The Bohr-Einstein Debates, With Puppets from Chad Orzel on Vimeo.

Quantum mechanics professor Chad Orzel made a curious and funny  version of a very famous debate of twentieth century: the debate between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. This debate regards the uncertainty in quantum mechanics. The video has almost 20 minutes and is a must.

I am really proud to be part of special family called Open Source Software. All my computers run Linux, and only Linux, since 1999 and I do not miss any bug feature available only in closed source operating system (OS) like Windows. Recently Microsoft released the newest 'beta' OS called Windows 7 and promoted a Windows funeral Party. Open source is more than stop paying expensive Bills (US$ 200 for a Windows7), is a life philosophy. And it also comes with something more: sarcasm. Above you see a Linus Torvalds picture in front of a kiosk in Japan selling Windows7 and bellow are some pretty nice geeky phrases:

"One World, One web, One program" - Microsoft Promo ad.
"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer" - Adolf Hitler

"Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect." --Linus Torvalds

Linux: be root
Windows: reboot

"Microsoft gives you Windows ... Linux gives you the whole house."

Lichtenberg figures are tree-like structures created in light acrylic plastic when a dielectric breakdown happens. In fact it happens in all types of dielectric materials but are only appreciated in light ones. It can be created by high voltage transformers or electron beams such as delivered by medical linear accelerators (Linacs) but do not try to do it at home (it is dangerous) or even in a hospital production machine because it will damage several components through the beam path. But if you have a Linac that is about to be decommissioned you might want to do it. Bellow it is a link where you will find more information about Lichtenberg figures. And here is a link for a video showing some dielectric breakdowns.
using a medical Linac: http://www.sgsmp.ch/lichtenberg.htm
and more here info here: http://205.243.100.155/frames/lichtenbergs.html

Since 2009 is the year of astronomy nothing better than see amazing pictures of nebulae, planets, etc. The Royal Observatory Greenwich sponsored a competition and just published the winners sometime ago. Check them out at the link below. Above we have the winner in the category deep space.

Deep Space : Winners : Astronomy Photographer of the Year : Exhibitions : Visit the museum : NMM

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Science can give us some fantastic images. From biology to astronomy we find plenty of  astonishing images. We may not forget mathematics and its beautiful fractals. Every year Nikon makes a competition of micro photography with amazing results. Check at Nikon Small World web site the 2009 winners. Above is the 4th place. Enjoy them!

Long time without posting, several things happening including another Nobel prize for a physicist who went through applied physics to biology like Watson and Crick long time ago. But I will leave this talk to other opportunity, ribosomes are very interesting and complex as well.
Cancer is one career where many biologists, physicians, computer scientists and, of course, physicists have a lot of work to do. From time to time we see some innovations in such field and this one came from Havard Medical School. Dr. Gil Alterovitz created a way to associate gene expression to musical notes patterns. The notes have been chosen carefully in a way that it sounds harmonic and pleasant when everything is OK nad  weird when something is wrong. This has been applied to colon cancer study and hopefully it will work with other cancers too. Listen to the comparison between both 'symphonies' below.

Source: The Scientist

I am glad there are some people who like anatomy, but definitely it is boring from a physicist point of view. Anyway, if you want to learn or just curious about anatomy www.getbodysmart.com is a good place to look for. There you can find all main muscles, bones, nerves, respiratory system, etc. And you can see how they move and or interact in your body in flash animations. There are also quizzes for who want to test their own skills. Excellent content!

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Pentatonic scale is a musical scale made by a set of 5 tons or pitches. It is found all over the world from USA to Japan, from rock to erudite music. Bob McFerrin, a famous musician, demonstrates the universal understanding of the pentatonic scale in World Science Festival, New York. Here you can watch the whole discussion including several neuro-scientists, in a session called Notes and Neurons. Must see.

It is amazing to know, but not surprising, that we evolved in a such way to spend as few energy as possible. Walk and run is one the activities where we spend lots of energy and in order to avoid waist we swing our arms synchronized with our legs naturally. Watch this video and discover how to spend up to 26% more energy just walking "out of phase". Unfortunately researchers did not tested the really weird silly walks done by Monty Python's John Cleese at this video. Certainly those silly walks spends more than that.

Source: guardian.co.uk

Scientists at University of Nottingham made a page with all chemical elements commented in video by researchers. They explain in very easy non-technical short videos a little about history and properties of each element in the periodic table. They also made a cool page with sixty symbols of physics and astronomy . Though not all symbols presented there are mathematical symbols they represent one specific major event or feature in physics or astronomy. By the way, the video about the infinity symbol is amazing.
Enjoy it!
www.periodicvideos.com
www.sixtysymbols.com

We are getting closer to a new kind of computer and its processor is NOT made with silicon. Scientists solved a mathematical problem with a bacteria colony. And they are not special just ordinary bacteria. The mathematical problem solved is known as Burnt Pancake sort problem. Imagine you have a stack of several pancakes and each one has a different size. You have to pick up one by one with a spatula and the one in bottom is burnt. The burnt pancake never gets back to the bottom position again. Pancake flipping is also not allowed. Using E. coli DNA machinery they solved this problem. This is not a very complex problem but this new way opens doors to bacterial computers and better manipulation of the DNA.

Source: ScienceDaily.com

Now we have a new way to transmit (or broadcast ?) energy. According to this news in a near future we will be able to recharge batteries without any cable to connect it to an outlet. This would simplify all devices and avoid carry different power cords to different devices. But there is still a question: would the wireless power providers be so good as mobile phone are? If the answer is yes I will stay attached to power cords forever.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

Hello everybody!

Now starts another science blog. In fact, "Just Another Science Blog - JASB" was the second title for this blog, but the acronym does not sound nice. I think PRT is much easier to memorize and pronounce. Also, I have a close relationship to Pseudo-Random Number Generators - PRNG. I work with Monte Carlo simulations and a good PRNG is essential for my work.

The goals of this blog are to communicate my ideas, my points of view and to work as a notebook as well. Therefore, do not expect impartial postings. In fact, everything here will be partial and will reflect my own personal view. Although this is a partial blog I encourage everyone to leave its comments.

The majority of postings here will be in science and its applications, or possible applications, in real life. But do not get startled if you find any non-science::non-sense post. This is a Pseudo-Random Thoughts blog - here I found a place to cite my own blog.

So, welcome to PRT.