Star Trek on a sunny Monday evening in Andover.
What an excellent film this is. The key to understanding it is to recognise that we're back in the aftermath of the 2000 US Presidential election. The space-cadet hard-drinking, womanising, brattish James T. Kirk is the (ex-) hard-drinking, womanising, brattish Dubya; the cerebral, conceited, robotic Spock is Al Gore.
In the starfleet status game, Gore seems ahead on all counts, but the sheer animal spirit and bravado of James T. Kirk wings it.
Kirk/Dubya is haunted by the memory of his authority-figure, do-it-by-the-book father.
The Romulan enemy figure, Nero, is some composite of Saddam Hussein and bin Laden, seeking revenge for harm done to his people. Of course, most of us would get a little upset if our planet got to be destroyed through Federation negligence. What do they usually call it? Collateral damage?
A spaceship ramming a large structure completes the picture (albeit piloted by a good guy).
Star Trek is a reprise of Starship Troopers, another wonderful coming-of-age buddy movie with aliens and irony.
There have been a lot of science blog comments on the science in this science-fiction movie. C'mon guys, stop being so Vulcan about it! It's not about the science.
They play fast-and-loose with unimportant stuff, but they get the big questions right: the traversal through a Kerr black hole delivers the Romulan Nero (and a future Spock) back in time to another universe, not their own (NB Sunday Times critic); the collapse of the Romulan ship into a self-induced singularity would indeed create gravitational gradients which might affect the Enterprise's warp engines - assuming it wasn't torn apart by tidal forces, of course.
So, a lot for fan-boy chew-over!
Bottom line: good story - holds your attention. Go see it.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Flynn Effect and IQ
There are a number of good articles in the current edition of American Scientist.
Charles Nelson III et al write about the effects of deprivation on the infant human brain, a study based in the orphanages of Romania. High-quality foster care can turn the damage around, but it still takes years.
We all remember the bet between the ecologist Paul Ehrlich and the economist Julian Simon in the context of the "Club of Rome" report on the 'Limits to Growth'. The economist won that round, but the underlying limits to the carrying capacity of the earth for humankind have not gone away. A review article notes that a critical parameter is the energy required to obtain each unit of energy we consume. The ratio has been steadily increasing. When it reaches 1, you can't afford to acquire the energy source and a limit to growth has been reached. Maybe nuclear fusion is the answer ...
I was perhaps most impressed by Cosma Shalizi's book review of "What is Intelligence" by James Flynn. Shalizi's remarkably level-headed review starts by describing how IQ tests are continually rebased year-on-year from a reference set of test-takers, used to normalise any new test at mean = 100, standard deviation = 15.
However, someone who got 100 on an IQ test in 1990 would only get 70 in 2000. This is the phenomenon of the secular rise in IQ of up to 6-7 IQ points per decade, which has been called the Flynn effect after its discoverer.
Shalizi knows that 'general intelligence', 'g', (considered to be what IQ tests are designed to measure) emerges from factor analysis. Is 'g' a physiological or merely a statistical reality? The evidence seems to suggest that it correlates with neural efficiency and is not a mere statistical convenience - I'm not sure that Shalizi agrees.
Shalizi's belief is that the dominant driver for the Flynn effect is the increasing abstractness of modern industrial society. This is training people to think in a manner whose competence is measured by tests such as Raven's progressive matrices. Such coaching effects are decisive and outweigh other factors such as improved nutrition, Shalizi believes.
Anyway, judge for yourself, his review is here. He is not, BTW, the first person to acknowledge that bright people have a problem with so-called 'culture-free' IQ tests in that 'what's the missing pattern/number/word' type questions seldom have a compellingly-unique answer. You get to have a measured high-IQ is you consistently think like Mr Raven!
_____
I was looking at some of the Masters courses in theoretical physics. Take for example the one year full-time/two year part-time MSc at King's College. This comprises eight taught modules of which at least five will be from the list:
Charles Nelson III et al write about the effects of deprivation on the infant human brain, a study based in the orphanages of Romania. High-quality foster care can turn the damage around, but it still takes years.
We all remember the bet between the ecologist Paul Ehrlich and the economist Julian Simon in the context of the "Club of Rome" report on the 'Limits to Growth'. The economist won that round, but the underlying limits to the carrying capacity of the earth for humankind have not gone away. A review article notes that a critical parameter is the energy required to obtain each unit of energy we consume. The ratio has been steadily increasing. When it reaches 1, you can't afford to acquire the energy source and a limit to growth has been reached. Maybe nuclear fusion is the answer ...
I was perhaps most impressed by Cosma Shalizi's book review of "What is Intelligence" by James Flynn. Shalizi's remarkably level-headed review starts by describing how IQ tests are continually rebased year-on-year from a reference set of test-takers, used to normalise any new test at mean = 100, standard deviation = 15.
However, someone who got 100 on an IQ test in 1990 would only get 70 in 2000. This is the phenomenon of the secular rise in IQ of up to 6-7 IQ points per decade, which has been called the Flynn effect after its discoverer.
Shalizi knows that 'general intelligence', 'g', (considered to be what IQ tests are designed to measure) emerges from factor analysis. Is 'g' a physiological or merely a statistical reality? The evidence seems to suggest that it correlates with neural efficiency and is not a mere statistical convenience - I'm not sure that Shalizi agrees.
Shalizi's belief is that the dominant driver for the Flynn effect is the increasing abstractness of modern industrial society. This is training people to think in a manner whose competence is measured by tests such as Raven's progressive matrices. Such coaching effects are decisive and outweigh other factors such as improved nutrition, Shalizi believes.
Anyway, judge for yourself, his review is here. He is not, BTW, the first person to acknowledge that bright people have a problem with so-called 'culture-free' IQ tests in that 'what's the missing pattern/number/word' type questions seldom have a compellingly-unique answer. You get to have a measured high-IQ is you consistently think like Mr Raven!
_____
I was looking at some of the Masters courses in theoretical physics. Take for example the one year full-time/two year part-time MSc at King's College. This comprises eight taught modules of which at least five will be from the list:
- Mechanics, Relativity & Quantum Theory;
- Quantum Field Theory;
- Lie Groups & Lie Algebras;
- Manifolds;
- General Relativity;
- Supersymmetry & Gauge Theory;
- Point Particles & String Theory.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Stourhead
We travelled the 40 miles to Stourhead this afternoon. Stourhead is a National Trust property comprising a Palladian mansion plus 11 km2 of carefully-crafted gardens and lakes. We were quite taken aback by the size and complexity of the estate - an order of magnitude greater than Dinton Park which we visited a few days back. In fact we'll have to visit again, as there's too much to see in one afternoon.
As we were walking back through the wooded gardens, Clare spotted a truly enormous conifer, which seemed to consist of separate trunks pictured behind her, above.
Today happened to be "Voice of Music" day at Stourhead so everywhere we walked we would stumble across a choir singing from their repertoire. We encountered plainsong, gospel, barber-shop and Joni Mitchell.
Here's a view across the lake, showing the follies, bridges and temples which ornament the banks.
Here's Clare at the lower lake.
And myself at the next lake down.
As we were walking back through the wooded gardens, Clare spotted a truly enormous conifer, which seemed to consist of separate trunks pictured behind her, above.
Today happened to be "Voice of Music" day at Stourhead so everywhere we walked we would stumble across a choir singing from their repertoire. We encountered plainsong, gospel, barber-shop and Joni Mitchell.
Here's a view across the lake, showing the follies, bridges and temples which ornament the banks.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Of operators and observables in QM
I'm probably about 40% through the OU's first course on quantum mechanics and here summarise my present understanding of observables and operators.
Apparently, all observables such as position, momentum, energy, etc are represented in quantum mechanics by an operator which acts upon the wave function Ψ(r,t) representing any configuration of objects and fields.
A wavefunction itself may be written as the product of a space-dependent stationary state and a time-dependent coefficient (the probability amplitude).
When we apply the observable-operator to a stationary-state wavefunction, we find there are eigenfunction/eigenvalue solutions. So if A is the operator and ψn is a (stationary-state) eigenfunction, then
-- Aψn = αnψn where αn is the eigenvalue (may be different for various values of n).
So what the observable operator has done for us is to get us a set of eigenfunctions (the solutions to the eigenfunction equation above) together with the corresponding set of eigenvalues. None of this is yet connected with an actual act of observation.
The next stage is that we express the wave function corresponding to a particular experimental set-up as a sum of the eigenfunctions of the observable of interest. (One dimensional case below).
-- Ψ(x,t) = c1(t)ψ1(x) + c2(t)ψ2(x) + ...
The coefficient ci(t) of each eigenfunction ψi is the probability amplitude for that eigenfunction (or in vector language, the projection of Ψ onto that basis vector "axis") which will give - via the modulus squared - the probability that the observation measures the eigenvalue αi of that eigenfunction.
So to summarise. Given a wavefunction of a definite type (e.g. describing a particle of mass m bound within a harmonic well of a certain potential energy), an observable operator sets up the menagerie of a particular set of basis eigenfunctions together with their associated eigenvalues.
The modelling of the experimental situation requires the further step of defining its specific wavefunction and then projecting it onto that basis to read-off the probability amplitudes. These are then squared (well, the moduli are) to get the probabilities of the various eigenvalues which might be observed.
Anyway, that's what I figure for now.
_____
Note: the above describes the case of discrete eigenfunctions/values. We also covered, albeit more briefly, the case of continuous observables where the same general approach holds. Sums go to integrals; probability amplitudes go to density functions; we're into Fourier transform territory.
Apparently, all observables such as position, momentum, energy, etc are represented in quantum mechanics by an operator which acts upon the wave function Ψ(r,t) representing any configuration of objects and fields.
A wavefunction itself may be written as the product of a space-dependent stationary state and a time-dependent coefficient (the probability amplitude).
When we apply the observable-operator to a stationary-state wavefunction, we find there are eigenfunction/eigenvalue solutions. So if A is the operator and ψn is a (stationary-state) eigenfunction, then
-- Aψn = αnψn where αn is the eigenvalue (may be different for various values of n).
So what the observable operator has done for us is to get us a set of eigenfunctions (the solutions to the eigenfunction equation above) together with the corresponding set of eigenvalues. None of this is yet connected with an actual act of observation.
The next stage is that we express the wave function corresponding to a particular experimental set-up as a sum of the eigenfunctions of the observable of interest. (One dimensional case below).
-- Ψ(x,t) = c1(t)ψ1(x) + c2(t)ψ2(x) + ...
The coefficient ci(t) of each eigenfunction ψi is the probability amplitude for that eigenfunction (or in vector language, the projection of Ψ onto that basis vector "axis") which will give - via the modulus squared - the probability that the observation measures the eigenvalue αi of that eigenfunction.
So to summarise. Given a wavefunction of a definite type (e.g. describing a particle of mass m bound within a harmonic well of a certain potential energy), an observable operator sets up the menagerie of a particular set of basis eigenfunctions together with their associated eigenvalues.
The modelling of the experimental situation requires the further step of defining its specific wavefunction and then projecting it onto that basis to read-off the probability amplitudes. These are then squared (well, the moduli are) to get the probabilities of the various eigenvalues which might be observed.
Anyway, that's what I figure for now.
_____
Note: the above describes the case of discrete eigenfunctions/values. We also covered, albeit more briefly, the case of continuous observables where the same general approach holds. Sums go to integrals; probability amplitudes go to density functions; we're into Fourier transform territory.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Strictly Murder -- Brian Clemens
To the Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke this afternoon.
A superior murder-mystery by a great writer. At the interval, I said to Clare that what we needed was a great big paradigm shift just to change the framing of where everything seemed to be going. And of course, that was just what we got.
A superior murder-mystery by a great writer. At the interval, I said to Clare that what we needed was a great big paradigm shift just to change the framing of where everything seemed to be going. And of course, that was just what we got.
In the Loop -- Kindle
Michael Portillo was exactly right in his Newsnight review of "In the Loop", the film spin-off from TV's 'The thick of it' (mentioned here).
The plot was overfamiliar, linear and tired; the characterisation one-dimensional and the whole thing sustained by the conceit that 107 minutes of foul-mouthed aggression constitutes humour.
It was not without laughs: I chuckled (horrible word!) twice.
"In the Loop" was shown at Salisbury, clearly being considered too erudite for the Andover demographic. I am semi-looking-forwards to "Angels and Demons" more locally next week.
Evidently plotting to blow up the Vatican with CERN-derived antimatter is considered to be of central interest to the Ds and Es of my current hometown.
+++
I am, of course, fascinated by the new Kindle devices from Amazon, due to be released in the UK shortly I believe. Three concerns, nevertheless, present themselves.
1. It's kinda nice to have a library you can walk around in your own home, with bookshelves giving you immediate feedback as to what you've got. When it's all sitting in flash, the home looks ... well, barer, somehow.
2. So I finish this book and pass it along to you while I read something else. Oops, it's on my Kindle. So everyone has to have one until we're back to good ol' book sharing?
3. Someone's gonna nick it for sure. But then, they said the same about mobiles and iPods. Still, in its mode of use, the Kindle must be easier to grab.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Letter to New Scientist
I received the following form letter from Dominic Feltham, Publishing Director of New Scientist, enquiring as to why I had let my subscription lapse. (Click on the letter to read it).
Here is my reply, faxed off to them today.
Dear Editorial Team,
Reasons why I am not renewing my subscription to New Scientist
I understand the demands of a weekly publishing cycle and the requirements to seek a wide demographic to sustain your sales.
I believe this has led the magazine into a tabloid style with dumbed-down headlines, too many superficial and inaccurate physics articles, and an editorial approach which is both superficial and over-panders to the latest fuzzy, emotion-driven fad. While this may be necessary to financially support a weekly science magazine in the UK today, I find it too irritating to continue reading.
There have been some good articles on evolutionary psychology and biology, and computing & communications: not everything has annoyed me.
In terms of the popular press I think you’re somewhere between The Guardian and The Daily Mirror. My preference is for something like The Economist and the Financial Times. Perhaps I’m nearer my requirements with Scientific American and American Scientist?
Yours etc.
Here is my reply, faxed off to them today.
Dear Editorial Team,
Reasons why I am not renewing my subscription to New Scientist
I understand the demands of a weekly publishing cycle and the requirements to seek a wide demographic to sustain your sales.
I believe this has led the magazine into a tabloid style with dumbed-down headlines, too many superficial and inaccurate physics articles, and an editorial approach which is both superficial and over-panders to the latest fuzzy, emotion-driven fad. While this may be necessary to financially support a weekly science magazine in the UK today, I find it too irritating to continue reading.
There have been some good articles on evolutionary psychology and biology, and computing & communications: not everything has annoyed me.
In terms of the popular press I think you’re somewhere between The Guardian and The Daily Mirror. My preference is for something like The Economist and the Financial Times. Perhaps I’m nearer my requirements with Scientific American and American Scientist?
Yours etc.
Recent Books
1. DC Confidential - Christopher Meyer
In which the British Ambassador to the United States during the Iraq war run-up recounts his autobiography plus gossip about Blair's and Bush's entourage. Chatty and indiscreet, his smouldering passion for his second wife Catherine burns off every page.
2. Too Beautiful for You - Rod Liddle
The Sunday Time's enemy of Political Correctness in an earlier incarnation (2003) as a writer of short stories. Full of the f- and c- words, sexually explicit (way too much information), these are the chronicles of alienated small-time folk in the metropolis. Genuinely insightful, macabre and funny.
3. Shadow of the Giant - Orson Scott Card
The latest 'final installment' in the Ender/Shadow saga. It's an easy read, a page turner, describing the process whereby Peter ends up as the Hegemon of a united world and the Battle School graduates are removed off-Earth where they can cause no more nationalistic trouble.
I tend to share the popular view that all multi-volume sagas exhibit a gentle decline of quality - each successive book being 30% worse than its predecessor. I'm not completely sure this applies here. Card says some interesting things about the religions of the world - in particular Islam. Published in 2005, the themes of this novel are quite contemporary about such matters and Card is clearly not impressed.
Anyway, the door has been carefully left ajar for a further novel in the series, as the woman with an implanted embryo leaves for a colony planet. Is it the monster Achilles as she believes? Or is it the missing ninth child of Bean?
4. Imperium - Robert Harris
Clare is currently reading this, so I have to wait my turn.
5. Narziss and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse (Narziss = Narcissus)
Best known for the stupendous Glass Bead Game, this is a precursor to some of the themes in that Nobel-prize-winning book. To be truthful I skimmed through it: it's a lesser work mostly devoted to descriptions of Goldmund seducing myriads of women - a 1930s soft-porn extravaganza. The novel contrasts a sensual, hedonistic (dionysian) lifestyle to the ascetic life of the mind. Right.
6. Spin
Perhaps I should mention Book 2 of my Quantum Mechanics course, where I've just finished the chapter on spin. Is this strange or what? The critical point seems to be to keep track of spin orientation in real space vs. spin eigenvectors in spin space. For example spin-up and spin-down directions in real space are at 180° to each other. Their corresponding eigenvectors - forming a basis in spin-space - are at right angles.
In which the British Ambassador to the United States during the Iraq war run-up recounts his autobiography plus gossip about Blair's and Bush's entourage. Chatty and indiscreet, his smouldering passion for his second wife Catherine burns off every page.
2. Too Beautiful for You - Rod Liddle
The Sunday Time's enemy of Political Correctness in an earlier incarnation (2003) as a writer of short stories. Full of the f- and c- words, sexually explicit (way too much information), these are the chronicles of alienated small-time folk in the metropolis. Genuinely insightful, macabre and funny.
3. Shadow of the Giant - Orson Scott Card
The latest 'final installment' in the Ender/Shadow saga. It's an easy read, a page turner, describing the process whereby Peter ends up as the Hegemon of a united world and the Battle School graduates are removed off-Earth where they can cause no more nationalistic trouble.
I tend to share the popular view that all multi-volume sagas exhibit a gentle decline of quality - each successive book being 30% worse than its predecessor. I'm not completely sure this applies here. Card says some interesting things about the religions of the world - in particular Islam. Published in 2005, the themes of this novel are quite contemporary about such matters and Card is clearly not impressed.
Anyway, the door has been carefully left ajar for a further novel in the series, as the woman with an implanted embryo leaves for a colony planet. Is it the monster Achilles as she believes? Or is it the missing ninth child of Bean?
4. Imperium - Robert Harris
Clare is currently reading this, so I have to wait my turn.
5. Narziss and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse (Narziss = Narcissus)
Best known for the stupendous Glass Bead Game, this is a precursor to some of the themes in that Nobel-prize-winning book. To be truthful I skimmed through it: it's a lesser work mostly devoted to descriptions of Goldmund seducing myriads of women - a 1930s soft-porn extravaganza. The novel contrasts a sensual, hedonistic (dionysian) lifestyle to the ascetic life of the mind. Right.
6. Spin
Perhaps I should mention Book 2 of my Quantum Mechanics course, where I've just finished the chapter on spin. Is this strange or what? The critical point seems to be to keep track of spin orientation in real space vs. spin eigenvectors in spin space. For example spin-up and spin-down directions in real space are at 180° to each other. Their corresponding eigenvectors - forming a basis in spin-space - are at right angles.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Little Clarendon and Dinton Park
Bank Holiday Monday and I started the day by running the mower over our all-too-wet grass. An hour later and I'm not finished, the mower's battery is flat and I'm staggering into the house complaining to Clare that "I've pulled a muscle in my back!".
It wasn't enough to keep us in, as the dreary, threatening morning turned into a dreary, proto-drizzling afternoon. Into the motor and down to Dinton via Salisbury and Wilton.
Our first call was Little Clarendon, a 15th Century house restored in 1902 by the Reverend George Engleheart and his wife Mary.
It wasn't enough to keep us in, as the dreary, threatening morning turned into a dreary, proto-drizzling afternoon. Into the motor and down to Dinton via Salisbury and Wilton.
Our first call was Little Clarendon, a 15th Century house restored in 1902 by the Reverend George Engleheart and his wife Mary.
Little Clarendon - a 15th Century House
Dinton is a small village and appears to be without a Catholic church. Obviously George's Protestant zeal hadn't worked its magic on his wife because by 1921 she had become Catholic and had converted the small bake house next to Little Clarendon into a Mass centre - a small Catholic church, as pictured below.
Chapel of Our Lady of Pity (1921)
The altar inside "Our Lady of Pity"
We then drove the half-mile to Dinton Park, with stately home Philipps House. Due to a shortage of National Trust volunteers, they were only opening the house on the hour, and shepherding visitors from room to room in a controlled way. We were lucky to arrive at five to three and after a short wait got to see the downstairs -lots of portraits of Philipps ancestors in the 17th-18th centuries looking a lot like Johann Sebastian Bach. Pictured below a view of the house as we were walking up to it.
Philipps House in Dinton Park
What else have we been doing over the last few days? Yesterday, when we had some sunshine, we drive to Upper Chute and took a walk througth the local valleys and woods, emerging into the final field before the pub where we were surrounded by these impassive but curiously insistent sheep.
Clare and the ominous sheep
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