Taking tomorrow off to do some Labor Day preparation stuff for Monday...
Will get it all done on Friday, and Saturday will get back to posting in this blog.
Hope all my readers have a good Labor Day weekend!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Superheavy, and yet stable
From R&D: Superheavy, and yet stable
The heaviest element on earth is uranium, which has the atomic number 92 in the periodic table. Although superheavy elements up to number 118 have been produced artificially, their atomic nuclei rapidly decay. A subtle quantum effect means that even heavier atomic nuclei above element 120 could exist for years, however. Physicists have been searching for this hypothetical “island of stability” for a long time. An international team that includes Klaus Blaum’s group at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg has now taken a further crucial step in the right direction. In a spectacular precision experiment at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, the cooperating team has been able to determine the strength of the shell stability in heavy nuclei with 152 neutrons for the first time. A breakthrough in the understanding of the physics of atomic nuclei.
Most Germans associate the surname “von Weizsäcker” with the former German president Richard von Weizsäcker; physicists immediately think of his older brother, Carl Friedrich, however. He was a physicist who, in the 1930s and 40s, made a decisive contribution to the description of a very small, but eminently important building block of matter—the atomic nucleus.
“Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker would have been 100 years old this year,” says Klaus Blaum of the German physicist whose model of the atomic nucleus is still being used today in a modified form. In a large international cooperative effort, Blaum and his colleagues have now made a crucial breakthrough in what is known about the structure of the atomic nuclei - knowledge that has remained almost stagnant for a long time. A great many physicists had been working towards this goal for decades and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who died in 2007, would no doubt have been fascinated.
In simple terms, an atom consists of an extended electron cloud and an atomic nucleus that is tiny in comparison. Nevertheless, the nucleus contains the total mass of the atom. Not only that: an atomic nucleus also has an extremely complex structure. And the larger such a nucleus is, the more obscure the play of the forces which determine its existence.
Two forces battle it out in atomic nuclei
The actors in this play are the nuclear building blocks, the neutral neutrons and the electrically charged protons. The protons fiercely repel each other with the second most powerful force in physics, the electric force. The strongest force known in physics today, the strong force, overpowers this repulsion, however. With its superstrong grip it forces the nucleus together. But like any superhero—be it Achilles, Siegfried or Superman - it has a weak point: its range is small. Its superstrong arms, so to speak, have ended up being much shorter than those of the electric force. The consequence: the bigger an atomic nucleus becomes, the harder it is for the strong force to keep it together against the electric force. Above a certain size it becomes unstable and breaks apart.
This simple image is only a rough description, though. A large atomic nucleus with its more than one hundred protons and far more than one hundred neutrons forms an extremely complex many-particle system, which is structured like an onion with concentric layers of different numbers of protons and neutrons. In this concentrated accumulation of quantum particles an effect which originates from the ordering principles of the quantum world plays a decisive role: atomic nuclei with perfectly filled shells are more stable than others. This effect even causes comparatively huge atomic nuclei, which really ought to decompose, to be kept together.
Those who remember school lessons in chemistry or physics will recognize this shell effect in a slightly different form. The electron cloud can also be sub-divided into energy shells, and the electron shells of inert gases are particularly stable. The cause is again this ordering principle. Electrons resemble protons and neutrons in that they are also, in a way, individualists of the quantum world, claiming a quantum state for themselves alone. And each shell has only a limited number of places. With inert gases, these places in the outer shell are full, which is why they are extremely stable chemically. This quantum effect protects them against attack from other; chemically more aggressive elements which want to fill their not completely filled shells with electrons of other atoms, for example, come what may.
“It’s like playing ring-a-ring-o’-roses with children, where the dancing ring is closed,” explains Blaum: “It then becomes more difficult for more children to join in.”
Measurements with the world’s most sensitive balance for atomic nuclei
This game of shells also takes place in the atomic nuclei. The shells of the large atomic nuclei have a much more complex structure than electron shells, however. The large numbers of nuclear components all influence each other. The theoreticians have therefore only been able thus far to give a very imprecise estimate of which shells are really filled at which “magic” number of components. Therefore, experimental physicists have to find this out with ingenious tests. And this is precisely where the cooperation in Darmstadt involving Blaum’s team succeeded for the first time with the elements 102, nobelium, and 103, lawrencium. In addition to the physicists from Darmstadt and Heidelberg, Germany was represented by groups from the Universities in Mainz, Gießen, Greifswald and the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München.
First the researchers produced the two elements 102 and 103 with the heavy ion accelerator in Darmstadt. Elements this heavy are only very rarely produced in the process, however. These few electrically charged atoms are collected by a complex apparatus called SHIPTRAP, and even this is only successful in a small number of cases. SHIPTRAP is the world’s most sensitive balance for atomic nuclei, which are heavier than uranium. It can weigh these atomic nuclei with an incredibly accuracy. SHIPTRAP operates in a completely different way to a kitchen balance, of course. It catches the electrically charged atom (ion) in a trap of electromagnetic fields. In this floating cage the ion performs a complex oscillatory motion, the frequency of oscillation depending on the mass of the atomic nucleus.
The magic number is 152
The physicists thus use the frequency to extract highly precise information on the mass of the nucleus. But now the question is how they get from the mass of the nucleus to its internal structure. The key is Einstein’s famous equation E = mc2, according to which mass and energy are two sides of the same coin. The mass measured thus indicates the energy that is contained in the atomic nucleus. And a portion of this energy, the so-called “binding energy”, in turn provides the decisive information on the exact shell structure of the nucleus. By weighing the elements 102 and 103 with a varying number of neutrons the team has now applied this ingenious method to obtain a “magic” number: the outer neutron shell must contain 152 neutrons. It is then full and stabilises the nucleus.
“We could thus exclude some of the models for atomic nuclei used until then as being wrong,” says Blaum’s on the far-reaching consequences of this breakthrough. It has taken decades, but the picture of the inner structure of heavy atomic nuclei is now finally becoming clearer. Armed with this knowledge, the physicists can now look more specifically for the famous island of stability.
“We expect it at around element 120,” says Blaum, “and to be more precise, in a nucleus with around 180 neutrons.”
If such long-lived, superheavy elements can be produced artificially, they could possibly also be produced in rare events in the universe. No such extreme element has yet been detected - but the universe is gigantic. In any case, such basic research expands our knowledge on what keeps the world together at its very core.
The heaviest element on earth is uranium, which has the atomic number 92 in the periodic table. Although superheavy elements up to number 118 have been produced artificially, their atomic nuclei rapidly decay. A subtle quantum effect means that even heavier atomic nuclei above element 120 could exist for years, however. Physicists have been searching for this hypothetical “island of stability” for a long time. An international team that includes Klaus Blaum’s group at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg has now taken a further crucial step in the right direction. In a spectacular precision experiment at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, the cooperating team has been able to determine the strength of the shell stability in heavy nuclei with 152 neutrons for the first time. A breakthrough in the understanding of the physics of atomic nuclei.
Most Germans associate the surname “von Weizsäcker” with the former German president Richard von Weizsäcker; physicists immediately think of his older brother, Carl Friedrich, however. He was a physicist who, in the 1930s and 40s, made a decisive contribution to the description of a very small, but eminently important building block of matter—the atomic nucleus.
“Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker would have been 100 years old this year,” says Klaus Blaum of the German physicist whose model of the atomic nucleus is still being used today in a modified form. In a large international cooperative effort, Blaum and his colleagues have now made a crucial breakthrough in what is known about the structure of the atomic nuclei - knowledge that has remained almost stagnant for a long time. A great many physicists had been working towards this goal for decades and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, who died in 2007, would no doubt have been fascinated.
In simple terms, an atom consists of an extended electron cloud and an atomic nucleus that is tiny in comparison. Nevertheless, the nucleus contains the total mass of the atom. Not only that: an atomic nucleus also has an extremely complex structure. And the larger such a nucleus is, the more obscure the play of the forces which determine its existence.
Two forces battle it out in atomic nuclei
The actors in this play are the nuclear building blocks, the neutral neutrons and the electrically charged protons. The protons fiercely repel each other with the second most powerful force in physics, the electric force. The strongest force known in physics today, the strong force, overpowers this repulsion, however. With its superstrong grip it forces the nucleus together. But like any superhero—be it Achilles, Siegfried or Superman - it has a weak point: its range is small. Its superstrong arms, so to speak, have ended up being much shorter than those of the electric force. The consequence: the bigger an atomic nucleus becomes, the harder it is for the strong force to keep it together against the electric force. Above a certain size it becomes unstable and breaks apart.
This simple image is only a rough description, though. A large atomic nucleus with its more than one hundred protons and far more than one hundred neutrons forms an extremely complex many-particle system, which is structured like an onion with concentric layers of different numbers of protons and neutrons. In this concentrated accumulation of quantum particles an effect which originates from the ordering principles of the quantum world plays a decisive role: atomic nuclei with perfectly filled shells are more stable than others. This effect even causes comparatively huge atomic nuclei, which really ought to decompose, to be kept together.
Those who remember school lessons in chemistry or physics will recognize this shell effect in a slightly different form. The electron cloud can also be sub-divided into energy shells, and the electron shells of inert gases are particularly stable. The cause is again this ordering principle. Electrons resemble protons and neutrons in that they are also, in a way, individualists of the quantum world, claiming a quantum state for themselves alone. And each shell has only a limited number of places. With inert gases, these places in the outer shell are full, which is why they are extremely stable chemically. This quantum effect protects them against attack from other; chemically more aggressive elements which want to fill their not completely filled shells with electrons of other atoms, for example, come what may.
“It’s like playing ring-a-ring-o’-roses with children, where the dancing ring is closed,” explains Blaum: “It then becomes more difficult for more children to join in.”
Measurements with the world’s most sensitive balance for atomic nuclei
This game of shells also takes place in the atomic nuclei. The shells of the large atomic nuclei have a much more complex structure than electron shells, however. The large numbers of nuclear components all influence each other. The theoreticians have therefore only been able thus far to give a very imprecise estimate of which shells are really filled at which “magic” number of components. Therefore, experimental physicists have to find this out with ingenious tests. And this is precisely where the cooperation in Darmstadt involving Blaum’s team succeeded for the first time with the elements 102, nobelium, and 103, lawrencium. In addition to the physicists from Darmstadt and Heidelberg, Germany was represented by groups from the Universities in Mainz, Gießen, Greifswald and the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München.
First the researchers produced the two elements 102 and 103 with the heavy ion accelerator in Darmstadt. Elements this heavy are only very rarely produced in the process, however. These few electrically charged atoms are collected by a complex apparatus called SHIPTRAP, and even this is only successful in a small number of cases. SHIPTRAP is the world’s most sensitive balance for atomic nuclei, which are heavier than uranium. It can weigh these atomic nuclei with an incredibly accuracy. SHIPTRAP operates in a completely different way to a kitchen balance, of course. It catches the electrically charged atom (ion) in a trap of electromagnetic fields. In this floating cage the ion performs a complex oscillatory motion, the frequency of oscillation depending on the mass of the atomic nucleus.
The magic number is 152
The physicists thus use the frequency to extract highly precise information on the mass of the nucleus. But now the question is how they get from the mass of the nucleus to its internal structure. The key is Einstein’s famous equation E = mc2, according to which mass and energy are two sides of the same coin. The mass measured thus indicates the energy that is contained in the atomic nucleus. And a portion of this energy, the so-called “binding energy”, in turn provides the decisive information on the exact shell structure of the nucleus. By weighing the elements 102 and 103 with a varying number of neutrons the team has now applied this ingenious method to obtain a “magic” number: the outer neutron shell must contain 152 neutrons. It is then full and stabilises the nucleus.
“We could thus exclude some of the models for atomic nuclei used until then as being wrong,” says Blaum’s on the far-reaching consequences of this breakthrough. It has taken decades, but the picture of the inner structure of heavy atomic nuclei is now finally becoming clearer. Armed with this knowledge, the physicists can now look more specifically for the famous island of stability.
“We expect it at around element 120,” says Blaum, “and to be more precise, in a nucleus with around 180 neutrons.”
If such long-lived, superheavy elements can be produced artificially, they could possibly also be produced in rare events in the universe. No such extreme element has yet been detected - but the universe is gigantic. In any case, such basic research expands our knowledge on what keeps the world together at its very core.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Institute of Nuclear Physics prepares to take part in international nuclear conference
From Caspionet: Institute of Nuclear Physics prepares to take part in international nuclear conference
The staff of the Almaty-based Institute of Nuclear Physics is preparing to take part in the international conference entitled “From nuclear test ban toward a world free of nuclear weapons”. The forum will be held from August 27 to 29 in Astana, Semei and Kurchatov.
About five hundred nuclear explosions took place at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site over 40 years. 18 and a half thousand square kilometers of land were affected and three thousand of them became uninhabitable. Having sustained all the harmful effects of testing, Kazakhstan became the first country in the world to declare a nuclear-free path of its development.
Nasurlla BURTEBAYEV, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS OF KAZAKHSTAN NATIONAL NUCLEAR CENTRE:
-This initiative of our people and the decree on closing the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site signed by our President, acted as a fillip to at least suspending the operation of almost all well-known and existing test sites in the world. I don’t know whether they will continue their operation, but they have ceased to carry out explosions after the closing of our test site.
A voluntary renunciation of the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal was the next step for Kazakhstan. The international community appreciated this initiative of a young country. One of Kazakhstan’s main tasks is to unite all people of good will to reduce and eventually fully eliminate the nuclear threat on the planet. The forum in Astana, which will bring together representatives of tens of countries, will be a new impetus to this process. Local scientists are making great strides in the development of peaceful nuclear energy. For example, a nuclear medicine center is now actively operating at the Institute of Nuclear Physics, which is planning to expand the range of radiopharmaceuticals for early diagnosis of diseases. The development of the space industry, production sector and agriculture can not go without nuclear technology today.
The staff of the Almaty-based Institute of Nuclear Physics is preparing to take part in the international conference entitled “From nuclear test ban toward a world free of nuclear weapons”. The forum will be held from August 27 to 29 in Astana, Semei and Kurchatov.
About five hundred nuclear explosions took place at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site over 40 years. 18 and a half thousand square kilometers of land were affected and three thousand of them became uninhabitable. Having sustained all the harmful effects of testing, Kazakhstan became the first country in the world to declare a nuclear-free path of its development.
Nasurlla BURTEBAYEV, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR PHYSICS OF KAZAKHSTAN NATIONAL NUCLEAR CENTRE:
-This initiative of our people and the decree on closing the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site signed by our President, acted as a fillip to at least suspending the operation of almost all well-known and existing test sites in the world. I don’t know whether they will continue their operation, but they have ceased to carry out explosions after the closing of our test site.
A voluntary renunciation of the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal was the next step for Kazakhstan. The international community appreciated this initiative of a young country. One of Kazakhstan’s main tasks is to unite all people of good will to reduce and eventually fully eliminate the nuclear threat on the planet. The forum in Astana, which will bring together representatives of tens of countries, will be a new impetus to this process. Local scientists are making great strides in the development of peaceful nuclear energy. For example, a nuclear medicine center is now actively operating at the Institute of Nuclear Physics, which is planning to expand the range of radiopharmaceuticals for early diagnosis of diseases. The development of the space industry, production sector and agriculture can not go without nuclear technology today.
The nuclear magnetic
resonance apparatus – developed by the University's Department of
Physics and Astronomy – will allow for further developments and new
applications for nanotechnology which is increasingly used in harvesting
solar energy, computing, communication developments and also in the
medical field.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-08-ground-breaking-nuclear-magnetic-resonance-tool.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-08-ground-breaking-nuclear-magnetic-resonance-tool.html#jCp
Friday, August 24, 2012
Nuclear programme aims to create thinkers, problem solvers
From Engineering News: Nuclear programme aims to create thinkers, problem solvers
The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Physics has already taken steps to make it possible for students to enter a career in the South African nuclear new build programme, envisaged by government through the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), by means of a BSc Nuclear Sciences and Engineering programme.
The IRP calls for 42.6 GW of new power generation capacity to be brought on line by 2030 to meet expected demand, with nuclear energy expected to contribute at least 9.6 GW.
Head of the School of Physics, Professor John Carter, says the university has already produced graduate students from its Nuclear Sciences and Engineering programme. These graduates are now set to enter the nuclear new build industry.
The Wits School of Physics Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Professor Beatrys Lacquet, and the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering created the programme three years ago. It was established within the university’s generic BSc structure, enabling students to graduate with a BSc degree in Nuclear Sciences and Engineering after three years.
“In a way, we are trying to grow our own timber for the nuclear build programme through our Nuclear Sciences and Engineering BSc. As far as I am aware, this is the only undergraduate degree structure, set up by a South African university, which has such a directed theme or title,” notes Carter.
Many other universities tend to graduate students first with an engineering or physics degree and then offer training or education within the nuclear field, as an add-on to their previous qualifications, he says.
Carter points out that the Wits programme is a fusion of the physics majors curriculum and engineering components relevant to the nuclear field.
Currently, after obtaining a three-year BSc degree with physics as a major, graduates can enter the nuclear industry or continue with an honours degree in physics. Thereafter, they can choose to enter the industry, or study for a diploma in power reactors or radiation protection, or enrol for an MSc, which can culminate in a PhD in physics.
Alternatively, with this BSc degree in nuclear sciences and engineering, graduates can choose to continue with engineering by enrolling for the third year of a four-year BSc Engineering degree in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering. Graduates can then enter the industry or study further for an MSc or PhD in engineering. Graduates can exercise a number of career options.
The entrance requirement for the programme is high and Wits accepts nothing fewer than 44 points, which are calculated by using the matric results, with mathematics being a requirement for acceptance into the maths course, which is a mandatory major and runs parallel to the programme.
The yearly intake limit for the programme is 30 first-time students., Carter says, which has been sufficient up to now and has attracted the top matriculants
Over the last three years, student numbers in the programme have slowly decreased and Carter attributes this to the lack of awareness about the continuation of the South African nuclear new build programme.
Further, he states that there are an insufficient number of educators in the nuclear field and he predicts that South Africa will not be able to produce the skilled workforce required to build, operate and license the nuclear new build programme.
However, he says many other tertiary institutions are interested in the nuclear field, with the North-West University having built a heat transfer test facility for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor. This university is also collaborating with Wits on a number of short courses in this field.
The iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences (iThemba LABS), multidisciplinary research laboratories administered by the National Research Foundation (NFR), with branches near Cape Town and in Johannesburg, has, in its mission statement, the mandate to provide education and training courses in this area.
Wits’ Schonland Research Institute for Nuclear Sciences, which was inaugurated by the Nuclear Physics Research Unit in 1958, was one of the first at a South African university to obtain a modern accelerator and develop areas of basic nuclear research.
The historic institute was donated by the university to the NRF in 2004 and is now managed by iThemba LABS.
Programme Challenges and Safety
Carter states that one educational challenge of the programme is that some students struggle with mathematics, as a result of their previous schooling.
“The basic education system doesn’t bring learners to a level that is high enough. In bridging this gap, Wits has various mechanisms in place to assist students who are underprepared and who enter the programme,” he says.
Carter says safety is of the utmost importance and, although the practical work of the course only involves radiation sources from X-ray machines and very low activity sources, these are used in a controlled environment and are closely monitored by the university’s radiation safety officer, James Larkin.
Larkin has also played a leading role within the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa in establishing education and training programmes for the industry. The students are also participating in field trips to national nuclear facilities.
The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Physics has already taken steps to make it possible for students to enter a career in the South African nuclear new build programme, envisaged by government through the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), by means of a BSc Nuclear Sciences and Engineering programme.
The IRP calls for 42.6 GW of new power generation capacity to be brought on line by 2030 to meet expected demand, with nuclear energy expected to contribute at least 9.6 GW.
Head of the School of Physics, Professor John Carter, says the university has already produced graduate students from its Nuclear Sciences and Engineering programme. These graduates are now set to enter the nuclear new build industry.
The Wits School of Physics Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Professor Beatrys Lacquet, and the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering created the programme three years ago. It was established within the university’s generic BSc structure, enabling students to graduate with a BSc degree in Nuclear Sciences and Engineering after three years.
“In a way, we are trying to grow our own timber for the nuclear build programme through our Nuclear Sciences and Engineering BSc. As far as I am aware, this is the only undergraduate degree structure, set up by a South African university, which has such a directed theme or title,” notes Carter.
Many other universities tend to graduate students first with an engineering or physics degree and then offer training or education within the nuclear field, as an add-on to their previous qualifications, he says.
Carter points out that the Wits programme is a fusion of the physics majors curriculum and engineering components relevant to the nuclear field.
Currently, after obtaining a three-year BSc degree with physics as a major, graduates can enter the nuclear industry or continue with an honours degree in physics. Thereafter, they can choose to enter the industry, or study for a diploma in power reactors or radiation protection, or enrol for an MSc, which can culminate in a PhD in physics.
Alternatively, with this BSc degree in nuclear sciences and engineering, graduates can choose to continue with engineering by enrolling for the third year of a four-year BSc Engineering degree in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering. Graduates can then enter the industry or study further for an MSc or PhD in engineering. Graduates can exercise a number of career options.
The entrance requirement for the programme is high and Wits accepts nothing fewer than 44 points, which are calculated by using the matric results, with mathematics being a requirement for acceptance into the maths course, which is a mandatory major and runs parallel to the programme.
The yearly intake limit for the programme is 30 first-time students., Carter says, which has been sufficient up to now and has attracted the top matriculants
Over the last three years, student numbers in the programme have slowly decreased and Carter attributes this to the lack of awareness about the continuation of the South African nuclear new build programme.
Further, he states that there are an insufficient number of educators in the nuclear field and he predicts that South Africa will not be able to produce the skilled workforce required to build, operate and license the nuclear new build programme.
However, he says many other tertiary institutions are interested in the nuclear field, with the North-West University having built a heat transfer test facility for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor. This university is also collaborating with Wits on a number of short courses in this field.
The iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences (iThemba LABS), multidisciplinary research laboratories administered by the National Research Foundation (NFR), with branches near Cape Town and in Johannesburg, has, in its mission statement, the mandate to provide education and training courses in this area.
Wits’ Schonland Research Institute for Nuclear Sciences, which was inaugurated by the Nuclear Physics Research Unit in 1958, was one of the first at a South African university to obtain a modern accelerator and develop areas of basic nuclear research.
The historic institute was donated by the university to the NRF in 2004 and is now managed by iThemba LABS.
Programme Challenges and Safety
Carter states that one educational challenge of the programme is that some students struggle with mathematics, as a result of their previous schooling.
“The basic education system doesn’t bring learners to a level that is high enough. In bridging this gap, Wits has various mechanisms in place to assist students who are underprepared and who enter the programme,” he says.
Carter says safety is of the utmost importance and, although the practical work of the course only involves radiation sources from X-ray machines and very low activity sources, these are used in a controlled environment and are closely monitored by the university’s radiation safety officer, James Larkin.
Larkin has also played a leading role within the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa in establishing education and training programmes for the industry. The students are also participating in field trips to national nuclear facilities.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Decay detector gives solar flare alert
From Futurity: Decay detector gives solar flare alert
PURDUE (US) — A new method predicts solar flares more than a day before they occur—protecting satellites, power grids, and astronauts from potentially dangerous radiation.
The system works by measuring differences in gamma radiation emitted when atoms in radioactive elements “decay,” or lose energy. This rate of decay is widely believed to be constant, but recent findings challenge that long-accepted rule.
The new detection technique is based on a hypothesis that radioactive decay rates are influenced by solar activity, possibly streams of subatomic particles called solar neutrinos.
This influence can wax and wane due to seasonal changes in the Earth’s distance from the sun and also during solar flares, according to the hypothesis, which is supported with data published in a dozen research papers since it was proposed in 2006, says Ephraim Fischbach, a Purdue University professor of physics.
Fischbach and Jere Jenkins, a nuclear engineer and director of radiation laboratories in the School of Nuclear Engineering, are leading research to study the phenomenon and possibly develop a new warning system. Jenkins, monitoring a detector in his lab in 2006, discovered that the decay rate of a radioactive sample changed slightly beginning 39 hours before a large solar flare.
Since then, researchers have been examining similar variation in decay rates before solar flares, as well as those resulting from Earth’s orbit around the sun and changes in solar rotation and activity. The new findings are published online in the journal Astroparticle Physics.
“It’s the first time the same isotope has been used in two different experiments at two different labs, and it showed basically the same effect,” Fischbach says.
In addition to Jenkins and Fischbach, the paper’s authors are Ohio State University’s Kevin R. Herminghuysen, Thomas E. Blue, Andrew C. Kauffman, and Joseph W. Talnagi; the US Air Force’s Daniel Javorsek, the Mayo Clinic’s Daniel W. Mundy, and Stanford University’s Peter A. Sturrock.
Data were recorded during routine weekly calibration of an instrument used for radiological safety at Ohio State’s research reactor. Findings showed a clear annual variation in the decay rate of a radioactive isotope called chlorine 36, with the highest rate in January and February and the lowest rate in July and August, over a period from July 2005 to June 2011.
Potential for catastrophe
The new observations support previous work by Jenkins and Fischbach to develop a method for predicting solar flares. Advance warning could allow satellite and power grid operators to take steps to minimize impact and astronauts to shield themselves from potentially lethal radiation emitted during solar storms.
The findings agree with data previously collected at the Brookhaven National Laboratory regarding the decay rate of chlorine 36. There, changes in the decay rate were found to match changes in the Earth-sun distance and Earth’s exposure to different parts of the sun itself, Fischbach says.
Large solar flares may produce a “coronal mass ejection” of highly energetic particles, which can interact with the Earth’s magnetosphere, triggering geomagnetic storms that sometimes knock out power. The sun’s activity is expected to peak over the next year or so as part of an 11-year cycle that could bring strong solar storms.
Solar storms can be especially devastating if the flare happens to be aimed at the Earth, hitting the planet directly with powerful charged particles. A huge solar storm, called the Carrington event, hit the Earth in 1859, a time when the only electrical infrastructure consisted of telegraph lines.
“There was so much energy from this solar storm that the telegraph wires were seen glowing and the aurora borealis appeared as far south as Cuba,” Fischbach says. “Because we now have a sophisticated infrastructure of satellites, power grids, and all sort of electronic systems, a storm of this magnitude today would be catastrophic. Having a day and a half warning could be really helpful in averting the worst damage.”
Satellites, for example, might be designed so that they could be temporarily shut down and power grids might similarly be safeguarded before the storm arrived.
Researchers have recorded data during 10 solar flares since 2006, seeing the same pattern.
“We have repeatedly seen a precursor signal preceding a solar flare,” Fischbach says. “We think this has predictive value.”
The Purdue experimental setup consists of a radioactive source—manganese 54—and a gamma-radiation detector. As the manganese 54 decays, it turns into chromium 54, emitting a gamma ray, which is recorded by the detector to measure the decay rate.
Purdue has filed a US patent application for the concept.
Decay rate
Research findings show evidence that the phenomenon is influenced by the Earth’s distance from the sun; for example, decay rates are different in January and July, when the Earth is closest and farthest from the sun, respectively.
“When the Earth is farther away, we have fewer solar neutrinos and the decay rate is a little slower,” Jenkins says. “When we are closer, there are more neutrinos, and the decay a little faster.”
Researchers also have recorded both increases and decreases in decay rates during solar storms.
“What this is telling us is that the sun does influence radioactive decay,” Fischbach says.
Neutrinos have the least mass of any known subatomic particle, yet it is plausible that they are somehow affecting the decay rate, he says.
English physicist Ernest Rutherford, known as the father of nuclear physics, in the 1930s conducted experiments indicating the radioactive decay rate is constant, meaning it cannot be altered by external influences.
“Since neutrinos have essentially no mass or charge, the idea that they could be interacting with anything is foreign to physics,” Jenkins says. “So, we are saying something that doesn’t interact with anything is changing something that can’t be changed. Either neutrinos are affecting decay rate or perhaps an unknown particle is.”
Jenkins discovered the effect by chance in 2006, when he was watching television coverage of astronauts spacewalking at the International Space Station. A solar flare had erupted and was thought to possibly pose a threat to the astronauts. He decided to check his equipment and discovered that a change in decay-rate had preceded the solar flare.
Further research is needed to confirm the findings and to expand the work using more sensitive equipment, he says.
PURDUE (US) — A new method predicts solar flares more than a day before they occur—protecting satellites, power grids, and astronauts from potentially dangerous radiation.
The system works by measuring differences in gamma radiation emitted when atoms in radioactive elements “decay,” or lose energy. This rate of decay is widely believed to be constant, but recent findings challenge that long-accepted rule.
The new detection technique is based on a hypothesis that radioactive decay rates are influenced by solar activity, possibly streams of subatomic particles called solar neutrinos.
This influence can wax and wane due to seasonal changes in the Earth’s distance from the sun and also during solar flares, according to the hypothesis, which is supported with data published in a dozen research papers since it was proposed in 2006, says Ephraim Fischbach, a Purdue University professor of physics.
Fischbach and Jere Jenkins, a nuclear engineer and director of radiation laboratories in the School of Nuclear Engineering, are leading research to study the phenomenon and possibly develop a new warning system. Jenkins, monitoring a detector in his lab in 2006, discovered that the decay rate of a radioactive sample changed slightly beginning 39 hours before a large solar flare.
Since then, researchers have been examining similar variation in decay rates before solar flares, as well as those resulting from Earth’s orbit around the sun and changes in solar rotation and activity. The new findings are published online in the journal Astroparticle Physics.
“It’s the first time the same isotope has been used in two different experiments at two different labs, and it showed basically the same effect,” Fischbach says.
In addition to Jenkins and Fischbach, the paper’s authors are Ohio State University’s Kevin R. Herminghuysen, Thomas E. Blue, Andrew C. Kauffman, and Joseph W. Talnagi; the US Air Force’s Daniel Javorsek, the Mayo Clinic’s Daniel W. Mundy, and Stanford University’s Peter A. Sturrock.
Data were recorded during routine weekly calibration of an instrument used for radiological safety at Ohio State’s research reactor. Findings showed a clear annual variation in the decay rate of a radioactive isotope called chlorine 36, with the highest rate in January and February and the lowest rate in July and August, over a period from July 2005 to June 2011.
Potential for catastrophe
The new observations support previous work by Jenkins and Fischbach to develop a method for predicting solar flares. Advance warning could allow satellite and power grid operators to take steps to minimize impact and astronauts to shield themselves from potentially lethal radiation emitted during solar storms.
The findings agree with data previously collected at the Brookhaven National Laboratory regarding the decay rate of chlorine 36. There, changes in the decay rate were found to match changes in the Earth-sun distance and Earth’s exposure to different parts of the sun itself, Fischbach says.
Large solar flares may produce a “coronal mass ejection” of highly energetic particles, which can interact with the Earth’s magnetosphere, triggering geomagnetic storms that sometimes knock out power. The sun’s activity is expected to peak over the next year or so as part of an 11-year cycle that could bring strong solar storms.
Solar storms can be especially devastating if the flare happens to be aimed at the Earth, hitting the planet directly with powerful charged particles. A huge solar storm, called the Carrington event, hit the Earth in 1859, a time when the only electrical infrastructure consisted of telegraph lines.
“There was so much energy from this solar storm that the telegraph wires were seen glowing and the aurora borealis appeared as far south as Cuba,” Fischbach says. “Because we now have a sophisticated infrastructure of satellites, power grids, and all sort of electronic systems, a storm of this magnitude today would be catastrophic. Having a day and a half warning could be really helpful in averting the worst damage.”
Satellites, for example, might be designed so that they could be temporarily shut down and power grids might similarly be safeguarded before the storm arrived.
Researchers have recorded data during 10 solar flares since 2006, seeing the same pattern.
“We have repeatedly seen a precursor signal preceding a solar flare,” Fischbach says. “We think this has predictive value.”
The Purdue experimental setup consists of a radioactive source—manganese 54—and a gamma-radiation detector. As the manganese 54 decays, it turns into chromium 54, emitting a gamma ray, which is recorded by the detector to measure the decay rate.
Purdue has filed a US patent application for the concept.
Decay rate
Research findings show evidence that the phenomenon is influenced by the Earth’s distance from the sun; for example, decay rates are different in January and July, when the Earth is closest and farthest from the sun, respectively.
“When the Earth is farther away, we have fewer solar neutrinos and the decay rate is a little slower,” Jenkins says. “When we are closer, there are more neutrinos, and the decay a little faster.”
Researchers also have recorded both increases and decreases in decay rates during solar storms.
“What this is telling us is that the sun does influence radioactive decay,” Fischbach says.
Neutrinos have the least mass of any known subatomic particle, yet it is plausible that they are somehow affecting the decay rate, he says.
English physicist Ernest Rutherford, known as the father of nuclear physics, in the 1930s conducted experiments indicating the radioactive decay rate is constant, meaning it cannot be altered by external influences.
“Since neutrinos have essentially no mass or charge, the idea that they could be interacting with anything is foreign to physics,” Jenkins says. “So, we are saying something that doesn’t interact with anything is changing something that can’t be changed. Either neutrinos are affecting decay rate or perhaps an unknown particle is.”
Jenkins discovered the effect by chance in 2006, when he was watching television coverage of astronauts spacewalking at the International Space Station. A solar flare had erupted and was thought to possibly pose a threat to the astronauts. He decided to check his equipment and discovered that a change in decay-rate had preceded the solar flare.
Further research is needed to confirm the findings and to expand the work using more sensitive equipment, he says.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Approaching the border between primordial plasma and ordinary matter
From R&D: Approaching the border between primordial plasma and ordinary matter
Scientists
taking advantage of the versatility and new capabilities of the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), an atom smasher at the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, have observed
first glimpses of a possible boundary separating ordinary nuclear
matter, composed of protons and neutrons, from the seething soup of
their constituent quarks and gluons that permeated the early universe
some 14 billion years ago. Though RHIC physicists have been creating and
studying this primordial quark-gluon plasma (QGP) for some time, the
latest preliminary data—presented at the Quark Matter 2012
international conference—come from systematic studies varying the
energy and types of colliding ions to create this new form of matter
under a broad range of initial conditions, allowing the experimenters to
unravel its intriguing properties.
Results
so far, reported by STAR physicists at Quark Matter 2012, seem to rule
out the role of the background effect. If subsequent analysis confirms
this early finding, the uranium-uranium collisions will provide further
evidence for the symmetry-violating bubble interpretation of the
gold-gold data, and for the disappearance of QGP at the lower RHIC
energies.
Scientists
taking advantage of the versatility and new capabilities of the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), an atom smasher at the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, have observed
first glimpses of a possible boundary separating ordinary nuclear
matter, composed of protons and neutrons, from the seething soup of
their constituent quarks and gluons that permeated the early universe
some 14 billion years ago. Though RHIC physicists have been creating and
studying this primordial quark-gluon plasma (QGP) for some time, the
latest preliminary data—presented at the Quark Matter 2012
international conference—come from systematic studies varying the
energy and types of colliding ions to create this new form of matter
under a broad range of initial conditions, allowing the experimenters to
unravel its intriguing properties.
“2012
has been a banner year for RHIC, with record-breaking collision rates,
first collisions of uranium ions, and first asymmetric collisions of
gold ions with copper ions,” said Samuel Aronson, Director of Brookhaven
National Laboratory. “These unique capabilities demonstrate the
flexibility and outstanding performance of this machine as we seek to
explore the subtle interplay of particles and forces that transformed
the QGP of the early universe into the matter that makes up our world
today.”
The
nuclei of today’s ordinary atoms and QGP represent two different phases
of matter whose constituents interact through the strongest of Nature’s
forces. These interactions are described by a theory known as quantum
chromodynamics, or QCD, so scientists sometimes refer to the exploration
of QGP and this transition as the study of QCD matter.
As
in other forms of matter, the different phases exist under different
conditions of temperature and density, which can be mapped out on a
“phase diagram,” where the regions are separated by a phase boundary
akin to those that separate liquid water from ice and from steam. But in
the case of nuclear matter, scientists still are not sure where to draw
those boundary lines. RHIC is providing the first clues.
“RHIC
is well positioned to explore QCD phase structure because we can vary
the collision energy over a wide range, and in so doing, change the
temperature and net quark density with which QCD matter is formed,” said
Steven Vigdor, Brookhaven’s Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear
and Particle Physics, who leads the RHIC research program.
For
example, physicists from RHIC’s STAR and PHENIX collaborations have
analyzed results from gold ion collisions taking place at energies of
200 billion electron volts (GeV) per pair of colliding particles, all
the way down to 7.7 GeV.
While
at the highest energies evidence for QGP formation is widely accepted,
“many of the signatures of the QGP developed at 200 GeV disappear as the
energy decreases,” said STAR spokesperson Nu Xu, a physicist at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
In
particular, the STAR findings analyzed so far indicate that
interactions among “free” quarks and gluons—those characteristic of the “perfect” liquid QGP
discovered at RHIC—appear to dominate at energies above 39 GeV, while
at energies below 11.5 GeV, the interactions of bound states of quarks
and gluons known as hadrons (such as the protons and neutrons of
ordinary matter) appear to be the dominant feature observed.
“As you get below 39 GeV, several key observables begin to change,” Xu said.
The
PHENIX experiment has observed similar behavior. They have found that
quarks passing through the matter produced at collision energies from 39
GeV upward lose energy rapidly, as anticipated for interactions within
QGP. Previous PHENIX results from copper-copper collisions at 22 GeV, in
contrast, are consistent with no significant energy loss.
These
measurements are helping scientists plot definitive points, or
signposts, which tell them they may be approaching the boundary between
ordinary nuclear matter and the QGP that dominated the early universe.
But they haven’t yet proven that a sharp boundary line exists, or found
the “critical endpoint” at the termination of that line.
“The
critical endpoint, if it exists, occurs at a unique value of
temperature and density beyond which QGP and ordinary matter can
co-exist,” said Vigdor. It is analogous to a critical point beyond which
liquid water and water vapor can co-exist in thermal equilibrium, he
said.
Because
of the complexity of QCD calculations, there is as yet no consensus
among theorists where the QCD critical point should lie or even if it
exists. But RHIC experimentalists say they see hints in the data around
20 GeV that resemble signatures predicted to be observed near such a QCD
critical point. However, much more data from future experiment runs at
RHIC is required to turn these hints into conclusive evidence.
Apparent symmetry violations disappear at low energy
One
signal that disappears in gold-gold collisions at RHIC energies below
11.5 GeV is the indication of a small separation of positive from
negative electric charge within the matter produced in each individual
collision. Ordinarily, such a charge separation would be forbidden by
the “mirror symmetry” that is a fundamental feature of QCD. But at the
ultra-high temperatures of QGP, the theory allows such symmetry
violations to occur in localized “bubbles,” as long as they average out
to zero when bubbles from all collision events are looked at together.
“Such
symmetry-violating bubbles are of crucial interest in the early,
high-temperature history of the universe, where analogous bubbles are
speculated to have played a central role in producing the preponderance
of matter over antimatter in today’s universe, enabling our existence,”
Vigdor said.
The
disappearing hints of charge separation may be another signal that the
lower-energy RHIC collisions are no longer producing QGP. But it’s also
conceivable that the hints arise instead from a “background” phenomenon
that is related to the almond-like shape of the overlap region formed
when two spherical gold ions collide in not quite head-on fashion.
Head-on
collisions of football-shaped uranium ions aligned in upright positions
like footballs set for kick-off—conducted for the first time during the
2012 RHIC run, and made possible by a new ion source at RHIC—are
allowing scientists to study the effects of this almond-like interaction
region without the
strong surrounding magnetic field also produced in the off-center
gold-gold collisions (which is necessary for the interesting
charge-separation signal).
Results
so far, reported by STAR physicists at Quark Matter 2012, seem to rule
out the role of the background effect. If subsequent analysis confirms
this early finding, the uranium-uranium collisions will provide further
evidence for the symmetry-violating bubble interpretation of the
gold-gold data, and for the disappearance of QGP at the lower RHIC
energies.
From ordinary matter to plasma
The
way quarks and gluons are arranged in ordinary matter affects how the
plasma forms, and also modifies production of experimental probes of the
plasma’s properties. Teasing out effects of the plasma on these probes
requires good knowledge of the probes before they encounter QGP.
To
get that important information, the RHIC experiments have collected a
large data set from collisions of gold ions with deuterons (the nuclei
of heavy hydrogen).
At
Quark Matter 2012, PHENIX physicists report that there are fewer
high-momentum single hadrons and collections of hadrons called “jets”
produced in dead-on central deuteron-gold collisions than more glancing
deuteron-gold collisions.
“We
expect jet suppression in quark-gluon plasma, because jets lose energy
in dense matter such as the plasma,” said PHENIX spokesperson Barbara
Jacak, a physicist at Stony Brook University. “But this result shows
that we have to correct for this initial state effect when figuring out
how much the plasma suppresses the production of jets.”
The
initial state is related to the arrangement of quarks and gluons deep
inside the gold nucleus, which some theories predict could be a
condensed form of gluons called color-glass condensate, as hinted at in
earlier results published by PHENIX.
The force between quarks and antiquarks
Other
new RHIC measurements reported at Quark Matter concern the probability
of heavy quarks (bottom and charm) and their anti-matter counterparts
pairing up to form bound states called “quarkonia” within the QGP and in
the “cold” nuclear matter probed in the deuteron-gold collisions.
QCD
tells us that the force between a quark and an antiquark increases in
strength as they are pulled apart, as though they were connected by an
invisible rubber band. But the strength of this force should be reduced
in QGP. So physicists expect the formation of quarkonia to also be
reduced in QGP, with the probability of finding such species decreasing
with larger-size bound states.
The
STAR experiment reported new results consistent with this expectation
by studying different size bound states of bottom quarks and antiquarks.
PHENIX has studied suppression of bound states of charm and anti-charm
quarks in various beam combinations, both with and without plasma
formation. New results indicate that their formation is already
suppressed in collisions of deuterons with gold nuclei, when no QGP is
formed.
“This
reflects both the reduced production rates for heavy quarks and the
fact that the bound state sometimes breaks up as it passes through
normal (cold) nuclear matter,” said Jacak. “It is crucial to quantify
this if we are to understand QGP effects on the binding,” she said.
“These
new results on the phase boundary, symmetry-violating bubbles, initial
state effects, and the production of quark-antiquark bound states
illustrate how scientists are exploiting RHIC’s unique versatility for
precision determinations of the properties of quark-gluon plasma,”
Vigdor said. “It is this versatility, in combination with dramatic
advances we’ve made in the rate of collisions provided at RHIC, that
will allow our scientists in the coming decade to answer the pointed
questions raised by RHIC’s exciting discoveries about this early
universe matter.”
Source: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Friday, August 17, 2012
Families of murdered Iranian nuclear scientists file lawsuit
I had blogged about this at the time. Yes...someone murdered these men. Are the Israelis the logical suspects? It hasn't stopped Iran from building their nuclear facility, has it? If that was the Israelis' intention, it failed miserably.
Moreover, one would hope that if it was the Israelis, they would have been smarter about it. You don't murder three nuclear physicists from Iran, you arrange an accident for one, a heart attack for another, and maybe have one blown up by a suicide bomber. In other words - you don't give anyone the option of saying, "Oh, he was murdered."
From JTA: Families of murdered Iranian nuclear scientists file lawsuit
Moreover, one would hope that if it was the Israelis, they would have been smarter about it. You don't murder three nuclear physicists from Iran, you arrange an accident for one, a heart attack for another, and maybe have one blown up by a suicide bomber. In other words - you don't give anyone the option of saying, "Oh, he was murdered."
From JTA: Families of murdered Iranian nuclear scientists file lawsuit
(JTA) -- The families of several slain Iranian nuclear scientists filed a lawsuit accusing Israel, the U.S. and Britain of being involved in their assassinations.
“Through this complaint, we declare to the world that actions of arrogant governments, led by the U.S., Britain and the occupying Zionist regime, in assassinating nuclear scientists and elites is against human principles,” Mansoureh Karami, the wife of slain Tehran University physics professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, said at a news conference Wednesday in Tehran, according to The Associated Press.
Mohammadi is one of five Iranian nuclear scientists who have been killed since 2010, and Iran repeatedly has blamed Israel's Mossad intelligency agency as well as the CIA and Britain's MI6 for the assassinations, with support from some of Iran's neighbors. The U.S. and Britain have denied involvement in the slayings. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
In May, Iran executed 24-year-old Majid Jamali Fashi for the assassination of Mohammadi and spying for Israel. Mohammadi was killed by a remote-controlled bomb in January 2010.
In April, more than 15 Iranian and foreign nationals reportedly were arrested for carrying out alleged terrorist missions for Israel in Iran, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news service. The group was accused of spying for Israel, the attempted assassination of an Iranian expert and sabotage.
The state-backed Fars news agency said the lawsuit stressed that the deaths of the scientists would not undermine Iran's progress because Iranian youths will double their efforts to make more achievements in scientific and technological fields.
Western powers accuse Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons, while Iran says it is attempting to build reactors for peaceful purposes such as power and medical isotopes.
Nuclear disarmament with verification key
A letter to the editor that I thought was interesting:
From Syracuse.com: Nuclear disarmament with verification key
From Syracuse.com: Nuclear disarmament with verification key
To the Editor:
The recent, Mitt Romney/Benjamin Netanyahu saber-rattling is very disturbing to a Vietnam era medic, who knows some Iranian history, taught to me by an Iranian on a nuclear physics scholarship at Michigan State University in 1960.
Most Americans are ignorant of the Central Intelligence Agency’s role in overthrowing Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, the elected leader of Iran, in 1953. And, we have recently been involved in two wars — Iraq to the west of Iran and Afghanistan to the east of Iran. Suppose some other power had large military forces in Mexico and Canada. How would we like it? Perhaps, if we had any real leadership, we would focus on world disarmament, including Russia, China, Pakistan, India and, yes, Israel as well. We narrowly escaped a nuclear showdown in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and by 1983 both the USSR and the United States each had approximately 10,000 warheads — 500 would be enough to wipe out civilization as we have known it.
Yes, we need to persuade Iran to not go ahead with any nuclear weapons development; but, at the same time, we need to demonstrate an ability on our part to move away from war-mania of the recent past toward nuclear disarmament with verification.
Ken Howland
Port Byron
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
When The Asteroid Hits: Physicists Claim Earth-Destroying Extinction-Level Asteroid Would Be Impossible to Destroy
When The Asteroid Hits: Physicists Claim Earth-Destroying Extinction-Level Asteroid Would Be Impossible to Destroy
Physicists from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, claim it would be impossible to destroy an asteroid by using a nuclear weapon buried deep within.
(Long Island, N.Y.) A team of physics students from the University of Leicester have been performing some interesting calculations on the feasibility of saving the planet from a meteorite doomsday. The Journal of Special Physics Topics from the University of Leicester covered the research in full and while Hollywood might have you believe otherwise, a nuclear weapon wouldn’t actually save the planet from an impending asteroid attack. In order to destroy an asteroid of sufficient size to wreck the Earth, such a bomb would have to be 1 billion times stronger than the largest nuclear device ever detonated. While Big Ivan was a powerful dark jewel in the USSR’s Cold War era arsenal, it still only carried a 50-megaton payload.
Even if one could build a hydrogen bomb strong enough to do some damage, the asteroid would have to be detected far earlier than the weapon in the 1998 movie Armageddon. Space exploration and military services would need ample time to plan a solution. In fact, moving the asteroid away from Earth with an attached propulsion system would be a better idea. “The conclusion is very simple. Our current level of technology is simply nowhere near sufficient to protect Earth from such an asteroid by this specific means of asteroid defense, though other possible methods have been suggested that may be more feasible” the paper stated.
In the unlikely event that a major disaster were to take place from an asteroid, it might be several days before vital services are restored; be prepared by following these tips.
BEFORE AN ASTEROID ATTACK OCCURS
Many Arizona residents are familiar with the Barringer Crater, which measures 0.7 miles across. It’s 590 feet deep. Experts believe that the crater was created around 25,000 years ago by a massive meteorite. While an object of that size wouldn’t destroy the Earth, it’s still large enough to create a number of climatic problems. No one would care to see something like that strike New York or Los Angeles either.
While authorities would have several options when trying to deal with such a strike, this isn’t the sort of scenario most people prepare for. In fact, its much more common that people prepare for hurricanes, wildfires or even violent uprisings but few even consider asteroids. A survey conducted by the Red Cross revealed that only 12 percent of the country is adequately prepared for an emergency. This means at least 88 percent of Americans are not prepared for an asteroid hitting Earth.
Physicists from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, claim it would be impossible to destroy an asteroid by using a nuclear weapon buried deep within.
(Long Island, N.Y.) A team of physics students from the University of Leicester have been performing some interesting calculations on the feasibility of saving the planet from a meteorite doomsday. The Journal of Special Physics Topics from the University of Leicester covered the research in full and while Hollywood might have you believe otherwise, a nuclear weapon wouldn’t actually save the planet from an impending asteroid attack. In order to destroy an asteroid of sufficient size to wreck the Earth, such a bomb would have to be 1 billion times stronger than the largest nuclear device ever detonated. While Big Ivan was a powerful dark jewel in the USSR’s Cold War era arsenal, it still only carried a 50-megaton payload.
Even if one could build a hydrogen bomb strong enough to do some damage, the asteroid would have to be detected far earlier than the weapon in the 1998 movie Armageddon. Space exploration and military services would need ample time to plan a solution. In fact, moving the asteroid away from Earth with an attached propulsion system would be a better idea. “The conclusion is very simple. Our current level of technology is simply nowhere near sufficient to protect Earth from such an asteroid by this specific means of asteroid defense, though other possible methods have been suggested that may be more feasible” the paper stated.
In the unlikely event that a major disaster were to take place from an asteroid, it might be several days before vital services are restored; be prepared by following these tips.
BEFORE AN ASTEROID ATTACK OCCURS
- Create and emergency plan that you and the members of your household are familiar with.
- Keep an emergency kit with survival items like flashlights, batteries, a radio, food, water, dusk masks and basic medical supplies that will last at least three to five days.
- If you are near the ocean or large waterways move immediately to higher ground as there may be huge Tsunami sized floods as an effect of an asteroid impact.
- Find a safe level place to drop, cover, and hold on until the shaking stops.
- Avoid going outside whenever possible and for as long as possible.
- Take your Survival Kit with you if you do have to leave.
- Expect the possibility of secondary disasters (such as earthquakes, aftershocks and tsunamis).
- Report injuries or fires to the emergency services (dial 911).
- Listen to the radio or other digital or analog transmissions for advice and information.
Many Arizona residents are familiar with the Barringer Crater, which measures 0.7 miles across. It’s 590 feet deep. Experts believe that the crater was created around 25,000 years ago by a massive meteorite. While an object of that size wouldn’t destroy the Earth, it’s still large enough to create a number of climatic problems. No one would care to see something like that strike New York or Los Angeles either.
While authorities would have several options when trying to deal with such a strike, this isn’t the sort of scenario most people prepare for. In fact, its much more common that people prepare for hurricanes, wildfires or even violent uprisings but few even consider asteroids. A survey conducted by the Red Cross revealed that only 12 percent of the country is adequately prepared for an emergency. This means at least 88 percent of Americans are not prepared for an asteroid hitting Earth.
Young professor honoured at Chicago University
From Vietnam.net: Young professor honoured at Chicago University
The depth and elegance of Son’s research has demonstrated links between such seemingly unrelated areas of physics as nuclear physics and black holes. His interests also range across atomic, condensed matter and particle physics.
A native of Vietnam, Son comes to the University of Chicago from the University of Washington, where he serves as a professor of physics and a senior fellow in the Institute for Nuclear Theory.
University Professors represent the highest scholarly aspirations of the University of Chicago. They are selected from outside institutions because of their internationally recognized eminence and for their potential for broad impact. Son is the 19th person to hold a University Professorship, and the seventh active faculty member holding that title.
“Today we are proud to announce that Prof. Son will join the University of Chicago faculty as University Professor, which includes appointments in our physics department as well as in two of our richly productive interdisciplinary research institutes — the Enrico Fermi Institute and the James Franck Institute,” said Robert Fefferman, dean of University of Chicago’s Physical Sciences Division.
“He will provide tremendous intellectual leadership that will mark the opening of a new era in the University’s storied tradition of physics research.”
In addition to Son’s appointment and the new physics faculty initiative, the University is also launching a Center for Physical Inquiry. The center is designed to become a focal point of activity for theoretical physicists, providing substantial support for shared postdoctoral fellows, students and academic visitors.
Provost Thomas F. Rosenbaum said the center will serve as a natural structure for bringing the theoretical faculty together under a common umbrella organization, building on the rich tradition of interdisciplinary science represented by the James Franck and Enrico Fermi institutes.
Son said that kind of collaboration was part of the reason he chose to come to University of Chicago.
“The University of Chicago is a world-renowned institution with a long tradition in physics. I feel extremely honored to be at the same place where Enrico Fermi and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar have worked,” Son said.
“Personally, Chandrasekhar’s famous voyage from India to Europe inspired me as a kid in Vietnam, and Fermi’s insightful lecture notes deeply influenced me as an undergraduate in Moscow. I have had 10 extremely interesting years at the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington, and now I am ready for new challenges.”
The depth and elegance of Son’s research has demonstrated links between such seemingly unrelated areas of physics as nuclear physics and black holes. His interests also range across atomic, condensed matter and particle physics.
A native of Vietnam, Son comes to the University of Chicago from the University of Washington, where he serves as a professor of physics and a senior fellow in the Institute for Nuclear Theory.
University Professors represent the highest scholarly aspirations of the University of Chicago. They are selected from outside institutions because of their internationally recognized eminence and for their potential for broad impact. Son is the 19th person to hold a University Professorship, and the seventh active faculty member holding that title.
“Today we are proud to announce that Prof. Son will join the University of Chicago faculty as University Professor, which includes appointments in our physics department as well as in two of our richly productive interdisciplinary research institutes — the Enrico Fermi Institute and the James Franck Institute,” said Robert Fefferman, dean of University of Chicago’s Physical Sciences Division.
“He will provide tremendous intellectual leadership that will mark the opening of a new era in the University’s storied tradition of physics research.”
In addition to Son’s appointment and the new physics faculty initiative, the University is also launching a Center for Physical Inquiry. The center is designed to become a focal point of activity for theoretical physicists, providing substantial support for shared postdoctoral fellows, students and academic visitors.
Provost Thomas F. Rosenbaum said the center will serve as a natural structure for bringing the theoretical faculty together under a common umbrella organization, building on the rich tradition of interdisciplinary science represented by the James Franck and Enrico Fermi institutes.
Son said that kind of collaboration was part of the reason he chose to come to University of Chicago.
“The University of Chicago is a world-renowned institution with a long tradition in physics. I feel extremely honored to be at the same place where Enrico Fermi and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar have worked,” Son said.
“Personally, Chandrasekhar’s famous voyage from India to Europe inspired me as a kid in Vietnam, and Fermi’s insightful lecture notes deeply influenced me as an undergraduate in Moscow. I have had 10 extremely interesting years at the Institute for Nuclear Theory at the University of Washington, and now I am ready for new challenges.”
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
New ion beam research provides links to past
From South Bend Tribune: New ion beam research provides links to past
SOUTH BEND -- From discovering the origins of early Native American pottery in Notre Dame's Snite Museum to analyzing the silver content of Roman coins, Notre Dame nuclear astrophysicists apply new research involving accelerated ion beams to real life in more ways than one and, in turn, uncover more about the area's local history.
"A lot of the work that's done on early (Native American) settlements around here is to find out if a lot of the pottery was local or if they'd come from somewhere else," said Philippe Collon, a Notre Dame physics professor.
It's important work, he said, because it "can give you information on migration, on trade and things like that ... by analyzing specific trace elements."
While scientists often have to partially destroy a painting to discover its authenticity, new applied physics techniques use ion beams in a nondestructive way to uncover counterfeit artwork. However, Notre Dame's department focuses more on the composition of the artwork than the authenticity.
"There are techniques that can (reveal counterfeit artwork)," said Collon, adding there are labs that do this sort of thing "for bread and butter. It's not to say that we can't do it or we wouldn't do it. But what we've mostly been doing is analyzing various artifacts from the Snite Museum, from various collectors, and what they were more interested in is, what was the composition of the pigments?"
In addition to researching paintings and pottery from the museum, the astrophysics researchers also study Roman coins.
"By comparing the silver content in Roman coins, you can actually correlate that to the state of the Roman economy," Collon said. "The poorer, the worse it was, the less silver you had in the coins and things like that."
Collon claims the physics research attracts undergraduate students because of its application to the real world.
"What we were interested in here is to go away a little bit from just doing nuclear astrophysics and doing some more applied work," Collon said, "because it's extremely interesting. It's something different to do. It's something that's very helpful for students."
A whole number of different techniques are based in physics, he added, "from X-raying a painting to usingX-raysto analyze pigments."
Notre Dame's nuclear astrophysics department uses the same accelerators to research the moon, sky and stars, and to analyze artifacts, merely producing different beams that cater to studying objects that are smaller and closer than those they study in the sky.
"In order to do the research for stars, we use accelerators," Collon said. "They basically present beams of energetic particles that have a specific velocity. And what we do is we study nuclear reactions. However, you can use those same machines and produce specific beams and use those to analyze artifacts and a whole host of different applied techniques."
The department uses two different applied techniques in their lab, one called accelerated mass spectrometry, or AMS, which dates anything from paintings to coins. The applied physics researchers also use proton-inducedX-rayemissions, or PIXE, which identify various pigments in a piece of artwork or artifact.
Although such programs have been around for decades, physicists have only begun using them in recent years to study paintings and artifacts. Notre Dame's physics department is one of the first to involve students in art archaeology research using accelerated ion beams.
Not only physics students but also anthropology students, specifically archaeology majors, research the accelerated ion beams with Collon to analyze various artifacts.
"We get a lot of students that are not necessarily physics students into the lab," Collon said, "because they are anthropology students, they are archaeology majors. ... And they basically learn about physics, because what they're doing is using nuclear physics but to understand what they're looking for, so that's great fun and so it's a sort of extra avenue."
While Collon and his research team mainly use AMS specifically for nuclear astrophysics, rather than to date artifacts, the Notre Dame department does offer a class, Physics Methods in Art and Archaeology, which demonstrates how the program can be applied for art archaeology. The research team actively uses PIXE to reveal pigments in artifacts and artwork, specifically that found in the Snite Museum.
"What happens is as the protons go through the various pigments of the artifact, they produce X-rays and those X-rays are very specific to specific elements that are in the pigments," Collon said. "And so, I can, in a nondestructive way, not only see that it's a blue pigment, but I can actually find out what type of blue pigment. And that can help in identifying if something is of a specific period or not, the specific pigments we use and things like that."
Collon emphasizes the applied nature of the work he and his research team do in the physics lab and in turn, the diversity of student majors the research draws.
"The fun thing about AMS is that it's a needle-in-the-haystack technique," he said. "And so, it allows you to do some nuclear physics, basic nuclear physics, using that technique but then also to apply it to different fields and that's great fun."
SOUTH BEND -- From discovering the origins of early Native American pottery in Notre Dame's Snite Museum to analyzing the silver content of Roman coins, Notre Dame nuclear astrophysicists apply new research involving accelerated ion beams to real life in more ways than one and, in turn, uncover more about the area's local history.
"A lot of the work that's done on early (Native American) settlements around here is to find out if a lot of the pottery was local or if they'd come from somewhere else," said Philippe Collon, a Notre Dame physics professor.
It's important work, he said, because it "can give you information on migration, on trade and things like that ... by analyzing specific trace elements."
While scientists often have to partially destroy a painting to discover its authenticity, new applied physics techniques use ion beams in a nondestructive way to uncover counterfeit artwork. However, Notre Dame's department focuses more on the composition of the artwork than the authenticity.
"There are techniques that can (reveal counterfeit artwork)," said Collon, adding there are labs that do this sort of thing "for bread and butter. It's not to say that we can't do it or we wouldn't do it. But what we've mostly been doing is analyzing various artifacts from the Snite Museum, from various collectors, and what they were more interested in is, what was the composition of the pigments?"
In addition to researching paintings and pottery from the museum, the astrophysics researchers also study Roman coins.
"By comparing the silver content in Roman coins, you can actually correlate that to the state of the Roman economy," Collon said. "The poorer, the worse it was, the less silver you had in the coins and things like that."
Collon claims the physics research attracts undergraduate students because of its application to the real world.
"What we were interested in here is to go away a little bit from just doing nuclear astrophysics and doing some more applied work," Collon said, "because it's extremely interesting. It's something different to do. It's something that's very helpful for students."
A whole number of different techniques are based in physics, he added, "from X-raying a painting to usingX-raysto analyze pigments."
Notre Dame's nuclear astrophysics department uses the same accelerators to research the moon, sky and stars, and to analyze artifacts, merely producing different beams that cater to studying objects that are smaller and closer than those they study in the sky.
"In order to do the research for stars, we use accelerators," Collon said. "They basically present beams of energetic particles that have a specific velocity. And what we do is we study nuclear reactions. However, you can use those same machines and produce specific beams and use those to analyze artifacts and a whole host of different applied techniques."
The department uses two different applied techniques in their lab, one called accelerated mass spectrometry, or AMS, which dates anything from paintings to coins. The applied physics researchers also use proton-inducedX-rayemissions, or PIXE, which identify various pigments in a piece of artwork or artifact.
Although such programs have been around for decades, physicists have only begun using them in recent years to study paintings and artifacts. Notre Dame's physics department is one of the first to involve students in art archaeology research using accelerated ion beams.
Not only physics students but also anthropology students, specifically archaeology majors, research the accelerated ion beams with Collon to analyze various artifacts.
"We get a lot of students that are not necessarily physics students into the lab," Collon said, "because they are anthropology students, they are archaeology majors. ... And they basically learn about physics, because what they're doing is using nuclear physics but to understand what they're looking for, so that's great fun and so it's a sort of extra avenue."
While Collon and his research team mainly use AMS specifically for nuclear astrophysics, rather than to date artifacts, the Notre Dame department does offer a class, Physics Methods in Art and Archaeology, which demonstrates how the program can be applied for art archaeology. The research team actively uses PIXE to reveal pigments in artifacts and artwork, specifically that found in the Snite Museum.
"What happens is as the protons go through the various pigments of the artifact, they produce X-rays and those X-rays are very specific to specific elements that are in the pigments," Collon said. "And so, I can, in a nondestructive way, not only see that it's a blue pigment, but I can actually find out what type of blue pigment. And that can help in identifying if something is of a specific period or not, the specific pigments we use and things like that."
Collon emphasizes the applied nature of the work he and his research team do in the physics lab and in turn, the diversity of student majors the research draws.
"The fun thing about AMS is that it's a needle-in-the-haystack technique," he said. "And so, it allows you to do some nuclear physics, basic nuclear physics, using that technique but then also to apply it to different fields and that's great fun."
Sunday, August 12, 2012
60 is the new 40
On August 10, 2012, the Cheyenne chapter of the AARP hosted a seminar
called Gray Matters - which was free and provided a free lunch -
unfortunately fish and cheesecake, blech - from 4 to 6 was a reception
for all travelers who had come in for the AARP National Spelling Bee to
be held on the 11th.
I attended that and it was a lot of fun. The emcee introduced a few folks, we talked about words, there was a "mock" spelling bee (which only consisted of about 20 people getting up and being questioned on one word...) and so on. And there were finger foods there - Chinese food to be precise. Don't know where they got it from or if they cooked it on site (Little America is a hotel and resort where people come to play golf among other things) but it was delish.
The spelling bee started at the ungodly hour of 8:30 am (Well...8:30 is not so ungodly but I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 to get there in time for registration, etc.) It started with 4 rounds of 25 words each - which was a Written Test.
The first 25 words were extremely easy. They asked words like "Greetings" and "Navel" and "Mince." I suppose a few might have been considered difficult... "Animus" and "Lacuna."
The second 25 words were equally easy, but I did miss MUGWUMP.
I assume they did this just to help everyone settle the nerves and get new people used to what was going on. People had trouble hearing some of the words (hey, they were all over 50 and most over 60) and the Pronouncer would come down and tell them the word face to face and have them say it back, etc. Indeed, the Pronouncer did an excellent job.
Third round was where they started asking the difficult words.
I missed:
QUESTIONARY INERCALATE
TUATARA
SKOSH
VIRIDITY
WIMBLE
The fourth round was the real killer. I only got 12 out of 25 right. I missed:
FELICIFIC
DOVEKIE
FLYTING
NAPERY
COTYLEDONARY
WELTSCHMERRZ
OPPUGNER
AECIOSPORE
SYNCYTIAL
KNUR
IRIDIUM
TUYERE
HYOSCYAMINE
I then stayed for the Oral rounds and was joined by one of my friends from my Scrabble Club. (I think an audience could have assembled for the Written rounds, too. There were chairs there and family were in them...but I think most people only wanted to come see the Oral rounds where you actually saw the speller's faces as opposed to their backs, etc.)
Two of the people I met last night at the reception made it to the Orals. One of them it was his first trip to the Bee and he was successful his first time out. Made it through about 10 rounds. (In the Orals, you miss two words and you're out.) Another one was an elderly woman from Minnesota who also got through about 10 rounds before being knocked out.
There were three sisters and a brother who had come as a sort of family reunion. The eldest sister made it to the Oral rounds but was bounced after only two rounds. This was too bad and it was because she was a bit unlucky - she got two 6-syllable words in a row while some of the others were getting much easier ones (but still, not ones I could have spelled). But she was disqualified along with several other people in the same round, so hopefully she didn't feel too bad.
The words in the Oral Rounds were extremely difficult. Several times more difficult than the toughest words in the final round of the Written.
But, had I studied for a year, I think I could have handled them.
And it is my intention to study for a year and get into the Orals next year.
So, why is the title of this blog entry 60 is thenew 40?
Because it is.
People are living longer. You don't want to outlive your money and more importantly you don't want to outlive your sense of enjoyment of life. And learning new things every day is enjoyment and keeps the mind active.
The AARP Spelling Bee is held every year, and it gives you an excellent reason to travel to Cheyenne and see The Cowboy State. You'll meet lots of interesting people.
You do have to study.
I studied very desultorily for about a month...combine all the time I studied and it was about 10 hours. Not nearly enough, but then, I'm a good speller so the Written Rounds were relatively easy - except for that killer last round.
Why learn words that you'll never, ever say in real life?Well, because they're interesting. And the concepts of what you'll learn, you can apply in other areas. So it's a win win.
So start planning to live a long, healthy, active, intellectual life, and do it now, however old you might be!
I attended that and it was a lot of fun. The emcee introduced a few folks, we talked about words, there was a "mock" spelling bee (which only consisted of about 20 people getting up and being questioned on one word...) and so on. And there were finger foods there - Chinese food to be precise. Don't know where they got it from or if they cooked it on site (Little America is a hotel and resort where people come to play golf among other things) but it was delish.
The spelling bee started at the ungodly hour of 8:30 am (Well...8:30 is not so ungodly but I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 to get there in time for registration, etc.) It started with 4 rounds of 25 words each - which was a Written Test.
The first 25 words were extremely easy. They asked words like "Greetings" and "Navel" and "Mince." I suppose a few might have been considered difficult... "Animus" and "Lacuna."
The second 25 words were equally easy, but I did miss MUGWUMP.
I assume they did this just to help everyone settle the nerves and get new people used to what was going on. People had trouble hearing some of the words (hey, they were all over 50 and most over 60) and the Pronouncer would come down and tell them the word face to face and have them say it back, etc. Indeed, the Pronouncer did an excellent job.
Third round was where they started asking the difficult words.
I missed:
QUESTIONARY INERCALATE
TUATARA
SKOSH
VIRIDITY
WIMBLE
The fourth round was the real killer. I only got 12 out of 25 right. I missed:
FELICIFIC
DOVEKIE
FLYTING
NAPERY
COTYLEDONARY
WELTSCHMERRZ
OPPUGNER
AECIOSPORE
SYNCYTIAL
KNUR
IRIDIUM
TUYERE
HYOSCYAMINE
I then stayed for the Oral rounds and was joined by one of my friends from my Scrabble Club. (I think an audience could have assembled for the Written rounds, too. There were chairs there and family were in them...but I think most people only wanted to come see the Oral rounds where you actually saw the speller's faces as opposed to their backs, etc.)
Two of the people I met last night at the reception made it to the Orals. One of them it was his first trip to the Bee and he was successful his first time out. Made it through about 10 rounds. (In the Orals, you miss two words and you're out.) Another one was an elderly woman from Minnesota who also got through about 10 rounds before being knocked out.
There were three sisters and a brother who had come as a sort of family reunion. The eldest sister made it to the Oral rounds but was bounced after only two rounds. This was too bad and it was because she was a bit unlucky - she got two 6-syllable words in a row while some of the others were getting much easier ones (but still, not ones I could have spelled). But she was disqualified along with several other people in the same round, so hopefully she didn't feel too bad.
The words in the Oral Rounds were extremely difficult. Several times more difficult than the toughest words in the final round of the Written.
But, had I studied for a year, I think I could have handled them.
And it is my intention to study for a year and get into the Orals next year.
So, why is the title of this blog entry 60 is thenew 40?
Because it is.
People are living longer. You don't want to outlive your money and more importantly you don't want to outlive your sense of enjoyment of life. And learning new things every day is enjoyment and keeps the mind active.
The AARP Spelling Bee is held every year, and it gives you an excellent reason to travel to Cheyenne and see The Cowboy State. You'll meet lots of interesting people.
You do have to study.
I studied very desultorily for about a month...combine all the time I studied and it was about 10 hours. Not nearly enough, but then, I'm a good speller so the Written Rounds were relatively easy - except for that killer last round.
Why learn words that you'll never, ever say in real life?Well, because they're interesting. And the concepts of what you'll learn, you can apply in other areas. So it's a win win.
So start planning to live a long, healthy, active, intellectual life, and do it now, however old you might be!
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Posting resumes Monday
I'm participating in the AARP Cheyenne Spelling Bee today, Saturday, and need to recover Sunday....
So Monday, posts resumes.
So Monday, posts resumes.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Founder of Czech nuclear research professor Šimáně dies
From Prague Daily Monitor: Founder of Czech nuclear research professor Šimáně dies
Prague, Aug 1 (CTK) - Professor Cestmir Simane, Czech nuclear research founder, who focused on experimental nuclear physics, construction and use of accelerators, construction of radiation detectors and nuclear reactors technology, died on July 26, aged 93, the Czech Science Academy (CAV) has written on its web page.
Simane was a "Renaissance man, the last of the generation of founding fathers of Czech nuclear research," Dana Drabova, State Authority for Nuclear Safety (SUJB) chairwoman, told CTk Wednesday.
Simane worked until the last moment on a microtron accelerator and devoted his time to students, Drabova said.
She said Simane was capable of giving 90-minute lectures until recently.
His profession took him to Austria, France and the former Soviet Union. He wrote a number of expert articles and books.
Simane was a member of many Czechoslovak delegations to international conferences on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in 1955-61, according to his biography.
When the SUJB was established, Simane became a member of its advisory body. Until his death he was a scientific worker of the CAV Nuclear Physics Institute in Rez, near Prague.
Simane graduated from Brno University of Technology, focusing on electronics and nuclear physics.
In 1947-49 Simane went to Paris for training with Professor Frederic Joliot-Curie.
In 1948 he was the first employee of the Czech Atomic Physics Institute and he built the Nuclear Physics Laboratory in Prague-Hostivar that was equipped with an eletrostatic accelerator of protons and deuterons.
Simane was also director of the Physical Institute of the Czechoslovak Science Academy (CSAV) and in 1955 he became the first director of the newly established AV Institute of Nuclear Physics in Rez.
From 1961 he headed a division of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
After he returned home, he became head of the chair of nuclear reactors of the Technological and Nuclear Faculty of the Czech Technical University in Prague. In 1967-72 he was its dean.
In 1973 Simane was elected deputy director of the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna near Moscow and held the post until 1977.
Prague, Aug 1 (CTK) - Professor Cestmir Simane, Czech nuclear research founder, who focused on experimental nuclear physics, construction and use of accelerators, construction of radiation detectors and nuclear reactors technology, died on July 26, aged 93, the Czech Science Academy (CAV) has written on its web page.
Simane was a "Renaissance man, the last of the generation of founding fathers of Czech nuclear research," Dana Drabova, State Authority for Nuclear Safety (SUJB) chairwoman, told CTk Wednesday.
Simane worked until the last moment on a microtron accelerator and devoted his time to students, Drabova said.
She said Simane was capable of giving 90-minute lectures until recently.
His profession took him to Austria, France and the former Soviet Union. He wrote a number of expert articles and books.
Simane was a member of many Czechoslovak delegations to international conferences on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in 1955-61, according to his biography.
When the SUJB was established, Simane became a member of its advisory body. Until his death he was a scientific worker of the CAV Nuclear Physics Institute in Rez, near Prague.
Simane graduated from Brno University of Technology, focusing on electronics and nuclear physics.
In 1947-49 Simane went to Paris for training with Professor Frederic Joliot-Curie.
In 1948 he was the first employee of the Czech Atomic Physics Institute and he built the Nuclear Physics Laboratory in Prague-Hostivar that was equipped with an eletrostatic accelerator of protons and deuterons.
Simane was also director of the Physical Institute of the Czechoslovak Science Academy (CSAV) and in 1955 he became the first director of the newly established AV Institute of Nuclear Physics in Rez.
From 1961 he headed a division of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
After he returned home, he became head of the chair of nuclear reactors of the Technological and Nuclear Faculty of the Czech Technical University in Prague. In 1967-72 he was its dean.
In 1973 Simane was elected deputy director of the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna near Moscow and held the post until 1977.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Quark Matter 2012: Latest Findings on Primordial ‘Soup’ and Nature’s Strongest Force
From American Institute of Physics: Quark Matter 2012: Latest Findings on Primordial ‘Soup’ and Nature’s Strongest Force
Physicists recreating conditions of early universe present new data at Quark Matter 2012
August 2, 2012
EVENT: Physicists from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the only operating collider in the U.S., located at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), will present the latest results from their explorations of the primordial quark-gluon plasma that permeated the early universe at the Quark Matter 2012 conference in Washington, D.C.
WHEN: Sunday, August 12 – Saturday, August 18, 2012
PRESS BRIEFING: Monday, August 13, 2012, 1:15 p.m.
Overview of key findings from RHIC and LHC heavy-ion experiments, with an opportunity for Q&A with program and experiment scientists and nuclear physics theory experts. Congressional A
WHERE:Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St. NW, Washington, D.C.
DETAILS: RHIC, a 2.4-mile-circumference particle accelerator that collides a range of heavy ions moving at nearly the speed of light, was the first machine to demonstrate the formation of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) — a nearly perfect liquid of strongly interacting quarks and gluons that filled the early universe before condensing to form protons, atoms, stars, planets, and everything else that makes up the visible universe today. The unexpected properties of this early-universe QGP have largely been confirmed by heavy-ion experiments at the LHC.* But many mysteries remain about the nature of the quark-gluon interactions that hold together our visible world and how they evolved from this primordial soup. The latest findings from RHIC and the LHC will enlighten our understanding and set the stage for future explorations.
Presentations from RHIC and LHC experiments will include:
•New details about the transition from ordinary matter to QGP
•Characteristics of ions before they collide, and effects on collision dynamics
•First results from new kinds of ion collisions, including football-shaped uranium ions and non-identical copper on gold
•Effects of the QGP on fast quarks and gluons (jet quenching)
•Suppression of heavy quark states by the QGP
HIGHLIGHTS: The following talks and events may be of special interest to reporters. Feel free to peruse the complete meeting timetable and attend other events.
Sunday, Aug. 12
9 a.m.-6:15 p.m. A series of talks and a reception for students and teachers as part of the Quark Matter community’s commitment to training the next generation of nuclear physicists. Palladian/Empire
Monday, Aug. 13
8:30 a.m. Welcoming remarks, including comments from Timothy Hallman, Associate Director for Nuclear Physics, U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, and Samuel Aronson, Director, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Regency 2/3
9:00 a.m. Keynote speaker: The Honorable Bart Gordon, former U.S. Representative from Tennessee and chair of House Committee on Science & Technology, 2007-2011. Regency 2/3
9:30 a.m. Broad overview of heavy-ion physics, Urs Wiedemann, CERN. Regency 2/3
10:45 a.m. – 12:50 p.m. Highlight talks from the RHIC and LHC heavy-ion experiments. Regency 2/3
•RHIC/PHENIX, Takao Sakaguchi, Brookhaven National Laboratory
•RHIC/STAR, Xin Dong, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
•LHC/ALICE, Karel Safarik, CERN
•LHC/ATLAS, Barbara Krystyna Wosiek, Polish Academy of Sciences
•LHC/CMS, Gunther Roland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1:15 p.m. Press briefing: Overview of key findings/Q&A. Congressional A
7:30 p.m. Reception: An opportunity for informal interactions with physicists. Luce Center of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Tuesday, Aug. 14
7:00 p.m. Public lecture: “Energy for the 21st Century World Economy: Problems and Opportunities,” Wolfgang Bauer, Distinguished University Professor, Michigan State University. Regency 2/3
Thursday, Aug. 16
7:30 p.m. Conference dinner, with an after-dinner talk starting at 8:45 p.m.: “Death From the Skies!” by Phil Plait, founder of BadAstronomy.com, a website dedicated to clearing up public misconceptions about science with a mix of humor and facts. Based on his 2008 book of the same name, the talk will discuss various “disaster scenarios” for humankind, including those that spring up with each new particle accelerator. Regency
Saturday, Aug. 18
8:30 a.m. Talks on the future of RHIC and heavy-ion experiments at the LHC. Regency 2/3
PRESS REGISTRATION: Reporters interested in attending any part of Quark Matter 2012 must register online. For reporters unable to attend in person, we will be webcasting the Monday morning talks and press briefing. To register for either or both webcasts, go to: http://www.aipwebcasting.com/reg-aug-2012.php. Reporters registered for the press briefing webcast will be able to email questions. For more information, contact Karen McNulty Walsh, Brookhaven Lab Media & Communications Office, 631 344-8350, kmcnulty@bnl.gov.
For additional background on quark matter physics, see The Exploration of Hot Nuclear Matter, a review article just published in Science, this press release, and a short video about research at RHIC.
*Heavy-ion physics at the LHC is a separate research program from the recently publicized search for the Higgs particle.
Research at RHIC is funded primarily by the DOE Office of Science, and also by these agencies and organizations.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
Physicists recreating conditions of early universe present new data at Quark Matter 2012
August 2, 2012
EVENT: Physicists from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the only operating collider in the U.S., located at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), will present the latest results from their explorations of the primordial quark-gluon plasma that permeated the early universe at the Quark Matter 2012 conference in Washington, D.C.
WHEN: Sunday, August 12 – Saturday, August 18, 2012
PRESS BRIEFING: Monday, August 13, 2012, 1:15 p.m.
Overview of key findings from RHIC and LHC heavy-ion experiments, with an opportunity for Q&A with program and experiment scientists and nuclear physics theory experts. Congressional A
WHERE:Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St. NW, Washington, D.C.
DETAILS: RHIC, a 2.4-mile-circumference particle accelerator that collides a range of heavy ions moving at nearly the speed of light, was the first machine to demonstrate the formation of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) — a nearly perfect liquid of strongly interacting quarks and gluons that filled the early universe before condensing to form protons, atoms, stars, planets, and everything else that makes up the visible universe today. The unexpected properties of this early-universe QGP have largely been confirmed by heavy-ion experiments at the LHC.* But many mysteries remain about the nature of the quark-gluon interactions that hold together our visible world and how they evolved from this primordial soup. The latest findings from RHIC and the LHC will enlighten our understanding and set the stage for future explorations.
Presentations from RHIC and LHC experiments will include:
•New details about the transition from ordinary matter to QGP
•Characteristics of ions before they collide, and effects on collision dynamics
•First results from new kinds of ion collisions, including football-shaped uranium ions and non-identical copper on gold
•Effects of the QGP on fast quarks and gluons (jet quenching)
•Suppression of heavy quark states by the QGP
HIGHLIGHTS: The following talks and events may be of special interest to reporters. Feel free to peruse the complete meeting timetable and attend other events.
Sunday, Aug. 12
9 a.m.-6:15 p.m. A series of talks and a reception for students and teachers as part of the Quark Matter community’s commitment to training the next generation of nuclear physicists. Palladian/Empire
Monday, Aug. 13
8:30 a.m. Welcoming remarks, including comments from Timothy Hallman, Associate Director for Nuclear Physics, U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, and Samuel Aronson, Director, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Regency 2/3
9:00 a.m. Keynote speaker: The Honorable Bart Gordon, former U.S. Representative from Tennessee and chair of House Committee on Science & Technology, 2007-2011. Regency 2/3
9:30 a.m. Broad overview of heavy-ion physics, Urs Wiedemann, CERN. Regency 2/3
10:45 a.m. – 12:50 p.m. Highlight talks from the RHIC and LHC heavy-ion experiments. Regency 2/3
•RHIC/PHENIX, Takao Sakaguchi, Brookhaven National Laboratory
•RHIC/STAR, Xin Dong, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
•LHC/ALICE, Karel Safarik, CERN
•LHC/ATLAS, Barbara Krystyna Wosiek, Polish Academy of Sciences
•LHC/CMS, Gunther Roland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1:15 p.m. Press briefing: Overview of key findings/Q&A. Congressional A
7:30 p.m. Reception: An opportunity for informal interactions with physicists. Luce Center of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Tuesday, Aug. 14
7:00 p.m. Public lecture: “Energy for the 21st Century World Economy: Problems and Opportunities,” Wolfgang Bauer, Distinguished University Professor, Michigan State University. Regency 2/3
Thursday, Aug. 16
7:30 p.m. Conference dinner, with an after-dinner talk starting at 8:45 p.m.: “Death From the Skies!” by Phil Plait, founder of BadAstronomy.com, a website dedicated to clearing up public misconceptions about science with a mix of humor and facts. Based on his 2008 book of the same name, the talk will discuss various “disaster scenarios” for humankind, including those that spring up with each new particle accelerator. Regency
Saturday, Aug. 18
8:30 a.m. Talks on the future of RHIC and heavy-ion experiments at the LHC. Regency 2/3
PRESS REGISTRATION: Reporters interested in attending any part of Quark Matter 2012 must register online. For reporters unable to attend in person, we will be webcasting the Monday morning talks and press briefing. To register for either or both webcasts, go to: http://www.aipwebcasting.com/reg-aug-2012.php. Reporters registered for the press briefing webcast will be able to email questions. For more information, contact Karen McNulty Walsh, Brookhaven Lab Media & Communications Office, 631 344-8350, kmcnulty@bnl.gov.
For additional background on quark matter physics, see The Exploration of Hot Nuclear Matter, a review article just published in Science, this press release, and a short video about research at RHIC.
*Heavy-ion physics at the LHC is a separate research program from the recently publicized search for the Higgs particle.
Research at RHIC is funded primarily by the DOE Office of Science, and also by these agencies and organizations.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Women physicists wade into a man’s world
From MetroNews.co: Women physicists wade into a man’s world
When it comes to physics, it’s a man’s world.
The discrepancy begins as early as high school, where there are far fewer women than men enrolled in high school physics classes across Canada. The male-female imbalance continues to worsen through university and in all career stages.
“Girls are looking for opportunities to make a difference. What we don’t communicate well about fields like physics and engineering, is that these are careers where you can have a great impact,” said Elizabeth Croft, a professor of mechanical engineering at UBC and an expert in the field of robotics.
“In high school we say, ‘Solve equations!’, ‘Do this study on the Milikan experiment!’ or ‘Document the number of electrons!’ Well, how exciting is that?” Croft said. “We don’t connect that to knowing the strength and materials needed to design a car to keep people safe, or how to process chemicals to produce enough energy for our world without polluting our environment.”
Croft is one of 15 female scientists invited to speak at UBC’s second annual Women in Physics conference this week. More than 115 people are expected to attend, many of them young women enrolled in university-level science programs. Conference organizers say they want to encourage and support young women who may have an interest in pursuing careers in physics and other sciences.
Anne Broadbent’s interest in science actually began in high school, but the postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo agrees that such a career can be isolating for many women.
“This conference is really to tell other young women that they’re not alone,” said Broadbent, who was surrounded by male classmates as she completed degrees at the University of Waterloo and the University of Montreal. “We hope to give all the women out there a sense that they’re part of a group and a community.”
The community of women scientists is growing, said Anadi Canepa, a research scientist at the National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics who is working at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Large Hardon Collider is a giant machine used to observe protons smashing and potentially creating particles that were produced during the time of the Big Bang.
“While particle physics is still a very male dominated field, it is very open to young women,” Canepa said. “In fact, a large fraction of physicists working with the experiment [in Geneva] are women. It’s a very promising field.”
The Women in Physics conference kicks off Thursday at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
1) Anadi Canepa is a research scientist in Vancouver at TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics. She works for the ATLAS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland.
What is the Large Hardon Collider (LHC)?
The LHC is a giant machine used to observe the collision of protons. The protons travel very fast, close to the speed off light, in a 27 kilometre underground pipe. A complex device similar to a digital camera captures 40 million pictures per second in order to observe the protons smashing and potentially creating particles that were produced during the time of the Big Bang. “The LHC may lead to a revolution in particle physics that can be compared to the Copernicus’ revolution,” Canepa said. “It may unravel a mirror Universe or new dimensions of space-time.”
2) Elizabeth Croft is a professor of mechanical engineering at UBC and the leader of the Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (WWEST) program. She specializes in the field of robotics.
What about robots?
Croft’s research investigates how robotic systems can behave, and be perceived to behave, in a safe, predictable, and helpful manner, as well has how people interact with and understand robotic systems. “Imagine having a robot that could clean your house and tell you where it put everything because it could remember,” Croft said. “We are working to teach robots basic behaviours so they are more helpful and understandable to their users.”
3) Anne Broadbent is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. She works in the field of quantum information and how we would be able to use it once quantum computers become available.
What is quantum computing?
Quantum computers are the next generation of computers. They operate according to the laws of quantum physics, which are fundamentally different laws than what traditional computers are operating on today. According to quantum mechanics, an object can exist in more than one state simultaneously. “There are more degrees in nature than what we are using now,” Broadbent said. “By tapping into those degrees of freedom we can do things we can’t imagine possible.”
When it comes to physics, it’s a man’s world.
The discrepancy begins as early as high school, where there are far fewer women than men enrolled in high school physics classes across Canada. The male-female imbalance continues to worsen through university and in all career stages.
“Girls are looking for opportunities to make a difference. What we don’t communicate well about fields like physics and engineering, is that these are careers where you can have a great impact,” said Elizabeth Croft, a professor of mechanical engineering at UBC and an expert in the field of robotics.
“In high school we say, ‘Solve equations!’, ‘Do this study on the Milikan experiment!’ or ‘Document the number of electrons!’ Well, how exciting is that?” Croft said. “We don’t connect that to knowing the strength and materials needed to design a car to keep people safe, or how to process chemicals to produce enough energy for our world without polluting our environment.”
Croft is one of 15 female scientists invited to speak at UBC’s second annual Women in Physics conference this week. More than 115 people are expected to attend, many of them young women enrolled in university-level science programs. Conference organizers say they want to encourage and support young women who may have an interest in pursuing careers in physics and other sciences.
Anne Broadbent’s interest in science actually began in high school, but the postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo agrees that such a career can be isolating for many women.
“This conference is really to tell other young women that they’re not alone,” said Broadbent, who was surrounded by male classmates as she completed degrees at the University of Waterloo and the University of Montreal. “We hope to give all the women out there a sense that they’re part of a group and a community.”
The community of women scientists is growing, said Anadi Canepa, a research scientist at the National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics who is working at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Large Hardon Collider is a giant machine used to observe protons smashing and potentially creating particles that were produced during the time of the Big Bang.
“While particle physics is still a very male dominated field, it is very open to young women,” Canepa said. “In fact, a large fraction of physicists working with the experiment [in Geneva] are women. It’s a very promising field.”
The Women in Physics conference kicks off Thursday at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
1) Anadi Canepa is a research scientist in Vancouver at TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics. She works for the ATLAS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland.
What is the Large Hardon Collider (LHC)?
The LHC is a giant machine used to observe the collision of protons. The protons travel very fast, close to the speed off light, in a 27 kilometre underground pipe. A complex device similar to a digital camera captures 40 million pictures per second in order to observe the protons smashing and potentially creating particles that were produced during the time of the Big Bang. “The LHC may lead to a revolution in particle physics that can be compared to the Copernicus’ revolution,” Canepa said. “It may unravel a mirror Universe or new dimensions of space-time.”
2) Elizabeth Croft is a professor of mechanical engineering at UBC and the leader of the Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (WWEST) program. She specializes in the field of robotics.
What about robots?
Croft’s research investigates how robotic systems can behave, and be perceived to behave, in a safe, predictable, and helpful manner, as well has how people interact with and understand robotic systems. “Imagine having a robot that could clean your house and tell you where it put everything because it could remember,” Croft said. “We are working to teach robots basic behaviours so they are more helpful and understandable to their users.”
3) Anne Broadbent is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. She works in the field of quantum information and how we would be able to use it once quantum computers become available.
What is quantum computing?
Quantum computers are the next generation of computers. They operate according to the laws of quantum physics, which are fundamentally different laws than what traditional computers are operating on today. According to quantum mechanics, an object can exist in more than one state simultaneously. “There are more degrees in nature than what we are using now,” Broadbent said. “By tapping into those degrees of freedom we can do things we can’t imagine possible.”
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