Two awesome books.

I finished reading A ZEPTOSPACE ODYSSEY a few days ago. It was published in January 2010 by Oxford University Press, which usually offers more advanced reading material for non-scientists. I would not recommend this as a first book about particle physics unless you are prepared to use supplemental material. In other words, this is not a light or casual read; one must work at this book in order to finish.

Here are some of the interesting facts I learned from this book:

-The prefix 'zepto' is derived from the Latin 'septem' and the 's' was changed to a 'z' in order to avoid duplication of symbols, since the 'second' already uses 's' as an abbreviation. 'Zepto' is a relatively new prefix, as it was invented in 1991. A zeptometer is one billionth of a billionth of a millimeter. Or, it is one million times smaller than the diameter of a proton. We actually have the ability to probe this fantastically small space.
-Leibniz (a contemporary of Isaac Newton) called atoms 'monads'. Philip K. Dick sometimes used the word 'monad' in his novels. Now I know where it came from.  
-Cathode rays were originally thought to be electromagnetic radiation, but photons do not have charge.
-The atom was first split in 1897 by J.J. Thomson, since a fragment (the electron) was observed. Electrons (not photons) were determined to be cathode rays.
-The ratio between the size of the solar system (out to Neptune) and the diameter of the Sun is 6,000:1. The ratio between the size of an atom and its nucleus is 20,000:1. Thus, there is more empty space (relatively speaking) inside atoms than inside our solar system.
-Leo Szilard first thought of liberating atomic energy, due to the fact that neutrons don't ionize matter.
-The weak nuclear force transforms particles, while the electromagnetic force does not transform them.
-Subatomic particles are nothing but localizations of quantum field energy. An electron is not really a particle, but a lump of energy in a quantum field. 
-The slow disintegration of some hadrons led to the property of strangeness. Strangeness is a property of particles, like charge or mass. It refers to unusually slow decays. 
-The W bosons mediate the 'charged current' weak interaction, in which neutrinos transform into electrons. The Z boson mediates the 'neutral current' weak interaction, in which neutrinos retain their identities.
-The discovery of neutral currents provided evidence for electroweak unification.
-Less than 1% of particle accelerators are used for science research. The majority are used in hospitals.
-X-rays lose most of their energy close to the skin surface, causing more damage to healthy cells than hadron-based treatments. (This makes sense. X-rays do not have mass, but hadrons do.)
-A bent proton beam emits ten thousand billion times less radiation than an electron beam.
-It takes 20 minutes for a proton beam to reach 7 TeV.
-A proton beam consists of 2,808 bunches of 100 billion protons per bunch. Each bunch is separated by 10 meters. 100 billion protons weighs about a ten-trillionth of a gram.
-The full power of the beam can melt a 1,000 pound block of solid copper. 
-Two main detectors are called ATLAS and CMS. Each consists of 4 structures: 1. trackers 2. electromagnetic calorimeters 3. hadron calorimeters 4. muon chambers
-One million gigabytes of data are generated every second. 
-Soft events are when the quarks and gluons inside a proton do not collide with those inside another proton.
-Hard events are when quarks or gluons have direct head-on hits.
-The GRID was invented to handle the enormous amount of data, which is a vast network of processing power. 
-Symmetry in the subatomic world refers to invariance under a transformation of particles. For example, the strong force is symmetric, since it does not distinguish between protons and neutrons.
-The configuration inside a superconductor spontaneously breaks the gauge symmetry associated with electromagnetism, giving mass to the photon. Photons are impeded in their motion and they can propagate the electromagnetic force only within a short range, behaving like massive force carriers.
-The Higgs mechanism contributes less than a kilogram of mass to the average person.
-The Higgs substance becomes much less dense at temperatures exceeding one quadrillion degrees.
-Nature saves energy by filling space with the Higgs substance, rather than leaving it empty.
-Present understanding of matter and forces is based on 3 elements: 1. general relativity (gravity) 2. Yang-Mills gauge theory (strong, weak, composition of matter) 3. Higgs sector (spontaneous breaking of electroweak symmetry)
-The masses of quarks accounts for 1% of proton and neutron masses.
-98% of the mass of hadrons comes from the motion of quarks and gluons (binding force of QCD)
-Electromagnetic effects account for the other 1%.
-Higgs mechanism generates the quark masses, but not the QCD effect
-Higgs mechanism accounts for 1% of the mass of ordinary matter, or 0.2% of the mass of the universe.
-Electromagnetic waves are purely transverse, because the electric and magnetic fields oscillate only in directions perpendicular to the direction of motion.
-Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck invented the concept of particle spin in 1925.
-The rate of particle spin never changes, like electric charge.
-The 3 coupling constants become nearly equal at 10^-32 meters, which is beyond what can be explored at the LHC. It would be like using regular binoculars to spot molecules on the surface of the moon. 
-Gravitational red shift is not the same as Doppler red shift. Gravitational red shift refers to the increase in wavelength of light as it loses energy during its escape from a star.
-On the scale of the universe, 3000 billion complete LHC programs are occurring every second.
-INFLATION: In 10^-35 seconds, the universe expanded by a factor of 10^30, which is equivalent to a 20 nanometer virus expanding into a creature with a diameter of 2.2 million light years in the time it takes light to cross a few millionths of a zeptometer. (How awesome is that?)
-Our technology can peer no further back than 380,000 years after inflation, due to the background temperature exceeding 2700 degrees Celsius, which is like a brick wall to electromagnetic radiation. Thus, the early universe is 'opaque' to our current telescopes.
-Experiments must be sensitive to 10^-19 watts in order to detect dark matter.
-The 72% estimate for dark energy comes from observations of supernovae and data from the cosmic microwave background.
-Due to the expansion of space, nothing beyond the solar system will be visible 500 billion years from now. (Like it will matter.)


Funny quotes the author provided:

"Communication is established between humans here on earth and extraterrestrials living in a galaxy made of antimatter. It is found that in that anti-world they have anti-science, anti-mathematics, and anti-physics. Earthbound physicists get a description of an anti-physics anti-laboratory, and lo and behold, they find it is filled with anti-Semites."

     -Peter Freund

"If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew."

     -Albert Einstein

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true."

     -Bertrand Russell

"There is no law except the law that there is no law."

     -John Wheeler

The second book I recently finished is titled GATHER YOURSELVES TOGETHER. It was written sometime between 1949-1951 by Philip K. Dick and is his first novel. It was not published until 1994, a full 12 years after his death.

This is not a science fiction novel, but one of his realistic novels which focuses on a small group of people. Usually, they are miserable, just like real people. In this novel, 3 American workers are left behind after a company in China has gone bankrupt. Two of them are connected in an unusual way, while the third is supposed to be PKD himself. This is a haunting novel and very well written, considering he was younger than 25 when he wrote it. There are certain things I will never forget, especially the dialogue between the Chinese scout and the Americans.

More Good Korean Movies.

Here are some I've watched relatively recently (within the past year) that are excellent.

The first scan is from Thirsty, Thirsty. The original Korean title is Give Me Water. I've watched Thirsty, Thirsty 5 or 6 times just within the past year. It's a directorial debut and won the Best New Director Award in Asia. The story involves debt collecting and its intricacies, with more humor than is reasonable.

The second scan is from Plastic Tree. It is fortunate I have seen so many Korean movies. Before watching this movie, it is worth it to watch Plum Blossom and The Day a Pig Fell into the Well. I won't explain why, but you'll know why. I found this for $4 at the now defunct DVD From Korea website, and it was a bargain indeed. This movie completely blew me away. Don't worry about the cover; there is no possible way one can predict what will happen. This is an example of why Korean Cinema is numero uno.

  

This third scan is from Love Her. Not "Lover". But "Love Her". Wow, was this a masterpiece. If you want to see the complete psychological breakdown (the downward spiral) of a person, then look no further. A movie like this explains why some men say "All women are crazy.". I loved the soundtrack, too.

Separation of body and mind.

I believe that the body and the mind are distinct from one another.

As an example, your body can receive considerable damage while leaving the mind intact. Also, your mind can be completely deranged while your body is pristine.

Because of my belief, I am in support of any future technologies that can transfer and store human consciousness on a substrate other than our carbon-based brains. My belief horrifies many religious people, that is, those that believe in souls.

A girl I know hates the notion of storing human consciousness on a computer because it conflicts with her religious beliefs. But consider the advantages...

Let's say that a 9 year old girl has been shot and killed. With our current technology, that girl is permanently dead. In the future, death might be a temporary inconvenience.

Now take that same 9 year old girl that has been killed. Imagine that her mind is backed up on a computer and a new body can be cloned. To her, being shot and killed would be a minor annoyance, since she could transfer a back-up of her consciousness into a new body and continue living. Even religious people would probably agree that such technology could be beneficial, especially when facing their own deaths.

I do not believe that humans have souls, so I have no problem with storing consciousness on a computer, since it's simply an emergent property of connected neurons. There is no reason why consciousness requires biological neurons. A sufficiently advanced silicon substrate could do the same thing.

Since I don't believe that humans have souls, what do I believe we have? Consciousness. That's what I know for sure. I am conscious. I'm not so sure about YOU.

You'll have to excuse my solipsism, but the problem with souls is that I don't see how they can explain anything that is not already a part of consciousness. Although I feel that shaving with Occam's Razor is trite, I am using it to get rid of the soul.

The conscience, feelings, individuality, personality, fears, scruples (or lack thereof), etc. are parts of consciousness. People that believe in souls are unnecessarily complicating the otherwise straightforward notion of consciousness by claiming there is something that is separate from it other than the body.

Ascetic

     Ascetic is not to be confused with aesthetics. Just leave it to some obscure Korean movie to improve my English vocabulary. I watched Come, Come, Come Upwards (1989) last night, which is about the lives of female Buddhists and, of course, asceticism.

     It's not my job to elaborate the difference between ascetic and aesthetics. I just wanted to point out I was forced to run to an English language dictionary while watching a Korean movie.

Arrive at Easterwine: The Autobiography of a Ktistec Machine

     I can not explain to you what I have just finished reading. My first exposures to the writings of R.A. Lafferty made a significant impact, but this novel just left me irritated and confused. And running to the dictionary every few moments (but sometimes laughing out loud, which makes reading this bilge worthwhile).

      Here are some (I left out the really woolly ones) of the words that I had either never seen before or did not readily know the definition:

callow - lacking adult maturity or experience; immature
purlieu - a neighboring area; outskirts; a place that one frequents
aerie, aery, eyrie, eyry - the nest of a bird, built on a cliff; a house or stronghold perched on a height
tor - a pile of rocks on top of a hill; a rocky peak or hill
fulgent - shining brilliantly; radiant
urbane - polite, refined, and often elegant in manner
fellah - a peasant or agricultural laborer in an Arab country  (plural is fellahin  or fellaheen)
poseur - one who affects a particular attitude, character, or manner to impress others
aestivation - the act of spending or passing the summer (also spelled estivation)
eutectic - formed at the lowest possible temperature of solidification for any mixture of specified constituents; used primarily for alloys
eidolon - a phantom, an apparition; an image of an ideal
chthonic - of or relating to the gods and spirits of the underworld (Greek mythology)
bilge - the rounded portion of a ship's hull; stupid talk or writing, nonsense
abscond - to leave quickly and secretly and hide oneself, often to avoid arrest or prosecution
cloy - to cause distaste or disgust by supplying with too much of something originally pleasant
subtile - accepted variant spelling of subtle
cybern - [not in my dictionary, could be a made-up word]
roue - a lecherous, dissipated man
intramuros - [not in my dictionary, could be a made-up word]
intraficies - [not in my dictionary, could be a made-up word]
paean - a song of joyful praise or exultation
palimpsest - a manuscript, typically of papyrus or parchment, that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely erased and often legible; an object or place that reflects its history
gamy - ill-smelling; rank; showing an unyielding spirit; corrupt, tainted
prescind - to separate or divide in thought; consider individually
philology - literary study or classical scholarship (literally 'love of learning')
numinosity - related to 'supernatural' in meaning
amnestic - adjectival form of amnesia
Faeroes - a group of volcanic islands in the northern Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the Shetland Islands
outre - highly unconventional; eccentric or bizarre
caul - a portion of the amnion, especially when it covers the head of a fetus at birth; also called pileus
gravid - carrying developing young or eggs 
quoit - a game in which flat rings of iron or rope are pitched at a stake, with points awarded for encircling it (sounds like horseshoes to me)

     A few quotes from this book:

"There is nothing the matter with matter. Life is no more than a privileged form of matter. Love is no more than a privileged form of life."

"You never get anything out of the ones who have the most."

"There is a man and a woman walking on the walkway; I would have to describe them as congenial-appearing crabs.
'Are you two married to each other?' Gregory asked them lovingly.
'Got to be,' the man said. 'Who else would have us?'"

Angels on the Streets

     I finally got around to cracking open "THE PAST UNEARTHED: Collection of Feature Films in the Japanese Colonial Period". It's a 4 DVD box set of Korean films from the early 1940s. In 2004, the Korean Film Archives found them in China, in a vault. The first movie in the set is titled "Angels on the Streets"

     The picture and sound quality made the experience rather trying. I could barely hear the Korean above the static and the picture was very dark. Thankfully, the producers included quality English subtitles. The extensive booklet is also written in Korean and English. The movie is 73 minutes long and I watched it in two parts, to make the experience more tolerable. 

     This movie is about the street urchins, which refers to the thousands of homeless children. They are never referred to as angels in the film. While the quality of the movie left much to be desired, the story and acting were not so bad.

      At the end of the movie, all of the actors (all Koreans) got into formation and pledged allegiance to the Emperor of Japan, under the crimson eye of the Japanese flag. I seriously doubt that was voluntary.

My newest favorite authors.

     Greg Egan and R. A. Lafferty are my newest favorite authors. They are pointedly different from one another, as Egan focuses on hard science and Lafferty essentially wrote tall tales, with very little science. I have read all 7 of Egan's published novels and I'm currently waiting for Zendegi to be published. Egan doesn't write that much, so it's easy to keep up with him.
     Lafferty is a bit more complicated. He wrote a lot; more than 30 novels and 200 short stories. What's impressive is that he didn't start writing until he was in his 40s. His first novel, pictured below, was nominated for the Hugo Award:

     The above novel features Thomas More as the protagonist, the inventor of utopia.

     Both of these authors are not for lazy readers. They either use vocabulary or concepts that will require the use of dictionaries or other supplemental material. Lafferty makes me use the dictionary every 22 seconds, while Egan makes me use a Physics textbook every 22 attoseconds. That's great and it's what I enjoy about reading.
     Although a great deal of information can be found about these authors at other sources, I can summarize by writing that Egan is the hardest of hard science fiction writers (read Schild's Ladder if you want proof) and Lafferty is the funniest (read Through Elegant Eyes).