Monthly Archives: March 2022

In this interview, Nicole Yunger Halpern describes her effort to tie quantum physics to the retro-futuristic steampunk genre.

In this episode of Inside Science Conversations Dr. Nicole Yunger Halpern tells host Chris Gorski about what drew her to physics and the how having a liberal arts education makes her a better scientist. She also discusses her upcoming book and the similarities between quantum science and the steampunk genre. Her book, Quantum Steampunk: The Physics of Yesterday's Tomorrow, comes out on April 12, 2022 but is available for pre-order now.

The show is available on yourfavoritepodcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify. It's also onYouTube.

Here are some excerpts from the interview (full transcript coming soon):

"What really brought me to physics is the tradition of natural philosophy behind physics. I also am fascinated by a lot of the world. And I appreciate having a physicist's toolkit to be able to think about different facets of it, and also to use tools from different disciplines to look at physics itself. ...

"Early in grad school, I realized that this field, what we call quantum thermodynamics often has the same flavor as steampunk. Steampunk is this genre of literature, art and film. It juxtaposes Victorian settings with futuristic technologies like time machines, you mentioned Jules Verne, he was one of the earliest steampunk writers. Captain Nemo's ship is a steampunk technology. So this field has this wonderful sense of adventure together with nostalgia and quantum information theory. ...

"I've been very grateful that a lot of scientists have been really excited about my book, and enthusiastic and looking forward to reading it and have also been really supportive of me personally, when I was writing the book, I admit, I didn't tell any scientists more or less that I was writing the book until I was just about finished, so that I could show this entire time, I've just been my usual productive scientific self. ...

"I think that it's important to tell stories about our science to the general public for multiple reasons. One of it which it is, is it is really beneficial to us. Again, this gave me great ideas, it helped me learn a lot about my own science. And it is exciting. So this has even increased my enthusiasm about my own field."

This is our last episode. Inside Science will no longer produce new content after the end of March 2022. We have six other interviews in this show, and elsewhere on the website and YouTube channel we have an archive full of enjoyable, enlightening science content. Please check out all the episodes of this show on your favorite platform. An appreciation of Inside Science and its long history is also available.

The Inside Science Conversations podcast showcases the human side of science. It's about what makes scientists and researchers tick. We'll cover a wide variety of subjects, from record-breaking running to the hidden history of science. Please, like and subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform. Join us as we talk to researchers and authors about their work, their lives and why science is important for everyone.

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Nicole Yunger Halpern: When Physics Marries the Past to the Future - Inside Science News Service

For the last fifty years, the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics has provided the basis for describing the structure and composition of matter. According to the SM, protons and neutrons, which belong to the hadron family of composite particles and are the components of atomic nuclei, consist of elementary particles called quarks which are kept together by a force named Strong Force. (1) No quarks have ever been isolated and studied independently, and their masses are estimated to be comparable to those of baryons, i.e. of the order of 1 GeV/c2. These masses are 100 billion times (10,11) larger than the masses of neutrinos (10-1 to 10-3 eV/c2) (2) which are the lightest by far, as well as the most numerous, particles in our Universe.

Einsteins theory of Relativity (both special (SR) (3,4) and general (GR) (5)) is one of the most remarkable scientific achievements in the history of humanity. SR has been confirmed experimentally thousands of times and there have been also numerous confirmations of GR. Most confirmations refer to macroscopic systems and only recently (6) the amazing strength of SR and GR has been demonstrated inside hadrons, deep in the femtocosmos of the lightest elementary particles, i.e., of neutrinos.

Space contraction, time dilation and mass increase with particle speed are the main features of SR, as the particle speed with respect to an observer, at rest with the centre of rotation, approaches the speed of light c and thus the Lorentz factor , defined from = (1 v2 / c2) 1/2, approaches infinity.

Thus, upon considering three particles rotating symmetrically on a cyclic trajectory using their gravitational attraction, FG, as the centripetal force, then FG can become surprisingly strong. This is because SR dictates that a particle of rest mass mo has a relativistic mass mo, (3,4) and a longitudinal inertial mass 3mo, equal according to the equivalence principle (6,7) with its gravitational mass 3mo.(7,8) Therefore, using the definition of the gravitational mass in Newtons gravitational law it follows:

FG = Gm2o6 / (3r2) (1)

where r is the rotational radius. To find r and one must also use the de Broglie equation of Quantum Mechanics:

movr = n (2)

This is used to obtain for n=1 and mo43.7 meV/c2, estimated (6,8) from the Superkamiokande measurements, (2) that r0.63 fm and 7.163.109, thus 61.35.1059. Consequently, the rotating speed is very close to c and the gravitational force is, amazingly, according to equation (1), 59 orders of magnitude larger than normal nonrelativistic Newtonian force! (Fig. 1) This force equals 8.104 N, equal to the weight of 100 humans on earth.

In addition to causing such an astounding 6~1059 times increase in gravitational attraction, special elativity also causes an amazing ~ 7.168.109 increase in the mass of the three rotating neutrinos so that the composite particle mass increases from 3(43.7 meV/c2) to the neutron mass of 939.565 MeV/c2 (Fig. 1). Conversely, if the composite particle mass, 3mo, is that of a neutron (939.565 MeV/c2) then the rest mass, mo, of each rotating particle is that of the heaviest neutrino eigenmass, (9) i.e. 43.7 meV/c2, in good agreement with the Superkamiokande measurement of the heaviest neutrino mass. (2) Therefore, special relativity reveals that quarks are relativistic neutrinos and also shows that the neutrino gravitational mass, 3mo, is enormous, i.e. of the order of the Planck mass (c/G)1/2 = 21.7 mg per neutrino! It thus also implies, in conjunction with equation (2), that the gravitational force of equation (1) equals the strong force, c/r2, which is a factor of 137 stronger than the electrostatic force of positron -electron pair at the same distance. (1)

The RLM shows that maximisation of the Lorentz factor leads to enhanced composite particle stability by minimizing 5moc2, which is the potential energy of the rotating neutrino triad (8) and, at the same time by maximising the Lorentz factor and thus also the produced hadron mass m = 3mo = 313/12 (mP1mo2)1/3, where mP1 is the Planck mass (=(c/G)1/2 = 1.22.1028 eV/c2). This simple expression gives, amazingly, a mass value which differs less than 1% from the experimental neutron mass of 939.565 MeV/c2.

Neutrinos are well known to come in three different flavours, i.e. electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos. These flavours are obtained by mixing neutrinos from the three mass types (or mass eigenstates), i.e. m3 mass neutrinos (the heaviest), m2 mass neutrinos and m1 type neutrinos (the lightest) for the Normal Hierarchy. Using equation (1) and the experimental hadron masses, we have computed the composite particle mass values plotted in Figure 2. Agreement with the experimental composite mass values is better than 2%. Conversely, one may use the experimental hadron or boson mass values to compute the three neutrino masses. Agreement with the experimental values measured at Superkamiokande (2) is within 5%.

The fact that the gravitational Newton-Einstein equation (1) provides such a good fit to the experimental mass values of hadrons shows that when accounting for special relativity, gravity suffices to describe the strong force. The equally good fit to the experimental mass values of W, Z0 and H bosons shows that relativistic gravity also suffices to describe the weak force. Indeed, in both cases at the limit of large one obtains FG = Gm2 P1 / r2 = G(c / G) / r2 = c/r2 whichis the strong force value. (1) Similarly, for the weak force one also obtains FG = c/r2. One may thus conclude that both the strong and the weak forces have been unified with Newtonian gravity (=1) in the RLM via equation (1). (10,12)

In summary, the RLM reveals that our known Universe is a product of the combination of neutrinos, electrons, positrons, Einsteins relativity, and the dual wave-particle nature of matter, as described by the de Broglie equation of quantum mechanics. (12,13)

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Rotating Lepton Model: Coupling relativity, quantum mechanics and neutrinos for the synthesis of matter - Open Access Government

In last weeks Mind Matters News, podcast, Hinduism and the beginning of the universe, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviewed Arjuna Gallagher, a Hindu in New Zealand.

The first podcast looked at what the worlds 1.2 billion Hindus generally think about the mind and the second explored the Hindu view of free will and evil.

Gallagher hosts a YouTube channel called Theology Unleashed, which has featured many guests discussing the spiritual dimension of our lives for example, philosopher David Bentley Hart and neuroscientist Mark Solms (along with Egnor).

A partial transcript, notes, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow:

Michael Egnor: How do Hindus understand creation? Is the universe eternal? Was it created at a moment in the past?

Arjuna Gallagher: One unique and defining feature of Hinduism is definitely the idea of eternity, with cyclical creation and destruction. With regard to the Big Bang, theres this explanation of how creation happens in the Bhagavatam and its pretty intricate. You have Mahavishnu, who is a form of God, lying down on the Causal Ocean and exhaling and inhaling. And with every exhale, all of the universes come out of his body. And with every in inhale, they all come back into all of the pores of his body. These are correlated with the creations and destructions of the material universe.

This would be all the way back to the Big Bang and then all the way up to the Big Crunch If we were to make the assumption thats talking about what the Bhagavatam is talking about, then those would map onto one another. And then you get further creation from that. It gets quite fantastic from there. Theres Lord Brahma governing. I dont know how much I should get into the explanation of how the cosmos exists.

Michael Egnor: Are these taken generally to be metaphorical or is there a belief that these are substantially real, these explanations?

Arjuna Gallagher: Theres a belief that this is actually how things are going on. If someone wanted to say, This is too fantastic, I cant believe you actually believe this, then my reply would be, Theres actually only one fantastic claim, which is the existence of God. Once youve assumed that God exists, you have a being full of the potencies that are capable of producing all of this. The real fantastic worldview is atheism, where every step is a miracle.

Michael Egnor: I dont subscribe to Hindu theology, Im a pretty mainstream Catholic, but the really crazy stuff is atheism.

Michael Egnor: I dont think any theist is really crazy, meaning that just the existence of anything in itself is a miracle, a remarkable, astonishing thing. Im open to all kinds of ideas, except the idea that there is no God, which I think is crazy.

Michael Egnor: Thereve been a lot of advances in cosmology and in basic physics over the past century. Particularly, for example, in quantum mechanics and general relativity. Is there anything in Hindu theology that reflects on those advances or relates to them?

As an example, Werner Heisenberg, a physicist who was very important in the development of quantum mechanics, commented that the phenomenon in quantum mechanics of a collapse of the quantum wave form that is that quantum systems exist in multiple states of potentiality and with measurement or observation coalescent to a single actuality really is a reflection of Aristotles understanding of change, of potency, and act. That Aristotelian metaphysical perspective was embraced by Thomas Aquinas, so its really part of the Catholic or Christian way of looking at metaphysics. Is there anything that you can think of in modern physics that has a parallel in Hindu metaphysics or Hindu theology?

Note: Werner Heisenberg (19011976) was best known for his Uncertainty Principle and his theory of quantum mechanics. According to the Uncertainty Principle, both the position and momentum of a particle in quantum mechanics can never be exactly known, which was blow to the belief that science can attain an exhaustive understanding of the universe. The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you. Goodreads

Arjuna Gallagher: With regard to quantum physics, my favorite explanation is that its like the pixels in a video game that dont render until you actually move the screen there, or maybe it renders a little bit ahead of time so that it can predict where youre going to move and not have any lag. Similarly with quantum physics, if youre not looking at the particle, it hasnt selected a state.

This is done in computer processing and video games to save on computational power, and perhaps something similar goes on with the universe. Of course, we [Hindus] would put the observer in every living entity, not just in humans, so that changes things somewhat. But I guess some living entities arent actually affected by the change in state of certain quantum functions, so the wave state might not change until a human looks at it in many cases.

Im not sure where youd find that in the metaphysics of the tradition. We have this idea of the material energy that God is the largest and the smallest, so hes both containing the universe and inside of every atom in the universe, and everythings going on. [We use] the Sanskrit word shakti for Gods powers and energies. With that, miracles and all sorts of things are possible

But it does seem to make sense because the idea here is that the material universe is meant to deliver sensory experiences to living entities in order to have effects on their consciousness, which ultimately brings them back to God and helps them overcome their selfish desires and so on. If you see the universe as meant for that purpose, then matter could be explained as rather than something out there that exists independently like an algorithm that governs the deliverance of experiences to living entities.

Michael Egnor: It sounds like its an idealism of sorts. What really exists is mental and that the physical is just a state of mind.

Arjuna Gallagher: Yeah. I used to think that idealism meant that things are only existing in minds. But after studying it a little bit more, I think it could be compatible with that Vedic world view There has to be something out there that were both interacting with because we have a shared experience of reality. I guess idealism is just saying that the foundation of whats out there is in the mind of God or something of that sort.

Michael Egnor: I was always fascinated by the consilience of Platos view of forms, that theres a realm in which the ideal representations of things or the ideal act that what were seeing are representations of an ideal actuality that exist in a separate world. Saint Augustine said that separate world was Gods mind, that reality is essentially a thought in Gods mind and that we are thoughts in Gods mind. But of course, being a Thomist, my commentary on that would be, It may very well be that reality is a thought in Gods mind, but God is a Thomist. That explains why Thomism works so well.

Arjuna Gallagher: That does relate to the Hare Krishna view, which is that theres the original, pure spiritual reality which has everything you find here but in a pure state, whereas in the material world where we are, its a perverted reflection. So any kind of form or pleasure or anything you might chase or experience here is a perverted reflection of something that exists in a pure state in the spiritual world.

Michael Egnor: That seems to be a perspective that a lot of religious faiths have. Theres very much an aspect of that in Christianity that theres an ultimate perfection, which is God, and that his creation is a limited version of that ultimate perfection.

Michael Egnor: From your own perspective, Arjuna, or from the perspective of the Hindu faith, what do you think about the intelligent design movement in science in the Western world?

Arjuna Gallagher: I think its awesome. Im a big fan of the Discovery Institute and work like Michael Behe and Stephen Meyer and your own work on arguments for consciousness not being caused by the brain.

Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement in the West, gave an argument which a philosopher told me we could call a construction argument: The creator has to have all the qualities of creation, so the creation cant have any qualities that arent found in the creator

This was an argument used in the tradition to argue for the personhood of God. Because I have personal qualities, I have a name, I have a form and so on, therefore, God must also have a name and a form and so on.

He (Prabhupada) also used this argument against atheists, that weve got this material world with all these creatures in it and it has to come from a source of power.

Prabhupada also used an argument he called Life Comes from Life. These rascal scientists Prabhupada would use words like that when they want to tell us things like, Matter explains life, then thats nonsense. He would challenge them, Go in your lab and put some chemicals together and produce life, and then you can come and tell me that life comes from matter.

Note: Prabhupada was echoing Louis Pasteur (18221895), after whom pasteurization is named. Pasteur demonstrated, in a famous experiment in 1862 before the French Academy that life forms come only from other life forms, not from the surrounding environment. The (Latin) phrase used at the time was omne vinum ex vivo or Life comes only from life.

Michael Egnor: Yeah. It seems to me that the better science gets, the more it seems to resemble engineering. Im a big fan of engineering. I like houses and bridges that stay up and things like that. A lot of the theoretical science is absolutely fascinating stuff, but the metaphysical claims made by quite a few scientists the materialist or atheist claims I think are badly misguided.

Arjuna Gallagher: This reductionist world view is really good at a lot of things. Like if you get smashed up on the motorway, theyre really good at putting you back together because musculoskeletal stuff is really mechanical and engineering principles. Reductionism works well for that kind of thing, but they really fail at looking at the bigger picture.

Next: How Hindus see current culture and science issues

Here are the two previous discussions:

What do the worlds 1.2 billion Hindus think about the mind? Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviews Hindu Arjuna Gallagher on the similarities and differences between that tradition and Western theism. Egnor and Gallagher discuss the concept of God (or gods) karma, and reincarnation, in light of what we can really know about the world we live in.

and

Understanding the Hindu view of free will and evil Arjuna Gallagher points out that concepts of reincarnation and karma make both problems look very different in the Hindu tradition. Michael Egnor observes that recognition of evil is a strong argument for the existence of God, yet a key source of doubt. Perhaps the topic is simply beyond us.

You may also wish to read: Michael Egnor appeared on the podcast hosted by Arjuna Gallagher, Theology Unleashed, with atheist spokesman Matt Dillahunty Here is a link to all the segments with transcript and notes.

See more here:

What Do Hindus Think About the Big Bang? The Cyclic Universe? - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Okay, that's a fascinating idea.Info Dump

Theres no shortage of debate about the nature of dark matter, a mysterious substance that many physicists believe makes up a large proportion of the total mass of the universe, in spite of never having observed it directly.

Now, a physicist from the UK named Melvin Vopson is raising a startling possibility: that dark matter might be information itself.

He even claims that information could be the elusive dark matter that makes up almost a third of the universe, reads a press release from the University of Portsmouth, where Vopson is a researcher.

If we assume that information is physical and has mass, and that elementary particles have a DNA of information about themselves, how can we prove it? Vopson asked in the release. My latest paper is about putting these theories to the test so they can be taken seriously by the scientific community.

The paper, published in the journalAIP Advances, suggests an experiment that could test the hypothesis that information is a distinct state of matter alongside solids, liquids, gases and plasmas by using a particle-antiparticle collision to, in theory, erase information from the universe.

We know that when you collide a particle of matter with a particle of antimatter, they annihilate each other, Vopson said in the release. And the information from the particle has to go somewhere when its annihilated.

There are countless theories about dark matter including, its worth pointing out, that it doesnt exist at all so while Vopsons idea is provocative, its best to withhold judgment until he actually manages to test his hypothesis.

But, for what its worth, he seems pretty compelled by the concept.

It doesnt contradict quantum mechanics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics or classical mechanics, he said in the release. All it does is complement physics with something new and incredibly exciting.

More on dark matter:Scientist Says Dark Matter Could Likely Be Incredible Fuel for Spacecraft

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Scientist Says That Dark Matter May Be Information Itself - Futurism

Name:Ehsan Samei

Position:Duke HealthChief Imaging Physicist; Duke University Professor of Radiology, Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Physics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering

Years at Duke:22

What he does at Duke:Whether its an X-ray, a CT scan, an MRI, an ultrasound or a mammogram, medical imaging is at the heart of patient care.Duke's roughly 500 imaging machines see around 700,000 to 800,000 patients per year. In addition to technologists and radiologists, Duke has around a dozen imaging physicists overseeing the use of these machines and ensuring that, across the entire health system, the technology and techniques are creating the most useful and accurate images. As the Chief Imaging Physicist, Dr. Ehsan Samei leads this group.

Samei also spearheads research in medical imaging, seeing how existing technology can be used to see things in new ways. And as the principal investigator of theCenter for Virtual Imaging Trials, which was created in 2021, hes exploring the capabilities of using virtual patients and virtual machines to speed up the development of potential medical breakthroughs.

The crux of the problem, both in the clinical domain and the research domain, is that imaging is an approximation, not reality, said Samei, who received the2022 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Awardfrom the International Organization for Medical Physics. Its never a perfect rendition of reality, but an approximation. So the question Im working on is, how much of an approximation is it, and can we make a better one?

What he loves about Duke:Samei is grateful to have a strong network of colleagues who combine innovative ideas with the collaborative and hard-working spirits needed to push those ideas forward.

What attracted me to Duke is that there are so many brilliant people here, Samei said. I feel that what makes programs and universities worthwhile isnt the project, but the brilliance of the people who actually do the project.

Most memorable day at work:In 2021, Duke became one of the few facilities in the world to acquire a Photon-Counting CT Scanner. For Samei, who had been advocating for Duke to add one, the chance to finally use it tohelp patientswas a thrill. He recalls seeing images with a level of clarity and detail that hed previously been unable to see. And when those images were able to help doctors diagnose patients vexing health problems, it validated the efforts put into bringing the technology to Duke.

You can talk about photon counting and quantum mechanics and all of that stuff, but it only matters when you actually care for the individual and solve their problem, Samei said.

When hes not working, he likes to:Classical music, from such iconic composers as Bach, Schubert and Brahms, is one of Sameis passions. He cherishes opportunities to see live performances, and chances to perform himself. Growing up in Iran, Samei began playing the flute, one of the few instruments small enough to play discreetly in a country where music was banned. More recently, hes enjoyed playing alongside other musicians in semi-professional ensembles.

I used to play a lot more, but now I just dont have the time, Samei said.

Something unique in his workspace:On a shelf inhis office in Hock Plaza, Samei has what looks like a framed record. But a closer look reveals images of bones set within the disc. The item is whats known as abone record.Made in Soviet-era Russia, where western music was strictly banned, these bootleg records often of jazz or early rock n roll were pressed on discarded X-ray slides. A friend gave one to Samei as a gift.

This embodies many of my interests, Samei said. There's medical imaging in there. It has music. And I grew up in Iran during the Islamic revolution when music was banned, so I know that music in itself is an act of resistance.

Lesson learned during the pandemic:Samei gained an appreciation for the periods of time that exist between tasks, meetings and events that define a day. Prior to the pandemic, when offices were full of people and most interactions were in person, these times were when colleagues could chat, or when minds were allowed to wander.

Its amazing how much life happens in the margins, Samei said. On the days when youre going from Zoom meeting to Zoom meeting, those margins are gone and your brain doesnt have a chance to recalibrate.

Something most people dont know about him:Samei is an avid runner and has completed five marathons. One of those was the 2013 Boston Marathon, which was remembered for terrorist attack that claimed three lives near the finish line. Samei had completed the course and left the area roughly 45 minutes before the homemade bombs were detonated.

Thankfully my family decided not to accompany me, Samei said. I was incredibly grateful for that.

Is there a colleague at Duke who has an intriguing job or goes above and beyond to make a difference?Nominate that personfor Blue Devil of the Week.

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Blue Devil of the Week: Making the Invisible Visible through Imaging - Duke Today