux from the sun and compare it to what is theoretically predicted by The Standard Model, and by comparison scientists will better understand the internal nuclear fusion process of stars, which as you may or may not know essentially behaves like a giant nuclear reactor.

Borexino is also a part of the Supernova Early Warning System, which is a network of neutrino detectors designed to warn astronomers when a supernova is imminent. This is because when a star collapses on itself, it forms enormous amounts of neutrinos before the explosion, allowing astronomers to locate a supernova within our galaxy several hours before the actual explosion.

Exams

The game is afoot. 1 exam every week for a month. After that month, I will resume my normal posting schedule. Until then, once more unto the breach

Time

It's amazing how much time can go by on exam week. What started first as a minor delay has turned into a 2 week delay in my posting schedule, so I apologize, I was advised to do well on my exams so I could stay in school and write these posts as informatively as I can-hence my tardiness. But I digress.
            I would like to continue with a brief history of time. And whilst some of you may have caught the Steven Hawking reference, so I would like to avoid any copyright infringement by giving my version a new title: A brief(er) history of time (which will also be paraphrased).
            What’s the longest time you can think of? An hour? 24 hours? In the scheme of things, time seems to pass very quickly; the oldest person is currently 116, and the planet is older still. Believe what you will, there is some debate on this, but the age of the Earth (scientifically speaking) is approximately 4.5 billion years old. The Sun is about 4.6 billion years old, and we could just keep going, but there is one thing that I’ve been dodging, what is the age of the oldest thing? The universe itself?
            To answer that question, we must look at the oldest thing we know of, the edge of the universe, and while we can’t quite do it yet, we have a pretty good idea that it’s about 10^26 meters in every direction. A bit of dimensional analysis (and some very complicated math which I honestly don’t know well enough to explain) can tell us that the universe is about 13.7 billion years old. So next time you put off a research paper for several days, remember just how fleeting time can be, and how rapidly academic deadlines can approach.

Cannons and the 1812 Overture.

Ok, I'm a little nervous, the first not science topic on the blog, but I think I can manage it. I always loved Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture; it's so lovely and dramatic. And while not everybody is familiar with the entire overture, most people are familiar with the fun part: where cannons are adopted as musical instruments.

            Cannons have been around since the middle ages, it was first developed in china shortly after the invention of gunpowder and the technology eventually migrated to Europe. 

            The ignition process of cannons is achieved by ramming a charge of gunpowder down the barrel followed by a cannon ball, followed by igniting the fuse (after accounting for trajectory, wind and distance) and running away.

Getting back to the 1812 overture, it is a common misconception that it is meant to commemorate the war of 1812 but instead to commemorate Russia’s defense from Napoleon, which was also the turning point in the Napoleonic Wars (moral of all military campaigns in Russia: never invade in the winter). The cannons were incorporated to heighten the emotional effects of the music. AC/DC also used a cannon in their song “For Those About to Rock”

And here's a link to the song with cannons because it's awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbxgYlcNxE8

Periodic Table of Videos

This is a lovely website that my chemistry teacher showed me back in high school. The people at the University of Nottingham who do these videos talk about each element in far greater detail than I would, and they do a fun experiment with them (usually) .I would love to try experiments for the blog with chemistry but the head guys in my dorm won't let me. 
Periodic Table of Videos

Feynman

I've been very busy this week ( I let my homework get to me), so in an effort to adhere to my weekly schedule, please enjoy this video of my favorite scientist Richard Feynman.

Why Love IS Chemistry

Sorry for the delay, I've been kinda busy, but I digress. I’ll spare you a biology lecture (I honestly couldn’t do it) but to summarize the point that I’m getting at: our brain communicates all emotions to us through chemicals known as neurotransmitters. And the balance of these chemicals essentially rules our emotions. Whilst I’m sure that the chemicals are numerous, we’re only going to talk about 5.

I believe it was DOW chemical works that originally came up with the slogan “If love is a chemical reaction, than chemistry can make the world a more harmonious place.” Turns out they were right. When you “love someone” your nerve cells are actually bathed in high levels of serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin. Conversely, if you’re depressed, you’re experiencing very low levels of serotonin and dopamine. In a biological sense, serotonin and dopamine are the only things that make you happy. Lastly there is Norepinephrine and Epinephrine, which in high levels give your body that “fight or flight” feeling.

When too much or too little of these chemicals are in your body, some strange things can happen. Research shows that Schizophrenics have excessively high levels of dopamine, the same chemical responsible for happiness. Such is the case that people with anxiety tend to have very low levels of dopamine.

The End of Infinity

Everything that has a beginning has an end. We know how the universe began, and how old it is (some 13.7 billion years), but we don’t know the end. Or do we? To know the end of the universe is to acquire enough data to compute a constant known as Omega.

            Envision a rocket leaving the planet, there is a certain speed that it must be going to escape the gravity of the Earth, we call this escape velocity. Omega works off a very similar idea. If the big bang imparted enough velocity to the galaxies (escape velocity if you will) then the universe will continue to expand ever onwards. However, if the galaxies are not fast enough, then think of them as a rocket that has not achieved escape velocity. Eventually gravity would pull everything back to the way it all was in the beginning, what scientists call “the big crunch”, the converse of the big bang.

            Whatever fate awaits the universe one day can be determined by the numerical value of Omega. Omega is the total amount of matter in the universe divided by the minimum amount of matter needed to create the big crunch. If Omega is greater than 1, the galaxies will fly apart forever, and if it is less, then someday the big crunch will happen. Knowing that there are about five hydrogen atoms per cubic meter of space, our best guess is that Omega is valued somewhere between .98 and 1.1 so the fate of the universe remains a mystery.  

Alchemy

The first thing you need to understand about alchemy, just to clarify, before we go any further, is that alchemy in it’s classic sense is at best a pseudoscience. As entertaining as the idea of turning common metals into gold is, the field eventually evolved into chemistry with the help of Antoine Lavoisier (and many others) in the 18^th century. That’s not to say that the endeavors of alchemy were all for naught.

            There is a process, called Nuclear Transmutation, in which atoms of one element can be changed into that of another by ‘transmutation’. This can occur in a nuclear reaction or through radioactive decay. Both of these reactions can happen in the natural and experimental world, but more on that later.

            The term transmutation dates back to the philosopher’s stone (which turns base metals into gold), but by 1720, not a single respectable figure pursued classical alchemy. Nuclear Transmutation was first applied to modern science when Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy observed that radioactive Thorium decayed into Radium in 1901. As the story goes, Soddy jumped up screaming: "Rutherford, this is transmutation!" And Rutherford snapped back, "For Christ's sake, Soddy, don't call it transmutation! They'll have our heads off as alchemists."

Years later, in 1932, the first fully artificial nuclear reaction was achieved by Rutherford’s colleagues John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton by using accelerated protons to split lithium. This was called “splitting the atom”, the modern term “Nuclear Fission” came along some time later.

It was transpired that under the principles of Nuclear Transmutation, it would be far easier to turn gold into lead than the converse. Experimentation has successfully achieved alchemists’ and King Midas’ dreams (some say as early as 1951), and found a reaction that yields gold, but the expense far outweighs any gain to be had.

The Straight Dope

The Straight Dope is a website that is one of the many inspirations to this blog with a very similar premise. I have the utmost regard for the talents of the author, Cecil Adams and I wanted to post one of my favorite of his works. I might talk about the subject another day in a less poetic sense even though I think he explained it far better than I can. But for now, I present to you: The Story of Schrodinger's Cat (an epic poem), by Cecil Adams.

Dear Cecil:

Cecil, you're my final hope
Of finding out the true Straight Dope
For I have been reading of Schroedinger's cat
But none of my cats are at all like that.
This unusual animal (so it is said)
Is simultaneously live and dead!
What I don't understand is just why he
Can't be one or other, unquestionably.
My future now hangs in between eigenstates.
In one I'm enlightened, the other I ain't.
If you understand, Cecil, then show me the way
And rescue my psyche from quantum decay.
But if this queer thing has perplexed even you,
Then I will and won't see you in Schroedinger's zoo.

— Randy F., Chicago

Cecil replies:

Schroedinger, Erwin! Professor of physics!
Wrote daring equations! Confounded his critics!
(Not bad, eh? Don't worry. This part of the verse
Starts off pretty good, but it gets a lot worse.)
Win saw that the theory that Newton'd invented
By Einstein's discov'ries had been badly dented.
What now? wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, "Don't panic,
No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic.
Consider electrons. Now, these teeny articles
Are sometimes like waves, and then sometimes like particles.
If that's not confusing, the nuclear dance
Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance!
No sweat, though — my theory permits us to judge
Where some of 'em is and the rest of 'em was."
Not everyone bought this. It threatened to wreck
The comforting linkage of cause and effect.
E'en Einstein had doubts, and so Schroedinger tried
To tell him what quantum mechanics implied.
Said Win to Al, "Brother, suppose we've a cat,
And inside a tube we have put that cat at —
Along with a solitaire deck and some Fritos,
A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes
(Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got 'em,
One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom
Or atom — whatever — but when it emits,
A trigger device blasts the vial into bits
Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime
Are 50 to 50 per hour each time.
The cylinder's sealed. The hour's passed away. Is
Our pussy still purring — or pushing up daisies?
Now, you'd say the cat either lives or it don't
But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won't.
Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke),
Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked.
To some this may seem a ridiculous split,
But quantum mechanics must answer, "Tough shit.
We may not know much, but one thing's fo' sho':
There's things in the cosmos that we cannot know.
Shine light on electrons — you'll cause them to swerve.
The act of observing disturbs the observed —
Which ruins your test. But then if there's no testing
To see if a particle's moving or resting
Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor!
We know probability — certainty, never.'
The effect of this notion? I very much fear
'Twill make doubtful all things that were formerly clear.
Till soon the cat doctors will say in reports,
"We've just flipped a coin and we've learned he's a corpse."'
So saith Herr Erwin. Quoth Albert, "You're nuts.
God doesn't play dice with the universe, putz.
I'll prove it!" he said, and the Lord knows he tried —
In vain — until fin'ly he more or less died.
Win spoke at the funeral: "Listen, dear friends,
Sweet Al was my buddy. I must make amends.
Though he doubted my theory, I'll say of this saint:
Ten-to-one he's in heaven — but five bucks says he ain't."

— Cecil Adams

Colors

The average human eye can differentiate 10,000,000 different colors. I don’t personally care for that, 30,000 shades of white, or 50 shades of gray is too damn many. I’m a simple man, and will only write about colors that can be expressed in one word, like blue.

            For our purposes, light is a wave (that’s up for debate, but for the purpose of explaining this easily, it’s a wave). The visible light spectrum ranges from 390 (red) to 750 (violet) nanometers, wavelengths outside this range include radio waves and X-rays. An object is whatever color it doesn’t absorb. For example, blue paint is blue because when illuminated with typical white light it absorbs every wavelength except blue, which is diffused into our eyes. However that’s not the case for every color in the world. The sky, for example, surely you’re all familiar with it. The sky is “blue” because light from the sun encounters air molecules. Because of the size of these molecules, light shorter wavelengths (like blue light) crash into the particles and scatter, which is why we see blue when we look at the sky away from the sun. Without the air molecules, that space (outer space) would appear black. This phenomenon is known as interference.

            Back when I studied optical physics, my teacher spent an unhealthy amount of time going over mirrors for the AP test, so I think they’re worthy to talk about. A perfect mirror (in theory) reflects all light. Since they don’t absorb any light (in theory) a mirror is technically “white”. More accurately, the mirror becomes whatever color it’s held up to. If you were to hold it up to a green wall, the mirror would be green. And if you were to stare at your gorgeous self in a mirror, it would become “you colored”. So a mirror is technically an infinitely configurable shade of white, “smart white” as astronomers call it. We only perceive them as silver because they’re made of silvery materials, like… well, silver.

Gravity

Surely you’re familiar with the gravitas of gravity. I, for one, would like to think we’re all a little smarter than Newton, because we don’t need an apple falling on us (according to the myth) to observe the immediate affect of gravity.

            Gravity is one of the fundamental forces of the universe (the others being the strong and weak nuclear forces, and the electromagnetic force). What’s ironic about gravity is that it was the first of those four forces to be discovered, and compared to the other forces; we don’t really understand it.

            Fundamental forces came into existence shortly after the big bang. After the expansion of the universe, all matter was scatter throughout the universe, and the universe would have remained a void of gasses, were it not for gravity. Gravity exerts a force on two objects. You and the earth for instance, it is this force that keeps you from falling off the Earth. You and the computer you’re reading this on exert a gravitational force on each other, but it is so small that you’d barely notice. The same is true for all matter. Eventually gravity started to pull the early universe together. Several billion years later, those gasses that made up the early universe formed the stars and planets and whatnot.

Newton managed to quantify this phenomenon into the equation F=(G(m1m2))/(r^2) .I can’t use an equation writer in the blog. Meaning that the force gravity exerts on an object (F), is equal to the universal gravitational constant (G), times the two masses of said objects (m1 and 2), over the distance between them squared (r). That being said, I leave you with a tip that my high school physics teacher told our class. The day before our prom, when some of us were nervous (Ok, it was mainly I that was nervous), our teacher told us a way to appear more attractive to our respective dates. He said we should put weights in our pockets to increase our gravitational attractiveness. Mathematically, his logic was sound but I was skeptical as I entered prom with 20kg of metal in my pockets. But, on the whole, the night went fairly well. But I digress.

Sharks With Lasers

This is the hastily made laser shark image that my friend made for me hours before my physics final. I hope you enjoy it.

Lasers

I always liked lasers. Ever since I since I first saw an Austin Powers movie, I had always wanted “sharks with frikin’ laser beams attached to their foreheads”. Apparently, that was not too much to frikin’ ask, as my friend was kind enough to photo-shop me a picture of one. But I digress.

            How a laser works (in classical theory) is a more serious matter entirely. The general principle is to get a collection of atoms and give them enough energy to get them to an “excited” state. Once the atoms are excited, the atoms will eventually lose energy and emit a photon. Upon a photon being emitted, other atoms follow suit and emit other photons because atoms want to be like other atoms. These photons are in exactly the same phase, and exactly the same wavelength. This phenomenon, results in the coherent, collimated beam. Instead of allowing all the photons to escape, a laser is constructed in such a way as to have all the photons bounce back and forth between mirrors, generating even more photons; and as long as the active gain medium has energy it’ll keep on generating photons forever. Once all the photons are bouncing between the two mirrors, a slight gap in between them is opened up, generally done naturally with a 99% reflective mirror, and the result is a coherent, collimated beam of light. A laser beam.

            Mathematically speaking, a laser operates on the principles described above, resulting in the equation ΔE=hν. E in this equation is the difference in energy of the atoms, h is plank’s constant, and ν is the frequency of the photon. This equation was derived from Einstein’s insights on the Photoelectric Effect (which we can talk about later), which won him the Nobel Prize in 1921.

            The really cool thing though is with minor differences to the construction, (such as the original collection of atoms, or the energy supply) lasers range from a bar-code scanner to a mighty weapon of fiery death, or something that is actually practical in our lives.

The More You Know

I had a math teacher in middle school that would read to us every Friday, and he would read a list of interesting facts that his friend would email him. When he’d finish reading, he’d have this little thing that he’d do. I can only assume that our teacher was under impression that Reading Rainbow’s classic “the more you know” tagline was some kind of song that nobody knew the words to. So when he’d finish his list of facts, he’d do a little jig and sing an improvised tune: “the more you know, the less you don’t…”, or something along those lines.

Being 11 at the time (and admittedly immature for my age) I dismissed this wisdom as the ranting of some old fool trying desperately to teach us something interesting, even if it wasn’t math. Years later I smartened up and realized along the way the important of knowing something. Then it occurred that I was taught the names of birds, and why police are called cops, and innumerable riddles. And most importantly I realized that I knew absolutely nothing about the point that he was trying to make.

            Around that time I started to pursue scientific endeavors and people would say to me “Christ, you’re a physics major? Why’d you do that to yourself?” and my answer was very simple. I told them that I was looking to find out more about the world. To me it’s very exciting to pursue questions to unlock the mysteries of nature. To me, it’s far more interesting to live a life looking for answers than to accept certain falsities, there’s a joy that comes in finding things out. And to others, it may be exciting to ponder why we’re here, or how we got here, etcetera. But what my teacher taught me is that any knowledge, no matter how useful without any interest in it is meaningless.

            A while ago, my friend talked me into doing a blog where I’d talk about interesting things. And I’ll diversify the subject of these things so that you will hopefully come across something that you think is meaningful. So without any further gilding the lily, and with no more adieus, I present to you, the general knowledge blog that is: The More You Know.