Physics posts
- October 10, 2011
- 08:30 AM
- 537 views
How your eye affects quality of vision?
by Pablo Artal in Optics confidential
Perhaps one of the most interesting topics today in the area of physiological optics is the relationship between the ocular optics and vision. This has been a subject of study for decades, if not centuries, but I elaborate more on my current views of this exciting problem... ... Read more »
Villegas, E., Alcon, E., & Artal, P. (2008) Optical Quality of the Eye in Subjects with Normal and Excellent Visual Acuity. Investigative Ophthalmology , 49(10), 4688-4696. DOI: 10.1167/iovs.08-2316
- October 10, 2011
- 06:12 AM
- 821 views
Restoring oil paintings digitally
by Joerg Heber in All That Matters
The restoration of oil paintings is always a delicate process. Decades and centuries of dust and grime on the surface of a painting are difficult to remove, as the dirt sticks firmly to the painting’s oil paints and varnish. There is always the danger that a thorough physical cleaning and restoration may alter a painting’s original appearance. A solution [...]... Read more »
Palomero, C., & Soriano, M. (2011) Digital cleaning and “dirt” layer visualization of an oil painting. Optics Express, 19(21), 21011. DOI: 10.1364/OE.19.021011
- October 9, 2011
- 11:03 PM
- 418 views
Faster than a speeding photon? Precursors test whether light can be faster than light
by gg in Skulls in the Stars
Over the past two weeks, the biggest physics news has been the apparent observation of neutrinos (nearly undetectable subatomic particles) moving faster than the vacuum speed of light. At first glance, this would seem to violate Einstein’s special theory of … Continue reading →... Read more »
Zhang, S., Chen, J., Liu, C., Loy, M., Wong, G., & Du, S. (2011) Optical Precursor of a Single Photon. Physical Review Letters, 106(24). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.243602
- October 7, 2011
- 05:26 AM
- 828 views
Why is the Universe is Expanding and Accelerating? Here’s my pet theory… (by a non-physicist)
by Stuart Farrimond in Dr Stu's Science Blog
Scientists don’t normally make much money. But Nobel Prize winners Perlmutter, Riess and Schmidt don’t need worry about being short of cash anymore. They can forget eating instant noodles and cobbling together loose change to keep the electricity meter running. Winning the highest accolade in science is more than luck. It wasn’t their lucky stars … Continue reading »... Read more »
Riess, A., Filippenko, A., Challis, P., Clocchiatti, A., Diercks, A., Garnavich, P., Gilliland, R., Hogan, C., Jha, S., Kirshner, R.... (1998) Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant. The Astronomical Journal, 116(3), 1009-1038. DOI: 10.1086/300499
J. K. Webb, J. A. King, M. T. Murphy, V. V. Flambaum, R. F. Carswell, & M. B. Bainbridge. (2010) Evidence for spatial variation of the fine structure constant. Physical Review Letters. arXiv: 1008.3907v1
- October 5, 2011
- 05:15 PM
- 452 views
A Nobel note
by nuclear.kelly in Miss Atomic Bomb
This year's Nobel Prize in Physics went jointly to three researchers, "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae." Supernovae (which are massive, old, exploding stars) are actually quite good as "standard candles" in observational astronomy, because they're so bright (they can outshine an entire galaxy, in fact, if only for a short while) and they appear to have a very predictable driving mechanism (su........ Read more »
Tsagas, C. (2011) Peculiar motions, accelerated expansion, and the cosmological axis. Physical Review D, 84(6). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.84.063503
- October 5, 2011
- 09:34 AM
- 382 views
Nobel Prize in physics and ESA Cosmic Vision
by Olga V. Vovk in Universe at a glance
Two things happened on October 4, 2011 – the Nobel committee announced that its physics award goes to Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess of the US and Brian Schmidt from Australia for the research that identified the "accelerating expansion of the Universe", see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15165371ESA Cosmic Vision panel approved two middle size missions as a part of its Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan. These are Euclid and Solar Orbiter. Saul Perlmutt........ Read more »
S. Perlmutter, G. Aldering, G. Goldhaber, R.A. Knop, P. Nugent, P.G. Castro, S. Deustua, S. Fabbro, A. Goobar, D.E. Groom, I. M. Hook, A.G. Kim, M.Y. Kim, J.C. Lee, N.J. Nunes, R. Pain, C.R. Pennypacker, R. Quimby, C. Lidman, R.S. Ellis, M. Irwin, R.G. Mc. (1998) Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae. Astrophysical Journal. info:/
- October 3, 2011
- 07:20 AM
- 951 views
Scientists successfully reconstruct the mind’s eye for the first time as a video output
by Neurobonkers in Neurobonkers
fMRI used to create a video output based on a dictionary created by showing participants 7200s of random colour video.... Read more »
Nishimoto S, Vu AT, Naselaris T, Benjamini Y, Yu B, & Gallant JL. (2011) Reconstructing Visual Experiences from Brain Activity Evoked by Natural Movies. Current biology : CB. PMID: 21945275
- September 30, 2011
- 12:00 PM
- 445 views
The Microvalve: The Traffic Light of Microfluidics
by Hector Munoz in Microfluidic Future
You could say that valves in microfluidics (or microvalves) are like street lights that control traffic along microfluidic channels. But I’d say that they’re more like police barricades, stopping anyone they want, wherever they want. The sole purpose of microvalves is to control flow within a microfluidics device, allowing them to become very complex and more automated. Without microvalves, all reactions and mixing must occur in the same space, unless they were premixed elsewhere, wh........ Read more »
Oh, K., & Ahn, C. (2006) A review of microvalves. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 16(5). DOI: 10.1088/0960-1317/16/5/R01
Elizabeth Hulme, S., Shevkoplyas, S., & Whitesides, G. (2009) Incorporation of prefabricated screw, pneumatic, and solenoid valves into microfluidic devices. Lab on a Chip, 9(1), 79. DOI: 10.1039/b809673b
- September 29, 2011
- 10:00 PM
- 535 views
In praise of Tevatron
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Tomorrow, the Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab will shut down. The end will be no song and dance: the accelerator operators will simply stop putting new protons and antiprotons into the machine...... Read more »
CDF Collaboration. (1995) Observation of Top Quark Production in p¯p Collisions with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Physical Review Letters, 74(14), 2626-2631. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.2626
DZero Collaboration., Abachi, S., & et al. (1995) Search for High Mass Top Quark Production in pp¯ Collisions at s. Physical Review Letters, 74(13), 2422-2426. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.2422
- September 26, 2011
- 09:29 AM
- 555 views
A box seat at OPERA
by Marco Frasca in The Gauge Connection
While at Bari Conference (see here), the news was spreading that OPERA Collaboration, a long baseline experiment using muon neutrino beams launched by CERN by CNGS Project, detected a possible Lorentz violating effect. Initially, it started as a rumor in the comment area at Jester’s blog (see here). Then, Tommaso Dorigo provided a full account [...]... Read more »
The OPERA Collaboraton: T. Adam, N. Agafonova, A. Aleksandrov, O. Altinok, P. Alvarez Sanchez, S. Aoki, A. Ariga, T. Ariga, D. Autiero, A. Badertscher.... (2011) Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam. arXiv. arXiv: 1109.4897v1
Feinberg, G. (1967) Possibility of Faster-Than-Light Particles. Physical Review, 159(5), 1089-1105. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRev.159.1089
Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, Giulia Gubitosi, Niccoló Loret, Flavio Mercati, Giacomo Rosati, & Paolo Lipari. (2011) OPERA-reassessing data on the energy dependence of the speed of neutrinos. arXiv. arXiv: 1109.5172v1
Giacomo Cacciapaglia, Aldo Deandrea, & Luca Panizzi. (2011) Superluminal neutrinos in long baseline experiments and SN1987a. arXiv. arXiv: 1109.4980v1
- September 25, 2011
- 04:11 PM
- 452 views
SIMBAS, Everything the Blood Touches Is Our Kingdom
by Hector Munoz in Microfluidic Future
Hey, how’s your biotin? What? No it’s not an organic metal, maybe you call it B7? You’re probably fine, but have you been depressed, lethargic or losing your hair lately? Biotin is pretty important; it’s necessary for metabolism within our cells, so I make sure I never leave home without it. It’s rare for someone to have a biotin deficiency, but if you want to know your levels, give me a drop of your blood, and I’ll have an answer from you in 10 minutes. How? Oh just my self-powered ........ Read more »
Dimov, I., Basabe-Desmonts, L., Garcia-Cordero, J., Ross, B., Ricco, A., & Lee, L. (2011) Stand-alone self-powered integrated microfluidic blood analysis system (SIMBAS). Lab on a Chip, 11(5), 845. DOI: 10.1039/C0LC00403K
- September 25, 2011
- 08:02 AM
- 609 views
The XV Workshop on Statistical Mechanics and nonperturbative Field Theory
by Marco Frasca in The Gauge Connection
This week I was in Bari as the physics department of that university organized a major event: SM&FT 2011. This is a biennial conference having the aims to discuss recent achievements in fields as statistical mechanics and quantum field theory that have a lot of commonalities. The organizers are well-known physicists and so it was [...]... Read more »
P. Cea, & L. Cosmai. (2011) The trivial Higgs boson: first evidences from LHC. arXiv. arXiv: 1106.4178v1
Marco Frasca, & Marco Ruggieri. (2011) Magnetic Susceptibility of the Quark Condensate and Polarization from Chiral Models. Phys.Rev.D83:094024,2011. arXiv: 1103.1194v1
Marco Ruggieri. (2011) The Critical End Point of Quantum Chromodynamics Detected by Chirally Imbalanced Quark Matter. Phys.Rev.D84:014011,2011. arXiv: 1103.6186v2
- September 24, 2011
- 06:43 PM
- 707 views
Faster Than a Speeding Photon: "Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam"
by Chad Orzel in Uncertain Principles
There have been a lot of pixels spilled over this faster-than-light neutrino business, so it might not seem like something I should take time away from pressing work to write up. It is the story of the moment, though, and too much of the commentary I've seen has been of the form "I am a {theorist, journalist} so hearing about experimental details gives me the vapors" (a snarky paraphrase, obviously). This suggests that there's still room for a canine-level write-up going into a bit more depth ab........ Read more »
The OPERA Collaboraton: T. Adam, N. Agafonova, A. Aleksandrov, O. Altinok, P. Alvarez Sanchez, S. Aoki, A. Ariga, T. Ariga, D. Autiero, A. Badertscher.... (2011) Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam. CERN. arXiv: 1109.4897v1
- September 24, 2011
- 05:29 PM
- 548 views
Neutrinos and the future of physics
by nuclear.kelly in Miss Atomic Bomb
The scientific community is buzzing, or one would imagine we are, after news of this paper came out last week. Could neutrinos, those mysterious particles which hardly interact with normal matter, really be traveling faster than the speed of light? It was all over the news. The collaboration held a news conference. Hints of another cold fusion fiasco creep into conversations.... Read more »
The OPERA Collaboraton: T. Adam, N. Agafonova, A. Aleksandrov, O. Altinok, P. Alvarez Sanchez, S. Aoki, A. Ariga, T. Ariga, D. Autiero, A. Badertscher.... (2011) Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam. arXiv. arXiv: 1109.4897v1
- September 23, 2011
- 07:45 PM
- 508 views
Faster-than-light neutrinos show science in action
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past 24 hours, you’ve probably heard about the neutrinos that turned up at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy a few nanoseconds earlier than they were supposed to, in a feat that would have required them to travel faster than the speed of light.... Read more »
The OPERA Collaboraton. (2011) Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam. . arXiv: 1109.4897v1
- September 23, 2011
- 06:31 PM
- 590 views
So a neutrino runs into a tachyon in a bar….
by Christine Corbett Moran in Cosmic Rays
So a neutrino runs into a tachyon in a bar.... HHere's a collection of interesting twitter snippets from physicists I follow on twitter about today's neutrino webcast announcing the surprising, and frankly unbelievable, results that the OPERA collaboration observed superluminal neutrinos. I haven't watched the webcast myself, nor read the paper beyond the abstract yet so can only comment that I believe it must be systematics. That said it would be insanely interesting to be proven otherwise. Fin........ Read more »
The OPERA Collaboraton: T. Adam, N. Agafonova, A. Aleksandrov, O. Altinok, P. Alvarez Sanchez, S. Aoki, A. Ariga, T. Ariga, D. Autiero, A. Badertscher.... (2011) Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam. CERN. arXiv: 1109.4897v1
- September 23, 2011
- 05:16 AM
- 515 views
An impossible star?
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
In the beginning, the only elements that existed were hydrogen, helium and very small amounts of lithium...... Read more »
Caffau E, Bonifacio P, François P, Sbordone L, Monaco L, Spite M, Spite F, Ludwig HG, Cayrel R, Zaggia S.... (2011) An extremely primitive star in the Galactic halo. Nature, 477(7362), 67-9. PMID: 21886158
- September 14, 2011
- 10:12 PM
- 440 views
Microfluidics? What's That? A Beginner's Guide
by Hector Munoz in Microfluidic Future
Microfluidic chemostat used to study microbes
I don’t quite have the resources to poll the United States and the rest of the world, but if I did, this is what I’d ask:
Do you know what microfluidics is?
Can you explain it to me?
Do you currently use anything with this technology?
We may never know the results of the poll, but I think I'd hear "No" for most of them. Have no fear, because today you’re lucky enough to read my Beginner’s Guide to Microfluidics.
To start with...... Read more »
Whitesides, G. (2006) The origins and the future of microfluidics. Nature, 442(7101), 368-373. DOI: 10.1038/nature05058
- September 14, 2011
- 05:55 AM
- 717 views
An interesting review
by Marco Frasca in The Gauge Connection
It is some time I am not writing posts but the good reason is that I was in Leipzig to IRS 2011 Conference, a very interesting event in a beautiful city. It was inspiring to be in the city where Bach spent a great part of his life. Back to home, I checked as usual [...]... Read more »
Ph. Boucaud, J. P. Leroy, A. Le Yaouanc, J. Micheli, O. Péne, & J. Rodríguez-Quintero. (2011) The Infrared Behaviour of the Pure Yang-Mills Green Functions. arXiv. arXiv: 1109.1936v1
Marco Frasca. (2009) Exact solution of Dyson-Schwinger equations for a scalar field theory. arXiv. arXiv: 0909.2428v2
I. L. Bogolubsky, E. -M. Ilgenfritz, M. Müller-Preussker, & A. Sternbeck. (2009) Lattice gluodynamics computation of Landau-gauge Green's functions in the deep infrared. Phys.Lett.B676:69-73,2009. arXiv: 0901.0736v3
- September 10, 2011
- 11:21 PM
- 503 views
Unidirectional cacophony
by Vivek Venkataraman in sciencebyte
Device which lets sound travel one way, but not in the opposite direction... Read more »
Boechler, N., Theocharis, G., & Daraio, C. (2011) Bifurcation-based acoustic switching and rectification. Nature Materials, 10(9), 665-668. DOI: 10.1038/nmat3072
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