Ray Manzarek, incredibly influential keyboardist for The Doors, has passed away. His bouncy, jazzy organ melodies and rhythms were an essential ingredient in what made that band what it was.
The 10 Best Physicists, according to the Guardian
12 May 2013
Paul Dirac. Predicted the existence of antimatter, created some of quantum mechanics’ key equations, and laid the foundations for today’s micro-electronics industry. Won a Nobel prize. Turned down a knighthood because he didn’t want people using his first name.
I couldn’t put together a better list of great physicists than the Guardian has done. It’s good to see the ones that aren’t household names (but should be) like Maxwell, Rutherford, and Dirac.
- Isaac Newton
- Niels Bohr
- Galileo Galilei
- Albert Einstein
- James Maxwell
- Michael Faraday
- Marie Curie
- Richard Feynman
- Ernest Rutherford
- Paul Dirac
Of course there’s a strong case for the inclusion of Nikola Tesla.
My favourite bit in the Guardian bios of the above physicists is this:
For his achievements, Carlsberg brewery gave [Niels] Bohr a special gift: a house with a pipeline connected to its brewery next door, thus providing him with free beer for life.
Now that’s a satisfying career.
Support for Kiera Wilmot
6 May 2013
This is Kiera Wilmot. She’s a 16-year-old American schoolgirl who carried out a mildly risky chemistry experiment on school grounds. For this she was arrested, expelled, and is presently being charged with a felony that could result in up to 5 years in prison.
Kids do stupid things that put themselves and others at risk of harm all the time. But this was not a stupid thing: it was curiosity. Arresting and expelling her seems like an incredible overreaction. Experimentation is one of the fundamental ways in which an interest in science is expressed and nurtured.
Here are two good responses that reflect the general opinion of the community that cares about science more than sealing kids in bubble wrap:
- The Urban Scientist (Scientific American): Scientists’ Support for Kiera Wilmot
- Starts With a Bang (ScienceBlogs): Why Science Is Anything But A Crime
Kingswood – they rock
5 May 2013Remember when Kings of Leon were good?
Melbourne band Kingswood (named, I can only assume, after the classic Australian car) have some of that sound. Perhaps it’s the shared initial five letters in their names. Or the beards.
Kingswood have less of the southern rootsiness in their guitar-rock sound. But they have immense energy, and a knack for a catchy hook. And they have that other thing I love: falsetto. Gets me every time.
I love their new song, “Ohio”:
Click here to check out more from their first album, like this blues-infused rocker:
Black Sabbath at Allphones Arena
28 April 2013In the continuing theme of “seeing musical legends before they die” a few mates and I got ourselves out to Olympic Park last night to see the first Black Sabbath tour of Australia since 1973.
1973.
The opening act was some NZ ’90s hard rock outfit called Shihad. We only caught their last song. Meh.
Then, because my mate Vince is charming as hell, he got all our nosebleed rooftop seats swapped for way-down lower-bowl right-beside-the-stage seats. Well done, Vince! A prompt start by Sabbath meant we missed the first few riffs of “War Pigs” as we moved, but we soon settled in.
Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, and Tony Iommi.
What followed next was legendary metal with a bit of awkward farce thrown in.
I was really impressed by the band. Tony and Geezer still have it, completely. The guitar riffs were dark and epic. The bass was fuzzy and menacing. Original drummer Bill Ward declined to take part but Tommy Clufetos did the metal drummer thing to perfection, including a 7-minute strobe-powered solo.
Ozzy’s voice was better than I expected, mostly. He can still hit the notes, and he’s largely intelligible, and his tone fits the unsettling music just right, as it did on the albums all those decades ago.
I remind myself several times during the night that these guys invented this stuff. Countless generations of black T-shirt wearing metal bands and fans owe a massive debt to those arpeggio riffs, to those minor-keyed laments of alienation, to all those tempo changes. Black Sabbath came out 43 years ago. It was awesome to hear it played live by the guys who dreamt it up, and to hear them still being able to lay it down.
“Children of the Grave”, “N.I.B.”, Black Sabbath”, “Fairies Wear Boots”, and encore “Paranoid” were thrilling highlights to hear.
Downsides: Ozzy gets a little annoying. It’s fascinating to watch his shambolic shuffling about and fun to watch him throw buckets of water on the audience. He’s as energetic as any other mid-60s frontman out there (except Iggy) especially considering that he’s spent so many decades in a chemical fog. But it’s still tiring to hear him ask us to “Show me your fucking hands!” or “Go fucking crazy!” over and over and over again. His crowd banter is pretty limited and repetitive.
Also, he wasn’t on top form for “Electric Funeral” or, sadly, “Iron Man”. And the new songs, plus iffy mid-career tracks like “Dirty Women”, weren’t great. The show slumped in a few of these songs.
But overall the good was much bigger than the bad. I got to see musical legends do what they did, and what they still do, live. The show was fun and good-natured (metal shows I’ve attended are always the most friendly) and epic. We thrashed and sang and shook and fist-pumped and yelled. Dark, brooding riffery has been part of the musical landscape as long as I’ve been alive; I’m glad its creators got to show me how it’s done.
You can see a couple of videos from the crowd in the embedded YouTubes below. Rock on.
Three awesome songs – Sheryl Crow, Joan Osborne, and Hole
18 April 2013I rode the train to work and back today. When I do I like to listen to Timinator Radio (which is the 19,000+ songs on my iPod classic on shuffle). Coming home the first three songs it randomised for me were particularly awesome. I thought I’d share. They were, in order:
Sheryl Crow covering Hank Williams. She’s got plenty of great songs of her own, of course, but tributes to a true legend like Hank are something special.
Joan Osborne singing “Right Hand Man”. She had a smash hit with that stupid song about God being a slob like one of us, but this 7/4 blues rocker is way better.
Hole’s “Miss World”. Raw punk grunge was so good.
University of NSW develop a quantum bit using the nucleus of an atom
18 April 2013From the University of New South Wales (UNSW): engineers have been able to use the nucleus of an atom as the basis for a quantum bit (or qubit) the fundamental unit of quantum computing.
Artist’s impression of a single phosphorus atom, placed in the vicinity of a silicon transistor.
Why is this important?
- Quantum computing means a potentially massive (like, exponentially massive) increase in computing speed and capacity.
- This UNSW experiment was done in fairly normal conditions, with solid-state devices and normal silicon circuitry. Qubits with similar accuracy in the past have required very specialised conditions: atoms in a vacuum suspended in a magnetic field, for instance.
So the real breakthrough here is the practicality by which they were able to achieve their quantum computing result. It’s one step closer to being able to deliver quantum computing on a practical scale. Remember, the regular computers we’re familiar with used to weigh many tons and fill entire rooms. Quantum computing will likely go through a similar process.
You can read the media release or get even more background info about quantum computing from the UNSW.
