Mathematicians Pull An Invisible Matter Rabbit Out Of Schrödinger's Hat

Mathematicians Pull An Invisible Matter Rabbit Out Of Schrödinger's Hat: "You've read a lot about 'invisibility' over the last few years.  Mathematicians and scientists have been working on various devices that enable invisibility cloaks which shield small objects from detection by microwaves or sound waves.

An international team has devised an amplifier that can boost light, sound or other waves while hiding them inside an invisible container. As a first application, the researchers propose manipulating matter waves, which are the mathematical description of particles in quantum mechanics. The researchers envision building a quantum microscope that could capture quantum waves, the waves of the nano-world. A quantum microscope could, for example, be used to monitor electronic processes on computer chips. 

The authors dubbed their system 'Schrödinger's hat,' referring to the famed Schrödinger's cat in quantum mechanics. The name is also a nod to the ability to create something from what appears to be nothing.    A magic rabbit by a stage magician, for example.

'You can isolate and magnify what you want to see, and make the rest invisible,' said corresponding author Gunther Uhlmann, a University of Washington mathematics professor. 'You can amplify the waves tremendously. And although the wave has been magnified a lot, you still cannot see what is happening inside the container. In some sense you are doing something magical, because it looks like a particle is being created. It's like pulling something out of your hat.'"

German teen solves 300-year-old mathematical riddle

German teen solves 300-year-old mathematical riddle posed by Sir - DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG: "A German 16-year-old has become the first person to solve a mathematical problem posed by Sir Isaac Newton more than 300 years ago.

Shouryya Ray worked out how to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance, The (London) Sunday Times reported.

The Indian-born teen said he solved the problem that had stumped mathematicians for centuries while working on a school project.

Ray won a research award for his efforts and has been labeled a genius by the German media, but he put it down to 'curiosity and schoolboy naivety.'

'When it was explained to us that the problems had no solutions, I thought to myself, 'well, there's no harm in trying,'' he said.

Ray's family moved to Germany when he was 12 after his engineer father got a job at a technical college. He said his father instilled in him a 'hunger for mathematics' and taught him calculus at the age of six.

Ray's father, Subhashis, said his son's mathematical prowess quickly outstripped his own considerable knowledge.

'He never discussed his project with me before it was finished and the mathematics he used are far beyond my reach,' he said.

Despite not speaking a word of German when he arrived, Ray will this week sit Germany's high school leaving exams, two years ahead of his peers.

Newton posed the problem, relating to the movement of projectiles through the air, in the 17th century. Mathematicians had only been able to offer partial solutions until now.

If that wasn't enough of an achievement, Ray has also solved a second problem, dealing with the collision of a body with a wall, that was posed in the 19th century.

Both problems Ray resolved are from the field of dynamics and his solutions are expected to contribute to greater precision in areas such as ballistics."

Star Trek’s Enterprise ship could be built in 20 years at a cost of $1 trillion

Engineer: Star Trek’s Enterprise ship could be built in 20 years at a cost of $1 trillion | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News: "Whether you're a Trekkie or not, you have to admit that there's some sense of wonder toexploring the stars and trying to find life on distant planets. Of course, the U.S.S. Enterprise is a fictional ship, but have you ever put in the thought as to what it would take to actually build it, and when we could get it done if we really put in the effort? The man behind the well-researched site buildtheenterprise.org has, and he's determined that a fully functional Enterprise is only 20 years away if we put in the effort. Created by a systems and electrical engineer with 30 years' experience, the BuildTheEnterprise site sets out a very specific timeline for the research and construction of such a massive space-related undertaking. The first nine years are dedicated to research, component testing, and drawing up a number of possible blueprints. The following 11 years are dedicated to development, where components will be manufactured and launched into space for assembly. On year 20, the ship would be ready for a 'moon fly by' with full crew and supplies. The plan may seem overly ambitious, but consider that we're already using a number of gadgets that were all but predicted by the Star Trek television series. The estimated cost of building the Enterprise: about $50 billion a year for the next 20 years — $1 trillion in total. That sounds like a lot of money (because it is), but considering that the United States spent nearly that much on the controversial Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to bail out banks in 2008, putting a trillion towards making Star Trek a reality suddenly doesn't seem as ludicrous. Yeah, it's still pretty ludicrous, but in a really cool way."

Computing experts unveil superefficient ‘inexact’ chip

Computing experts unveil superefficient ‘inexact’ chip: "Researchers have unveiled an ‘inexact’ computer chip that challenges the industry’s 50-year pursuit of accuracy. The design improves power and resource efficiency by allowing for occasional errors. Prototypes unveiled this week at the ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers in Cagliari, Italy, are at least 15 times more efficient than today’s technology.

The research, which earned best-paper honors at the conference, was conducted by experts from Rice University in Houston, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Switzerland’s Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) and the University of California, Berkeley.

In terms of speed, energy consumption and size, inexact computer chips like this prototype, are about 15 times more efficient than today's microchips. ‘It is exciting to see this technology in a working chip that we can measure and validate for the first time,’ said project leader Krishna Palem, who also serves as director of the Rice-NTU Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (ISAID). ‘Our work since 2003 showed that significant gains were possible, and I am delighted that these working chips have met and even exceeded our expectations.’

ISAID is working in partnership with CSEM to create new technology that will allow next-generation inexact microchips to use a fraction of the electricity of today’s microprocessors.

‘The paper received the highest peer-review evaluation of all the Computing Frontiers submissions this year,’ said Paolo Faraboschi, the program co-chair of the ACM Computing Frontiers conference and a distinguished technologist at Hewlett Packard Laboratories. ‘Research on approximate computation matches the forward-looking charter of Computing Frontiers well, and this work opens the door to interesting energy-efficiency opportunities of using inexact hardware together with traditional processing elements.’

The concept is deceptively simple: Slash power use by allowing processing components — like hardware for adding and multiplying numbers — to make a few mistakes. By cleverly managing the probability of errors and limiting which calculations produce errors, the designers have found they can simultaneously cut energy demands and dramatically boost performance."

Edsger Dijkstra

“The traditional mathematician recognizes and appreciates mathematical elegance when he sees it. I propose to go one step further and to consider elegance an essential ingredient of mathematics: If it is clumsy, it is not mathematics.”

Inside a mathematical proof lies literature

Inside a mathematical proof lies literature, says Stanford's Reviel Netz: "Like novelists, mathematicians are creative authors. With diagrams, symbolism, metaphor, double entendre and elements of surprise, a good proof reads like a good story.

Reviel Netz, a professor of classics and, by courtesy, of philosophy, is especially interested in exploring the literary dimensions of the textual artifacts left by the likes of Archimedes and Euclid. Netz, one of the world's preeminent experts on the works of Archimedes, sees proofs as narratives that lead the reader turn by turn through an unfolding story that ends with a mathematical solution.

In his book Ludic Proof: Greek Mathematics and the Alexandrian Aesthetic, Netz reveals the stunning stylistic similarities between Hellenistic poetry and mathematical texts from the same era."

Leonard Nimoy set to beam up for Star Trek sequel

Leonard Nimoy set to beam up for Star Trek sequel | Celebrity Buzz | a Chron.com blog: "Leonard Nimoy is set to come out of retirement to reprise his Spock role in the new Star Trek blockbuster.

The 2009 sci-fi reboot cast younger actors as the series’ famed characters, with Zachary Quinto stepping into the role of Spock. Nimoy still featured in the hit movie as an older version of the character, but he announced in 2010 he was retiring from acting and was happy to let Quinto take the reins of his iconic hero.

But new U.S. reports have indicated that he will star in the sequel to the reboot."

A Giant Leap for Richard Nixon - WSJ.com

A Giant Leap for Richard Nixon - WSJ.com: "Imagine if President Nixon had decided to base his 1972 re-election campaign on the boast that he landed on the moon. His predecessors tried and failed for eight years. It wasn't an easy decision--what if something went wrong? But that's why you hire a president, to make those gutsy calls. Which path would George McGovern have taken?

That's analogous to President Obama's effort to campaign on the killing of Osama bin Laden. His absurd braggadocio is turning one of the few successes to occur under his leadership into a political liability."