History Of E = MC2

Posted:

Trigger

Recently read Was Einstein the First to Invent E = mc2? The great physicist was not the first to equate forms of mass to energy, nor did he definitively prove the relationship

Relevant quotes from above article (emphasis added):

1. “In 1881 J. J. Thomson, later a discoverer of the electron, made the first attempt to demonstrate how this might come about by explicitly calculating the magnetic field generated by a moving charged sphere and showing that the field in turn induced a mass into the sphere itself. ”
2. “... but in 1889 English physicist Oliver Heaviside simplified his work to show that the effective mass should be m = (4⁄3) E / c2, where E is the energy of the sphere’s electric field. German physicists Wilhelm Wien, famous for his investigations into blackbody radiation, and Max Abraham got the same result, which became known as the “electromagnetic mass” of the classical electron (which was nothing more than a tiny, charged sphere). Although electromagnetic mass required that the object be charged and moving, and so clearly does not apply to all matter, it was nonetheless the first serious attempt to connect mass with energy.”
3. “When Englishman John Henry Poynting announced in 1884 a celebrated theorem on the conservation of energy for the electromagnetic field, other scientists quickly attempted to extend conservation laws to mass plus energy. Indeed, in 1900 the ubiquitous Henri Poincaré stated that if one required that the momentum of any particles present in an electromagnetic field plus the momentum of the field itself be conserved together, then Poynting’s theorem predicted that the field acts as a “fictitious fluid” with mass such that E = mc2. Poincaré, however, failed to connect E with the mass of any real body.”
4. “The scope of investigations widened again in 1904 when Fritz Hasenöhrl created a thought experiment involving heat energy in a moving cavity. ... Then one of Austria’s leading physicists, he wrote a prize-winning trilogy of papers, “On the theory of radiation in moving bodies,” the last two of which appeared in the Annalen der Physik in 1904 and early 1905. ... A simple application of the “work–energy theorem,” which equates the difference in work produced by the forces to the cavity’s kinetic energy, allowed Hasenöhrl to conclude that blackbody radiation has mass m = (8⁄3) E / c2. In his second paper Hasenöhrl considered a slowly accelerating cavity already filled with radiation and got the same answer. After a communication from Abraham, however, he uncovered an algebraic error and in his third paper corrected both results to m = (4⁄3) E / c2. ”
5. “One naturally wonders whether Einstein knew of Hasenöhrl’s work. It is difficult to believe that he did not, given that the bulk of the prize-winning trilogy appeared in the most prominent journal of the day.”

Takeaway

Like so many times before and after, an invention or discovery is not the work of a single human being.

As I have argued before on this blog, intellectual property rights urgently need to be reformed or even abolished. As a minimum, the duration of intellectual property rights should be dramatically shortened. Just because someone was the first or fastest to patent something is not justification enough.

First African American Tennis Players To Win Wimbledon

Posted: 9/6/2015

Trigger

Just watched parts of PBS American Masters Althea Gibson. Very fascinating how this woman become to be the best female tennis player of her time in 1957.

Only in 1975, Arthur Ashe won the male contest at Wimbledon.

Implications

The importance of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 is quite overblown. African Americans were advancing without the heavy hand of the federal government.

I am not sure whether the above documentary also showed the influence and importance of the trainer of Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe and many other African-American tennis players of that time. On the webpage to this documentary we read “Though a talented tennis player, Gibson was a street kid who lacked the genteel manner associated with the sport. It was under the tutelage of Dr. Hubert Eaton of Wilmington, NC and Dr. Robert W. Johnson [1899-1971] of Lynchburg, VA, two African American physicians who loved tennis and helped young African Americans who wanted to play, that she flourished.” Dr. Johnson probably deserves a documentary of his own. Wikipedia says about Dr. Johnson: “Known as the "godfather" of black tennis, Johnson founded an all-expenses-paid tennis camp for African-American children and hired instructors.[2] In these years in the segregated South, they had no public courts where they could learn tennis, and many did not have money for lessons. Johnson was instrumental in encouraging the athletic careers of both Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, whom he personally coached.”

Three Trillion Trees On Earth Blunder

Posted: 9/6/2015

Trigger

Just read Earth Has 3 Trillion Trees Per New Count. The article does not appear to contain a link to the original paper. I believe, this is the original paper referred to “Mapping tree density at a global scale”

There we read (emphasis added):

1. “There are roughly 3 trillion trees on Earth—more than seven times the number previously estimated—according to a tally by an international team of scientists.”
2. “The previously accepted estimate of the world’s tree population, about 400 billion, was based mostly on satellite imagery.”

Global Warming Is A Hoax

I have certainly blogged about the subject of Global Warming (now called Climate Change) is a hoax before.

This revelation of seven times more trees on earth is a major blunder for science. The above popular science article did not investigate the enormous implications as far as those infamous climate models are concerned. Apparently, scientists have for decades significantly underestimated the tree density observed in different types of forests around the world.

Devastating Forest Fires Thanks To Federal Government Policies

Posted: 9/6/2015

Trigger

Just read this recommendable summary article about how the federal government has screwed up forest management on federal lands for several decades Devastating Fires Show Forest Management Reforms Are Badly Needed. This is by far not the first article on this subject that I have read.

The Federal Government Built Up A Tinderbox

That the orthodox doctrine of total fire suppression and the prohibition of logging in federal forests have created a formidable tinderbox over the decades has been known for at least several years if not longer. And the federal government, which owns way too much land, has failed to act.

“In 1990, the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the northern spotted owl as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. Largely in response to this listing, the Forest Service implemented a new “ecosystem management” policy, which resulted in a further reduction in timber harvests. Then, shortly before he left office President Clinton introduced a rule that severely restricted the use of existing roads and construction of new roads on 49 million acres of National Forest, limiting the ability of the Forest Service to thin the dense thickets of trees that resulted from almost a century of fire suppression – or even remove dead trees.”

“The net result of these changes was a dramatic decline in the amount of timber removed from federal lands. As Figure 7 shows, between 1960 and 1990, an average of 10.3 billion board feet of timber were removed each year from Forest Service land. Removals declined precipitously between 1991 and 2000. From 2000 to 2013, an average of just 2.1 billion board feet of timber were removed from Forest Service land. That represents a near 80 percent decline in removals. Similarly, from 1990 to 2002, timber sales on BLM land fell 74 percent as a direct result of these policy changes and has remained at these suppressed levels since then.f”

County Judge Atherton Is A Genius

Posted: 9/5/2015

Trigger

Just read Tenn. judge refuses to grant straight couple a divorce because … gay marriage (Source 1)

I immediately was delighted when I read this article about this courageous county judge in Tennessee, i.e. Jeffrey M. Atherton of Hamilton county!

Here is another article, with even more excerpts from Atherton’s decision Chattanooga Judge Dismisses Divorce Complaint, Citing U.S. Supreme Court Ruling On Gay Marriage; Atherton Hits "Judi-idiocracy" With Its "Iron Fist and Limp Wrist" (Source 2)

Quotes From The Articles

Here are some quotes from the articles (emphasis added):

1. “Last week, a Tenn. judge refused to grant a straight couple a divorce because the U.S. Supreme Court allowed gay marriage.” (1)
2. ““The Tennessee Court of Appeals has noted that Obergefell v. Hodges … affected what is, and must be recognized as, a lawful marriage in the State of Tennessee,” Atherton began. “This leaves a mere trial level Tennessee state court judge in a bit of a quandary. With the U.S. Supreme Court having defined what must be recognized as a marriage, it would appear that Tennessee's judiciary must now await the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court as to what is not a marriage, or better stated, when a marriage is no longer a marriage.”” (1)
3. ““The majority’ s opinion in Obergefell, regardless of its patronizing and condescending verbiage, is now the law of the land, accurately described by Justice Scalia as ‘a naked judicial claim to legislative— indeed, super-legislative— power,'” Atherton continued.
   The Supreme Court’s decision was “troubling” because it amounted to a “judicial fiat,” Atherton argued. “” (1)
4. ““To say the least, Tenn. Const. art. XI, § 18,” which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, “having been adopted by the people of the State of Tennessee in 2006 as reflecting the will, desire, public policy and law of this State, and to be applied by its judiciary, seems a bit on the incompatible side with the U.S. Supreme Court’ s ruling,” he opined. “One would think that if the U.S. Supreme Court intended to overturn all or part of a state’ s constitution, it would do so expressly, rather than by implication.”” (1)
5. “"The conclusion reached by this court is that Tennesseans, corporately, have been deemed by the U.S. Supreme Court to be incompetent to define and address such keystone/central institutions such as marriage and, thereby, at minimum, contested divorces. Consequently, since only our federal courts are wise enough to address the issues of marriage - and therefore contested divorces - it only follows that this court's jurisdiction has been preempted.” (2)

Leading By Example

This is a beautiful case of civil disobedience!

Kudos to judge Atherton! We hope other judges will follow his example!

1.9 Millimeters Rise Of Global Sea Levels Per Year

Posted: 8/29/2015

Trigger

Just read the scary sounding article “Rising Sea Levels More Dangerous Than Thought Consequences of global sea level rise could be even scarier than the worst-case scenarios predicted by the dominant climate models” reporting about NASA’s latest research.

In the first paragraph we read “The consequences of global sea level rise could be even scarier than the worst-case scenarios predicted by the dominant climate models, which don't fully account for the fast breakup of ice sheets and glaciers, NASA scientists said today (Aug. 26) at a press briefing.”

This appears to be the original NASA press release related to above article.

A Scarecrow Called NASA

Does NASA have anything better to do with our taxpayer money? Why is NASA involved in weather or climate research, because they have satellites?

Further down in the article we read that “This increase translates to a global sea level rise of about 1.9 millimeters (0.07 inches) per year, [Steve] Nerem [Associate Professor at the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR) at the University of Colorado at Boulder] said”. Absolutely laughable! The article does not even mention the margin of error although the margin of error could well be significantly larger than 1.9 millimeters. That is just under 20 centimeters in 100 years.

The above article and press release also point out that global sea levels rose by 3 inches since 1992. The above press release states in the first sentence “Seas around the world have risen an average of nearly 3 inches since 1992 … according to the latest satellite measurements from NASA and its partners.”. Well, again that translates only to 33 centimeters in 100 years using linear extrapolation.

Hot Recent Science & Technology Articles (15)

Posted: 8/29/2015

1. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/08/colloid-nanoparticles-store-information-wet-computing
2. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/08/drug-treatment-alcoholism-shows-promise-rat-primate-studies
3. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/08/synthetic-stomach-membrane-minimise-animal-tests
4. New drug protects against the deadly effects of nuclear radiation 24 hours after exposure ("a single injection of the investigative peptide drug TP508 given 24 hours after a potentially-lethal exposure to radiation appears to significantly increase survival and delay mortality in mice by counteracting damage to the gastrointestinal system.")
5. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/540151/bitcoins-dark-side-could-get-darker/#
6. Startup Aims to Beat Google to Market with Self-Driving Golf Cart The startup Auro says its self-driving golf cart will lead to autonomous shuttles for theme parks, vacation resorts, and retirement communities.
7. The Coming Wave of Bionic Hearing Gadgets Startups like Doppler Labs are building earbuds that will let you turn down the volume on crying babies and pump up the bass on live music.
8. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-08-metabolic-master-underlying-human-obesity.html
9. http://phys.org/news/2015-08-spaceliner-europe-australia-minutes-europe-us-hour.html
10. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/physicists-built-wormhole-magnets-180956345/
11. http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/08/gut-microbes-linked-eye-disease
12. http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/08/powerful-painkillers-can-now-be-made-genetically-modified-yeast-are-illegal-drugs
13. http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/consumer-electronics/gaming/4d-light-field-displays-are-exactly-what-virtual-reality-needs
14. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/08/chemists-wax-capsule-reagent-preservation-end-glovebox
15. Company in Canada gets U.S. patent for space elevator (“Now a Canadian company, Thoth Technology in Ontario, has a patent for a space elevator to access space. It would reach 20km (12 miles) above the planet. Its engineers said the technology could save more than 30 percent of the fuel of a conventional rocket— spacecraft and people could be lifted to a level in the atmosphere requiring less force to launch. As GCR (Global Construction Review) News described it, this is a freestanding space tower concept, held rigid by pressurized gas. In Fast Company, Charlie Sorrel had some thoughts on this: " The patent does say that the elevator could be scaled to reach 200km ...”)
16. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/08/impurities-origin-life-defective-reagents
17. Octopus Genome Reveals Secrets to Complex Intelligence The largest invertebrate genetic code unleashes clues to camouflage, suckers, evolution
18. Research team creates a superfluid in a record-high magnetic field (Hopefully, this will lead to better energy generation. “The magnetic field is a synthetic magnetic field, generated using laser beams, and is 100 times stronger than that of the world's strongest magnets. Within this magnetic field, the researchers could keep a gas superfluid for a tenth of a second ...”)
19. Hacked Molecular Machine Could Pump Out Custom Chemicals Bioengineers have successfully engineered the ribosome, paving the way for synthetic cells (“The researchers used a strand of RNA to tether the large and the small subunit together, toiling for months to get the length and location of the link just right so that the machine could still function. … The team screened its tethered ribosomes in Escherichia coli cells that lacked functioning RNA, and eventually found engineered ribosomes that worked well enough to support some growth, albeit slow.”)
20. Robotic insect mimics nature’s extreme moves  Research team from Seoul National University and Harvard looked to water striders to develop robots that jump off water’s surface
21. Team Makes Strides in Therapy Preventing Addiction Relapse by Erasing Drug-Associated Memories (“Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have made a discovery that brings them closer to a new therapy based on selectively erasing these dangerous and tenacious drug-associated memories. … The new study, published this week online ahead of print by the journal Molecular Psychiatry, demonstrates the effectiveness of a single injection of an early drug candidate called blebbistatin in preventing relapse in animal models of methamphetamine addiction.
    The new study builds on previous work in Miller’s lab. In 2013, the team made the surprising discovery that drug-associated memories could be selectively erased by targeting actin, the protein that provides the structural scaffold supporting memories in the brain. However, the therapeutic potential of the finding seemed limited by the problem that actin is critically important throughout the body—taking a pill that generally inhibits actin, even once, would likely be fatal.
    In the new study, Miller and her colleagues report a major advance—the discovery of a safe route to selectively targeting brain actin through nonmuscle myosin II (NMII), a molecular motor that supports memory formation.”)
22. Horses capable of humanlike facial expressions (“Using these data, they then created a coding system for each individual facial movement—just as other researchers have done for humans and several other species. Horses, it turns out, can make 17 discrete facial movements, whereas cats make 21, dogs make 16, and chimpanzees 13. With the arch of an eyebrow or the curl of a lip, humans can convey some 27 emotions”)
23. Severe stress creates more healthy fat (“Extreme stress—like the kind that accompanies large third-degree burns—can make the body turn ordinary fat cells into super–calorie-burning brown fat, scientists report. Their observation is the first to confirm that the human body can convert white fat into “healthy” brown fat, and it may eventually lead to drugs that can accomplish the conversion.  … Most fat in mammals is a type called white adipose (fat) tissue, yet small animals and newborn humans have large amounts of brown fat, which is loaded with energy-burning mitochondria that cause it to use more calories and produce more heat than white fat. Until recently, scientists believed that in people, this brown fat disappeared after infancy. But in 2009, researchers showed that adult humans also have brown fat at the base of their necks, raising the possibility that drugs could help people produce more of it to combat obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol. … Although the white-fat-turned-brown-fat cells weren’t as efficient as regular brown fat, there were enough of them to burn an average of 263 extra calories each day in burn patients, without any change in exercise or diet. ”)
24. Tapeworms may be good for your brain (“In fact, one type [of tapeworm] appears to protect against memory loss in rats.”)
25. Frequent spicy food consumption linked with longer life (“Fresh and dried chili peppers were the most commonly used spices reported by the Chinese study population. Capsaicin and other bioactive ingredients in chili peppers have been found in previous studies to have anti-obesity, antioxidant, anti-inflammation, and anticancer properties, but the authors caution that more research is needed to determine if there is a direct link between these ingredients and lowered risk of death.”)
26. “CARBON SINK” DETECTED UNDERNEATH WORLD’S DESERTS (Global warming is a hoax! “Massive aquifers underneath deserts could hold more carbon than all the plants on land, according to the new research. … The new study suggests some of this carbon may be disappearing underneath the world’s deserts – a process exacerbated by irrigation. Scientists examining the flow of water through a Chinese desert found that carbon from the atmosphere is being absorbed by crops, released into the soil and transported underground in groundwater—a process that picked up when farming entered the region 2,000 years ago. Underground aquifers store the dissolved carbon deep below the desert where it can’t escape back to the atmosphere, according to the new study. The new study estimates that because of agriculture roughly 14 times more carbon than previously thought could be entering these underground desert aquifers every year. ”
27. Gravitational constant appears universally constant, pulsar study suggests
28. Building a Single-molecule Transistor from Scratch (“An international team of researchers has demonstrated for the first time that a single molecule can operate as a field-effect transistor when surrounded by charged atoms that operate as the gate.”)