Listening to Tragic Kingdom on repeat and solving electric fields from charge distributions like a boss.
Slowly I should be able to extend my competence to all the other areas of E&M… before Monday… right?
Almost Done…
In two weeks’ time I will be finished with my first year of graduate school, and hopefully all of those pesky qualifying exams. Never again will I have to take electromagnetic theory or quantum mechanics. I never really imagined that day coming, or thought that I would be excited. The truth is, you can only learn so much in a classroom. I am so anxious and restless to dive into research, without being held back by classes and exams. We’re going to find planets, we’re going to see what they are made of, we are going to see how they form, we might even learn more about the structure of active galaxies; we are going to push the limits on the way we obtain information, both on the sky and here on earth. Hopefully we will learn more about ourselves.
I’m almost done with this crazy year, so hopefully more posts in the future. Expect the usual topics: silly paint-drawings, aliens, and nerdy physics themes.
Cheers.
Today I remember
Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, and today I remember the alarmingly un-savage and calculated murder of millions of people. Today I think of my grandparents, who survived the ghettos and concentration camps and whose lives were certainly shortened by the trauma they faced. Today I remember that along with my parents and the rest of my family, I am also a survivor of this dark time in history.
Today I remember why laws — secular or religious — are never to be followed blindly and silence never to be kept in the face of discrimination. Today I remember to consider my biases and endeavor to correct them. Today I remember that even the criminals of our society have basic human rights not to be tortured, disfigured, or used as a scientific experiment.
Today I remember the strength of the human spirit to overcome incredible tragedy. Today I remember holding my grandmother’s hand and feeling its tremor. Today I remember walking through the streets of Jaffa with my grandfather and seeing the thin white hair above his smiling face. I don’t remember my maternal grandmother and I never met my paternal grandfather, but I know them through my parents and through stories. The stories remind me that they all picked up and started over, fostered families, and enjoyed their lives despite the time that was stolen from them.
I strive to remember these things, not just today, but always.
We can never let ourselves forget the failures of human judgment or blind ourselves with ignorance. There is no excuse. Let us remember today, tomorrow, and forever.
To my grandparents: I live my life in your honor.
An Oldie but a Goodie
“Why waste words when we can do math?”
-JHU Advanced Quantum Mechanics II
Joseph Fourier was a Fancy Guy
I know it hurts… Embrace the pun!
Oops…
The things a day of science-ing can make a person do… It happens to be Valentines day, and yesterday I may have accidentally written a love poem.
—————
There’s no supernatural explanation for our love
It is not derived from any powers above
For above is a relative orientation
And the universe is quite generous in its inflation
Its expansiveness extends in every direction
Where we lie in the center of wondrous imperfection
Well, from my perspective, that’s not quite right…
Unless we’re occupying the very same site
Though we can’t actually occupy the same space at the same time
That sounds uncomfortable anyway; I don’t really mind
I want to know your full spectrum, your amplitude and phase
I’ll share with you my Fourier series until the end of our days
And I assert that uncertainty cannot compromise our affection
We can’t measure the deviation in our macroscopic detection
So come as close to me as you can, in body and mind
Thank random chance for love’s emergence in mankind
We’ll stay close, in phase, crest to crest, trough to trough
(Though I’ll still be center and you, technically, slightly off)
—————
Consume Responsibly.
The subject of environmental awareness often spurs many heated debates. Sometimes these debates even regress to issues of morality, which is about as productive as arguing with a hot fudge sundae. “Maybe technology hurts us more than it helps. We should rid ourselves of this crippling vice and return back to nature!” Bullshit, I say. Our evolution and intelligence are just as much a part of nature as anything else. The real issue is that if we don’t start being smarter about energy we will lose access to all our amazing and wonderful technology that I love so much. Let’s work in our best interest and become responsible energy consumers!
Where does the electricity in your house come from? The wall, duh! But seriously, it’s a little more complicated than that. Many generators work by spinning a magnet through a conducting coil, where the changing magnetic field produces a current in that coil*. So to get current from our outlets, somewhere far away, there’s got to be some spinning magnets. You need a lot of energy to do all that spinning, so power plants may burn a fuel (releasing its chemical energy as heat) to vaporize a fluid, like water. The superheated, pressurized steam can then be used to turn the large turbine of a generator! All that fuss over boiling some water.
A standard heating cycle of this kind will have an efficiency of only about 30% (combining cycles and reusing some excess heat can raise that efficiency by a little). Less than half of the energy stored in our fuel is usable in this way! On top of everything, the electricity has to travel all the way from the plant to our houses, losing energy along its path from resistance in the cables that transport it. Bring that altogether to turn on an incandescent light bulb, which has about 5% efficiency; we aren’t doing very well. Oh, and by the way we’re also running low on this fuel.
From an engineering perspective, these problems are a challenge to our intellect, not our souls. I want to continue to consume all we do, and more! We need a sustainable plan and we need to stop ignoring the rate our resources are depleting. Recognizing where the power in our outlets comes from is a good start. Try to stop using paper plates and get on recycling. Is it really necessary to drive 3 blocks to the grocery store when you can use some of the energy stored up in your expanding waistline to walk there? And seriously, turn the light off when you’re not using it.
Alright we should be mindful of our waste, but we need to be active about our energy sources too. Conserving resources is necessary as always, but spending your energy knitting all your clothing out of used plastic bags isn’t going to solve our problems. The answer comes from exploiting science and technology and being open to change. We’re definitely smart enough to come up with better ways of harnessing energy.
So then what are the alternatives and why are we still whining about them? I’ll list a few.
Solar power
What a great idea! There’s all this free energy coming from nuclear reactions in the sun. I bet it’s enough energy to break hydrogen bonds in H2O so that life itself could emerge from a floating rock in space and evolve to intelligence. It is enough to sustain us, but converting it to usable energy is the tricky part. First of all, the manufacturing of solar panels takes a considerable amount of energy on its own. AND THEN we’re left with largely unrecyclable material when the panels stop working. Also, if you haven’t noticed, the sun only shines for part of the day on any given plot of land. You want to put your panels where it’s rarely cloudy and also closer to the equator for more direct light. You can’t install a solar cell anywhere and call yourself energy smart. Due to the cost of manufacturing compared to the lifetime of a solar cell, photovoltaic cells are still a research-stage option and cannot support our consumption at this time.
Wind Power
Think they’re a sore sight on the landscape? Get used to it. Another wonderful result of the sun is our weather— there’s all this energy pushing air around that we should be able to harness. However, wind is so incredibly variable and unpredictable that it cannot support the electric power grid. But there’s still hope! Having the battery technology to store and dissipate the energy efficiently would make wind power more viable. Proper storage is half the battle for sustainable energy.
Nuclear Power
A nuclear reaction is the most efficient way of converting mass to energy. It is an almost irresistible form of energy to seek out. Instead of burning a depleting supply of hydrocarbons that pollute the air, nuclear power harnesses the raw binding energy that holds large atoms together. By splitting these atoms we release an amazing amount of energy. We don’t release much waste AND we only need to use a little bit of mass to obtain the same amount of usable energy. The problem is that both the process and the waste (however little) are much more dangerous and have to be heavily regulated. Of course we do operate many safe plants and we have the capacity to utilize the energy in a safe way. In my opinion, nuclear power is a necessary source for the transition from conventional fuels to sustainable energy. However, opinions differ on the matter for good reason, and anyone who is concerned should be asking questions. Talk to nuclear engineers because they really know their stuff and some of them are lonely.
Etc.
There are many other potential sources – you’ll find them in places of naturally occurring motion or heat. The ocean provides a reliable heat gradient between the sun-warmed surface and the cold depths, which could run a power cycle. Waves move water, so why not a motor? Storing large amounts of energy could be as simple as pumping water uphill and letting it flow back down to spin a turbine when the energy is needed. Maybe we can make new kinds of batteries with different materials that will bring solar and wind power to the forefront. All in all, it will take a combined effort of many clever solutions, but we can definitely bring ourselves into a new age of technology where energy is abundant and attainable.
So maybe it’s to stop worrying about windmills making our landscape ugly and reconsider our perception of beauty. Beauty is appreciating our existence as a random and exceptional consequence of just the right conditions. How amazing it is that we could evolve to use technology; shouldn’t we try to stick around long enough to watch our efforts blossom? We don’t need to feel guilty about using energy; we just need to be smarter. Consuming responsibly means being aware of where your resources come from and cutting back on truly needless waste. Remember that the Earth will continue to orbit the sun whether or not we are here to observe it. If we don’t wise up nature will move on without us.
I encourage everyone to do their own research on the issues, ask the experts, and keep an open mind. *To learn a little about how generators work, see my buddy Dan’s blog entry about it here.
Groan-Worthy Interlude
Hello again internet!
I’m working on another full length post and I’m really anxious to get it out, but if I put it up too soon it will just be one big mess. The teaser— it’s a topic very close to my heart: alternative energy and the environment.
So in the meantime here’s a treat, a meme created by my personal editor and an all around wonderful guy. He is also a grad student, studying the amazing world of chemistry and lasers!! Laugh, cry, groan, and enjoy!
He likes cats and I drew this picture of him once:
Alex Greenbaum
