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!

Schrödinger's Hashtag, Schrödinger's Dictator

Towards the tail end of the graveyard shift this morning, I happened to see a trending hashtag on Twitter: #kimjongundead. I was immediately struck by the ambiguity of the hashtag- did it signify 'Kim Jong Un Dead' or 'Kim Jong Undead'? At the time I am writing this, Kim Jong Un, like Schrödinger's cat, is simultaneously dead and not-dead, existing in an undead quantum state.

The image of an undead Kim Jong Un, in my smartass mind, conjures up a paranormal romance between Trump and a vampire Kim, a sort of Twilight featuring two dumpy male leads. I really wish my photomanipulation skills were up to par... I really need to download GIMP again, with this quarantine on, I have time to practice using it.

It's still a little premature to write the lyrics to 'Rocketman Kim Jong's Dead':





Though when he croaks, it's a certainty that the North Korean regime will have virginal brides file past his tomb.

Schrödinger's Blackness

The effectiveness of a Democratic candidate can be determined by the intensity of Conservative attacks against them. Therefore, Kamala Harris' effectiveness after the second Democratic debate has spawned a bullshit campaign questioning her identity as a black woman. The coordinated troll campaign reached its nadir when Uday retweeted a notorious right-wing whacko and fraudster:

The 'inorganic' nature of this campaign was apparent from the start because so many of the social media posts were repeated verbatim. The anti-Harris campaign was amplified by the outré ADOS (American Descendants Of Slaves) 'movement', which seems to be a group of trolls trying to drive African-Americans away from the Democratic Party, and more troubling, trying to drive wedges between the various sub-populations of the African Diaspora. ADOS is a blend of Trumpism and gatekeeping... it's a more under-the-radar version of Candace Owens' grift-y Blexit. I'm a white dude, but I look askance at the ADOS contingent because, while Amadou Diallo's family never lived under Jim Crow, his 'blackness' was not questioned by the police officers who slew him. Some of them are even claiming that Kamala Harris' father was a white Jamaican descendant of slave owners. While the particular history of one enslaved Diaspora group differs from the history of other groups, their descendants tend to share the same experience of discrimination- racial profiling, redlining, and harsher police treatment.

Reading about this troll campaign, the phrase 'Schrödinger's Blackness' popped unbidden into my mind... to Conservatives, the 'blackness' of a Democrat of African descent is uncertain until a determination is made of the particular needs of a campaign, by which I mean smear campaign. Right now, while ratfuckers are trying to undermine Kamala Harris' support among African-American voters by claiming she's not a genuine 'black American' (sic), those very same ratfuckers will accuse her of being an 'angry black lady' when it suits their needs. These arbiters of blackness, many of them black Russians, are not acting in good faith. Meanwhile, decency prevails in other quarters. It's good to know that the pushback has been well-coordinated... Kamala Harris knows her lived experience, and can define her own approach to her African Diaspora heritage. If she wants to use this classic as her campaign theme song, she can do as she damn well pleases.

ADDENDUM: I googled the phrase 'Schrödinger's Blackness' and only came up with one other instance of its use, for a concept which differs from my use of the term, but that I suspect will also be used as a weapon against Kamala Harris.

Film Night at the Secret Science Club

Last night's program featured a film, rather than a lecture (August is a weird month, with a lot of people on vacation, and a lot of academics preparing for the upcoming school year). The featured film was the original BBC cut of Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, a documentary concerning the efforts of "Eels" frontman Mark Everett to gain an understanding of the life's work and legacy of his late father, the physicist Hugh Everett III, who proposed the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics (as opposed to the Copenhagen interpretation of Bohr and Heisenberg).

As an illustration of the Copenhagen interpretation, which (to grossly simplify things) posits the the observation of minute particles affects their properties), the Schrödinger's cat paradox, proposed by Erwin Schrödinger, gives us a grotesque scenario in which a cat in a sealed box o' doom is simultaneously alive and dead until an outside observer opens the box to determine the outcome of a bizarre experiment. The "many worlds" interpretation would posit that a divergence occurs, and that two parallel universes (one in which the cat lives, the other in which it dies) are spun off. Hugh Everett III traveled to Copenhagen to discuss his interpretation with Niels Bohr, with somewhat disastrous results, and his interpretation of quantum mechanics saw little acceptance outside of the realm of speculative fiction.

Most of the film deals with Everett fils tracking down his father's friends, colleagues, and "acolytes", and coming to terms with the legacy of a father with whom he had a cool, distant relationship. The film is emotionally moving, as well as intellectually stimulating, and the soundtrack is a good introduction to the music of the Eels. The perfidious BBC has disabled embedding for Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, so how about an embedded video from Parallel Lines?

Secret Science Club Post-Lecture Recap: Quantum Physics, It's What's for Breakfast

Last night, I headed down to the beautiful Bell House, in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn, for this month's Secret Science Club lecture featuring Dr Chad Orzel, of Union College's physics and astronomy department. Besides teaching at Union College, Dr Orzel has written science books for the general public, including How to Teach Physics to Your Dog and his newly released Breakfast with Einstein: The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects. Last night's lecture riffed off of Breakfast with Einstein, the central trope of which is an exploration of the role of physics in a typical American's morning routine.

Dr Orzel began his lecture with a declaration- you may thing that quantum physics is weird and exotic, remote from everyday life. This is a self-inflicted wound on the part of physicists, with even popular science writers publishing books with words such as 'enigma' and 'puzzle' in the title. Physicist Niels Bohr notably said: "Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it." Dr Orzel quipped that scientists inhabit the same world that everyone else does- they glean clues from everyday objects. He started with breakfast, specifically the glow of the heating elements of an electric toaster. The color of the glow is not dependent on the material of the element, but on its temperature. The color of an object dependent on its temperature was expressed by Wien's law. Black-body radiation is the thermal radiation emitted from an opaque, non reflective body :

The physics behind the problem of the black-body radiation spectrum is a hard problem to crack- there is a lack of radiation at ultraviolet wavelengths. A simple, obvious approach doesn't work to solve the problem. Black-body radiation can be modeled using a box with a small hole in it- light entering the box bounces around inside before escaping, most of the entering light gets absorbed by the walls of the box- what an observer sees in the hole doesn't depend on what entered- there is only a tiny leak of light from outside. A good analogy of this box model is a pipe organ- the pipes of an organ can be considered boxes with holes, only certain sound frequencies can occur in specific pipes, which accounts for the different pitches they produce. As waves travel back and forth, they interfere with each other, creating peaks and valleys. The symbol for wavelength is a lowercase lambda, with a single wave being defined as the distance for a wave to attain a peak, then descend to a valley, and return to the starting point. A single up-and-down motion is half a wave:

Light works in a similar manner as sound does- shorter wavelengths have longer frequencies. With the interaction of waves bouncing around within a box, there are lots of ways to produce various wavelengths. With the interaction of waves, a heating object, according to the classical physics model of the time, should emit an infinite amount of ultraviolet light and x-rays. Since this does not occur, this model was termed the ultraviolet catastrophe- Dr Orzel joked that this would be a great band name. Max Planck resorted to a 'desperate trick' to resolve the problem of black-body radiation, proposing that there were 'oscillators' in the walls of the box producing light, each oscillation having a characteristic energy which it can emit only in multiples of one. Planck was never quite satisfied with his 'solution' to the problem of black-body radiation. Quantum processes eliminate the problem, eliminating high energy. Dr Orzel then showed us an infamous image illustrating black-body radiation. Planck thought his solution was ugly, an inelegant trick. An 'obscure patent clerk in Switzerland', as Dr Orzel joked, proposed another solution- though light acted as waves, it was also made of particles, dubbed photons. A look at hot objects like toaster heating elements resulted in the start of quantum physics.

The second part of the morning routine which Dr Orzel invoked in his lecture was a beeping alarm clock. Neils Bohr observed that atoms of a particular element absorb and emit light at certain frequencies, each element has its own spectrum, producing bright bands at certain wavelengths:

By observing the different spectra, new elements could be identified. Dr Orzel advised us to think of electrons orbiting an atom's nucleus- an electron emits light when it moves from a high energy orbit to a low energy orbit. He described electrons as being 'happier' in certain orbital states, emitting light as they move between sites. Time is measured by the oscillations of cesium atoms, with one second being equivalent to 9,192,631,770 oscillations of a cesium atom. The U.S. Time Reference site derives the official time from atomic clocks, in which cesium atoms are cooled down, then released into a vacuum cavity in which they interact with microwave sources which measure oscillations- one of these atomic clocks could run continuously for one billion years before deviating by one second. Cell phones interact sync with these atomic clocks. A plug-in alarm clock syncs up with the alternating current from the wall outlet, sixty cycles per second. Dr Orzel quipped that even a cheap alarm clock uses quantum physics.

Dr Orzel joked that it takes three things to make a talk, so he moved onto his third example of everyday quantum physics- the internet. Computer operation depends on the most infamous thought experiment ever conceived, the Schrödinger's cat though experiment. In this thought experiment, a cat is placed in a diabolical device, a box equipped with a source of poison which can be triggered by the radioactive decay of an element also placed within the box. There is a fifty percent chance of the radioactive decay triggering the release of the poison within an hour. At the end of the hour, will the cat be alive or dead? According to quantum theory, the cat is both alive and dead until the box is opened, and the state of the cat is observed. According to Bohr, the special state of electrons explain the light bands of the spectrum, but this can't explain all states. Bohr attempted to find reasons why some states are special. In 1923, Louis de Broglie theorized that electrons, while particles, have the properties of waves, and that special states are due to oscillations. The theory that electrons behave as waves can be empirically tested through the 2 slit experiment- light shone through a barrier with two slits will create light and dark spots, an interference pattern. Atoms emitted through two slits will also create an interference pattern reminiscent of light waves. As hydrogen waves move through space, they spread out and electrons are shared between atoms over time, and electrical bonds are shared through atoms. The uncertainty of which electrons belong to which atoms are similar to the uncertainty about whether that cat in the box is alive or dead. A computer's silicon chips work via the control of electrons moving through a solid- the internet exists, as Dr Orzel joked for cat pictures, and because of Schrödinger's cat.

Dr Orzel wrapped up his lecture by stating that the ordinary activities we engage in every day are quantum at their roots, but that the discovery of quantum mechanics was a towering intellectual achievement, and that the people responsible for quantum theory are titans. Dr Orzel ended his lecture with a beautiful statement- he doesn't want to drag quantum theory down to the mundane level, he wants to elevate everyday occurrences.

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session. The first question involved the relationship between quantum mechanics and the standard model- quantum mechanics involves very small things, while the standard model works for bigger things. He noted that there is a smooth transition between quantum and standard wave models. Another question involved the possibility of quantum computing, which has generated a lot of buzz- the idea behind it is that the quantum mechanics can be mapped onto traditional systems so that a value can be either 0 or 1 or both. This would be useful for computing large values rapidly, and would be invaluable for code-breaking. Some bastard in the audience, wanting to open up a can of worms, asked whether Dr Orzel thought that string theory has any theoretical value- Dr Orzel, with good humor, noted that string theory has opened up some useful mathematical queries, but has not modeled anything. The following question involved the many worlds hypothesis, which posits that all possible measurements of atoms can occur- electrons are in many states, observers are in many states, and instruments are in many states. Heady stuff, that... A question regarding relativity elicited a funny response from Dr Orzel- quantum physics and special relativity play well together, up to fifteen decimal places, but quantum physics doesn't play well with general relativity. The problem is that quantum physics is 'spiky', and spikiness doesn't mesh well with the smooth spacetime of general relativity. Black holes are the one phenomenon where both play well together. Regarding math- physics depends on the, as Eugene Wigner put it, 'unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences'- the rapidly increasing computational power available to researchers has had a great effect on the sciences. The last question of the night involved quantum entanglement, Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance'- if two entangled particles are separated, even at great distances, effecting one will effect the other in similar fashion- the action will occur faster than the speed of light, even over arbitrarily large distances. The particles are in an uncertain state until measured, which prevents entanglement from being used for faster-than-light communication... the confirmation takes place at a rate slower than the speed of light. Well, so much for the ansible...

Dr Orzel delivered a great lecture- mindbending concepts served up as sweetly as a plate of waffles. His bringing the everyday tasks of a morning to the lofty heights of quantum theory was done with charm and humor. Put succinctly, he knocked it out of the park. Kudos to the good doctor, Margaret and Dorian, and the staff of the beautiful Bell House. Dr Orzel has a lot of videos on YouTube explaining various concepts in physics. Here is the video which is the precursor to his speech of last night:





Start your day with SCIENCE!

When Your Token Black Friend Turns Out to Be a Hotep

 I would love to know who was in charge of vetting CPAC speakers, but this year's roster is a doozy.  The prize for whackaloonery goes to an individual calling himself 'Young Pharaoh', who has, as a lot of whackos do, opinions about 'THE J00Z':







This week's CPAC is featuring a speaker named Young Pharaoh. In the past year, he's claimed that: 1) Judaism is a “complete lie”; 2) Jewish people are "thieving"; 3) and “all the censorship & pedophilia on social media is being done by Israeli Jews.” https://t.co/km1UFzl1IQ

— Eric Hananoki (@ehananoki) February 22, 2021

The delicious irony here is that Young Pharaoh's problematic content was brought to light by Media Matters for America, long considered a bugbear by the Right. To make matters even funnier, the theme of the conference this year is 'Uncancel America', yet Young Pharaoh was instantly 'canceled' when his outlandish views came to light. Those views are a doozy!

Yeah, this guy believes that there is no historical or scientific evidence for the existence of Jewish people. I'm thinking of running a Schrödinger's Jew experiment to prove the existence of Jews... I can lock a Jewish-presenting guy from the Lower East Side in an opaque box with a bag of Lender's frozen bagels. This individual's Jewishness won't be determinable until the box is opened and we can observe whether or not he plotzed because of substandard bagels. 

Young Pharaoh also believes in the QAnon conspiracy mega-theory and it's assorted suite of outré tenets. You, dear readers, are lucky that I have been unable to find his song about Jews eating babies, and no, I am not making that up. This is what happens when your token black friend is a hotep, a member of a subculture of Afrocentric men who tend to be extremely misogynistic, antisemitic, and homophobic... believers in Black Liberation, but Women's Subjugation. They tend to be right-wingers, and the white right is so vested in trying to paint Democrats as 'the real racists' that they are willing to embrace these whackjobs, until they are exposed as loons by liberal watchdog groups.

Best Possible Veep Pick

 I was out on the town when the news that Joe Biden had picked Kamala Harris as his running mate was announced, which gave me some time to consider the choice before commenting on it.  I think that Harris was the best pick for Biden.  She's relatively young, which will bypass fears of Biden's age being a factor in his term (Elizabeth Warren is a spetuagenarian, like Biden), and set her up for an eventual run in 2024 or 2028.  She's the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, so she ticks a number of boxes in the 'historic run' column (just joking here)... she will be able to speak eloquently about issues faced by women, immigrants, and people of color.  Harris has adopted the Green New Deal, which bodes well for solving environmental issues and creating well-paying jobs.  As a corollary, she is also dedicated to combating environmental racism.  To Joe Biden's credit, he nominated her even though she has never shied away from criticizing him throughout the primaries.

Predictably, Harris has been attacked by both the 'dirtbag left' and pretty much the entire right.  The lefties refrain that 'Kamala is a cop' has been countered by a public defender who had dealings with her in court.  One can certainly criticize such repressive policies as 'three strikes' law, but that can be laid at the feet of the voters.  Oddly enough, one right-wing rag that has written numerous pro-police, anti-protestor screeds has a 'Kamala is a cop' shirt for sale.  The right-wing has already started a bizarre farrago of attacks- she's a socialist radical, she's a repressive enforcer of unjust laws, she's not African-American, she's a black nationalist.  There are even weird 'gotcha' attacks about her sister's use of hydroxychloroquine to treat her lupus.  The election is going to be a shitstorm of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and conspiracy theories, all promulgated by the most hypocritical bungholes on the planet.  It's all they have, because Harris is a longtime public servant with some notable achievements under her belt.

I have no fear that these attacks will actually work, primarily because they are incoherent, but also because Kamala Harris is intelligent, unflappable, and has impressive knife skills:

 

She also doesn't take herself too seriously, which will serve her well on the campaign.  I think she will make a perfect foil for Joe Biden, and I hope this career move will eventually end up with her in the White House.  Now excuse me while I look up masala dosa recipes.

ADDENDUM: I figured I'd post a link to my 'Schrödinger's Blackness' post, because it will be relevant for the next three months to MUMBLEMUMBLE years.  Simply put, the blackness of any Democratic politician cannot be determined until a right-winger figures out what sort of smear campaign to wage against said Democrat.

No Excuses: Secret Science Club Lecture Recap... Finally!

On Monday night, I headed down to the beautiful Bell House, in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn, for the monthly Secret Science Club lecture, featuring theoretical chemist Dr Garnet Chan of Princeton University. On his website, Dr Chan describes his research focus thus:

Garnet Chan’s research lies at the interface of theoretical chemistry, condensed matter physics, and quantum information theory, and is concerned with quantum many-particle phenomena and the numerical methods to simulate them.

At the start of his lecture, which he titled "Simulation and Complexity of the Quantum World", Dr Chan gave a hilariously self-deprecating description of his work. He stated that he is a theoretical chemist, a chemist that doesn't perform chemistry experiments. He joked that he needed a kid to help him when he conducted his last experiment. Dr Chan then noted that he had looked at the descriptions of preceding talks, and that he wanted to tie some of the themes of previous lectures together, with an emphasis on the small scale. The goal of his research is simulating the quantum world, and that quantum mechanics is a complicated subject.

Dr Chan quipped that everybody tells lies about quantum mechanics, but that such lies are not indicative of low moral standards, but are simplifications because it's extremely hard to discuss quantum mechanics without bringing complex mathematics into the discussion. Physics operates from a massive scale to a tiny scale... the scale of the universe (dealing with objects in the 10²⁶ meter range) to the quantum scale (dealing with objects in the 10^-15 meter range). Theoretical chemistry involves bridging the macroscopic and the microscopic worlds, from the human scale to the scale of atoms and molecules. Dr Chan underscored the importance of the atomic theory by quoting Richard Feynman:

If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis that all things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied.

In our daily experience, the world appears to be continuous, but matter is discrete. The nature of matter was debated until approximately a century ago, the matter finally being theoretically settled by Einstein (PDF) and verified experimentally by the observation of Brownian motion by French physicist Jean Baptiste Perrin. Perrin observed that the motion of small starch particles was not continuous, but "jagged". If matter were contiguous, such motion would be smooth. If matter were composed of discrete bits, motion within the matter would be discrete. The rapidity with which a particle will change directions is equal to the number of collisions it is involved in- the ratio of the granule to the substrate, which is Avogadro's number.

Today, clearer evidence of atoms can be obtained through the use of scanning tunneling microscopes. Dr Chan described scanning tunneling microscopes as having a tip "one atom sharp", and the magnitude of the signal obtained by the electron microscope maps out the undulation of the surface of the substance scanned. At the atomic scale, though, things are "sticky", and the difference between the human scale and the atomic scale is so pronounced that it is difficult to make observations- there's no way to "see" inside atoms. Rather than bridging these scales in the real world, the "world of the atom" has to be digitally recreated in the computer world. It is crucial that the computer simulations are completely faithful to reality. The "laws of nature" are known- aside from Planck's scale (10³⁵ meters), the fundamental laws and particles of the universe are known. Dr Chan asked, "Is this the end of physics, or the start of something beautiful?"

Nature is made of many particles, it's not just a matter of "more of the same". Dr Chan used the analogy of a chess game to describe theoretical chemistry: we know the pieces, we know the basic interaction among the pieces, but we don't know the complexity of the game- the interaction of the known particles leads to nature's complexity.

Dr Chan then addressed the question: what is quantum mechanics? General relativity applies to the large-scale structures of the universe, while classical "Newtonian" mechanics suffice for the human scale. On the micrometer scale of atoms and molecules, Newton's predictions begin to break down. Quantum mechanics are the "theory of small", involving atoms, molecules, the strength of bonds, the color of materials, their "stickiness", their electrical properties- as an example of a subject pertinent to quantum mechanics, Dr Chan cited the adhesiveness of gecko feet.

The lecture then shifted to the topic of atoms, a subject Dr Chan called "high school redux". An atom can be illustrated as a nucleus surrounded by one or more electrons, which Dr Chan described as "a fine model, but a complete lie". The reality is that everything in quantum mechanics is "fuzzy" and indistinct- there is a fluidity to electrons, they are not discrete. These fuzzy particles move as waves do, changing shape as they go- the "billiard ball" model of a perfect rigidity localized at all times is inaccurate. Regarding the question of location, whether a particle is "here" or "there" or "both here and there", Dr Chan showed a picture of a wave and asked, "Is the wave at point A, point B, or point C?"

The measurement of the position of a particle is probabilistic, there is no definite answer. Dr Chan joked, "It's our problem, not the particle's." Measurement involves comparing referents to determine similarity- such a comparisons don't look like completely like any particular position. Measurement in quantum mechanics involves measuring fuzzy particles to localized positions probabilistically- there is no straight answer to the location of a particle. Dr Chan then displayed a lovely slide of the Schrödinger equation to show the mathematical model for measuring changes in a quantum system over time.

Simulating quantum mechanics is not easy- in the case of a single particle, one has to factor in the superposition of different local positions. When two particles are considered, they can exist in the superposition of many localized two particle configurations, with correlations between the particle positions- if one particle is "on the right", for example, the other can be considered "on the left". This correlation is known as quantum entanglement. Dr Chan described quantum entanglement as "strange". In an example using two particles, there is a 50/50 chance of either particle being "left" or "right", but if one particle is on the left, there is a 100% chance of the other particle being on the right. Does finding one particle on the left mean that the other particle is on the right? Dr Chan once again quipped, "It's our our problem, not the particles'!" We see a 50% chance that a particle is in a particular position, and we intuitively assume that it is accurate, but the position is uncertain.

When more particles are added to the mix, there is an explosion of possibilities- when two particles are involved, there are four (2²) possibilities, three particles yield eight (2³), one hundred particles yield 2¹⁰⁰ possibilities. Mathematically, there are myriad possibilities- simulating quantum mechanics appears exponentially complex due to the need to describe the possible positions of multiple particles. Dr Chan then noted that it is really an illusion of complexity- certain configurations of atoms can be ruled out. Nature does not explore all quantum possibilities, the world we have has special properties, such as gravity, that limit possibilities. Nature only produces local entanglement, in order to monitor what two particles are doing simultaneously, we only need to monitor two particles in the same region of space.

Dr Chan concluded with a discussion of the material benefits that could be obtained by a thorough understanding of quantum mechanics- specifically the development of high-temp superconductors and a "materials genome project" to map out all possible materials that can be developed.

In the Q&A, the topic of spooky entanglement was brought up, and Dr Chan brought up the inability of nature to generate entanglement over long distances. Some bastard in the audience, who was going to bring up spooky entanglement, had to go to a fallback question regarding string theory, which Dr Chan indicated was not a useful model in reality, but had led to some interesting mathematical models. Funny, on the macro level, Neil Degrasse Tyson also indicated that he was unimpressed with string theory. After the lecture, the bastard, not being a bastard in real life, apologized to Dr Chan for bringing up string theory, which said "bastard" considers a bunch of hooey.

Once again, the Secret Science Club served up a great lecture. Personally, it was useful to me, because quantum mechanics is one of those topics I don't spend enough time reading up on by inclination, which means I need to force myself to read about it more. It's kinda like pushups... I do them precisely because I'm not inclined to do them.

Secret Science Club Post-Lecture Recap: Physics, Philosophy, Fun

Last night, I headed to the beautiful Bell House, in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn, for this month's Secret Science Club lecture, featuring physicist Dr Sean Carroll of Caltech, the proprietor of the Preposterous Universe blog.

Dr Carroll began his lecture by noting the indignant questions he sometimes receives: How dare you contemplate the meaning of the universe or the origins of life? Who do you think you are? He noted that inquiring about the nature of the universe is an invitation to discussion, and an affirmation of the scientific project of deeper thinking. He noted that humans have a need for reasons, and cited the occasional danger of this, using the example of Lucia de Brek, a nurse in the Netherlands who received a life sentence for the deaths of her patients, though there was no concrete evidence of the crimes... as Dr Carroll put it, 'bad math convicted her'. The argument in favor of her conviction was based on statistics, the number of deaths of patients under her care seemed unlikely. When a statistician reviewed the numbers, it was revealed that the patient mortality rate actually went down during de Berk's tenure as a nurse. Dr Carroll observed that people don't want to accept patient deaths, we need reasons for them. Ms de Berk was exonerated and is now a free woman.

Dr Carroll noted that the philosophers Aristotle, Spinoza, and Leibnitz all averred that everything has a cause, a concept known as the Principle of Sufficient Reason- nothing occurs without a reason, things don't just randomly occur. To counter the PSR, Dr Carroll quoted the work of greeting card designer Emily McDowall: “Please let me be the first to punch the next person who tells you everything happens for a reason”

Teleology is the philosophical exercise of attempting to find causes and goals- if something moves, is something moving it? Teleology works with everyday things, it's a sensible thing to think that, if your coffee cup is moving, that something is moving it. It took centuries to discover that teleology doesn't always work on the deepest level- physics demands a different way of thinking that everyday life does. Bertrand Russell had a harsh view of teleology: “The law of causality, I believe, like much that passes muster among philosophers, is a relic of a bygone age, surviving, like the monarchy, only because it is erroneously supposed to do no harm.” In our everyday lives, the concepts of cause and effect are useful, but they aren't always useful to physicists.

The topic of the talk then shifted to the Conservation of Momentum... momentum (mass times velocity) keeps an object in a closed system moving with the same velocity. This contradicts the Aristotelian model, in which an object will sit still unless something is pushing it. The Persian polymath Ibn Sina was the first individual to propose the conservation of momentum, and proposed that, in a frictionless environment, a projectile would continue to move indefinitely. Galileo devised experiments to test this theory and Huygens devised the mathematical formula to describe it. There is no need to account for motion- momentum is natural, things just move, no reason for movement, no mover, is needed. Laplace was instrumental in the effort of building the science of physics from the observed 'laws of nature'. In a simple Newtonian model of the universe, there is a conservation of information. In the model known as Laplace's demon, if an intelligence understands the position and momentum of everything in the universe, that intelligence could calculate the position of everything throughout the past and the future. Dr Carroll noted that Laplace's demon is just a pattern- 6 precedes 7, but doesn't cause it.

Dr Carroll then brought up Frank Wilczek's Core Theory. The Core Theory involves quantum mechanics, spacetime and gravity, and matter interacting with the Higgs field. If one knows the Core Theory, one knows Pascal's demon- there is no meaning, no goal, and no judgment involved. Dr Carroll joked that there is one criterion for the acceptance of a physics model- does it fit on a T-shirt. He then displayed a diagram of the Core Theory, involving up quarks, down quarks, leptons, the strong force, the weak force, and the Higgs field. He then noted that there is no room for new laws of physics in everyday life, but that there is room for new laws of physics on other scales.

The next subject of the talk was Quantum Field Theory, which has changed the way physicists think- particles aren't important, fields are important. After noting that, at Caltech, he had inherited Richard Feynman's desk, Dr Carroll touched on crossing symmetry with regard to Feynman diagrams- imagine how a new particle interacts with known particles, drawing a Feynman diagram- once the particle interaction is mapped out, other interactions can be predicted by rotating the diagram ninety degrees. If the new particle can influence the known particles, then the particles can be 'smashed' to produce more. The only particles that have been seen are all part of the Core Theory, any new particles won't effect everyday life- for example, dark matter particles don't interact with 'normal' matter. The new physics is needed to model big things- dark matter, dark energy, and quantum gravity. For the everyday world, the Core Theory of quarks, leptons, and forces is sufficient- we are done. How do we get big concepts out of the core? A different vocabulary is needed for the macroscopic 'big picture' level.

Dr Carroll then brought up the concept of the Arrow of Time- the past and the future look different. As time passes, systems move from the orderly to the disorderly, a phenomenon known as entropy... the world was more orderly yesterday, and even more orderly the day before, all the way back to the Big Bang. If 'up' means always away from the Earth, 'future' means always away from the Big Bang. One second after the Big Bang, the result was a hot, smooth plasma- everything was exactly the same everywhere. Observation of the Cosmic Background Radiation revealed that, 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe could be characterized as ripples throughout a smooth background- the universe was clear and smooth, but there were differences in temperature and tiny tiny differences in density. Gravity started pulling matter together into clumps. 10 ¹⁰ years after the Big Bang, stars and galaxies started to form. The Hubble Deep Field reveals hundreds of billions of galaxies, forming a 'lumpy' universe. At 10¹⁵, the universe will be dark and cold and static, mainly composed of black holes and rocks... then the rocks will fall into the black holes and the black holes will evaporate. 10¹⁰⁰ years from now, there will be only empty space.

We live in a universe where entropy increases but there is interesting stuff- whether entropy is high or low has no bearing on complexity- while entropy increases, complexity comes and goes. Dr Carroll assured us, 'You are living in the middle of an exciting, fun part of the universe, not in spite of, but because of entropy. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics causes complexity. Dr Carroll quoted geochemist Michael Russell on the purpose of life: "The purpose of life is to hydrogenate carbon dioxide." Though entropy increases, an extra carbon molecule added to carbon dioxide produces methane, a 'reaching toward metabolism' was a necessary precursor to life. Erwin Schrödinger noted that life is a process sustained by entropy- the earth's organisms give back the same amount of energy as they receive from the sun, but with higher entropy as we photosynthesize carbohydrates, chew cud, or write books. Along the way, complexity comes to be.

The topic then shifted closer to home, as Dr Carroll decided to turn to the topic of ourselves. He introduced us to Elisabeth of Bohemia, who would have been a philosopher if it weren't for her gender. She was courted by René Descartes, with whom she engaged in a long correspondence. When posed the question of how the soul interacts with the body, Elisabeth rejected body/mind dualism. If the soul were immaterial, how would it interact with the body? Decartes concluded that the pineal gland was the seat of the soul, an idea that never gained traction. Thought can be explained by the Core Theory- the brain is made of particles. Charged particles leap from neuron to neuron, creating magnetic fields. Dr Carroll related a funny story about undergoing an MRI, after which the radiologist informed him, "You definitely have a brain." Regarding the evolution of intelligence, Dr Carroll cited cognitive scientist Malcolm MacIver, who contrasted the cognitive needs of marine organisms with those of land-living organisms. Fish cannot see more than a few meters underwater, where land-lubbers can potentially see at a range of many kilometers. Fish have an evolutionary pressure to act immediately, while terrestrials can 'think on it' before having to act. While we don't know where consciousness came from, we can guess a lot about its origins. With the emergence of intelligence, humans have choice and purpose- Dr Carroll contrasted this with the determinism promulgated by B.F. Skinner, joking that Skinner believed that it's wrong to anthropomorphize human beings. He outlined an approach he calls 'Poetic Naturalism'... there is one world, but we can choose what we tell about it. He cited poet Muriel Rukeyser, who wrote, “The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” As human beings, we create stories, but we'll be dead someday. Dr Carroll showed pictures taken of Paris' catacombs, making note of bones arranged into fanciful patterns. He reminded us that life is not a thing which fills us, but a process. While we are ephemeral patterns of matter in the lifespan of the universe, we are in the middle of interesting things. He then showed us a diagram of the lifespans of various mammals, noting that we all have approximately the same number of heartbeats- about three billion heartbeats, the mouse having a fast rate, the horse having a slow rate. Dr Carroll mused that there is a last time for everything, a last book, a last Secret Science Club lecture- he then advised us that this is the best possible reason to value life, and urged us to make it all count, but also to contemplate the vastness of the universe, to sometimes 'stand in silence'.

He noted that we are small, and showed us the famous Pale Blue Dot photograph taken by Voyager One... we are small, but we stopped to take a picture of ourselves, which Dr Carroll characterized as 'awesome'. We are tiny, but we are self aware- we can learn about and care about the universe. We're small, but we're kind of a big deal.

During the Q&A, some bastard in the audience, perhaps inspired by this article asked Dr Carroll about the future use of the LHC to tie together the quantum scale and the cosmic scale. He answered that the LHC was conceived with an overwhelming project- the discovery of the Higgs boson, but that no other ideas for its use were a 'home run'. There is buzz about the possible discovery a new particle with about 700 times the mass of the proton, but Dr Carroll did not dare to guess the next new discovery. He did note, though, that there is hope that the nature of dark matter may be elucidated. When asked about the implications of quantum theory for everyday life, Dr Carroll noted that, if things work on the 'high' level, there's no need to go to the quantum level for explanations. When asked if we can 'see' behind the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, Dr Carroll noted that it would be possible to peer further back by detecting gravitational waves, then urged, 'SEND MONEY.' LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is designed to peer back into this primordial state. One second past the Big Bang, the universe became a nuclear reactor, this has been confirmed through nucleosynthesis. The real question is, where did the smooth primordial plasma come from? He repeated the fact that more money is needed for this research.

Once again, the Secret Science Club has served up an excellent lecture, a sprawling mix of particle physics, cosmology, and philosophy, leavened with a helping portion of humor. Kudos go to Dr Carroll, Margaret and Dorian, and the staff of the beautiful Bell House.

Besides his Preposterous Universe blog, there are a lot of videos of Dr Carroll out there in the t00bz. Here's a video of Dr Carroll lecturing about 'particles, fields, and the future of physics'. Pour yourself a libation and get a taste of that Secret Science ambiance:





Who knew that physics could be so fun? Well, besides us Secret Science scenesters...