randformblog on math, physics, art, and design |
In an old randform post about solar cells I was writing a bit about the computer modelling of solar cells. In particular I mentioned that it seems that the involved models use mainly a theory which was to a great part developped by Shockley and Queisser in the 50/60s.
One of the interesting unknowns is the question wether the brain acts -at least partially- as a quantum computer. The discussion seems to have gotten again a boost – considering the number of conferences organized on this issue, like the already mentioned January swiss conference or the conference Quantum Mind organized by the center for consciousness and the Uni Salzburg or the conference Toward a Science of Consciousness 2007 in Budapest organized by the Hungarian Cognitive Science Foundation.
A reason for this boost may partially be due to the fact that optical imaging and mapping techniques are vastly improving. Optical imaging techniques are popular since they provide a noninvasive method to study the brain, like e.g. in experiments by Ed Boyden et al. were neurons were photostimulated via Channelrhodopsin-2 and other proteins (see also here) (where I have to say that the in the article mentioned lentiviral gene delivery sounds rather scary to me) or e.g. the interesting optical techique of OCT-Optical coherence tomography (or LMU OCT) using interferences of light with short coherence length.
OCT can currently be only used for investigating thin layers like skins, as can be seen at the above crumpled scan of a fingertip or – whats more important e.g. for investigating the retina – a thin layer of neural cells that lines the back of the eyeball.
Using a new way of organizing light pulses (FDML) researchers were able to provide rapid, high-resolution 3-D images of the retina as was presented on the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference by the Optical Society of America.
Why is the retina and the layers around it particularily interesting? Because the retina is capable to transmit a signal of a few photons, leaving enough space for quantum mechanical considerations, like in the famous discussion in here, where – even if this seems unrelated – e.g. the true size of a graviton may play a role.
As it seems the current believe is that brains probably do not act as quantum computers mainly due to the “disturbancies” of the information by the surroundings, which leads to decoherence – a general problem also for technical quantum computers. Among others there is some hope to get better results with regard to disturbances with the help of topological quantum theories, which can be imagined (very very loosely speaking) as quantum versions of solitons, i.e. waves which are very stable.
A little excursion to the foundations of quantum mechanics:
Anton Zeilinger and collaborators paper “An experimental test of nonlocal realism” just came out in Nature, luckily there is also a publicly readable preprint version on the archive, the ORF reported about it here (link via Anton Zeilingers blog).
Just a short link to a symposium organized by the European Science Foundation on Biological Surfaces and Interfaces.
This 3rd conference on Biological Surfaces and Interfaces addresses the field of interfaces between synthetic materials and biological systems – biointerfaces – a topic that constitutes one of the most dynamic and expanding field in science and technology.
Links of interest on that site:
Sometimes its better to be unvisible.
This is not so impossible.
I.e. the theory is developped at various places, e.g. here at St. Andrews by physicist Ulf Leonhardt who has an easy to read introduction to the field.
After the diet coke and mentos wave, there seems to be – may be – a new physics hype on youtube – namely the cornstarch and resonance monsters. This video is particular charming.
Remarks:
-I am not sure – but the origin of this goes probably back to this scientific video of the Center for nonlinear Dynamics at the University of Austin.
-the physics is connected to an earlier post called resonance rice and it is actually also a bit related to this earlier reported experiment of a macroscopic double slit experiment.
atomic resolution micrograph of multiple twinned nanocrystalline film of Si (C. Song) in the ncem gallery
This post is sort of a followup to e.g. this randform post as it covers the unseeable.
Here comes a little post in between – I haven’t yet found the time to upload the rest of the games convention images. However it is now – after the GC is over – clear that there are anyways no big news from the GC: Despite a record of 183 000 visitors the battle over new game consoles is postponed to the Tokyo game show. Probably even without feeling ridiculous Sony showed at the GC just a dummy PS3 under glas and trailers in wmv format. But also Nintendo didn’t show the wii console to the public (but only to showmasters) and found it funny to make riddles about the wii release date, which seems to be Oct. 2. Somehow I missed the joke probably.
Most interesting for us were the game controllers. Both consoles seem to have sensors for measuring rotation and acceleration. See e.g. STMicroelectronics and Analog Devices.(as an intro: wikipedia on MEMS). However the wii seem to need also infrared contact.
Whatsoever another 3D controller which might be even more interesting – especially if the specifications of the game controllers are not openly usable is the Novint Falcon (see image above from wikipedia) – announced on the E3 to be available for under 100$.
Meanwhile the math TU group/jReality group lost patience and bought this nice little gadget.
