I’ve just been reading Quarantine, a Science Fiction book by Greg Egan (1992). It was brilliant, I loved it! I’ll definitely be buying his other books.
— Warning – spoiler ahead! —
The first few chapters of the book introduce the idea that in the future earth has been quarantined by an extra-terrestrial species, but offers no [...]
Archive for November, 2008
Quarantine by Greg Egan
Posted in book reviews, psychological ponderings, quantum spookiness, sci-fi on November 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Friday Seminar – Nanomechanics and the Casimir force
Posted in cool physics, learnin' stuff on November 28, 2008 | 3 Comments »
We just had a rather cool seminar about the Casimir force and how it affects Nanoscale electrical and mechanic (NEMS) systems. The talk was given by Ramin Golestanian from Sheffield University.
The Casimir force is usually described as the attractive force that arises between two metallic plates in a vacuum due to the quantization of the [...]
Physics versus Art
Posted in artsey, psychological ponderings on November 21, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Can you be a physicist and an artist at the same time?
My answer is it depends on how you define ’same time’. I’m pretty sure that different areas of the brain are actually used for the two subjects. ‘Areas of the brain’ can be interpreted as ‘ways of thinking’ etc., I don’t mean literally physical [...]
Fun with Magnets
Posted in experimental insights, film / tv / music, research blogging on November 20, 2008 | 5 Comments »
So today I made a magnet, MacGyver stylee. It consists mainly of paper tape and wire I decided to use Cu wire rather than a superconducting wire as I can probably get enough field from a normal magnet. It’s all very makeshift, I just need a magnet for the next fridge run. I [...]
Kevin Warwick at Birmingham
Posted in BCI, controversial..., psychological ponderings on November 10, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Last Tuesday I went to a talk by Professor Kevin Warwick from Reading University entitled ‘Neural implants: A new medicine or the next evolutionary step’.
For anyone who does not know, Kevin Warwick works in the field of cybernetics, and is somewhat infamous for having several implants, including an RFID tag and a small array [...]
Coax of woe
Posted in experimental insights, research blogging on November 10, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Anyone who even vaguely knows me will know that I have certain issues with small coaxial cables. I’ve tried various varieties of coax and connector to wire the fridge for the low temperature, low noise experiments. However I’ve always had failures due to these coaxial lines just being too complicated (too tiny, too many filters, [...]
Quantum Control – Theory meets experiment…
Posted in expt vs theory showdown, quantum computing, research blogging, superconductors on November 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday we had a visit and seminar from Sonia Schirmer of the Cambridge Centre for Quantum Computation. The seminar was entitled ‘Quantum Engineering – Control Paradigms, Algorithms and Applications’
Whilst it was a little difficult for some of us experimentalists to follow, there’s definitely something interesting happens when experimentalists and theorists find a common discussion ground. [...]
