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Psi Day

Psi Day.

Psi. A mere symbol? We don't think so.

We live in a world of tiny things, and they don't come alone. Constraints blurring the very quintessence of space and time, beautiful theories wrapped in and around our thoughts, elegant equations to which the reality submits, and what more, great and 'brave' Heroes, who dared questioning the Great Unknown.

From within the shadows of Ireland's working class, came yet another hero. Far apart from the comfortable and pomp upbringing of quantum pioneers, John Stewart Bell was the only of his four siblings to make it to secondary school as his parents were working to make ends meet.

But history did cling to the rather weak side of little John. No one seemed to notice "On the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox" published in the little read and short lived journal 'Physics' which actually paid its contributors, unlike the popular 'Physical Review', which charged to publish.

Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen devised an infamous thought experiment to stir the quantum hive. It blew straight on the face of Quantum Physics, and it took more than time for quantum pioneers like Neils Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, and many more to answer. And then from the middle of nowhere, came Bell's ingenious answer.
He had produced a mathematical theorem (which was later rendered practical) to tell between EPR's challenge to quantum mechanics or quantum mechanics itself. And it turned out, Quantum Mechanics had it all.

Psi is just one of countless promises the elegant mathematics of the quantum theory holds: And it's more than a number we can envisage - the Wavefunction.
Isn't that more than a reason to celebrate Psi Day on 28th of June, also the birthday of little John?

To contemplate, all you must do is to have a Psi for your profile picture just for a day.

We shall publish more scientific information on wave function, Bell's theorem and EPR Thought experiment. Any contributions are welcomed.

Additional Information:

Every guest submission shall be considered. To participate, you may:

• Draft technical/non-technical essays to share your knowledge in the subject. (Quantum Physics and related disciplines)
• Request essays/more information to quench your curiosity.
• Submit fan art or any other appropriate material to visually express yourself/your knowledge in the subject. (You may post them on our facebook wall)
• Ask questions. There's always more to know. (Post them on the wall, we'll get back to you.)
• Answer questions. (Advisably as comments to the question)
• Post link(s) to any related content.

Every contribution will be acknowledged. You are highly encouraged to share this material and/or invite as many guests. Let's make it big, for Some Numbers Are More Than Numbers.

Thanks in loads for your support.

Mo.

Think Outside the Box, For the Box is Too Small to Exist

So here we are, yet another religion versus atheism episode. It all started as a facebook status update, all the way up to a lot, lot more. Some might fail to get the whole point of this atheism-religion fray, and it's indeed a morally infallible and credible side to take. One of the participants in this debate didn't adhere to calling religious people deluded lunatics in dreamland with mystical sky daddies to protect them.

This philosophy would indeed make a lot of sense if and only if everyone held firm to it, which is, undeniably, the world we don't live in. The situation is further polarized by the forced implication of creationism on science. Let creationists call atheists immoral idiots, deluded bastards, blah and blah and blah: tolerable, to some extent. Let creationists call methodological analysis and deductions from nature an 'illusion' in favor of some ancient, mystical text: not tolerable. Radioactive Carbon Dating: illusion. Evolution: illusion. Big Bang: illusion. [enter any scientific theory with which religious texts are not compatible]: illusion.

Why do atheists fight back? To prevent an intellectual apocalypse: similar to the ones only a few centuries back. As the matter of fact, the whole religion versus atheism debate would have been alien had there been nothing of the creationism-in-science-class sort. Say this to a creationist, he/she'd recite a whole list of prominent scientists who had been religious. No one seems to remember the relatively primitive world they lived in. Newton didn't have a GPS to guide him.

In accordance with the general religious consensus, life is just an examination. It is to test you if you make the right use of the 'soul' god has given you. In a nutshell, you should believe in what is dictated on you, with no proofs, logic, and evidence. If you fail to, god(s) will book your one-way ticket to hell (sarcasm might be the lowest form of wit, but it helps to hit the point through). God is benevolent, as well as omnipotent. So instead of preventing evil, he created some, to test his own creations. After all, he's just an examiner, who, just like a teacher, tests his creation.

Back to argument: why would a perfect watchmaker make imperfect watches, only to test if they're perfect? Moreover, if he were perfect, we could expect him to know if the watch he's about to create is perfect. So why would he want to create imperfect watches, only to have them incinerated and to soil his brand? If he does create imperfect watches, he's the only one responsible for imperfections, for had he created perfect watches instead, none would exist. So why worship him? If he's an omnipotent examiner, he could make sure all his pupils pass out, displaying his eternal benevolence. God would make some disabled and some poor, so we can all be good to them. So, why didn't He bother being nice to them in the first place? Are we asking too much? This codes the line of arguments of one of the participants, and myself (although I did not participate).

Yet another, 'interesting' aspect of religion is, life is an illusion. We're living in an illusion, and we have no way of knowing what the reality is. So, if there is a fire a few steps away, beneath the worldliness of our illusive life, we're screwed. Okay, so if there's a fire right in front of us, we can walk right through it. Life is a happy illusion, remember? So if we're within the fire, life is still a happy illusion. It's pretty much like a blind man thinking of all the things that would happen if the orange is blue, needless to say he has not a clue to what 'blue' means. The moral of the story is, if all we feel is illusion, there's no point in reality: for reality becomes the illusion and the illusion is the realized reality. It might take some their whole lives to realize this.

But, then again, we would have creationists crawling up our faces, asking about all the good things god asked us to do. Do it, or go to hell. So there, religion is cool.

Such arguments are certainly pejorative to conscience. If you are good, you'd do good: it doesn't really matter if there is no god to nag you. If you're curious, you don't need the teacher behind your life, to read. If you do need, you're just not curious. If you do need a god to force you to do good, you're just not good, for if you were, you wouldn't have cared if he asked you to, or even if he exists. If you don't think you're good enough, don't, don't ever try on a religion: we all know what Al Qaeda, Mujahideen, etc did for us. (I am not, whatsoever, explicitly accusing Islam of violence.)

Picking-any-religious-person-and-calling-him-a-retard is not my intention. Picking-any-irrational-person-and-calling-him-a-retard is. I am not attacking any religion: I'm just attacking ignorance. I'm not asking you to believe in what I say: I'm just asking you to think. Think outside the box, for the box is too small to exist.

Welcome to your Augmented Reality

Remember those Sc-Fi movies you used to reckon? The cool guy always had the cool stuff and the cool chicks, everything else was just beating around the bush. Probably a night or two of fancy dreams, and then you're back. What you're about to read is straight from your fantasies, right before your eyes. *drum roll*

Scientists and engineers gathered at Augmented Human International Conference, Megeve have gone cutting edge. They're working to pump your reality with instant data from the internet. Think about this: you stand somewhere lost in a foreign skyline, when someone whispers the phone number of a swish restaurant right at the top floor of the skyscraper you're gazing at. Or even, you close your eyes to know everything you could about the bridge or monument you were looking at just 2 seconds ago. Or just think of just seeing a phone number to have it keyed in your contacts without you doing anything else. Or even a foreign language translated live as it happens. Yep, this is cutting edge.

It works on eye-tracking: your smartphone sees what you see, and then sends it to a remotely accessed computer. The computer runs through the web database and relays information back. This also includes an integrated global positioning system hooked right up with your eyes and ears, so you never miss that turn. The one thing I predict: Google with services like Earth, Maps, Translate, Latitude, Picasa, Blogger, blah and blah and blah and blah, is about to turn into a lot more. And I have a good hunch on the iPhone living a part of our life.

Here's a little peek into the First AH Conference:

Thanks for reading, this is Nasim.

(source)

Doomsday 2012

This title would perhaps invite a lot more attention than anything like "2012: Scientifically Debunked" or "Lies of 2012". And why wouldn't it? Didn't the good guys get away on a cool made-in-china boat? I shall leave the tirade for another time, but Mr. Emmerich had done a bad, bad thing with the script.

Below is a list of all so called 'scientific explanations' to the 'fact' that there would be no Christmas '12. First up, 'spontaneous geomagnetic reversal'.

This is perhaps the most popular and ridiculous claim, I believe. It abuses the principle that earth's magnetic field may well be 'reversed', to say, the north magnetic poles would become south and the vice versa. Put in another way, the compasses would show the south, north and the north, south. This, coupled with a strong solar outburst (which is, in a way, the sun in a bad mood, spewing out streams of charged particles on earth. When it's not doomsday, the earth's magnetic field deflects these particles to make us at home, but the geomagnetic reversal may weaken the magnetic field, leaving us to the wrath of charged particles from the sun) would cause a terrible catastrophe which would spell doom for life on planet earth.
There seems to be a strong evidence of a due geomagnetic reversal. According to Wikipedia, the last time this happened was 780,000 years back, and it has to happen sometime soon, probably for the 26^th time. This is the general consensus, given these reversals are assumed to be random.

Moreover, the solar maximum (which is an element in sun's periodic activity cycle when solar activity is considered maximum) of 2013 (and not 2012) will be fairly weak (weaker than average, in fact), as forecasted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And there had been no scientific links between geomagnetic reversals and solar activity cycle, the latter being an 11 year cycle, and the former being, as mentioned afore, random.

But that hardly is a part of the whole story. The reversal takes a colossal amount of time to complete, and it's pretty much impossible to score when it begins. The timescales involved are of the order of 5000 years. Had it already begun, we had eons to figure things out (which we would have indeed done had it been something to worry about). If it is just to begin on 21^st of December 2012, we still have an eon to figure it out. More up, it won't be much of a problem if earth's geomagnetic field is reversed. It happened several times in the past, and we still seem to live.

Geomagnetic reversals are relatively less understood, but it doesn't buy 2012 'prophecies' a scientific basis.

Planet X, Niburu is yet another idea of the big day, according to which a mystical and invisible planet is on a collision course with planet earth which would of course spell the last doom for everyone alive. Ludicrous as it sounds, Niburu is perhaps not interested in planets like Jupiter and Saturn (with far more beefy gravitational influence) but instead, the fourth of the smallest planets of the solar system. Moreover, the orbital trajectory must exactly be synchronized with that of earth, and it must successfully dodge all obstacles which include the asteroid belt and 8 whole planets, in turn implying planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus should exert no gravitational influence whatsoever. Had he been alive, Newton would have committed suicide.

Next up, the galactic alignment. The earth goes around the sun, the sun goes around the center of our galaxy, or the galactic center. According to John Major Jenkins, 2012 will have the sun aligned with the galactic center, where a colossal black hole is presumed to exist. This would cause 'havoc on earth', in some mysterious way.

As the matter of fact, such an alignment occurred back in 1998. And if it happens on 21^st of December 2012, the sun would be quite above the galactic plane (which can be envisaged as the 'blade' of our Milky Way galaxy. An alignment with the galactic plane 'appears' to be disastrous, given it would invite a larger flux of comets from the still hypothetical Oort Cloud, crashing down on earth. But such alignments take tens of millions of years to occur, and the last time it happened was 3 million years ago, according to evidence. The sun is, in fact, moving above, or away from the galactic plane). Let's ignore all this for a while, and assume the sun is exactly aligned with the black hole, exactly on the galactic plane. How hard would the black hole pull? According to very basic calculations, the black hole must be at least 9,461,000,000,000,000 kilometers from the sun before we begin to realize something's wrong. Right now, it's at 283,800,000,000,000,000 kilometers.

A galactic alignment is hence the last thing one should worry about.

Speaking of prophecies, there are atleast a total of 200 past doomsdays as predicted: let's just add one to the list. And, ironically, the end of Mayan long count calendar (which is one of the proposed basis) is an event of celebration. There's absolutely no scientific evidence for doomsday 2012.

Thank you for reading, this is Nasim.

Recommended links and references:
http://www.starrynighteducation.com/sntimes/2008/06/#art1
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=511
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon
http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/galaxies/galactic-plane/
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v316/n6030/pdf/316706a0.pdf (PDF file)

Hello There, Mr. Tree! Are You On Facebook?

As of this date, we're in a world which wouldn't do without the internet... Okay, so let me give it straight. Without Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and more. These websites, or rather 'social networking sites' as they crave being called, has hit us hard; and for a while, it's hard to decide if it's worth it.

If you're a Facebook addict and you have that compelling urge to kill me, I'm talking about you. If you're not, it's all a matter of time. Well, it wouldn't take many Einsteins to figure that I belong to the former, but wait, when and why did it all begin?

Seems familiar? Okay, before you go worrying over your sanity (perhaps the way I did), this is what Facebook used to look like on 12th of February 2004. Seems different, given the first time I remember logging in was in the late 2006s. Indeed, things were a world different. I remember that 'Network' page, along with a multitude of 'application boxes' and a 'Mini-feed'. Well, that was when I was your age. Provided you're thirteen.

Like I need to tell, but the changes don't let my eyeballs roll. Mini feed to News and Live Feed, all worthless boxes kicked aside in one cobwebbed tab, dedicated tab for personal information, media enabled wall, localized filters, and heaps more. One of my favorite things is how flexible the 'tabs' are. You can have any number of 'em (I presume), with 6 on active display.

Of the more annoying things, wall post appear on your feed. Wall posts by someone on someone else's wall, which is. So yiphee, more ways to poke noses in. And Facebook mobile seems to be the epicenter: it's officially impossible to tell between wall posts (again, by someone on someone else's wall) and status updates. Sigh.

As per a report by Reuters, Facebook may 'lock in' its internet dominance. In juicy words, it has the caliber to beat any or every other networking site(s) on the internet, hands down.

"I think Facebook is the most valuable Internet commodity in existence, more so than Google, because they are positioning themselves to be our online identity via Facebook connect,” says Alyssa Ravasio, an UCLA student studying the internet's impact on modern society.

Well, I wont always be the one to compare Facebook's utility to that of Wikipedia or Google, but not many hesitate taking this bold leap ahead. Statistics show there are 350 million users world wide, 100 million from the United States alone. As in Dubai, Facebook demonstrates a holistic prominence; but in India, it still has a long way to beat Orkut (which kicks on a straight 38.5% of Orkut's 100 million visitors).

There are indeed more reasons for Facebook's enhanced popularity world wide, apart from keeping up with friends. On the first note, it might sound more like Picasa (photos; with perhaps unlimited storage), Twitter (status updates and wall), Youtube (videos) and Blogger (notes): all in one. Combined, it'll certainly be worth a consideration. However, each have their own utilities and functions. For instance there's not much one can do with the Facebook photos, whilst Picasa provides a whole dedicated application (with loads of eye candy) for photography amateurs, who feel Photoshop is a bit too complicated. And it's hardly as open to developers as twitter is. Youtube is, again far more dedicated than Facebook Videos is, and so is Blogger. So, what exactly keeps people motivated? Integrated applications. Farmville (by Zynga, on facebook) boasts 74.5 million active users, which is more than 20% of the Facebook fort. (I'm certainly glad to be a part of the 80%). Mafia Wars kicks high aswell, with 25.9 million users on Facebook. Then there hundreds of other applications. This sure reminds me of the iPhone's story.

At first, I was tricked to believe that there's nothing new, in particular, with twitter. I mean, status updates? Okay, but then what? Don't we already have it on Facebook? Well ofcourse, it had been immature: twitter certainly is a lot more flexible than Facebook is with status updates. It's more like a colossal 'shoutbox' or as they call, a 'microblogging' utility; and a great way to keep up with things up and around. Warning, if you're a privacy freak, twitter is not for you. Whatever may it be, twitter is growing. And it's growing fast: a jaw dropping 1382% every month, compared to 228% of Facebook. [wiki] At this rate, twitter sure is catching up.

So what's the whole point? Well, Facebook sure is versatile, but not as efficient. On the side note, wat-da-heq!

No wait, SRK Crater?!

This would indeed be more of a reason for Bollywood fanatics to brag around, singing "Shah Rukh Khan is on moon!" and "Shah Rukh Khan has brought the moon to Bollywood!" and "My Name is Chand!" and so on. Well, the first time I had an idea of what just happened, it was me cursing myself for supporting the IAU.

Yes, it is real. Arago B was titled Shahrukh Khan by the ILGS and approved by IAU, the 'real' authority for nomenclature on celestial domains. It was apparently to mark SRK's 44th birthday. Ironically, no one seems to remember Werner Heisenberg's, needless to say one of the most influential 20th century physicist's 108th birthday. Oh, and that gets me thinking about all of SRK's contribution to any given natural science, forget lunar exploration. Pardon me if I don't recall any.

The International Astronomy Union, better known as IAU. As of me, I had been supportive all along. International Year of Astronomy 2009, Cloudy Nights Forum Packs, and many more; they were worth the praise. Oh, but then came the deserving Shahrukh Khan crater, with SRK fans equally in par. Hey, next time try hiring actors for scientists, okay? Oh, try renaming your organization: I-love-actors-for-craters-llywood. Trust me, you'd have a lot more days to live with your 'fans'. And don't forget to forget everything you called astronomy, except for maybe craters. I hope you'd have enough craters up there, one for every damned celebrity with absolutely nothing to do with astronomy. And we'll always love astronomy, so you won't need to give a shit about us. Hell with you. Hell with ILGS.

You know, I've lost everything I had for you. Kudos to I-love-actors-for-craters-llywood.