tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6272888223622038552024-03-13T10:09:05.956-05:00Cosmic YarnsExploring the Science in Science FictionRobert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.comBlogger191125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-65955851643644609582022-12-08T08:38:00.000-06:002022-12-08T08:38:14.326-06:00H.P. Lovecraft does the Brady Bunch<p> More ChatGPT madness. Here is what it gave me when I asked it to rewrite the Brady Bunch theme song in the style of H.P. Lovecraft:</p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The
Brady Bunch theme tune in the style of H.P. Lovecraft would be a dark and eerie
composition, evoking the sense of cosmic dread and madness that are common
themes in Lovecraft's writing. The melody would be slow and ominous, with a
sense of foreboding and impending doom. The lyrics might include references to
ancient and unknowable beings, as well as the corruption and decay of the human
mind in the face of the universe's horrors.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> Verse
1:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> <span style="font-family: arial;">In
the land of the Brady Bunch,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Where
the air is musty and stale,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Lurks
a darkness, deep and ancient,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">That
no mortal can avail.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> Chorus:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> <span style="font-family: arial;">In
the house of the Brady Bunch,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Where
the laughter once did ring,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now
there dwells a creeping terror,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">That
will make your heart take wing.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> Verse
2:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> <span style="font-family: arial;">In
the hearts of the Brady Bunch,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Where
once joy did reign,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now
there grows a creeping madness,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As
they stare into the void.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> Chorus:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> <span style="font-family: arial;">In
the home of the Brady Bunch,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Where
the family once did thrive,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now
there reigns a lurking horror,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">That
will steal their peace of mind.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> Bridge:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> <span style="font-family: arial;">As
the stars align in cosmic fury,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And
the gates of chaos open wide,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The
Brady Bunch will face their doom,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As
they confront the Great Old Ones.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> Chorus:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> In
the world of the Brady Bunch,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Where
the sun has lost its glow,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now
there reigns a creeping horror,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As
they face the Great Old Ones.</span><o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-3906440125475212672022-12-07T10:09:00.000-06:002022-12-07T10:09:17.027-06:00ChatGPT and 1960s Television Theme Tunes<p> Like many people, I've been playing around with <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/">ChatGPT</a> this week. My colleagues in the Physics Department have discovered that it can generate somewhat credible physics homework problems and solutions. However, I have been exploring a more important use: translating 1960s TV theme tunes into classical literary forms. Here's the theme from <i>Gilligan's Island</i> rendered in the style of Beowulf:</p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Lo, the theme of Gilligan's Island rings
true, A tale of a fateful trip that ended in woe.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The
castaways, they set sail on the sea, But a storm, it did arise, and their
vessel was tossed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Stranded
on an island, with no way to go, The travelers must find a way to make their
home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There's
the valiant skipper, the first mate, and more, Each one with a strength to help
them explore.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But
the bumbling Gilligan, oh what a sight, His clumsiness leads to problems, day
and night.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Together,
they must learn to survive, And find a way off the island, if they're alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With
dangers lurking, and challenges ahead, The castaways must work together, or
they'll all be dead.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So let us cheer on Gilligan's Island, As they
strive to escape their fateful plight.</span><span style="font-family: Segoe UI, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 15.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And the theme from <i>Flipper</i> in the style of Chaucer:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the days of old, when knights were bold,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">And dolphins roamed the sea,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">There was a tale of a noble steed,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">Whose name was Flipper, oh so fleet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">With fins as strong as any sword,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">And a heart that knew no fear,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">He swam the waves with grace and ease,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">And saved the day time and time again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">Through storm and strife, through battles won,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">Flipper was always there,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">A symbol of strength and courage,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">A friend to all who knew his name.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">So if you ever find yourself adrift,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">In danger or in need,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">Just call upon the mighty Flipper,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">And he will come to your aid, indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">For Flipper is the bravest of them all,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">A true and noble hero,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">And his legend shall live on forever,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 15.0pt;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the hearts of those who know his name.<span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times;">I'm always happy to see the latest technology put to good use.</span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-91174830411559666412022-09-08T15:00:00.001-05:002022-09-08T15:00:57.830-05:00I'll be Speaking About the Webb Telescope on Wednesday<p> For those of you who live in Nashville, I will be giving a talk as part of the "Profs and Pints" series (yes, that's academics speaking in bars) this coming Wednesday. Details are <a href="https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/nashvillestars/" target="_blank">here</a>. I will be speaking about the James Webb Space Telescope, with particular emphasis on what it can tell us about cosmology.</p>Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-47412690278084012112019-10-09T17:31:00.000-05:002019-10-09T17:31:18.966-05:00This Year's Nobel Prize in PhysicsJim Peebles was awarded half of this year's prize for his foundational contributions to cosmology. I've known him for 40 years -- he was my senior thesis advisor at Princeton and had already been the most influential figure in the field long before I met him.<br />
<br />
Cosmology was actually a bit of a backwater from the 1930s until the discovery of the cosmic microwave background in 1965. Peebles had a tangential role in that discovery (look it up -- it's a very famous story), and he played a central role in the development of the field for decades afterwards. His most influential work has to do with the way that large-scale structure forms in the universe -- how small fluctuations in the density grow with time to give us galaxies and everything that goes with them. (Peebles was also the best physics teacher at Princeton, at least when I was there). So this is a well-deserved prize. Jim is the nicest of all of the geniuses I've met -- and I've met quite a few.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-87843501878069442922019-09-12T14:09:00.000-05:002019-09-12T14:09:47.148-05:00David Brin speaking at Vanderbilt Sept. 23David Brin (author of, among others, <i>The Postman, Kiln People, </i>and the <i>Uplift </i>series), will be giving a special colloquium in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University on Monday, Sept. 23, at 4:00 in room 4327 Stevenson Center. The talk is free and open to the public:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Our
place in the Cosmos and Is Anyone Out There? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 8.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In both science and literature,
the question of ‘others’ can be a mirror illuminating our own origins and
plausible destinies. Are we a fluke? Might we be the first to navigate the
minefield of existence? Astrophysicist and novelist David Brin will (briefly)
survey both what we know and can speculate about life in the universe.<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-57484045462031424732019-07-30T11:07:00.001-05:002019-07-30T11:07:32.241-05:00More on "Portle"I have a guest blog post about the origins of "Portle" out at the Analog website. You can read it <a href="https://theastoundinganalogcompanion.com/2019/07/30/behind-portle/">here</a>.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-30360162859347744952019-06-20T10:28:00.000-05:002019-06-20T10:28:39.810-05:00Guest Commentary on "Portle"My short story, "Portle", has just appeared in the July/August issue of <i><a href="http://analogsf.com/">Analog</a>. </i>I'll have a blog post about the story at the <i>Analog </i>website soon, but in the meantime I have this comment about the story from Adrian Melott, a fellow cosmologist (and collaborator) at the University of Kansas, to share:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<i>In the spirit of literary criticism, this is the meaning
of your story, which is a parable about physicists. It is true because I say it
is, whether you intended it or not. By writing about it, I will make sure that
everyone thinks of it this way.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<i>Physicists couldn't tolerate the grandiose vision implied
by the many-worlds understanding of quantum mechanics. Retreating from this,
they narrowed their consciousness. This is called "collapse of the wave
function". What happened to the little girl is a metaphor for the
Copenhagen Interpretation.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<br />Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-51544868632088568382019-04-02T13:51:00.004-05:002019-04-02T13:51:30.461-05:00Does Science Fiction Predict the Future?Well, does it? I address this question in a <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/science-fiction-the-cloudy-crystal-ball/">brief article</a> over at the online <i>Observations</i> section of <i>Scientific American</i>.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-25942265432929806422019-02-14T15:10:00.000-06:002019-02-14T15:10:18.928-06:00The Most Famous Person You Would Never Recognize in a PhotoThink of the most famous people of the past 100 years: Einstein, Churchill, Gandhi. All of them, and hundreds more, are instantly recognizable from their photos:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaREZKFYHYWSxtVA-shiPnnveZ1yiwPxWWW5jIvpi0uGNOiDBtkvlop3h3YI1sZebfPg_YZ_Pl52DP13_qEB4mL0IWP_S4wXtHG7Hk19yD1nfhgYvvYYixUP0f739D928xeTz1_TYKKU2P/s1600/Albert_Einstein_Head.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="330" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaREZKFYHYWSxtVA-shiPnnveZ1yiwPxWWW5jIvpi0uGNOiDBtkvlop3h3YI1sZebfPg_YZ_Pl52DP13_qEB4mL0IWP_S4wXtHG7Hk19yD1nfhgYvvYYixUP0f739D928xeTz1_TYKKU2P/s320/Albert_Einstein_Head.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG5zsXE-2_r48yg6CtxQyM-Yk961Qbe5j_TR_4bEnCEWBcyhKr1ZK1k9Efq5UvqmPlzH5pMqGXvFfHXHbNTFd7gFBuVbEq_ISFW2p_FvzggOQnA2DNp8I1L65m6EFze_JCSvdAUR0Z2lVJ/s1600/Churchill+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="330" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG5zsXE-2_r48yg6CtxQyM-Yk961Qbe5j_TR_4bEnCEWBcyhKr1ZK1k9Efq5UvqmPlzH5pMqGXvFfHXHbNTFd7gFBuVbEq_ISFW2p_FvzggOQnA2DNp8I1L65m6EFze_JCSvdAUR0Z2lVJ/s320/Churchill+photo.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHY5v7NL6Mg70BTPyP21IxpRdINrA3rjnsr3e2YOZgTztUlM7lxkDAFtnuVFTf6pp25iCCtVnWdSbVtMHl5aBY5vfaKC-E8vfTVkuqXZdF5cBa0pIvrrilYsWsyXHgpQLUCGHBegjsmlmg/s1600/Gandhi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHY5v7NL6Mg70BTPyP21IxpRdINrA3rjnsr3e2YOZgTztUlM7lxkDAFtnuVFTf6pp25iCCtVnWdSbVtMHl5aBY5vfaKC-E8vfTVkuqXZdF5cBa0pIvrrilYsWsyXHgpQLUCGHBegjsmlmg/s1600/Gandhi.jpg" /></a></div>
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So here is a question to ponder: who is the most famous person of the past century whom most people would <i>never</i> recognize from a photo? I have a nominee -- it's this guy:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZnyfoMMED39U9Nom6FZd40xFusHmUZPsl_v9e2O5GiANQ4jx-6BDEENqE6oIa5wmh4Vv5fRRxEHSTwXAAGGNLjDbKmL32WfFUee-eX1nRRfLzAhj0ulzOND4v28cOZkR-bBKXL_Ypv_B/s1600/neil+armstrong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="1024" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZnyfoMMED39U9Nom6FZd40xFusHmUZPsl_v9e2O5GiANQ4jx-6BDEENqE6oIa5wmh4Vv5fRRxEHSTwXAAGGNLjDbKmL32WfFUee-eX1nRRfLzAhj0ulzOND4v28cOZkR-bBKXL_Ypv_B/s320/neil+armstrong.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Do you recognize him? Who is it? I'm being a little unfair here, as he became famous at a much younger age. Try this photo instead:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDzm7E_VicU3835-A038IUl-JGFbU-XGyW6WqlP9hReUvn_VyqLD4XLGt73FsYqkm3dzm4lYOnbrvDp7f0v4QrnFyZQ1NjiXBM9jCCOM-n-Nh_vVIqsFz8lpHCjRPi_J3rmyfxXsX29jn0/s1600/neil-armstrong---man-on-the-moon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDzm7E_VicU3835-A038IUl-JGFbU-XGyW6WqlP9hReUvn_VyqLD4XLGt73FsYqkm3dzm4lYOnbrvDp7f0v4QrnFyZQ1NjiXBM9jCCOM-n-Nh_vVIqsFz8lpHCjRPi_J3rmyfxXsX29jn0/s320/neil-armstrong---man-on-the-moon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Time to guess: who are we talking about?<br />
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<a name='more'></a>And the answer is.......<br />
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Neil Armstrong. The fact that he's not instantly recognizable is a tribute to the low profile he maintained after the Moon landing in 1969. I was inspired to post this after watching the recent film <i>First Man </i>(which is excellent, by the way). It's always fun to see how closely the actors portraying historical figures resemble the real-life people. But in this case, I realized that I had no idea what Neil Armstrong actually looked like in real life!<br />
<br />Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-27066731933693567852019-02-01T14:45:00.002-06:002019-02-01T14:45:42.086-06:00New Things in AnalogI've just had a couple of items accepted by <i><a href="http://www.analogsf.com/">Analog</a>. </i>The first is a nonfiction article that discusses the similarities and differences between "doing" theoretical physics and coming up with new ideas for science fiction. (I need to specify here that my cosmology research does <i>not </i>fall under the category of "science fiction"). And the second is the short story to which I alluded <a href="http://www.cosmicyarns.com/2018/04/how-did-we-survive-1980s.html">here.</a> I can't tell you what it's about -- you'll just have to wait and see.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-27761443596459577092018-09-07T12:56:00.000-05:002018-09-07T12:56:34.373-05:00An Astronomy Math PuzzleIt's pretty easy to measure the radial velocities of distant stars or galaxies. (The "radial" velocity is the motion of an object directly toward or directly away from us). Astronomers use the Doppler shift, the stretching or compression of light from the moving object. Light from stars or galaxies moving toward us gets "bunched up," and the wavelength shrinks, making the light bluer, while light from objects moving away from us gets stretched out and becomes redder. The Doppler effect works so well that we can pin down the radial velocities of the most distant galaxies in the universe -- these observations provided the first evidence for the expanding universe.<br />
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But it's a lot harder to measure the sideways, or "transverse" velocity. The only way to measure a transverse velocity is to keep careful watch on an object and wait... and wait... and wait... We've been able to measure the transverse motions of stars for a long time -- the star with the fastest transverse motion is Barnard's Star, named after Vanderbilt's E.E. Barnard. But even Barnard's star is moving at a glacial rate across the sky -- 10 arcseconds a year. At that rate, it will take almost 200 years to move the width of a full moon.<br />
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Galaxies are much farther away than stars, so their transverse motions are minuscule in comparison and have never been observed. But recently the <a href="http://sci.esa.int/gaia/">Gaia</a> satellite has allowed astronomers to pinpoint the locations of distant objects with unprecedented accuracy. So there's speculation that if we could monitor distant galaxies for a long enough time (10 years? 20 years?) we might be able to measure their transverse motions.<br />
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All of which leads to a puzzle. We don't want to sit around for 10 years, only to discover that we've been watching a slowpoke galaxy that's hardly moving sideways at all. If we could monitor only a handful of distant galaxies, which ones are likely to have the biggest transverse velocities? Are they the galaxies with the largest<i> </i>radial velocities? That makes sense -- a galaxy with a large radial velocity is more likely to have a large<i> total</i> velocity, so the component of its velocity in the transverse direction is also likely to be large. But here's an argument in the opposite direction: if all the galaxies are moving at about the same speed, then a large radial velocity means that the galaxy is likely to be moving almost directly toward or away from us, so it will have a small transverse velocity, while a galaxy with almost no radial motion is likely to be moving perpendicular to our viewing direction and will have a very large transverse velocity. In that case, we should monitor the galaxies with the <i>smallest</i> radial<i> </i>velocities.<br />
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So what's the answer?<br />
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<a name='more'></a>It turns out that <i>both</i> answers are correct! Avi Loeb at Harvard and I explored this question in a <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.01208">recent paper.</a> If all of the speeds of the galaxies are about the same, then you can maximize your expected transverse velocity by monitoring galaxies with the smallest radial velocities. But if there's a wide spread in the speeds, then you're better off watching the galaxies with the largest radial velocities. The latter case seems closer to what we actually observe. Our argument is a bit technical and drags in lots of results from geometric probability -- there's even a connection to digital signal processing. Now all we have to do is to start monitoring the galaxies and wait... and wait... and wait... See you in 10 years! Or maybe 20.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-20495141676609293042018-07-06T14:54:00.001-05:002018-07-06T14:54:47.249-05:00Time Travel StinksTime travel is one of the most enduring themes in science fiction, as well as one of the most implausible -- I've discussed the science of time travel <a href="http://www.cosmicyarns.com/2015/07/the-science-of-time-travel.html">here</a>. But there's one piece missing from almost all fictional discussions of time travel: the smell.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>About fifteen years ago I attended a reenactment of a World War II battle at Fort Knox, complete with tanks, artillery, and various other period weapons, all firing blanks, of course. The US Army was thoughtful enough to distribute earplugs prior to the battle, something I am pretty sure did not happen at Kursk or the Ardennes. But the thing that really struck me about the battle was the <i>smell</i>. When it was all over, the entire field stank of exhaust fumes. Gasoline-powered armored vehicles driving into battle produce exhaust fumes? Who would have suspected??<br />
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Our ideas of the past are largely driven by films and television, so we can experience the sights and sounds of time travel. But we hardly ever experience the smells. And that's probably a good thing -- any century powered by animal transport will smell really, really bad.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-9937911765185003902018-06-25T12:36:00.001-05:002018-06-25T12:36:03.868-05:00Dark Energy: The Final ExamWhere do theoretical physicists get their ideas? That's a hard question to answer. But in the case of my most recent paper, which just appeared in Physical Review D (the preprint version is available <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.09206">here</a>), I can tell you exactly where the idea came from: a final exam.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>We're still trying to understand the exact nature of dark energy, which is driving the universe to expand faster every day. To try to bring some coherence to the discussion, cosmologists label the dark energy with a parameter called <i>w</i>, which describes the relation between the pressure of the dark energy and its density. And <i>w </i>also determines how the dark energy evolves with time. For ordinary matter (the stuff we're made up), <i>w </i>is zero, and the density of ordinary matter decays inversely as the cube of the expansion factor. Think of an expanding box filled with matter. As the box expands, the volume goes up as the cube of the size of the box, and the amount of matter stays the same, so the density goes down as the cube of the expansion.<br />
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We know from observations that the density of the dark energy stays nearly constant as the universe expands -- this corresponds to <i>w </i>close to -1. If <i>w </i>is <i>exactly</i> equal to -1, then the density is <i>exactly</i> constant, which corresponds to the famous "cosmological constant." You might think (and I did think) that if <i>w </i>were taken to be very close to -1, then the density of the dark energy would get closer and closer to a constant. But your intuition would be wrong. It turns out that there are <i>two </i>different types of behavior possible in this case -- the density can go to a constant, just like the cosmological constant, or it can decay away to zero.<br />
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But how did I stumble upon this idea? I taught an undergraduate cosmology class last year and accidentally put a problem on the final exam in which <i>w </i>evolved to -1, but the density did not evolve to a constant. I puzzled over this as I graded the final exams and decided to look into it later in more detail. And it turned to be more interesting than I had possibly imagined. So teaching and research really are complementary activities -- not opposed to each other as people sometimes think.<br />
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<br />Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-82574058493641991452018-04-13T13:18:00.001-05:002018-04-13T13:18:26.032-05:00What is the Universe Made Of?Good question. I gave a public lecture (more specifically, the Lois McGlothlin Donaldson Endowed Lecture in Physics) on this subject at the University of Memphis last week -- if you are interested you can watch it <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DhrCIe9lZpR8&data=02%7C01%7Crobert.scherrer%40vanderbilt.edu%7C0d4ef7ed3aa94ce8e9d908d5a0eebc8f%7Cba5a7f39e3be4ab3b45067fa80faecad%7C0%7C0%7C636591869582583929&sdata=e8ntwAYVhcILhZiZz%2Fv4YUlD606Zz%2FPUq7sNFacg4pE%3D&reserved=0">here</a>.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-77396390854364909322018-04-10T13:00:00.000-05:002018-04-10T13:00:47.307-05:00How Did We Survive the 1980s?I just finished writing a short story that had to be set, for various reasons, in the early 1980s. And I could feel my characters' pain. How does one character find out about another one when there's <i>no internet??</i> I couldn't have anyone type into a computer, call each other on cellphones, or look up facts on Wikipedia.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>It makes life a lot more inconvenient, and the story much harder to write. I might as well have set it in the Middle Ages. Of course, I was very much alive back in the '80s and blithely unaware of all of the constraints under which I was living my life. Ignorance really is bliss.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-83995292486590524472018-03-16T11:11:00.001-05:002018-03-16T11:11:10.531-05:00Stephen Hawking 1942-2018I met Stephen Hawking a few times over the years -- the most memorable was in the early 1980s when I was a grad student at the University of Chicago. Stephen was visiting the university, but he also wanted to take a side trip out to Fermilab -- a one-hour drive outside of Chicago. This being the days before GPS (back when we had to navigate by the stars) I was assigned by my Ph.D. adviser to ride along with Stephen and his driver and direct them to Fermilab.<br />
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I showed up at the hotel in Hyde Park at the appointed hour and went to the lobby, but Stephen was nowhere to be seen. What to do? Had this been an ordinary theoretical physicist, I would simply have asked the hotel clerk to phone his room. But this was Stephen Hawking -- one does not simply go and knock on his door. So I just waited in the lobby, assuming that Stephen would make his appearance when he wished. After quite a bit of time had passed, Stephen's assistant/driver popped into the lobby and asked, "Why didn't you call up to our room? We've been waiting up there for you!"<br />
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Meanwhile (I learned later) one of the senior scientists in the astrophysics group at Fermilab was pacing back and forth, muttering that if anything happened to Hawking, he would "send Scherrer to Tuscaloosa" -- presumably a form of internal exile. But Stephen Hawking, his driver, and I finally did make it out to Fermilab (late) and all was forgiven.<br />
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Many years later, I finally got a chance to visit Tuscaloosa to speak at the University of Alabama. It's really a very nice town.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-53472461666271048642018-03-09T12:37:00.003-06:002018-03-09T12:37:32.903-06:00Was the Early Universe Lumpy?When the universe was only a few minutes old, was it smooth, like Cream of Wheat (yum!), or was it lumpy, like oatmeal? (Yuk!) British cosmologist John Barrow and I explored this question in <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.02383">this paper</a>, posted yesterday. Most cosmologists think that the matter in the early universe was smooth, not lumpy, and there's no compelling reason to believe otherwise, but it's always important to look at alternatives.<br />
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How can we even say anything intelligent about the universe when it was only a few minutes old? Our best probe is the production of elements in the early universe, which goes under the tongue-twisting name of "primordial nucleosynthesis." Most of the atomic nuclei on Earth were made in stars, but a small number, including helium, deuterium, and lithium, were manufactured in the first few minutes of the universe. And the amount of each element produced is exquisitely sensitive to the density of protons and neutrons when the universe was just a few minutes old. If the universe were lumpy rather than smooth, then the element abundances would fluctuate up and down in a predictable way, and we can average these out to get a prediction for what we would see today.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>This is a very old idea, going way back to the 1970s. But there are a couple of reasons it's worth another look today. First, we have much better observations of the elements that were produced by primordial nucleosynthesis, especially deuterium, which is seen in gas clouds that appear to be pristine relics of the early universe. Second, the cosmic microwave background has given us a very precise estimate of the total neutron and proton density in the universe, a key parameter that is needed to accurately predict how much of each element gets produced in the early universe.<br />
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And our verdict? We were able to limit any "lumpiness" in the early universe to no more than a 10-20% fluctuation in the density. So our universe is Cream of Wheat, not oatmeal.<br />
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<br />Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-72600828739901046912018-02-22T09:35:00.001-06:002018-02-22T09:35:34.171-06:00A Bayesian Coin FlipAnyone who's spent any time at all with the scientific literature has encountered the phrase "Bayesian statistics." What's that all about? How can there be more than one kind of statistics? Isn't statistics just a branch of mathematics, where everything is cut and dried? Alas, no. In his book <i>Numerical Recipes</i>, Bill Press describes statistics as "that gray area which is as surely not a branch of mathematics as it is neither a branch of science." Statistics is all about using data to derive conclusions, but there's no single "right" way to do this. So the world of statistics resembles Europe during the Reformation, divided into various factions and sects, one of these being the Cult of the Bayesians. The key idea of Bayesian statistics is that one needs to incorporate prior assumptions about reality into any modeling of data.<br />
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Here's an example. Suppose that Alfred flips a coin 20 times, and he gets 20 heads in a row (this is very unlikely -- the probability of 20 heads in a row is less than one in two million).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioh0jGquQHeD1KGla9yJFM0oovHReTWCqXAnjjWQabT525rmhEXcxLNHzi3whG6u1QVAY4A1onIaFku8TeImyZugG0A5XuQ6FQvU2n46yITKFXPPYu39jnpOt2t6JqaCTj2Xx96l9YCrIw/s1600/penny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioh0jGquQHeD1KGla9yJFM0oovHReTWCqXAnjjWQabT525rmhEXcxLNHzi3whG6u1QVAY4A1onIaFku8TeImyZugG0A5XuQ6FQvU2n46yITKFXPPYu39jnpOt2t6JqaCTj2Xx96l9YCrIw/s200/penny.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Now Alfred flips the coin one more time. What is the probability that this coin flip will come up heads? Is it<br />
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(A) Less than 1/2? Alfred has used up all the heads.<br />
(B) Exactly 1/2? Past performance tells you nothing about future returns.<br />
(C) Greater than 1/2? Alfred is on a roll!<br />
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A classical statistician would have to answer (B). In fact, any other answer would be considered a prototypical fallacy about probabilities. But what about a Bayesian statistician? I think a Bayesian would have to answer (C). Why? Because if Alfred gets 20 heads in a row, there's a good chance he's cheating and using a 2-headed coin! Of course, I am grossly oversimplifying here, but that's what the internet is for.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-64578828261812019602018-02-09T12:15:00.000-06:002018-02-09T12:15:57.502-06:00Why I am not a BiologistI diligently avoided biology throughout my high school and college years. Why? Well, for starters biology is the smelly science. Also wet, sticky, and generally disturbing. Contrast that with the clean, crystalline clarity of physics. But I've also come to understand that there's a fundamental difference between the way that biologists and physicists think about the world. Maybe you've seen this famous poster of "metabolic pathways":<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipTJF8zogax2qfT0TF3cETOwo-7U0g7FygVTrKM-uywBOV6vL-0mPB4EF2foYJEtGYm8mHbZ57F0KWx8uvcKgooic9_W8xDEOUSX61sbyY2ezpkdZsOv_VbxZvU1yKKOpFNFfaYp1gee_T/s1600/metabolic+pathways.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1404" data-original-width="1051" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipTJF8zogax2qfT0TF3cETOwo-7U0g7FygVTrKM-uywBOV6vL-0mPB4EF2foYJEtGYm8mHbZ57F0KWx8uvcKgooic9_W8xDEOUSX61sbyY2ezpkdZsOv_VbxZvU1yKKOpFNFfaYp1gee_T/s400/metabolic+pathways.jpg" width="297" /></a></div>
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I have to admit that the first time I encountered it in the hallway of my university, I thought it was some sort of a joke. What kind of Rube Goldberg machine is this anyway? Of course, it's very real, but my reaction shows the gulf between the way that physicists and biologists think.</div>
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<a name='more'></a>Physicists always seek out the simplest explanations. Their theories can be quite complex, and whole books are written about classical mechanics or general relativity. But these theories are, at their base, very simple -- based on just a few key ideas. And new theories in physics are evaluated on their simplicity -- the more bells and whistles and knobs and gears in a new theory, the less credible it will be. Biological systems, in contrast, are extremely complex, and biologists revel in their complexity. Hence the poster above. So that's the <i>real</i> reason I am not a biologist. Plus I hate the smell of preservatives.<br />
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Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-76283687945924744072018-01-29T15:00:00.000-06:002018-01-29T15:00:07.880-06:00Interstate Traffic Jams and Galactic StructureLast fall I drove up to Williamsburg and Washington with a couple of my kids. It was a pleasant trip, except for the stretch of I-95 between Richmond and Washington. There, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, we encountered a series of sporadic traffic jams. Each time we hit a slowdown, I expected to see an accident by the side of the road, but no such accident ever appeared. Instead, the traffic simply speeded up again a few miles down the road for no apparent reason. So what was the origin of this mysterious roving I-95 traffic jam? I suspect it's the very same thing that produces these beautiful structures in spiral galaxies:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBSZ6S-ctjQsH5BRCvEwg0G1Jy8FLQdhZzUSq5ndAGxZVsGfMybMCNQ3bLlrDq4YTbyr52e3LnE5U7TMVEod6gmW_l4En6eu_dlhgAyyufxNcUlqJQGt8CCBVS8gx1uzIYLGpG6AGA2fXt/s1600/galaxy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="879" data-original-width="1158" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBSZ6S-ctjQsH5BRCvEwg0G1Jy8FLQdhZzUSq5ndAGxZVsGfMybMCNQ3bLlrDq4YTbyr52e3LnE5U7TMVEod6gmW_l4En6eu_dlhgAyyufxNcUlqJQGt8CCBVS8gx1uzIYLGpG6AGA2fXt/s400/galaxy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a name='more'></a>The stars in a galaxy revolve around the center, so it's natural to think that the whole thing spins around like a pinwheel. But that's not how it works. Instead, as a star circles the galaxy, it sometimes encounters a region where the density of the other stars is a bit higher than average. The gravitational attraction of these other stars slows down the star, so it tends to get trapped there along with the other stars, forming a spiral arm. Then when the star leaves the spiral arm and enters a region where the density is lower, it can speed up again and go on its merry way.<br />
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And I think exactly the same thing was happening on the interstate -- a random fluctuation in traffic forced a few cars to slow down, which made the density of cars higher, which forced more cars to slow down, and soon you had the traffic equivalent of a spiral arm -- a traffic jam for no apparent reason. The big difference is that the stars get stuck in traffic for about 10 million years. Even I-95 isn't that bad. At least not yet.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-75330650912090578342018-01-11T11:52:00.001-06:002018-01-11T11:52:18.905-06:00Is Dark Matter Hiding Right Under our Noses?Consider the lowly neutron. Neutrons make up about half the mass in your body, but they contribute nothing to chemistry. They just lounge quietly inside the atomic nuclei and get carried along for the ride. But this past week, two physicists at the University of California, San Diego, <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.01124">suggested</a> that the neutron might be the key to unlocking the mystery of dark matter in the universe.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Their argument is based on a weird anomaly in the properties of the neutron. Neutrons are stable when they live inside of nuclei, but a lonely free neutron is unstable and will decay into a proton, with a lifetime of about 10 minutes. And that lifetime is surprisingly hard to measure. That's because it's very hard to keep neutrons in captivity. Imagine trying to hold a bunch of neutrons in a bottle -- since they have no charge, there's no force to hold them inside the bottle, and they'll leak right out. So scientists have resorted to two different approaches to measure how fast neutrons decay. One is to cool the neutrons down until they are so cold that they just bounce off of the bottle walls. Then scientists can count how fast the neutrons are disappearing. And the other approach is to make a beam of neutrons and then count the protons that these neutrons decay into.<br />
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Surprisingly, these two methods give two different answers for the neutron decay rate. This anomaly has been chalked up to "systematic effects" (the experimentalist's catchphrase for defects in the experiment that throw off the results). But the California physicists have suggested something far more radical: maybe the reason these experiments give different results is that not all of the neutrons are decaying into protons. This could account for the difference in the two experiments because the bottle experiments measure the <i>total</i> decay rate of the neutrons, while the beam experiments measure the decay rate only into protons. But if a small fraction of the neutrons are decaying into something else besides protons, what is the "something else"? Maybe they are decaying into dark matter!<br />
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As usual, the reader is advised to treat all speculations of this sort with skepticism. But it would be deeply ironic if the dark matter particle were produced in plain sight from the decay of the most ordinary particle of all, the neutron.<br />
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And now let me close with a classic very bad physics joke. A neutron walks into a bar and orders a drink. The neutron asks, "How much for the drink?" and the bartender replies, "For you, no charge."Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-82706057023400944992017-09-12T15:28:00.002-05:002017-09-12T15:28:41.947-05:00Doris Day Becomes RadioactiveThe three stages in the life of a Netflix subscriber:<br />
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1. Wow, look at all of these great movies I've always wanted to see! I think I'll rent all of them!<br />
2. Hmm, I didn't get a chance to see this when it came out last summer. Now I can finally watch it.<br />
3. Well, there's nothing I really want to watch. I guess I'll just pick something at random and see if it's any good.<br />
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We have, unfortunately, been mired at stage 3 for quite some time. Thus it was that, after working our way through all of the classic Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire musicals, we found ourselves watching Doris Day in <i>My Dream is Yours</i>. It's an insipid and derivative musical comedy, and hardly worth your time, <i>except,</i> early in the movie, when Doris Day goes nuclear.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Doris Day is a singer trying to hit it big, and early in the film she launches into a song called "Tic, Tic, Tic." As I listened to the song, I soon realized that she was singing about a Geiger counter! And the song is all about the wonders of nuclear radiation! It's a bit surprising, given the year the movie was made (1949). But maybe radiation was still considered "fun" at that point -- the Russians didn't detonate their own atomic bomb until late that year, and the radiation-induced monster movies didn't get into full swing until the 1950s. The film is worth viewing for that song alone. Later in the movie, Doris Day also sings "Nagasaki," which is perhaps a poor choice to pair with "Tic, Tic, Tic."Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-26317912655318601812017-08-25T10:07:00.002-05:002017-08-25T10:07:23.082-05:00Mindset List, Faculty VersionThis week Beloit College posted their annual <a href="https://www.beloit.edu/mindset/">Mindset List</a> -- it's designed to provide a guide to the cultural experiences of this year's new college students, and incidentally to highlight the widening divide between those students and their aging professors. I was ahead of the curve -- I was already out of touch with my students when I started my first faculty job at age 30.<br />
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This year, I decided to return the favor and provide a humorous list of my own experiences on campus in the late 70s and early 80s. <i>Inside Higher Ed</i> ran it as an opinion piece this week, and you can read it <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/08/22/faculty-members-version-mind-set-list-essay">here</a>.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-43647255132782306402017-08-22T10:55:00.001-05:002017-08-22T10:55:05.278-05:00Our Eclipse ExperienceWe watched yesterday's eclipse from home. Totality was only a little over one minute, but you can't beat the fun of seeing a total eclipse from your own front yard.<br />
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Here we are banging on drums and trash cans to drive away the dragon eating the sun:<br />
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Some people have described a total solar eclipse as a life-changing experience. I won't go that far. Raising a child is a life-changing experience -- a total eclipse, not as much. But it was an amazing spectacle. We managed to see the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_bands">shadow snakes</a> wiggling up our street just prior to totality. The thing I found most impressive was the suddenness of the darkness -- after half an hour of gradual dimming, totality was like turning off a light bulb. The solar chromosphere (I think) was visible as a red band at the edge of the moon, although some of my kids thought it looked more purple than red. And what about our chickens?<br />
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<a name='more'></a>They huddled together in the middle of the yard during totality. They're easily spooked -- they <i>are</i> chickens after all.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-627288822362203855.post-72025826657062676782017-08-21T11:35:00.000-05:002017-08-21T11:35:46.266-05:00Eclipse MythsThere are some absurd myths about today's eclipse circulating on the internet. One claim is that your pets will stare at the sun and go blind. This is ridiculous -- animals just don't do that. However, watch out if you own chickens. During eclipses they tend to spontaneously combust.Robert Scherrerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17341214577362261827noreply@blogger.com0