Saturday, June 11, 2011

On The Other Hand...

Mothers guard your children! This is what can happen when you get strung along by mathematical figments of the unimagination:

UCSB Physicists Apply Einstein's Theory to Superconducting Circuits

June 9, 2011

	Click for downloadable imageThe gravitational description of the superconducting condensate shows a suppression in the gap. Credit: Jorge Santos, UCSB Click for downloadable imageGary T. Horowitz Credit: George Foulsham, Office of Public Affairs, UCSB

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) – In recent years, UC Santa Barbara scientists showed that they could reproduce a basic superconductor using Einstein's general theory of relativity. Now, using the same theory, they have demonstrated that the Josephson junction could be reproduced. The results are explained in a recent issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.

The Josephson junction, a device that was first discovered by Brian David Josephson in the early 1960's, is a main ingredient in applications of superconductivity.

Gary Horowitz, professor of physics at UCSB, said that Einstein's general theory of relativity – which was developed as a theory of gravity and is extremely successful in explaining a wide variety of gravitational phenomena – is now being used to explain several aspects of non-gravitational physics.

"The basic phenomenon with Josephson junctions is that you can take two superconductors, separate them by a little gap, and still find current going across it, in a specific way," said Horowitz. "And that has found many applications. So the Josephson junction is something we've reproduced using general relativity."

Horowitz said that he and his co-authors used tools from string theory to develop the gravity model of a superconductor. He explained that it was surprising to be able to link Einstein's general theory of relativity to a totally different area of physics. He said he hoped that the new tools would one day be able to shed light on new types of superconductors.

"Most materials, if you cool them down sufficiently, will actually conduct electricity without any resistance," said Horowitz. "These are superconductors. There is a standard theory of superconductivity, discovered about 50 years ago, that has worked well for most of the so-called conventional superconductors."

A new class of materials was discovered 25 years ago. These are superconductors that have zero resistance at somewhat higher temperatures. Physicists are still working on understanding the mechanism.

This new class of materials involves copper-oxygen planes. Another new class of superconductors, based on iron instead of copper, was discovered a couple of years ago. These materials, called iron nictides, also have the property of superconducting at a higher temperature.

"There is a lot of activity and interest in understanding these materials," said Horowitz. "Ultimately, the goal is to have a room-temperature superconductor, which, you can imagine, would have lots of interesting applications."

Horowitz and his research team found what could be called a gravitational model, or a gravitational dual – a dual description of a superconductor using gravity, black holes, and all of the traditional ingredients of general relativity. "This came as quite a surprise because this is a totally different area of physics, which is now being connected to this condensed matter area," said Horowitz.

The co-authors of the paper are postdoctoral fellow Jorge E. Santos and graduate student Benson Way.

Eureka!

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific — and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise —
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

The trio of researchers--Fischbach, Jenkins and Sturrock--deserve to be highly commended and supported by our once great government in their breathtaking and astonishing work! The compelling fact that they have recognized the potential life saving aspect of that research is truly remarkable:

3. Finally, in all the cases we have observed, there is a precursor signal in which the
54Mn count rate begins to change ∼1 day before the solar event. This observation raises the
possibility of establishing an “early-warning” system for potentially dangerous impending
solar storms, whose damaging eﬀects on astronauts; communications, navigation, defense

and other satellites; and power grids and other electronic infrastructure could thus be
prevented.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Yet More Crocodile Tears from Paul Krudman

Unfortunately, it's sort of like the cargo cult waiting for Krugman to utter the only solution to the mess: the return of Glass-Steagall and bankruptcy for the speculator's "investment" houses that finance the hallowed halls of academe where Krugman is wont to graze...

Rule by Rentiers

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: June 9, 2011

REPRINTS

The latest economic data have dashed any hope of a quick end to America’s job drought, which has already gone on so long that the average unemployed American has been out of work for almost 40 weeks. Yet there is no political will to do anything about the situation. Far from being ready to spend more on job creation, both parties agree that it’s time to slash spending — destroying jobs in the process — with the only difference being one of degree.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Paul Krugman

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Nor is the Federal Reserve riding to the rescue. On Tuesday, Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, acknowledged the grimness of the economic picture but indicated that he will do nothing about it.

And debt relief for homeowners — which could have done a lot to promote overall economic recovery — has simply dropped off the agenda. The existing program for mortgage relief has been a bust, spending only a tiny fraction of the funds allocated, but there seems to be no interest in revamping and restarting the effort.

The situation is similar in Europe, but arguably even worse. In particular, the European Central Bank’s hard-money, anti-debt-relief rhetoric makes Mr. Bernanke sound like William Jennings Bryan.

What lies behind this trans-Atlantic policy paralysis? I’m increasingly convinced that it’s a response to interest-group pressure. Consciously or not, policy makers are catering almost exclusively to the interests of rentiers — those who derive lots of income from assets, who lent large sums of money in the past, often unwisely, but are now being protected from loss at everyone else’s expense.

Of course, that’s not the way what I call the Pain Caucus makes its case. Instead, the argument against helping the unemployed is framed in terms of economic risks: Do anything to create jobs and interest rates will soar, runaway inflation will break out, and so on. But these risks keep not materializing. Interest rates remain near historic lows, while inflation outside the price of oil — which is determined by world markets and events, not U.S. policy — remains low.

And against these hypothetical risks one must set the reality of an economy that remains deeply depressed, at great cost both to today’s workers and to our nation’s future. After all, how can we expect to prosper two decades from now when millions of young graduates are, in effect, being denied the chance to get started on their careers?

Ask for a coherent theory behind the abandonment of the unemployed and you won’t get an answer. Instead, members of the Pain Caucus seem to be making it up as they go along, inventing ever-changing rationales for their never-changing policy prescriptions.

While the ostensible reasons for inflicting pain keep changing, however, the policy prescriptions of the Pain Caucus all have one thing in common: They protect the interests of creditors, no matter the cost. Deficit spending could put the unemployed to work — but it might hurt the interests of existing bondholders. More aggressive action by the Fed could help boost us out of this slump — in fact, even Republican economists have argued that a bit of inflation might be exactly what the doctor ordered — but deflation, not inflation, serves the interests of creditors. And, of course, there’s fierce opposition to anything smacking of debt relief.

Who are these creditors I’m talking about? Not hard-working, thrifty small business owners and workers, although it serves the interests of the big players to pretend that it’s all about protecting little guys who play by the rules. The reality is that both small businesses and workers are hurt far more by the weak economy than they would be by, say, modest inflation that helps promote recovery.

No, the only real beneficiaries of Pain Caucus policies (aside from the Chinese government) are the rentiers: bankers and wealthy individuals with lots of bonds in their portfolios.

And that explains why creditor interests bulk so large in policy; not only is this the class that makes big campaign contributions, it’s the class that has personal access to policy makers — many of whom go to work for these people when they exit government through the revolving door. The process of influence doesn’t have to involve raw corruption (although that happens, too). All it requires is the tendency to assume that what’s good for the people you hang out with, the people who seem so impressive in meetings — hey, they’re rich, they’re smart, and they have great tailors — must be good for the economy as a whole.

"But the reality is just the opposite: creditor-friendly policies are crippling the economy. This is a negative-sum game, in which the attempt to protect the rentiers from any losses is inflicting much larger losses on everyone else. And the only way to get a real recovery is to stop playing that game.

This Kind of Stuff Must Make Prince Phillip and Company Chew the Rug: Maybe They Will Choke

Scientists: 'Super' wheat to boost food security

STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press

Updated 02:48 a.m., Friday, June 10, 2011

FILE - In this Oct. 22, 2010, file photo a scientist holds grains of wheat from plants infected with Ug99 stem rust fungus at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute in Njoro, Kenya, 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of Nairobi. Scientists working to stop the spread of virulent fungus that threatens global food supplies said Thursday, June 9, 2011 that they're close to producing new "super varieties" of wheat that will resist a virulent fungus while boosting yields up to 15 percent, potentially easing a deadly threat to the world's food supply. Photo: Khalil Senos / AP

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Scientists say they're close to producing new "super varieties" of wheat that will resist a virulent fungus while boosting yields up to 15 percent, potentially easing a deadly threat to the world's food supply.

The research is part of a global drive to protect wheat crops from the Ug99 strain of stem rust. It will be presented next week at a conference in St. Paul that's part of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, based at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, organizers said Thursday.

Scientists will also report that Ug99 variants are becoming increasingly virulent and are being carried by the winds beyond Uganda and other East African countries where they were first identified in 1999. Once infected with the deadly fungus, wheat plants become covered in reddish-brown blisters.

According to a news release issued by the initiative ahead of the symposium, the fungus has now spread across all of eastern and southern Africa, and it might just be a matter of time before it reaches India or Pakistan, and even Australia and the Americas.

"We are facing the prospect of a biological firestorm, but it's also clear that the research community has responded to the threat at top speed, and we are getting results in the form of new varieties that are resistant to rust and appealing to farmers," Ronnie Coffman, who heads the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project at Cornell, said in the release.

Researchers will report at the conference that new varieties of wheat under development at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico show resistance to all three kinds of wheat rust — stem rust including Ug99, yellow rust and leaf rust — the release said. Some of those varieties also boost yields 10 to 15 percent, it said.

But significant obstacles must be overcome before the resistant new varieties of wheat can replace the susceptible varieties that make up as much as 90 percent of the wheat now in production, the researchers acknowledged. They called for more investments by wealthy countries and international institutions to continue developing the varieties, to help them keep them effective against diseases that continue to evolve, and to develop the seed production and distribution infrastructure needed to put the new varieties in the hands of poor farmers in developing countries.

The new strains mark a huge advance, said Marty Carson, research director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cereal Research Laboratory at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.

"Anytime you can talk about a 15 percent boost in yields from existing varieties, I mean that's phenomenal. And to get combined resistance to all three rusts, that's also a very big deal," said Carson, who wasn't directly involved in that research. His lab, which is heavily involved in the fight against Ug99, is hosting the conference along with the University of Minnesota.

Carson pointed out in an interview that wheat farmers in the developing world that the Mexican institute known by its Spanish acronym CIMMYT is targeting with these new varieties don't have many other options, such as fungicides, for dealing with threats such as rust. And while he was skeptical about the 15 percent claim, he said even a lower yield increase would be a major accomplishment.

The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative was launched five years ago by the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug in response to the Ug99 threat. Borlaug, an alumnus of the University of Minnesota, was a leader of CIMMYT. His research sparked the "Green Revolution" of the 1960s that transformed agriculture through high-yield, disease-resistant crops and other innovations, helping to more than double world food production by 1990. He's credited with saving perhaps 1 billion people from starvation.

Ravi Singh, a wheat breeder at CIMMYT, helped lead the research on the new strains, which he'll present at the conference and publish later this year in the Annual Review of Phytopathology. He said in an interview that the new varieties were developed through conventional crossbreeding, not genetic engineering. They have been tested successfully for disease resistance in Kenya and Ethiopia, where Ug99 is endemic, as well as at the USDA lab in St. Paul.

Donor-funded CIMMYT distributes its seed for free to keep it affordable, Singh said, and the new varieties will be planted in several countries for yield trials in the coming growing season in hopes they can enter widespread use in a few years.

The Noösphere