Gravitational Waves and LIGO Experiment

One of the fascinating argument of Einsteins' theory of General Relativity can be simply illustrated by the foam-ball diagram. Where a heavy ball put on the surface would produce a curvature. Thereby generating the deformation so that if a lighter ball is rolling nearby, it would cause the ball to roll towards the bigger ball.

Similarly, if we imagine that the space-time that our universe resides is a giant surface in 4-dimension, then we can argue that things that have mass will cause that surface to bend. In other words, the matter will tell the spacetime where to bend while the spacetime curvature will then dictate how the mass will travel.  The more "heavy" the mass, the more bending. Ultimately, the  heavy "mass" or huge Energy, can cause a hole in the fabric of spacetime. That we call the black hole!

What is interesting is that we can imagine traveling from point A to B. If the amount of effort that is required is called as action, then naturally one tends to minimize the action. The most straightforward way to minimize the action in two dimension is a straight line! Now, if you were in four dimension, and wanted to go from point (need to call it a four-point as it has four co-ordinates) A to point B. Then naturally, it would be a "straight" line in 4D! However, the manifestation of the space and time makes it look like a curved line near the "heavy" masses. That's the reason behind the orbits of the planets. You may ask: but, aren't the planets coming back to the same positions after one planetary year? Yes, that is right in space. But in time, you moved one year's worth of journey! Think about it!

That means there is no force which is pulling things around. It is just the manifestation of the bending of the spacetime fabric.

When  masses accelerate, gravitational waves are produced. This can cause "ripples" in the space!

The LIGO experiment, (LIGO: The Laster Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) was designed in 1992. It is a large-scale physics experiment to detect gravitational waves. It consists of 4 km long tunnels in L-shape. LASER interferometry is used to detect any change in the fabric of space due to the gravitational wave. Interferometry go about finding changes in the distance between the points A and B by using the principle of superposition of the waves, by measuring the change in the fringes due to shifting of the reflecting mirrors for example.  This works because when two waves with the same wavelength/frequency meet, their fates are determined by the phase difference between the waves. The waves in phase will undergo constructive interference and the out-of-phase will undergo destructive interference [See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_xd9hUZ2AY More specifically this one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUytkiBwXvI]. 

In the case of LIGO experiment, the primary interferometers consist of mirrors suspended at each corners of the L-shaped vacuum tube (4km long). A LASER beam is used to monitor the interference patterns called fringes. When a gravitational wave passes through the interferometer site, the fabric of spacetime is affected. Since the instrument is L-shaped, one side will be stretched while the other side is compressed. This changes the phase of the reflecting waves causing the phase difference between the ends of the L-tube, and thus the wave should be detected!!! 

The LIGO has to detect the distortion of 10^(-18) m in space for the light that reflects off the 4-km long tunnel! This is the length less than one thousandth of the diameter of a proton (fm=10^-15). Moreover, since there are two LIGO experiment sites(46°27′18.52″N119°24′27.56″W and
30°33′46.42″N90°46′27.27″W), triangulation method can be used to find the source of the ripple!

Here is a nice video explaining the method

https://youtu.be/FXlg3cr-q44?t=1m20s

Now here comes the big news!

LIGO has detected the gravitational wave!!!

The authors claim that the signals came from two merging black holes, each about 30 times the mass of our sun, lying 1.3 billion light-years away.

The scientific paper is here:

http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102

If you are interested in the press release,

https://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gwave#graphics

FYI: India is working on next LIGO experiment
https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/ligo-india

Also, it seems like Einstein had doubt about the Gravitational waves at some point
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/58/9/10.1063/1.2117822

One interesting presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajZojAwfEbs

Disclaimer: These are my personal notes. Please draw conclusions at your own risk.

Li-ion battery issue of Boeing's Dreamliner 787

Santosh KC writes about a recent incident involving Li-ion battery in the Boeing's 787 Dreamliner ...

Boeing 787 Dreamliner is supposed to be one of the best planes in terms of its design, fuel efficiency and advancement of the technology. Everyone understands that every plane requires battery for backups or some electrical applications. However, the Dreamliner uses the Li-ion battery based on Lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) extensively. It is because it is designed in such a way to use electrical signals for control system unlike the earlier planes with hydraulic control system.  All 787s have two Li-ion batteries weighting around 63 pounds, compared with 106 pounds for nickel-cadmium battery in 777s, and holds electric charge of 65 ampere-hours, compared with 47 ampere-hours for 777 battery and measures 8.6 inches tall by 11 inches wide in dimensions... Overheating and catching fire by Li-ion battery in laptop, smartphones and electric vehicles has already been reported in many instances. However, such issues were not reported in aircraft because the Li-ion battery was not used for the electrical system in the planes to the extent as in Dreamliner.  

Read more here...

Li-ion battery issue in Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner

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Curiosity @ Mars #msl

Curiosity will be landing on Mars this week.
You can follow it @MarsCuriosity
We wish the curiosity rover a nice journey and (√) a smooth landing.


The mission will take about 8 months to reach Mars.
Lets start with a minute video.



Here is the animation of landing to the red planet.


The process on the ground


For updates follow http://twitter.com/#!/MarsCuriosity
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html

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Embryonic development of Fruitfly, cell by cell

Embryonic development of fruit flies has been tracked in realtime by using multidirectional imaging technique.

While watching it, ask yourself when does the life enter into the clusters of cell...


More...
Fruitfly development, cell by cell : Nature News & Comment:

"References
Tomer, R., Khairy, K., Amat, F. & Keller, P. Nature Methods http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2062 (2012).
Show context
Krzic, U., Gunthur, S., Saunders, T. E., Streichan, S. J. & Hufnagel, L. Nature Methods http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2064 (2012)."

FBI records of Feynman released to public

Richard Feynman, born on May 11, 1918 @ Far Rockaway, Queens, New York, U.S. was an American physicist.
He is a very well known figure for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...  [read more here].

At the height of cold war, he was investigated by FBI. Now the FBI records have been released to the public.
Follow the detailed story at:
http://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2012/jun/06/feynman-files-professors-invitation-past-iron-curt/
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Solution to "Newton's Math Problem" by Shouryya Ray

OR,
Analytical solution of two fundamental unsolved problems of particle dynamics

When I heard that "Newton's math puzzle was solved", I searched for the problem. All I could find was the news with variation of the title: Newton math puzzle, a 350 year old problem, solved by an Indian boy who lives in Germany. Everyone is simply running after the boy and his origin. No description of his work. Yahoo, Google, Bing, all of them capturing the same news item! Of course they show what the interest has been.

The main contribution, which mattered to me, was buried in the pages.

Here is the winner abstract (the webpage was translated using Google translator in Chrome):

• Category: Mathematics / computer science 
• Supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jochen Fröhlich, Dr.-Ing. Tobias Kempe 
• Competition Energy: Youth Research

Awards received:

• Second Place in the national competition
• Regional winner
• Regional winner for the best interdisciplinary project

Two problems in classical mechanics have withstood several centuries of mathematical endeavor. The first problem is to calculate the trajectory of a body thrown at an angle in the Earth's gravitational field and Newtonian flow resistance. The underlying law was discovered by Newton (17th century). The second problem is the objective description of a particle-wall collision under Hertzian collision force and linear damping. The collision energy was derived in 1858 by Hertz, a linear damping force has been known since Stokes (1850).
This paper has so far only the analytical solution of this approximate or numerical targets for the problems solved. First, the two problems are solved fully analytically generalized context, they are then compared with numerical solutions and, finally, on the basis of the analytical solutions derived statements about the physical behavior.

Original page here:

Youth Research 2012 DD Ostsachsen
And the picture of Ray holding the equation:
https://www.jugend-forscht.de/images/1MAT_67_download.jpg
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Simulated Moon Landing Compared with the Eagle's descend to Moon

An   enthusiastic  Apollo fan created a footage using Google Moon and matched it with the video from the Eagle's camera.

Watch the video... it is awe-mazing!



You can download the Google Moon KMZ file for import into Google Moon from:
http://www.mem-tek.com/apollo/Google_Moon_KMZ_files/Apollo_11.kmz
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I'll leave you something to imagine

Symphonyofscience has brought quite an interesting music video (made with the auto tunes).
The latest video is named "The Quantum World".
It examines the nature of the atoms and subatomic particles that make up everything we know. Watch the video, have fun!




They feature the followings:
Richard Feynman - Fun to Imagine
BBC Visions of the Future - the Quantum Revolution
Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman
Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking
Brian Cox TED Talk
BBC What Time is it
BBC Wonders of the Universe
BBC Horizon - What Is Reality

I loved the last punch line...

The Lyrics:

[Morgan Freeman]
So, what are we really made of?
Dig deep inside the atom
and you'll find tiny particles
Held together by invisible forces

Everything is made up
Of tiny packets of energy
Born in cosmic furnaces

[Frank Close]
The atoms that we're made of have
Negatively charged electrons
Whirling around a big bulky nucleus

[Michio Kaku]
The Quantum Theory
Offers a very different explanation
Of our world

[Brian Cox]
The universe is made of
Twelve particles of matter
Four forces of nature

That's a wonderful and significant story

[Richard Feynman]
Suppose that little things
Behaved very differently
Than anything big

Nothing's really as it seems
It's so wonderfully different
Than anything big

The world is a dynamic mess
Of jiggling things
It's hard to believe

[Kaku]
The quantum theory
Is so strange and bizarre
Even Einstein couldn't get his head around it

[Cox]
In the quantum world
The world of particles
Nothing is certain
It's a world of probabilities

(refrain)

[Feynman]
It's very hard to imagine
All the crazy things
That things really are like

Electrons act like waves
No they don't exactly
They act like particles
No they don't exactly

[Stephen Hawking]
We need a theory of everything
Which is still just beyond our grasp
We need a theory of everything, perhaps
The ultimate triumph of science

(refrain)

[Feynman]
I gotta stop somewhere
I'll leave you something to imagine

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Drilling the VostoK ice core: search for life in isolated places.

Update: The Russians (may [1, 2]) have reached at the depth of 3768 meters, the surface of the sub-glacial lake. [Sourcehttp://news.discovery.com/earth/they-did-it-curent-status-on-russian-lake-vostok-120206.html]
More: here,
The origin of life is an interesting topic because addressing it affects so many philosophical aspects of present day science. As a computational scientists, we do believe in the Markov Chain Monte Carlo-like trial and error method of evolution[!], whereby the living organism is subjected to several forces of evolution and the chances of evolution depends upon the probability of survival of the evolved beings.

Other views on origin of life are open and are welcome!

The vostok ice core has been compared with other environments such as that of the deep sea of Europa or the ice volcanoes of Enceladus; the moons of Jupiter and Saturn respectively. This lake has been isolated for 14 million years. Exploration of such isolated system (without infecting them) could open up possibilities of testing various hypotheses on the origin/possibilities of life on outer/other planets.
A nice article: http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/blog/2012/02/05/vostok-lake-time-forgot 

Lake VostoK src

Quoting BBC:

The Russians have friendly competition from US and British teams. Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (Bas) are hoping to begin their project to drill into Lake Ellsworth in Antarctica later this year. An American crew is targeting Lake Whillans.

From:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/antarctic-lake-drilling

Human Body as an Ecosystem and advent of Green Medicine

This sounds fascinating concept; equally impressive to grasp!

In an article published in scientific american, Humans Carry More Bacterial Cells than Human Ones, scientists claim human body to contain more bacterial cell than the human cell itself. So if you have 100 trillion cells in your body,  about the same number of bacteria are are paying you homage. Nice host. Moreover, it has also been reported that they have also contributed to human genes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project, http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml). Strangely, other species seem to have less  connections with bacteria; or may be it is yet to be discovered.

By definition, Ecosystem is a functional unit consisting of living things in a given area, non-living chemical and physical factors of their environment, linked together through nutrient cycle and energy flow. Since they help to maintain various body processes, this makes human as a host and the body as an ecosystem.

We had already learnt that some bacteria were friendly and some were not. Identification of pathogenic bacteria and use of  antibiotic treatment has been hailed as one of the great success in medical history. The side effects of antibiotics are not so unfamiliar and reasoned as  killing off pathogenic as well as friendly bacteria. However, once we are able to understand the ecosystem of human body, curing "infectious" diseases should be just a treat load of another identified bacteria! Shall we call it Green Medicine?