Physics is Fun

I titled this post after the text book beloved of physics teachers when I was being taught in the 70's. I still have the book, but haven't looked at it for decades. I still agree that physics is a wonderful subject.

Kamioka Observatory is an inter-university facility with a large experimental physics laboratory located 1,000m underground in Kamioka-mine in Hida-city, Gifu, Japan. Super-Kamiokande is a 50,000 ton water Cherenkov detector and primarily observes the elementary particles known as neutrinos. The Super-K neutrino observatory was simulated in an old lab in Manchester as part of the science festival. 

For a modest fee, I was dressed up in white papery suit, enormous wellies, hard hat and found myself struggling to clamber into a wee boat

The 22m boat journey is guided by a physicist talking about the neutrino mine in Japan and the fact that 50bn of these things are making their way through my thumb at any one time and a whole lot of other information, particularly about dark matter. The boat is pulled to one end of a gold balloon lined tank, then pulled back again with appropriate sonic boom that occurs when these particles move faster than the speed of light.

I clambered out again, stripped off the wellies, hat and suit and went off to listen to a lecture and watch the live feed from Japan showing a spike in a chart when neutrino's were caught.

The lecture covered the usual information about particle physics to a level I am familiar with but completely unable to explain. But the essential point is that neutrinos, previously thought to be massless, have finite masses, thus expanding theories about particle physics and anti-matter, dark matter and black holes.

In another room, the Pressure Company had set up their musical Bunsen pyrophone. This contraption worked by pressing buttons to make the Bunsens flare and create sound. A certain amount of faith is needed to believe this could be an entirely pleasureable musical experience but it was definitely great fun to play with.

 
Anyway, I expect Sig Other to get pedantic about all the physics mistakes in this post, and I'll have to come back and rewrite it so it is more accurate. He seems not to share my view that anarchists don't have to follow the laws of physics.

Women’s Evolution

It’s the birthday of one of the blokes who did some thinking on evolution. As is normal in major leaps forward in human thinking, Darwin was just the first or at least the best able to get his name attached to the idea that the earth was old and organisms evolved. Many others were heading towards that conclusion. None of the names I’ve seen mentioned were of women - can’t imagine why.

Avoiding any controversy about creationism and evolution for the moment, I’d rather mention the work of Elaine Morgan and her Aquatic Ape theory which has bubbled around for some time.
She is an interesting person and this link contains an interview with her in 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/may/01/academicexperts.highereducation
This link provides more info: http://www.primitivism.com/aquatic-ape.htm

Less well known is the work of Evelyn Reed who in her book Woman’s Evolution takes on the drivel of male anthropologists in their theories of primitive people, which tend to be male-centric and unquestioning of patriarchal norms.

http://www.angelfire.com/pr/red/feminism/challenge_of_the_matriarchy.htm
http://www.word-power.co.uk/books/womans-evolution-I9780873484220/

I am too busy right now to give this the biting rantolicious treatment it deserves so leave it up to anyone interested to look into why evolution is a flawed but inherently scientific theory and the damage leaving it to patriarchal scientists to develop has done to women’s position in society – evolutionary biologists/psychologists and the inexcusable biological determinists anyone??

OK, to return to the creationists in the name of shared airtime or some such pseudo equality nonsense ...

I had a chemistry lecturer who was a creationist long before it became fashionable to spout young earth theory/beliefs/delusions. I'm very annoyed with my non-hoarding tendencies because only a few years ago I threw out copies of his publicity on this subject. From memory, these were information sheets explaining how oil was made in a young earth/creationist scientific way. I think it involved huge amounts of pressure on vegetable matter in a short space of time in comparison to the billions of years of leetle teeny beasties being squashed under layers of rock. I suspect coal got the same treatment, but with pressure on trees in a speeded up timeframe.

My chemistry lecturer was a really nice chap, but a tad earnest in his scientific/creationist views, although he was meticulous in not mentioning these in lectures and chose instead to set out his stall in the foyer at lunch times and spoke only to those who approached him on the subject. That I can respect as he did not force the educational establishment to include his version of science and faithfully taught chemistry as it was intended.

There are some who reject the usual scientific theory of oil creation and the creationists and have found their own ideas. I'm tempted to give them a cheer for their 'plague on all your houses' attitude. Theirs is the abiogenic origin of petroleum deposits.

http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/1130.html

And what do I believe? I'm certainly not a creationist, so I suppose I go along with the broad outline of evolution as far as my understanding takes me. However, I was exposed at a sensitive age to yet another concept and some of that has remained lodged in the wishful thinking section of my consciousness. Yes, we were seeded on earth by aliens! Well, probably not, but having read my way through early Von Daniken books and far too much science fiction for my own good, I have a wistful hankering for the presence of alien DNA in my mitochondria.

Forty five years of proselytising and only 10,000 acolytes. What's he doing wrong?

http://www.daniken.com/e/index.html

Moggy Bloggy

I’ve spent the last several days living with a brace of cats. Judging by many people's blogs, it appears almost obligatory to do a blog extolling the delights of feline friends accompanied by pictures of unbearably cute cats artfully posed to maximise their attractiveness to cat aficionados. This post has the photo, but a combined lack of photographic ability and disinclination to pursue these moggies until they decided to drape themselves in an appropriately cute display of teeth and claw, means they are not representatively as cute as they are in real life (in their owner’s eyes, anyway).

I’m not a cat person. I’m marginally more a dog person, but owing to an affliction of sneezing caused by mutt & moggie hair, I do my best to avoid hairy beasties. This makes prolonged space sharing with other people’s pets an increasingly difficult experience. A few hours is fine, otherwise I have to resort to dosing myself with hefty amounts of antihistamines thus dulling my senses enough to live with my friends’ beloveds.

However, when I’m feeling especially uncharitable I find myself referring to these companion animals as furry parasites. With this attitude, I decided to take the cats in question in hand and sort them out. My aim was to turn them into productive members of the household and credits to society.

I cornered them in the kitchen, (without resorting to bribery with food), and gave them their instructions for adding to the sum of human knowledge. They were told they had until the end of the week to crack the secrets of nuclear fusion. Time passed, but no scientific progress was forthcoming. The cats never even bothered to go online and access the Journal of Nuclear Fusion.
http://www.iop.org/EJ/toc/0029-5515/45/10A

Perhaps I wanted more of them than they could achieve, and on my next visit their task should be more meaningful to the average kitty-brain.

Liquid Nitrogen and Arthritic Digit

“LHC, The Universe and Everything” was the title of a lecture giving an update on the Large Hadron Collider and CERN. Dr David Evans of Birmingham University outlined the physics behind the LHC in an entertaining and comprehensive, but adequately basic manner for this non-academic would be physicist.

He illustrated his talk with fascinating PowerPoint and gratuitous use of volunteers who followed his instructions to manipulate magnets and demonstrate particles moving through tubes representing the collider. Then he explained about the cooling process needed for these particles which are superheated to many times the temperature of the sun. They need to be cooled to lower than the temperature of outer space.

He used liquid nitrogen and rubber tubing to discuss the type of cooling needed. Rubber tubing inserted into liquid nitrogen becomes friable and can be smashed easily against a table - a great effect during a lecture. In reality, CERN supercools with superfluid hellium. Liquid nitrogen is safer in a lecture room.

After questions, dominated as per usual by volubly egotistical elderly blokes who appeared to be even more wannabe physicists than me, Dr Evans offered the audience a chance to play with the liquid nitrogen. Yippee! I love to experiment, so I moved toward the front to stand in line to get a polystyrene cup of liquid nitrogen to pour over my palm. In order not to give yourself a freezer burn, it is best to hold your palm at an angle so that the liquid nitrogen can slide off onto the floor where it evaporates harmlessly (without damage to the flooring). I tried this a few times, expecting to feel whatever it was that caused some hulking great brutes who’d pushed ahead of me to squeal. I felt nothing; maybe my hot little palms were too superheated to allow the liquid to get close enough to do more than give a faint tingle.

In a corner of the room, some opportunistic student types had drawn back the curtains to expose a broad window ledge where they were engaged in their own experiment: throwing small amounts of liquid nitrogen along the ledge to watch it fizzle, pop and evaporate. Some reminiscences were shared about antics in labs by those of us a little older, but clearly not wiser.

I was left with the consequences of my own inadvised playing with the cup of liquid nitrogen; I stuck my rather arthritic forefinger into it and, while, again feeling nothing, was left with a persistent ache for the next day, as the joint swelled a little as a result of the low temperature. This is a warning to myself to think before doing this again and to remember that extreme cold is the wrong environment for arthritis.

For more scientific discussion look up CERN.

http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/spotlight/SpotlightCool-en.html

SFX for the Cardinal

I often admit that my mind is affected by the quantity and quality of the science fiction I read. But it does mean that medical experiments and ‘life sciences’ do not phase me – much!

Prolonged reading about cloning, aliens and future fantasy societies means that I’m likely to be more open to modifying humans than those who freak out at the thought of cloning.

Conversely, maybe even perversely, I am not in favour of GM crops. This is because while we can elect (maybe eventually) to clone ourselves, this is going to be limited and unlike crops, individual humans cannot be released into the atmosphere to pollute existing strains of crops. Or at least not without some even more far-fetched scenarios a la Boys from Brazil. However, I wonder if that is what our own home-grown auld boy in a frock is thinking when he considers life sciences?

I feel it would do everyone a huge favour if the Cardinal was given a lifetime subscription to SFX, the science fiction magazine.

http://www.sfx.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_from_Brazil_(film)

Saturday in the kitchen

My plans for the weekend were changed more than once so I ended up chilling out in front of the cooker today. Sig other had considered joining me, but needed a rest after a hard week at work. I’d assumed I’d get to see the new sports car my daughter bought last week, but yesterday’s text from her informing me she’d gone to Amsterdam put paid to that idea.

What else is left on a sunny Saturday in Edinburgh? A trip to the Anarchists Deli. That is not actually its name, but as I can never remember what it is called, then that is what I think of it as. It is a tiny multi-purpose establishment which amongst other social justice activities sells organic food as cheaply as they can.

As the name suggests, it is run by community activists who find ways to help locals as well as supporting free trade coffee producers in Mexico and a whole host of other international worthy causes. But the main focus is on (in their own words), the skint helping the skint. Their window sports posters advising people not to open the door to bailiffs and other useful tips for combating faceless authorities.

I only manage to get there about once or twice a year, but there is always a welcome, a bit of chat and an offer of a cuppa while I choose what few bits and pieces I can cart back home. I especially enjoy reading their ethos about their film shows which is about ignoring permissions and just showing whatever they want to.

After popping in there I went off to buy some other provisions before going home and deciding that I could again get busy cooking.

Pumpkin quark pie

I bought my first pumpkin of the season and after pureeing it I mixed it with quark and various flavourings like nutmeg, ground cinnamon and ginger as well as garlic puree. I beat the quark together with two egg yolks and folded the whipped egg whites into the pumpkin and quark mix before filling the pastry with it.

The pie case I made from a mix of gram, buckwheat and plain flour with a generous helping of grated nutmeg through it. As two of the flours are gluten-free I added a couple of teaspoons of xanthan* gum to give it enough stretch to roll out and cover the bottom of a large flan tin.

It only took half an hour in a very moderate oven then I was eating it with a tomato salad and a kiwi, mint and lime marmalade that I’d made while waiting for the pie to cook.

*Xanthan gum is a polysaccharide used in lots of foodstuffs to add viscosity and generally help things emulsify. It is also used in the oil industry to thicken fluids and in concrete that is poured under water. Almost predictably, it is also in cosmetics as it helps hydrate skin. It seems a bit strange to be cooking with something with such varied uses. It was discovered by in the late 1950’s by Allene Rosalind Jeanes, an America scientist who discovered and identified other equally useful chemicals including a way to make a blood plasma extender.

http://www.chemheritage.org/women_chemistry/food/jeanes.html

http://autonomous.org.uk/foodcoop.html

CERN Again

I’ve kept track of the news about CERN all day today. I have to admit to a little anxiety over whether it would actually work when they switched it on. Probably I am too used to things not quite delivering what they promise, but in this case it was by all accounts prefect.

The best potential spin off from all the publicity is that more girls will see how exciting physics is and choose to take this as a subject at school and go on to have careers in science. Or at least I hope so!

Well done all these hard working folks at CERN for a job well done and now onto the next phase of discovery and new theories.

For each particle there is also an anti-particle

Or so I am reliably informed by the CERN website. My inner particle physicist is excited by the imminent LCH start-up due on September 10. This is what 20 years of international cooperation has been working towards and I for one, am delighted that it is almost here.

From the CERN website:
"The Large Hadron Collider is the largest and most complex scientific instrument ever built and the highest energy particle accelerator in the world. The accelerator is located 100 m underground and runs through both French and Swiss territory.
Year 2008 marks the culmination of 20 years of work by physicists, engineers, technicians and support staff from over 80 different countries."

I've previously discussed the value of art, but this is about the value of scientific progress, something I find easier to accept and assign a higher value than old paintings. Not that I am in favour of all scientific progress as I think this is so often derailed by big business skewing research for their own ends (a blog for another day).

What makes this so thrilling is not just the actual potential for new understanding of particle physics. "It will revolutionise our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe," says the website.

I first heard of CERN years ago, probably from a Horizon programme on the BBC. This sparked excitement as I am a frustrated physicist, and when I studied physics in the 70's little of this was accessible at the level to which I studied. No one had yet discovered the "particle zoo" or named the elementary particles quarks and leptons. Physicists suspected there was dark matter and theorised that at the Big Bang there was anti matter, but these were fairly new theories at that time. I was lucky enough to have physics tutors who had worked in the nuclear and chemical industries and shared their fascination with cutting edge science. Now at CERN four experiments will push forward the science, but I'll stop here with the explanations as a visit to the CERN website will give you everything you could want to know about particles.

Their education pages are terrific and you don't need an in depth knowledge of physics to learn enough to generate your own excitement about this (well, unless you really, really don't like science).

There is also some fun stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/Welcome.html