Chernobyl and our fears

Hello fellow friends of the pond, here is Björn with June's last prompt

The other day I wrote a poem imagining how it would feel like to die from radiation poisoning:

Downfall

The sky was different

the day the birdsong ceased,

(as if they knew)

it carried in itself 

a tepid hue of sick blancmange,

That day my skin was drizzle-glazed

but yet

It had not bloomed 

in radiation rashes yet

my inner organs had not given up.

They came the morning after

to lock me up

to observe my symptoms

to learn how blood may boil.

I’m waiting 

in the company of two-way mirrors

while

from my only window, still, I  see

the staring moon,

a solemn gaze tonight 

that’s veiled behind 

a cataract of poisoned cumulus,

tonight I’ll cease.

but still I know 

that many more

will come to fill my void 

to melt like me.

Not an uplifting topic, but the recent series on Chernobyl made me remember those days when news was breaking

and we all had to look at the spring around us with different eyes.

As you might know, Sweden had one of the largest downfalls outside Sweden, and also non physicists had to learn
about words like Cesium, Becquerel and milli-Sievert. 

I particularly remember the drizzle falling on the morning of April 30 1986, I was still a graduate student back then,
and the knowledge of what had happened in the Soviet was just breaking mingled with the wonderful sense of spring
and the joy of returning daylight created an eerie atmosphere.

Looking back at the time I also realize how much it created change and breakdown in the Soviet Union. 

Today Chernobyl has become a tourist attraction, the nearby town Pripyat is both a time-capsule back to the old
Soviet, a stark post-apocalyptic place and a reminder how nature can reclaim what has been taken by humans.

I love the contradictions around this, at the same time Nuclear Power is needed for us to counter carbon emission
that is probably much more dangerous than the radiation pollution that has been emitted. 

Maybe the fact that death from radiation is so much more immediate, as well as its link to cancer and genetic
disorder which seems so much worse than the seemingly increase if death from natural causes that is tied to
the fossil fuel industry.

I am not expecting you to go fully activist on this prompt, but rather make your fear of the unknown deaths
that’s linked to breathing and eating. If you want to be specific and focus on Chernobyl and the breakdown
of Soviet Union that is also fine with me, but remember that the failure of the systems was the result of
corruption, which is not only a communist problem. It’s a human problem.

If you prefer to talk about the fear of a nuclear war that is also fine by me.

When you have written your new poem, please add it to the link. Visit and read the other poet’s contributions.

Physics with Björn - Cosmology and expanding horizons

Hello sweet amphibians,

Today it’s time for another topic of physics to inspire you:

Cosmology and the creation of our universe.

Let us pick a few points and see what we know, what we guess and perhaps what a scientific
theory actually means (hint… scientific theory is not guesswork, it is combination of facts).

In 1924 the astronomer Edwin Hubble could show that our home galaxy (the Milky Way)
was just one of many similar collection of stars, and in 1929 he could also prove that the
distance between the galaxies was growing. Hubble never received the Nobel prize in physics
because astronomy discoveries were not awarded until later. His discoveries have since
lead to numerous Nobel awards in Physics.

Edwin Hubble

The further away the faster it left us. The only theory that would fit the observations was that
the universe expanded. A theory in science always have to be linked (directly or indirectly)
to some type of observations or predictions that later will be shown.

The consequence of Hubble’s finding was that physicists, and to some extent philosophers
began to ponder the consequences. Any notion that the earth or even our solar system is
the central of our world was shattered even more than when Galileo degraded earth to a
piece of rock circulating the sun.

- Is there any outer border or horizon, and is there any void beyond?
- Since light takes time to travel does the galaxies we see still exist?  
- When the did expansion start, and will it ever stop?

The third question lead to theories where you could find a point in time around 13.8 Billion

years ago when the whole universe was basically aggregated in one single point of origin

from which it then expanded and continue to expand which lead to the big bang theory.

The big bang had actually been proposed already in 1927 by Georges Lemaître, a Belgian
Astronomer and Catholic Priest, and Edwin Hubble’s observations fitted perfectly with a
single moment of creation.

Later on the Big Bang Theory has been both verified with other verifiable facts such as the
observation of the background radiation which was discovered by accident by American
radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson and awarded by the Nobel Prize in 1978.

For me this prize and the excitement around cosmology was probably one factor influencing
me to  study physics, and more and more research has since been made giving details to the
standard model of cosmology (without my contributions). The theory and new observation
has lead to new questions being asked and answers given both by  observations in the sky
and by looking into the deep matter of elementary particle physics (which is beyond this
short article).

So today I would like you to ponder the cosmos, the theories of origin and horizon. Sometimes
when I read about the vastness of the universe I sense the utter loneliness on our little blue
planet we will never move beyond  We are trapped for just a short moment in time in this
little moment in time and space trying to understand that for all practical matter the universe
is infinite.

The prompt is wide open when it comes to form and length, just remember to visit and read.

On Monday the April Madness of everyday poetry begins.

Physics with Björn: Gravity and Space-Time curvature

Hello all, today I wanted you to inspire you again with a bit with Physics.

Or maybe scare you… he he.

For those that remember we did cover the theory of special relativity a while ago, and we had some cool poems on its consequences and the concept of space time. Today I want to mention the general theory of relativity.

From his early successes Einstein continued to develop his theory of general relativity where he tried to add the concept of gravity.

The theory up till this point had been proposed by Newton and could actually explain everything we can observe. It can predict satellites, postulate the presence of undiscovered planets, worked well with missiles and ballistics. So, Einstein’s struggles with the very complicated math involved was to start with more a cool exercise of combining all theories into one. So to start with it was more a set of equations with some pretty cool predictions that wasn’t possible to verify until way later.

One of these predictions was that gravity could be seen as curvature of space-time. If this sounds wacky this what I thought at first too. But effects of this curvature has been seen.

Since light has no mass, normally it would be expected that light would be unaffected by gravity, but if gravity affect space and time itself also light would be affected since the straight path that light would normally take would bend.

This has been seen as an effect when light from a faraway start passes close to a massive object such as black hole (yes that is strange too) it will bend from its straightest path.

So today I would like you to think of things like black holes, space-time curvature and gravity, and come up with a new poem that have at least some connection to the theme.

Entropy and thermodynamics

Hello fellow amphibians, today it’s time for another Physics class to spin your creativity, and I thought I would talk about entropy and thermodynamics. I will not bother you with details:

“Thermodynamics is a funny subject. The first time you go through it, you don't understand it at all. The second time you go through it, you think you understand it, except for one or two small points. The third time you go through it, you know you don't understand it, but by that time you are so used to it, it doesn't bother you anymore.”
 — Arnold Sommerfeld, when asked why he had never written a book on the subject (c.1950)

Thermodynamics is so one of the most misunderstood subjects I know of. and many many well educated do not even understand it’s basic. At the core is entropy.

Let’s look at a dictionary:

Entropy is a thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system.

Remember that when we talk about disorder it’s not always what you might think at first, if you want to be confused on a higher level watch the video




Entropy is a measure randomness, and the second law of Thermodynamics actually says that the amount of disorder can only increase for a system.

That sounds a lot like my desk… *smiles* .

Entropy is closely connected to temperature which is the average energy of the particles in the system. You probably remember something about temperature is all about the molecules moving faster. Actually when I started to read about thermodynamics I realized that temperature was a lot harder to understand than entropy.

It actually takes work to bring order to disorder (the same with my desk). That actually sounds very reasonable, and it has fundamental consequences.

Entropy is why cool objects warms up and warm objects get cooler, It makes a car engine run (it’s not magic, it’s thermodynamic) where the heat from burning gasoline is converted to mechanical energy but at the same time heats up the surrounding air.

That’s why using electricity made from coal to heat the house is stupid. There are fundamental conversions where energy is lost.

Today I would like you to write a poem on entropy and the energy it takes to bring order to thing, talk about the waste of creating entropy (indeed it has a lot to do with climate change too). Write about heat and how it changes. Get warmed up to the thoughts and remember,

Entropy will always increase.

Physics with Björn: Order in Chaos

One thing I remember from my past in Physics we as graduate students is how sensitive we were to trends. If something new was found we threw everything aside and started to read everything about something new that everyone was digging into. One it was high temperature superconductivity (truly amazing) and another time it was cold fusion (or confusion). Who can have believe that there is trendiness among the nerdiest.

Or maybe were just like kids playing soccer; everybody following the ball.

Anyway, when I started out the subject a la mode was chaos theory, and I thought that this should be our little physics prompt today.

Chaos theory is really a branch of mathematics; it’s basically defined as situations where the end result or the solution is very sensitive from where you start. In reality it means that almost anything can happen in such mathematics. One famous metaphor for this is the butterfly effect.

Butterflies by M.C. Escher

What was found in the early 80s was that there are certain universal laws that you can find in most such complex solutions. Or simply put there is certain order in chaos, (at least for some short time).

There are many physical problems that you cannot solve exactly. Detailed prediction is impossible just because of it’s vast complexity. We all know that weather cannot be predicted in detail beyond a certain time.

Neither can we cannot predict the path a paper-boat will follow in a turbulent stream.

Yet we can follow in detail how a hurricane comes closer, and if we look into a stream the eddies can look quite stable, and we can guess a likely path for the paper boat.

What is common between chaotic system is that the basic physical laws are very easy. The equations are simple and well known, but due to the complexity the system can behave chaotic (unpredictable). Complexity arises in many cases for example that we have many interacting parts (the molecules in the atmosphere for instance).

In such system we can switch from one seemingly stable state to another very quickly. Eddies form and disappears, there is a tromb approaching.

In the heydays  there were even those who tried applying the universal laws of chaos to financial systems (imagine what this can do to stock markets), with the argument that stockprices are set by many individual operators acting on very simple laws (sell/buy), and we certainly have seen rapid switches when bubbles burst.

The reason that chaos theory become popular in the early 80s was the advance of computer science. Scientist could solve complex problems we never could have done before, and looking into the solutions patterns started to appear. We could find beautiful formations, fractal geometries and night in front of the computer could beat a trip on acid.

This is just a few things I could say about chaos theory, and I will leave you with a few concepts that you can use for your (new) poem:

Chaos and order, disasters and turbulence.

Weather reports or eddies in a stream.

Fractal geometry and bubble economy.

Or anything else you might think of… maybe chaos can be used as a metaphor for something else.

Physics with Björn: Particle-wave dualism and the photoelectric effect

I continue my excavations into physics and hope that you can conclude the NaPoWriMo successfully. Coming last it’s a pleasure to bring you something challenging.

At the end of the nineteenth century physicists believed that more or less everything was solved. Newton’s mechanics governed the law of particles and bodies, while optics could be explained through Maxwell’s theories of electromagnetism. The atomic theories have started to be developed, and it seemed that we could explain everything under the sun (and even beyond). By the way, a scientific theory requires evidence, it requires consistency and coherent observations. Newton’s laws and Maxwell’s equations are still valid enough to still be used in engineering.

But sometimes we find things that required new and updated theories. You have probably all heard about quantum physics and wondered about it. So let us go back to the roots. In 1905 Albert Einstein published a paper that later gave him the Nobel Prize in 1921. With his theoretical model he could explain the so called photoelectric effect.

The effect showed up as electrons emitted when an electrode was illuminated. The revolutionary model that Einstein proposed was that he attributed a particle properties to light. which has up to that point been described only as an electromagnetic wave obeying the laws of optics. But with the attribution of particle properties to light Einstein could explain and set up equations for the photoelectric effect. If you find this to be mumbo-jumbo, just skip it. The essence of this is the shapeshifting properties of matter. The particle wave dualism.

The concept was later broadened so that also particles can be waves. Particles can be refracted just like they are waves, and you can attribute both wavelength and frequency to them, just like light can have momentum.

So it goes both ways. A particle is a wave and a wave is a particle. In some cases we see particles governed by the laws of optics, and the next moment they are like little spheres.

Today I thought you could use this shape shifting nature of nature on microscopic level for a poem. Or you can chose to write about the consequences in terms of electronics and optics of the world today. Or challenge my belief that science can predict and used to decide the world.

Physics with Björn: Space time and the special theory of relativity

Today I thought we should move on to write poetry inspired by Physics.

One thing that has always fascinated me in Physics is how the concept of time changed when I dived deeper and deeper into its definition. On one hand we can measure time with extreme accuracy, we are taught to put into formulas to predict the orbits of a satellite, on the other hand we cannot really visualize it as something real. It’s just a parameter that can only flow in one direction (for a physicist time travelling is fiction).

In 1905 Albert Einstein published his paper on special relativity starting from a very simple postulate that nothing can move faster than the speed of light in vacuum. This lead to a number of interesting consequences. The most well known being that energy and matter is the same according to the formula:

which have lead to both nuclear power and atomic bombs.But from a philosophical point this lead to something even more fundamental: the space-time.

The easiest way to understand the concept is of course quite intuitive. For two things to coincide they have to be at the same place at the same time. But it also leads to another thing. Unless we are at the same point in space it is meaningless to talk about concurrent events without taking into account the time it takes for information to pass between to two different places. Space and time connects, which also have that wonderful consequence that time can run at different speed depending on the relative speed you move (time dilation).

Before the time of train and telegraphs time was actually local, but with the technical development we had to develop chronographs for trains to run on time, to measure longitude. So this consequence can feel like returning to our roots, but fortunately earth is small. We live in a perfect approximation where things can be machined to perfection. Universal time exist on our tiny speck of astral dust. But after all we use the space time daily: let’s meet at corner of A-street and B-Ave at 3 PM, is a space time coordinate. Sometimes it just takes to think like a child to create fantastic new physics.

The prompt today is to write about space time. You might start from concept like concurrent events, or from the problem of meeting in the four dimension of space-time. You might go further and think about the consequences of time on earth or space. The prompt is mine, but the poetry is yours.

Physics with Björn: Brownian Motion

First I thought about doing a new year prompt, but somehow I think all has been said about last year. Still you are fine to combine my prompt with new year wishes.

As you might know I once read Physics, and I took a PhD many years ago. I have not worked with Physics after that, but I have always had a passion to understand how the world works, and how it connects to philosophy.

For me Physics is always present in my writing, but I have understood that for many of you Physics brings back memories of less joyful moments in school. I would like to start a small series on different phenomena and what it might tell us of the world. I promise, that there will be no equations, no math, just fun. If you like the theme I will continue this prompts with more challenges.

Today let us look into a microscope and consider Brownian Motion, which is the random motion of particles suspended in a fluid that can be observed through a microscope.

When this was first described by Robert Brown in 1827 when looking at pollen suspended in a solution. At that time atoms and molecules was just a wild theory and the movements he observed seemed random and unpredictable. It was not until 1905 when Albert Einstein came up with a comprehensive theory that the reason was collision from the invisible molecules in the fluid, and that the movement could be explained (if not predicted). Therefore it constituted one of the first concrete evidences of the building.blocks of matter.

Isn’t it fascinating how we can observe something for real that is caused by something we can only imagine?. Often I find the world to be random and erratic. Are we bounced around by forces we only can imagine.

Think about concepts like apparent randomness, of motion and of what we cannot see. Maybe you can imagine being puppeteered like pollen in a fluid, or just dance to randomness and see where you end up.

Link up below and share the joy what other read.

And have a happy new year.