Jennifer Ouellette meantions it as the jumping-off point for her particle-wave duality post, but I want to spend a little time talking about this paper on single-electron interference (Science 318, 949 (2007)), because it’s a very nice piece of work. There’s also a Physics World news article about the experiment, which is pretty good, but… Continue reading Single Electron Interference and Decoherence
Category: Experiment
Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Explained?
I have a bunch of science news sources in my RSS feeds, and every evening, I scan through the accumulated articles to try to figure out what physics-related stories there are to talk about. Sometimes, it’s hard to find anything, but other days, you get stories that lead to four press releases at EurekAlert (one,… Continue reading Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Explained?
Low-Tech Lab Essentials
There are a lot of high-tech tools that are absolutely essential to the functioning of my lab. The diode lasers I use are a couple hundred bucks each, and only available from a handful of companies. I’ve got a couple of digital oscilloscopes that are really impressive instruments, packing a huge amount of signal-processing power… Continue reading Low-Tech Lab Essentials
Friction, Baby
I’m suffering muscle twinges in my neck and shoulder that are usually linked to excessive typing. As I have a grant proposal to review, a senior thesis to help whip into shape, and a book under contract, this means that blogging will be substantially reduced while I ration my typing to those things that pay… Continue reading Friction, Baby
Dorky Poll: Science Power!
OK, the monkey business may have been a little too abstract for a good audience participation entry. So let’s fall back on a classic: What science-related superpower would you most like to have? Because this is a Dorky Poll, “science-related superpower” here means a supernatural ability that is useful for doing science. Because battling crime… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Science Power!
Physics Nobel: Giant Magnetoresistance
Having gotten that silly Medicine business out of the way, the Swedish Academy has moved on to the important Award, with the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics going to Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance. This is one that people have been calling for for a while, now. I’ll try… Continue reading Physics Nobel: Giant Magnetoresistance
Bump Hunting 2: The Big Tease
Speaking of cryptic particle physcis results, noted rumor-monger Tommaso Dorigo has a rather long post about the ongoing Higgs search. It basically boils down to “There are new results due to be released soon, and I’m not going to talk about them,” which wouldn’t seem to require 2000 words, but there you go. Anyway, if… Continue reading Bump Hunting 2: The Big Tease
Increased Particle Masses and Terrible Press Releases
I’ve got a bunch of EurekAlert feeds in my RSS subscriptions, that I use to keep up with recent developments, because I need blog fodder. One of the really striking things about these is how extremely variable the quality of the releases is. Take, for example, the release headlined New particles get a mass boost,… Continue reading Increased Particle Masses and Terrible Press Releases
Superconducting Quantum News
Physics World had a news story about developments in quantum computation, covering two new papers in Nature: Coupling superconducting qubits via a cavity bus from the groups of Steve Girvin and Rob Schoelkopf at Yale, also described in this press release. Coherent quantum state storage and transfer between two phase qubits via a resonant cavity… Continue reading Superconducting Quantum News
Many Worlds, Many Headaches
So, I’ve put myself into a position where I need to spend a substantial amount of time thinking about weird foundational issues in quantum mechanics. This has revealed to me just why it is that not that many people spend a substantial amount of time thinking about weird foundational issues in quantum mechanics. Let’s consider… Continue reading Many Worlds, Many Headaches