Fun with science journalists

Filed under: Comics, English, Quantum, Science

Another quantum LOL cat

I try to ease back into blogging… first a new design, then an easy post that was still in the Drafts folder, and now another one of those lolcat-pictures. Because it’s a quantum joke.

(from icanhascheezburger)

Filed under: English, Quantum, Sillyness , lolcat, Quantum, schrödinger

Van de maker van de windvinder… de Bol

Gewoon een geweldig idee. Doet me denken aan het meetprobleem in de quantummechanica en Schrödingers kat, maar daar heeft het eigenlijk niks mee te maken (denk ik nu, in elk geval). Maar leuk! Leuk!

Van binnen is de bol een zonnewijzer. Door een gat valt de zon op een precies berekend systeem van lijnen die op de binnenkant van de bol gegraveerd zijn. Met een grote en nutteloze nauwkeurigheid geeft dit instrument de tijd aan, waar je ook bent – ZOLANG JE ER NIET NAAR KIJKT !
Er zit maar één gat in de bol: Zodra je jouw tijd tracht af te lezen, blokkeer je zelf het licht en verdwijnt daarmee de meting.
Laat je „het“ met rust, is het er weer.

Filed under: Astronomy, Design, Hands-on math & science, Nederlands, Quantum

ID vs. QM (2): Take a chance

(First posted on the old Qulog, on Thursday 23rd februari 2006 – 11:05:34 PM)

As promised, although a bit late, the second part of my comparison between Intelligent Design and Quantum Mechanics. I’m afraid there’s no real compelling conclusion, so that’s left as an exercise to the reader.

Einstein famously said he didn’t like QM because “der liebe Gott würfelt nicht”: God doesn’t play dice. And I think many ID-proponents would agree.

While I was thinking about the analogy between ID and QM (see part one), I figured something else was important, something to do with chance, or probability, and with – let’s say world views. Very short version: QM’s problem with chance seems to make it fit in certain world views (like ‘new age’), while ID is a solution to a world view’s (usually christian) problem with chance. The chance aspect of QM is embraced by some people as a way to reconcile physics with things like free will and even telepathy, while ID adds purpose to the ‘blind chance’ of evolution to reconcile biology with a Creator.

Filed under: English, Nature, Quantum, Science

ID vs. QM (1): Jump, they say.

(Short intro in Dutch, the post itself is in English.)

De losgebarste discussie over het geknip in David Attenborough door de EO (mijn standpunt: het is -ook van de BBC die kennelijk toestemming gaf- niet erg netjes tegenover Attenborough, én de EO had op z’n minst aan het publiek duidelijk moeten aangeven wat ze gedaan hadden: “delen van deze documentaire zijn door ons gewijzigd of verwijderd”), die discussie deed mij denken aan twee oude postjes van mij over Intelligent Design en Quantummechanica.

Want het is nog niet ingewikkeld genoeg. :-)

(First posted on Friday 27th januari 2006 – 11:09:36 AM)

Last week I was talking about Intelligent Design (with, by the way, the founding father of the now sadly closed down UVvN) when an analogy with quantum mechanics occurred to me. Or maybe even two analogies. Today, I bring you the first one.

Both theories have a problem with evolution.

Of course, it’s not the same evolution. In the case of ID, it’s the famous Darwinian evolution of random mutations and natural selection, that is the mechanism for change in large groups of organisms, over (usually) large stretches of time. For QM, the evolution at stake is the way the Schrödinger equations tells the wavefunction of a system, say: the physical state it is in, to change over time. The wavefunction is said to evolve according to the Schrödinger equation.

So how is there a problem with evolution? Well, it’s not the whole story. In QM (at least in the orthodox interpretation) there are exceptions to the rule that the wavefunction simply evolves. These exceptions are called measurements. In the usual course of nature, the wavefunction obeys the Schrödinger equation, but when a measurement is done, it is said to collapse instantly into something else. (It does not matter so much now into what exactly.) In ID, on the other hand, there are exceptions to the usual course of the Darwinian evolution. These exceptions happen when the change is too great, when something truly new and different emerges. In that case, there is said to be design.

Filed under: English, Nature, Quantum, Science

Who ordered that particle?

Somehow, my blogging inspiration has reached a low. Fortunately, I ran into this post at Asymptotia where Clifford shows two great cartoons by Roz Chast. The one below was used as the cover of Symmetry Magazine. See if you can spot the “slightly less than real” ones! (Click on it for a larger version.)

(The title of my post, by the way, is based on a famous quote by particle physicist I.I. Rabi, who demanded “Who ordered that?” when he learned of yet another particle, the muon, being reported.)

Filed under: Comics, English, Quantum, Science, Second-hand blogging

Comic relief

Another physics lol cat – I couldn’t resist:

Filed under: Crochet, English, Quantum, Second-hand blogging, Sillyness

Schrödingers lol cat

The post IM IN UR QUANTUM BOX… is one of WordPress Top Posts right now.

You won’t learn a lot about quantum mechanics from it – but you may find it funny. And I haven’t had a quantum post in so long, I thought I should share.

Actually, I was mostly intrigued by the way people talk around there. Stuff like this:

I’m in ur fisicks
Blowin ur mind

makes me feel old….

Filed under: English, Quantum, Second-hand blogging, Sillyness

Waves vs Particles

The ScienceBloggers have written a load of posts on ‘basic ideas’ and now they’re having a competition to find out who is champion, Evolution or Pooper, Newton’s second law or Dark matter. From Uncertain Principles comes the following:

Also in Erdos subregional action, defending QED Conference champion Particle and star striker J.J. Thomson met up with their old rivals Wave and their Player of the Year candidate, G.P. Thomson. These two teams plain don’t like each other, and the game got off to an ugly start. Particle coach Louis De Broglie filed a complaint before the game, arguing that Wave’s famous delocalized zone defense was a violation of ISCL rules. Wave coach Louis De Broglie replied with a complaint of his own accusing Particle players of moving backwards and forwards in time, and claiming that it’s ridiculous to have the same person coaching both teams. Asked for a decision, league commissioner Richard Feynman shrugged, said “It’s just one of those things,” and wandered off to play the bongos.

As they say: go read the whole thing.

Filed under: Education, English, Quantum, Science, Second-hand blogging, Sillyness

New additions to the Blogroll

1. HUNBlog, a Houston-based newish blog on science education, hosts the latest edition of the Carnival of Education using Monty Python quotes as in-between titles.
2. Galactic Interactions is astronomer Rob Knop’s blog. (He doesn’t seem to be Dutch although hies name made me think so.) Topics include astronomy and science & culture.
3. Science & Politics among all the other posts, coturnix has built quite an impressive list of science blogs. And to think that he has two other blogs as well!
4. Radioactive Banana combines science, art and culture, leading for instance to watercolors called Superposition.
5. She Falters to Rise writes a dissertation.

And then there are a few physics blogs where I read about something called Relational Quantum Mechanics, apparently thought up by quantum gravity theorist Carlo Rovelli. This recent preprint on Relational EPR is discussed

1. (not technically a blog, but well) on a Physicsforum thread, and at:
2. Reality Conditions
3. Quantum Quandaries
4. Christine’s Background Independence
   
5. Backreaction

I’m not sure what I think of this RQM yet, I haven’t read it all. Maybe later.

Filed under: English, Quantum, Random 10s, Second-hand blogging