Secret Science Club Zoom Lecture Recap: The Last Stargazers

Tonight, my great and good friends of the Secret Science Club are presenting a Zoom lecture with astronomer and astrophysicist Dr Emily Levesque of the University of Washington.  Dr Levesque's new book is The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers.  Dr Levesque has used some of the most sophisticated telescopes, including using NASA's SOFIA flying observatory.

Dr Levesque has studied the birth and death of the most massive stars.  The Last Stargazers is her first popular science book.  She noted that 2020 was a difficult year for releasing books, and noted that, at a library association meeting, the topic of the importance of first lines in books are extremely important.  She joked that the first line of her book is: "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"  It was uttered to her while she was a 24 year old grad student working at the Mauna Kea observatory on her PhD thesis on the topic of the environments where stars were dying.  There was an unsettling 'bloonk' noise, and the technician noted that she thought it was okay, because she didn't hear the crash of the mirror falling off its supports.  In a worst-case scenario, the secondary mirror would crash into the huge primary mirror (about nine meters in diameter).

She was the astronomer in charge and she'd heard horror stories about the destruction of telescopes, such as the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia.  She knew that leaving the telescope would mean giving up research time if it were a false alarm, but if there was a worse case scenario, she would have presided over the breaking of the world's largest piece of glass.

Dr Levesque noted that images of space are beautiful and fire the public imagination.  She briefly touched on the image of the astronomer as a man in a white lab coat, an image she wants to supplant.  She wanted to be a scientist ever since she was a six year-old.  The summer after her second year as a physics student in MIT, she worked at the Kitt Peak observatory.  She was advised by her professors' colleagues to make sure to drink coffee, but not too much, to remember to order a nighttime lunch, and was warned that there were scorpions that matched the color of the carpets.  She listened to stories of lightning strikes and raccoon run-ins, and was itching to make stories of her own.  These stories of behind the scenes adventures make up her book.

Dr Levesque had adventures of her own while writing the book, visiting telescopes and labs she'd worked in before, interviewing fellow astronomers.  She's not an investigative reporter, but she figured out how to glean stories from researchers, and piece together a common thread

What is your most memorable observing story, whether firsthand or tenth-hand?  She wanted not only anecdotes, but legends of the field, such as the Green Bank collapse.  One major topic of interest was a 2007 discovery by the Parkes Observatory in Australia of weird radio bursts, a strange signal to encounter.  The data was filed away to be researched later.  A lot of things give off latent radio signals, such as cell phones, spark plugs, all sorts of electronics.  A grad student, Emily Petrov, decided to research these mysterious signals, dubbed Perytons.  A lot of these Perytons occurred around lunchtime, so the microwave was considered suspect.  The scientists acted like astronomers, not hungry people opening the microwave a bit early, which was detected by the radio telescope as a Peryton... except for the initial burst, which was determined to come from Elsewhere.  These fast radio bursts occasionally occur, and might emanate from dying stars.

In the case of the LIGO gravitational-wave observatory, which uses miniscule (1/1000th of the diameter of a proton) 'squishing' of the arms of the observatory to detect gravitational waves.  The sensors are good at filtering out signals from trucks or footsteps, but one hot summer, suspicious readings were apparent- due to iced over pipes of liquid nitrogen.  Local ravens were pecking the ice condensed on the pipes as a source of water in the eastern Washington desert.  The raven was caught in the act, and measures were taken to prevent these peckings from occurring in the future.

What would surprise people the most about our jobs?  One major thing is that the telescopes now in use typically don't have eyepieces.  Also, the job is more exciting than most people would realize.  Dr Levesque mentioned the SOFIA flying observatory, a plant-mounted infrared telescope.  Infrared light often doesn't reach the Earth's surface, it bounces off of atmospheric water vapor.  SOFIA is above that layer, and Dr Levesque used the telescope to research dying stars.  She noted how excited six year old her would have been about the prospect of flying in an experimental plane over Antarctica and seeing the Southern Lights.  She talked with astronomers who did research at the South Pole and up in Svallbard.  She talked about astronomers using weather balloon mounted telescopes.  She mentioned George Carruthers, inventor of ultraviolet cameras, including one transported on Apollo 16 to the moon.   She also mentioned Doug Geisler, who on May 18, 1980 at the U of Washington's Manastash Ridge observatory, having a lovely clear night... the next day, he woke in the midst of an ash cloud resulting from the Mt St Helens eruption, which resulted in a lost night of observation.

How has astronomy changed since you began observing?  The biggest answer was improving technology.  Up until the 1980s, images were made using thin glass plates covered in silver nitrate.  Kodak would send many plates, but they had to be cut to size and tweaked to improve image quality before being inserted into telescope cameras one-by-one.  Amazing research was conducted using these plates.  Astronomers using these glass plates figured out the shape of the universe.  Now, digital images are created, the difference is incomparable, with dust being visible, and the shape of a galaxy's arms being detailed beautifully.  The work of astronomers has differed- astronomers used to have to apply for observation time, and travel to observatories.  Now, telescopes such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory under construction in Chile, will be taking continual images of the night sky through an automated process.  Dr Levesque and her colleagues don't have to apply to use the data, they can just log in and download data.  The adventure and experience will be differed, involving fewer scorpions and raccoon encounters

Dr Levesque brought up the topic of Thorne-Zytkow objects, binary stars orbiting each other, in the process of dying.  One star will collapse into a neutron star and get swallowed by the companion, which transforms into a red giant with a core replaced by the neutron star.  Dr Levesque's team discovered a potential Thorne–Żytkow object using the Las Campanas observatory in Chile.

This wouldn't have been discovered using the pre-programmed Rubin observatory, but the Rubin observatory can provide data which can prove to be Thorne-Zytkow objects.  Giant observators such as Rubin are needed, as are smll mountaintop observatories, SOFIA type creative telescopes, and radio telescopes.  Curious stargazers are needed as well as computational processes.  We must combine these approaches to continue the process of discovery.

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session.  The first question involved the depiction of celestial phenomena in art, such as a 1054 supernova depicted on a cave painting, the supernova that resulted in the Crab Nebula.  Are any of these telescopes open to the public?  Kitt Peak observatory in Arizona and Mauna Kea were open to the public during the day, but nighttime visits are off-limits because of light polution from headlights.  Another question involved Vera Rubin's discovery of dark matter through observational methods- at the time, women couldn't be lead researchers, though they had made many astronomical discoveries at the time- Vera Rubin noted gravitational anomalies that proved dark matter existed.  Regarding the imaging of a black hole, the discovery was made by 'a telescope the size of the entire planet', an array of radio telescopes worldwide that obtained that fuzzy donut picture that everybody loves.

Some Bastard in the audience asked about the James Webb Space Telescope, infrared telescope in space, in a cold, dark place far from Earth.  This telescope will be invaluable for studying dying stars.  Recently, Betelgeuse dimmed because it puffed off a cloud of dust that is bright in infrared.  This is going to fill an important niche in studying dying stars, it's the telescope that might find evidence of extrasolar life, it will look further and further back in time than other telescopes.  All astronomers are excited about the 'first light' from this telescope.

Another question involved the collapse of the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.  She had never visited Arecibo, though it was on her list.  She received a lot of anecdotes about Arecibo, but it collapsed the year after she released the book.  It was an unparalleled tragedy in the astronomical world... Arecibo detected the first evidence of planets around other stars.  It's the dream of many astronomers to rebuild the observatory.

Another question involved the role of time as well as distance- the universe is about 13.8 billion years old... the naked eye can see objects 400 light years away, from 400 years ago.  As telescopes become more powerful, they reveal the universe at older time periods.

How about extraterrestrials?  Every astronomer dreams of discovering it.  Even Dr Levesque had a moment when she encountered a weird signal at an observatory in the Netherlands, but then realized  that the signal was stronger closer to the admin building, so it was probably someone heating up a stroopwaffel or sending a fax.  She joked that the best phrase in science is not "Eureka!", but "That's weird!"  There are people working on the alien issue, and if they ever discover evidence of aliens, they won't be able to keep it secret.

What pending discoveries is Dr Levesque excited about?  The possibility of detecting life, even intelligent life...  Observing black holes...  Gravitational wave detction... The ability to go from 'we found this one weird thing' to a data driven approach.

How about multi-telescope arrays, interferometry (the use of interference to make multiple telescopes act as one) has to involve closely tracking multiple telescopes such as the Event Horizon Telescope under difficult conditions (such as shifting ice near an Antarctic telescope).  Astronomers dream of setting up an observatory on the Moon and syncing it up with a terrestrial telescope.

How about crowdsourcing science with programs such as Zooniverse, in which citizen scientists can identify different galaxies, such as spiral or elliptical galaxies.  A new form of galaxy was distinguished by citizen scientists.

Where in the universe would Dr Levesque want to go?  She can't pick one place, she wants to discover all sorts of weird stars, but she would love to visit Betelgeuse and that Thorne-Zytkow object she discovered.

Another question involved light pollution, which is an unfortunate occurrence.  There was also the topic of Starlink satellites interfering with observations of the night sky.  These passing satellites rob astronomers of data, producing radio light as well as reflecting visible light.  Astronomers have no say in the regulation of satellite launches, and want to fix the problem of running out of space in space, fundamentally changing the appearance of the night sky.

Another question involved the observed expansion of the universe- distant galaxies appear to be speeding away from us, with more distant galaxies moving at a faster rate.  This discovery was made by Edwin Hubble, using those glass plates.  The best way to determine the possible fate of the universe is through using the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the expansion.  This conundrum has been extremely contentious among astrophysicists, and some evidence (numbers not agreeing) suggests that the expansion might have changed over time.

Regarding getting involved in science, Dr Levesque suggested taking all of the math and computer science you can.  For astronomical observations, a simple pair of binoculars and astronomy apps on your phone are a good start- no need for expensive telescopes.

Who is regulating what goes up into space, if not scientists.  The FCC regulates it, though Dr Levesque notes that there is a conflict of interests.  Scientists and people driven by profits should both be involved.  The American Astronomical Society should get involved to sort out this chaotic situation (a rich enough person can launch a car into space).

Once again, the Secret Science Club has dished out a fantastic lecture.  Dr Levesque's enthusiasm for the topic was infectious, and she hit what I call the 'Secret Science Sweet Spot', that blend of hard science, adventure narrative, and advocacy.  Kudos to Dr Levesque, and Dorian and Margaret for a fun, informative program.  For a taste of the Secret Science Club experience, here is a video of Dr Levesque lecturing on this topic:

Pour yourself a nice beverage and soak in that SCIENCE!!!

Day-Glo Horrors

The aesthetics of Gothic horror, indeed most Western horror works, are gloomy, tenebrous... the aesthetics of a castle brooding on a crag at midnight, of foggy bogs, and dark alleys.  Very rarely does one see horror depicted in bright colors, so when one comes across a property which delivers the shudders in bright, primary hues, one takes notice.

The 2006 Japanese anime series Mononoke a spin-off of the Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales series, grabbed my attention with its imagery rooted in the Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings of the 17th through 19th centuries.  Its protagonist is a not-quite-human (he has elfin or vulpine features) 'medicine seller', an itinerant exorcist who wages his battles against destructive spirits by figuring out the shape, the truth, and the reason behind the spirits, a who's who of yōkai ranging from the umibōzu to the noppera-bō.  These spirits are the product of negative human emotions, and the hauntings invariably stem from secret misdeeds, typically evil events in family histories.

While the visuals are bright, the subject matter is dark, dealing with the aftermath of violence and abuse, so here's a content warning.  The typical plot is fascinating, though, taking the form of a supernatural police procedural as our exorcist protagonist divines the shape, truth, and reason behind a haunting, often with opposition from the haunted, who are reluctant to divulge their sordid secrets.  It's heady, sometimes disturbing stuff, but always fascinating.

Here's the opening of the show, which will give you some idea of the art-style, which manages to be beautiful even when depicting horrors:

 

There's also a fan-edited trailer, which beautifully conveys the animation style, with its elaborate depictions of the vulpine medicine-seller, using his various exorcist-skills against a variety of supernatural foes.

I pretty much binge-watched the entire 12-episode series once I found it, having been hooked from the get-go.  I can't guarantee that my readers will be equally enthralled, the subject matter can be disturbing... the horrors it depicts, even though supernatural, are human horrors.  It's subject matter that hits the viewer in the heart, not the stomach.

Secret Science Club Zoom Lecture: The Disordered Cosmos

Tonight, my great and good friends at the Secret Science Club are presenting a Zoom lecture with theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and feminist theorist Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein of the University of New Hampshire.  Dr Prescod-Weinstein is a founder of Particles for Justice and author of The Disordered Cosmos.

Dr Prescod-Weinstein began her lecture with the story of the cosmos- the universe went through a period of inflation after the Big Bang, when spacetime expanded rapidly.  the age of the universe is approximately 14 billion years, the number changes as more data accumulates.

Evidence about the period after the Big Bang can be observed in the form of the cosmic microwave background radiation.  The CMB radiation is the coldest radiation in the universe- with an average of 2.7 degrees Kelvin and little variation.  It has been 'mapped' by the Planck space observatory:

Dr Prescod-Weinstein then showed the 'first light' infrared image from the Spitzer space telescope, depicting the universe about 400 thousand years after the universe began.  In this infrared image, one can see nuclear fusion 'turn on' in stars:

 

 

Dr Prescod-Weinstein  followed this up with an image from the Hubble deep field depicting a multitude of galaxies:

 

Dr Prescod-Weinstein noted that theoretical physicists attempt to piece together a coherent mathematical story of the universe.  Images are snapshots, the physicists try to find out why they look like they do.  How much information is imprinted on the photons depicted in these snapshots?

The different colors in the Planck telescope image represent tiny fluctuations which signify the seeds of structure formation... the nascent.stars, galaxies, globular clusters which ultimately form  the seeds of the beginning of us, since we are also structures formed in the universe.

The Planck image represents a degree of homogeneity, the composition of the universe was similar, and isoptropy, the universe is uniform in all directions.  On a cosmological scales, the universe is full of galaxies, connected by filaments between.  The universe is expanding, but Dr Prescod-Weinstein didn't quite like modeling this as galaxies getting farther apart, likening the expanding universe to an inflating balloon... one wouldn't characterize the distance between dots on a balloon as empty space.  The expansion of the universe is increasing in speed, and this cosmic acceleration has come to be known as dark energy. 

Most of the matter in the universe has not been observable, and dark matter has been proposed to account for this lack of observable 'standard model matter'.  In the 1970s, astronomer Vera Rubin noted that the rotational speed of the Andromeda Galaxy seemed to be wrong and proposed that dark matter at the edges of the galaxy caused the discrepancy between what she observed and what had been expected.  In the sciences, theory and observation need to be reconciled.  For a while, there was a debate over whether dark matter or a  new theory of gravity would be correct... the consensus position was to stick with dark matter.  Dr Prescod-Weinstein stated that she personally prefers the term 'invisible matter' to 'dark matter', illustrating what she meant by cupping her hands and quipping that, if she had a handful of dark matter, light would be passing through it, it wouldn't obscure vision.  As far as the term 'dark energy' is concerned, she prefers 'cosmic expansion problem' to describe this phenomenon.

It is believed that galaxies are surrounded by a halo of dark matter.  Large galaxies also have satellite galaxies with halos of their own.  The Milky Way has 60 satellite galaxies, including the Magellanic Clouds, within its dark matter gravity well

Light goes through dark matter with no photon interaction.  Dark matter moves slowly.  It is not short lived.  Dark matter is nvolved in the hierarchical structure of the universe.  If dark matter interacts with standard particles, such interactions would have to be sought in particle colliders, and points of interaction could then be sought on an astronomical level.  Dr Prescod-Weinstein displayed a slide depicting possible non-gravitational interactions between dark matter and standard model particles:

In the search for dark matter, certain properties would be expected of a good candidate- such a particle should be stable, colorless/chargeless, cold, non-dissipative, and  consistent with what we see.

Dr Prescod-Weinstein then showed us a Venn Diagram depicting the various theories proposed to explain dark matter:

Dr Prescod-Weinstein stated that the problem probably lies beyond standard model physics.  She noted that confusion is not an obstacle for scientists: "It's our job to be confused and to work beyond our confusion.

Dr Prescod-Weinstein then shifted the topic of the lecture to the axion, a hypothetical particle the existence of which was proposed in the Peccei-Quinn mechanism to solve bad predictions stemming from the strong CP problem.  She displayed a couple of equations outlining the theoretical basis for the axion proposal, and said to ask her about the higglet in the Q&A.

The late physicist Dr Ann Nelson was a champion for axions describing them as natural and elegant, and viable- a good dark matter model  Axions would be bosons.  Bosons can be distinguished from.  fermions- when cooled, fermions go to the lowest energy quantum state possible while bosons when cooled form a condensate with same ground state act as single particle.  Such a condensate could explain fuzzy dark matter in which ultralight axions would.behave like a wave.

One possible detection method for axions would involve an nteraction with electromagnetic fields, resulting in the Primakoff effect, then scientists could look for axions astrophysically- do simulations match what we observe?

Dr Prescod-Weinstein then discussed the ssocial and human side to science.  She is the first black American woman who on a tenure track in theoretical physics.  She has been a barrier breaker throughout her career trajectory.  She noted, though, that Black people have always been involved in science, citing Onesimus, a man enslaved in Cotton Mather's household, who demonstrated how to prevent smallpox with a form of inoculation.

There has always been a Black tradition of science.  Why do race and gender matter?  Social phenomena shape science because universality and objectivity are different.  Physics apply everywhere, but are observers objective when it comes to grant money or the seriousness with which theories are taken?  This is about our assumptions about competence, not physics.  Social justice must also come into consideration, as in the example of indigenous Hawaiian opposition to the construction of the 30 meter telescope in Hawaii.

Dr Prescod-Weinstein ended her lecture by stating that spacetime is curved, not straight- it's not just for straight, white cis men.

The lecture was followed up with a Q&A session.  The leading question was: Why does the cosmic microwave background persist?  The universe prior to it is opaque- the photons that we see have been traveliing through spacetime for 13 billion years, and are red-shifted.  CMB was discovered twice- 1940s observation near a star revealed that space was not empty, but radiation was present.  Then two radio astronomers discovered a signal which wouldn't go away, which turned out to be the CMB.

Some Bastard in the audience took up Dr Prescod-Weinstein's challenge to ask her about the 'Higglet'.  She noted that she is AA Milne fan, and the axion was called the Higglet by Dr Steven Weinberg...    axion was the name of a laundry detergent (the proposed particle cleaned up a problem), named after a Greek orthodox liturgy.  As a Milne fan, the Good Doctor opined that Higglet would have been a more accessible name for the public.

Asked about the TV show The Big Bang Theory- the Doctor was not a fan- white men treating people poorly isn't funny.  This sort of rude behavior injures women and people of color.  The show was grotesque, and damaging to the scientific community.

Galaxy halo theory- is there dark matter outside the halos?  Where do we set the edge of such halos?  There is dark matter inside the galaxy as well, some is probably passing through your body right now.  The one thing that dark matter does have in common with standard model particle matter is interactivity with gravity.

Which experiments have the best potential to find dark matter?  Dr Prescod-Weinstein joked that it's a religious question...She personally loves the Bose-Einstein condensates formed by axions, and noted that she started working on axions because it was an available topic and she became known as a global expert on the topic.  She noted that people working at the Large Hadron Collider searching for supersymmetry started working on axions when they didn't find evidence of supersymmetry.

The doctor noted that the universe does what it does, and the universe doesn't care whether we can understand the universe.  She then amended her statement, saying the universe does what it does, and the universe mostly doesn't care whether we can understand the universe, with human beings being a part of the universe which cares about understanding the universe.

Asked about future research, she informed us that one of her research topics now is the soft interactions of axions.  She would be happy about anything that pushes cosmology beyond the standard model.

Once again, the Secret Science Club team has presented a fantastic lecture.  Kudos to Dr Prescod-Weinstein, and Margaret and Dorian.  For a taste of that SSC experience, here is a lengthy discussion by the Doctor regarding The Disordered Cosmos:

Pour yourself a nice beverage and soak in that SCIENCE!!!

A Low-Key St Paddy's Day

It's a low-key St Paddy's Day for me, the second in a row due to the pandemic... can't be kissing strangers while socially-distancing, no matter how Irish or winsome they are.  I figure I'd post a couple of pretty songs on the occasion, and the traditional folk band Altan has an entire catalogue of lovely, low-key songs from a career which began in the 1980s when fiddler/singer Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and flautist Frankie Kennedy joined forces, eventually marrying. Sadly, Mr Kennedy contracted cancer in the 1990s and eventually lost his fight with the scourge. 

I'm choosing two songs in Gaelic by the band. The first is Moll Dubh a' Ghleanna, ostensible a love song about a dark haired country beauty from a glen, but in Donegal, the song is a cryptic message about illicitly distilled poteen. It's a gorgeous tune, whether about love for a ruddy-cheeked, black-haired girl or about love for a wicked strong distillate: 

 

The other song I'm posting is Dúlamán, perhaps the finest song ever written about seaweed, specifically Pelvetia canaliculata. Dúlamán, the seaweed, was commonly used as animal feed, and was used as human food during times of famine. Dúlamán, the song, is a dialogue between two seaweed-gatherers, one of which wishes to marry the daughter of the other, who meets his suit with skepticism, necessitating an elopement: 

 

As a side note, there are several edible seaweeds common to Ireland, among them the chewy, salty dillisk, which is another food which was integral to the survival of coastal dwellers during An Gorta Mór. Additionally, the various types of carrageenan, are ubiquitous, used as thickeners in everything from ice cream to toothpaste. I, myself, prefer the stuff prepared in the Jamaican style, as a punch, and might have to pick up a can at the supermarket before work tonight, even though I'd rather be drinking some Moll Dubh a' Ghleanna.

Secret Science Club Zoom Lecture Summary: A Brief Vacation from Earth

 Tonight, I am tuning in to a remote lecture presented by my great and good friends at The Secret Science Club

featuring astrophysicist Dr Katie Mack of the North Carolina State University. Appropriately enough for these seemingly eschatological times, the lecture is related to her new book: The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking). It'll be a nice vacation, contemplating an end which will be comfortably distant in spacetime, rather than an imminent one here in the Time of Coronavirus. 

Dr Mack began her lecture with an overview of astrophysics, beginning with the famous 'Blue Marble' picture of the Earth, noting how lonely and fragile our planet looks. In about a billion years, the sun will swell, engulfing Mercury and Venus, and boiling the oceans of Earth, eventually drawing it in. She held out hope that humanity will reach out into the cosmos, perhaps finding new homes, though that will only forestall the end. The universe had a beginning and will have an end, it is gradually becoming less hospitable. 

Dr Mack outlined five possible end of the universe scenarios: a big crunch, heat death, big rip, vacuum decay, and a bounce. 

She continued with a picture of the Milky Way taken from the Southern Hemisphere, then for a simulation of what the galaxy looks like from the outside, she showed us a picture of the Andromeda Galaxy, with the supermassive black hole at its center. The Milky Way contains over 100 billion stars. There are many other galazies- the Hubble Deep Field is an image of a small patch of the sky. Most galaxies are moving away from us and from each other, because the universe is expanding (Andromeda is getting closer). If the universe is expanding, it must have been smaller, hotter, and denser than it is now- this is what led to the Big Bang theory. If the universe is infinite, it was a smaller infinity earlier. 

When we observe light from distant galaxies, we see into the past- the light has been traveling for potentially billions of years. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field presents an image from thirteen billion years ago, about a half-billion years after the Big Bang, and we can actually see light from the hot plasma resulting from the Big Bang if we look far enough... light from the first formation of the universe. We are actually seeing the light from this event, and can map it out. Making a map of the universe using microwaves, a uniform background 'light' is apparent. There is a range of microwave wavelengths that form a Black Body curve which can help astrophysicists determine what the radiation source is. She compared this range to the light emitted by a hot poker. The background radiation is caused by the heat of the early universe. Little temperature fluctuations can be observed with more sensitive wavelength calibrations.

The distribution of matter, density, and the action of gravity can be extrapolated from this image, and computer models can be made to determine how galaxies and galaxy clusters were forming. Dr Mack then began her discussion of the end of the universe... 

The Big Crunch: The universe, now expanding, stops expanding. The outword push of the Big Bang is braked by gravity, and the slowing expansion will reverse. Galaxies will collide with greater frequency than they do now. Our galaxy will collide with Andromeda in about four billion years, stars will string along, new stars will be formed, the supermassive black holes will merge, but our solar system (with its bloated sun) probably won't hit anything else. In the Big Crunch, the collisions won't kill the stars, the compressed radiation from the newly smaller, denser universe will do the job. Space will get so hot from this hard radiation that thermonuclear explosions will destroy the stars. 

 The Heat Death: This is thought to be more likely than the Big Crunch. This is a big freeze- heat is disordered energy. In the Heat Death, the universe will continue to expand forever. In the 1990s, astrophysicists tried to determine the deceleration parameter, whether the expansion of the universe would slow down due to gravity. They discovered that the expansion was increasing, and proposed that dark energy was driving the acceleration. Einstein's cosmological constant was a mathematical model of this 'stretchiness'. In the Heat Death model, the universe gets emptier and emptier, and in one hundred billion years, our galaxy, merged with Andromeda and other locals, will be isolated, with other galaxy clusters invisible. The stars will burn out, the black holes will evaporate, and matter will dissolve into a bit of trace heat, stray photons, and dark matter. Dr Mack noted that this is a sad story. 

The Big Rip: If dark energy goes wrong, and is insufficiently explained by the Cosmological Constant (Einstein wasn't aware of other galaxies as more than a theoretical concept). Einstein didn't know that the universe was expanding, and he formulated the Cosmological Constant to explain why a static universe wasn't falling into itself due to gravity. The Cosmological Constant involves density over time- the amount of mass remains the same even as the universe expands. Matter and radiation become more diffuse, but the Cosmological Constant, the inherent stretchiness of space, remains the same. In one model phantom dark energy could cause density to increase. If this phantom dark energy can move galaxies apart, it can rip galaxies and stars apart, and can even rip smaller bodies apart, eventually ripping the universe apart. We don't know what dark energy is, and the phantom dark energy model can be determined by the Equation of State Parameter. If it is -1, the Heat Death is a good model, if less than -1, it's phantom dark energy, meaning a big rip is likely. Using the Planck microwave background information astrophysicists calculated the Equation of State Parameter, getting a value of -1.028 =/-0.032, suggesting that the Big Rip could be likely in about 188 billion years. 

Vacuum Decay: The discovery of the Higgs Boson was a big driver of this model. The standard model of particle physics includes various quarks, leptons (such as the electron), gauge bosons (force carriers), and the Higgs boson. Gauge bosons are responsible for the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and electromagnetism. Masses can be calculated and the stability of physics can be determined. The Higgs field sets the rules for how physics works, but the value of the field is thought to have changed at one time in the lifespan of the universe. Our laws of physics are meta-stable, they are stable for now. Dr Mack likened it to a glass on a table, safe for now, but vulnerable to be knocked over- it would be more stable on the floor. The Vacuum State is the lowest energy state and determines the rules of physics for the universe- there are two vacuum states, a false vacuume state and a true vacuum state. If we are in a false vacuum state and 'fall into' a true vacuum state, the laws of physics would alter and the nature of particles will change. We should be safe, but we live in a quantum mechanical universe, so barriers are never really barriers- eventually quantum tunnelling will occur and particles will cross barriers. Subatomic particles are governed by uncertainty, and even the Higgs field could be affected by quantum tunnelling, creating an expanding bubble of the true vacuum state which will cause atoms to fail to hold together. This would occur at the speed of light, so you would never see it coming. Dr Mack quoted a paragraph from a 1980 paper by Sidney Coleman and Frank De Luccia which she characterized as the most beautiful example of scientific poetry:  

“This is disheartening. The possibility that we are living in a false vacuum has never been a cheering one to contemplate. Vacuum decay is the ultimate ecological catastrophe; in a new vacuum there are new constants of nature; after vacuum decay, not only is life as we know it impossible, so is chemistry as we know it. “However, one could always draw stoic comfort from the possibility that perhaps in the course of time the new vacuum would sustain, if not life as we know it, at least some creatures capable of knowing joy. This possibility has now been eliminated.” 

The lecture was followed by a Q&A.  A question about the Big Crunch model led to a response that such a crunch might be an end, not followed by another Big Bang. A question about what lies outside the observable universe, beyond the Big Bang horizon led to the answer that the universe probably just carries on beyond what we can see- there is no sign of an edge. There was probably an inflation, an early rapid inflation, but we can't observe beyond it. 

What caused the change in the Higgs field value changing? That's a quantum mechanics question, but the behavior of the field probably resulted from the cooling of the primordial universe. By measuring the Higgs field, we can come to the conclusion that it could shift again. It's a technical, complicated question, difficult to translate into layperson's terms. 

Regarding dark matter, we have a good standard model for particle physics, and there are no big cracks, so there's no real data to point the way to go research-wise. We know we don't have the whole picture, but discovering what dark matter and dark energy are would open up whole new avenues of research. Why do we know so little about such prevalent components of the universe? They are invisible- dark matter only interacts with other matter gravitationally, it doesn't interact with electromagnetism (nor do neutrinos). There aren't enough neutrinos to account for dark matter though. We just don't know how to build a detector to find it. Dark matter particles might annihilate each other, creating normal matter, but that is theoretical. We can see how dark matter clumps by its gravitational effects, but we don't know what it is made of. Dark energy is even more difficult to study- it is uniformly distributed, invisible, and all it does is stretch space- it could be a property of space itself. We can look at growth of structures but that is not definite. 

Some bastard in the audience asked about the revival of a theory that primordial black holes might explain dark matter- Dr Mack noted that small black holes might explain it, but there are no good models for their formation. They can't be ruled out, but it's an idea that continually falls out of favor and gets revived. She is not optimistic about the black hole model, but it keeps coming back, with different mass ranges proposed.

Kudos to Dr Mack for delivering a mind-expanding and entertaining lecture, and to Dorian and Margaret for presenting it.  Thanks for presenting another fantastic Secret Science Club experience!

 For a taste of the end of the universe, presented in entertaining fashion, here is a video of Dr Mack presenting this topic:

 

 

Pour yourself a nice beverage and soak in that SCIENCE!!!

It's Life, Jim, But Not As We Know It

I only have a few minutes before joining with some old friends for a night of teleconferencing and a virtual board game, so this is just a quick post... This evening, Firefox' home page dished up an article which I might not necessarily agree with, but which is an interesting intellectual exercise: Do we share the planet with currently recognizable life forms? Such lifeforms, with a different biochemistry, alien to us, and therefore undetectable using current investigative techniques, would form a sort of 'shadow biosphere'. The concept, which I don't necessarily buy, reminds me of dark matter, for which there is evidence, but little interaction (besides gravitational forces).

Me being a smartass, I was reminded of this oldie:





It's a thought-provoking read, even if I don't necessarily buy it- an interesting intellectual exercise... and, hey, further inquiries could open up biological vistas previously unsuspected. I shall be pondering it even as I engage in contention with my old chums.

Secret Science Club Post Lecture Recap: Taking the Pulse of Gravitational Waves

Last night, I headed down to the beautiful Bell House, for this month's Secret Science Club lecture featuring Dr Chiara Mingarelli of the University of Connecticut and the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics. Dr Mingarelli is also a member of NANOGrav, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves. Taking the stage, Dr Mingarelli started off with a joke: "Thank you for clapping for my new tenure track position."

Dr Mingarelli started her lecture by acknowledging Black History Month and calling attention to the accomplishments of three African-American women... Katherine Johnson, is a former NASA computer who calculated orbital mechanics necessary for NASA's early forays into space, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Dr Jedidah Isler, is Yale University's first African-American woman PhD in astrophysics, and is an expert on blazars, the supermassive black hole powered galactic nuclei. Shirley Ann Jackson, MIT's first African-American woman PhD recipient, who was Chair of the NRC, president of RPI, and invented a portable fax machine.

After this topical introduction, Dr Mingarelli took us back to the deep past, the days soon after the Big Bang, when dark matter filaments spread throughout a very early universe. One billion years after the Big Bang, galaxies began to form as matter in halo clusters. Then galaxies began to form in spiral and elliptical shapes, the elliptical galaxies being the most massive galaxies, which have lost their spiral structure. Galaxies have supermassive black holes in their centers. Twenty four thousand light years from Earth, the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, thought to have 4.6 million solar masses, lies at the center of the Milky Way. Stars near Sagittarius A* have randomly distributed orbits, but further stars have regular orbits. Dr Mingarelli showed us an animation by Dr Andrea Ghez depicting the orbit of stars around the Milky Way's center, similar to this video:





Galaxies merge, and Dr Mingarelli noted that the supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies merge as well. This merging creates gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime which actually cause distance to stretch and squash. To illustrate this, she performed a funny 'gravitational wave dance'. She then turned the topic of the lecture to pulsars, which she likened to cosmic lighthouses. Pulsars are excellent clocks, as accurate as all but the most modern atomic clocks, flashing radio waves at regular intervals (though gravitational waves can change the distance between a pulsar and Earth). Pulsars were discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, whose supervisors at Cambridge University tasked her with looking for quasars. She discovered a periodic radio signal and was told to drop study of it, but she suspected that she would be kicked out of the program soon, so she studied this radio source with diligence. She initially called this radio source a 'periodic star' but a reporter gave the object the catchier name 'pulsar'. Her male supervisor won the Nobel prize for this discovery.

Pulsars serve as clocks, accurate to withing 100 nanoseconds over a decade. Redshift and blueshift in pulsars is caused by gravitation waves stretching and squashing distance. This doesn't happen very frequently, in fifteen years, no gravitational wave activity has been noted, suggesting longer wave periods or weaker gravitational waves. It's possible that, with better instruments, the entire galaxy may be purposed as a gravitational wave detector.

There are other means for detecting gravitational waves, such as LIGO, a ground-based laser interferometer. Dr Mingarelli had another dance to demonstrate how LIGO works, with one arm extending while another arm at a 90 degree angle contracts. She noted that the signal from two black holes colliding was about 100 hertz in frequency, which is audible. The colliding black holes which triggered LIGO were stellar mass black holes. When two supermassive black holes merge, they emit radiation from all over the electromagnetic spectrum: x-rays, UV light, radio waves. The LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission, slated for 2034, is designed to create a new avenue to explore the universe, meant to detect galaxy formation and mergers, subject important to cosmology and basic physics.

Dr Mingarelli then returned to the subject of timed pulsar arrays- the data sets are sufficiently long and of sufficient quality that the lack of results in signal detection is significant. Are there some sort of hangups in black hole mergers that reduce merger rates? Could black holes not be as massive as thought? One of the big problems of astrophysics is the Final Parsec Problem (PDF). Black holes sink to the bottom of gravitational wells until they get within a parsec of each other. Using only gravitational waves, it would take longer than the age of the universe to get the black holes to merge. The centers of galaxies are also filled with gas and stars, which might interact with black holes which 'slingshot' out matter, shrink, and lose energy so the black holes can finally merge after billions of years. If there are not enough stars, no merger will take place. Dr Mingarelli showed us a NASA video simulation of two black holes colliding:





As the black holes merge, their outer gas rings merge to form a circumbinary accretion disk. The merging black holes send out 'messengers', radiation and gravitational waves- by measuring the amplitude of these waves, we might be able to find out how the black holes merge, overcoming the final parsec problem. Dr Mingarelli posed a mind-bender of a question: do local conditions apply everywhere? It sounds ridiculous, it may be ridiculous, maybe there is no solution to the final parsec problem. In galactic mergers, a third galaxy results, with matter and energy ejected in the merger.

If no results are found through pulsar timing arrays by 2030, scientists will have to ask some hard questions- do all galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers? Dr Mingarelli asserted that the science is doable, and scientists are doing it. She hinted at something exciting occurring, with detection possibly occurring within three years. She posed the question, do the models reflect reality? Do black holes have less mass than thought? Are their 'weirder' factors at play? The binary supermassive black hole problem should be resolvable, and one possible binary has been found using 'maps' of the cosmos. Not a lot of weird stuff has been detected by using pulsar timing arrays, but they may help astrophysicists figure out which galaxies harbor supermassive black holes, though such supermassive black holes might be decoupled from their gas accretion disks when we find them. There is probably a 'sweet spot' for supermassive black holes, bigger might not be better. At ten to the tenth power solar masses, mergers might take place too quickly, at lower masses, the energy of mergers might be hard to detect. The 'goldilocks zone' might be around one billion solar masses.

Dr Mingarelli noted that the Sombrero Galaxy might be one of the best candidates for the search while M87 might be too big, to difficult to detect a supermassive black hole in. The object of the search is to learn how galaxies develop and grow.

Dr Mingarelli followed the lecture up with a Q&A session. The first question regarded LIGO, and its limitation to low-frequency waves- Dr Mingarelli joked that if the wavelengths are too long, LIGO is no-go. Another question regarded dark matter- if dark matter follows the MACHO model, it could interact with black holes, but such interaction is hard to detect.

Asked about the ten year time frame, Dr Mingarelli noted that the most pessimistic model has the gravitational waves discovered withing ten years, if not, then something is broken with the model.

A question about Jocelyn Bell Burnell's biography elicited a sad tale of sexism... she had a child while getting her PhD, so she worked an array of temp jobs, as did her husband. Her salary was capped because, combined with her husband's salary, the family income would have exceeded that of her department head. She was also an Irish woman working in the UK during the Troubles. When she was finally awarded the Breakthrough Prize, she donated the winnings for a scholarship for refugees and migrants. Dr Mingarelli half-jokingly referred to her as St Jocelyn of the Pulsar.

Asked whether she herself faced discrimination, Dr Mingarelli said yes, but not as much as women of color typically face. She noted a subtle discrimination, having comments ignored, then attributed to male colleagues. She stated that things could get better, but that topic is a different talk.

I make no bones about having a bio bias, so it's important for me to pay heed to the physics and astrophysics lectures. Dr Mingarelli spoke about some heady subjects and leavened her talk with humor, so the brain-bending was accompanied by funny bone tickling. Her lecture also combined both the joy of discovery and the righteous indignation of an advocate for better representation of underserved populations in the STEM fields. This combination of hard science and sound policy is exactly what I expect from the Secret Science Club. Kudos to Dr Mingarelli, Dorian and Margaret, and the staff of the beautiful Bell House.

Here's a video of Dr Mingarelli lecturing about pulsar timing array and black hole mergers. This video is bound to stretch and squash your brain like gravitational waves stretch and squash signals from pulsars:





Pour yourself a nice beverage and soak in that SCIENCE!!!

Going Back to the 'Tor' Well

Last Saturday, I riffed off of a post on the Tor Publishing website, and I am going back to that well for tonight's post. One of today's posts celebrated the birthday of SFF author Poul Anderson, an author I have only mentioned in passing in a couple of posts. Anderson wrote a wide variety of science fiction and fantasy works, ranging from Space Opera to Grim Norse Saga. He was also an early member of The Society for Creative Anachronism, and wrote a humorous essay, 'On Thud and Blunder' as cautionary advice to writers approaching All Things Medieval in a slipshod fashion.

My personal favorite novel by Anderson is 1954's The Broken Sword, published the same year as another notable 'elfy' book. The Broken Sword is the progenitor of 'grimdark' fantasy, a violent tale of a doomed protagonist bearing a cursed sword on a campaign of vengeance. Set in a Faerie-haunted Dark Ages Europe which is rapidly coming under the sway of a new god whose name the supernatural denizens cannot bear, the novel concerns a war between the two major powers of Faerie, the elfs and the trolls. The hero, Skafloc, is a human fosterling of an English elfin noble who kidnapped him to further his martial aims- humans can bear iron weapons and Christian exorcisms. The principal antagonist is Valgard, the half-troll/half-elf changeling (engendered in an evil fashion by the amoral elf lord) left in Skafloc's place, who grows up to be his soulless mirror-image. The two virtually identical beings, manipulated by fate, eventually meet in a 'you die, she dies, everybody dies' plot worthy of an Icelandic saga.

The book is refreshingly short compared to the interminable door-stop series that plague the Fantasy Industrial Complex. Anderson throws out paragraphs of exposition which, in and of themselves, put to shame most modern 'brick of paper' post-D&D fantasy 'epics'. This bit alone could form the basis of a twelve volume 'WAR OF GODS AND ELVES' series:


"The hardest fight was on a desert shore with a troop of exiled gods, grown thin and shrunken and mad in their loneliness but still wielding fearsome powers. Three elf ships were burned after the fight, there being none left to man them, but Imric was the victor."


While the book deals with horrific crimes (the elfs it portrays are a far cry from Tolkien's superhuman good-guys), it doesn't revel in depravity- the transgressive passages are short and matter-of-fact, the sort of laconic passages one would find in a Norse saga or the newspaper police blotter. The hero is likeable and capable, but his descent into a doom-laden destiny prevents him from being a mere 'male wish-fulfillment' figure. The villain is thoroughly despicable, though his helplessness due to his soulless nature (and his realization that he is a 'counterfeit' of another being) lends him an air of pathos.

The Broken Sword is a quick read, the plot is a thriller, the action portrayed with gusto. As I mentioned before, it throws out more ideas, more eldritch imagery, than most multi-volume series by lesser authors. If you were intrigued by the gray morality of the television series Game of Thrones, you should read the book, it delivers the same punch with much more economy. While I love The Lord of the Rings, I think it had, overall, a deleterious effect on the genre, with the 'gotta write a trilogy' model taking place of the one-and-done model.

Secret Science Club North Post Lecture Recap: The Universe Splitter

Tonight, I headed down to the scintillating Symphony Space, on Manhattan's Upper West Side, for the latest Secret Science Club North lecture, featuring all-star physicist Dr Sean Carroll of Caltech. Dr Carroll's latest book is Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime. This was not Dr Carroll's first Secret Science Club Rodeo, so I was prepared to be informed, entertained, and a little baffled by the quantum physics that Dr Carroll studies. After an introduction by Dorian and Margaret, Dr Carroll received a second introduction by Dr Brian Greene, Columbia University physicist and chairman of the World Science Festival.

Dr Carroll began his lecture with a humorous thought experiment, The Universe Splitter, a 'quantum-involved universe bifurcator'. He sent a signal to a particle accelerator in Europe, and the result of a sensor detecting a particle determined whether he would jump to the left or to the right. With the result he received, he ended up jumping to the left, and joked that, according to the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum physics, in another universe he had jumped to the right. He then noted that quantum physicists are good at making predictive models, but that they haven't succeeded in understanding the underlying reality. Regarding quantum physics, Richard Feynman once said: "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." Quantum mechanics are necessary for the production of semiconductors, transistors, microchips, lasers, and computer memory... we use quantum mechanics though we don't understand quantum mechanics.

The classic Rutherford model of the atom consists of a nucleus surrounded by electrons in discrete orbits, but this model is incorrect. In this model, electrons should lose energy by radiation, which would mean that they spiral down to the nucleus, causing the atom to collapse. Electrons actually function in a wavelike fashion (a phenomenon known as the wave function). Even the single electron of a hydrogen atom should appear as a cloud, rather than a distinct particle. Wave functions over time are described by the Schrödinger equation, which describes the energy of a state and the rate of change- basically, how much energy and how fast it is moving. High energy states entail rapid movement while low energy entails slow movement.

When observed, electrons look like particles- Dr Carroll described wave functions as 'shy', they collapse when observed, appearing to be localized at specific values. This property of being undefined until observed is known as the Copenhagen interpretation, which posits two sets of rules for quantum mechanics- one when nobody is looking, another when there is an observer. This was considered by some physicists unacceptable as a fundamental theory of nature. There are two problems... the ontology problem can be summed up as 'what is wave function?' The measurement problem can be summed up as 'what does observation involve?'

Dr Carroll described Hugh Everett as a 'quantum therapist' who tried to get everyone to 'chill out'. He posited that wave functions don't actually collapse, but obey the Schrödinger equation. It is now known that the Higgs boson can decay into an electron and a positron. The Higgs boson has zero spin, while the resultant electron and positron have either upward or downward spin- when the Higgs boson splits, there is a conservation of spin as the resultant particles' spin cancels each other out. The particles are entangled, and as soon as the direction of spin for one is determined, that of the other can be determined as well. Hugh Everett proposed that there is really on one wave function, a Wave Function of the Universe with only one state, due to entanglement.

Dr Carroll then gave us a brief overview of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, comparing various classic and quantum models of the experiment. Everett posited that there was no 'collapse' of wave function on observation- in the experiment, the observer is in a quantum state as well as the cat, and opening the box involves a superposition, most people don't feel that they are in a superposition. Decoherence is the entanglement of quantum particles with the environment, and takes place before measurement can occur. Wave function splits represent different outcomes, and once diverged, will never effect each other again- as Everett described it: "It is as if they were in seperate worlds." When the divergence occurs, the universe isn't 'doubled', the existing 'amount of universe' is divided. Of course, there are objections to the 'many worlds interpretation'... the first is that it would result in 'too many universes'. The second objection is that the theory is not falsifiable, though Dr Carroll characterized falsifiablity as an outdated concept.

There are a couple of 'reasonable questions' regarding quantum mechanics... Why are probabilities of a particle being in a particular place, according to Schrödinger's equation, given by the square of the wave function? How does the classic world emerge from quantum processes? To answer the first question, probability is epistemic, not objective. Even unobserved wave functions can be explained by the equation. In finding the classic world, we still tend to privilege what we see over what is. Reality doesn't start off with the classic model and veer off into the quantum, it starts off in the quantum world.

Dr Carroll noted that interactions are local in space, that there is no real 'spooky action at a distance'- things interact with things that 'they bump into'. Space can be defined as the set of variables in which these interactions occur. Space is curved, and the distortion in space by objects is known as gravity. While there is a so-so 'quantum theory of gravity', Dr Carroll suggested that researchers not try to 'quantize' gravity, but to find gravity within quantum mechanics.

Quantum field theory posits that the universe is best modeled as a system of interacting fields, not particles. The relative proximity of objects is determined by their entanglement, and as more fields become entangled, geometry emerges... Dr Carroll advised us that this is just a hypothesis. The amount of entanglement of two systems is related to the entropy of either one. As particles are added to a system, entanglements are broken, increasing the energy and the entropy of the system. The geometry of spacetime can emerge from entanglement and the quantum wave function.

After this heady lecture, Dr Carroll advised us, "Stop doing whatever you are doing, and try quantum physics."

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session. One funny question involved a 'conservation of embarassment'- is there a theory which is less 'embarrassing' than the many worlds interpretation, which doesn't involve other worlds. Dr Carroll told the questioner, 'Don't worry.' There's no need to be embarrassed because many theories have fallen by the wayside. A question regarding the heat death of the universe received a quick, jocular, 'Are you waiting for it?' The universe is fourteen billion years old, the future may be infinite, but with increasing emptiness. Dr Carroll advised, 'Live your life now, you only have ten to the fifteenth years left.' Regarding quantum mechanics and consciousness, Dr Carroll quipped, 'Nobody really understands either.' Regarding the 'simulation hypothesis', Dr Carroll talked about how theorizing about the construction of artificially conscious creatures led to the question, 'Could we be such creatures?' He dismissed it with a curt, 'I don't buy it.'

A question regarding the probability of wave action being the wave function squared was answered with the assertion that wave functions can interfere with each other, and action tends to follow the path of least resistance.

Another question involved the possibility of freaking people out with such esoteric subject matter as the many-worlds interpretation, and Dr Carroll joked, 'Freaking people out is a feature, not a bug.' The narrative becomes weirder because it deviates more from the traditional views of existence. He noted that he is not existentially worried about the existence of other worlds, and that how you live your life should be no different if there are many worlds or just one.

The last question was a simple 'What about time?' That, the good doctor said, was another lecture.

I didn't get a question in during the Q&A session, but I did ask Dr Carroll about quantum models of dark matter and dark energy during the post-lecture book signing. He said that dark matter is boring, it'll probably be just another particle eventually discovered, regarding dark energy, he tantalizingly noted that there is a section about it in the book.

Once again, the Secret Science Club has dished out a fantastic lecture. Kudos to Dr Carroll, Margaret and Dorian, and the staff of the scintillating Symphony Space for delivering the goods. It was a night of heady subject matter, but Dr Carroll was able to cover it cogently and coherently. Here's a video of the good doctor discussing the many worlds interpretation:





Pour yourself a refreshing beverage and soak in that SCIENCE!

Busy Tuesday

Typically, Tuesday is a day off for me, but today was an exception- it was the day of our all-staff meeting. It was a good day, seeing my assembled coworkers, many of whom are seasonal, so I hadn’t seen them in months. We had presentations by our educational team on some new projects, and our buildings and grounds staffs gave an overview of a major site renovation/restoration project on one of our sites. I was in awe at the assembled talent on display today- I have some incredible coworkers. Our president gave a speech in which he got a bit political, he opined that our mission is to foster the humanities, and to counter the forces which divide us. Apparently, this ruffled some feathers, and he was mildly criticized during the lunch break, to the extent that he apologized for ‘stepping over the line into politics’. I approached him after the meeting and told him that he hadn’t stepped into politics, but politics stepped over the line, that false controversies were stirred up by bad actors.

After the all-staff meeting, my immediate boss and I met with a young man who had applied to replenish my gutted department. He seemed like a nice guy, a Yonkers resident like myself. I made sure to ask him if he were comfortable working outside at night, in the dark, and told him that two guys were unable to finish a shift because they were scared of the dark. This guy is a Yonkers guy, so I think he will be okay. It’s now a matter of HR checking his references and conducting a background check. In the meantime, HR finally promoted one of my subordinates to a full time position. For the record, he can run people the wrong way because he’s utterly candid, but I think every organization needs someone who tells you exactly what he thinks- while arguing for making him full-time, I told my boss, “The only times I wanted to punch him in the nose were times when he was right.” Looks like his candid approach rubbed off on me. With his promotion, much of our staffing crisis goes away, but we could use two more part-timers.

It was a long day, but a productive one. The busy season starts tomorrow, and I feel better about the coming weeks than I did yesterday.

Search for Dark Matter Sheds Light on Neutrinos

Science works... spending on science is important because scientific inquiry in one topic often pays dividends in other areas of inquiry. Recently, a facility designed as a dark matter detector has observed a two-neutrino double electron capture, a radioactive decay process by which two protons in an atomic nucleus absorb two electrons and release two neutrinos. The next project will be to observe is a neutrinoless electron capture is possible, which would imply that neutrinos are their own antiparticles. The search is still on for dark matter, which is thought to compose 27% of the universe's makeup, but which only interacts with baryonic matter through the force of gravity.

My go-to authority on the... uhhhhh... matter of dark matter is Dr Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University, who delivered two Secret Science Club lectures on dark matter. Here's a TED talk by the good doctor on dark matter:





For a more in-depth exploration of the matter, the Fermilab has an hour and a half lecture by Dr Natarajan on dark matter and black holes. While the subject matter may be hard to wrap one's head around, I think that Dr Natarajan's almost musical accent makes the lecture fun to listen to even if you are physics averse.

The Secret Science Club also featured a lecture on neutrinos by Dr Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto. I am particularly enchanted with the idea of tying together our knowledge of the infinitesimally small universe within each atom with our knowledge of the mind-bogglingly vast multiverse. Science, I repeat, works.

Death of a Literary Titan

It's been a momentous week, and not in a good way. I've been working through the events of the week one post at a time, and I've now come to my post about the death of one of my all-time favorite authors, Gene Wolfe, who died last Sunday at the age of 87. I have posted about Wolfe off-and-on for years. Gene Wolfe was a genre writer, he wrote science fiction, fantasy, and a bit of horror fiction, but the general consensus, which I share, is that he rivaled any 'literary' author.

I first encountered Gene Wolfe in high school, when I read a tale in an anthology which haunted me, though I forgot the name of the author in the press of academic work and extracurricular activities. The long short story, which I later rediscovered was Seven American Nights, about a traveler from a technologically advanced Iran to a decrepit, backwater of a United States, has staying power with its slow burn of a narrative, in which details accumulate in the reader's mind until an 'aha' moment which punches the reader in the gut:

There seems to be no logic to the prices in this country, save for the general rule that foodstuffs are cheap and imported machinery-cameras and the like--costly. .Textiles are expensive, which no doubt explains why so many of the people wear ragged clothes that they mend and dye in an effort to make them look new. Certain kinds of jewelry are quite reasonable; others sell for much higher prices than they would in Teheran. Rings of silver or white gold set, usually, with a single modest diamond, may be had in great numbers for such low prices that I was tempted into buying a few to take home as an investment, Yet I saw bracelets that would have sold at home for no more than half a rial, for which the seller asked ten times that much.


Wolfe often employed unreliable narrators, protagonists with memory issues, protagonists who are trying to deceive, or whose perception of events is colored by drug use or simple naiveté. A Wolfe story is a puzzle, in which the reader must pierce the fog of the simple narrative in order to suss out an approximation of what is actually occurring. Simply put, Wolfe forced his readers to become better readers.

Wolfe's first major book was The Fifth Head of Cerberus, a set of three intertwining novellas set in a distant star system on twin planets originally colonized by Francophone spacefarers. The first novella centers around a young man who is trying to come to grips with his home life under a despotic father who subjects him to a battery of different tests. The second is an anthropologist's account of a legend concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of one of the planets from before first contact with humans and possible extinction at their hands. The third novella ties together the first two, as the anthropologist who authored the legend synopsis is interrogated in prison. The connections between the novellas have to be pieced together by the reader- small details in each possible refer to events in the other novellas, but nothing is made explicit. Like all of Wolfe's books, The Fifth Head of Cerberus rewards re-reading with an attention to detail, so details revealed later can be correlated with previous elements of the story.

Wolfe's magnum opus is The Book of the New Sun, originally published in four volumes. This novel, which superficially seems a love letter to my beloved Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories, also features an unreliable narrator, a man who claims to have a perfect memory, but has grown up in a sheltered environment with a limited, specialized education... he might also be deceptive at times. The story takes place in a far-distant future, when the sun of Urth is moribund, the planet's natural resources have been depleted, society is divided into a vast population of poor people living under pre-modern conditions and a tiny minority of ultra-wealthy persons with access to high technology, and so much history has taken place that, as Wolfe once wrote: “If we are remembered at all, it will be as the contemporaries of Herodotus and Mark Twain.” Details of the planet's antiquity come in hints, references to things poorly understood by Severian, the narrator:


The picture he was cleaning showed an armored figure standing in a desolate landscape. It had no weapon, but held a staff bearing a strange, stiff banner. The visor of this figure's helmet was entirely of gold, without eye slits or ventilation; in its polished surface the deathly desert could be seen in reflection, and nothing more.

This warrior of a dead world affected me deeply, though I could not say why or even just what emotion it was I felt. In some obscure way, I wanted to take down the picture and carry it - not into our necropolis but into one of those mountain forests of which our necropolis was (as I understood even then) an idealized but vitiated image. It should have stood among trees, the edge of its frame resting on young grass.


Wolfe's particular genius in The Book of the New Sun was making his protagonist a professional torturer, raised in his guild since infancy. The narrative arc involves his exile from the 'Order of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence' for showing mercy to a prisoner he has fallen in love with, and his exposure to the world outside of the cloistered environs of the the most curious tower in which he lived:


But perhaps before I write further I should explain something more of the nature of our Matachin Tower. It is situated toward the back of the Citadel, upon the western side. At ground level are the studies of our masters, where consultations with the officers of justice and the heads of other guilds are conducted. Our common room is above them, with its back to the kitchen. Above that is the refectory, which serves us as an assembly hall as well as an eating place. Above it are the private cabins of the masters, in better days much more numerous. Above these are the journeymen's cabins, and above them the apprentices' dormitory and classroom, and a series of attics and abandoned cubicles. Near the very top is the gun room, whose remaining pieces we of the guild are charged with serving should the Citadel suffer attack. The real work of our guild is carried out below all this. Just underground lies the examination room; beneath it, and thus outside the tower proper (for the examination room was the propulsion chamber of the original structure) stretches the labyrinth of the oubliette.


The real power of The Book of the New Sun is that it is a story about stories. On the Vancian framework, Wolfe hung allusions to Borges, Robert Graves, Rudyard Kipling, Herman Melville... in order to 'get' the book, one is required to read other books. The novel features numerous subsidiary stories, as storytelling is a favorite pastime of the characters who live in a resource-poor milieu. The far-future setting is reinforced by ancient legends in which the Minotaur and the Monitor are conflated, in which The Jungle Book, the legend of Romulus and Remus, and the founding of the Plymouth colony are mashed-up. One of Wolfe's greatest achievements was coming up with a counter to Orwell's Newspeak when he has a prisoner of war from a totalitarian society which has reduced its language to Goodthink phrases from an equivalent to Mao's Little Red Book join in a storytelling contest for the hand of a soldier in a field hospital. Wolfe was confident that the human spirit could prevail even in the face of Orwellian thought-control:


The next morning, when we had eaten and everyone was awake, I ventured to ask Foila if it was now time for me to judge between Melito and Hallvard. She shook her head, but before she could speak, the Ascian announced, “All must do their share in the service of the populace. The bullock draws the plow and the dog herds the sheep, but the cat catches mice in the granary. Thus men, women, and even children can serve the populace.”

Foila flashed that dazzling smile. “Our friend wants to tell a story too.”

“What!” For a moment I thought Melito was actually going to sit up. “Are you going to let him—let one of them—consider—”

She gestured, and he sputtered to silence. “Why yes.” Something tugged at the corners of her lips. “Yes, I think I shall. I’ll have to interpret for the rest of you, of course. Will that be all right, Severian?”

“If you wish it,” I said.

Hallvard rumbled, “This was not in the original agreement. I recall each word.”
“So do I,” Foila said. “It isn’t against it either, and in fact it’s in accordance with the spirit of the agreement, which was that the rivals for my hand—neither very soft nor very fair now, I’m afraid, though it’s becoming more so since I’ve been confined in this place—would compete. The Ascian would be my suitor if he thought he could; haven’t you seen the way he looks at me?”

The Ascian recited, “United, men and women are stronger; but a brave woman desires children, and not husbands.”

“He means that he would like to marry me, but he doesn’t think his attentions would be acceptable. He’s wrong.” Foila looked from Melito to Hallvard, and her smile had become a grin.

“Are you two really so frightened of him in a storytelling contest? You must have run like rabbits when you saw an Ascian on the battlefield.”

Neither of them answered, and after a time, the Ascian began to speak: “In times past, loyalty to the cause of the populace was to be found everywhere. The will of the Group of Seventeen was the will of everyone.”

Foila interpreted: “Once upon a time …”


Gene Wolfe converted to Catholicism when he married his wife Rosemary, and his was a convert's zeal without a convert's dogmatism. Catholic themes, and Catholic imagery pervade his works- allusions to the Eucharist, meditations on sin and redemption, and biblical analogies. He was also a conservative before the word was tainted by anti-intellectualism and bigotry. He occasionally wrote about environmental themes, particularly in the context of energy production and use of chemicals in our foodways. One particular favorite quote of mine comes from his short story The Adopted Father:


John Parker crossed to the window and stared at the dark sky beyond the glass. "That's coal smoke, the technology of the Nineteenth Century brought into the Twenty-First and hard at work. They could have conquered the solar system and harnessed the sun, but they did this instead, because there was no fun involved. Their great-grandfathers had done it, and they knew it would work."

Regarding the decrepit setting of The Book of the New Sun, Wolfe wrote:


The challenge to science fiction today is not to describe a slightly hyped-up present, but a real future- a time radically unlike the present, that is. Clearly , there are more than one of these futures, there is the future in which mankind returns to the sea for new sources of food and raw materials. There is the future of extermination. I decided that the future most in keeping with the dark figure I had planned and his journey toward war was what I call the do nothing future, the one in which humanity clings to its old home, the continents of Earth, and waits for the money to run out.


One of Wolfe's most harrowing passages comes from the haunting Seven American Nights:


After I found my pistol and assured myself that it was still in working order, I dragged the thing to a spot of moonlight. When I glimpsed it on the roof, it had seemed a feral dog, like the one I had shot in the park. When it lay dead before me, I had thought it a human being. In the moonlight I saw it was neither, or perhaps both. There was a blunt muzzle; and the height of the skull above the eyes, which anthropologists say is the surest badge of humanity and speech, had been stunted. until it was not greater than I have seen in a macaque. Yet the arms and shoulders and pelvis-even a few filthy rags of clothing---all bespoke mankind. It was a female, with small, flattened breasts still apparent on either side of the burn channel.

At least ten years ago I read about such things in Osman Aga's Mystery Beyond the Sun's Setting; but it was very. different to stand shivering on a deserted street corner of the old capital and examine the thing in the flesh. By Osman Aga's account (which no one, I think, but a few old women has ever believed) these creatures were in truth human beings-or at least the descendants of human beings. In the last century, when the famine gripped their country and the irreversible damage done to the chromosomal structures of the people had already become apparent, some few turned to the eating of human flesh. No doubt the corpses of the famine supplied their food at first; and no doubt those who ate of them congratulated themselves that by so doing they had escaped the effects of the enzymes that were then still used to bring slaughter animals to maturity in a matter of months. What they failed to realize was that the bodies of the human beings they ate had accumulated far more of these unnatural substances than were ever found in the flesh of the short-lived cattle. From them, according to Mystery Beyond the Sun's Setting, rose such creatures as the thing I had killed.


Earlier in the story, the narrator notes:


Everyone knows that these Americans were once the most skilled creators of consciousness-altering substances the world has ever seen.

The same knowledge that permitted them to forge the chemicals that destroyed them (so that they might have bread that never staled, innumerable poisons for vermin, and a host of unnatural materials for every purpose) also contrived synthetic alkaloids that produced endless feverish imaginings.

Surely some, at least, of these skills remain. Or if they do not,, then some of the substances themselves, preserved for eighty or a hundred years in hidden cabinets, and no doubt growing more dangerous as the world forgets them. I think that someone on the ship may have administered some such drug to me.


Maybe Gene wrote this as expiation for his role in creating Pringles.

I could go on gushing about Gene Wolfe, and cutting-and-pasting particular favorite passages of mine, but I've gone on long enough, and I'm distracting you from reading the man's work itself. Suffice it to say that we lost a literary titan, and a particular favorite of mine. As I have noted before, Gene Wolfe raised the bar for his readers, he demanded that we become better at reading, and that we read more and that we read more carefully. For that, I will always be grateful to him.

Not a Manic Pixie Dream Girl...

One of my weekly must reads is Tor Books' Lovecraft Reread, in which Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth conduct a study of the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and authors, who like themselves, were inspired by the 'Lovecraft Mythos'. It's a fun sort of book club, and Ruthanna and Anne do a great job at exploring and deconstructing the good (an imaginative blend of science fiction and horror fiction) and bad (racism and xenophobia) of Lovecraft.

The current discussion involves “The Seal of R’lyeh” by August Derleth who is simultaneously lauded for saving the writings of Lovecraft from lapsing into obscurity and derided for imposing his own biases on Lovecraft's conceptions, namely a trite good-vs-evil narrative and a silly correspondence between Lovecraft's alien 'gods' and the classic elements. Lovecraft's eldritch elders were portrayed as being so alien that human concepts of morality were meaningless to them and human knowledge of matter was insufficient to comprehend their makeup. Derleth's fiction in effect hammered Lovecraft's creations into anthropocentric holes.

Since I'm discussing the story and its tropes, I figure that I should give any readers a huge SPOILER WARNING for a whole bunch of stories, starting with H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth. For those who have no interest in reading the story, but want to continue, here's a nice minute-and-a-half summary:





Alright, with that out of the way, Derleth's story is based on The Shadow Over Innsmouth, a continuation of the narrative of the inhabitants of that decaying seaside town. It follows the Derlethian cliché of a young man inheriting an ancestral home and discovering the recondite, outré lore hidden within. Derleth used the same trope in such forgettable stories as "The Return of Hastur" and "Beyond the Threshold"... lot of grandfatherly and avuncular wizards in Derleth's Lovecraft pastiches. In the case of "The Seal of R’lyeh", the protagonist inherits a home in the vicinity of Innsmouth, which instantly telegraphs the direction in which the narrative will go to the Lovecraft savvy. The story does, however, portray the Innsmouth natives in a somewhat sympathetic light, and even features an example of a 'sexy Deep One':


She was twenty-five, but there were days when she looked much younger, and other days when she looked older. I went to her home, found her, asked her to come towork for me days. She had a car of her own, even if but an old-fashioned Model T; she could drive up and back; and the prospect of working in what she called strangely,“Sylvan’s hiding,” seemed to appeal to her. Indeed, she seemed almost eager to come, and promised to come that day still, if I wished her to. She was not a good-looking girl,but, like my uncle, she was strangely attractive to me, however much she may have turned others away; there was a certain charm about her wide, flat-lipped mouth, and her eyes, which were undeniably cold, seemed often very warm to me.


Even though the initial portrayal of the Deep Ones was meant to elicit revulsion, the sexy fishwife trope actually began with Lovecraft himself:


She was, I judge, about twenty-three at the time; and was taking a special course in mediaeval metaphysics at Miskatonic. The daughter of a friend of mine had met her before—in the Hall School at Kingsport—and had been inclined to shun her because of her odd reputation. She was dark, smallish, and very good-looking except for overprotuberant eyes; but something in her expression alienated extremely sensitive people. It was, however, largely her origin and conversation which caused average folk to avoid her. She was one of the Innsmouth Waites, and dark legends have clustered for generations about crumbling, half-deserted Innsmouth and its people. There are tales of horrible bargains about the year 1850, and of a strange element “not quite human” in the ancient families of the run-down fishing port—tales such as only old-time Yankees can devise and repeat with proper awesomeness.


The sexy Deep Ones trope has also cropped up in stories by James Wade and Charles Stross, and movies such as Grinding Nemo and The Shadow of Innsmouth adaptation Dagon, in which Macarena Gomez manages to be both sexy as hell and super-scary:

Hey, baby why don't you smile more?

"The Seal of R’lyeh" is basically the old tale of 'boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy and girl mutate into fishpeople and go on a quest for the home/tomb of their evil alien god'. In the usual Lovecraft tale, the protagonist goes mad when he (it's always a d00d) learns about the terrifying reality that humans are a mere speck in a vast, indifferent cosmos. In "The Seal of R’lyeh", the protagonist learns about the terrifying reality that humans are a mere speck in a vast, indifferent cosmos, is okay with that, and goes off to have adventures with his squamous squeeze. I don't know if Derleth intended his story to be a spoof of his mentor's body of work, but "The Seal of R’lyeh" is a perfect inversion of the typical Lovecraft tale.

The story suffers from Derleth's typical sins of name-dropping Lovecraftian entities to pad the word count, and of referring to events from other 'mythos tales', which the narrator shouldn't be aware of. A little bit of Derleth goes a long way, but the general consensus, shared by myself, is that his stories usually wear out their welcome after a while. In one criticism of the story under consideration, Tor reader Ophid remarked:


I agree with most point, but Ada reminded me of a RomCom cliche: the woman who’s “different” simply because she’s not blonde and fashionably dressed and also just snarks at the male protagonist. Besides her appearance, I have no idea why Marius likes her; all she does is dangle what he doesn’t know in his face and makes digs at how little his parents taught him. Then she saves him from drowning and suddenly they’re married.


To which some Bastard replied: Heh, Manic Ichthy Dream Girl!