Category — Physics

IBM has created the first ever direct image of a molecule, using a piece of tech known as an atomic force microscope to image a pentacene molecule in unprecedented detail. Below there are two images; one is a rendered model of the pentacene molecules, the other is the image of the molecule as captured by the atomic force microscope:

Keep reading for my explanation of why this so totally fucking crazy.

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I found this video the other day and had to share:

I’ll have more to say on this soon, but for now give it a watch (or three) and tell me what you think.

Scientists and Engineers at the National Ignition Facility in California have completed construction of the world’s largest laser system and will be using it to investigate nuclear fusion:

“With NIF, scientists will be able to evaluate key scientific assumptions in current computer models, obtain previously unavailable data on how materials behave at temperatures and pressures like those in the center of a star, and help validate NNSA’s supercomputer simulations by comparing code predictions against observations from laboratory experiments… It could also help scientists better understand the makeup of stars and giant planets both within and outside our solar system.”

Very cool stuff. A proper fusion study facility could help answer all kinds of questions about the processes going on inside of stars, and maybe help move us towards using fusion as an energy source. Once this thing starts firing, expect to hear some squawking from the same people who harbor fears that the Large Hadron Collider is going to create a black hole and destroy us all! (Thanks to Korman for the original link.)

It looks like some clever scientists have developped what could be the next big optical storage medium.  Their new format – which has yet to be branded with any ridiculous marketing labels – can hold up to 1.6 TB on a single disk!

How did they do it?  Well, I told you they were clever.  On current-gen optical storage disks, data is stored in one long spiral, which the read laser follows, reading the data bit by bit as the disk spins.  With this new format, data can be read in parallel, because each position along the read line of the disk contains information encoded in several different ways – by wavelength, polarization, and layered into the depth dimension of the disk.  This means that the read head (probably a combination of several different lasers – it’s still in development) will read several different pieces of info at any given point on the disk – from different layers, at different wavelengths, and at different polarizations.

Sounds to me like a handy way to store data for parallel processing!  The data is stored in different ways, apparently including gold atoms and nano-rods made of… well, I’ll have to get back to you on that (carbon atoms?  Some kind of semiconductor?).

Don’t go throwing out your Blu-ray players and PS3s just yet.  This is till early in development, and I personally doubt this format is going to find its way into the realm of personal entertainment.  Even if it becomes economically viable to produce these disks (not to mention the players), by then we’ll have all joined the download/streaming revolution, and individually purchased multimedia disk units that gather dust on shelves will be a thing of the past!  I can hope, right?!

The New York Times had an interesting piece recently about the life and views of Freeman Dyson (fans of sci-fi will know him because of the Dyson sphere concept, fans of Physics will know him because of his work in quantum field theory).  Mr. Dyson is a bit of an oddball, in that he’s an influential name in the scientific community who doesn’t believe that climate change is much of a problem.  An unapologetic humanist and futurist, he’s lived a far more interesting life than the average physics prof.  Read all about it here.