Dr. Chu goes to Washington...

... and ends up hungover, waking up next to a solar panel. In a clever combination of the politician's non-denial denial of the affair and his characteristic dry wit while more or less staying true to what he believes in:

“I just want everyone to know that my decision not to serve a second term as Energy Secretary has absolutely nothing to do with the allegations made in this week’s edition of the Onion. While I’m not going to confirm or deny the charges specifically, I will say that clean, renewable solar power is a growing source of US jobs and is becoming more and more affordable, so it’s no surprise that lots of Americans are falling in love with solar.”

His wife purportedly expressed skepticism: "Is that really you? You don't have hair on your chest."

In a sense, Prof. Steve Chu's stint in Washington D.C. does indeed feel like the Frank Capra's movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He even showed an excerpt of it (2m16s until about 2m37s). The naïve and nerdy physicist who's an ardent advocate for renewable energy and had to be forced to talk about the oil and gas industries as SoE.

He talked about many many examples of how a technology was initially derided and dismissed even by subject experts until it found an agent of dissemination who made it economically feasible and popular. And then it becomes as obvious to anyone. Like James Watt to the steam engine and Henry Ford to the automobile. A log-log-linear learning curve, if you will.

"[Refrigerator size] is not plateauing because of the size of the American appetite. It's plateauing because of the size of the kitchen door."

He clearly enjoyed his time at Bell Labs. Of the "flat structure where everyone argued about ideas but respected one another as people." I wish I could always find such places to do my work in... If there are more articulate scientists with social conscience, perhaps the Earth would not be totally destroyed after all...

"We Do Not Inherit the Earth from Our Ancestors; We Borrow It from Our Children."

At the end of the talk, he quoted Apollo 8 astronauts and showed the entirety of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot.

Two members of the audience asked him questions along the line of "how do you encourage scientists/ students/ student-scientists to be involved in policy? Any advice?" I don't remember what he said exactly, but it had the gist of Dory the blue tang's "just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming swimming swimming"

Mwahaha sorry about the earworm. And if anyone can comment on the feasibility of fusion as an energy source, it would be the veteran laser guru.

Double, double, toil and trouble;

... Fire burn, and pseudopotentials bubble. That about sums up my research these days.

Fiddling with the mysterious inner workings of how to best represent atomic orbitals so they appear to behave just like in experimental observations...

It's like the simmering of a secret sauce where each ingredient must be mixed in the right amount and added at the right time. Otherwise dramatic explosions break out in the form of error messages like "Jacobian has collapsed", "5s is unbound", "x1 must be monotonically increasing", or "failed to bracket eigenvalues". 

Now I know why Snape the potion master is perennially frustrated. At least my research group appreciated the Shakespeare reference and the clip-art of a bubbly cauldron.

Brain Pickings is the most intriguing and illuminating website I've visited in a while

- - -
io9.com is a close second. Together this makes for my shortest blog entry with the most number of tags.

I particularly should check out these collections of books... on the left panel on the main page. I already read a few of them and heard about a few more, but hmm... haven't read real books in a while. Too many things are happening lately...

WARNING: Conference trolls, mess with me and you die. :-)

- - -

(2:15:22 PM) Me: I have found that conference poster trolls are @$$holes
(2:15:30 PM) Me: At some point I will screw with them
(2:15:53 PM) Me: But I'm too much of a rookie right now
(2:20:09 PM) Friend: It's not a big deal when you're presenting a poster
(2:20:18 PM) Friend: Just wait until you give a talk and the trolls attack
(2:20:31 PM) Me: hmm
(2:20:41 PM) Me: I have not encountered that at that symposium
(2:20:44 PM) Friend: Chances are it's something personal in any case
(2:21:04 PM) Me: however, the moderator did introduce one speaker as "beauty and power in the same package"
(2:21:19 PM) Friend: People challenging your work have a competing work, or more likely they're competing for a share of the same funding pie.
(2:21:24 PM) Me: because the audience was 2/3 white males over 40
(2:21:39 PM) Me: and the speaker was a youngish Chinese woman
(2:21:51 PM) Me: I see... competitors
(2:21:57 PM) Friend: Haha what is this the 19th century?
(2:22:03 PM) Me: yes
(2:22:05 PM) Me: totally
(2:22:09 PM) Friend: At least physicists don't have the balls to make a comment like that.
(2:22:32 PM) Me: Although if the competitors don't have valid point, everyone else can see that it's playground squabble
(2:23:48 PM) Friend: I don't get it was the moderator really old?
(2:24:07 PM) Friend: I just can't imagine that happening at any conference I go to, it'd be really awkward
(2:24:30 PM) Me: He was kinda old
(2:24:35 PM) Me: Not *that* old
(2:24:38 PM) Me: 50 ish
(2:24:56 PM) Me: I wonder how many times the speaker got comments like these
(2:25:10 PM) Me: prolly a few times
(2:30:18 PM) Friend: Still doesn't seem very appropriate in a professional setting.
(2:30:24 PM) Friend: Even if it's a real small conference.
(2:30:35 PM) Friend: Unless the speaker was the moderator's wife or something like that
(2:30:44 PM) Me: oh hahahahahha
(2:30:58 PM) Me: That has not been confirmed or denied... :P
(2:31:04 PM) Friend: Well who knows.
(2:31:13 PM) Me: indeed
(2:31:16 PM) Friend: I keep hearing conferences are good places to hook up
(2:31:26 PM) Me: Even for old ass people?
(2:31:32 PM) Me: ... especially
(2:31:35 PM) Me: for old ass people
(2:32:09 PM) Friend: You have a point
(2:32:21 PM) Friend: I'm 29 and I'm already starting to lose interest
(2:33:24 PM) Me: les sighs
(2:36:08 PM) Friend: I can't imagine what I'd be like when I'm 50
(2:36:26 PM) Me: I can't either
(2:36:28 PM) Me: scary thought
(2:36:34 PM) Me: banish banish
(2:42:20 PM) Friend: tiger mom :-P
(2:43:26 PM) Me: Me?? ZOMG
(2:43:40 PM) Me: I sure hope not


(3:16:41 PM) Me: I shall try to get some exercise now I suppose
(3:16:58 PM) Friend: You should lift weights and get really buff, wouldn't that be cool?
(3:17:04 PM) Me: I am already hahaha
(3:17:15 PM) Friend: I mean arnold buff
(3:17:17 PM) Me: I lift weights when I watch TV
(3:17:19 PM) Me: oh lol
(3:17:23 PM) Me: I thought he used roids
(3:17:29 PM) Friend: That's also an option
(3:17:34 PM) Me: no roids for me.
(3:17:38 PM) Friend: You lift weights while watching tv?
(3:17:41 PM) Me: yes
(3:17:57 PM) Friend: Like you benchpress 400 lbs?
(3:18:04 PM) Me: I wish hahaha
(3:18:11 PM) Friend: That would rule
(3:18:14 PM) Me: it would
(3:18:21 PM) Me: and then I would be afraid of no one
(3:18:36 PM) Me: the conference trolls I can take out in 3 seconds
(3:18:39 PM) Friend: Then you would get some good introductions at conferences
(3:18:47 PM) Me: Hell yeah
(3:19:13 PM) Me: alright time to run up and down stairs.......
(3:19:14 PM) Friend: You should start wearing a sword and a full suit of armor to conferences
(3:19:19 PM) Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
(3:19:30 PM) Friend: The trolls won't mess with you.
(3:19:34 PM) Me: Totally awesome
(3:19:56 PM) Me: Mayhaps I shall try that sometimes
(3:20:04 PM) Friend: I just learned the other day the main character in metroid is a girl
(3:20:10 PM) Me: :P
(3:20:20 PM) Friend: Perhaps a suit like that.
(3:22:03 PM) Me: booyah
(3:23:01 PM) Friend: http://kometani.deviantart.com/art/Assault-Armor-Girl-60670980
(3:23:09 PM) Friend: Yes, this will do
(3:23:13 PM) Me: hohoh
(3:23:19 PM) Friend: But a bigger gun
(3:23:24 PM) Me: pffft
(3:23:42 PM) Friend: You prefer the sword?
(3:23:50 PM) Me: yes
(3:24:11 PM) Me: I like to have slim and deadly weaponry
(3:24:28 PM) Me: mmmmmmmm
(3:24:35 PM) Me: okay aerobic workout time
(3:24:52 PM) Me: stairs on mid-rises
(3:25:00 PM) Friend: http://www.3dtotal.com/pages/interviews/guillaume_menuel/images/large_images/image_01_armor_girl_s.php
(3:25:16 PM) Me: hahaa
(3:25:22 PM) Friend: Surprisingly most images of girls with swords are also very skimpily dressed
(3:25:28 PM) Me: no one is ever messing with her
(3:25:29 PM) Me: lol
(3:25:31 PM) Friend: Not really appropriate for conference
(3:25:37 PM) Me: indeed

Associative Musical Visual Intelligence

- - -

Take the quiz here. I thought the analogy between musical phrases and geometrical shapes is interesting but has room for interpretation. I got one question "wrong" out of twenty. I also had to listen to each one 2-3 times. So meh. Although I suspect the average score would be significantly lower if they don't have the replay button. I wonder if they take into account how many times something is replayed or how fast the tasks are completed.

Classy sample of spam from a mailing list

- - -

"I am desperately searching for eager victims - postdocs or PhD students - mine or other supervisors' - to make my workhorses and to plunder ideas from. I am a dirty Hun who seethes from jealousy out of every pore. I cannot do research myself because I'm narrow-minded, rigid-brained, and petty. Therefore, I have to recruit desperate scientists from anywhere in the world and then manage (harangue) them into submission. 

The smarter you are relative to me, the more I will hate you. If you complain, you will be threatened by my gang of goons - faculty and administration are all allied with me in order to achieve our clan's goal of world domination which has eluded us for the last century or so. The reward for taking up this Faustian bargain with me is good renumeration - but if you start to complain or expose the secret of my incompetence to others, especially outsiders, then you will be let go as we cannot tolerate traitors within our ranks. ALL credit for your work will go to me and my gang of inbred dullards, not to you. 

We are ruthless gangsters who recruit legitimate scientists from all over the world to do our work because we cannot do any of it ourselves - due to severe brain rigidity brought about by centuries of inbreeding the traits of blind obedience, robotization, and general dullness. The techniques which we employ to keep these victims productive is nagging, threats and psychological abuse, facilitated by the university's administration. Eventually, the victims give up all credit for their research to us. I have no conscience since I am a psychopath. I am entitled to success because supremacy is my birthright."

Interdisciplinary approach to the energy issues

- - -
Met students from all different fields of science, economics, business, and law. [Insert "synergy" here]

Really got a comprehensive view of how to solve the energy problems, although a lot more breadth than depth. Lots of brief talks (engineers/scientists thought were too non-technical and some MBA/law students thought were too technical). I learned more about carbon capture & sequestration, geothermal powers, wind turbines, aviation and automotive research, etc. On the non-science side, there's carbon tax, cap & trade, behavioral economics, and that McKinsey greenhouse gas abatement cost graph...

Fun tours to local habitats and companies and labs...

Revealing water’s secrets - MIT News Office

Revealing water’s secrets - MIT News Office

Water is an interesting substance indeed - I mean, ice floats in water... what other material's solid form floats in its liquid form?






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Existential meetings in space and time

- - -
me: how're things?

friend: Hi,
Things are.
I'm trying to write a paper.

me: Things are indeed

friend: How are things there?
Are-ing, too?

me: yes
just realized I have a 9am meeting
which I thought was at 10
oy.

friend: That's sad.
Even if people are well up and out by 9:00, nothing should be scheduled until 10:00 or later.
The French seem to abide by that.
Still, if you are working then, you don't have to schedule meetings then.

me: the nanofab people seem to be... early
actually, they start early and often end late
It's a "fab user" meeting

friend: A user meeting?!?!

me: If I schedule something, it's almost always 1pm or 2pm or 3pm.

friend: Those should not happen at least until 3:00.
Exactly.
There's just something about building invisible things that makes one immune to time.

me: yes
astrophysicists
mathematicians
philosophers

friend: Yes.
I suspect that if you get used to not being able to perceive three spatial dimensions, then you also become numb to the fourth dimension.

me: ahahaha






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The zen of simulacrums

- - -
me: I'm compulsively surfing blogs today
I also went comment happy
must be a rebound from the powerpoint making marathon this week
 
friend: haha write a few wiki articles while you are at it then
 
me: Hmm, I'm not big on writing wiki articles
My writing is mostly fiction nowadays
even my research
jk

friend: fiction is simulation =)

me: Thanks har har

friend: the reverse may not be true

me: mmm that actually sounds deeply philosphical

friend: isn't it?






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[Fudgy Science Episode 002] (FSE 002)

- - -
Upon further reflection based on the last two days, I have revised my graph from FSE 001.

I added hysteresis loops into the system, so now it has "memory" and would thus depend on the immediately prior state. This means that if I start out fully awake and become less awake, I would follow the arrows pointing left. If I start out comatose and become more awake, I would follow the arrows that pointing right.

The dip in the bottom blue curve in the 80% to 100% awake range indicates an "OMFG what was I rambling about earlier" moment.

This is probably related to the refractory period or the elastic curves... recovering from a comatose state takes more energy because the brain has been running on an empty tank, so to speak.

I realized this after I went from ~50% awake to ~70% awake over the past two days due to a last-minute whirlwind generation of data figures because my old figures were deemed "weird and inconclusive". My new graphs basically verified the findings from a previous paper, using a similar system but not exactly the same. Since it was a paper that I found on Monday, of which my collaborators have never seen, it proved to be the saving grace for my presentation today... otherwise I would have no "new" data whatsoever. I spent the entire day yesterday running loads of simulations and finishing my slides.

Collaborator: "I saw you were still changing your Powerpoint file at 2AM..." (Yay Dropbox shared folder)
Me: "Yeah um... the table has like 30 things in it..."






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A scary congregation of toxic gases

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I think this is more than what Britney Spears had in mind when she wrote "Toxic"...

Yeah, um, I was too scared to get closer for a clearer shot. I couldn't tell what the bottom two were... but here are their identities:
(1) tertiarybutylarsine
(2) trimethylgallium
(3) tributylphosphine
(4) trimethylindium
(5) trimethylaluminum
(6) dimethylzinc
(7) Jabba the Hutt's fart
(8) Meth lab explosion

I will figure out what (7) and (8) really are.

[Edit 2011.07.28 19:06]
(7) is 1,1-dimethylhydrazine (UDMHy) ... My original guess wasn't too far off.
(8) is 200ppm silane in hydrogen






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Going against the flow

- - -
Wow, this is a whole new level of rad! Counter stream uphill and all... hail to the power of physics!






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The academic track as an RPG

- - -
The PHD Comics has already presented this process as a game of Monopoly, but what will manifest all the intricacies in their visceral splendor is... making an RPG. Granted, it'll only appeal to a very small crowd, of which only a small fraction would be masochistic enough to relive their lives in an alternate reality.

But yes, it'd be a lot like Spore. The evolution and leveling-up through different stages, i.e. undergrad, grad, post-doc, (research associate), assistant prof, associate prof, full prof, and emeritus prof :-P

I suspect if anyone actually makes this game, it'd be more for self-amusement (abuse?) LOL.

Conversational

- - -
Met a friend I haven't seen in a while. As good grad students, we chatted about research. I talked about my quantum physics simulations and he talked about MOS cap parameter extraction and modeling...

And then I managed to turn a conversation about the new football-themed decor at a campus dining place into a dialogue about philosophy, religion, and science :-P

"So many football pictures here... people are obsessed!"

"Yeah, the whole sports fan concept is like a religion... hardcore fans almost worship their favorite teams and/or players..."

"Are you Christian?"

"No, you?"

"I'm Buddhist."

"Buddhism is more like a philosophy... Christianity is more similar to sports team worshipping :-P"

"So do you believe in anything?"

"This may sound a little strange... I believe in the laws of Nature."

"Like Newton's Laws and such?"

"Yes, although they're only a subset of Nature's laws because they only work part of the time... And we won't ever discover all the laws because of our limited perception..."

(Then we talked about scientific discoveries and technological advancement... and decided that anything could happen in the next thousand years.)

For the greater good...

- - -

Currently running (not all simultaneously) Folding@Home, AQUA@Home, and climateprediction.net from the list of distributed computing projects.

Donated to Wikipedia. After all, I use it many times every day :-P

I would like to think that I'm helping out... even when I'm goofing... especially when I'm goofing.

The "Fairchild 8", a.k.a. "Fairchildren"

- - -
Watched documentary. NY Times columnist Tom Friedman said in the film that "in Japan in the 1970's, Bob Noyce was [famous] like Brittany Spears. It's too bad that in America, Brittany Spears is Brittany Spears." :-P

The Singularity is near!

- - -
And no, the NEMSSS seminar today did not involve giant Madagascar cockroaches. It did involve cybborrg beettles, complete with implanted chips inserted during pupal stage.

The chip talks to the remote control and stimulates muscles that pull on the exoskeleton that creates a mechanical resonance to flap the wings. With directional control by individual pulse train stimulation on left vs. right wing. The speaker was a former student of my PI. He was very energetic like a boy with his favorite toy.

He was also very eager to discuss the ethical issues about controlling beetles, etc. I think that he's only interested in it as an intellectual debate. N from my group thinks that if it were our PI, he would be more inclined toward the "don't hurt the beetles because it causes pain" side.

The study is basically funded by DARPA. Surprise surprise!

Stuff I learned recently

- - -
(1) My PI was going to be a professional baseball player before hurting his shoulder in college.

(2) He's also very good at volleyball and ping pong.

(3) Two students are married in my lab. I thought there was only one. A third is getting married this June. This is of course not counting the two post-docs who are married as well.

(4) Administrative chores really don't mix well with running a research lab and teaching and advising. This means someone else should be the SSNNNFF director. :-P

(5) My PI used to be more energetic and told more jokes during lab meetings... before the recession.

Entertaining group meeting

- - -
The presenter today had a definite comedic bent. He was talking about his latest work in the SSNFFF named "Grand Canyon III". It's a modified etching process for a silicon-based photonic/MEMS device that he's been working on.

He talked about Grand Canyon I and II, what was done, and why they failed. He described the failures with a satirical twist. "Everything works great! But only if you need [insert specific case]."

He also drew an analogy for different flavors of fabrication processes.
Plain vanilla: traditional process
Vanilla with colorful sprinkles: adapted for photonic crystals
Chocolate: with extra oxidation step
Chocolate chips, melted and flopped over: Grand Canyon I and II

There was a monstrous flowchart on a bunch of the slides, which made me shudder. He then proceeded to trace over various paths that he took over the years.

My PI: That should go on a PHD comic.
Group: Hahaha... hahahaha...

My PI was really excited about the progress. Yay!