ZEUS's thunderbolt

 kw: articles, lasers, record setting

An article yesterday in earth.com reports on a record-setting power level for "the most powerful U.S. laser," named ZEUS: 2 petawatts peak power in a pulse lasting 25 quintillionths of a second. The click-bait headline states "over 100x the global electricity output." Let's unpack this a little for us mere mortals.

The author helpfully states that 2 petawatts is 2 quadrillion watts. Firstly, assuming a "square" pulse (it isn't, but probably close enough), 2 quadrillion watts times 25 quintillionths of a second results in 50/1,000ths, or 1/20th, of a watt-second. A watt-second is also known as a Joule, the standard unit of energy. The night light in my hallway uses 0.25 watts, continuously. The energy of this laser pulse would keep my night light shining for…one-fifth of a second. Barely the blink of an eye! What gives?

The breakthrough this article reports is not the sheer power of the pulse. A 0.05 Joule pulse is nothing special. Off-the-shelf metal-cutting lasers operate in the range of 30 J per pulse, ten pulses per second, for an average power of 300 watts. The pulses are short, in the nanosecond to microsecond range, but nowhere near as short as the 25-attosecond  pulse width of the ZEUS laser.

The breakthrough in pulse width is important because it enables the achievement of extreme power levels (such as petawatts), which, I am informed by the Duck Duck Go "AI Assistant", "…enables the study of complex interactions between light and matter, such as astrophysical phenomena and particle acceleration. These powerful lasers are also used in various fields, including medical treatments and material science research."

De-jargonizing that, it says that materials behave differently when hit that hard, and quantum particles such as electrons can be accelerated to extreme energies without resorting to miles-wide accelerators. The "astrophysical phenomena" mentioned include the very high energy environments found near black holes or during supernova eruptions.

Now that scientists have squeezed a modest-energy pulse into one forty-thousandth of a trillionth of a second, I expect further work will lead to much greater total power and peak power.

Am I moving left or did Bubba move right?

kw: current events, world events, articles

I just read in the current (Oct 1, 2012) issue of Time Magazine the article "The Case for Optimism" by Bill Clinton. I was quite unfavorable to President Clinton while he was in office, but I did notice that he moderated quite a bit during his second term, to the point that George W. Bush began his first term seeming to be to Clinton's left. Of course, 9/11 and the two wars changed all that. A wartime President has to govern from the right, as FDR and Truman both did.

In the article, Mr. Clinton stressed five items, which I'll list along with their subtitles:

1. Technology: Phones Mean Freedom
2. Health: Healthy Communities Prosper
3. Economy: Green Energy Equals Good Business
4. Equality: Women Rule
5. Justice: The Fight for the Future is Now

To some extent, the article could be considered a long plug for the Clinton Global Initiative, because CGI efforts are mentioned throughout. However, that is the arena where he spends his time, and what he knows the best. It is amazing that more than 85% of everybody has access to a cell phone. This is good for business, it is good for the economies of developing countries, and it is making the notion of a Digital Divide obsolete. Similar things could be said for green energy. And listen: resource conservation was originally a Conservative cause (just ask Teddy Roosevelt). The level of personal responsibility that widespread communications make possible just makes a Conservative grin. The other three areas, while appearing more "Liberal", are treated in an even-handed way that nobody is likely to argue with very much.

It is a funny thing, that a decade or so of being out of office has gone a long way towards rehabilitating the former President. There were a few storm clouds overhead by the end of his second term, mostly because of personal failings. But he is attaining stature as a statesman, a "wise old head", and people seem more ready to forgive (me, too, slightly grudgingly).

The CGI is worth a look, not because they are a charity but because they aren't. CGI is a connection machine for those wishing to do good and those who know how to go about it. Perhaps it is not a FaceBook for the philanthropically inclined, but that gives a bit of its flavor.

Of ferrets and flu

kw: medicine, influenza, articles

In the May 2012 issue of Discover, a short article by Wendy Orent asks, "Can stuffing germs up ferrets unleash a human pandemic?" It briefly reports two sets of experiments that produced a virus derived from the avian pandemic virus, which became transmissible among ferrets. One of the experiments involved mixing the avian virus with a human virus and squirting it into a ferret's nose. Then taking snot from the ferret a few days later and squirting it in another ferret's nose. This was done ten times. At that point a sneezing ferret could infect other ferrets.

The conclusion: The procedure resembles a procedure used to produce vaccines, and is more likely to produce a flu vaccine than an infective influenza virus. Then the statement was made, "To make a deadly human flu, you would need to passage the strain among humans, not ferrets—a difficult and ethically impossible experiment."

Ethically impossible? For who?? As ethically impossible as piloting an aircraft into the WTC? or as puffing nerve gas into a Japanese subway air system? I suspect a clutch of fanatics would gladly "catch the flu" from a chicken, then from each other, in an effort to produce a deadly germ.

Of course, the perennial trouble with germ warfare, or germ terrorism, is that the "agent" will have a tendency to wander off-target, and infect people well beyond the bounds of the original infection. That is how pandemics are. It is also quite possible that a few folks in the targeted area, figuring out what is happening, would hop aboard the next airplane to the probable source country, in an act of reverse terrorism: "If I gotta die of this flu, I'll do it in , and take a few of them down with me!"

So, you terrorists out there, don't think you are the only fanatics on the planet…

Is Easter for all?

kw: articles, faith, resurrection, eschatology

In the April 24, 2011 issue of Time, an article by Jon Meacham is titled "Is Hell Dead?" The issue's cover asks, "What if there's no Hell?" The article reports on the issues raised by Evangelical pastor Rob Bell's new book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. I have not read the book … yet. Meacham makes it clear that Bell is not denying the existence of Hell outright, but questioning its meaning and, particularly, who it is for and if it is permanent. (Note: The image is © Copyright 2011 Cipone, from Flickr, titled "Souls Rising to Heaven")

This is Easter Sunday, according to the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical calendar, followed by nearly all Protestants also. On a day commemorating such a joyous event, it is pertinent to ask, "Who is salvation for?" and "If heaven is for all, what is gained by receiving Jesus?" As I am musing here, this is not a theological treatise, and I'll quote Bible verses with little or no attribution; those who are interested can find the references at Bible Gateway. I quote the NIV.

Firstly, if Jesus is quoted accurately, and if he meant what He said, He plans to send some to eternal fire: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” I have read and heard a number of times that this verse in Matthew 25 shows that Hell is not primarily for humans but for angels (Satan is an angel), and that any humans that wind up there have chosen to follow the devil. But let us back up a little. This is the close of Jesus's discussion of sheep and goats. Here opinions differ. Some think that the sheep accepted Jesus and the goats didn't. However, Jesus makes it clear that the sheep took care of His persecuted followers and the goats did not. Neither the sheep nor the goats are followers of Jesus, but people who act out of common humanity to reduce the suffering of others, or do not. The sheep become citizens of the kingdom of God.

Think a moment. All the followers of Jesus are promised royalty, to be kings with Him. All the Old Testament saved ones, the descendants of Abraham by Isaac, are promised an eternal priesthood. If only these are in the heavenly kingdom, whom do the kings govern, and whom do the priests lead in worship to God? There need to be citizens who are not kings or priests. The sheep are at least one source of citizens, and it is a given that the citizens outnumber their rulers and leaders. Jesus also said, “…if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

Secondly, what and where is the eternal kingdom? In at least two places in The Revelation, it is stated that the New Jerusalem, that golden city with gem-adorned walls and pearls for gates, comes down from heaven to the Earth. Passages in the prophetic books speak of a city of God and of the “kings of the Earth” who bring tribute to it. Heaven is temporary. The City of God in Heaven is being prepared to become an earthly dwelling place of God and His people, the center of His government over all the Earth and its citizens.

Thirdly, consider the phrase “child of God.” You were once a child (maybe you still are). When a boy child grows up, he becomes a man; a girl child becomes a woman. Who or what does a God child grow up to be? Jesus is well known as the “only begotten Son,” but he is also called “firstborn of many brothers” in Romans. Many theologies do speak of the deification of believers.

These threads come together to show the following:

• Hell is probably permanent, but its human residents are expected to be few (I don't expect Stalin or Mao will ever get out).
• Citizenship in the kingdom of God (or Kingdom of Heaven) is earned by good works, particularly by caring for persecuted believers. This message is called the Eternal Gospel in The Revelation.
  
• This kingdom will be on the Earth, not in some off-Earth heaven.
• Those who receive Jesus do gain something special: Deification and Royalty. These can only be received by faith, but training for the faithful exercise of godhood and kingship takes a lifetime.
  

Fast gravity

kw: cosmology, articles

The January/February 2011 issue of Discover consists primarily of "Year in Science 2010", 100 short articles about "the 100 most amazing stories" of the year. Article 76 on page 71 is titled "What Lies Beyond the Edge of the Universe", written by Andrew Moseman. It concerns the work of Alexander Kashlinsky of NASA/Goddard, who has discovered a phenomenon he calls "dark flow". It seems to indicate that a large concentration of matter beyond the observable edge of the Universe is pulling everything we can see in the direction of Centaurus.

He thinks the mass doing the pulling may lie a thousand times farther away than the most distant objects we can see. This implies either that (1) gravitons are not bound by the speed of light, or (2) a gravitational field was set up, perhaps by cosmic inflation, that is coherent over distances that now exceed trillions of parsecs. Considering that in the most recent issue of Scientific American the theory of inflation is being seriously challenged, this makes for some interesting potential fallout.

No I am NOT killing myself

kw: articles, medicine, safety, sweeteners

For the record, I drink about a liter of Diet Pepsi daily. It is sweetened with aspartame. My doctor and others get on my case about that. Here is some 21-year-old news from Archives of Internal Medicine:

Safety of Long-term Large Doses of Aspartame

Arthur S. Leon, MD; Donald B. Hunninghake, MD; Catherine Bell, MBA; David K. Rassin, PhD; Thomas R. Tephly, MD, PhD

Arch Intern Med. 1989;149(10):2318-2324.

Abstract

---

• Safety of long-term administration of 75 mg/kg of aspartame per day was evaluated with the use of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group design in 108 male and female volunteers aged 18 to 62 years. Subjects received either aspartame or placebo in capsule form three times daily for 24 weeks. No persistent changes over time were noted in either group in vital signs; body weight; results of standard laboratory tests; fasting blood levels of aspartame's constituent amino acids (aspartic acid and phenylalanine), other amino acids, and methanol; or blood formate levels and 24-hour urinary excretion of formate. There also were no statistically significant differences between groups in the number of subjects experiencing symptoms or in the number of symptoms per subject. These results further document the safety of the long-term consumption of aspartame at doses equivalent to the amount of aspartame in approximately 10 L of beverage per day.

This won't end the matter. People are going to believe what they want to believe, even my doctor, who claims to believe in "evidence based medicine", but only does so when it fits his prejudices. The article is sufficient for me.

We are all made of the same stuff (even doctors)

kw: book reviews, physicians, articles, essays

Beacon Press has published a delightful account of a Doctor's real education at the hands of her "patients." The title of this post is from the last phrase of the second chapter/essay/story (it is a wonderful sign when you can't quite classify a document, yet find it compelling reading).

Dr. Danielle Ofri, in Incidental Findings: Lessons from My Patients in the Art of Medicine gathers story/essays she's published over a decade or so, and a few current stories written "in real time." She didn't become an Attending Physician at New York's Bellevue Hospital by following any beaten path. She made her own path. After earning MD and PhD, and completing a residency at Bellevue, she alternated travel—mainly in Latin America, turning schooldays Spanish into a real second language—with temporary assignments at clinics in several small towns, whose locations fairly bracket the US.

Despite the overwhelming pressures on this generation of physicians, to run patients through in as assembly-line fashion as possible, to distance oneself from immense suffering, she has frequently made human connection with one person after another, going beyond "learning the human body" to learning the human.

From a woman whose terrible acne expresses her crushing poverty and abuse; to a suburban girl struggling with an abortion decision; to a once-prominent man reduced to a frail shell, yet having lost none of the drive—nor intolerance for fools—that made his empire; Dr. Ofri learns from them all, "...to envision patients beyond their role as sick people."