Category: Atoms and Molecules

What Counts as “Quantum Physics?”

In comments to yesterday’s post about precision measurements, Bjoern objected to the use of “quantum mechanics” as a term encompassing QED: IMO, one should say “quantum theory” here instead of “quantum mechanics”. After all, what is usually known as quantum mechanics (the stuff one learns in basic courses) is essentially the quantization of classical mechanics,… Continue reading What Counts as “Quantum Physics?”

The Most Precisely Tested Theory in the History of Science

NASA held a big press conference yesterday to announce that the Gravity Probe B experiment had confirmed a prediction of General Relativity that spacetime near Earth should be “twisted” by the Earth’s rotation. A lot of the coverage has focused on the troubled history of the mission (as did the press conference, apparently), but scientifically… Continue reading The Most Precisely Tested Theory in the History of Science

Science Marches On

It’s been a hectic day here, so I haven’t had time to do any substantive blogging. I did want to quickly note a couple of stories presenting marked improvements in experiments I’ve written up here in the past: 1) In the “self-evident title” category, there’s Confinement of antihydrogen for 1000 seconds, which extends last year’s… Continue reading Science Marches On

The Physics of Finding Osama bin Laden (As Mis-Reported on NPR)

Over in Scientopia, Janet notes an interesting mis-statement from NPR, where Dina Temple-Raston said of the now-dead terrorist: [O]ne intelligence officials told us that nothing with an electron actually passed close to him, which in a way is one of the ways they actually caught him. As Janet notes, this would be quite a feat,… Continue reading The Physics of Finding Osama bin Laden (As Mis-Reported on NPR)

Proving Einstein Wrong…ish: Measurement of the Instantaneous Velocity of a Brownian Particle

Last summer, there was a fair bit of hype about a paper from Mark Raizen’s group at Texas which was mostly reported with an “Einstein proven wrong” slant, probably due to this press release. While it is technically true that they measured something Einstein said would be impossible to measure, that framing is a little… Continue reading Proving Einstein Wrong…ish: Measurement of the Instantaneous Velocity of a Brownian Particle

Treating Photons Like Atoms: “Bose-Einstein condensation of photons in an optical microcavity”

This paper made a big splash back in November, with lots of news stories talking about it; it even made the #6 spot on Physics World‘s list of breakthroughs of the year. I didn’t write it up then because I was hellishly busy, and couldn’t take time away from working on the book-in-progress to figure… Continue reading Treating Photons Like Atoms: “Bose-Einstein condensation of photons in an optical microcavity”

Wave Nature Gets Bigger: “Quantum interference of large organic molecules”

It’s been a while since I wrote up a ResearchBlogging post, but since a recent paper forced me to update my “What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics” slides with new pictures, I thought I should highlight the work on the blog as well. Not that you could’ve missed it, if you follow physics-y… Continue reading Wave Nature Gets Bigger: “Quantum interference of large organic molecules”

“Quantum Kitchen” Ought to Mean Something Else

I am less enthralled by the “molecular gastronomy” thing than someone with my geek credentials ought to be. As a result, I was a little disappointed when I clicked the link (from Jennifer Ouellette on Twitter) to this Wired story about a new tv show called Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen. Because, you know, there are much… Continue reading “Quantum Kitchen” Ought to Mean Something Else

What’s So Interesting About AMO Physics?

I’ve got three months to decide. I’ll be giving an invited talk at the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (DAMOP) with this title, with a goal of introducing the field to students and physicists from other fields: In recent years, DAMOP has expanded to the point where the meeting can be quite daunting… Continue reading What’s So Interesting About AMO Physics?