A To Z Challenge: Xenobiology And XNA

Xenobiology, also known as astrobiology and exobiology, is the study of alien life, including how life may have originated on Earth. It encompasses physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and biology. Technically, xenobiology has nothing to study other than Earth itself--planets are continually being discovered, but they're very far away. However, research into the history of development of life on this planet has begun to yield possibilities for how it may have formed on others.

A new development in the field of xenobiology is XNA. DNA is the fundamental building block of life on Earth, so messing with it is obviously an idea with some risks involved. XNA, a synthetic material that stands for xeno nucleic acids, could be an interesting solution toward designing new life and preventing damage to existing DNA. It can store information the same way DNA can, and has the potential for being the basis of new life--but if two organisms, one with DNA and the other XNA, interacted, they could come into contact without affecting the other's genetic material, acting as a so-called "genetic firewall".

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Sources:
http://www.xenology.info/Papers/Xenobiology.htm
http://www.redorbit.com/education/reference_library/space_1/space_sciences/2574862/xenobiology_exobiology/
http://education-portal.com/articles/Xenobiology_Education_Requirements_and_Career_Information.html
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/exobiology/about/
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about-astrobiology/
http://www.universetoday.com/46851/exobiology/
http://www.chem.duke.edu/~jds/cruise_chem/Exobiology/
http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/NM/miller.php
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9941-instant-expert-astrobiology.html
http://scienceblogs.com/oscillator/2010/04/07/xenobiology/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2909387/
http://io9.com/5903221/meet-xna-the-first-synthetic-dna-that-evolves-like-the-real-thing

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Would you be comfortable with synthetic organisms existing alongside natural ones? Do you think humanity will ever come into contact with alien life?


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Challenge: Wave-Particle Duality

Unlike almost every other letter of the alphabet, W has no corresponding scientific field of study. So I kind of sat in front of my computer for an hour trying in vain to come up with some kind of subject--and ended up going with wave-particle duality. Again. Because it's a somewhat recent development (physics-wise) and a fascinating subject.

Double-slit experiment, with the interference pattern on the right
and the two vertical slits in the center as S2. CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Wave-particle duality, which I touched on in my post Quantum Physics, is when a particle acts as both a wave and a particle; light had long been thought to be a wave until certain experiments demonstrated particle-like qualities. One of the more famous experiments is the double-slit experiment, which demonstrates light's wave properties.

Richard Feynman came up with the following analogy: Imagine you're shooting at a wall, but between you and the wall is a sheet with two vertical slits. The logical assumption would be that the bullets would hit the wall in two corresponding vertical rows--but that isn't what happens with light. Instead, when you shine light at two vertical slits, it builds up in an interference pattern (several bright and dark bands), which is a characteristic of waves, not particles.

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Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/637889/wave-particle-duality
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/schroedinger/two-slit3.html
http://physics.about.com/od/lightoptics/a/doubleslit.htm
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wave-particle+duality
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mod1.html

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When you think about light, do you tend to think of it as a wave or a particle? 


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Challenge: Unified Theory And Unraveling The Universe's Mysteries

Unified theory, also known as Grand Unified Theory (GUT) or the Theory of Everything (TOE), is the name for an as-yet undiscovered theory that would unite all the known physical forces into one complete theory. Since Albert Einstein physicists have been attempting to combine gravitation, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and electromagnetism, and by so doing discover a fundamental equation or system that governs the universe.

One theory that holds promise toward producing a unified theory is M-theory. Gathering the attention of physicists like Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene, M-theory is the unification of five separate string theories, which it can combine by adding an additional 11th dimension. It's still being hashed out--but string theory has potential to successfully combine all known forces into one.

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Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614522/unified-field-theory
http://physics.about.com/od/physicsmtop/g/M-Theory.htm
http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/research/gr/public/qg_ss.html
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/M-theory
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-stephen-hawking-cedars-sinai-20130410,0,7704203.story
http://phys.org/news/2011-03-elegant-multiverse-professor-brian-greene.html

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Do you think scientists will develop a unified theory/GUT/TOE within the next few decades? Do you think it will have a effect on society, or that we haven't achieved enough to really take advantage of a fundamental theory?


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Challenge: Rheology And Redesigning Your Soap

Rheology is the study of how things flow and change, particularly the behavior of non-Newtonian fluids (fluids that do not obey typical laws of physics), which include foams, plastics, paints, and even everyday substances like the mayonnaise in your fridge. Rheology, following a bit of a mini-theme from the past couple letters of the alphabet, is yet another branch of physics.

A recent development in the field of rheology is a mechanism developed by a team of researchers at the University of Washington which produces the same effect as surfactants but without actual surfactants needing to be added to a substance. (A surfactant is the chemical found in soap that allows the soap to clean out oil and grease in water.) The new technology, called a microfluidics device, shoves molecules through slits one-tenth the width of a human hair which causes the molecules--in this case, water with detergent and salt--to deform and become significantly more viscous, with added elasticity.

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Sources:
http://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-10/iss-2/p29.html
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rheology
http://www.ar.ethz.ch/
http://www.malvern.com/labeng/products/iwtm/rheological_properties.htm
(Note: This is a for-profit company website. I'm linking to it because it explains rheology; I cannot speak for the company itself or its products.)
http://www.mie.utoronto.ca/labs/rheology/index.html
http://www.chem.com.au/science/rheology/rheology2/
http://www.nanowerk.com/news2/newsid=29990.php

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What's the strangest substance you can think of? Do you use (or consume) any non-Newtonian fluids?


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Challenge: Quantum Physics And Quandaries Of The Universe (+ A Book Release: The Other Marlowe Girl)

Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics, is a field of study involving physics which cannot be explained through classical methods, such as Newtonian physics. Some extremely weird phenomena occurs in quantum mechanics, including--but not limited to--things appearing and disappearing at random moments and photons being both waves and particles.

This month, some interesting findings regarding a thing called quantum entanglement have been published. Quantum entanglement's premise is as follows: When two particles (let's say photons) are entangled, it means that when one or both of the photons is observed (i.e. measured) they assume opposite positions, such as one photon being up and the other down.

The interesting thing about the interaction is that before either of the photons is observed, they are considered to be in all possible states at the same time--therefore, when one photon falls into one state (such as the down state) upon observation, the other photon will fall into the complementary state (the up state). This means information travels between the two particles faster than the speed of light, which caused Einstein to call it "spooky action at a distance". The recent report closes three loopholes in this theory that could have poked holes in quantum entanglement, which serves to shore up the theory and affirm that, indeed, particles really are communicating between themselves about their different states.

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Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/quantum+mechanics
http://www.pbs.org/transistor/science/info/quantum.html
http://www.livescience.com/28808-spooky-quantum-entanglement-loophole-closed.html
http://www.livescience.com/28550-how-quantum-entanglement-works-infographic.html
http://www.itechpost.com/articles/8022/20130418/quantum-mechanics-physics-loophole-photons-experiment-lasers-einstein-theory-of-relativity.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130415094839.htm

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And now, for a belated book release. In the madness of the A to Z Challenge, I thought this book release post was supposed to go up next Monday, when it was really supposed to be up last Monday. I apologize for the mistake--hope you can forgive me, Beth! And I hope this post can still do some good going up now.

Meet Beth Fred! That's me! I'm a full time ELF keeper and part time writer/blogger/writing instructor. I'm represented by Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyons Literary Agency. I like my tea hot, my romance sweet, and my guys chivalrous. Real men hold open doors, refer to you as ma'am, make promises they keep, and aren't afraid to profess their undying love. It's not breakfast if there aren't carbs(at least, not in the South). Fajitas, carnitas, and churros are just few of my favorite things. Bet you can't guess where I'm from ;) Wanna know more about me? You can find that here:

Email me: bethfred08(at)gmail.com
Blogger:  bethfred.com
Tweet me: bethfred08
FB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/bethfred08

Available at: Amazon & Smashwords

When twenty-four-year-old Tiffany escapes her sister Kammy's too wild Cancun bachelorette party, she finds herself in a bar with the unwanted attention of a gorgeous local named Luke.

Luke may be charming but Tiffany is leaving in two days and doesn't need any complications. But complications are exactly what she gets when the cops show up to raid Kammy's party. When Kammy is arrested, Tiffany agrees to have dinner with Luke, so he'll help her get Kammy out of jail. Kammy's arrest forces her to spend an extra day in Cancun, meaning she'll miss a crucial meeting, and as an accountant in tax season, she is already drowning in work. Not to mention, every second she spends with Luke makes it harder to leave. With Luke, Tiffany can forget about work.

But will the airport be their final goodbye?

ebook, 42 pages
Published September 12th 2012 by Amazon
ASINB0096PWTUO
edition language: English
original title: Kismet
 

Available at: Amazon

When twenty-four-year-old dance school drop out Kammy Marlowe is evicted by her mother, she goes to her favorite bar. She finds an unlikely friend in the blunt eye candy, Enrique. But Kammy knows there is no way she and Enrique have a shot because he's her brother-in-law’s brother and has been privy to her wild past.

Enrique swears he’s only interested in the person she is today, but their relationship is tested when her ex-husband's drug dealer attacks her, looking for money. With no options and a money hungry drug dealer on her back, Kammy accepts a position as a dancer at a strip club. But when Enrique shows up at the club, their relationship is over. With no reason to stay in Texas anymore, Kammy auditions for the Bolshevik Ballet and gets the opportunity to go to Russia. Only Enrique is determined to stop her.

Will she give up the chance of a lifetime to stay with the man she still loves?


Ebook: 107 pages
Published: April 5th 2013
edition language: English

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Do you agree with Einstein's description of quantum entanglement as "spooky action at a distance"? Some scientists have accomplished minor teleportation using entanglement; would you agree to being teleported using quantum mechanics, if they succeeded at transporting things larger than individual particles?

Have you read any of Beth Fred's books?


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Challenge: Physics And Possible New Evidence Of Dark Matter

Physics is an enormous field concerned with the study of how things interact. It encompasses sound, light, heat, electricity, and just about any other physical phenomena you can think of. Physics also studies atoms and subatomic particles, as well as having some overlap with cosmology.

One recent development in physics is a couple of separate reports that scientists may be closer to figuring out  so-called "dark matter", that elusive component of the universe we haven't yet been able to detect for sure. But progress is being made: The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer attached to the International Space Station has detected positrons (the antimatter version of an atom's electrons) that might have been produced by dark matter interactions. Also, the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search in a mine in Minnesota has recorded three events involving supercool silicon wafers that could have been caused by dark matter particles, possibly supporting a supersymmetry theory involving "weakly interacting massive particles", known by the abbreviation WIMPs (got to hand it to physics sometimes when it comes to nicknaming things).

Obviously, three events is not enough to declare a discovery. Nor is detection of greater numbers of positrons than expected--but they're interesting glimpses of what could perhaps be one of the larger mysteries of the universe.

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Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/physics
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Possible-Dark-Matter-Signal-201307331.html
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Dark-Matter--203199671.html
http://www.space.com/20674-dark-matter-detection-wimps.html
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/shedding-light-on-the-search-for-dark-matter-0410.html
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/04/ams-dark-matter/

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Do you think scientists will discover dark matter for certain in the coming decades?


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Challenge: Japan Could Put A "J" On The Periodic Table Of Elements

You may have noticed from the title that I haven't named a specific field of study, unlike previous posts. That's because, unfortunately, there are exactly zero branches of physical science (my theme's center) beginning with the letter "j". So this time I bring you a recent scientific discovery only: The synthesis of the new element ununtrium 113 by Japanese scientists.

Ununtrium, element 113 on the periodic table, is a solid at room temperature and can only exist by its being synthesized; it is not a natural element. It was first created by a group of Russians and Americans in 2004, along with element 115, but the results needed to be verified before it could be declared that 113 had been created. The Japanese scientists used a different method to create 113, which acted as that verification.

If scientists in Japan decide to name the element they discovered with a word including "j" it would bring the periodic table one letter closer to filling out the alphabet--so far "j" and "q" remain off the chart. The element jodium is the Dutch word for iodine, but officially iodine is denoted by the letter I, not J.

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Sources:
http://www.riken.jp/en/pr/press/2012/20120927/
http://chemistry.about.com/od/elementfaqs/f/What-Letter-Is-Not-Found-In-The-Periodic-Table.htm
http://www.webelements.com/ununtrium/

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Got any favorite elements? Do you think there will ever be a "j" and a "q" on the list of elements?


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Challenge: Geodesy And GPS

Geodesy is the study of planet Earth's physical characteristics. It uses mathematics to determine precise geographical points and measure the size and shape of sections of the surface; geodesy also includes physics and astronomy to make calculations and build accurate models of the planet.

One leap in geodesy has been the arrival of satellite technology. As you might expect, this has greatly expanded the amount of data available--scientists can now see things that had been previously out of view. Studies of the water cycle, glaciers and ice sheets, atmospheric temperature, and other global events have since revealed complex interactions across continents.

However, the most familiar application of geodesy is probably your everyday Global Positioning System or GPS. Geodesy is the scientific field that developed techniques for pinpointing an object's location on the surface and methods of tracking said object. In many cases, this is likely your car or phone.

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Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/geodesy
http://www.jqjacobs.net/astro/geodesy.html
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/geodesy.html
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_geodesy/
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/Geodesy4Layman/TR80003A.HTM#ZZ2
http://www.agu.org/sections/geodesy/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/earth-from-space.html

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Have you ever tried GPS? Do you use it often? Have you ever run into glitches like we did once, where it sent us around a roundabout an extra few miles because it didn't understand the building we were looking for was on the other side of the roundabout?


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Blogging Challenge: Cosmology And Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (+ IWSG)

Cosmology is the study of the universe as a whole: It's origin, its current state, and its future. Cosmology differs from astrophysics in that the latter is more focused on moons, planets, galaxies, stars, and other intergalactic forces, though there is significant overlap between the two fields; many scientific discoveries in one area of study affect the other.

One recent development in cosmology has been a better, much more detailed image of the universe's cosmic microwave background radiation, or CMBR, taken by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite. CMBR is considered to be a significant piece of evidence that the Big Bang (an extremely rapid explosion some 12-15 billion years ago considered by many cosmologists to have created the universe) actually happened. Assuming the Big Bang Theory is accurate, it calls for photon radiation (light) just after the initial explosion; these photons have since extended their wavelengths to become microwaves, hence the name cosmic microwave background radiation.

The radiation pattern shows fluctuations that, in some of the earliest moments of the Big Bang, caused the formation of galaxies and the other objects in the universe. It also supports the idea that the universe expanded very, very rapidly just after the Big Bang, and then slowed down, which would explain the size of the universe. The initial rapid expansion is called inflation.

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Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cosmology
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/cosmo/lectures/lec23.html
http://www.superstringtheory.com/cosmo/
http://www.newscientist.com/topic/cosmology
http://dawn.com/2013/04/03/plank-probes-map-a-picture-of-our-universe/
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck/Planck_reveals_an_almost_perfect_Universe
http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-powered-the-big-bang/

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And now, for the IWSG part of my post. In case you don't know what the Insecure Writer's Support Group is, check out this page on Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog.

My insecurity today is letting my writing sit for long periods of time; I haven't worked on my novel (my as-yet-unfinished NaNoWriMo novel, just to give you an idea for how long it's been around) in almost a month, and that's not unusual for me. A lot of people would argue you're supposed to write every day, even if it's just a few words, so my question is: Have you tried writing every day? Did it work? Were you more productive in the long term, or do you prefer to write in spurts?


Do you think cosmologists will someday be able to pinpoint the origin and the future of the universe? 


-----The Golden Eagle

A To Z Blogging Challenge: Astrophysics And Asteroids

Today is the kickoff of the A to Z Blogging Challenge!

My theme this year is science. Specifically, recent discoveries in science: Last year I explored various fields and gave overviews of what they were all about, but this time I've decided to track down some interesting discoveries/recent developments in scientific fields and post about those. I'm also winging the challenge--not exactly by choice, but I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with on a moment's notice. (Hopefully our internet connection will stop acting weird and let me blog normally soon. Pages are taking minutes to load for some reason.)

But before we finally get to the actual content of my post, I'd like to give a shout-out to the creator of the A to Z Challenge, Arlee Bird. He's an amazing blogger and built a challenge that has allowed people to explore the web and get to know people they'd normally never find.

Now, for my first A to Z Challenge entry: Astrophysics and Asteroids

Astrophysics is the study of space and the universe, such as stars, planets, matter, energy, and practically everything that involves the world beyond Earth. It's the examination of how celestial objects form or self-destruct; it raises questions about what occurred and is occurring in the universe.

The universe, of course, includes asteroids. On February 15th this year, as you've most probably heard, an asteroid (a "superbolide", bolide referring to the bright light it produced) hit the atmosphere and exploded over the Ural Mountains in Russia, above the town of Chelyabinsk. The asteroid was around 17-20 meters across and had a total impact energy of 440 kilotons of TNT, though around 90 kilotons was released as light.


Astrophysics has helped determine the size, velocity, and the likelihood of such an event occurring again. The chances of another asteroid exploding in the atmosphere is not, in fact, as low as you might think; since much of Earth's surface area is uninhabited by people, these types of explosions may occur from every few decades (which is the shortest estimate) to about 100 years and just go unnoticed. More are being found these days due to sensors put in place for the detection of nuclear blasts.

One thing astrophysics can't do, however, is predict such asteroids in advance. They're too minute for current methods and technology to find before they strike the planet, though there are plans to build a new satellite that would orbit the Sun and could be capable of pinpointing the smaller objects.




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Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/meteor-strike.html
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fireball_130301.html
http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/
http://io9.com/5985276/incredible-details-are-emerging-about-russias-chelyabinsk-meteor

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Do you think there should be more effort put into defending Earth from asteroids?

If you're participating in the A to Z Challenge, what did you choose for letter A?


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: Wave-Particle Duality

Example of a double slit experiment, by Timm Weitkamp,
CC-BY-3.0-de. SOURCE.

Wave-particle duality is a principle of quantum physics that says matter and light act as both waves and particles, and that the observed behavior depends on the experiment.

Since the 1600s, scientists tried to figure out whether light, a type of electromagnetic radiation, came in waves or was made up of particles. Christiaan Huygens developed a wave theory (also suggesting that there was a luminiferous ether through which waves traveled, since it was generally thought waves needed a medium) and Isaac Newton a particle (or corpuscular) theory. It wasn't until the 1800s with Thomas Young's double-slit experiment and the buildup of other evidence pointing toward the fact light acted like a wave that Newton's theory was overturned. At least until the Michelson-Morley Experiment, which tried and failed to find any ether.

There are six major types of light phenomenon: reflection, refraction, interference, diffraction, polarization, and the photoelectric effect, all of which can be explained by wave theory, except for the photoelectric effect. Then Albert Einstein published a paper that explained it (introducing photons as continuous waves in 1905), wave-particle duality was also proved to take place with matter by Louis de Broglie (who was awarded the Novel Prize in 1929), and Niels Bohr proposed that light could take on either wave or particle characteristics. Hence, with no other explanation, duality was accepted as reality.

Example of an interference pattern, by Thierry Dugnolle,
public domain image. SOURCE.

One of the more famous experiments done which helped prove wave-particle duality was Young's Double Slit Experiment. To take Richard Feynman's analogy, imagine someone shooting at a wall through two slits in a sheet of metal. You would expect the bullets to be centered close to two narrow bands on the far wall--but with light, that isn't true. Instead (to stretch the example a bit far) the pattern of bullets would show up as an interference pattern (bright and dark bands, in the case of light; see above image) as though projectiles were passing through the slits at the same time and bouncing off each other.

No notable scientist today. Quantum physics is far from stagnant, of course, but I don't know of any wave-particle dualicists. But if you'd like a simulated ripple tank to play around with that has an example of the double-slit experiment (just make sure you have Java):

http://www.falstad.com/ripple/ex-2slit.html

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Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/637889/wave-particle-duality
http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/schroedinger/two-slit3.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mod1.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/28383/nowe_teksty/htmla/2_10a.html
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/interference/doubleslit/
http://physics.about.com/od/lightoptics/a/doubleslit.htm
http://physics.about.com/od/lightoptics/a/waveparticle.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/light6.htm
http://www.supraconductivite.fr/en/index.php?p=supra-quantique-dual
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wave-particle+duality
http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/PVB/Harrison/DoubleSlit/DoubleSlit.html

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Do you think any other strange properties such as wave-particle duality will be discovered?


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: Unified Theory

Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Public domain image. SOURCE.

The Unified Theory of physics, also known as the Grand Unified Theory (GUT) or Theory of Everything (TOE), is a yet-to-be-found theory that would bring together the strong force, weak force, electromagnetic force, and gravity into a single theory.

The history of the search for a unified theory started with James Maxwell, who from 1861-65 demonstrated that electricity and magnetic fields were related, in his theory of electromagnetism. Then, in 1881-84, Heinreich Hertz discovered light and radio waves were also examples of electromagnetism. Albert Einstein tried for 30 years but could not find a theory that united the remaining forces.

There have been several theories proposed as solutions to GUT. One is supersymmetry (it proposes that all matter has a massive "shadow" force carrier), and another string theory (the idea there are more than three dimensions and that particles consist of strings and membranes), but there is no theory that has been broadly accepted.


And today there are three Notable scientists who have worked on unified field-related research. Three, because I was having trouble narrowing it down to one (links will take you to past A-Z Challenge posts on this blog, with the info about the scientists at the bottom):

Brian Greene
Stephen Hawking

Michio Kaku

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Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/614522/unified-field-theory
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/unified+field+theory
http://www.grandunifiedtheory.co.uk/
http://www.livescience.com/9513-greatest-mysteries-theory.html
http://www.particleadventure.org/grand.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/theory-of-everything.html
http://pdg.web.cern.ch/pdg/cpep/unified.html
http://physics.about.com/od/quantumphysics/f/uft.htm
http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/definition/unified-field-theory
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/grand+unified+theory

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If a unified theory is found, what kind of effect do you think it will have on physics? On other fields?


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: Quantum Physics

A black body. Public domain image. SOURCE.

Quantum physics is a branch of physics that deals with quanta (discrete units of energy) as described by quantum theory.

The name quantum comes from the Latin word for "how much". This field was developed because classical (or Newtonian) physics doesn't apply to atomic particles; radiation from black bodies (a black body absorbs and then emits all radiation that reaches it) could not be explained by it, or by electromagnetic theory. In 1900, Max Planck came up with a theory that explained the radiation from observed black bodies, and it proposed that electromagnetic radiation comes in quanta.

There are several important ideas to quantum physics:

1. The Copenhagen Interpretation. Created by Niels Bohr, it states that nothing exists until it is measured.
2. The collapse of the wave function. The wave function--which was created by Erwin Schrodinger--of a particle "collapses" into one of all possibilities when observed.
3. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Invented by Werner Heisenberg, the principle explains that either the momentum or the position of a particle, but not both, can ever be determined.
4. The EPR Paradox. Named after Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen, it was an attempt to dismantle the Copenhagen Interpretation; the basic idea is that if a pair of particles have opposite spin and you measure one of the two, the other particle immediately acquires the opposite spin, faster than the speed of light.
5. The infinity problem. This is a mathematical hang-up where in quantum electrodynamics (QED), if you try to solve Schrodinger's aforementioned wave function, you end up with an electron with infinite mass, energy, and charge, a clear impossibility.

But that's not all. Due to problems with the Copenhagen Interpretation, there is another, competing quantum theory. The Many Worlds Theory, presented by Hugh Everett III in 1957, proposes that there are as many universes as there are possibilities; that every time a measurement is taken, the universe splits into one where the measurement occurred, and many more where the measurement resulted with all the other probabilities. In the case of a particle with two possible states, the universe would divide twice.

By Markus Poessel (Mapos), CC-BY-SA-3.0. SOURCE.

Notable Physicist:

Brian Greene

Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University who obtained a Ph.D. from Oxford University. He made a series of discoveries in superstring theory (which tries to bring together quantum theory and general relativity into a single unified theory) and topology change (the idea that the fabric of space can split). He is the author of The Elegant Universe, The Fabric of the Cosmos, The Hidden Reality, and Icarus at the Edge of Time. He was the host of the PBS NOVA programs The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, both based on his books. He also co-founded the annual World Science Festival in 2008.


A short video of Brian Green explaining quantum physics:

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Sources:
http://www.briangreene.org/?page_id=39
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/physics/fac-bios/Greene/faculty.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mod6.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/3487/qp.html
http://physics.about.com/od/quantumphysics/p/quantumphysics.htm
http://www.quantumintro.com/
http://srikant.org/core/node12.html
http://www.thebigview.com/spacetime/quantumtheory.html
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/quantum+physics
http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Quantum%20mechanics.htm

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So, which do you champion: the Copenhagen Interpretation or the Many Worlds Theory? Do you think we'll ever find a definitive answer?


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: Particle Physics

Particle physics (or high-energy physics) is a branch of physics that studies subatomic particles (also called fundamental or elementary particles) and the forces that act on them.

One of the main ideas in particle physics is of the Standard Model. According to the Model, there are three kinds of subatomic particles (which can have traits such as different spin, electric charge, mass, and lifetimes): quarks (up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom), leptons (electron, muon, tau, electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino), and bosons. The bosons are the exchange particles of the four fundamental forces: the weak force (W and Z bosons), electromagnetic force (photons), strong force (gluons), and gravity (Higgs boson). The Higgs boson has yet to be found, so the Standard Model is currently incomplete, but there are ongoing experiments at CERN trying to find the Higgs.

(This is could be my all-time favorite video on YouTube. I mean it.)

The field heavily relies on the use of particle accelerators (atom smashers). They are machines that accelerate matter using magnetic fields and force particles to collide, the most famous of them probably being the Large Hadron Collider. Data is also gathered by recording cosmic radiation.

Some questions beyond the Higgs boson and the Standard Model include dark matter, supersymmetry ((the idea that there may be "shadow particles" for all fundamental particles), and extra dimensions. There is also antimatter, which carries the opposite charge as regular matter; for example, since an electron has a negative charge, an anti-electron is a positron. Antimatter is thought to have had a role in the Big Bang, in that matter and antimatter existed evenly at the very beginning and unequal decay of antimatter left behind the matter existing today (baryogenesis).

By Festival della Scienza, CC-BY-2.0. SOURCE.

Notable Particle Physicist:

Lisa Randall 

Lisa Randall is the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University and a former professor at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in Theoretical Particle Physics. She was the first tenured woman in the physics department at Princeton and the first tenured female theoretical physicist at Harvard and MIT.

She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, the Department of Energy (DOE) Outstanding Junior Investigator Award, the Premio Caterina Tomassoni e Felice Pietro Chisesi Award (University of Rome), the Klopsteg Award from the American Society of Physics Teachers, and the Julius Lilienfield Prize from the American Physical Society.

In 2007, she was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People. She is the author of Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions and Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World.

Her research involves particle physics and cosmology, and her work has contributed to knowledge about the Standard Model, supersymmetry, baryogenesis, cosmological inflation, dark matter, and other spatial dimensions.

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Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/445074/particle-physics
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/randall05/randall05_index.html 
http://hepwww.rl.ac.uk/public/phil/ppintro/ppintro.html
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/particle%20physics
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/particle+physics
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1595329_1615997,00.html
http://www.particle-physics.com/information.html
http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/randall.html
http://randall.physics.harvard.edu/CV.html
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-particle-physics.htm

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How likely do you think it is that the Large Hadron Collider will find the Higgs boson?


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: Cosmology

Timeline of the universe. Public domain image. SOURCE.

Cosmology is the study of the nature of the universe.

As with astrophysics (covered on Sunday), it is a branch of astronomy. Cosmology as we think of it now began to take off in the early 1900s, when Edwin Hubble (the Hubble Telescope was named after him) made the discovery that so-called "spiral nebulae" were actually galaxies whose light was shifted toward the red end of the spectrum, a phenomenon called "red-shift"; this results when an object is in motion. He proposed that galaxies are red-shifted because they are moving away from our own, the Milky Way, which in turn led to the idea that at one point, the universe exploded from an extremely dense point in what's known as the Big Bang.

Another scientist who made major contributions to cosmology was Albert Einstein with his Theory of General Relativity (which will be explored in greater detail on Saturday), a theory that brought together space and time, formerly considered separate, into a single entity called spacetime. Einstein also came up with the idea that spacetime is curved, thanks to gravity.

Spacetime curvature by Johnstone, CC-BY-SA-3.0. SOURCE.

The theories that the universe might have been in one location all at one time and that spacetime is unified doesn't mean the field is over and closed, however; rather, it's very far from it. Some current questions in cosmology are whether or not the universe is really infinite, whether it will stop expanding at some point and come together in a Big Crunch (indicating that the universe might expand and contract cyclically) or everything will continue to accelerate away from each other, why there is more matter than antimatter, the role of dark matter and dark energy, and (if the Big Bang theory is true) what occurred just after the beginning of the universe (since all laws break down at that point).

Public domain image. SOURCE.

Notable Cosmologist:

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking is probably one of science's--and cosmology's--most famous figures. He became a Research Fellow and then a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, and took the position of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1979-2009, a title formerly held by Isaac Newton; he is currently the Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at Cambridge University.

He and Roger Penrose showed that the General Theory of Relativity indicated there must be unification between quantum theory and general relativity; he also came up with the theories that black holes are not black--instead, they emit radiation--and that the universe has no edge. He has published a series of scientific papers, in addition to A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell, A Briefer History of Time, On the Shoulders of Giants, the Middle Grade Fiction George's Secret Key to the Universe (and the subsequent novels in the trilogy), and his most recent The Grand Design.

At the age of 21, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease or motor neuron disease) and told he had one to two years left to live. But, rather remarkably, he lived far beyond that and is currently 70 years old.

Stephen Hawking received the CBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1982 and became a Companion of Honour in 1989.

A video about the universe with Stephen Hawking:

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Sources:
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
http://www.aip.org/history/cosmology/ideas/journey.htm
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmolog.htm
http://www.hawking.org.uk/index.html
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/index.html
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cosmology
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9988-introduction-cosmology.html
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/universe_level2/cosmology.html
http://superstringtheory.com/cosmo/index.html
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cosmology

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What do you think? Will the universe expand forever, or will it stop and begin contracting into the Big Crunch? Do you think humanity will ever figure out how the universe began and how it will end, definitively?


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: Astrophysics

The Milky Way Galaxy. Public domain image. SOURCE.

Astrophysics, to put it rather briefly and broadly, is the study of how the universe works.

It differs from cosmology (which is Tuesday's subject for the A-Z Challenge) in that it usually focuses on physical and chemical properties of the universe, while cosmology deals more with the nature and laws of the universe. The line between the two is not that great, however, and they're both part of astronomy, which is an even larger field that includes the study of everything outside of Earth's atmosphere.

A few current research subjects in astrophysics are black holes (points where gravity is so powerful that light, traveling at its tremendous 299,792,458 meters per second, cannot escape), planet, galaxy, and star formation, the interstellar medium (gas, dust, charged particles, and anything else between stars), dark matter and energy (dark energy is thought to constitute 70% of the universe and dark matter 25%), and the possibility of life in the universe beyond Earth (in addition to how it may have arrived here on Earth, if it did so).

Notable Astrophysicist:

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Public domain image. SOURCE.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is the current director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in NYC and is a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History. He graduated from Columbia University with a PhD in Astrophysics. He was also appointed to two presidential commissions (one on the aerospace industry and another on space exploration), is the author of over ten books including The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet, Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution (with Donald Goldsmith), and his most recent Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.

He is the host of StarTalk Radio, NOVA ScienceNOW, and the two NOVA programs The Pluto Files and Origins (both based on his books) and was given the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. In addition, he has written many scientific papers. He is also the host of an upcoming 13-part sequel to Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, due to air in 2013.

On a less scientific note, People declared Neil deGrasse Tyson the Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive in 2000, and the International Astronomical Union named an asteroid after him--13123 Tyson.

Video narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson about the most astounding fact to the universe:

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Sources:


http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/milkyway/ism.html
http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/profile/about-neil-degrasse-tyson
http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/curriculum-vitae
http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/black_holes/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cosmology
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/astronomy
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/astrophysics
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20132902,00.html
http://physics.about.com/od/astronomy/Cosmology_Astrophysics.htm
http://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/research/astrophysics
http://research.amnh.org/astrophysics/research
http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/
http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/
http://www.startalkradio.net/
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/08/cosmos-to-get-a-sequel-hosted-by-neil-degrasse-tyson/

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What do you think of astrophysics? And as today is the kickoff of the A-Z Challenge: how is the Challenge starting off for you?


-----The Golden Eagle

Talli Roland's Watching Willow Watts Launch Party!

Today is the day for the "If I Could Be Anyone, I'd Be . . ." Party, to celebrate the release of Watching Willow Watts by Talli Roland.

I had trouble deciding who I would be. There are plenty of fascinating people in the world, but I'm not sure I'd actually want to be many of them, since many have difficult lives, despite all the positive things they've done. But I finally decided on . . .

. . . Lisa Randall. Theoretical physicist, expert on cosmology and particle physics, first tenured woman at the physics department of Princeton University, first female tenured theoretical physicist at both Harvard and MIT, one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2007, writer of Warped Passages which was one of the New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2005, and composer. Has worked on supersymmetry, the Standard Model, cosmic inflation, baryogenesis, general relativity, and current research focused on the Large Hadron Collider and dark matter.

Have I mentioned I love physics?

Sources:
http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/facpages/randall.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Randall

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Where you can purchase Watching Willow Watts:
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/qdGe2K
Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/n5UPFB

So, who would you be, if you could be anyone?


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: T Stands For: Teleportation

Teleportation usually comes across as a science fiction mechanism of traveling interstellar distances instantaneously, between planets, from ships, to bases, and etc. But while it isn't as grand or as immediately obvious as a person being teleported across space, quantum teleportation (a bit different from transfer of actual matter) has been done by scientists.

(SOURCE)

Quantum teleportation, also called entanglement-assisted teleportation, is when a unit of quantum information or "qubit" is transmitted from one place to another, without that qubit crossing the space between the two points. It doesn't physically transport any matter or information, and no particles are reassembled at the second location.

(SOURCE)

Scientists are capable of doing this because of quantum entanglement, which is when particles are linked to each other even when physically separated, share a single quantum state, and remain in quantum superposition (the idea the particles can be two things at the same time--this links to the idea of Schroedinger's cat of being both alive and dead) until a measurement is taken. Because the particles are entangled, and in two states at once, in theory the measurement of one would immediately affect the other, faster than the speed of light. Albert Einstein called this "spooky action at a distance".

(SOURCE)

Some uses for this technology? Quantum teleportation could be used for communications. It could allow transmission of large amounts of information, speed up quantum computation, and perform tasks impossible for classical systems.

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Sources:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1874760,00.html
http://www.livescience.com/7647-teleportation-milestone-achieved.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleportation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_teleportation
http://www.jqi.umd.edu/news/211-entanglement-with-frequency-combs.html
http://www.research.ibm.com/physicsofinfo/members/teleportation.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-entangle/#2
http://www.quantum.at/research/quantum-teleportation-communication-entanglement/first-quantum-teleportation.html
http://www.quantiki.org/wiki/Quantum_communication

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Do you think we'll be using quantum technology in the relatively near future? Do you think teleportation will ever reach the point where people, or even just macroscopic objects, could be transported from one place to the other?

And please, PLEASE don't quote Star Trek. I've read enough articles researching this post with the phrase stuck in there somewhere. :P

-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: P Stands For: Particle Physics

Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the elementary particles of matter and radiation. An elementary, also called fundamental, particle is something that has no substructure--it is not made up of smaller particles. Particle physics is also referred to as high energy physics, because fundamental particles can only be created in particle accelerators.

(SOURCE)

The classification of all those particles comes together in the Standard Model. The Standard Model has only twelve basic particles, which are governed by four forces.

The twelve matter particles are quarks and leptons. Each of these two groups has "generations"--the first generation being lighter and more stable, while the second and third are heavier and less stable. All the stable matter in the universe belongs to the first generation, because the particles that make up the second and third decay to a more stable level.

(SOURCE)

There are up quarks, down quarks, charm quarks, strange quarks, top quarks, and bottom quarks, to cover the first six out of the twelve. Then there are electrons, electron-neutrinos, muons, muon-neutrinos, taus, and tau-neutrinos.

(SOURCE)

Three of the four fundamental forces--the strong force, the weak force, the electromagnetic force, and the gravitational force--result because of the exchange of "force carrier particles", called bosons. Fundamental particles exchange these bosons and, therefore, discrete amounts of energy. The strong force is carried by the gluon, the weak force by the W and Z bosons, the electromagnetic force by the photon, and the graviton for the gravitational force has not been found yet.

(SOURCE)

And last but not least, there's the Higgs Boson, which is thought to be the reason other particles have mass. The boson is predicted to exist because of the Standard Model, which incorporates it to solve problems with current theoretical physics. Experiments are being done to prove its existence with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and Tevatron at Fermilab (although the latter will cease operations in September), but it has yet to be observed.

(SOURCE)

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A very cool video on the Standard Model (the scientists probably explain things way better than I do):



Sources:
http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/science/StandardModel-en.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_model
http://particleadventure.org/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_particle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_physics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tevatron
http://www.universetoday.com/26829/fermilab-putting-the-squeeze-on-higgs-boson/

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What do you think of particle physics? Do you think the Higgs boson will be found soon? Do you think the Standard Model, despite the fact it omits gravity from the calculations, will continue to be the way scientists describe fundamental particles?


-----The Golden Eagle

A-Z Blogging Challenge: I Stands For: Ice

***An unfinished version of this post accidentally published this morning. My fault, because I meant to say 12:00 PM, not 12:00 AM. Sorry about that. Just another reason why a switch should be made to 24 HOUR TIME. It would make life so much easier. Anyway, I'll rant some other time (that's hopefully in 24-hour!)--on with the post.***

I've already covered Cold (go HERE to read that post) but ice is a very different state of matter.

(SOURCE)

Essentially water frozen into a solid state, ice is the "most abundant of the varying solid phases on Earth's surface". The most common phase transition (i.e. the most common way ice forms) is when water is cooled to 0 C/273.15 K/32 F at standard atmospheric pressure, depending on which temperature scale you use. It can also form without going through a liquid state, such as when vapor turns into frost.

(SOURCE)

Ice is officially considered a mineral. Its crystalline structure is based on water molecules, which consist of  covalent bonds between oxygen atoms and two hydrogen atoms. Weak, adjacent hydrogen bonds between molecules control much of the physical properties of water and ice.

(SOURCE)

The only non-metallic structure known to expand when it cools, frozen water is 9% less dense than liquid water. This is because the hydrogen atoms have a slight positive charge, and the oxygen atoms have a slight negative charge, and the solid hexagonal structure that forms because of their bond takes up more space than when water is moving freely in liquid state.

(SOURCE)

Ice is one of 15 known crystalline phases of water. Besides I_h, which is your usual frozen water, there is:

Amorphous Ice (ice without any crystal structure).
Ice I_c (ice where oxygen atoms are arranged in a diamond shape, produced at temperatures of 130 and 220 K).
Ice II (ice with a rhombohedral crystalline structure, formed by compressing I_h at 190-210 K).
Ice III (ice with a tetragonal crystalline structure, formed by cooling water to 250 K at 300 MPa--MPa stands for megapascal. One megapascal is one million pascals, and a pascal is one newton of force per square meter).
Ice IV (ice in a metastable rhombohedral phase. (Metastable means in a state of equilibrium, but easily sent into a lower energy state with only slight interaction.) It is formed by heating amorphous ice at a pressure of 810 MPa).
Ice V (ice in a monoclinic crystalline phase, and the most complicated of all phases. It is formed by cooling water down to 253 K at 500 MPa.)
Ice VI (ice with a tetragonal crystalline structure and formed by cooling water to 270 K at 1.1 GPa. GPa stands for one billion (thousand million) pascals.)
. . . and for the other phases, go HERE.

(I couldn't resist sharing an eagle sculpture. SOURCE)

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Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice
http://www.word-detective.com/howcome/waterexpand.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/chemical/waterdens.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_(unit)
http://www.sensorsone.co.uk/pressure-measurement-glossary/mpa-megapascal-pressure-unit.html



*****

Thoughts on ice?


-----The Golden Eagle