Thanks
The Rogues, The Roguette and The Roguie.

I have been studying quantum physics for a bit now and was hoping that Bob could give his explanation of The Uncertainty Principle and Wave/Particle duality.

My first question is…
Is the drawing of a wave (on paper) just a 2D representation of a more abstract idea of what a wave really is? or can we literaly imagine a particle flying through space oscillating up and down along it’s amplitude.(quantum oscillation?)

My second question is how this relates to Photon slit experiments…
Does the photon display the properties of a wave as it is flying towards the slit, and then display the properties of a particle when it hits the wall? IS this why we cannot predict where the photon will land? Because it is displaying the characteristics of a wave and therefore exist anywhere within the oscillating amplitude, even if all places at one?

…If you please, I would like to hear Bob and the SGU’s understanding of Wave/Particle duality, The Uncertainty Principle, and Photon slit experiments.

Dan K.

Thanks for the question Dan, I’m no quantum physicist but I do play one on a podcast so I’ll give it a go.

First a little background.

Wave Particle Duality refers to the bizarre dual nature of light. Some consider this the central mystery of Quantum Mechanics. Light is not either a wave OR a particle but it is somehow a fusion of both. Some experiments show its wave nature and others its particle nature.

Two classical examples of its wave nature are diffraction and interference. Only waves exhibit these behaviors.

On the other hand, the photoelectric effect in which incident light knocks out electrons from matter is that iconic experiment which shows that light is also a particle.

Most interestingly, this dual nature extends to atoms and molecules and even to all macroscopic objects. So yes, you and I have a wavelength but they are so incredibly small that our wave properties aren’t seen.

Dan also mentions the Uncertaintly Principle in his question so I’ll give a little background on this as well.

Heinsenberg’s Uncertainty Principle (also known as the Indeterminacy Principle), is the notion that since matter ultimitely has this spread-out wave-like nature, it is impossible to pin it down precisely at the quantum scale. There is then a fundamental limit to the extent we can examine nature.

For example, objects of study often consists of pairs of quantities like position and momentum, so-called conjugate variables.

Heisenberg said we cannot know both of these quantities with arbitrary precision. The more we know one, the less clear the other becomes. If we know position with absolute precision, then there’s nothing we can know about its momentum.

It is important to stress that this limitation is not due to primitive technology or brain structure but is impossible IN PRINCIPLE. Think of any uber-advanced sci-fi aliens
The Q
Organians
Krell
pan-dimensional mice

None of them can investigate nature any deeper than allowed by this principle.

My favorite example of this limitations is weather prediction.

Generally speaking, If we knew the precise locations and momenta of every particle in the atmosphere, we could extrapolate future interactions and therefore the weather deep into the future. Because we can’t in principle know this information, then any model we create is by definition an average with unavoidable round-off errors no matter how tiny. These errors double and double over time eventually overwhelming any attempt at detailed prediction past a handful of days. This same limitation applies to all chaotic systems in which there is this sensitive dependence on initial conditions.

Dan’s first question is…

“Is the drawing of a wave (on paper) just a 2D representation of a more abstract idea of what a wave really is? or can we literaly imagine a particle flying through space oscillating up and down along it’s amplitude.(quantum oscillation?)”

I don’t think we can internalize the dual nature of light enough to visualize it as it truly is. This may just be a fundamental limitation to how humans perceive the world and our intelligence. Like trying to teach a dog algebra. The smartest dog can’t hope to understand it.  Depending on the context of the visualization, I think you can legitimately visualize it in a number of ways. Each one is a valid way to visualize if it makes sense in the context. You can visualize it as a simple 2D wave and that would be sufficient for many applications. If you want to visualize it in 3 dimensions then imagine an oscillating magnetic field 90 degrees away from an electric field. Each field is creating the other letting it fly through even the vacuum of space, no ether required.

The other obvious way you can visualize it is as discrete photon or packet of energy. If you just wamt to try to imagine it as it really is then my favorite compromise is a small tear-drop shape with a wave shape inside it.

Dan’s second question related this to the famous photon slit experiments…

“Does the photon display the properties of a wave as it is flying towards the slit, and then display the properties of a particle when it hits the wall? IS this why we cannot predict where the photon will land? Because it is displaying the characteristics of a wave and therefore exist anywhere within the oscillating amplitude, even if all places at one?”

This refers to one of the most famous experments of all time. Young’s Double-Slit experiment from the early 1800s. This clearly shows not only Duality in which light is somehow both particle and wave but also Complementarity in which only one aspect can be revealed at a time.

Here’s the experimental setup: Imagine light shining on a barrier with 2 slits in it allowing the light to shine through and onto a far wall. Light coming thru 2 slits creates 2 sources of light which then interact with each other like water waves creating an interference pattern of bright and dark spots instead of big and small waves.

The really weird stuff happen when you shine light so dim that only one photon is traversing the slits at a time. Even in this case an interference pattern builds up. It seems then that the single photon of light is entering both slits at once and interfering with itself.

This simple experiment is pretty much the poster boy for Quantum Mechanics. In fact, physicist Richard Feynman famously said once that all of QM could be derived from the implications of this one experiment.

Dan asks why we can’t predict where the photon will land. We cannot predict this because quantum phenomena are inherently unpredictable. They are for all intents and purposes a-causal events. The best we can do is assign probabilities as to where they will go. This inherently statistical nature of reality is what upset Einstein so much prompting his God Does Not Play Dice quote and removing him from cutting edge physics for the last decades of his life.

The fact is that God does play D&D every chance he gets.

From the website PodCastAwards.com

This is the Fifth annual event that will recognize the best podcasters in the world by allowing the people (Listeners and Podcasters) to nominate, and then vote for their favorite podcast.

Thanks to any and all that nominated us to get our name on the final list. As best as I can remember, this was an unsolicited effort on our part. I can not recall us mentioning this on the show, so this is truly an unexpected honor.

If you would like to help us win the award under the Education category, please log on and vote once a day for us, every day up through November 30.

There are other skeptic-themed podcasts up for awards in various categories. (Skeptoid under People’s Choice category, Scam School under Best Video Podcast category, and Skepticallity under Science category.) Please cast votes for our skeptical brethren along with us. Astronomy Cast is only in the same category as us, so if you’d like to spread the love, send Astronomy Cast some votes too.

It is great to see that science and skepticism is recognized so well in the podcasting community. As we continue to ride the crest of the Web 2.0 wave, let’s hope that more of our colleagues will be recognized for their excellent content and contributions to the global skeptical community.

the moment you say to yourself “Yup, today is essentially over and I’m going to bed”, the ablutions, slipping under the covers (I like lots of covers), the reading or watching tv, finally giving in and turning onto my stomach and putting my arms under the pillow (yes, I know this is poor sleep posture).

The drifting-off period can be fun too. Sometimes I hear noises that I know are just audio hallucinations. These are a form of hypnagogia, a phenomenon all skeptics should be familiar with. To reproduce this, think of your name over and over as you go to sleep. I bet you’ll hear it as if someone was saying it.

Sometimes your body twitches when you drift-off. This is called a hypnic jerk. This is still a puzzling phenomenon but some experts think it results from the transition of your muscles to a fully relaxed state. Perhaps the brain interprets this as falling so it causes the body to thrash about in an attempt to grab something or to right itself………silly brain.

Then of course come the glorious dreams. How weird that we must enter such a bizarre state of consciousness for a third of our lives.

I’ve never had a problem sleeping or going to sleep. My mother and brother Jay though have huge sleeping problems. A full, restive, drug-free night’s rest is a dim memory. I feel very bad for them and I’m also very nervous that at some point I’ll start having similar problems.

It’s funny, because as much as I love sleep, I’d also love to do away with it. What a massive waste of time it is. If you live to be 100, then you’ll have spent at least 30 years unconscious to the world, cycling between the nothingness of non-rem, non-dreaming to a bizarre dreaming awareness in which we are so out-of-it that a pink unicorn at the quickie-mart seems normal to us.

Do you know what I could have accomplished in that 30 years??? I could have earned multiple PHDs, read more books, spent more time watching my daughter grow-up, watched more QVC. For this reason, I think we’ll eventually obviate sleep, or at least minimize it. It seems to me that completely removing sleep would be horrifically difficult to pull off. I remember one scientist describing this as requiring a reorganization of the brain itself to pull it off. All mammals sleep after all.  This behavior is intimately interwoven into our physiology. I do believe however, that one day we’ll have the knowledge, technology, and desire to pull this off.

For now though, minimizing sleep would be a best of both worlds scenario to me. There are people after all that get by just fine with absurdly low sleep requirements. It seems reasonable to me then that we could eventually shrink the requirement of sleep from 7 to 10 hours a day to perhaps 2 or 3. That way, I still get my beloved sleep rituals and dreams but I also don’t waste a third of the rest of my life prone with unicorns in my head.

If you’re a sleep fan like me then I recommend an article I just read. It describes dreaming not as an altered form of consciousness but as consciousness itself absent any information from the senses.  Harvard sleep researcher, Dr. J. Allan Hobson believes that the brain is essentially “warming its circuits” at night in anticipation of the panoply of information and emotions wakefulness will bring. When we are awake then we are in some sense still dreaming but our mind adapts the dream images to what we see and hear. I’m not sure what to make of this yet but it’s an interesting read.

A Big hello to SGU from Darwin Australia, I am writing in to seek your opinion on something I came across on a paranormal and believers pod cast…As painful as it is to listen to them, in the interest of being a good skeptic I find it compulsory to get both sides of the story. They mentioned a possible development in mans quest to cheat death itself. They reported that there could be a way to shut down your body and organs and reanimate them without any ill effects. Of all things, by using poison gas.

A biologist named Mark Roth is reported to have been experimenting with a gas (hydrogen sulphide) that when inhaled replaces the oxygen in the body…I would love to know what you guys think. Keep up the great work, hope you make it to Australia soon.

Keith S.

PS. I smell a zombie plague on the horizon….

I like the way you think Keith, thanks for the question

I remember reading about this a few years ago. I recall being very intrigued with the experimental results at that time. Thanks for giving me the impetus to research the latest news on this.

It does sound a little bizarre I grant you…..inhaling a poison gas as a medical intervention.

The fact that a poison gas could have medical benefits should not be surprising. As Dr. Steve is fond of saying, “toxicity is all about dose”. Drink enough water and it becomes toxic. My favorite example is rat poison. Obviously it kills rats and it could kill people as well; but lower the dose enough and it becomes coumadin, the blood thinner given to literally tens of thousands a people every day.

The poison in question here is Hydrogen Sulfide; best known perhaps for its contribution to that uber-nasty rotten egg smell everyone encounters once in a while and also to flatulence which everyone on the planet with a metabolism knows intimately.

There’s much more to Hydrogen Sulfide than old eggs and farts though. It’s a colorless, flammable gas that exists naturally in the environment such as in volcanoes, hot springs, and in natural gas. It also exists in and has a functional role in the bodies of all mammals. In high enough doses it is considered a broad spectrum poison however, meaning it can poison several different systems at once in the body. Just one ounce can kill dozens of people. A single breath can kill you in high enough concentrations (1000 ppm). It’s often compared hydrogen cyanide.

At this point in my narrative, I will introduce biologist Mark Roth who in 1995 went through a worst-case scenario for any parent, the loss of a child.

This unfathomable event didn’t cause a downward spiral of depression but instead inspired him to “go for broke” in his chosen field of study and tackle something big.

Using fish and flies, he showed that by removing oxygen from the cells, the animals did not die, but entered into a form of hibernation or even perhaps suspended animation.  You would think that removing oxygen obviously meant death, right? This experiment worked though because biology apparently reacts one way to decreased oxygen and another way to reaaaaallly decreased oxygen

When oxygen levels drop from the normal 21% to a measly 5%, we die, rats die, fish die, we all die. This is because a cascade of chemical reactions cause us to die. These reactions though require a little oxygen to happen. Bring the oxygen levels low enough, say to a tenth of a percent, and that deadly cascade can’t get started.

This is where Hydrogen Sulfide comes in. It prevents oxygen from binding, stopping cellular respiration and preventing the chemical reactions that directly cause tissue death.

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) noticed Roth’s work and gave him a quarter million dollars which he lost at the casino…..kidding…..he actually continued his experiments, this time with mice, and showed that lower concentrations could reduce breathing to 10 percent of normal. This of course the army would obviously be interested in if for no other reason than reducing the grim toll of battlefield trauma.

When it gets down to it, it’s all about time. Many deaths, especially war deaths, occur not because of outright kills but because of the time it takes a newly injured soldier to get to Dr Hawkeye Pierce at the local M.A.S.H. unit. Give the doctors more time and they will save lives that otherwise would have been lost. I like the analogy to heart surgery. For years we had the surgical techniques that could repair many types of heart damage. The problem was that once the heart was stopped, there were only a few minutes available to perform the surgery. Once heart/lung bypass technology was developed however, the window for intervention ballooned open and now more lives are saved every hour of the day because of it.

This latest advance earned Roth a spot on Ripley’s Believe it or Not and a MacArthur Genius Grant which then led to experimentation with larger animals like pigs. This, unfortunately, is where he hit his first real big road-block. He couldn’t get his pink porcine patients into any state resembling hibernation (or I assume, a state of greatly reduced respiration either). Most recently he started working on an injectable form of sodium sulfide which turns into Hydrogen Sulfide in the bloodstream. Human safety trials are happening now in Canada and Australia. Mice applications using these injections have shown some pretty amazing results. Giving a small does prior to inducing a heart attack results in an astounding 72% less heart damage although I’m not sure why they didn’t give the injection after the attack.

If these issues get worked out and Hydrogen Sulfide works in people the way it appears to in fish and mice then we’re in for nothing less than a revolution in emergency medicine. Many devastating traumas that spell certain death now will become merely emergency situations with a high survivability. Organ donation too could be greatly helped if the shelf-life for organs could be greatly extended. For surgical procedures, one need only look at the effectiveness of low temperature surgery to see what a benefit a slowed metabolism can be.

The big pink elephant in the room for me though is not just a slowed metabolism but the potential of inducing a form of hibernation in people or even, dare I say, indefinite suspended animation. This is what Roth’s experiments document in fish and mice but the details were kind of vague in the research material I came across.  What is actually going on with the tissue in this state? Is it just a greatly reduced metabolism similar to hibernation (or estivation) or something different that really deserves the capitalized moniker “Suspended Animation”?

It doesn’t take much however for the sci-fi imagination in us all to envision the potential applications of such suspensions. Deep space travel with suspended people would save billions in the resources to launch the ship and keep them alive and entertained for months or years. Just make sure the HAL computer running the ship doesn’t get all paranoid, ok?. People with incurable diseases could simply slow time enough to wait out a cure whether it’s months or years. No cell damage due to cryonic freezing. No nanotech required to reanimate.  Here’s an idea: say your just bored and hate your family and friends. Well, just hibernate for a few decades and come back when they’re all dead.

That’s the ticket

Yes, fantasy sports is being utilized in classrooms, and is apparently playing a big role in helping students achieve higher math scores. According to a University of Mississippi research report presented back in September, math scores of middle school students increased by nearly 50% in areas of mathematics ranging from fractions to algebra. The report also reveals that math scores for both boys and girls have improved.

Reports of the impact that fantasy sports has had in the classroom is not all that new. For years, there have been numerous individual news stories reporting the anecdotes of teachers and students. But the University of Mississippi report appears to be the first research to collect the data on the relationship between fantasy football and math scores. Kim Beason, associate professor of park and recreation management at UM lead the examination of the data and described the results as “huge”.

The skeptic in me knows that any one positive study or data set does not qualify as an established fact. And with so much anecdotal evidence and testimonials associated with the reporting of these incidents, I try to be careful to separate the facts from the hype.

But the investigation into the phenomena is proceeding correctly, and that is an encouraging sign. The process began with observation, then moved on to experimentation, which led to positive results. That led research and systematic data collection, which verified the results. This is a classic example of the scientific method in action.

The next step is to conduct more research, construct better quality studies if possible, collect more data, and analyze more results. Another encouraging aspect to all of this is that the data is math, which makes it less subjective to biases, prejudices and other pesky human factors that need to be closely guarded against in other types of studies. It should be easy enough to figure out if the results are positive or negative. I am hopeful that more institutions will continue to study the scores. So far, I see no reason to not embrace this approach to learning.

I’ve been a regular fantasy football player since 1996. My math skills were typically my strongest skills throughout my primary education well before fantasy sports ever became the popularity it currently enjoys (an estimated 20 million people in the US participate in fantasy sports.) When I came across this news just a few days ago I stood up and cheered (in my mind, at least) and was genuinely pleased to read these findings. Without math skills, it is almost impossible for science skills to take root. And without science skills, it is very difficult to achieve skepticism skills. So anything that society can utilize to better educate students in mathematics should be used to its fullest advantages, and if one of the tools to achieving those results is steeped in fantasy, then more power to it.

Sports fans reading this might be familiar with the ESPN show “Outside The Lines”. Not too long ago, they presented a segment on this very subject which you can link to here.

And for you fantasy sports fans reading this, my team won 60-59 this weekend (my opponent and I have no players in tonight’s game, so our game is complete.) When Joseph Addai, running back for the Indianapolis Colts, threw that touchdown pass late in the game against the San Fransisco 49ers yesterday, it was just enough of a bonus score to put me over the top and on to victory.

Connecticut is sort of an epicenter of some of the world’s most renown ghost happenings and personalities (which are actually one in the same, when you get right down to it.) Connecticut and its ghost-related culture is famous for products such as The Warrens, Dudleytown, The Carousel Restaurant, The Union Cemetary, The Mark Twain House, the movie ‘A Haunting in Connecticut’ (not to be confused with Christmas in Connecticut’ or ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’), and we have dozens of other hotels, houses, and graveyards that have been featured prominently in books and on television. In a way, Connecticut is to ghosts around Halloween as New Mexico is to UFO’s around July 4th.

So what’s been going on in this neck of the woods this time of year? Plenty! For example, you can hook up with the folks at GHOST (Grim Hauntings Or Skeptic’s Truth) led by Barry Dillinger. A while back, I interviewed Dillinger of creepyconnecticut.net, who organizes a team of local “skeptical believers” when it comes to investigating ghosts and related fancies. Barry’s been in the news in Connecticut this week (surprise surprise). Barry is a nice enough fellow, and he believes that he is engaging in a skeptical and critical approach to ghost hunting. He hasn’t found any evidence yet, but as soon as he does, he will share it with the world. He’ll be out on the prowl this week as Halloween approaches.

For those wishing to take a tour of a haunted cemetery and The Noah Webster House, the folks at West Hartford Hauntings will provide you with guidance, stories, and whatever else their tour guides can come up with. For those that do not know, Noah Webster was one of Connecticut’s most famous residents, his name forever associated with dictionaries. A lifetime scholar, teacher, and mentor, his good name has been taken by the ghosting culture that has become saturated in Connecticut. For you see, if you were a famous resident of Connecticut in the 1700’s or 1800’s, your ghost is haunting your old stomping grounds. This is the template, and this is what our culture accepts and portrays as truth. I for one thinks there is actual paranormal activity associated with The Noah Webster House. Yes, I am sure that Noah Webster, “Father of American Scholarship and Education”, is rolling over in his grave knowing that his name and birthplace are the focus of such anti-critical thinking and anti-scholarly activity.

And just in case enough decent people from history have not yet been thoroughly abducted by the local ghosting culture, let us not forget The Nathan Hale Homestead and the lecture that was given just yesterday, which was most appropriately titled: Is This Place Haunted? Folks calling themselves CT-PRI lead a very thorough investigation of the Nathan Hale Homestead this month, and just hours ago, they revealed their findings. Prior to yesterday’s reveal, the head of this august collection of “professional people with college degrees” proudly declared in a recent interview:

“We are not scientists and do not claim to be. This is a very interesting field that cannot be approached fully by science.”

Having read this, I decided to give up looking for the report of their findings. It went from being somewhat amusing to somewhat depressing.

So those are just a few of the many activities happening in Connecticut this week. Check your favorite search engine for more Connecticut ghost-and-Halloween related activities, where people who are easily impressed by ghost stories gather to remind themselves just how haunted they, rather than the locations, actually are. Sing it with me …

“Tis the season to be gullible, fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!”

My October fun this year has been a bit of a mixed bag.

I was convinced over the summer that my partners and I would resurrect our professional haunted corn maze this year. Everyone was motivated and psyched to get going including the land-owners, me and my 2 partners, the Larson Farm people, even the mayor of New Milford. We even had a lease that was ready to be signed. The only oily smear in this otherwise clear puddle of water though was the punk who was currently leasing the land. Apparently, he didn’t want to leave ( even though, as I was told, a sheriff had asked him to). You may say that he had a right to be there but without going into any potentially actionable details, I believe the land-owners had every right to terminate his lease.

Oh, well. The good news is that next year, this situation should be resolved and we may have a 3 to 5 year contract to scare the crap out of people…….maybe.

So with no Haunt to run, usually I’d throw an epic Halloween party. Well, that didn’t happen either because it’s hard to justify an expensive party when you’re still looking for work in this wretched economy.

So what’s a haunter to do in this situation? Simple. Go to a lot of Halloween haunted houses.

My brother Jay, my daughter Ashley and I (plus friends) have been to a bunch and we’ve had an awesome time. Tonight though is the peak this wonderful Halloween tradition.

We’re going to The Headless Horseman in Ulster Park New York with about 12 people. This isn’t just a haunted house my friends; this is a haunted theme park of epic proportions.

It has 5 separate haunts including a hayride, a corn maze, and 3 traditional haunted houses. There’s also tons of food available, merchandise shops, even magic shows. One year they had a huge 150 foot inflatable Dinosaur haunt. I’m not kidding. You walked in its mouth and through its body and then exited out his butt. It’s no wonder this place is usually voted best haunted attraction in the country. This is the kind of haunt I run in my dreams.

This season I also tried other ways to fuse my love of Halloween and money-making. My partner Gene and I made a bunch of awesome Pirate cannons and tried to sell them in various places like eBay, a website, and local stores. Here’s a pic of one.

If you’re interested, go to piratecannon.com for more info (what the hell,…it’s worth a try).

I must say I think these cannons came out great. We’re working on animating them as well.

Problem is…..we only sold one of these babies (on eBay). I thought for sure we’d sell more.

One big reason for this was probably shipping costs. I can understand why few people would spend $300 on a prop cannon and then drop another $130 just to ship the damn thing.

Last week I convinced my daughter to throw a Halloween party for her school friends.  This made me very happy, not only because I think she and her friends will have a great time; it motivated me to really start setting up my basement and getting my creative juices flowing.

I just finished this pirate wall display yesterday:

The pirate skull talks when you get close it. Stuff like….”Halt who goes there?”……..”Dead men tall no tales” and other suitably Piratical stuff.

This is supposed to be reminiscent of the talking skull at the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean ride, remember that?

Well, there’s not more going on for me this Halloween season. I’m hoping to to use my basement as a free haunt for the trick-or-treaters next week. That’s always been a good time in the past specially when a bunch of friends dress up and help out with the scares.

I’ll end this week with the results of one my favorite Halloween traditions. Carving Jack-O-Lanterns with my daughter, Ashley.

We criticize bad science reporting often, so we also make a point to praise good science reporting when it occurs. I also hope this article represents a trend – mainstream journalists realizing where the real story is – unscientific hysteria causing harm.

The article does give a good overview of the evidence as well, although that part was a bit thin. It focused extensively on the personalities involved and less on the science, but I guess that’s to be expected.

Anti-vaccine trolls, of course, are inhabiting the comments to the article, and they were quick to point out that the article did not provide links to the evidence referred to. While this is a legitimate point – I am often frustrated when mainstream articles do not provide a complete reference or link to a study – they are overplaying this card. They are pretending as if they don’t know what studies the article is referring to – “let’s see the evidence and let the debate begin.” Right – the studies are already out there and have been picked over by both sides. Stop being coy.

But for those who are not as familiar with the debate, at science-based medicine we are building a thorough list of all relevant studies in the vaccine-autism debate, complete with a summary and full reference. No one is hiding anything – science is all about transparency.

I also have one pedantic nit to pick – the article correctly makes the point that correlation alone is insufficient to establish causation, but they wrote: “correlation does not imply causation.” Well, it does imply causation, it just doesn’t prove causation. Sometimes correlation results from a specific causation, but more evidence is needed to determine if a correlation is real, and what the lines of causation are.

In any case – there is no real correlation between vaccines and autism or other neurological disease, and there is no causation either.

So kudos to Wired Magazine for an overall excellent article, drawing attention to what is really going on with the anti-vaccine movement.

Can you fricken believe it’s the middle October, the fall foliage is approaching maximum awesomeness, Halloween is almost here and it’s actually SNOWING in Connecticut???

There is something fundamentally wrong with that. I’m not sure but I wouldn’t be surprised if some laws of physics were being broken.

OK, I feel a little better.

On to the post….

Congratulations to Charles Kao, Willard Boyle and George Smith for winning this years Nobel Prize in Physics.

Like some of Steve’s Science or Fiction segments, this year’s Nobel prize for physics had a theme: Light Technology

Do you know the genesis of the Nobel prizes? I love this story. Chemist and Inventor Alfred Nobel woke up one day to read his obituary in a French newspaper. It was a little premature of course but he was a bit pissed that he was was referred to as the “Merchant of Death”. The obit went on…

“Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”

This was all due to his invention of dynamite, of course. I read once that he naively thought dynamite was so powerful and deadly that it would actually end wars. Not sure if that’s apocryphal though. Anyway, he wanted a better legacy than that so he set up the annual Nobel prizes.

When Gunnar Oquist, the academy’s secretary general announced the winners recently, he said that the work of the physics winners “has built the foundation to our modern information society.”

He wasn’t exaggerating.

The first half of the 1.4 million dollar prize went to engineer Charles Kao

“for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication”

In fact, he’s widely regarded as the “Father of Fiber Optic Communications”. In the mid sixties, fiber optics already existed but their application was very local. The problem was their range. They would only work for 20 meters or so because the light would attentuate into nothingness.

It was thought that imperfections in the glass were scattering the light but Kao realized that it wasn’t a manufacturing problem. The glass itself wasn’t pure enough. It was his idea to fuse quartz to make a more transparent medium. He was laughed at when he presented his paper in the late sixties. I guess he’s been laughing now for quite a while.

The big estimate lots of articles are mentioning now is that there’s about 600 million miles of fiber etching the surface of the earth.  This distance would get you somewhere between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn or about 25,000 times around the earth. Using the speed of light in optical fiber, I calculated that it would take about 80 minutes to go through all that fiber. The new stuff is being laid down pretty fast as well. You’d have to travel at thousands of kilometers per hour just to keep up with it.

So what’s the future hold for optical fibers?
Actually, what’s next is already here. Photonic Crystal Fibers.
These fibers use diffraction instead of total internal reflection to move down the fiber. These microstructured fibers are made of different types of material and actually have lots of long air channels going down their entire length.

The benefit of this new material is that it’s highly configurable depending on the application. For example, the empty channels can be filled with liquid or gas. This tweak-ability gives the fiber some peculiar properties allowing it to be used for quantum optics, fiber-optic sensing, high power pulse transmission to name just a few. This is one of the most active fields of optics research. Perhaps we’ll see another Nobel prize for this work in a few decades.

Much of that information coursing through the fiber are digital images (can you say…Porn….I knew that you could). That leads then to the second half of the Nobel prize for physics.

This part was awarded to Willard Boyle and George Smith who worked at the prolific Bell Labs in the late 1960s

“for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor”

CCD stands for Charge Coupled Device. If you’ve ever taken a digital picture, then you’ve held a CCD in your hands. They essentially take photons of light and turn them into digital images to be stored, photo-shopped, uploaded, printed, auto-eroticated and all the other things we do to them.

In September of ‘69, Bill and George were working on a new type of electronic memory.

Dr. Smith says that

“But in my first notebook entry, I fully described how we would use it as an imaging device as well.”

They were working specifically on a picture phone but that project was canceled and they moved on to other projects. The CCD genie though had already been released and he’s been a very busy little genie hasn’t he?

If you’re interested, CCDs work because of the photoelectric effect which was discovered by Heinrich Hertz but first explained by Einstein. That’s what he won the Nobel prize for in the 1920s. Can you believe that he never won it for Relativity?

This effect describes what can happen when light is absorbed by metal, say. When the light energy is above a certain threshold, It knocks out electrons.
This phenomenon isn’t good for just CCDs though. The study of this effect was one of the key events that led to our understanding of the quantum nature of light and electrons and also helped scientists conceptualize the wave-particle duality of light.

When the modern CCD  then is exposed to light, say from a birthday party, this light hits the CCD knocking out electrons which then gather in these small wells called capacitors which are essentially each pixel of the image. The brighter the light at each capacitor, the the greater the charge it holds. Once the camera shutter closes, the charges are added up to recreate the original scene digitally.

It’s hard to imagine what the world would be like without fiber optics and CCDs. It makes me think about what future revolution is being investigated in labs around the world right now.

When I’m in my jet-rocker at the high-age home and the physics Nobel prize announcement is beamed into my cranium petabyte hard-drive I’ll probably say:

‘What would the world be like without……..”