Greenfyre’s Physical Review X Does Research on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics Fit into PRX’s Scope? October 24, 2014 The editors and Bill Poirier from Texas Tech University spotlight an original, thought-provoking paper by Hall, Deckert, and Wiseman on foundations of quantum mechanics, Phys. Rev. X, 4, 041013 (2014). PRX Takes on a New Role October 9, 2014 APS Editor in Chief Gene Sprouse discusses the new role of Physical Review X as APS's highly selective and broadly accessible journal, that publishes a small number of key papers from all areas of physics in APS's nonprofit, science-first publishing tradition. Wedding Registries Reveal Migration Paths October 16, 2014 The long-term movement of Korean migrants, as recorded in genealogy books, follows a statistical pattern that combines aspects of both diffusive and convective flows. Synopsis on: Sang Hoon Lee (이상훈) et al. More from Physics
s Climate Watch | KQED's multimedia series providing in-depth coverage of climate-related science and policy issues from a California perspective. Move forms California’s largest science & environmental unit for electronic media Keven Guillory Climate Watch Sr. Editor Craig Miller with Producer Molly Samuel in the KQED studios. After four years, numerous awards, and something just shy of 900 blog posts, the multimedia reporting effort that’s been known as Climate Watch is turning a significant page. KQED is combining our efforts with Quest, the station’s more broadly-based science and environmental news and programming effort. We’ll continue to cover climate-related issues, as evidenced by the recent rollout of Heat and Harvest, a major multimedia project with the combined resources of Climate Watch, Quest and the Center for Investigative Reporting. California’s heat wave came late and is staying late Craig Miller Sunset on San Pablo Bay. The Great American Heat Wave of 2012 arrived later in California than in many parts of the country — and it’s in no hurry to leave. Bodega Marine Lab / UC Davis By Nicholas Christen and Craig Miller
Climate Etc. Astronomy Picture of the Day Fermilab | Newsroom | Press Releases | August 26, 2014: Do we live in a 2-D hologram? Press Release August 26, 2014 Do we live in a 2-D hologram? New Fermilab experiment will test the nature of the universe A unique experiment at the U.S. Much like characters on a television show would not know that their seemingly 3-D world exists only on a 2-D screen, we could be clueless that our 3-D space is just an illusion. Get close enough to your TV screen and you’ll see pixels, small points of data that make a seamless image if you stand back. “We want to find out whether space-time is a quantum system just like matter is,” said Craig Hogan, director of Fermilab’s Center for Particle Astrophysics and the developer of the holographic noise theory. Quantum theory suggests that it is impossible to know both the exact location and the exact speed of subatomic particles. Essentially, the experiment probes the limits of the universe’s ability to store information. Now operating at full power, the Holometer uses a pair of interferometers placed close to one another. Media contact:
How long have we known? | Serendipity I’m giving a talk today to a group of high school students. Most of the talk focusses on climate models, and the kinds of experiments you can do with them. But I thought I’d start with a little bit of history, to demonstrate some key points in the development of our understanding of climate change. Here’s some of the slides I put together (drawing heavily on Spencer Weart’s the Discovery of Global Warming for inspiration). Comments on these slides are welcome. I plan to start with this image: …and ask some general questions like: What do you think of when you see this image? For millions of years, the planet had a natural control system that kept the climate relatively stable. I then show some graphs showing temperature changes through pre-history, together with graphs of the recent temperature rise.
Home Page Climate Denial Crock of the Week « Greenfyre’s The collected videos of Peter Sinclair’s excellent series “Climate Denial Crock of the Week” : MYTH: “They” started calling it “climate change” to hide the cooling Global Warming? or Climate Change? MYTH: Stolen CRU emails “prove” (Insert lie/fable) Unwinding “Hide the Decline” Climate Crock Sacks Hack Attack: The Wrap Climate Crock Sacks Hack Attack – Part 2 Smacking the Hack Attack – Part 1 MYTH: Fighting climate change hurts the poor ”Denial was a River in Africa” MYTH: The Medieval Warm Period proves climate change is natural (and the “Hockey Stick” is broken Myth) “What the Ice Cores Tell Us” ”The Medieval Warming Crock” MYTH: The EPA censored scientist Alan Carlin “Creepy at the EPA” MYTH: Arctic &/or Antarctic ice is recovering Watts Up with Sea Ice? Polar Ice Update: Arctic Perennial Ice and Methane “Ice Area vs Volume”: Debunking the “Ice is back to 1979 levels” idiocy (see also here) MYTH: The climate models are unreliable This Year’s Model: Climate models and modeling CO2 Myths The Big Mist Take
The Feynman Lectures on Physics AGU Day 2: The role of CO2 in the earth’s history | Serendipity Yesterday afternoon, I managed to catch the Bjernes Lecture, which was given by Richard B. Alley: “The biggest Control Knob: Carbon Dioxide in Earth’s Climate History”. The room was absolutely packed – standing room only, I estimated at least 2,000 people in the audience. And it was easy to see why – Richard is a brilliant speaker, and he was addressing a crucial topic – an account of all the evidence we have of the role of CO2 throughout prehistory. By way of introduction, he pointed out how many brains are in the room, and how much good we’re all doing. He also pointed out that, from looking at the blogosphere, it’s clear we live in interesting times, with plenty of people WILLING TO SHOUT and distort the science. So the history: 4.6 billions years ago, the suns output was lower (approx 70% of today’s levels), often referred to as the faint young sun. But can we demonstrate it? One obvious piece of evidence is in the rock layers. the amount of CO2 coming out of volcanoes What’s left:
RealClimate ClimateSight What is this thing called science? | Method As a scientist, Evelyn Fox Keller hated experiments. Today a professor emerita in the History of Science at MIT, she started out her scientific career in theoretical physics before jumping to molecular biology. What got her was the trivial volatility inherent in experimentation. The methods of theoretical physics better suited her. Both theoretical physics and molecular biology are scientific disciplines, but what does it mean that their routes to knowledge can be so different? While the scientific method is routinely described as a linear path from observation to hypothesis to experiment to discovery, the everyday of scientific labor is much less ordered. These ideals also constrain how we define, understand, and talk about science. In creating Method Quarterly, we wanted to bring together scientists, scholars, artists, and writers across the many fractured boundaries of science, to explore the rough edges and fuzzy uncertainties of scientific methods.