Clipmarks | Quantum Clips

5 Great Science Books to Expand Your Mind

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:25:48 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: I have read all mentioned books. Highly recommended and serious reading list.

Clip Source: www.readwriteweb.com

One of the great discoveries of modern science was the realization of how interconnected the world is. The deterministic, Newtonian view of a clockwork Universe was replaced by the much more dynamic, uncertain and entangled world of Quantum Mechanics. The new world is the one where Godel forever cut hopes for completeness in mathematics and Turing showed that computation, like the future, is fundamentally unpredictable.

The recently discovered science of complex systems is about common patterns that span diverse disciplines from physics to biology, from ecology to economics.

we will discuss 5 different books that will get you fired up about modern science.

1. Godel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas Hofstadter

2. Complexity by Mitchell Waldrop

3. At Home in the Universe, by Stuart Kauffman

4. The User Illusion, by Tor Norretranders

5. Programming the Universe, by Seth Lloyd

Tags: complexity, modern science, patterns, books

'Unbreakable' encryption unveiled

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:15:20 GMT

clipped by: fraynelson

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The basic idea of quantum cryptography was worked out 25 years ago by Charles Bennett of IBM and Gilles Brassard of Montreal University, who was in Vienna to see the network in action.

"All quantum security schemes are based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, on the fact that you cannot measure quantum information without disturbing it," he explained.

"Because of that, one can have a communications channel between two users on which it's impossible to eavesdrop without creating a disturbance. An eavesdropper would create a mark on it. That was the key idea."

In practice this means using the ultimate quantum objects: photons, the atoms of light. Incredibly faint beams of light equating to single photons fired a million times a second raced between the nodes in the Vienna network.

Each node, housed in a different Siemens office (Siemens has provided the fibre links), contains a small rack of electronics - boxes about the size of a PC, and a handful of sensitive light detectors.

EU Scientist launch new unbreakable encryption system

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:28:12 GMT

clipped by: LisbethJ
clipper's remarks: We know the Department of Defense will be interested in this

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

EU scientists launch new, 'unbreakable' encryption system

VIENNA (AFP) - A new encryption system, which its creators say is unbreakable, got its first test run Wednesday in Vienna, scientists from the European Union project SECOQC announced.

"Potential users of this network, such as government agencies, financial institutions or companies with distributed subsidiaries, can encrypt their confidential communication with the highest level of security," said a SECOQC statement.

Until now, quantum cryptography has been used simply to transmit information from one point to another, rather than as part of a network.

Encrypted data, including a videoconference, was transmitted via standard optical fibre to six different centres, some as far as 82 kilometres (50 miles).

The demonstration took place during a three-day international conference in the Austrian capital to demonstrate the system.

BIG BANG OR BIG BOUNCE ?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:50:05 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: The Genesis of The Universe may just be different after all

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Big Bang or Big Bounce?: New Theory on the Universe's Birth

Einstein’s general theory of relativity says that the universe began with the big bang singularity, a moment when all the matter we see was concentrated at a single point of infinite density. But the theory does not capture the fine, quantum structure of spacetime, which limits how tightly matter can be concentrated and how strong gravity can become. To figure out what really happened, physicists need a quantum theory of gravity.

According to one candidate for such a theory, loop quantum gravity, space is subdivided into “atoms” of volume and has a finite capacity to store matter and energy, thereby preventing true singularities from existing.

If so, time may have extended before the bang. The prebang universe may have undergone a catastrophic implosion that reached a point of maximum density and then reversed. In short, a big crunch may have led to a big bounce and then to the big bang.

Why nature can't be reduced to mathematical laws

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:04:36 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: If so, then even perfect knowledge of the physics at one level would be inadequate for understanding organisation at higher levels. This conjecture has been debated ever since.
Now Mile Gu at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues, claim that it may be possible to prove Anderson's idea. They studied a basic mathematical model called the Ising model, which is often used to study how magnetism arises in iron and other materials from the collective organisation of their atoms.
Using the model, the team focused on whether the pattern that the atoms adopt under various scenarios, such as a state of lowest energy, could be calculated from knowledge of those forces. They found that in some scenarios, the pattern of atoms could not be calculated from knowledge of the forces - even given unlimited computing power. In mathematical terms, the system is considered "formally undecidable".

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

ONE of the grand aims of science is to explain every aspect of nature in terms of simple, fundamental laws - but is this possible? A team of physicists claims to have found a hint that some things simply cannot be computed, and that nature could be more than the sum of its parts.

The idea of reductionism, a key tool in science for centuries, holds that everything in nature can ultimately be understood by gaining knowledge of its constituent parts. The laws of fluid flows, for example, can be derived from the deeper laws of atomic and molecular motion, which in turn follow from quantum physics.

In 1972, physicist Philip Anderson pointed out that there could be a problem with this approach. Anderson suggested that some systems may be more than the sum of their parts. He championed "emergence" - the notion that important kinds of organisation might emerge in systems of many interacting parts, but not follow in any way from the properties of those parts.

Tags: nature, physics, laws, complexity, emergence

Skills versus knowledge, and the sum of both

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:21:04 GMT

clipped by: bjkeltz

Clip Source: leisureguy.wordpress.com

A brief thought: knowledge can be static, but skill is knowledge embodied in a process. If you know all the events and dates of, say, the development of quantum theory, it doesn’t imply that you have scientific skills (and vice versa, of course). A skill is a deeper understanding—knowledge specifically of how to do a process and that knowledge deep enough so that you can adapt the process to deal with unexpected obstacles or blocks. Clearly there’s an interplay between skill knowledge and static knowledge—often the static knowledge provides a foundation (and a supply closet) for skills knowledge.

Tags: skills, knowledge, learning

Superholographic Model of the Universe

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 23:56:46 GMT

clipped by: jimbo1000
clipper's remarks: An extraordinary article. The idea seems to hark back to Leibniz's monads which always seemed very strange but has followers in the philosophy world. The discoveries of science seem to be getting more counter-intuitive as time goes by

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

Superholographic Model of the Universe

Superholographic Model of the Universe Bridges the Worlds of Quantum Physics, the Electric Universe Model, ESP, and Religion.

Perhaps the most exciting model of the basic nature of the universe is the superholographic model. This is an astonishing theory which holds that the entire universe, including everything even the smallest subatomic particle, is like a hologram.

This interconnection of all, at the subatomic level with all things being infinitely interconnected , is a radical new way of viewing the universe. It does however, solve a number of problems in such diverse fields as quantum physics, the Electric Universe model, extra sensory perception (ESP), and offers a scientific basis to many theology based beliefs.

Religion is not separate from science, ESP and quantum physics are not mutually exclusive,

Tags: science, theology, philosophy

Forget black holes, could the LHC trigger a “Bose supernova”?

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:29:00 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Nobody is exactly sure how these explosions proceed which is a tad worrying for the following reason: some clever clogs has pointed out that superfluid helium is a BEC and that the LHC is swimming in 700,000 litres of the stuff. Not only that but the entire thing is bathed in some of the most powerful magnetic fields on the planet.

If not for anything else, the LHC has become a modern doom spelling myth. The universe is about to punish us for prying on its privacy...
These modern myths are truly fascinating.

After Bose Nova? Bose Supernova!

Clip Source: arxivblog.com

The fellas at CERN have gone to great lengths to reassure us all that they won’t destroy the planet (who says physicists are cold hearted?).

The worry was that the collision of particles at the LHC’s high energies could create a black hole that would swallow the planet. We appear to be safe on that score but it turns out there’s another way in which some people think the LHC could cause a major explosion.

The worry this time is about Bose Einstein Condensates, lumps of matter so cold that their constituents occupy the lowest possible quantum state.

Physicists have been fiddling with BECs since the early 1990s and have become quite good at manipulating them with magnetic fields.

But get this: in 2001, Elizabeth Donley and buddies at JILA in Boulder, Colorado, caused a BEC to explode by switching the forces like. These explosions have since become known as Bose supernovas.

Tags: lhc, physics, bose condensates

Gwen Ifill VP Debate Questions

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:03:11 GMT

clipped by: ColoradoRight

Clip Source: exurbanleague.com

* Is it smart for a mother to abandon her young children and jet around the country with an older, married man?

* When field dressing a moose, you bleed it, break the bones, slice it, then gut it. Gov. Palin, how would that experience guide your Social Security policy?

* Should taxes be doubled or tripled? And what about the second year?

* Gov. Palin, please briefly explain how Quantum Chromodynamics give rise to the physics of nuclei and nuclear constituents. And Sen. Biden, in response, what's your favorite color?

* Yes, I've written an inaugurational book titled “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.” But to be fair, I've also written one to be released if Obama loses — “The Breakdown: Politics and Race in the Age of a Cancer-Splotched Crank and a Stupid Moose-Hunting Whore.” Too subtle?

Tags: vice president, debate, liberal

Angel or Demon: Could the LHC Trigger a Bose Supernova?

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:29:28 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: More press sensationalism chasing loose ideas.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

You would be excused for getting the wrong impression from the above heading. We know that the Large Hadron Collider probably won’t suck us into an impromptu black hole, but new thoughts have suggested that the LHC could trigger a Bose supernova.

However, these supernovas have nothing to do with speakers that may be inhabiting your lounge room or car – though the idea for a fictional story is tantalizing – but rather with Bose Einstein Condensates.

Bose Einstein Condensate’s are matter that has become so cold, that their constituents occupy the lowest possible quantum state. Physicists have been experimenting with Bose Einstein Condensate, or BEC’s, since the early 1990’s, and have subsequently become quite adept at manipulating them in controlled conditions.

However in 2001, Elizabeth Donley and colleagues at JILA at the University of Colorado, Boulder, managed to cause a BEC to explode. These explosions, since labeled Bose supernovas, are a mystery to scientists,

Tags: science fiction

World's Sexiest Bars

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:17:48 GMT

clipped by: infopunk
clipper's remarks: We've tracked down a few of the sexiest bars around the world—from a chandelier-strewn Bolshevik-era bar in Moscow to a sandy-floored beach shack in Mozambique—where you can practice the art of seduction.

Clip Source: www.concierge.com

The place: Le Ti St. Barth, St. Barths

The people: Megayacht owners, their guests, and Brazilian models who would actually date Ron Perlman

Clip Source: www.concierge.com

The place: Denis Simachëv, Moscow

The people: Vixens who could be cast as extras in Quantum of Solace

Clip Source: www.concierge.com

The place: Bellini Bar, Hôtel du Cap Eden-Roc, Antibes, France

The people: The wealthiest and most beautiful monsieurs and mademoiselles in all the land

Clip Source: www.concierge.com

The place: Nublu, New York City

The people: Intrepid music lovers and young masters of Latin dance

Clip Source: www.concierge.com

The place: Buzz Beach Bar, Ölüdeniz, Turkey

The people: The bikini and Billabong tribes from every country in the EU

Clip Source: www.concierge.com

The place: Moon Bar, Banyan Tree Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

The people: International jet set and trendy locals with a good head for heights

Clip Source: www.concierge.com

The place: Nuth Lounge, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The people: Drop-dead gorgeous and well-to-do cariocas, plus foreigners thanking their lucky stars they got in

Clip Source: www.concierge.com

The place: Dino's Beach Bar, Tofo, Mozambique

Clip Source: www.concierge.com

Giardino d'Inverno

Clip Source: www.concierge.com

The place: Shalvata, Tel Aviv

Tags: bars, sexy

In a quantum world

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:25:40 GMT

clipped by: ninadalton

Clip Source: www.cs.unm.edu

test

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:29:15 GMT

clipped by: kitlod

Clip Source: www.google.com.ua

molecular orbitals

Molecular Orbitals in MOE

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Chemistry texts often plot the energy levels and electron occupancies of the molecular orbitals; the former is the value of eii. ...
www.chemcomp.com/journal/molorbs.htm - 24k - Сохранено в кэше - Похожие страницы

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SEMI-EMPIRICAL MOLECULAR ORBITAL CALCULATIONS OF BAND GAPS OF ...

Формат файла: Adobe PostScript - В виде HTML
version of semi-empirical quantum molecular orbital program MOSOL at the AM1 ... The band gap, E. g. , the difference between the conduction band and the ...
www.wag.caltech.edu/home-pages/tahir/psfiles/eg_a.ps - Похожие страницы

The complaint of Schrödinger's cat

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:26:23 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: poetry/humour

Clip Source: www.lablit.com

I think it’s time for moving on:
Fire’s never lit. I haven’t seen
For weeks a bit of fish or cream –
Every day the same stuff from a tin,
(It's scarcely fit for dogs) and even then
I have to beg – I mew and ankle-rub

Till he sees fit to notice. Most undignified!

What is he doing all day long
Muttering and scribbling at that table?
And those dreadful friends!
That Werner! Half the night,
They argue, shout, and stamp about
(And after making such a fuss

About my boyfriend's singing!).

The one from Denmark's even worse!
Lumbering and mumbling;
Treading on my tail, not noticing.
Once he nearly sat on me
(Slipped out just in time), he missed me
By a whisker – I can see the headline:

FAMOUS FELINE CRUSHED BY BORE!

He's had the joiner in. Made this box
To fit me. What's it for? I don't like
The calculating looks he gives me.
Vivisection springs to mind –
I wouldn't put it past him!
Well, I’m giving none of my nine lives
To quantum physics. No bloody fear!
Sinister! I'm out of here!

Tags: science

How A Catholic Priest Gave Us The Primeval Atom Theory

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:37:13 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: 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.

Lemaitre was still pretty hazy about how the process of expansion could have begun. Like many scientists, he was still committed to the idea of a static Universe of unchanging size...

Einstein, though interested, was largely dismissive, telling Lemaitre that, "Your calculations are good, but your physics is terrible". Einstein was also a little suspicious of the religious implications of these ideas. He declined to describe himself as an atheist (or a theist, or a pantheist) and liked to use the vocabulary of religion, most famously in his misguided rejection of much of quantum physics, "God does not play dice!"

British physicist, Fred Hoyle coined the Big Bang term

Clip Source: www.americanchronicle.com

In addition to discovering these galaxies, Hubble also discovered something significant about them. Just as the pitch of a siren on an emergency vehicle changes as it drives past us - because the length of the sound waves change as they become more distant according to the Doppler effect - so too the light from distant objects can tell us whether they are moving closer or drifting away.

Together with Milton L. Humason, Hubble showed that the galaxies were moving further away from us

But, unknown to either of them, Hubble was actually beaten to the basic idea of Hubble’s Law by a Belgian priest, Fr. Georges Lemaitre. Lemaitre trained as a Jesuit priest, served in the Belgian Army during the remorseless slaughter of World War One, and then became a student of astronomy and mathematics. He studied in Cambridge in England, then in Cambridge, Massachusetts for the Harvard Observatory and finally the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tags: hubble, einstein, hoyle, fr. georges lemaitre, hawkings