South Point launches first sports gambling-related drive-thru in Vegas – CalvinAyre.com

In order to use any mobile sportsbook in Nevada, sports gambling enthusiasts must first register at a casino. While the practice has been seen as a deterrent to new signups because of the hassle, the coronavirus pandemic made the practice all but nonexistent. As stay-at-home orders begin to be relaxed, South Point Hotel Casino has taken a unique approach to allowing registrations while ensuring they comply with standing social distancing protocols. The casino now offers a registration drive-thru for those who want to sign up for online gambling.

The drive-thru, which opened yesterday, is only for registrations not for placing bets, although whos to say that option couldnt be added in the future. Since Nevadas governor, Steve Sisolak, is keeping casinos and sportsbooks closed for a little longer, online wagers are the only types found, and South Point is making sure it does everything it can to make the registration process as easy as possible. With several sports organizations ready to relaunch their activity this month, the timing couldnt be better.

The UFC and NASCAR have announced that they will soon be holding competitions, so every sportsbook is going to want to get in on the action. However, virtual books have the upper hand because of the lockdown and social distancing rules, and South Point knows this. It has converted its valet entrance into the makeshift registration drive-thru, allowing anyone 21 years old or older to sign up and make their first deposit without having to leave their vehicle. The registration desk will run daily from 11 AM to 6 PM.

No one knows when the sports leagues will be back on their feet the MLB and NBA are talking about resuming games sometime this summer, and MLS just announced that it is beginning to allow voluntary practices as a precursor to a resumption of games. In Europe, both the Bundesliga in Germany and the Premier League in the UK are close to starting their soccer activity, as well. In the meantime, though, sportsbooks need everything they can grab to offer lines in order to keep their operations afloat.

South Point knows that its drive-thru solution wont produce a line of cars waiting to sign up as if it were giving away free ice cream. Many people, even after the coronavirus lockdowns have been lifted, will be too scared to venture out into the wild, but at least some activity is expected. Since it didnt cost the casino any money to set up, the drive-thru will be an attractive offering to the companys bottom line, and sports gamblers, lacking other alternatives, will become South Point customers.

The casino needs any help it can get right now. It was forced to furlough a number of employees at the end of last month, just like many other casinos, and is looking to find new ways to reverse the economic damage caused by the current health debacle.

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South Point launches first sports gambling-related drive-thru in Vegas - CalvinAyre.com

Penn National Q1 Revenue Impacted by Closures, iGaming Gathering Pace – GamblingNews.com

Penn National Gaming issued its first quarter financial results, painting a clear picture of how the health crisis that started in mid-March, due to the wide implementation of the social distancing measures across the states, had taken the wind out of its sails revenue-wise.

The Pennsylvania-based gaming operator with strong presence across all gambling verticals reported a decrease of $166.5 million year-on-year, to $1.12 billion, and a net loss of $608.6 million for the first three months ending March 31.

Seeing the first two months of 2020 off to a flying start, mainly driven by the introduction of retail sports betting at several of its properties, which in turn served as a catalyst for growth in revenue from gaming and non-gaming activities, Penn National saw its momentum halted in March, as all of its 41 land-based gaming properties were forced to close doors for customers.

In April, the company issued a stakeholder letter to investors, informing them what measures had been undertaken to significantly cut the cash burn rate during the casinos closure, as well as to expand on available cash, without having to compromise on its long-term objectives to become the best-in-class omni-channel provider of retail and online gaming and sports betting entertainment.

Following the temporary closures of its brick-and-mortar venues, Penn National undertook a series of aggressive cost-cutting measures to strengthen its balance sheet and boost liquidity.

Through the sale of its Tropicana Las Vegas property, credit amendments with its principal lenders, as well as company-wide furloughs of employees and decrease in the compensation for the Board of Directors and executive members, the casino operator managed to finish March with $730.7 million of cash on its balance sheet, and achieve a cash burn rate of $83 million per month.

Penn National is the only operator in the U.S. with a large, geographically diversified land-based gaming footprint, a well-known sports brand, a fully aligned marketing partner and a wholly-owned sports betting and iCasino subsidiary While the last several weeks have been challenging for the Company, our team members and the entire industry, we remain firmly convinced of the long-term potential of our highly differentiated omni-channel approach.

Despite that its casinos are still closed and there is no clear timetable as to when and how each one of them will re-open, only that it will happen on a sequential base, Penns management is convinced the company is well positioned to weather the storm.

Its Penn Interactive division posted strong first quarter results, beating budget projections in terms of revenue and EBITDA, despite the almost non-existent during March sports book revenue. Penns momentum in the vertical was carried into the second quarter, witnessing significant growth in both social and real money gaming, and especially in its Pennsylvania iCasino product.

Despite the limited marketing approach, iCasino reached 40,000 registered users, almost two-thirds of them being younger than the traditional land-based casino player, assuring Penn there was no cannibalization between its retail and online gaming products.

The company is convinced that its casino operating prowess and database would be a significant competitive advantage over the coming years as more states start authorizing online gambling.

Excerpt from:

Penn National Q1 Revenue Impacted by Closures, iGaming Gathering Pace - GamblingNews.com

Gambling with Our Lives – Word&Way – Word and Way

As states across the country shut down non-essential businesses in March and April, debates started about what should count as essential. Some obvious ones quickly emerged, like grocery stores and pharmacies. But states adopted different rules for places like hair salons and gun shops though Im not sure how you cut someones hair from six feet away and I also worry people think they can shoot a virus.

Brian Kaylor

But one unessential business apparently remained open as essential across the country: state lotteries.

Weve seen some crazy responses to the virus. But near the top of the list must be continuing to sell lottery tickets that are handed off from one person to another, sometimes while people congregate nearby to buy their own lucky numbers that havent paid off for 20 years. While the odds of winning the jackpot is about 1 in 300 million, the odds of getting coronavirus in the U.S. by the end of April was about 1 in 300!

Some retailers complained in local reports about the foot traffic just for the lotto, and multiple lottery employees tested positive for coronavirus.

So, whats the deal? That old god Mammon.

States target the poorest in our communities with lotteries. And apparently greed doesnt take a break even during a pandemic.

This means efforts to help our struggling economy will be undermined by the very governments promising to help. Les Bernal, national director of the advocacy group Stop Predatory Gambling, wrote to each of the 45 governors of states with lotteries to urge a 30-day shutdown of the lotteries. He argued the action was needed since historical trends show poorer people are more likely to risk their money during economic recessions.

Federal tax dollars are being sent to American families in order to put food on the table, make rent or mortgage payments, or provide for other daily necessities not to subsidize state lotteries, Bernal wrote. There is a mountain of facts showing many citizens gamble on the lottery to change their financial condition, and even more so when they are feeling a sense of desperation.

A billboard for the Powerball and Mega Millions lottery game prizes in Missouri. (Wikipedia, photograph by Tony Webster)

State lotteries are one of the root causes why more than 60% of Americans had less than $1,000 in savings before the financial distress caused by the coronavirus pandemic, he added. State governments have turned a nation of small earners, who could be small savers, into a nation of habitual gamblers.

But this is precisely why state lotteries exist. Not merely to raise money that can be done through taxes. Rather, lotteries exist as a regressive tax that targets the poorest and most economically-depressed individuals, which then reduces the tax burden on the wealthy.

Research by the personal finance company Bankrate demonstrates that people who make less than $30,000 a year are nearly 50 percent more likely to pay the state through the lottery than other Americans and those at that bottom income level spend nearly four times as much on lottery tickets.

And it makes sense. If you work fulltime and still cannot pay off your student debt, save up to buy a home, or provide basic needs for your children, you might be more willing to risk it for your only shot to get out of poverty.

But the lotteries dont make billions of dollars for the states by paying out lots of winning tickets. The very governments that fail to ensure a living wage and equitable opportunities for their citizens then turn around and cash in on the desperate dreams of those who most need assistance. This isnt just a robbing Peter to pay Paul situation. Its robbing Peter so that Paul doesnt have to pay back what he also already stole from Peter.

So, the lotteries continue since greed doesnt practice social distancing. Instead, the greed of our state leaders continues to scratch-off the lives of the least of these among our neighbors. By declaring lotteries essential, our politicians say lives are not.

When we finally get through this pandemic, lets not just return to our earlier, broken normal. Lets find ways to make our communities better and healthier for all. A good place to start would be shutting down the lotteries.

Brian Kaylor is editor and president of Word&Way.

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Gambling with Our Lives - Word&Way - Word and Way

Fritz Lang’s ‘Dr. Mabuse the Gambler’ Still Casts a Spell – The New York Times

The title card for Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, the German director Fritz Langs 4-hour silent so-called super-film, promises a portrait of our time. That time was 1922. Yet Langs tale of financial panic, profiteering and doomsday revelry speaks to our own.

Mabuse, which was originally shown in two parts but may be streamed as one uncut film online, was greeted by its initial German audiences as akin to a news bulletin. One Berlin paper speculated that a century hence, the movie will show people a time that they could perhaps scarcely comprehend, a time that saw the extravagance of the newly rich, the rapid gambling on the stock exchange, the clubs, the addiction to pleasure, the speculation, the vast amount of smuggling, counterfeiting and more.

Stream Dr. Mabuse the Gambler on the Criterion Channel or Kanopy.

Adapted from a popular novel by the journalist Norbert Jacques, Mabuse was a lightning bolt that crackled across the stormy sky of Weimar Germany a newly established, shellshocked democracy where two abortive revolutions followed the loss of World War I, hyperinflation was mounting and social unrest was ubiquitous.

In his later years, Lang would maintain that Mabuse originally started with a rapid-fire montage (since lost) that juxtaposed scenes from the left-wing Spartacist uprising led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the right-wing Kapp Putsch that enlisted nationalist military leaders and the assassination of the German foreign minister, Walther Rathenau. This seems unlikely since Rathenau was shot two months after Mabuse opened, but the intro was unnecessary. Mabuse merged with its moment and even prophesied what was to come.

Paranoia rules. A habitu of decadent Art Deco nightclubs, Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge, who would play the mad scientist Rotwang in Langs Metropolis) preys upon his wealthy victims. Not just a criminal mastermind but a psychoanalyst to boot, Mabuse has multiple ways to cloud the mind. In one newly relevant sequence, he tricks an unfortunate fall guy into self-quarantine and, having destroyed his tenuous grasp on reality, induces him to commit suicide.

Mabuse is introduced shuffling a deck of cards showing his various disguises. A more accurate translation of the title would be Dr. Mabuse the Player, for this protean villain is also an actor. Who is Behind All This? an intertitle demands. Mabuse is both ubiquitous and unknown. In his classic film history, From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film, the German critic Siegfried Kracauer characterized Mabuse as everywhere present but nowhere recognizable. (Or, as President Trump described Covid-19, an invisible enemy that came out of nowhere.)

The movies first chapter concerns an elaborate scheme, directed by Mabuse from his study, whereby a secret trade pact is stolen from the suitcase of a diplomat traveling by train. News of the theft, as well as the document itself, is used to crash the commodity exchange, much to Mabuses profit.

While economic chaos is inherent in Mabuses intrigues (he also operates a counterfeit money ring, staffed with blind slaves who cannot identify him), looting the rich seems to be his preferred pastime while, thanks to his hypnotic gaze and mental powers, world domination is his ultimate goal. A behind-the-scenes manipulator whose many disguises include that of a stage mesmerist, a proletarian rabble-rouser, and a Jewish peddler, he is aided by a gang of accomplices that include his cocaine-addled manservant and a saucy dancer, Cara Carozza (the Norwegian actress Aud Egede-Nissen), a star of the Folies Bergre.

These minions are in Mabuses thrall, despite the abuse they suffer at his hands. The movie is steeped in individual as well as social pathology. In addition to practicing hypnotic mind control, Mabuse inspires the sort of unquestioning, zombielike obedience (known in German as kadavergehorsam) that, a decade later, Hitler would demand from his SS and indeed all Germans. Carozza, whom Mabuse uses as a honey-trap, insists that he is the greatest man alive even after his erotic interest has been piqued by a sultry thrill-seeking countess (Gertrude Welcker).

At once wanton and repressed, the countess is a terrific character, haunting the same casinos as Mabuse but never gambling because, as she explains, she prefers to watch. Her luckless husband (Alfred Abel, who plays Joh Frederson in Metropolis) is another sort of aesthete a collector whose mansion is overstocked with mock Cubist canvases and faux African sculptures. (The cluttered parlor offers a preview of the infamous Nazi exhibition of so-called degenerate art.) The countess also casts her indolent spell on the resolute state prosecutor Norbert von Wenk (Bernhard Goetzke), who doggedly pursues Mabuse until he is hypnotized by the master to drive a speeding death car.

It has been suggested that as a conjurer of mental images, Mabuse was a sort of alter ego for the domineering director. Lang spared no expense. Mabuse was shot in a studio vast enough to accommodate city streets and even neighborhoods. The swanky nightclubs are set pieces in themselves. One sequence juxtaposes a spiritualist soiree in a luxurious apartment with the opening of the Petit Casino, a cabaret promising all that pleases is allowed. Mabuse operates in both places simultaneously.

The Petit Casino features a shimmy by the notorious naked dancer Anita Berber, here wearing a tuxedo. (According to some accounts, she arrived late on the set and out-divad Lang.) The Petit Casino also provides the arena for Cara Carozza to lead on the most hapless of Mabuses victims, while he himself infiltrates the sance to hypnotize the countess into inviting him for dinner.

With a dozen chapters, Mabuse lends itself to both incremental and binge watching. Exerting its own form of mind control, it starts slowly and, abetted by an edgy modernist score, builds in intensity to a mad climax. The violent denouement anticipates by a decade the grand finale of Howard Hawkss Scarface. We have long since become inured to onscreen mayhem, but original reviews suggest that early audiences were stunned by the movies pace. Speed, horrifying speed characterizes the film, one critic wrote. Applause broke out during a scene of cars racing through the nocturnal streets of a studio-built Berlin.

Mabuse entered German popular culture and, over the course of his career, Lang was inspired to make several sequels. His second sound film, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (available to stream on the Criterion Channel and Kanopy) was in postproduction when Hitler became chancellor in 1933. Now confined to a mental hospital, the spectral Mabuse (again Klein-Rogge) uses mental telepathy and a form of radio to incite a crime wave. Lang left Nazi Germany before the film was banned. Life under a terror regime could not be rendered more impressively, Kracauer wrote. It was not shown publicly in Germany until 1951.

In the late 1950s, Lang returned to Germany to make several films including his swan song, The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (rentable from Amazon Prime). No less than its predecessors, this Cold War Mabuse is a trove of prophetic paranoia with intimations of James Bond and Dr. Strangelove. It was sufficiently popular in Germany to inspire six sequels. You can imagine an internet version made today.

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Fritz Lang's 'Dr. Mabuse the Gambler' Still Casts a Spell - The New York Times

Spanish Gambling Company may be Cleaned out by the Lockdown – Euro Weekly News

FOR years it seemed as if running online betting was akin to printing money but then along came the coronavirus, Covid-19 pandemic and things changed quickly.

Whilst many might expect the lockdown to encourage gambling, the slowdown of economies and loss of income for many means that the online casinos are also not making the money they used to.

British companies were in the forefront of promoting online gaming but at least one company, Codere was quick in following and runs its business in Spain, Italy, Mexico and South America.

With betting shops closed and money tight, it has now received a blow as US giant Moodys has downgraded its credit rating by two points as it has delayed payment of interest on bonds worth 27 million.

According to the ratings agency, the company faces the reality of the maturity of bonds worth 800 million in the latter part of next year and it fears that the betting company could end up in default as it already has liquidity problems.

Codere has called in a specialist firm of advisers to try to help it renegotiate its debts, but even if its betting shops open within the next few weeks, if there are no significant sporting events for customers to bet on, then cash flow will be more of a trickle.

It is quoted on the Spanish stock exchange, is said to be currently worth 130 million but is now looking for a further 100 million in loans to keep going.

Coupled with the fact that lenders may well be more interested in backing larger enterprises with greater assets means Codere which employs some 12,000 staff could be in trouble.

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Spanish Gambling Company may be Cleaned out by the Lockdown - Euro Weekly News

Edited Transcript of NTS.V earnings conference call or presentation 7-May-20 9:00pm GMT – Yahoo Finance

Q2 2020 Nanotech Security Corp Earnings Call

May 8, 2020 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of Nanotech Security Corp earnings conference call or presentation Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 9:00:00pm GMT

TEXT version of Transcript

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Corporate Participants

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* Monika Russell

Nanotech Security Corp. - CFO & Corporate Secretary

* Troy Bullock

Nanotech Security Corp. - President, CEO & Director

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Presentation

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Operator [1]

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Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us to discuss Nanotech Security Corp.'s second quarter results for fiscal year 2020. On the call today, we have Troy Bullock, Nanotech's President and CEO; and Monika Russell; Nanotech's CFO. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) I will now turn the call over to Monika Russell. Please go ahead.

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Monika Russell, Nanotech Security Corp. - CFO & Corporate Secretary [2]

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Good afternoon, and thank you for attending our second quarter of fiscal 2020 conference call. Troy Bullock will begin the call today with an overview of our operational highlights and our goals for fiscal 2020. I will then provide a detailed review of our financial performance for the quarter. Following the financial review, Troy will provide an outlook and discussion of our expectations for fiscal 2020 that we detailed earlier. Following the formal presentation, we will be pleased to take presentations -- or sorry, take questions.

Before we talk about results, I'd like to remind everyone that certain statements in this call may be forward-looking in nature. These include statements involving known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from [those expressed] or implied in our forward-looking statements, including our assessments of the potential impact of COVID-19. For caveats about the forward-looking statements and risk factors, please see our MD&A for the year ended September 30, 2019, which can be found on our company profile at sedar.com.

Also, as part of the company's business involves dealing with security features for banknotes, you will appreciate that we are quite limited in our ability to provide details about specific customers and prospects. That said, we will do our best to provide investors with general feedback we are receiving from customers and the industry and new opportunities that we are pursuing as well as give some general parameters on how development contracts are progressing.

I will now pass the call over to Troy for an overview of our second quarter and fiscal 2020. Troy?

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Troy Bullock, Nanotech Security Corp. - President, CEO & Director [3]

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Thank you, Monika, and good afternoon, everyone. We hope that you and your families are safe, and appreciate that you've taken the time to join us today.

Before we start, I would like to highlight that we recently had an AGM. And at that time, I provided a detailed update of the business, our products, our go-to-market strategy and a financial update. I would recommend investors who have not seen this presentation to view it for a detailed discussion about Nanotech and our long-term strategy. The presentation can be found on our website in the Investor Relations section. Alternatively, you can also e-mail Sean Peasgood, whose contact information can be found at the bottom of our news release, and he can make sure you get a copy.

First, I want to start by saying that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are fortunate to be fully operational with stable contract service revenue for fiscal 2020 and a solid cash position. Our operations are fully up and running, and we have put in place measures to operate in a safe and responsible way for our employees. This has allowed us to continue to execute upon our strategy to transition Nanotech from a research-and-development company to a diversified product-based company. Although we have seen some $2 million in product order delays due to the current pandemic, we are still anticipating seeing revenue growth this year between 10% and 20%. I'll provide more color on that later in the call.

Story continues

In Q2, we continued to see growth in the product sales from our -- from the prior year, while contract services declined slightly from the prior year mostly due to timing issues. We ended the quarter with a strong balance sheet with $9.2 million in cash and no debt, and we are well positioned to execute on our growth plans.

I'll leave the financial details to Monica, but let me update everyone on the progress we have made against the strategic initiatives and targets we launched for fiscal 2020. One of our priorities that we established for the year was to diversify revenue by increasing sales in nano-optic products, expanding product lines and pursuing further growth opportunities for LumaChrome color-shifting film. During the first half of fiscal 2020, we recorded product revenue from 12 delivered customer orders compared to 14 for all of 2019. These orders were predominantly for LumaChrome and included film for one new banknote and one new government ID application. In addition, the company worked with several partners to qualify its LumaChrome product for 4 new banknote opportunities.

In the brand protection market, we also delivered our first live optic sale in the licensing vertical to the World Baseball Softball Confederation. We also worked with a partner to deliver film for new commercial applications. Although these initial orders are small, they are great reference accounts and have the opportunity to become recurring larger orders in the future.

During the second quarter of 2020, the company also delivered a live optic product order for approximately 7 million labels in a confidential brand protection application. While I'm pleased with our progress to-date, unfortunately, I'm expecting that our product sales for the second half of 2020 will be negatively affected by the COVID-19 as a number of opportunities have been pushed into fiscal 2021. In the meantime, we continue to believe that diversification is a key long-term strategic initiative for the company, and there are several actions that we will take to enhance our ability to scale up. These include investing in our technology, investing in our product development and investing in our marketing activities.

Another key initiative was to develop strategic sales relationships with established OEMs to expand our sales reach. I'm pleased to report we have now -- have 2 American channel partners that are marketing nano-optics live optic brand protection products in the United States. In the banknote market, we're partnering with a key OEM to design a color optic security feature that they can use to manufacture a marketing housenote that they will begin marketing to their customers later this year. You may have also seen our recent announcement where our color optic technology platform has been nominated as a finalist in the IACA 2020 Excellence in Currency Technical Awards in the category of Best New Currency Innovation. This is something we're very proud of.

A third initiative was to develop a strategic manufacturing and product partnership with select manufacturers that have proven track record of excellence. Nanotech has partnered with a large OEM to produce live optic products for the brand protection market. And as a result of our manufacturing partnerships, our products have expanded to include foils, labels, QR codes, and the track and trace capability. Outsourcing live optic manufacturing also enables us to focus on our core competency, which is the technology development portion.

Further, as part of the key initiative, management is in the process of qualifying a world-class OEM manufacturing partner for our color depth products in the banknote and government market. We expect to finalize this partnership within the next 6 months, enabling the company to deliver on large-volume banknote opportunities. Given the progress we have made against this key initiative, we are on track to reduce manufacturing risks associated with scaling of product sales while expanding our product lines.

This concludes my initial comments on the operational highlights of the second quarter of fiscal 2020. I'll now pass the call back to Monika to discuss the detailed financial results. Monika?

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Monika Russell, Nanotech Security Corp. - CFO & Corporate Secretary [4]

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Thank you, Troy. Before I begin, I would like to mention that all the dollar amounts I refer to are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated. For the quarter ended March 31, 2020, product revenue rose 6% year-over-year from $116,000 in the prior year to $123,000 in the current quarter. Contract services revenue fell 15% year-over-year from $1.5 million in the prior year to $1.3 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2020. As a result, total revenue fell from $1.6 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2019 to $1.4 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2020, a 13% year-over-year decline. I would like to note that, in the second half of this year, we are expecting that we will see year-over-year growth in contract services revenue for overall revenue growth of 10% to 20% on an annual basis.

Gross margin improved to 82% versus 80% in the prior year. This increase was primarily due to higher margins on contract services during the current quarter. Second quarter operating costs were $2.2 million versus $1.9 million in the year ago quarter. We invested more in sales and marketing activities as well as R&D during the second quarter of fiscal 2020, which largely accounted for the increase in our operating costs.

Adjusted EBITDA loss of $576,000 was down from last year's $45,000 adjusted EBITDA gain. The decline in adjusted EBITDA was due to lower revenue in combination with increased operating costs. Net loss for the second quarter of 2020 was $973,000 compared to $477,000 in the year ago period and was mostly due to the higher loss from operations that we incurred because of lower revenues and higher operating expenses.

Moving on to our year-to-date results. Revenue for the 6 months ended March 31, 2020, was $2.5 million, down 15% from 2019. This year-over-year decrease was primarily due to the timing and scope of development contracts, partially offset by an increase in product revenue. As I mentioned earlier, in the second half of this year, we are anticipating year-over-year growth in contract services revenue, resulting in revenue growth on an annual basis.

Gross margin for the year-to-date was 80% versus 78% in 2019 due to higher margins on contract services. Operating costs were $4.2 million for the year-to-date compared to $4.4 million in 2019. Excluding the restructuring costs incurred in 2019, operating costs increased in 2020 as a result of increased investments in sales and marketing and research and development.

Adjusted EBITDA loss for the year-to-date was $837,000 compared to positive adjusted EBITDA of $163,000 in the same period of 2019. The decrease from the prior period was primarily due to reduced revenue and increased operating expenses in the current period.

Net loss for the year-to-date was $1.8 million versus $1.6 million in 2019. Lower operating earnings in 2020 were offset by restructuring costs associated with the executive transition in 2019. We exited the quarter with cash and short-term investments of $9.2 million at quarter end, leaving us in a strong position to continue executing our business plan.

This concludes my comments on our financial results for the second quarter of 2020. I will now turn the call back to Troy to provide an outlook update. Troy?

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Troy Bullock, Nanotech Security Corp. - President, CEO & Director [5]

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Thanks, Monika. I would like to close by providing a little more detail on our outlook and how we see the rest of the year shaping up. So far, in the first 6 months of the year, the company has generated $2.9 million of revenue, which is slightly down from last year. That said, we are maintaining our guidance for the year to end up with growth between 10% and 20%, even with the delays we're seeing from the pandemic. This implies that revenue -- in the range of $7 million to $7.7 million for the year. Our ability in the second half -- sorry, our visibility in the second half for the year is good, given we expect additional revenues to come from expanding the scope of our contract services as well as product revenue from recurring LumaChrome orders. Much of this revenue is anticipated to be realized in the fourth quarter.

At the high end of our guidance, I am including some additional product sales orders that we are still pursuing but have not yet closed on. It is important to mention that, due to the pandemic, we believe that approximately $2 million of orders, which we were working on, have been pushed into fiscal 2021. While product revenue may decline year-over-year because of COVID-19, I'm pleased that we have still -- anticipate a growth year for the company in such a challenging environment.

I want to drive home our commercialization strategy has demonstrated good progress, and we continue to expand our product lines for both the government and banknote and brand protection markets. Our color optic and LumaChrome OTF products have significant interest in the government and banknote market. We've gained strong reference customer wins and a solid pipeline of opportunities in the brand protection market, a market we entered in only about a year ago. The overall growth in product revenue and number of orders demonstrates that, although -- because the commercialization strategy is in the early stages, it is working. We may have a temporary delay in results -- as the result of COVID-19, but some of the opportunities that we are now pushing out into 2021 are very promising.

As we wrap up, I'd like to summarize some of the reasons why we think Nanotech is well positioned for the future. We are targeting unique multibillion-dollar markets that have had little innovation and whose current solutions are becoming less effective each day. We've made significant investments in our technology, and we protected this investment with patents. Our vision is no longer research and development alone, but we also now have real customers using our products in our $30 million development contract -- and a strong balance sheet are key components to why we will not only survive in the current global environment but will also prosper.

This concludes our prepared remarks. I would like to now turn the call over to the operator for the question-and-answer session. Operator?

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Operator [6]

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(Operator Instructions) And there appears to be no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference back over to Mr. Bullock for any additional or closing comments.

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Troy Bullock, Nanotech Security Corp. - President, CEO & Director [7]

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Thank you. Well, I would like to thank everyone for joining our conference call for the second quarter of fiscal 2020. I realize these are challenging times, and I appreciate everybody for taking the time out of their busy days to attend this call with us. I wish everyone to please stay safe and healthy, and I look forward to updating you on our continued progress on our third quarter conference call in about 3 months. I'll now turn the call back over to the operator for the closing comments. Thank you, everybody.

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Operator [8]

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Thank you, sir. This concludes Nanotech's second quarter conference call. A replay of this call will be up till Friday, June 7, 2020. Please refer to Nanotech's website for the replay details. Thank you, again, and have a wonderful evening.

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Edited Transcript of NTS.V earnings conference call or presentation 7-May-20 9:00pm GMT - Yahoo Finance

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IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON Silicon Nanowires MARKET 2020 ANALYSIS BY GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS, TYPE AND APPLICATION TILL 2026 WITH TOP KEY PLAYERS : Amprius,…

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IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON Silicon Nanowires MARKET 2020 ANALYSIS BY GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS, TYPE AND APPLICATION TILL 2026 WITH TOP KEY PLAYERS : Amprius,...

A discovered malware sample uses code from the NSA and a Chinese hacking group – CyberScoop

Written by Shannon Vavra May 7, 2020 | CYBERSCOOP

Good hackers steal, great hackers borrow.

According to new research from ESET, a code obfuscation tool thats been linked to Chinese-based hackers has been used in tandem with an implant that has been attributed to Equation Group, a hacking faction that is broadly believed to have ties to the National Security Agency.

ESET says the obfuscation tool is linked with Winnti Group, while the implant, known as PeddleCheap, appeared in an April 2017 leak from the mysterious group known as theShadow Brokers.

Its unclear if the sample was used in a malicious campaign or if its the product of a security researcher experimenting with different tools,according to Marc-tienne Lveill, a malware researcher at ESET. It was uploaded to malware-sharing repository VirusTotal in 2017, according to Lveill.

The Winnti-linked packer was used in a series of intrusions at gaming organizations in 2018, which ESET has previously documented.

ESET published its findings in the hopes that some other researchers may have more visibility into the samples origins, Lvill told CyberScoop.

Its not clear who is behind the sample its possible Equation Group used the Winnti-linked portion to run its own intelligence collection, but it is also possible Winnti, which is suspected to have links with the Chinese government, used the leaked NSA implant for its operations.

Lveill said he views the latter as the likely explanation.

It is likely that the Winnti Group used tools from the Shadow Brokers leak as a first stage to compromise their victims in 2017. Another, less likely, scenario is that the Equation Group has seen and reused the Winnti Group packer in their operations, Lveill told CyberScoop. Yet another, even less-likely scenario is that a thirdparty who had access to this Winnti Group [tool], used it with PeddleCheap from the Shadow Brokers leak.

The malware combination shows the far-reaching ramifications of the Shadow Brokers leak: attributing attacks via tools that were used in the massive dump is much moredifficult, as any number of actors can use them to muddle up security researchers findings.

These samples are an example of how attribution is difficult, if not impossible, by looking only at malware samples without additional context. It is relatively easy to repurpose malware [artifacts] once they are discovered and documented, Lveill told CyberScoop. In addition to that, it is possible intelligence agencies discover these components before they are public knowledge, misleading attribution made by analysts later on.

While the actors behind the Winnti-PeddleCheaptool may be unknown, Chinese hackers had access to some other tools that appeared in the Shadow Brokers leak months before the Shadow Brokers revealedthem to the public.

It remains unclear if that group, known as Buckeye orAPT3, stole the tools by breaching NSA systems or if they caught them in the wild. It is also possible the Chinese hackers independently observed the same vulnerabilities and created similar tools to exploit them.

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A discovered malware sample uses code from the NSA and a Chinese hacking group - CyberScoop

Posted in NSA

FISA Surveillance and Possible Reforms Are Back on the Senate’s Agenda – Reason

Next week the Senate is poised to resurrect some federal surveillance powers that expired in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. A handful of senators are hoping to force through reforms to better protect Americans' privacy.

In March the USA Freedom Act expired, somewhat unceremoniously, as lawmakers were unable to reach a consensus on a renewal as the pandemic began to pick up steam and overtake all public policy priorities.

The USA Freedom Act authorized (but restricted) the collection of Americans' phone and internet record metadata that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been gathering without citizen knowledge before Edward Snowden exposed it. A compromise bill, the USA Freedom Act added some buffers to how the NSA would collect the data and required more reporting of the activities of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts, so citizens would have a better sense of the extent that this "foreign" surveillance was in fact targeting Americans.

The NSA has since abandoned the metadata collection, which had proven ineffective at tracking down terror threats even as it violated Americans' Fourth Amendment rights. But the Act has other surveillance components (authorizing roving wiretaps, tracking so-called "lone wolf" terrorists). And even though the NSA has stopped using its metadata collection powers, President Donald Trump's administration has asked for the entire USA Freedom Act to be renewed, intact, permanently.

Fortunately, that's not going to happen: The House passed a renewal bill in March that officially killed off the records program once and for all. Now surveillance critics in the Senate, such as Rand Paul (RKy.), Mike Lee (RUtah) and Ron Wyden (DOre.), are pushing for further reforms to the way the government targets American citizens for secret surveillance. Their demands for amendments to the House's bill stopped the bill from moving forward in March. Now the Senate plans to consider the House's bill along with these proposed amendments.

The USA Freedom Act played no role in the FBI's use of the FISA court to secretly wiretap former Trump aide Carter Page. But the discovery that the FBI played fast and loose with the truth when requesting these warrants from the FISA court, and the subsequent evidence that the FBI regularly does a terrible job of documenting its evidence when targeting any Americans for FISA surveillance, have created an opening for civil libertarians to call for stronger privacy protections.

The Hill reports:

Sen.Rand Paul (RKy.) will get a vote on his amendment that would bar the FISA court from issuing warrants for American citizens and instead require law enforcement agencies such as the FBI to obtain a warrant from a normal court established under Article III of the Constitution.

Sens.Mike Lee (RUtah) and Patrick Leahy (DVt.) will get a vote on their amendment to require the appointment of amicus curiae, or outside advisers, with expertise in privacy and civil liberties to advise the FISA court on surveillance warrants.

Sens.Steve Daines (RMont.) andRon Wyden (DOre.) will get a vote on an amendment to bar law enforcement from obtaining internet browsing and search history without a warrant.

These are all great amendments. Unfortunately, they will probably fail. Far too many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are against serious surveillance reforms.

Senators like Paul are banking on Trump's outrage over what happened to Page to push these additional reforms through. Establishment Republicans and Democrats are banking on Trump only caring about how surveillance affects him and the people around him.

We'll soon find out which side is correct. My money's on the establishment, but I'll be happy to be wrong this time.

Originally posted here:

FISA Surveillance and Possible Reforms Are Back on the Senate's Agenda - Reason

Posted in NSA

Operation Jackboot: NSA Ajit Dovals brainchild that eliminated Hizbul Mujahideen chief Riyaz Naikoo – Times Now

'Operation Jackboot' claims its last high value target in killing of Riyaz Naikoo.  |  Photo Credit: IANS

Srinagar:The elimination of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Riyaz Naikoo on Wednesday by security forces has raised an alarm for Pakistan-based terror sponsors in the Jammu and Kashmir who propagate anti-India sentiments to destabilise peace in the Valley.

However, the execution of Naikoo was a meticulously planned operation, conceived by none other than National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Code named Operation Jackboot, the task to hunt down one of the most wanted terrorists in the Valley was supervised personally by NSA Doval. Naikoo was the last high-value target in the operation.

The operation was conceived after Pulwama, Kulgam, Anantnag and Shopian in south Kashmir were christened Liberated areas by Pakistan-backed militants.

Homegrown militancy was getting on the nerves of Indias security forces.

Naikoo, aka Bin Qasim, had become the de facto commander of the proscribed terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen after Burhan Wani, the poster boy of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, was eliminated in July 2016.

Qasim, rated as an A++ category terrorist or most-wanted militant, had been on the run for over eight years and carried a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

The encounter of Burhan Wani sparked a massive uproar in the Valley and the ripple effects were felt as far as Islamabad. Locals look out a funeral procession for Wani and the subsequent violence that erupted in the Valley is still fresh in our minds.

Naikoo was counted as one from the Burhan group of Kashmiris.

The group consisted of Wani and his terror associates Sabzar Bhat, Waseem Malla, Naseer Pandit, Ishfaq Hameed, Tariq Pandit, Afaqullah, Adil Khandey, Saddam Paddar, Wasim Shah and Anees, news agency IANS reported.

These locals became poster boys of militancy in Kashmir and such was their authority, foreign terrorists were pushed to the background.

The Burhan gang of terrorists romanced the picturesque Himalayan region and seduced the educated, yet unemployed, youth of the Valley with a new-found objective in their lives.

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Operation Jackboot: NSA Ajit Dovals brainchild that eliminated Hizbul Mujahideen chief Riyaz Naikoo - Times Now

Posted in NSA

Dismay, confusion over St. Paul Park charter school’s impending closure – Bring Me The News

Natural Science Academy has about 75 students enrolled this year.

Natural Science Academy

A St. Paul Park-based charter school is facing closure after losing its authorizer.

The Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center, which recently changed its name from the Audubon Center of the North Woods, has chosen not to renew its contract with Natural Science Academy, citing poor academic performance and governance concerns. The Natural Science Academy had previously signed two probationary three-year contracts with them.

Osprey authorizes about 35 schools, according to its website. NSA is the only school out of the 10 up for renewal this year to not receive another contract, Erin Anderson, director of charter school authorizing, told BMTN.

The 14-year-old elementary schools website lists 11 staff members. Around 75 students are enrolled this year.

NSA staff and parents have pushed back against the decision in letters to the Minnesota Department of Education, state legislators and a widely circulated petition.

They argue that the closure is unfairly based on state test scores, but the Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Centers correspondence to the school emphasizes poor performance according to other measures, including curriculum-based measures chosen by the school and nationally normed growth assessments. In addition, the authorizer cited concerns over the schools teacher-run leadership structure and governance.

It must be frustrating to have just been informed of this, and we are disappointed to learn that the school board did not adequately advise its community of the risk of closure, in view of the numerous communications from ACNW to the school, Anderson wrote to parents, citing notices sent to the school in May 2018 and February 2019 concerning low academic performance.

In order to be eligible for renewal, the school had to score at least 50 out of 100 points on an assessment based largely on state test scores, measures chosen by the school and nationally normed growth assessments. The school scored 60.7, making it eligible, but it didnt meet the standard for five out of eight academic categories, a March 13 notice from Osprey to NSA says.

Those five areas are reading growth, math growth, reading proficiency, math proficiency and science proficiency, based on three years worth of various measurements of academic performance.

A report from January details that Osprey received complaints against the schools lead teacher from two former employees in November 2017 and December 2019.

The complaints alleged a very stressful and negative workplace and a toxic environment of practices, according to the report.

The school has functioned under basically the same instructional leadership structure for at least the last six years (two contract periods) which has resulted in persistently low academic achievement and a lack of accountability for student outcomes, Osprey wrote in its March notice of non-renewal to the school.

At an informal hearing with Osprey in April, the school provided "ample evidence" of an improved workplace culture, Anderson said in an email. The non-renewal was ultimately based on poor academic performance and "NSA's failure to properly conduct its corporate governance," she said.

Advocates for the school have expressed confusion over the non-renewal process and surprise that the school is being closed during the pandemic.

Kate Maki, whose fourth-grade student has attended the school since kindergarten, began working at the school as a special projects coordinator two years ago.

I really like the school, I completely believe in it. And Im watching it grow and change and become this great thing, Maki said.

The school had a bad year when it was renewed in 2017, Maki said, and implemented an expeditionary learning-based curriculum the next fall.

Our last years science scores were phenomenal We were like, why are we not getting an A+ on this? she said.

She said she and other staff members had the understanding that three-year contracts were the norm.

They said, youve been on probation for six years total. And were like, well, thats always been the case So why would we even bat an eye?

"NSA is being used as a sacrificial lamb."

Harry Adler, who joined the schools board of directors in March, and has held multiple roles in education including principal, executive director of a charter school and current work helping an authorizer assess schools, expressed similar confusion.

What I find strange about it is, many of their schools are basically on probation because theyre on three-year contracts. So they call these three-year contracts probationary, and it has not been that long since the state has offered five-year contracts, he said.

In a complaint letter to the Minnesota Department of Education, Adler emphasized that comparing the schools scores to other students across the state and neighboring District 833 doesnt show an adequate representation of students academic success because of the schools small class sizes.

Thirty-nine students took the MCA tests in 2019, documents show.

Ospreys 2019 annual report shows that 15 percent of its schools had scored lower than 50 percent of their points on its academic performance evaluation, he added.

NSA is being used as a sacrificial lamb to give the perception that ACNW (Audubon Center of the North Woods)is providing strong oversight. I believe the closure decision cannot be justified analytically based on the data and is ethically wrong given the pandemic, Adler said in the letter.

MDE has said it will look into the complaint, Adler said.

Correction: A previous version of this story inaccurately described the timing of the employee complaints. In separate instances, two former employees sent a complaint to Osprey after they had stopped working there.

Continued here:

Dismay, confusion over St. Paul Park charter school's impending closure - Bring Me The News

Posted in NSA

Covid-19 different from Tiananmen, China wont be able to tide over crisis: Ex-NSA Menon – ThePrint

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New Delhi: China will not be able to tide over the coronavirus crisis like it did with the 1989 Tiananmen Square episode, former National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon said Wednesday, adding that the impact of Covid-19 will continue to simmer leading to a huge reputational loss for China as well as other countries.

This is going to simmer, this is not like Tiananmen. This is a very different situation, Menon said. Its a huge reputational loss for China. Bigger the country, the bigger the loss of reputation. The Chinese have developed a reputation over the years, which now has been turned against them. Reputation will be used as a stick to beat China with.

Menon, who is also a former foreign secretary, was speaking at an online seminar hosted by the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS). ThePrint was the media partner for the seminar Looking at Post-COVID World: The China Dimension.

According to Menon, who is also chairman of the ICS advisory board, the pandemic has also shown the nervousness with which governments and leaders around the world have dealt with the massive crisis, be it in their individual capacities or at the multilateral stage of the G20 or the UN.

If you look at the level of rhetoric, the shriller the rhetoric, the higher the claims of victory the more it sounds to me that they (world leaders) are really nervous, that they really dont know what they are doing, Menon said.

There is a shouting match that is going on between the leaders now. They are not working together. You saw the G20, you saw the UNSC, they are not managing to work together.

Also read:Pressure mounts on India to call out China for Covid as it readies to take lead role at WHO

On the growing tensions between the US and China, especially over the origin of the virus, Menon said the problems between these major powers had been rising even before the outbreak of the pandemic.

He, however, added that the US narrative on the origin of the virus will continue to rage until the US presidential elections scheduled to take place in November this year.

I think we need to wait until the US elections There is a bipartisan consensus in the US on China and it is much harsher than it has been for a very long time. So no matter what happens in the US elections there is no going back, the former foreign secretary added.

Menon also said despite these rising tensions between Washington and Beijing, both will find it painful to decouple themselves from their economic bonding.

Lets not forget they are also tied to each other like the Siamese twins on the economic side and that decoupling will be really painful for both of them. There will come a time when they will follow their economic interests, he added.

Also read:Modi had turned his back on NAM and SAARC. Covid brings them back on his table

Comparing the pandemic with the 2008-09 financial meltdown crisis, Menon said, Unlike in 2008-end and the beginning of 2009 when for most of the powers, their leadership was secure, they knew they were either going to be there or that they were not going to be there and so they could do the right thing without any fear of any effects on their political future Today you have an issue, which frankly, the leaders dont understand there isnt a kind of scientific or expert advice that you have experience of in the economic field.

He said for India the challenge will be to see where the money goes citing the $60 billion limit that the Modi government has set for coronavirus-related relief.

Ultimately you will have to see what people do with their money. Why are we (India) running such a huge trade deficit with China? This is because Indians are spending their money in China buying things. Thats where I would look six months from now, he added.

He also cautioned against India aligning with the US or with China.

Nobody shares our interest entirely I dont see any alliance really working for us. You need to position yourself where you have better relationships with both the US and China than they have with each other, said Menon, who was also Indias former Beijing envoy from 2000-2003.

Also read:India to push for Pakistans blacklisting at FATF after Handwara & Keran terror attacks

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Covid-19 different from Tiananmen, China wont be able to tide over crisis: Ex-NSA Menon - ThePrint

Posted in NSA

Little League, city softball, others still in holding pattern – Midland Daily News

Sports fans have been without any games to watch since mid-March. Unfortunately, as May hits full stride, the only game in town is still the waiting game.

Local sports organizations admit that, until Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home order is lifted, it is nearly impossible to plan too far ahead. And as the days continue to pass by, the prospect of holding spring and even summer sports grows increasingly uncertain.

As Northeast Little League (NELL) President Nick Kroll noted, at some point it becomes prudent to just throw in the towel.

"We've kind of posed June 1 as sort of a drop-dead cutoff (for starting a season)," Kroll said, adding that he doesn't wish to have a Little League season extend so far into summer as to infringe on families' vacation time.

"If we're still juggling stuff by the end of May, we're probably just going to (cancel the season)," he said. "We would want to give our members a full product, and if we can start by the end of May or June 1, we could run out a full regular season and still allow people to have a little time off before football starts."

Kroll said earlier this week that NELL had tentative plans to start practicing on its fields around May 18. Now, following the extension of Whitmer's stay-at-home order -- which includes a prohibition on gathering in public places, including sports practices and games -- through at least May 28, the possibility of getting in a full Little League regular season seems less likely than it did only a few days ago.

"We're sort of at the mercy of what the government says," Kroll admitted. " ... I want to play baseball, and a lot of the kids do, too, but we're not going to supersede any kind of guidance (from the state and local governments)."

Kroll said he has been receiving regular updates from Karen Murphy, director of public services for the City of Midland, on how to proceed.

Kutchey Landscaping's Nate Schultz takes a swing during the June 17, 2019 major city championship game.(Daily News file photo)

Kutchey Landscaping's Nate Schultz takes a swing during the June 17, 2019 major city championship game.(Daily News file photo)

Kutchey Landscaping's Nate Schultz takes a swing during the June 17, 2019 major city championship game.(Daily News file photo)

Kutchey Landscaping's Nate Schultz takes a swing during the June 17, 2019 major city championship game.(Daily News file photo)

Little League, city softball, others still in holding pattern

"It's really contingent on what Karen says and what the governor says," Kroll noted. "My guidance, right now, is coming from Karen. With our fields right in the heart of a city park, we're going to abide by what she says."

Murphy, likewise, said that her hands are pretty much tied when it comes to giving Little League the OK to start practicing or playing.

"The city is following directions from the governor. We're watching the executive orders closely, and we will follow whatever lead we get from there," she said. " ... We really don't have any plan as of yet. We're following whatever the governor's executive orders say. She has supported outdoor recreation as long as people practice social distancing, but as far as a full-phased approach (to starting team sports), we're not quite there yet.

"We're just getting our direction from Lansing and seeing what we'll be able to do," she added. "The social distancing will be a key piece. I think it'll be difficult to social distance if you're participating in a team sport."

Dan Reimer, president of Fraternal Northwest Little League, pointed out that the 2020 Little League World Series and state tournaments have already been cancelled, although he, like Kroll, hopes eventually to have some sort of regular season, even if on a casual level.

"We may end up doing a sandlot type of season with a relaxed atmosphere just to get the kids on the field. We'd still have uniforms and umpires, but it would be more relaxed, kind of like an instructional league just to give the kids some fun and get them out of the house," Reimer said, while adding, " ... But they might say we're stuck (having to social distance) until August, and we'll have to follow whatever we're told."

Like Kroll and Murphy, Reimer said that Fraternal Northwest can really do nothing but wait and see what transpires next.

"I'm just waiting for direction from Little League International and our district board of directors. I'm going to follow their lead," he said. " ... I really don't have any answers. We just have to wait and see what Little League wants to do.

"If they say go ahead and do a modified season in July or August, we'll gauge the level of interest and go from there," he added. "If we have enough kids who want to play ball, we'll definitely look into a modified season."

Meanwhile, Marcie Post, recreation manager for the City of Midland's Parks and Recreation Department, said she wants to be "optimistic" about the possibility of beginning city-run outdoor activities this summer, including adult and girls' softball leagues, beach volleyball, swimming at Plymouth Pool, and Tunes by the Tridge, among many others.

"We've got people who are ready to play beach volleyball and softball," Post continued. "People are still optimistic, because they keep (signing up their teams). Our rec department is really optimistic about it."

But, again, it all comes down to what the state government will and will not allow. Post said she is hopeful that the governor will soon offer guidance regarding outdoor recreation for the summer.

"We haven't made any decision at all (about summer recreational activities)," Post said. "We're waiting for guidance from the governor. ... We'll wait and see what the governor says, and we'll start making recommendations based on that.

"Summer in Michigan doesn't last forever," she added. "We need to start making a decision on these sorts of things."

In the meantime, Post said that the Michigan Recreation and Park Association, also known as MParks, has been a good resource for sharing ideas.

"The great thing is we have a strong connection with MParks, so we're in contact with other municipalities in Michigan," Post said. "We're looking at each other's opening plans, and we're trying to get our facilities open safely for our communities."

Plymouth Pool, which is operated by the city, was originally scheduled to open on Saturday, June 13, but Post said that date is now up in the air, as is the time when Kiwassee Lake at Stratford Woods Park might be opened for swimming.

The Midland Softball Association (MSA) has extended its deadlines for team registration to May 22 for slowpitch and to May 27 for fastpitch and modified pitch.

MSA President Steve Warner posted a long letter on the MSA's Facebook page on Thursday, part of which read:

"Softball without high-fives amongst teammates, without the base coaches' congratulatory fist bump, without good-game lines at the end of the game, and without ... the enthusiastic guy or girl greeting the defense coming off the field just doesn't feel like softball, but it may be our new normal. So, rest assured, while the world tries to navigate living and operating in this manner, we will do what is in the best interest of our members and with the right guidance from the national and state governments and governing bodies."

Post is hopeful about the prospects for the weekly Walk Midland program, which involves free weekly two-mile walks with other members of the community. They are scheduled to take place from June 1 through mid-July.

"I think we have found a way to socially distance that (program), as long as the governor's orders (allow the program to proceed)," Post said. "I feel like that's a really important one to get going because of the emphasis on health and wellness right now."

In terms of the City of Midland parks, Post said that all parks are still open, but the playground equipment remains off limits due to the risk of the coronavirus spreading through that equipment. She said that is the case with many playgrounds around the state and around the country.

With construction now allowed to resume in Michigan as of Thursday, Post said work should begin by mid-May on two city park projects: new outdoor pickleball courts in Central Park near the Greater Midland Community Center, and an extensive renovation of Grove Park, which the Midland Rotary Club is helping to sponsor.

Construction of a $1.6 million Miracle Field in Central Park is also expected to begin soon. It will be a fully accessible soft-surface baseball field for athletes of all ages with physical and cognitive disabilities. The original plan was for the first game to be played there in September.

Although the bulk of their seasons are played during the summer and not in the spring, American Legion Baseball programs and travel softball and baseball programs are also starting to feel the time crunch, as Whitmer's stay-at-home order continues to keep teams from practicing together.

With the American Legion postseason, including playoffs at the zone, state, regional, and national levels, already cancelled, Berryhill Post 165 manager Steve Cronkright said he would still like to see at least a more relaxed, modified version of a baseball season implemented, similar to what Reimer has suggested for Little League players.

"We're probably not going to be able to do anything until mid-summer. Some of the ideas we've had include having each high school (in the immediate area) have their own teams, and we (Berryhill) would supply the umpires and groundskeepers. That way, we'd at least get some ballgames in," Cronkright said. " ... But it's so up in the air right now. We don't know yet if we can even get together."

Cronkright didn't rule out the possibility of Berryhill playing in some or all of its scheduled tournaments, including the annual Gabby Mills Fourth of July Invitational, which Post 165 hosts every year.

"It depends on when we can get together. If we can get a couple of weeks of practices in -- and we've already paid for the tournaments -- then we'd like to (play the tournaments)," he noted. " ... The way it sounds, it may be close to mid-July before we can do stuff like that. But in the last couple of days, things have changed a lot, so you never know."

On the travel softball front, Midland Line Drive Express President Doug Hill indicated in an email to the Daily News that his organization is still planning to host four big tournaments at Redcoats Softball Complex in the weeks ahead: the NSA Spring Slam either May 23-24 or May 30-31, which would draw over 20 teams; an NSA 12U Class A and B state tournament June 19-21, which would draw over 40 teams; an NSA 14U Class B state tournament June 26-28, which would draw over 45 teams; and the annual Line Drive Grand Slam tournament July 10-12, which would draw over 70 teams.

Hill did not indicate whether or not the Line Drive organization intends to send teams to tournaments in other parts of the state.

For his part, Midland Lady Explorers President Charles Keeley said that his organization plans on participating in tournaments this summer, although there is some hesitance among players and parents about traveling to certain parts of the state which have been hard-hit by the coronavirus.

"Overwhelmingly, the girls and parents want to play ball, but there is some concern with traveling downstate to some of the areas that have been impacted more severely than the Tri-Cities area," Keeley said, noting that the Lady Explorers organization has already had seven early-season tournaments cancelled and will lose another six tournaments in May.

" ... For the remainder of the season, we are planning on playing in our regularly-scheduled tournaments, and there is going to be an extension of the season with tournaments being added in late July and August to make up for the early-season tournaments that were cancelled," he added.

Keeley said that Lady Explorers is keeping a close eye on what is transpiring around the state in regard to the coronavirus and that his organization has a few other events in the works.

"There has been discussion about playing some local scrimmages with other local travel softball organizations. We're also planning a Rise Softball Showcase event with (former U.S. National Team catcher) Jeff Nowaczyk in June to create player profiles and recruiting videos for our girls who are looking to play at the next level," Keeley said.

"Overall, we are very optimistic that we'll be playing ball this summer," he added.

"We just are not 100-percent sure what that will look like yet."

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Little League, city softball, others still in holding pattern - Midland Daily News

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Redmi K30 5G Extreme Edition with 48MP main camera to arrive on May 11 – Gizchina.com

Today, Redmi announced that it will hold a new launch event on May 11. The company will unveil the Redmi K30 5G Extreme Edition at the launch event. This will be the first time that Redmi is collaborating with Jingdong to release a customized version of the phone. We probably know that this smartphone is a derivative of the Redmi K30 series. The official poster shows that the Speed Edition uses a dual punch-hole full screen. This device is probably the same as the lower version of Redmi K30 5G which was previously rumored to be the Redmi K30i.

The Redmi K30 5G Extreme Edition comes with a 48MP main camera. This is lower than the 64MP main camera on the regular version. With this reduction, the K30 5G Speed Edition will most likely cost less than the regular version. This means that we will have a 5G smartphone that will sell for less than 1999 yuan ($282). It will certainly be the cheapest 5G device in the market for now.

There have been speculations that this device will sell for 1799 yuan ($254). Considering that the regular version sells for 1999 yuan ($282), we can not rule out this possibility. We are only sure that it will sell for less than $282. However, the exact price tag is not known for now.

In terms of core configuration, the Redmi K30 5G Extreme Edition features a 120Hz full screen, FHD+ screen resolution, Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G mobile platform, SA, and NSA dual-mode 5G support, and a 4500 mAh battery capacity with 30W flash charging.

Its worth noting that in addition to the Redmi K30 5G Extreme Edition, Redmi also has a new 5G phone in the Redmi Note 10 series (tentative). Recall that the general manager of Redmi, Lu Weibing said that an upcoming Redmi phone will use MediaTeks Dimensity 800 SoC. This chip is MediaTeks mid-range chip for the 5G market. It also supports SA/NSA dual-mode 5G.

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Redmi K30 5G Extreme Edition with 48MP main camera to arrive on May 11 - Gizchina.com

Posted in NSA

Overview | Jupiter NASA Solar System Exploration

Jupiter has a long history surprising scientistsall the way back to 1610 when Galileo Galilei found the first moons beyond Earth. That discovery changed the way we see the universe.

Fifth in line from the Sun, Jupiter is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined.

Jupiter's familiar stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Jupiters iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years.

One spacecraft NASA's Juno orbiter is currently exploring this giant world.

Go farther. Explore Jupiter In Depth

Ten Things to Know About Jupiter

10 Need-to-Know Things About Jupiter

1

Eleven Earths could fit across Jupiters equator. If Earth were the size of a grape, Jupiter would be the size of a basketball.

2

Jupiter orbits about 484 million miles (778 million kilometers) or 5.2 Astronomical Units (AU) from our Sun (Earth is one AU from the Sun).

3

Jupiter rotates once about every 10 hours (a Jovian day), but takes about 12 Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun (a Jovian year).

Jupiter and Io

4

Jupiter is a gas giant and so lacks an Earth-like surface. If it has a solid inner core at all, its likely only about the size of Earth.

5

Jupiter's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen (H2) and helium (He).

6

Jupiter has more than 75 moons.

7

In 1979 the Voyager mission discovered Jupiters faint ring system. All four giant planets in our solar system have ring systems.

8

Nine spacecraft have visited Jupiter. Seven flew by and two have orbited the gas giant. Juno, the most recent, arrived at Jupiter in 2016.

9

Jupiter cannot support life as we know it. But some of Jupiter's moons have oceans beneath their crusts that might support life.

10

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a gigantic storm thats about twice the size of Earth and has raged for over a century.

Great Red Spot

Did You Know

There are no rockets powerful enough to hurl a spacecraft into the outer solar system and beyond. In 1962, scientists calculated how to use Jupiter's intense gravity to hurl spacecraft into the farthest regions of the solar system. We've been traveling farther and faster ever since.

Pop Culture

The biggest planet in our solar system, Jupiter also has a large presence in pop culture, including many movies, TV shows, video games and comics. Jupiter was a notable destination in the Wachowski siblings science fiction spectacle Jupiter Ascending, while various Jovian moons provide settings for Cloud Atlas, Futurama, Power Rangers, and Halo, among many others. In Men in Black when Agent Jplayed by Will Smithmentions he thought one of his childhood teachers was from Venus, Agent Kplayed by Tommy Lee Jonesreplies that she is actually from one of Jupiters moons.

Kid-Friendly Jupiter

Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. It's similar to a star, but it never got big enough to start burning.

Jupiter is covered in swirling cloud stripes. It has big storms like the Great Red Spot, which has been going for hundreds of years.

Jupiter is a gas giant and doesn't have a solid surface, but it may have a solid inner core about the size of Earth. Jupiter also has rings, but they're too faint to see very well.

Visit NASA Space Place for more kid-friendly facts.

Resources

Galileo Spacecraft Model

Galileo was the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter.

Pioneer 10 was first through the asteroid belt and first to Jupiter.

With a few materials and a few steps, you can build your own glasses to view 3D images.

You can create your own red/blue 3D images to print, or look at on a computer screen, using a normal digital camera and some image processing software.

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Overview | Jupiter NASA Solar System Exploration

NASA starts packing Mars rover Perseverance ahead of July launch – Space.com

NASA continues to gear up for the launch of its next Mars rover, which is now just over two months away.

Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida have begun stacking the Perseverance Mars rover and its associated hardware in the right configuration for liftoff, which will occur during a three-week window that opens on July 17.

The stacking process began on April 23, NASA officials said. On that day, the car-size rover was integrated with its "sky crane" descent stage, which will lower Perseverance to the Martian surface on cables. (This sci-fi-seeming strategy already has one successful touchdown under its belt the landing of Perseverance's predecessor, the Mars rover Curiosity, in August 2012.)

Related: NASA's Mars 2020 rover Perseverance in pictures

"Attaching the rover to the descent stage is a major milestone for the team because these are the first spacecraft components to come together for launch, and they will be the last to separate when we reach Mars," David Gruel, the Perseverance rover assembly, test, and launch operations manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

"These two assemblies will remain firmly nestled together until they are about 65 feet [20 meters] over the surface of Mars," Gruel added.

Another big stacking milestone came on April 29, when the rover-sky crane duo was attached to the back shell. This conical structure contains the mission's parachute system and helps protect spacecraft hardware during the mission's brief, fiery trip through the Martian atmosphere. (The mission's heat shield will also play a key protective role, of course.)

Perseverance will land inside Mars' 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater in February 2021. The rover will do a variety of science work in this locale, which harbored a lake and a river delta in the ancient past.

For example, Percy will hunt for signs of ancient Mars life, characterize the region's geology and collect and cache samples for future return to Earth, among other tasks.

The mission's science team has already started practicing for these various operations. In February, for instance, seven team members trekked out to a dry lakebed in Nevada with instruments similar to those that Percy carries.

The researchers practiced gathering data after receiving instructions from other mission team members spread around the world, simulating the processes by which Percy will be directed to explore the Red Planet.

Such dry runs are "especially important for scientists who are new to Mars rovers," field team leader Raymond Francis, also of JPL, said in a different statement. "It's a team effort, and everyone has to learn how their roles fit into the whole mission."

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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NASA starts packing Mars rover Perseverance ahead of July launch - Space.com

What Is Quantum Mechanics? Quantum Physics Defined …

Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics relating to the very small.

It results in what may appear to be some very strange conclusions about the physical world. At the scale of atoms and electrons, many of the equations ofclassical mechanics, which describe how things move at everyday sizes and speeds, cease to be useful. In classical mechanics, objects exist in a specific place at a specific time. However, in quantum mechanics, objects instead exist in a haze of probability; they have a certain chance of being at point A, another chance of being at point B and so on.

Quantum mechanics (QM) developed over many decades, beginning as a set of controversial mathematical explanations of experiments that the math of classical mechanics could not explain. It began at the turn of the 20th century, around the same time that Albert Einstein published histheory of relativity, a separate mathematical revolution in physics that describes the motion of things at high speeds. Unlike relativity, however, the origins of QM cannot be attributed to any one scientist. Rather, multiple scientists contributed to a foundation of three revolutionary principles that gradually gained acceptance and experimental verification between 1900 and 1930. They are:

Quantized properties: Certain properties, such as position, speed and color, can sometimes only occur in specific, set amounts, much like a dial that "clicks" from number to number. This challenged a fundamental assumption of classical mechanics, which said that such properties should exist on a smooth, continuous spectrum. To describe the idea that some properties "clicked" like a dial with specific settings, scientists coined the word "quantized."

Particles of light: Light can sometimes behave as a particle. This was initially met with harsh criticism, as it ran contrary to 200 years of experiments showing that light behaved as a wave; much like ripples on the surface of a calm lake. Light behaves similarly in that it bounces off walls and bends around corners, and that the crests and troughs of the wave can add up or cancel out. Added wave crests result in brighter light, while waves that cancel out produce darkness. A light source can be thought of as a ball on a stick beingrhythmically dipped in the center of a lake. The color emitted corresponds to the distance between the crests, which is determined by the speed of the ball's rhythm.

Waves of matter: Matter can also behave as a wave. This ran counter to the roughly 30 years of experiments showing that matter (such as electrons) exists as particles.

In 1900, German physicist Max Planck sought to explain the distribution of colors emitted over the spectrum in the glow of red-hot and white-hot objects, such as light-bulb filaments. When making physical sense of the equation he had derived to describe this distribution, Planck realized it implied that combinations of only certaincolors(albeit a great number of them) were emitted, specifically those that were whole-number multiples of some base value. Somehow, colors were quantized! This was unexpected because light was understood to act as a wave, meaning that values of color should be a continuous spectrum. What could be forbiddingatomsfrom producing the colors between these whole-number multiples? This seemed so strange that Planck regarded quantization as nothing more than a mathematical trick. According to Helge Kragh in his 2000 article in Physics World magazine, "Max Planck, the Reluctant Revolutionary," "If a revolution occurred in physics in December 1900, nobody seemed to notice it. Planck was no exception "

Planck's equation also contained a number that would later become very important to future development of QM; today, it's known as "Planck's Constant."

Quantization helped to explain other mysteries of physics. In 1907, Einstein used Planck's hypothesis of quantization to explain why the temperature of a solid changed by different amounts if you put the same amount of heat into the material but changed the starting temperature.

Since the early 1800s, the science ofspectroscopyhad shown that different elements emit and absorb specific colors of light called "spectral lines." Though spectroscopy was a reliable method for determining the elements contained in objects such as distant stars, scientists were puzzled aboutwhyeach element gave off those specific lines in the first place. In 1888, Johannes Rydberg derived an equation that described the spectral lines emitted by hydrogen, though nobody could explain why the equation worked. This changed in 1913 whenNiels Bohrapplied Planck's hypothesis of quantization to Ernest Rutherford's 1911 "planetary" model of the atom, which postulated that electrons orbited the nucleus the same way that planets orbit the sun. According toPhysics 2000(a site from the University of Colorado), Bohr proposed that electrons were restricted to "special" orbits around an atom's nucleus. They could "jump" between special orbits, and the energy produced by the jump caused specific colors of light, observed as spectral lines. Though quantized properties were invented as but a mere mathematical trick, they explained so much that they became the founding principle of QM.

In 1905, Einstein published a paper, "Concerning an Heuristic Point of View Toward the Emission and Transformation of Light," in which he envisioned light traveling not as a wave, but as some manner of "energy quanta." This packet of energy, Einstein suggested, could "be absorbed or generated only as a whole," specifically when an atom "jumps" between quantized vibration rates. This would also apply, as would be shown a few years later, when an electron "jumps" between quantized orbits. Under this model, Einstein's "energy quanta" contained the energy difference of the jump; when divided by Plancks constant, that energy difference determined the color of light carried by those quanta.

With this new way to envision light, Einstein offered insights into the behavior of nine different phenomena, including the specific colors that Planck described being emitted from a light-bulb filament. It also explained how certain colors of light could eject electrons off metal surfaces, a phenomenon known as the "photoelectric effect." However, Einstein wasn't wholly justified in taking this leap, said Stephen Klassen, an associate professor of physics at the University of Winnipeg. In a 2008 paper, "The Photoelectric Effect: Rehabilitating the Story for the Physics Classroom," Klassen states that Einstein's energy quanta aren't necessary for explaining all of those nine phenomena. Certain mathematical treatments of light as a wave are still capable of describing both the specific colors that Planck described being emitted from a light-bulb filament and the photoelectric effect. Indeed, in Einstein's controversial winning of the 1921Nobel Prize, the Nobel committee only acknowledged "his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect," which specifically did not rely on the notion of energy quanta.

Roughly two decades after Einstein's paper, the term "photon" was popularized for describing energy quanta, thanks to the 1923 work of Arthur Compton, who showed that light scattered by an electron beam changed in color. This showed that particles of light (photons) were indeed colliding with particles of matter (electrons), thus confirming Einstein's hypothesis. By now, it was clear that light could behave both as a wave and a particle, placing light's "wave-particle duality" into the foundation of QM.

Since the discovery of the electron in 1896, evidence that all matter existed in the form of particles was slowly building. Still, the demonstration of light's wave-particle duality made scientists question whether matter was limited to actingonlyas particles. Perhaps wave-particle duality could ring true for matter as well? The first scientist to make substantial headway with this reasoning was a French physicist named Louis de Broglie. In 1924, de Broglie used the equations of Einstein'stheory of special relativityto show that particles can exhibit wave-like characteristics, and that waves can exhibit particle-like characteristics. Then in 1925, two scientists, working independently and using separate lines of mathematical thinking, applied de Broglie's reasoning to explain how electrons whizzed around in atoms (a phenomenon that was unexplainable using the equations ofclassical mechanics). In Germany, physicist Werner Heisenberg (teaming with Max Born and Pascual Jordan) accomplished this by developing "matrix mechanics." Austrian physicist ErwinSchrdingerdeveloped a similar theory called "wave mechanics." Schrdinger showed in 1926 that these two approaches were equivalent (though Swiss physicist Wolfgang Pauli sent anunpublished resultto Jordan showing that matrix mechanics was more complete).

The Heisenberg-Schrdinger model of the atom, in which each electron acts as a wave (sometimes referred to as a "cloud") around the nucleus of an atom replaced the Rutherford-Bohr model. One stipulation of the new model was that the ends of the wave that forms an electron must meet. In "Quantum Mechanics in Chemistry, 3rd Ed." (W.A. Benjamin, 1981), Melvin Hanna writes, "The imposition of the boundary conditions has restricted the energy to discrete values." A consequence of this stipulation is that only whole numbers of crests and troughs are allowed, which explains why some properties are quantized. In the Heisenberg-Schrdinger model of the atom, electrons obey a "wave function" and occupy "orbitals" rather than orbits. Unlike the circular orbits of the Rutherford-Bohr model, atomic orbitals have a variety of shapes ranging from spheres to dumbbells to daisies.

In 1927, Walter Heitler and Fritz London further developed wave mechanics to show how atomic orbitals could combine to form molecular orbitals, effectively showing why atoms bond to one another to formmolecules. This was yet another problem that had been unsolvable using the math of classical mechanics. These insights gave rise to the field of "quantum chemistry."

Also in 1927, Heisenberg made another major contribution to quantum physics. He reasoned that since matter acts as waves, some properties, such as an electron's position and speed, are "complementary," meaning there's a limit (related to Planck's constant) to how well the precision of each property can be known. Under what would come to be called "Heisenberg'suncertainty principle," it was reasoned that the more precisely an electron's position is known, the less precisely its speed can be known, and vice versa. This uncertainty principle applies to everyday-size objects as well, but is not noticeable because the lack of precision is extraordinarily tiny. According to Dave Slaven of Morningside College (Sioux City, IA), if a baseball's speed is known to within aprecision of 0.1 mph, the maximum precision to which it is possible to know the ball's position is 0.000000000000000000000000000008 millimeters.

The principles of quantization, wave-particle duality and the uncertainty principle ushered in a new era for QM. In 1927, Paul Dirac applied a quantum understanding of electric and magnetic fields to give rise to the study of "quantum field theory" (QFT), which treated particles (such as photons and electrons) as excited states of an underlying physical field. Work in QFT continued for a decade until scientists hit a roadblock: Many equations in QFT stopped making physical sense because they produced results of infinity. After a decade of stagnation, Hans Bethe made a breakthrough in 1947 using a technique called "renormalization." Here, Bethe realized that all infinite results related to two phenomena (specifically "electron self-energy" and "vacuum polarization") such that the observed values of electron mass and electron charge could be used to make all the infinities disappear.

Since the breakthrough of renormalization, QFT has served as the foundation for developing quantum theories about the four fundamental forces of nature: 1) electromagnetism, 2) the weak nuclear force, 3) the strong nuclear force and 4) gravity. The first insight provided by QFT was a quantum description of electromagnetism through "quantum electrodynamics" (QED), which made strides in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Next was a quantum description of the weak nuclear force, which was unified with electromagnetism to build "electroweak theory" (EWT) throughout the 1960s. Finally came a quantum treatment of the strong nuclear force using "quantum chromodynamics" (QCD) in the 1960s and 1970s. The theories of QED, EWT and QCD together form the basis of theStandard Modelof particle physics. Unfortunately, QFT has yet to produce a quantum theory of gravity. That quest continues today in the studies of string theory and loop quantum gravity.

Robert Coolman is a graduate researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, finishing up his Ph.D. in chemical engineering. He writes about math, science and how they interact with history. Follow Robert@PrimeViridian. Followus@LiveScience,Facebook&Google+.

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What Is Quantum Mechanics? Quantum Physics Defined ...

Introduction to quantum mechanics – Wikipedia

Non-technical introduction to quantum physics

Quantum mechanics is the science of the very small. It explains the behavior of matter and its interactions with energy on the scale of atomic and subatomic particles. By contrast, classical physics explains matter and energy only on a scale familiar to human experience, including the behavior of astronomical bodies such as the Moon. Classical physics is still used in much of modern science and technology. However, towards the end of the 19th century, scientists discovered phenomena in both the large (macro) and the small (micro) worlds that classical physics could not explain.[1] The desire to resolve inconsistencies between observed phenomena and classical theory led to two major revolutions in physics that created a shift in the original scientific paradigm: the theory of relativity and the development of quantum mechanics.[2] This article describes how physicists discovered the limitations of classical physics and developed the main concepts of the quantum theory that replaced it in the early decades of the 20th century. It describes these concepts in roughly the order in which they were first discovered. For a more complete history of the subject, see History of quantum mechanics.

Light behaves in some aspects like particles and in other aspects like waves. Matterthe "stuff" of the universe consisting of particles such as electrons and atomsexhibits wavelike behavior too. Some light sources, such as neon lights, give off only certain specific frequencies of light, a small set of distinct pure colors determined by neon's atomic structure. Quantum mechanics shows that light, along with all other forms of electromagnetic radiation, comes in discrete units, called photons, and predicts its spectral energies (corresponding to pure colors), and the intensities of its light beams. A single photon is a quantum, or smallest observable particle, of the electromagnetic field. A partial photon is never experimentally observed. More broadly, quantum mechanics shows that many properties of objects, such as position, speed, and angular momentum, that appeared continuous in the zoomed-out view of classical mechanics, turn out to be (in the very tiny, zoomed-in scale of quantum mechanics) quantized. Such properties of elementary particles are required to take on one of a set of small, discrete allowable values, and since the gap between these values is also small, the discontinuities are only apparent at very tiny (atomic) scales.

Many aspects of quantum mechanics are counterintuitive[3] and can seem paradoxical because they describe behavior quite different from that seen at larger scales. In the words of quantum physicist Richard Feynman, quantum mechanics deals with "nature as She isabsurd".[4]

For example, the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics means that the more closely one pins down one measurement (such as the position of a particle), the less accurate another complementary measurement pertaining to the same particle (such as its speed) must become.

Another example is entanglement, in which a measurement of any two-valued state of a particle (such as light polarized up or down) made on either of two "entangled" particles that are very far apart causes a subsequent measurement on the other particle to always be the other of the two values (such as polarized in the opposite direction).

A final example is superfluidity, in which a container of liquid helium, cooled down to near absolute zero in temperature spontaneously flows (slowly) up and over the opening of its container, against the force of gravity.

Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation emitted from the surface of an object due to the object's internal energy. If an object is heated sufficiently, it starts to emit light at the red end of the spectrum, as it becomes red hot.

Heating it further causes the color to change from red to yellow, white, and blue, as it emits light at increasingly shorter wavelengths (higher frequencies). A perfect emitter is also a perfect absorber: when it is cold, such an object looks perfectly black, because it absorbs all the light that falls on it and emits none. Consequently, an ideal thermal emitter is known as a black body, and the radiation it emits is called black-body radiation.

In the late 19th century, thermal radiation had been fairly well characterized experimentally.[note 1] However, classical physics led to the RayleighJeans law, which, as shown in the figure, agrees with experimental results well at low frequencies, but strongly disagrees at high frequencies. Physicists searched for a single theory that explained all the experimental results.

The first model that was able to explain the full spectrum of thermal radiation was put forward by Max Planck in 1900.[5] He proposed a mathematical model in which the thermal radiation was in equilibrium with a set of harmonic oscillators. To reproduce the experimental results, he had to assume that each oscillator emitted an integer number of units of energy at its single characteristic frequency, rather than being able to emit any arbitrary amount of energy. In other words, the energy emitted by an oscillator was quantized.[note 2] The quantum of energy for each oscillator, according to Planck, was proportional to the frequency of the oscillator; the constant of proportionality is now known as the Planck constant. The Planck constant, usually written as h, has the value of 6.631034J s. So, the energy E of an oscillator of frequency f is given by

To change the color of such a radiating body, it is necessary to change its temperature. Planck's law explains why: increasing the temperature of a body allows it to emit more energy overall, and means that a larger proportion of the energy is towards the violet end of the spectrum.

Planck's law was the first quantum theory in physics, and Planck won the Nobel Prize in 1918 "in recognition of the services he rendered to the advancement of Physics by his discovery of energy quanta".[7] At the time, however, Planck's view was that quantization was purely a heuristic mathematical construct, rather than (as is now believed) a fundamental change in our understanding of the world.[8]

In 1905, Albert Einstein took an extra step. He suggested that quantization was not just a mathematical construct, but that the energy in a beam of light actually occurs in individual packets, which are now called photons.[9] The energy of a single photon of light of frequency f {displaystyle f} is given by the frequency multiplied by Planck's constant h {displaystyle h} (an extremely tiny positive number):

For centuries, scientists had debated between two possible theories of light: was it a wave or did it instead comprise a stream of tiny particles? By the 19th century, the debate was generally considered to have been settled in favor of the wave theory, as it was able to explain observed effects such as refraction, diffraction, interference, and polarization.[10] James Clerk Maxwell had shown that electricity, magnetism and light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon: the electromagnetic field. Maxwell's equations, which are the complete set of laws of classical electromagnetism, describe light as waves: a combination of oscillating electric and magnetic fields. Because of the preponderance of evidence in favor of the wave theory, Einstein's ideas were met initially with great skepticism. Eventually, however, the photon model became favored. One of the most significant pieces of evidence in its favor was its ability to explain several puzzling properties of the photoelectric effect, described in the following section. Nonetheless, the wave analogy remained indispensable for helping to understand other characteristics of light: diffraction, refraction, and interference.

In 1887, Heinrich Hertz observed that when light with sufficient frequency hits a metallic surface, the surface emits electrons.[11] In 1902, Philipp Lenard discovered that the maximum possible energy of an ejected electron is related to the frequency of the light, not to its intensity: if the frequency is too low, no electrons are ejected regardless of the intensity. Strong beams of light toward the red end of the spectrum might produce no electrical potential at all, while weak beams of light toward the violet end of the spectrum would produce higher and higher voltages. The lowest frequency of light that can cause electrons to be emitted, called the threshold frequency, is different for different metals. This observation is at odds with classical electromagnetism, which predicts that the electron's energy should be proportional to the intensity of the incident radiation.[12]:24 So when physicists first discovered devices exhibiting the photoelectric effect, they initially expected that a higher intensity of light would produce a higher voltage from the photoelectric device.

Einstein explained the effect by postulating that a beam of light is a stream of particles ("photons") and that, if the beam is of frequency f, then each photon has an energy equal to hf.[11] An electron is likely to be struck only by a single photon, which imparts at most an energy hf to the electron.[11] Therefore, the intensity of the beam has no effect[note 3] and only its frequency determines the maximum energy that can be imparted to the electron.[11]

To explain the threshold effect, Einstein argued that it takes a certain amount of energy, called the work function and denoted by , to remove an electron from the metal.[11] This amount of energy is different for each metal. If the energy of the photon is less than the work function, then it does not carry sufficient energy to remove the electron from the metal. The threshold frequency, f0, is the frequency of a photon whose energy is equal to the work function:

If f is greater than f0, the energy hf is enough to remove an electron. The ejected electron has a kinetic energy, EK, which is, at most, equal to the photon's energy minus the energy needed to dislodge the electron from the metal:

Einstein's description of light as being composed of particles extended Planck's notion of quantized energy, which is that a single photon of a given frequency, f, delivers an invariant amount of energy, hf. In other words, individual photons can deliver more or less energy, but only depending on their frequencies. In nature, single photons are rarely encountered. The Sun and emission sources available in the 19th century emit vast numbers of photons every second, and so the importance of the energy carried by each individual photon was not obvious. Einstein's idea that the energy contained in individual units of light depends on their frequency made it possible to explain experimental results that had seemed counterintuitive. However, although the photon is a particle, it was still being described as having the wave-like property of frequency. Effectively, the account of light as a particle is insufficient, and its wave-like nature is still required.[13][note 4]

The relationship between the frequency of electromagnetic radiation and the energy of each individual photon is why ultraviolet light can cause sunburn, but visible or infrared light cannot. A photon of ultraviolet light delivers a high amount of energyenough to contribute to cellular damage such as occurs in a sunburn. A photon of infrared light delivers less energyonly enough to warm one's skin. So, an infrared lamp can warm a large surface, perhaps large enough to keep people comfortable in a cold room, but it cannot give anyone a sunburn.[15]

All photons of the same frequency have identical energy, and all photons of different frequencies have proportionally (order 1, Ephoton = hf ) different energies.[16] However, although the energy imparted by photons is invariant at any given frequency, the initial energy state of the electrons in a photoelectric device prior to absorption of light is not necessarily uniform. Anomalous results may occur in the case of individual electrons. For instance, an electron that was already excited above the equilibrium level of the photoelectric device might be ejected when it absorbed uncharacteristically low frequency illumination. Statistically, however, the characteristic behavior of a photoelectric device reflects the behavior of the vast majority of its electrons, which are at their equilibrium level. This point is helpful in comprehending the distinction between the study of individual particles in quantum dynamics and the study of massive particles in classical physics.[citation needed]

By the dawn of the 20th century, evidence required a model of the atom with a diffuse cloud of negatively charged electrons surrounding a small, dense, positively charged nucleus. These properties suggested a model in which electrons circle around the nucleus like planets orbiting a sun.[note 5] However, it was also known that the atom in this model would be unstable: according to classical theory, orbiting electrons are undergoing centripetal acceleration, and should therefore give off electromagnetic radiation, the loss of energy also causing them to spiral toward the nucleus, colliding with it in a fraction of a second.

A second, related puzzle was the emission spectrum of atoms. When a gas is heated, it gives off light only at discrete frequencies. For example, the visible light given off by hydrogen consists of four different colors, as shown in the picture below. The intensity of the light at different frequencies is also different. By contrast, white light consists of a continuous emission across the whole range of visible frequencies. By the end of the nineteenth century, a simple rule known as Balmer's formula showed how the frequencies of the different lines related to each other, though without explaining why this was, or making any prediction about the intensities. The formula also predicted some additional spectral lines in ultraviolet and infrared light that had not been observed at the time. These lines were later observed experimentally, raising confidence in the value of the formula.

The mathematical formula describing hydrogen's emission spectrum

In 1885 the Swiss mathematician Johann Balmer discovered that each wavelength (lambda) in the visible spectrum of hydrogen is related to some integer n by the equation

where B is a constant Balmer determined is equal to 364.56nm.

In 1888 Johannes Rydberg generalized and greatly increased the explanatory utility of Balmer's formula. He predicted that is related to two integers n and m according to what is now known as the Rydberg formula:[17]

where R is the Rydberg constant, equal to 0.0110nm1, and n must be greater than m.

Rydberg's formula accounts for the four visible wavelengths of hydrogen by setting m = 2 and n = 3, 4, 5, 6. It also predicts additional wavelengths in the emission spectrum: for m = 1 and for n > 1, the emission spectrum should contain certain ultraviolet wavelengths, and for m = 3 and n > 3, it should also contain certain infrared wavelengths. Experimental observation of these wavelengths came two decades later: in 1908 Louis Paschen found some of the predicted infrared wavelengths, and in 1914 Theodore Lyman found some of the predicted ultraviolet wavelengths.[17]

Both Balmer and Rydberg's formulas involve integers: in modern terms, they imply that some property of the atom is quantized. Understanding exactly what this property was, and why it was quantized, was a major part in the development of quantum mechanics, as shown in the rest of this article.

In 1913 Niels Bohr proposed a new model of the atom that included quantized electron orbits: electrons still orbit the nucleus much as planets orbit around the sun, but they are permitted to inhabit only certain orbits, not to orbit at any arbitrary distance.[18] When an atom emitted (or absorbed) energy, the electron did not move in a continuous trajectory from one orbit around the nucleus to another, as might be expected classically. Instead, the electron would jump instantaneously from one orbit to another, giving off the emitted light in the form of a photon.[19] The possible energies of photons given off by each element were determined by the differences in energy between the orbits, and so the emission spectrum for each element would contain a number of lines.[20]

Starting from only one simple assumption about the rule that the orbits must obey, the Bohr model was able to relate the observed spectral lines in the emission spectrum of hydrogen to previously known constants. In Bohr's model the electron was not allowed to emit energy continuously and crash into the nucleus: once it was in the closest permitted orbit, it was stable forever. Bohr's model didn't explain why the orbits should be quantized in that way, nor was it able to make accurate predictions for atoms with more than one electron, or to explain why some spectral lines are brighter than others.

Some fundamental assumptions of the Bohr model were soon proven wrongbut the key result that the discrete lines in emission spectra are due to some property of the electrons in atoms being quantized is correct. The way that the electrons actually behave is strikingly different from Bohr's atom, and from what we see in the world of our everyday experience; this modern quantum mechanical model of the atom is discussed below.

A more detailed explanation of the Bohr model

Bohr theorized that the angular momentum, L, of an electron is quantized:

where n is an integer and h is the Planck constant. Starting from this assumption, Coulomb's law and the equations of circular motion show that an electron with n units of angular momentum orbit a proton at a distance r given by

where ke is the Coulomb constant, m is the mass of an electron, and e is the charge on an electron.For simplicity this is written as

where a0, called the Bohr radius, is equal to 0.0529nm.The Bohr radius is the radius of the smallest allowed orbit.

The energy of the electron[note 6] can also be calculated, and is given by

Thus Bohr's assumption that angular momentum is quantized means that an electron can inhabit only certain orbits around the nucleus, and that it can have only certain energies. A consequence of these constraints is that the electron does not crash into the nucleus: it cannot continuously emit energy, and it cannot come closer to the nucleus than a0 (the Bohr radius).

An electron loses energy by jumping instantaneously from its original orbit to a lower orbit; the extra energy is emitted in the form of a photon. Conversely, an electron that absorbs a photon gains energy, hence it jumps to an orbit that is farther from the nucleus.

Each photon from glowing atomic hydrogen is due to an electron moving from a higher orbit, with radius rn, to a lower orbit, rm. The energy E of this photon is the difference in the energies En and Em of the electron:

Since Planck's equation shows that the photon's energy is related to its wavelength by E = hc/, the wavelengths of light that can be emitted are given by

This equation has the same form as the Rydberg formula, and predicts that the constant R should be given by

Therefore, the Bohr model of the atom can predict the emission spectrum of hydrogen in terms of fundamental constants.[note 7] However, it was not able to make accurate predictions for multi-electron atoms, or to explain why some spectral lines are brighter than others.

Just as light has both wave-like and particle-like properties, matter also has wave-like properties.[21]

Matter behaving as a wave was first demonstrated experimentally for electrons: a beam of electrons can exhibit diffraction, just like a beam of light or a water wave.[note 8] Similar wave-like phenomena were later shown for atoms and even molecules.

The wavelength, , associated with any object is related to its momentum, p, through the Planck constant, h:[22][23]

The relationship, called the de Broglie hypothesis, holds for all types of matter: all matter exhibits properties of both particles and waves.

The concept of waveparticle duality says that neither the classical concept of "particle" nor of "wave" can fully describe the behavior of quantum-scale objects, either photons or matter. Waveparticle duality is an example of the principle of complementarity in quantum physics.[24][25][26][27][28] An elegant example of waveparticle duality, the double slit experiment, is discussed in the section below.

In the double-slit experiment, as originally performed by Thomas Young in 1803[29], and then Augustin Fresnel a decade later[29], a beam of light is directed through two narrow, closely spaced slits, producing an interference pattern of light and dark bands on a screen. If one of the slits is covered up, one might navely expect that the intensity of the fringes due to interference would be halved everywhere. In fact, a much simpler pattern is seen, a diffraction pattern diametrically opposite the open slit. Exactly the same behavior can be demonstrated in water waves, and so the double-slit experiment was seen as a demonstration of the wave nature of light.

Variations of the double-slit experiment have been performed using electrons, atoms, and even large molecules,[30][31] and the same type of interference pattern is seen. Thus it has been demonstrated that all matter possesses both particle and wave characteristics.

Even if the source intensity is turned down, so that only one particle (e.g. photon or electron) is passing through the apparatus at a time, the same interference pattern develops over time. The quantum particle acts as a wave when passing through the double slits, but as a particle when it is detected. This is a typical feature of quantum complementarity: a quantum particle acts as a wave in an experiment to measure its wave-like properties, and like a particle in an experiment to measure its particle-like properties. The point on the detector screen where any individual particle shows up is the result of a random process. However, the distribution pattern of many individual particles mimics the diffraction pattern produced by waves.

De Broglie expanded the Bohr model of the atom by showing that an electron in orbit around a nucleus could be thought of as having wave-like properties. In particular, an electron is observed only in situations that permit a standing wave around a nucleus. An example of a standing wave is a violin string, which is fixed at both ends and can be made to vibrate. The waves created by a stringed instrument appear to oscillate in place, moving from crest to trough in an up-and-down motion. The wavelength of a standing wave is related to the length of the vibrating object and the boundary conditions. For example, because the violin string is fixed at both ends, it can carry standing waves of wavelengths 2 l n {displaystyle {frac {2l}{n}}} , where l is the length and n is a positive integer. De Broglie suggested that the allowed electron orbits were those for which the circumference of the orbit would be an integer number of wavelengths. The electron's wavelength therefore determines that only Bohr orbits of certain distances from the nucleus are possible. In turn, at any distance from the nucleus smaller than a certain value it would be impossible to establish an orbit. The minimum possible distance from the nucleus is called the Bohr radius.[32]

De Broglie's treatment of quantum events served as a starting point for Schrdinger when he set out to construct a wave equation to describe quantum theoretical events.

In 1922, Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach shot silver atoms through an inhomogeneous magnetic field. Relative to its northern pole, pointing up, down, or somewhere in between, in classical mechanics, a magnet thrown through a magnetic field may be deflected a small or large distance upwards or downwards. The atoms that Stern and Gerlach shot through the magnetic field acted in a similar way. However, while the magnets could be deflected variable distances, the atoms would always be deflected a constant distance either up or down. This implied that the property of the atom that corresponds to the magnet's orientation must be quantized, taking one of two values (either up or down), as opposed to being chosen freely from any angle.

Ralph Kronig originated the theory that particles such as atoms or electrons behave as if they rotate, or "spin", about an axis. Spin would account for the missing magnetic moment,[clarification needed] and allow two electrons in the same orbital to occupy distinct quantum states if they "spun" in opposite directions, thus satisfying the exclusion principle. The quantum number represented the sense (positive or negative) of spin.

The choice of orientation of the magnetic field used in the SternGerlach experiment is arbitrary. In the animation shown here, the field is vertical and so the atoms are deflected either up or down. If the magnet is rotated a quarter turn, the atoms are deflected either left or right. Using a vertical field shows that the spin along the vertical axis is quantized, and using a horizontal field shows that the spin along the horizontal axis is quantized.

If, instead of hitting a detector screen, one of the beams of atoms coming out of the SternGerlach apparatus is passed into another (inhomogeneous) magnetic field oriented in the same direction, all of the atoms are deflected the same way in this second field. However, if the second field is oriented at 90 to the first, then half of the atoms are deflected one way and half the other, so that the atom's spin about the horizontal and vertical axes are independent of each other. However, if one of these beams (e.g. the atoms that were deflected up then left) is passed into a third magnetic field, oriented the same way as the first, half of the atoms go one way and half the other, even though they all went in the same direction originally. The action of measuring the atoms' spin with respect to a horizontal field has changed their spin with respect to a vertical field.

The SternGerlach experiment demonstrates a number of important features of quantum mechanics:

In 1925, Werner Heisenberg attempted to solve one of the problems that the Bohr model left unanswered, explaining the intensities of the different lines in the hydrogen emission spectrum. Through a series of mathematical analogies, he wrote out the quantum-mechanical analog for the classical computation of intensities.[33] Shortly afterwards, Heisenberg's colleague Max Born realised that Heisenberg's method of calculating the probabilities for transitions between the different energy levels could best be expressed by using the mathematical concept of matrices.[note 9]

In the same year, building on de Broglie's hypothesis, Erwin Schrdinger developed the equation that describes the behavior of a quantum-mechanical wave.[34] The mathematical model, called the Schrdinger equation after its creator, is central to quantum mechanics, defines the permitted stationary states of a quantum system, and describes how the quantum state of a physical system changes in time.[35] The wave itself is described by a mathematical function known as a "wave function". Schrdinger said that the wave function provides the "means for predicting probability of measurement results".[36]

Schrdinger was able to calculate the energy levels of hydrogen by treating a hydrogen atom's electron as a classical wave, moving in a well of electrical potential created by the proton. This calculation accurately reproduced the energy levels of the Bohr model.

In May 1926, Schrdinger proved that Heisenberg's matrix mechanics and his own wave mechanics made the same predictions about the properties and behavior of the electron; mathematically, the two theories had an underlying common form. Yet the two men disagreed on the interpretation of their mutual theory. For instance, Heisenberg accepted the theoretical prediction of jumps of electrons between orbitals in an atom,[37] but Schrdinger hoped that a theory based on continuous wave-like properties could avoid what he called (as paraphrased by Wilhelm Wien) "this nonsense about quantum jumps".[38] In the end, Heisenberg's approach won out, and quantum jumps were confirmed.[39]

Bohr, Heisenberg, and others tried to explain what these experimental results and mathematical models really mean. Their description, known as the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, aimed to describe the nature of reality that was being probed by the measurements and described by the mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics.

The main principles of the Copenhagen interpretation are:

Various consequences of these principles are discussed in more detail in the following subsections.

Suppose it is desired to measure the position and speed of an objectfor example a car going through a radar speed trap. It can be assumed that the car has a definite position and speed at a particular moment in time. How accurately these values can be measured depends on the quality of the measuring equipment. If the precision of the measuring equipment is improved, it provides a result closer to the true value. It might be assumed that the speed of the car and its position could be operationally defined and measured simultaneously, as precisely as might be desired.

In 1927, Heisenberg proved that this last assumption is not correct.[41] Quantum mechanics shows that certain pairs of physical properties, for example position and speed, cannot be simultaneously measured, nor defined in operational terms, to arbitrary precision: the more precisely one property is measured, or defined in operational terms, the less precisely can the other. This statement is known as the uncertainty principle. The uncertainty principle is not only a statement about the accuracy of our measuring equipment, but, more deeply, is about the conceptual nature of the measured quantitiesthe assumption that the car had simultaneously defined position and speed does not work in quantum mechanics. On a scale of cars and people, these uncertainties are negligible, but when dealing with atoms and electrons they become critical.[42]

Heisenberg gave, as an illustration, the measurement of the position and momentum of an electron using a photon of light. In measuring the electron's position, the higher the frequency of the photon, the more accurate is the measurement of the position of the impact of the photon with the electron, but the greater is the disturbance of the electron. This is because from the impact with the photon, the electron absorbs a random amount of energy, rendering the measurement obtained of its momentum increasingly uncertain (momentum is velocity multiplied by mass), for one is necessarily measuring its post-impact disturbed momentum from the collision products and not its original momentum. With a photon of lower frequency, the disturbance (and hence uncertainty) in the momentum is less, but so is the accuracy of the measurement of the position of the impact.[43]

At the heart of the uncertainty principle is not a mystery, but the simple fact that for any mathematical analysis in the position and velocity domains (Fourier analysis), achieving a sharper (more precise) curve in the position domain can only be done at the expense of a more gradual (less precise) curve in the speed domain, and vice versa. More sharpness in the position domain requires contributions from more frequencies in the speed domain to create the narrower curve, and vice versa. It is a fundamental tradeoff inherent in any such related or complementary measurements, but is only really noticeable at the smallest (Planck) scale, near the size of elementary particles.

The uncertainty principle shows mathematically that the product of the uncertainty in the position and momentum of a particle (momentum is velocity multiplied by mass) could never be less than a certain value, and that this value is related to Planck's constant.

Wave function collapse means that a measurement has forced or converted a quantum (probabilistic or potential) state into a definite measured value. This phenomenon is only seen in quantum mechanics rather than classical mechanics.

For example, before a photon actually "shows up" on a detection screen it can be described only with a set of probabilities for where it might show up. When it does appear, for instance in the CCD of an electronic camera, the time and the space where it interacted with the device are known within very tight limits. However, the photon has disappeared in the process of being captured (measured), and its quantum wave function has disappeared with it. In its place some macroscopic physical change in the detection screen has appeared, e.g., an exposed spot in a sheet of photographic film, or a change in electric potential in some cell of a CCD.

Because of the uncertainty principle, statements about both the position and momentum of particles can assign only a probability that the position or momentum has some numerical value. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate clearly the difference between the state of something that is indeterminate, such as an electron in a probability cloud, and the state of something having a definite value. When an object can definitely be "pinned-down" in some respect, it is said to possess an eigenstate.

In the SternGerlach experiment discussed above, the spin of the atom about the vertical axis has two eigenstates: up and down. Before measuring it, we can only say that any individual atom has equal probability of being found to have spin up or spin down. The measurement process causes the wavefunction to collapse into one of the two states.

The eigenstates of spin about the vertical axis are not simultaneously eigenstates of spin about the horizontal axis, so this atom has equal probability of being found to have either value of spin about the horizontal axis. As described in the section above, measuring the spin about the horizontal axis can allow an atom that was spun up to spin down: measuring its spin about the horizontal axis collapses its wave function into one of the eigenstates of this measurement, which means it is no longer in an eigenstate of spin about the vertical axis, so can take either value.

In 1924, Wolfgang Pauli proposed a new quantum degree of freedom (or quantum number), with two possible values, to resolve inconsistencies between observed molecular spectra and the predictions of quantum mechanics. In particular, the spectrum of atomic hydrogen had a doublet, or pair of lines differing by a small amount, where only one line was expected. Pauli formulated his exclusion principle, stating, "There cannot exist an atom in such a quantum state that two electrons within [it] have the same set of quantum numbers."[44]

A year later, Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit identified Pauli's new degree of freedom with the property called spin whose effects were observed in the SternGerlach experiment.

Bohr's model of the atom was essentially a planetary one, with the electrons orbiting around the nuclear "sun". However, the uncertainty principle states that an electron cannot simultaneously have an exact location and velocity in the way that a planet does. Instead of classical orbits, electrons are said to inhabit atomic orbitals. An orbital is the "cloud" of possible locations in which an electron might be found, a distribution of probabilities rather than a precise location.[44] Each orbital is three dimensional, rather than the two dimensional orbit, and is often depicted as a three-dimensional region within which there is a 95 percent probability of finding the electron.[45]

Schrdinger was able to calculate the energy levels of hydrogen by treating a hydrogen atom's electron as a wave, represented by the "wave function" , in an electric potential well, V, created by the proton. The solutions to Schrdinger's equation[clarification needed] are distributions of probabilities for electron positions and locations. Orbitals have a range of different shapes in three dimensions. The energies of the different orbitals can be calculated, and they accurately match the energy levels of the Bohr model.

Within Schrdinger's picture, each electron has four properties:

The collective name for these properties is the quantum state of the electron. The quantum state can be described by giving a number to each of these properties; these are known as the electron's quantum numbers. The quantum state of the electron is described by its wave function. The Pauli exclusion principle demands that no two electrons within an atom may have the same values of all four numbers.

The first property describing the orbital is the principal quantum number, n, which is the same as in Bohr's model. n denotes the energy level of each orbital. The possible values for n are integers:

The next quantum number, the azimuthal quantum number, denoted l, describes the shape of the orbital. The shape is a consequence of the angular momentum of the orbital. The angular momentum represents the resistance of a spinning object to speeding up or slowing down under the influence of external force. The azimuthal quantum number represents the orbital angular momentum of an electron around its nucleus. The possible values for l are integers from 0 to n 1 (where n is the principal quantum number of the electron):

The shape of each orbital is usually referred to by a letter, rather than by its azimuthal quantum number. The first shape (l=0) is denoted by the letter s (a mnemonic being "sphere"). The next shape is denoted by the letter p and has the form of a dumbbell. The other orbitals have more complicated shapes (see atomic orbital), and are denoted by the letters d, f, g, etc.

The third quantum number, the magnetic quantum number, describes the magnetic moment of the electron, and is denoted by ml (or simply m). The possible values for ml are integers from l to l (where l is the azimuthal quantum number of the electron):

The magnetic quantum number measures the component of the angular momentum in a particular direction. The choice of direction is arbitrary; conventionally the z-direction is chosen.

The fourth quantum number, the spin quantum number (pertaining to the "orientation" of the electron's spin) is denoted ms, with values +12 or 12.

The chemist Linus Pauling wrote, by way of example:

In the case of a helium atom with two electrons in the 1s orbital, the Pauli Exclusion Principle requires that the two electrons differ in the value of one quantum number. Their values of n, l, and ml are the same. Accordingly they must differ in the value of ms, which can have the value of +12 for one electron and 12 for the other."[44]

It is the underlying structure and symmetry of atomic orbitals, and the way that electrons fill them, that leads to the organisation of the periodic table. The way the atomic orbitals on different atoms combine to form molecular orbitals determines the structure and strength of chemical bonds between atoms.

In 1928, Paul Dirac extended the Pauli equation, which described spinning electrons, to account for special relativity. The result was a theory that dealt properly with events, such as the speed at which an electron orbits the nucleus, occurring at a substantial fraction of the speed of light. By using the simplest electromagnetic interaction, Dirac was able to predict the value of the magnetic moment associated with the electron's spin, and found the experimentally observed value, which was too large to be that of a spinning charged sphere governed by classical physics. He was able to solve for the spectral lines of the hydrogen atom, and to reproduce from physical first principles Sommerfeld's successful formula for the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum.

Dirac's equations sometimes yielded a negative value for energy, for which he proposed a novel solution: he posited the existence of an antielectron and of a dynamical vacuum. This led to the many-particle quantum field theory.

The Pauli exclusion principle says that two electrons in one system cannot be in the same state. Nature leaves open the possibility, however, that two electrons can have both states "superimposed" over each of them. Recall that the wave functions that emerge simultaneously from the double slits arrive at the detection screen in a state of superposition. Nothing is certain until the superimposed waveforms "collapse". At that instant an electron shows up somewhere in accordance with the probability that is the square of the absolute value of the sum of the complex-valued amplitudes of the two superimposed waveforms. The situation there is already very abstract. A concrete way of thinking about entangled photons, photons in which two contrary states are superimposed on each of them in the same event, is as follows:

Imagine that we have two color-coded states of photons: one state labeled blue and another state labeled red. Let the superposition of the red and the blue state appear (in imagination) as a purple state. We consider a case in which two photons are produced as the result of one single atomic event. Perhaps they are produced by the excitation of a crystal that characteristically absorbs a photon of a certain frequency and emits two photons of half the original frequency. In this case, the photons are connected with each other via their shared origin in a single atomic event. This setup results in superimposed states of the photons. So the two photons come out purple. If the experimenter now performs some experiment that determines whether one of the photons is either blue or red, then that experiment changes the photon involved from one having a superposition of blue and red characteristics to a photon that has only one of those characteristics. The problem that Einstein had with such an imagined situation was that if one of these photons had been kept bouncing between mirrors in a laboratory on earth, and the other one had traveled halfway to the nearest star, when its twin was made to reveal itself as either blue or red, that meant that the distant photon now had to lose its purple status too. So whenever it might be investigated after its twin had been measured, it would necessarily show up in the opposite state to whatever its twin had revealed.

In trying to show that quantum mechanics was not a complete theory, Einstein started with the theory's prediction that two or more particles that have interacted in the past can appear strongly correlated when their various properties are later measured. He sought to explain this seeming interaction in a classical way, through their common past, and preferably not by some "spooky action at a distance". The argument is worked out in a famous paper, Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (1935; abbreviated EPR), setting out what is now called the EPR paradox. Assuming what is now usually called local realism, EPR attempted to show from quantum theory that a particle has both position and momentum simultaneously, while according to the Copenhagen interpretation, only one of those two properties actually exists and only at the moment that it is being measured. EPR concluded that quantum theory is incomplete in that it refuses to consider physical properties that objectively exist in nature. (Einstein, Podolsky, & Rosen 1935 is currently Einstein's most cited publication in physics journals.) In the same year, Erwin Schrdinger used the word "entanglement" and declared: "I would not call that one but rather the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics."[46] Ever since Irish physicist John Stewart Bell theoretically and experimentally disproved the "hidden variables" theory of Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen, most physicists have accepted entanglement as a real phenomenon.[47] However, there is some minority dispute.[48] The Bell inequalities are the most powerful challenge to Einstein's claims.

The idea of quantum field theory began in the late 1920s with British physicist Paul Dirac, when he attempted to quantize the electromagnetic field[clarification needed] a procedure for constructing a quantum theory starting from a classical theory.

Merriam-Webster defines a field in physics as "a region or space in which a given effect (such as magnetism) exists".[49] Other effects that manifest themselves as fields are gravitation and static electricity.[50] In 2008, physicist Richard Hammond wrote:

Read more here:

Introduction to quantum mechanics - Wikipedia

Unified Field Theory: Einstein Failed, but What’s the Future? – The Great Courses Daily News

By Dan Hooper, Ph.D., University of Chicago The String theory is considered as one of the future unified field theories. (Image: Natali Art collections/Shutterstock)Einsteins First Attempt at Unified Field Theory

In 1923, Einstein published a series of papers that built upon and expanded on Eddingtons work of affine connection. Later in the same year, he wrote another paper, in which he argued that this theory might make it possible to restore determinism to quantum physics.

These papers of Einstein were covered enthusiastically by the press since he was the only living scientist that was a household name. Although few journalists really understood the theory that Einstein was putting forth, they did understand that Einstein was proposing something potentially very important.

But unfortunately, it was not true. Few of Einsteins colleagues were impressed by this work. And within a couple of years, even Einstein accepted that his approach was deeply flawed. If Einstein was going to find a viable unified field theory, he would have to find another way of approaching the problem.

Learn more about Einstein and gravitational waves.

Einsteins next major effort in this direction came in the late 1920s. This new approach was based on an idea known as distant parallelism. This approach was very mathematically complex as Einstein treated both the metric tensor and the affine connection as fundamental quantities in this approach, trying to take full advantage of both.

Once again, the press responded enthusiastically. But again, Einsteins colleagues did not. One reason for this was that Einstein was trying to build a theory that would unify general relativity with Maxwells theory of electromagnetism. But over the course of the 1920s, Maxwells classical theory had been replaced by the new quantum theory. Although Maxwells equations are still useful today, they are really only an approximation to the true quantum nature of the universe.

For this reason, many physicists saw Einsteins efforts to unify classical electromagnetism with general relativity as old-fashioned. Einstein seems to have been hoping that quantum mechanics was just a fad. But he was dead wrong. Quantum mechanics was here to stay.

This is a transcript from the video series What Einstein Got Wrong. Watch it now, on The Great Courses Plus.

In the years that followed, Einstein continued to explore different approaches in his unified field theory. He worked extensively with five-dimensional theories throughout much of the 1930s, then moved on to a number of other ideas during the 1940s and 50s. But none of these approaches ever attempted to incorporate quantum mechanics.

In his thirty-year search for unified field theory, Einstein never found anything that could reasonably be called a success. Over these three decades, Einsteins fixation on classical field theories, and his rejection of quantum mechanics, increasingly isolated him from the larger physics community.

There were fewer and fewer thought experiments, and Einsteins physical intuition, once so famous, was pushed aside and replaced by endless pages of complicated interplaying equations. Even during the last days of his life, Einstein continued his search for the unified field theory, but nothing of consequence ever came of it.

When Einstein died in 1955, he was really no closer to a unified field theory than he was thirty years before.

Learn more about quantum entanglement.

In recent decades, physicists have once again become interested in theories that could potentially combine and unify multiple facets of nature. In spirit, these theories have a lot in common with Einsteins dream of a unified field theory. But, in other ways, they are very different. For one thing, many important discoveries have been made since Einsteins death. And these discoveries have significantly changed how physicists view the prospect of building a unified field theory.

Einstein was entirely focused on electromagnetism and gravity, but physicists since then have discovered two new forces that exist in naturethe weak and strong nuclear forces. The strong nuclear force is the force that holds protons and neutrons together within the nuclei of atoms. And the weak nuclear force is responsible for certain radioactive decays, and for the process of nuclear fission.

Electromagnetism has a lot in common with these strong and weak nuclear forces. And it is not particularly hardat least in principleto construct theories in which these phenomena are unified into a single framework. Such theories are known as grand unified theories, or GUTs for short. And since their inception in the 1970s, a number of different grand unified theories have been proposed.

Grand unified theories are incredibly powerful, and in principle, they can predict and explain a huge range of phenomena. But they are also very hard to test and explore experimentally. Its not that these theories are untestable in principle. If one could build a big enough particle accelerator, one could almost certainly find out exactly how these three forces fit together into a grand unified theory.

But with the kinds of experiments we currently know how to buildand the kinds of experiments that we can afford to buildits just not possible to test most grand unified theories. There are, however, possible exceptions to this. One is that most of these theories predict that protons should occasionally decay. This is the kind of phenomena that can be tested. So far the limited tests have not been able to prove the Proton decay, but in future bigger tests are planned which could validate these theories.

But even grand unified theories are not as far-reaching as the kinds of unified field theories that Einstein spent so much of his life searching for. Grand unified theories bring together electromagnetism with the strong and weak forces, but they dont connect these phenomena with general relativity. But modern physicists are also looking for theories that can combine general relativity with the other forces of nature.

We hope that such a theory could unify all four of the known forcesincluding gravity. And since the aim of such a theory is to describe all of the laws of physics that describe our universe, we call this theory a theory of everything.

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The focus today, though, is on how to merge the geometric effects of general relativity with the quantum mechanical nature of our world. What we are really searching for, is a quantum theory of gravity.

The most promising theories of quantum gravity explored so far have been found within the context of string theory. In string theory, fundamental objects are not point-like particles, but instead are extended objects, including one-dimensional strings.

Research into string theory has revealed a number of strange things. For example, it was discovered in the 1980s that string theories are only mathematically consistent if the universe contains extra spatial dimensionsextra dimensions that are similar in many respects to those originally proposed by Theodor Kaluza.

Althoughstring theory remains a major area of research in modern physics, there isstill much we dont understand about it. And we dont know for sure whether itwill ever lead to a viable theory of everything.

In many ways, these modern unified theories have very little in common with those explored by Einstein. But in spirit, they are trying to answer the same kinds of questions. They are each trying to explain as much about our world as possible, as simply as they possibly can.

Einsteins unified field theory was an attempt to unify the fundamental theories of electromagnetic and general relativity into a single theoretical framework.

There are at least 10 dimensions of space in string theory, in addition to time which is considered as the 11th dimension. Although some physicists believe there are more than 11 dimensions.

Gravity is not a dimension. Its a fundamental force that is visualized as a bend in space and time.

In everyday life, we encounter three known dimensions: height, width, and depth which are already known for centuries.

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Unified Field Theory: Einstein Failed, but What's the Future? - The Great Courses Daily News