Fractal Geometry: Simple Patterns in a Complex World

Professor Michael Barnsley with a fractally transformed teacup and pot. (Credit: Phil Dooley, ANU)

An ANU mathematician has developed a new way to uncover simple patterns that might underlie apparently complex systems, such as clouds, cracks in materials or the movement of the stockmarket.

“Fractal Geometry is a new branch of mathematics that describes the world as it is, rather than acting as though it’s made of straight lines and spheres. There are very few straight lines and circles in nature. The shapes you find in nature are rough.” said Michael Barnsley, Professor of Mathematics at ANU.

FrangoCamera App developed at ANU. (Credit ANU)

“Fractal Fourier analysis provides a method to break complicated signals up into a set of well understood building blocks, in a similar way to how conventional Fourier analysis breaks signals up into a set of smooth sine waves,” said Professor Michael Barnsley, who who presented his work at the New Directions in Fractal Geometry conference.

“There are terrific advances to be made by breaking loose from the thrall of continuity and differentiability…The body is full of repeating branch structures – the breathing system, the blood supply system, the arrangement of skin cells, even cancer is a fractal.”

Physics in the News

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

New Results from Planck: It Doesn’t Look Good For BICEP2

Dust map of the Universe. The region studied by BICEP2 is indicated by the rectangle in the right circle. (Credit: Planck Collaboration)

via universetoday

Artificial Atoms Talk … and Scientists Listen

n this illustration, the artificial atom on the right side of the image sends out sound waves that are picked up by the microphone on the left. (Credit: Philip Krantz)

via livescience

What’s Next for Inflation Cosmology – New Updates

(Credit: Andrei Linde) — A serious challenge to the discovery of gravity waves by the BICEP2 2014 results has appeared: the researchers had underestimated the amount of interstellar dust that could be contaminating their data. (Credit: MacRobert, Andrei Linde)

via skyandtelescope

Clear skies reveal water on distant Neptune-sized planet

Scientists have found definitive traces of water on a relatively small exoplanet. HAT-P-11b is the size of Neptune and has copious amounts of both water vapor and hydrogen in its atmosphere. (Credit: NASA) — Scientists have found definitive traces of water on a relatively small exoplanet. HAT-P-11b is the size of Neptune and four times the size of Earth. The exoplanet has copious amounts of both water vapor and hydrogen in its atmosphere. (Credit: NASA)

via bbc

Hugh Everett: The man who gave us the multiverse

via newscientist

What is the geometry of the universe?

Our current model of the early inflationary period predicts that the universe should be flat, and so far that has held up. If the universe actually is curved, then the inflationary period must have been more complex than we have thought. (Credit: Koberlien)

Robot Octopus Takes to the Sea

Physics in the News

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Special relativity aces time trial

Few scientists doubt that Einstein was right. But the mathematics describing the time-dilation effect are “fundamental to all physical theories”, says Thomas Udem, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, who was not involved in the research. “It is of utmost importance to verify it with the best possible accuracy.” — Few scientists doubt that Einstein was right. But the mathematics describing the time-dilation effect are “fundamental to all physical theories”, says Thomas Udem, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, who was not involved in the research. “It is of utmost importance to verify it with the best possible accuracy.” (Credit: A. Witze, Martin Poole/Getty)

Is Martian soil actually good for farming?

via vox

Einstein makes an appearance in superheavy chemistry

Graphic representation of a seaborgium hexacarbonyl molecule on the silicon dioxide covered detectors of a COMPACT detector array. (Credit: Alexander Yakushev (GSI) / Christoph E. Düllmann)

via newscientist

A nano-sized hydrogen generator

A transmission electron microscopic image of titanium dioxide plates resting on a near-invisible sheet of graphene. (Credit: Rozhkova et. al.)

Asteroids: between a rock and a hard place

There have been recent near misses – an explosion over Russia, a mysterious crater in Nicaragua. But what would we do in the event of an actual meteor strike? A simulated meteor strike at a training facility in Texas. (Credit: Nick Ballon)

via theguardian

Astrophysicist sees positive signs science ‘is trendy’

Enormous black hole resides at core of tiny galaxy

ITTY BITTY LIVING SPACE The tiny galaxy M60-UCD1 (circled in white) harbors a black hole with the mass of around 21 million suns. M60-UCD1 may be a remnant of a larger galaxy torn apart by the massive galaxy M60 (center), which is also pulling in a nearby spiral galaxy (upper right). (Credit: NASA, ESA)

via sciencenews

‘Solid’ light could compute previously unsolvable problems about the behavior of matter

Scientists are a step closer to creating quantum computers after making light behave like crystal. At first, photons in the experiment flow easily between two superconducting sites, producing the large waves shown at left. After a time, the scientists cause the light to 'freeze,' trapping the photons in place. (Credit: Stanford) — The illustration shows how oscillating photons create an image of frozen light. At first, photons in the experiment flow easily between two superconducting sites, producing the large waves shown at left. After a time, the scientists cause the light to ‘freeze,’ trapping the photons in place. Fast oscillations on the right of the image are evidence of the new trapped behavior. (Credit: James Raftery et al.)

Pakistan to join the CERN club

Pakistan is a signing ceremony away from becoming the associate member of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. Above photo is of CERN Labs on the Swiss-French border. (Credit: CERN) — Pakistan is a signing ceremony away from becoming the associate member of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. Above photo is CERN Labs on the Swiss-French border. (Credit: CERN)

via dawn

Quasicrystals and the Whimsy of Nature

The quasicrystals formed 4.5 billion years ago in a violent collision between two rocks, among the asteroids that coalesced into planets. The rock with the quasicrystals landed in Chukotka as a meteorite. “They’re part of the primal stuff that formed our solar system,” Dr. Steinhardt said. The above is A penteract (5-cube) pattern using 5D orthographic projection to 2D using Petrie polygon basis vectors overlaid on the diffractogram from an Icosahedral Ho-Mg-Zn quasicrystal. (Credit: NYTimes)

Physics in the News

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Cornell theorists continue the search for supersymmetry

The Tevatron, the particle accelerator used to find the oscillating Bs meson, has huge detectors surrounded by a cylindrical 'tracking chamber', shown here. (Credit: Fermilab) — The Tevatron, the particle accelerator used to find the oscillating Bs meson, has huge detectors surrounded by a cylindrical ‘tracking chamber’, shown here. (Credit: Fermilab)

Planets with oddball orbits like Mercury could host life

On Mercury a solar day is about 176 Earth days long. During its first Mercury solar day in orbit the MESSENGER spacecraft imaged nearly the entire surface of Mercury to generate a global monochrome map at 250 meters per pixel resolution and a 1 kilometer per pixel resolution color map. (Credit: NASA/JHU APL/CIW)

Neutrino trident production may offer powerful probe of new physics

Parameter space for the Z’ gauge boson. The light gray area is excluded at 95% C.L. by the CCFR measurement of the neutrino trident cross section. The dark gray region with the dotted contour is excluded by measurements of the SM Z boson decay to four leptons at the LHC. The purple region is the area favored by the muon g-2 discrepancy that has not yet been ruled out, but future high-energy neutrino experiments are expected to be highly sensitive to this low-mass region. (Credit: Altmannshofer, et al. ©2014 American Physical Society)

Viewpoint: Observing the great spin and orbital swap

The researchers observed for the first time coherent oscillations between two spin states: |e↑,g↓〉⇔|e↓,g↑〉. From the oscillation frequency, they determine the spin-exchange interaction strength. (Credit: APS/Ana Maria Rey)

via physics.aps

NASA inspector general blasts asteroid detection program

NASA has found about 95 per cent of the largest and potentially most destructive asteroids, those measuring about one kilometre or larger in diameter, but only 10 per cent of those 140 metres or larger in diameter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Canadian Press)

Solar System Simulation Reveals Planetary Mystery

A montage of the planets and some of the moons in our solar system, not to scale. (Credit: NASA/JPL)

Scientists explore landscape of absolute zero to probe quantum phase transitions

Rendering of the near–perfect crystal structure of the yttrium–iron–aluminum compound used in the study. The two–dimensional layers of the material allowed the scientists to isolate the magnetic ordering that emerged near absolute zero. (Credit:Brookhaven National Laboratory)

Ultrahard fullerite is almost twice as hard as diamond but new synthesis works at room temperature and lower pressure

Diamond anvils malformed during synthesis of ultrahard fullerite. Note the dent in the center. (Credit: Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology)

via nextbigfuture

Calling all amateur astronomers

via skyandtelescope

Physics in the News

Monday, September 15, 2014

Why do particle physicists demand 99.9999% certainty before they believe a new discovery?

"I confess that in my early in my career as a physicist I was rather cynical about sophisticated statistical tools, being of the opinion that “if any of this makes a difference, just get more data”. That is, if you do enough experiments, the confidence level will be so high that the exact statistical treatment you use to evaluate it is irrelevant." (Credit: Michael Slezak) — “I confess that in my early in my career as a physicist I was rather cynical about sophisticated statistical tools, being of the opinion that “if any of this makes a difference, just get more data”. That is, if you do enough experiments, the confidence level will be so high that the exact statistical treatment you use to evaluate it is irrelevant.” (Credit: Jon Butterworth)

via theguardian

Curtain closing on Higgs boson photon soap opera

It was the daytime soap opera of particle physics. But the final episode of the first season ends in an anticlimax. The Higgs boson's decay into pairs of photons – the strongest yet most confusing clue to the particle's existence – is looking utterly normal after all. (Credit: D. Moir/Reurters, M. Slezak) — It was the daytime soap opera of particle physics. But the final episode of the first season ends in an anticlimax. The Higgs boson’s decay into pairs of photons – the strongest yet most confusing clue to the particle’s existence – is looking utterly normal after all. (Credit: D. Moir/Reurters, M. Slezak)

via newscientist

Three’s a charm: NIST detectors reveal entangled photon triplets

NIST chip containing a single-photon detector was made of superconducting nanowires. Four chips like this were used in the experiment that entangled three photons. (Credit: Verma/NIST)

via extremetech

How to turn the Moon into a giant cosmic ray detector

The new plan, proposed by researchers at the University of Southampton in England, is to eavesdrop on the faint nanosecond radio signals sent our way when cosmic rays hit edges of the Moon at a near-tangent. (Credit J. Hewitt, astrobiology.aob.rs)

via extremetech

Are ‘ghost waves’ behind quantum strangeness?

"The key question is whether a real quantum dynamics, of the general form suggested by de Broglie and the walking drops, might underlie quantum statistics," Bush said. "While undoubtedly complex, it would replace the philosophical vagaries of quantum mechanics with a concrete dynamical theory," said John Bush of MIT. (Credit: D. Harris/MIT, M. Byrne) — “The key question is whether a real quantum dynamics, of the general form suggested by de Broglie and the walking drops, might underlie quantum statistics,” Bush said. “While undoubtedly complex, it would replace the philosophical vagaries of quantum mechanics with a concrete dynamical theory,” said John Bush of MIT. (Credit: D. Harris/MIT, M. Byrne)

via motherboard

Comet probe finds elements of life

A composite photo of comet 67P/C-G showing gases escaping from the ‘neck’. The first jets of dust were detected spurting from the comet as Rosetta approached it in August but detailed photographs weren’t available until last week. (Credit: Emily Lakdawalla/ESA)

Saturn is making and destroying mini-moons all the time

PIA18420 — The spacecraft captured the views between July 20 and July 22, 2014, as it departed Titan following a flyby. Cassini tracked the system of clouds as it developed and dissipated over Ligeia Mare during this two-day period. Measurements of the cloud motions indicate wind speeds of around 7 to 10 miles per hour (3 to 4.5 meters per second). (Credit: NASA, Cassini)

via smithsonianmag

ULA aims for top-secret CLIO launch tomorrow

via americaspace

Where to grab space debris

via yumanewsnow

ESA’s Gaia observatory locates its first Supernova

Less than two months after it first began repeatedly scanning the sky, the ESA’s Gaia space observatory has discovered its first supernova – a powerful stellar explosion that had occurred in a distant galaxy located some 500 million light-years from Earth, the agency announced on Friday. The above is an artist’s impression of a Type Ia supernova – the explosion of a white dwarf locked in a binary system with a companion star. (Credit: ESA/ATG medialab/C. Carreau, Bednar)

Phosphorus a promising semiconductor

Grain boundaries are rows of defects that disrupt the electronic properties of two-dimensional materials like graphene, but new theory by scientists at Rice University shows no such effects in atomically flat phosphorus. That may make the material ideal for nano-electronic applications. (Credit: Evgeni Penev/Rice University) — Grain boundaries are rows of defects that disrupt the electronic properties of two-dimensional materials, like graphene, but a new theory by scientists at Rice University shows no such effects in atomically flat phosphorus. That may make the material ideal for nano-electronic applications. (Credit: Evgeni Penev/Rice University)

via energy-daily

Curiosity rover reaches long-term goal: a massive Martian mountain

Universe may be an illusion or hologram?

To find out if the universe is a hologram, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have powered up their exotic holographic inferometer, or Holometer. The results of the Fermilab E-990 experiment could indeed indicate that the nature of the universe is holographic. (Credit: Baskin, M. Freiberger)

Can we survive the end of the Universe?

The ultimate fate of the universe depends on the nature of dark matter and dark energy, about which we know almost nothing. (Credit: NASA)

via mysteriousuniverse

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