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eretzyisrael · 5 months

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by Martin Kramer

The text may help to explain a remark made by Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion to the Israeli cabinet, after he’d met with Oppenheimer at the latter’s request. Ben-Gurion said he “had the impression that some sort of Jewish spark lit up the man.”

That impression may have originated in Oppenheimer’s speech. Ben-Gurion certainly heard it. The prime minister delivered the keynote at the same dedication, and sat with Oppenheimer in the front row. Oppenheimer, in his own speech, made several references to Ben-Gurion’s remarks. (When Oppenheimer said “It is not only the Prime Minister of Israel who has his difficulties,” he was referring to Ben-Gurion’s admission that he didn’t understand much about physics.)

What’s the source for Oppenheimer’s text? Oppenheimer spoke from notes, but he didn’t have a copy of the speech as he delivered it. “I gave my notes on the ceremonial talk to your press officer,” he wrote to Meyer Weisgal, his host, “and have no record at all of what I said.” At Oppenheimer’s request, the Weizmann Institute sent him a tape with the extract of his speech, secured from the Voice of Israel, which had broadcast the proceedings. The following text is a transcription of the delivered speech, from Oppenheimer’s papers. While the Jerusalem Post reported a few portions of his remarks the day after he spoke, the speech is published here in full for the first time.

I’ve appended an extract from another speech that Oppenheimer gave for the Weizmann Institute on December 2, 1958, at its annual fundraiser at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. There Oppenheimer reflected on his visit to Israel the previous May. It complements the Rehovot speech.

Some of the persons mentioned by Oppenheimer in the two speeches:

Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and 1922 Nobel laureate. Although baptized a Lutheran, his mother came from a distinguished Jewish family, so he fled Denmark during the Nazi occupation. He later assisted Oppenheimer in the Manhattan Project. Bohr had already lent his prestige to the Weizmann Institute during an earlier visit in 1953, and he also spoke at the 1958 dedication, for which the Institute commissioned his bust.

Meyer Weisgal, Zionist author and fundraiser, and confidant of the late Chaim Weizmann. At this time, he was chairman of the executive council of the Weizmann Institute. He would become the person in Israel closest to Oppenheimer.

Benjamin Bloch, physicist by training, administrator of the Weizmann Institute, and a friend of Bohr and Oppenheimer. (Felix Bloch, the Swiss-American physicist and 1952 Nobel laureate, also attended the 1958 dedication, but Oppenheimer’s reference to “Dr. Bloch” clearly refers to Benjamin.)

Abba Eban, Israeli statesman. In late 1958, he was at the end of his service as Israeli ambassador to the United States and chief delegate to the United Nations, and had been named the next president of the Weizmann Institute.

Ernest (later Lord) Rutherford, New Zealand-British physicist and 1908 Nobel laureate, a friend to Chaim Weizmann in Manchester.

#robert oppenheimer #niels bohr #israel #david ben-gurion #weizman institute

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tenth-sentence · 11 months

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He realized that his presence was the only protection that could be given to the 'non-Aryan' members of his Institute.

"Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists" - Robert Jungk, translated by James Cleugh

#book quote #brighter than a thousand suns #robert jungk #james cleugh #nonfiction #niels bohr #copenhagen #institute for theoretical physics #protection #protest

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in-sightpublishing · 1 year

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Non-existent Aerial Phenomena

Publisher: In-Sight Publishing Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014 Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal Journal Founding: August 2, 2012 Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed Access: Electronic/Digital & Open…

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mindblowingscience · 6 days

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Using the James Webb Space Telescope, University of Copenhagen researchers have become the first to see the formation of three of the earliest galaxies in the universe, more than 13 billion years ago. The sensational discovery contributes important knowledge about the universe and is now published in Science. For the first time in the history of astronomy, researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have witnessed the birth of three of the universe's absolute earliest galaxies, somewhere between 13.3 and 13.4 billion years ago.

#Science #JWST #james webb space telescope #astronomy #space #physics #stem

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blasteffect · 3 months

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Messier 74 galaxy

Photo: Gabriel Brammer

Cosmic Dawn Center, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen / James Webb Space Telescope

#art #cosmos #cosmic #universe #blast #space #wallpaper #stars #messier 74 #galaxy #gabriel brammer #james webb space telescope #photography #composition

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theyhavetakenovermylife · 2 months

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What Would They Name Their Children? (Headcanons)

2012!Turtles

A/N: Fun fact, my great grandmother was named after Olga of Kyiv. And another fun fact, my grandparents met each other at Niels Bohr institut in Copenhagen.

Warnings: None💚

Leonardo:

Leo would want to honor his Japanese heritage, in the memory of his father. With a great knowledge of not just Japanese culture and language, but mythology and history, Leo would have more than just a few name ideas for his future children. His future partner may very well have to keep him in check, helping him sort through the all.

For Boys:

Kenji, meaning either “strong and vigorous” or “intelligent second son” in Japanese.

Asahi, meaning “morning sun”, “rising sun” or “sunrise” in Japanese.

Kangiten, the Japanese god of bliss.

For Girls:

Haru, meaning “springtime” in Japanese.

Sanyu, meaning “happiness” in Japanese.

Amaterasu, the name of the Shinto goddess of the sun.

Raphael:

Raph likes strong names. Names that make people think of strong warriors and brave leaders. For that to happen, it needs to be names that most people would know, and be able to recognize with at least a little ease. It won’t work if Raph chose a name no one had heard of before.

For Boys:

Thor, after the Norse god of thunder.

Zeus, after the Greek god of lightning and king of the gods.

Anu, also known as the Sky Father and the King of Gods in ancient Mesopotamia.

For Girls:

Boudicca, after the queen of the Iceni tribe, who led the rebellion against the Roman forces that invaded Britain.

Olga, after Olga of Kyiv, who avenged the murder of her husband at the hands of the Drevlians, while protecting her son.

Lagertha, after the Norse shieldmaiden from Norway.

Donatello:

It would be no surprise to anyone, that Donnie would name his children after some of the great minds that he found himself looking up to. Just like Leo, Donnie would have so many names lined up and ready to go, that his future partner would have to help him sort them all through, before setting on the ones that they would find fitting.

For Boys:

Charles, after Charles Darwin.

Deodatta, after Deodatta V. Shenai-Khatkhate.

Niels, after Niels Bohr.

For Girls:

Rosalind, after Rosalind Franklin.

Barbara, after Barbara McClintock.

Emilie, after Emilie du Chatelet.

Michelangelo:

The names Mikey has lined up for his future children, changes quite a bit in reasoning. Some of them mean something to him, in the sense that he finds the meaning of the name very important. Others are important to him, due to pop culture or, well, food. A simple man with simple thoughts I guess.

For Boys:

Keanu, because of Keanu Reeves of course. Duh.

Ace, from Latin, meaning “one”, “someone who excels” or someone of a high rank.

Bodhi, a Sanskrit name meaning “enlightenment” or “awakening”.

For Girls:

Cherry, which both could be referring to a meaning of “dear one”, but also the fruit.

Clementine, meaning everything from “merciful”, “gentle” and “mild” to the small citrus fruit.

Éowyn, because of Lord Of The Rings, of course.

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blackswaneuroparedux · 1 year

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Only a few know, how much one must know to know how little one knows.

- Werner Heisenberg

By 1924, the 23 year old Werner Heisenberg was already a brilliant physicist and so he went to research with Niels Bohr, the director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen. His paper, “Quantum Theoretical Reinterpretation of Kinematic and Mechanical Relations” was published a year later. After his return to Gottingen, he developed the matrix mechanics formulation of quantum mechanics. He was around 27 years old when in 1927, Heisenberg developed his famed Uncertainty Principal while in Copenhagen. That same year, he became a professor of theoretical physics and head of the physics department at the University of Leipzig. Werner Heisenberg received the Novel Prize in Physics in 1932 for his Uncertainty Principle, though he had been previously nominated in 1928 by Albert Einstein.

#heisenberg #werner heisenberg #quote #quantam mechanics #physics #physicist #nobel prize #uncertainty principle #science #german #knowledge

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 8 months

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Astronomers discover newborn galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope

With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are now able to peer so far back in time that we are approaching the epoch where we think that the first galaxies were created. Throughout most of the history of the Universe, galaxies seemingly tend to follow a tight relation between how many stars they have formed, and how many heavy elements they have formed. But for the first time we now see signs that this relation between the amount of stars and elements does not hold for the earliest galaxies. The reason is likely that these galaxies simply are in the process of being created, and have not yet had the time to create the heavy elements. The Universe is teeming with galaxies — immense collections of stars and gas — and as we peer deep into the cosmos, we see them near and far. Because the light has spent more time reaching us, the farther away a galaxy is, we are essentially looking back through time, allowing us to construct a visual narrative of their evolution throughout the history of the Universe.

Observations have shown us that galaxies through the last 12 billion years — that is, 5/6 of the age of the Universe — have been living their life in a form of equilibrium: There appears to be a fundamental, tight relation between on one hand how many stars they have formed, and on the other hand how many heavy elements they have formed. In this context, “heavy elements”, means everything heavier than hydrogen and helium.

This relation makes sense, because the Universe consisted originally only of these two lightest elements. All heavier elements, such as carbon, oxygen, and iron, was created later by the stars.

James Webb peers deeper

The very first galaxies should therefore be “unpolluted” by heavy elements. But until recently we haven’t been able to look so far back in time. In addition to being far away, the reason is that the longer light travels through space, the redder it becomes. For the most distant galaxies you have to look all the way into the infrared part of the spectrum, and only with the launch of James Webb did we have a telescope big and sensitive enough to see so far.

And the space telescope did not disappoint: Several has James Webb broken its own record for the most distant galaxy, and now it finally seems that we are reaching the epoch where some of the very first galaxies were created.

In a new study, published today in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy, af team of astronomers from the Danish research center Cosmic Dawn Center at the Niels Bohr Institute and DTU Space in Copenhagen, has discovered what seems indeed to be some of the very first galaxies which are still in the process of being formed.

“Until recently it has been near-impossible to study how the first galaxies are formed in the early Universe, since we simply haven’t had the adequate instrumentation. This has now changed completely with the launch of James Webb,” says Kasper Elm Heintz, leader of the study and assistant professor at the Cosmic Dawn Center.

Fundamental relation breaks down

The relationship between the total stellar mass of the galaxy and the amount of heavy elements is a bit more complex than that. How fast the galaxy produces new stars also has something to say. But if you correct for that, you get a beautiful, linear relationship: The more massive the galaxy, the more heavy elements.

But this relation is now being challenged by the latest observations.

“When we analyzed the light from 16 of these first galaxies, we saw that they had significantly less heavy elements, compared to what you’d expect from their stellar masses and the amount of new stars they produced,” says Kasper Elm Heintz.

In fact the galaxies turned out to have, on average, four times less amounts of heavy elements that in the later Universe. These results are in stark contrast to the current model where galaxies evolve in a form of equilibrium throughout most of the history of the Universe.

Predicted by theories

The result is not entirely surprising though. Theoretical models of galaxy formation, based on detailed computer programs, do predict something similar. But now we’ve seen it!

The explanation, as proposed by the autors in the article, is simply that we are witnessing galaxies in the process of being created. Gravity has gathered the first clumps of gas, which have begun to form stars.

If the galaxies then lived their lives undisturbed, the stars would quickly enrich them with heavy elements. But in between the galaxies at that time were large amounts of fresh, unpolluted gas, streaming down to the galaxies faster than the stars can keep up.

“The result gives us the first insight into the earliest stages of galaxy formation which appear to be more intimately connected with the gas in between the galaxies than we thought.

This is one of the first James Webb observations on this topic, so we’re still waiting to see what the larger, more comprehensive observations that are currently being carried out can tell us.

There is no doubt that we will shortly have a much clearer understanding of how galaxies and the first structures began their formation during the first billion years after the Big Bang,” Kasper Elm Heintz concludes.

The study is published in Nature Astronomy.

TOP IMAGE....The big galaxy in the foreground is named LEDA 2046648, and is seen just over a billion years back in time, while most of the others lie even farther away, and hence are seen even further back in time. CREDIT ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel.

CENTRE IMAGE....This plot shows the observed galaxies in an “element-stellar mass diagram”: The farther to the right a galaxy is, the more massive it is, and the farther up, the more heavy elements it contains. The gray icons represent galaxies in the present-day Universe, while the red show the new observations of early galaxies. These ones clearly have much less heavy elements than later galaxies, but agree roughly with theoretical predictions, indicated by the blue band. Credit: Kasper Elm Heintz, Peter Laursen.

LOWER IMAGE....Diffuse gas from intergalactic space plummets toward the center, sparking star formation and becoming part of the galaxy’s rotating disk. When stars die, they return their gas to the galaxy (and the intergalactic space), now enriched with heavy elements. Credit: Tumlinson et al. (2017).

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #astrophysics

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indepwom101 · 10 months

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🇩🇰 Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark

Wednesday, 9 August 2023

The 100th anniversary of the founding of the Niels Bohr Institute and the 100th anniversary of the NielsBohr Nobel Prize in Physics were celebrated today with the conference "Crossing the Interdisciplinary Boundaries of Physics' Scientific Part". The conference is the last part of the celebration of the two anniversaries kicked off last year.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince gave an opening speech at the conference and attended, among other things, last year's Danish Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Morten Meldal's Honorary Lecture.

#danish royal family #crown prince frederik

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tmarshconnors · 2 months

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"The presence of an observer in an experiment alters the outcome of the experiment itself."

Born Werner Karl Heisenberg 5 December 1901 Würzburg, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire

Died 1 February 1976 (aged 74) Munich, Bavaria, West Germany

He formulated the Uncertainty Principle: One of Heisenberg's most significant contributions to physics is the formulation of the Uncertainty Principle in 1927. This principle states that it is impossible to simultaneously measure certain pairs of physical properties, such as a particle's position and momentum, with arbitrary precision. This had profound implications for the understanding of quantum mechanics.

Nobel Prize in Physics: Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 for his creation of quantum mechanics, specifically the development of matrix mechanics. He shared the prize with Max Born and Pascual Jordan for this groundbreaking work.

Key Figure in Quantum Mechanics: Heisenberg was a central figure in the development of quantum mechanics during the early 20th century. Alongside other pioneers such as Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and Max Planck, he played a crucial role in establishing the theoretical framework of this branch of physics.

German Physicist during World War II: Heisenberg remained in Germany during World War II and worked on nuclear research for the Nazi regime. However, there is much debate and controversy surrounding his involvement in the German nuclear program. Some argue that he deliberately sabotaged the project, while others believe he genuinely aimed to develop a nuclear weapon for Germany.

Post-War Influence: After the war, Heisenberg played a key role in rebuilding the scientific community in Germany. He helped establish the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen and later became the director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich. He continued to make significant contributions to theoretical physics until his death in 1976.

#Werner Heisenberg #Physics #Quantum Mechanics #Uncertainty Principle #Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle #Atomic Theory #Nobel Prize in Physics #German Physicist #Copenhagen Interpretation #Matrix Mechanics #Quantum Field Theory #Quantum Physics #Particle Physics #Nuclear Physics #Theoretical Physics #today on tumblr #quoteoftheday

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kp777 · 11 months

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Source: University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science

ScienceDaily

July 25, 2023

Important ocean currents that redistribute heat, cold and precipitation between the tropics and the northernmost parts of the Atlantic region will shut down around the year 2060 if current greenhouse gas emissions persist. This is the conclusion based on new calculations from the University of Copenhagen that contradict the latest report from the IPCC.

Contrary to what we may imagine about the impact of climate change in Europe, a colder future may be in store. In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Niels Bohr Institute and Department of Mathematical Sciences predict that the system of ocean currents which currently distributes cold and heat between the North Atlantic region and tropics will completely stop if we continue to emit the same levels of greenhouse gases as we do today.

Using advanced statistical tools and ocean temperature data from the last 150 years, the researchers calculated that the ocean current, known as the Thermohaline Circulation or the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), will collapse -- with 95 percent certainty -- between 2025 and 2095. This will most likely occur in 34 years, in 2057, and could result in major challenges, particularly warming in the tropics and increased storminess in the North Atlantic region.

"Shutting down the AMOC can have very serious consequences for Earth's climate, for example, by changing how heat and precipitation are distributed globally. While a cooling of Europe may seem less severe as the globe as a whole becomes warmer and heat waves occur more frequently, this shutdown will contribute to an increased warming of the tropics, where rising temperatures have already given rise to challenging living conditions," says Professor Peter Ditlevsen from the Niels Bohr Institute.

"Our result underscores the importance of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible," says the researcher.

The calculations, just published in the scientific journal, Nature Communications, contradict the message of the latest IPCC report, which, based on climate model simulations, considers an abrupt change in the thermohaline circulation very unlikely during this century.

Early warning signals present

The researchers' prediction is based on observations of early warning signals that ocean currents exhibit as they become unstable. These Early Warning Signals for the Thermohaline Circulation have been reported previously, but only now has the development of advanced statistical methods made it possible to predict just when a collapse will occur.

#Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation #AMOC #deep ocean currents #climate crisis #jaw dropping #5 alarm fire

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denimbex1986 · 11 months

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'Magnificent.

Christopher Nolan’s three-hour historical biopic “Oppenheimer” is a gorgeously photographed, brilliantly acted, masterfully edited and thoroughly engrossing epic that instantly takes its place among the finest films of this decade — an old-fashioned yet cutting-edge work that should resonate with film scholars and popcorn-toting mainstream movie lovers for years and decades to come.

At the risk of sounding like Nicole Kidman: This is why we still go to the cinema, to settle into our seats and slip into the darkness when the lights go down, to immerse ourselves in visual and aural storytelling at its finest. From the moment the closing credits begin to roll, we’re already looking forward to the next time we see “Oppenheimer.”

And the next.

Adapted by Nolan from the book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird, “Oppenheimer” is a sprawling story that hops along the timeline and introduces so many characters I’ll admit I wouldn’t have minded some title cards introducing them as they come and go. Nolan, however, opts to plunge us into events in sometimes chaotic fashion and invites us to hold on for the ride, mirroring the thrilling and yet terrifying and politically charged atmosphere of the world of physics in the early and mid-20th century, when some of the brightest scientific minds in history were making discoveries and advancements that would change the world forever — and possibly end the world as we know it.

With frequent Nolan collaborator Cillian Murphy delivering subtly powerful work as Oppenheimer and an astonishingly deep supporting cast led by Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Florence Pugh (with more than a dozen additional huge talents popping in for a scene or two), “Oppenheimer” is a massively ambitious undertaking, with Nolan (“Inception,” “Dunkirk”) further solidifying his standing as one of the dominant filmmakers of his generation.

Writer-director Nolan tells much of the story in the context of the complicated and eventually contentious relationship between Oppenheimer and Lewis Strauss (Downey), the naval officer and politician and self-styled amateur physicist who was in awe of Oppenheimer’s intellect but came to resent him for his hubris and his politics.

When Strauss welcomes Oppenheimer at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1947 to offer him the directorship of the Institute, Oppenheimer is a world-famous war hero known as the father of the atomic bomb, and Strauss is practically a fanboy. By the 1950s, everything had changed, as we see in two primary framing devices that Nolan returns to again and again: the 1954 Atomic Energy Personnel Security Board hearings to determine whether Oppenheimer would retain his security clearance, which were held in secret in a claustrophobic conference room; and the 1959 Senate floor hearings on President Eisenhower’s appointment of Strauss to Secretary of Commerce, which became something of a public spectacle, as Strauss found himself at peril of becoming the first Cabinet appointee rejected by the Senate in decades. (Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema deftly toggle back and forth between vibrant color and stunning black-and-white to depict the different eras.)

“Oppenheimer” marvels at the titular subject’s incredible mind, with Nolan depicting Oppy’s genius through subtle notes such as the plinking of raindrops in a pond, and ferocious tones, as when we see Oppenheimer pinned awake in his bed at night, terrified by his visions. As Oppenheimer becomes a superstar in the world of physics and rubs shoulders with the likes of Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), Ernest Lawrence (Josh Brolin), Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh) and Edward Teller (Benny Safdie), he’s borderline reckless in his personal life, whether he’s attending Communist Party USA meetings (his brother was a party member, as were several close friends) or engaging in multiple affairs, most notably his longtime entanglement with the troubled and volatile Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh).

When Oppenheimer marries Katherine “Kitty” Puening (Emily Blunt), his life becomes even more complicated, with Kitty experiencing post-partum depression and becoming an alcoholic. Just because you’re a genius doesn’t mean you’re immune from coming home to a wailing child and a wife who is sitting in the dark with a bottle. In 1942, Manhattan Projector director Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) appoints Oppenheimer to head the secret weapons lab, and they literally build a town in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to house the collection of scientists and support staff and their families. In one of the most impressively staged sequences you’ll ever see, Nolan re-creates the world’s first nuclear explosion at the site known as Trinity in July of 1945. The teeth-rattling power of the explosion, the symphony of orange in the sky, the reactions of a number of key players as they look on in wonder, the expert use of sound (and in some frames, the lack thereof) — it all adds up to a stunning achievement in filmmaking. And in the midst of it all, we see how Oppenheimer is equal parts thrilled and horrified by what has been wrought.

“Oppenheimer” is a great war movie without a single scene of war. It is neither a hagiography nor an indictment of Oppenheimer, as it celebrates his genius and his achievements, while never shying away from his vulnerabilities and failings. This is a film deserving of double-digit Oscar nominations, from best picture to best director to a number of technical categories to the performances of Murphy, Blunt, Downey, Damon and Pugh. It is the best movie of the year so far and one of the best films of the 21st century.'

#Christopher Nolan #Oppenheimer #Cillian Murphy #Matt Damon #Leslie Groves #Robert Downey Jr #Lewis Strauss #Kitty #Emily Blunt #Florence Pugh #Review #Spoilers #American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer #Kai Bird #Martin J. Sherwin

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mindblowingscience · 6 months

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Long considered myth, freakishly large rogue waves are very real and can split apart ships and even damage oil rigs. Using 700 years' worth of wave data from more than a billion waves, scientists at the University of Copenhagen and University of Victoria have used artificial intelligence to find a formula for how to predict the occurrence of these maritime monsters. The new knowledge can make shipping safer. Stories about monster waves, called rogue waves, have been the lore of sailors for centuries. But when a 26-meter-high rogue wave slammed into the Norwegian oil platform Draupner in 1995, digital instruments were there to capture and measure the North Sea monster. It was the first time that a rogue had been measured and provided scientific evidence that abnormal ocean waves really do exist. Since then, these extreme waves have been the subject of much study. And now, researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Niels Bohr Institute have used AI methods to discover a mathematical model that provides a recipe for how—and not least when—rogue waves can occur. With the help of enormous amounts of big data about ocean movements, researchers can predict the likelihood of being struck by a monster wave at sea at any given time.

#Science #Enviroment #Waves #Rogue Waves #AI #Artifical Intelligence

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andromeda1023 · 2 years

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^The MUSE instrument:

Astronomers discover a swarm of galaxies orbiting a hyper-luminous galaxy.

Using the Very Large Telescope and the radio telescope ALMA in Chile, a team of astronomers including researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute has discovered a swarm of galaxies orbiting the surroundings of a hyper-luminous and vigorously star-forming galaxy in the early Universe. The observation provides important clues to how exceptionally bright galaxies grow, and to how they evolve into energetic quasars, beaming light across most of the observable Universe.

MUSE — the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer

Measuring both the speed of the individual galaxies and the motion of the central galaxy's internal structure requires a "spectrum" — an image where the light from an object is dispersed according to it wavelength.

An equally important reason that spectra are so useful is that they reveal other properties such as temperature and chemical composition of the gas. However, obtaining a spectrum is normally a rather time consuming task, requiring a long-exposure image for each point on the sky.

A so-called integral field spectrograph allows astronomers to cover the whole galaxy and its surroundings with a "grid" of spectrographs. The Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is such an instrument, mounted at the Very Large Telescope in Chile. MUSE is able to obtain no fewer than 90,000 spectra simultaneously, over a wide field of view.

Article: https://nbi.ku.dk/english/news/news22/astronomers-discover-a-swarm-of-galaxies-orbiting-a-hyper-luminous-galaxy/?fbclid=IwAR3-3C5dPMGzX2ohylhjVyqkKlPLpK20hSCwrdoV1xSn8MOahzJX_30MLLA

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phantom-le6 · 28 days

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Film Review - Oppenheimer

Now we come to what I feel has been the cinematic centrepiece of 2023 films, and after so long on science-fiction franchises, it’s a real breath of fresh air in the realm of war-era biographical drama from what I’ve recently been looking through. Yes, folks, this is my review of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer…

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

In 1926, the 22-year-old doctoral student J. Robert Oppenheimer grapples with anxiety and homesickness while studying experimental quantum physics under Patrick Blackett at the University of Cambridge. Oppenheimer clashes with Blackett and leaves him a poisoned apple but later retrieves it. Visiting scientist Niels Bohr advises Oppenheimer to study theoretical physics at the University of Göttingen.

Oppenheimer completes his PhD and meets scientist Isidor Isaac Rabi. They later meet theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg in Switzerland. Wanting to expand quantum physics research in the US, Oppenheimer teaches at the University of California, Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology. He marries Katherine "Kitty" Puening, a biologist and ex-communist, and has an intermittent affair with Jean Tatlock, a troubled communist psychiatrist who later dies by suicide.

When nuclear fission is discovered in 1938 after the Germans succeed in splitting the atom, Oppenheimer realizes it could be weaponized. In 1942, during World War II, US Army Colonel Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project, recruits Oppenheimer as the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory to develop an atomic bomb. Oppenheimer fears the German nuclear research program, led by Heisenberg, might yield a fission bomb for the Nazis.

Oppenheimer assembles a team consisting of Rabi, Hans Bethe, and Edward Teller, and collaborates with the scientists Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, and David L. Hill at the University of Chicago. Teller's calculations reveal an atomic detonation could destroy the world. After consulting with Albert Einstein, Oppenheimer concludes the chances are acceptably low. Teller attempts to leave the project after his proposal to construct a hydrogen bomb is rejected, but Oppenheimer convinces him to stay.

After Germany's surrender in 1945, some scientists question the bomb's relevance. Oppenheimer believes it would end the ongoing Pacific War and save Allied lives. The Trinity test is successful, and President Harry S. Truman orders the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in Japan's surrender. Though publicly praised, Oppenheimer is guilt-ridden and haunted by the destruction and mass fatalities. After Oppenheimer expresses his guilt to Truman, the president berates him and dismisses his plea to cease further atomic development.

As an advisor to the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Oppenheimer's stance generates controversy, while Teller's hydrogen bomb receives renewed interest amidst the burgeoning Cold War. AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss resents Oppenheimer for publicly dismissing Strauss's concerns about exporting radioisotopes and for recommending negotiations with the Soviet Union after the Soviets successfully detonated their own bomb. Strauss also believes that Oppenheimer denigrated him during a conversation Oppenheimer had with Einstein in 1947.

In 1954, wanting to eliminate Oppenheimer's political influence, Strauss secretly orchestrates a private security hearing before a Personnel Security Board concerning Oppenheimer's Q clearance during which his loyalty to the United States is questioned. However, the hearing is a trial in all but name. Oppenheimer's past communist ties are exploited and his associates' testimony is twisted against him, with Teller's being the most damaging. After Kitty delivers impassioned testimony in defence of herself and her husband, the board no longer suspects Oppenheimer of disloyalty but revokes his clearance, thereby damaging his public image and limiting his influence on American nuclear policy.

In 1959, during Strauss's Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of Commerce, Hill testifies about Strauss's personal motives for engineering Oppenheimer's downfall. Strauss's nomination is voted down. In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson presents Oppenheimer with the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation.

A flashback reveals that Oppenheimer and Einstein's 1947 conversation never mentioned Strauss. Instead, the two discussed Oppenheimer’s legacy, and Oppenheimer expressed his fear that they had indeed started a chain reaction that will destroy the world.

Review:

What began for me as just something I was just kind of curious to see at the cinema has, in hindsight, probably turned out to be my top film of 2023. While efforts in the MCU, DC live-action and animation and the Transformers have wowed audiences with some element of spectacle or other, Oppenheimer wows us with acting ability and an all-star cast delivers on a great story. Of course, when a film is handling the kind of subject matter that Oppenheimer does, a great story narrative is crucial, and thankfully the film delivers. Now it isn’t a completely accurate story, but it is apparently very accurate, and where the inaccuracies occur, I would argue that these do not detract from the film we are presented with. Why? Well, let’s consider where the inaccuracies lie and we shall see.

Firstly, like any film, Oppenheimer is not a factual documentary, but a feature-length dramatic narrative, and moreover, it is based on a specific biography about Oppenheimer written by people other than Oppenheimer or any close family, friends or contemporaries. As such, the medium of this story and its source material will bring inaccuracy to the table even before any effort is made to actually write a story. Second, while some wider events are omitted, that is because they didn’t happen to Oppenheimer, so looking at the impact of nuclear weapons on Japan, other sites involved in the Manhattan project and the aftermath among Native Americans in the Los Alamos area isn’t relevant to this particular re-telling of this history. The film is about the title character, so its focus isn’t going to be on wider events.

As such, if people want to see wider events in film in the wake of Oppenheimer, if Nolan’s work is to spark a cinematic chain reaction as much as the real Oppenheimer’s work set off a chain reaction of nuclear proliferation, then I would say write those films and get them made. Don’t just criticise this film for not covering a wider perspective of things; if people really care about seeing more of World War 2 than just your bog-standard Pacific naval battle or soldiers and tanks rolling over Europe, then they need to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. This is what I do to try and create fiction with autistic main characters like myself, and if I knew more about World War 2, I’d probably dive into that myself. We should see the other aspects of nuclear weapons being developed back in the 1940’s, as well as American internment camps for Japanese-Americans, a more nuanced and less America-centric look at the events preceding Pearl Harbour, and so on. However, it is not the place of this specific film to tell those stories, as Oppenheimer is as much a biographical film as it is a war film, so let’s let it be what it is and make other war films to tell the wider stories.

The only other inaccuracy, or supposed inaccuracy, relates to the poison apple scene from early in the film. This is apparently something Oppenheimer himself recounted, but it’s not anything that can apparently be substantiated. However, given that some later film scenes take us into the imaginings of certain characters, particularly Kitty Oppenheimer, and given that the supposed poisoning occurs when Oppenheimer was homesick and sleep-deprived, it could well be that what Oppenheimer believed to happen was simply his sleep-deprived mind confusing imagination with reality, and his recounting of the event later could simply indicate he never untangled the two. Regardless of whether this event is true or simply an error in the biography that the film replicates, it’s one of many examples that shows Oppenheimer to be a fundamentally complex, contradictory and fascinating human being.

The film handles its presentation of Oppenheimer’s life and work very well, in large part due to Cillian Murphy’s performance in the lead role, backed up by one of the most amazing all-star ensemble casts I’ve ever seen. Many of the cast are people I recognise from at least one past film or another that I’ve seen, and not one of them ever seems to put a foot wrong here. If I have any critique of the film, it’s only that some of the more badgering moments in Oppenheimer’s security clearance appeal hearings were not my personal cup of tea, which doesn’t detract in any way from the overall quality of the film, nor from its end score. 10 out of 10, hands down, and I would say that a lot of film makers need to watch this film before making anything more either in wholly original films or franchise instalments, because Oppenheimer really helps to showcase what other films are currently lacking.

#film review #oppenheimer

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 2 months

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Scientists on the hunt for evidence of quantum gravity’s existence at the South Pole

University of Copenhagen team contributes to an Antarctic large-scale experiment striving to find out if gravity also exists at the quantum level. An extraordinary particle able to travel undisturbed through space seems to hold the answer.

Several thousand sensors distributed over a square kilometer near the South Pole are tasked with answering one of the large outstanding questions in physics: does quantum gravity exist? The sensors monitor neutrinos – particles with no electrical charge and almost without mass – arriving at the Earth from outer space. A team from the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI), University of Copenhagen, have contributed to developing the method which exploits neutrino data to reveal if quantum gravity exists.

“If as we believe, quantum gravity does indeed exist, this will contribute to unite the current two worlds in physics. Today, classical physics describes the phenomena in our normal surroundings such as gravity, while the atomic world can only be described using quantum mechanics. The unification of quantum theory and gravitation remains one of the most outstanding challenges in fundamental physics. It would be very satisfying if we could contribute to that end,” says Tom Stuttard, Assistant Professor at NBI.

Tom Stuttard is co-author of a scientific article published [today] by the prestigious journal Nature Physics. The article presents results from a large study by the NBI team and American colleagues. More than 300,000 neutrinos have been studied. However, these are not neutrinos of the most interesting type originating from sources in deep space. The neutrinos in this study were created in the Earth’s atmosphere, as high-energy particles from space collided with Nitrogen or other molecules.

“Looking at neutrinos originating from the Earth’s atmosphere has the practical advantage that they are by far more common than their siblings from outer space. We needed data from many neutrinos to validate our methodology. This has been accomplished now. Thus, we are ready to enter the next phase in which we will study neutrinos from deep space,” says Tom Stuttard.

Travelling undisturbed through the Earth

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is situated next to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. In contrast to most other astronomy and astrophysics facilities, IceCube works the best for observing space at the opposite side of the Earth, meaning the Northern hemisphere. This is because while the neutrino is perfectly capable of penetrating our planet – and even its hot, dense core – other particles will be stopped, and the signal is thus much cleaner for neutrinos coming from the Northern hemisphere.

The IceCube facility is operated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. More than 300 scientists from countries around the world are engaged in the IceCube collaboration. University of Copenhagen is one of more than 50 universities having an IceCube center for neutrino studies.

Since the neutrino has no electrical charge and is nearly massless, it is undisturbed by electromagnetic and strong nuclear forces, allowing it to travel billions of lightyears through the Universe in its original state.

The key question is whether the properties of the neutrino are in fact completely unchanged as it travels over large distances or if tiny changes are notable after all.

“If the neutrino undergoes the subtle changes that we suspect, this would be the first strong evidence of quantum gravity,” says Tom Stuttard.

The neutrino comes in three flavors

To understand which changes in neutrino properties the team is looking for, some background information is called for. While we refer to it as a particle, what we observe as a neutrino is really three particles produced together, known in quantum mechanics as superposition. The neutrino can have three fundamental configurations - flavors as they are termed by the physicists - which are electron, muon, and tau. Which of these configurations we observe changes as the neutrino travels, a truly strange phenomenon known as neutrino oscillations. This quantum behavior is maintained over thousands of kilometers or more, which is referred to as quantum coherence.

“In most experiments, the coherence is soon broken. But this is not believed to be caused by quantum gravity. It is just very difficult to create perfect conditions in a lab. You want perfect vacuum, but somehow a few molecules manage to sneak in etc. In contrast, neutrinos are special in that they are simply not affected by matter around them, so we know that if coherence is broken it will not be due to shortcomings in the man-made experimental setup,” Tom Stuttard explains.

Many colleagues were sceptical

Asked whether the results of the study published in Nature Physics were as expected, the researcher replies:

“We find ourselves in a rare category of science projects, namely experiments for which no established theoretical framework exists. Thus, we just did not know what to expect. However, we knew that we could search for some of the general properties we might expect a quantum theory of gravity to have.”

“Whilst we did have hopes of seeing changes related to quantum gravity, the fact that we didn’t see them does not exclude at all that they are real. When an atmospheric neutrino is detected at the Antarctic facility, it will typically have travelled through the Earth. Meaning approximately 12,700 km - a very short distance compared to neutrinos originating in the distant Universe. Apparently, a much longer distance is needed for quantum gravity to make an impact, if it exists,” says Tom Stuttard, noting that the top goal of the study was to establish the methodology:

“For years, many physicists doubted whether experiments could ever hope to test quantum gravity. Our analysis shows that it is indeed possible, and with future measurements with astrophysical neutrinos, as well as more precise detectors being built in the coming decade, we hope to finally answer this fundamental question.”

TOP IMAGE....5000 sensors distributed over a square kilometer near the South Pole are tasked with answering one of the large outstanding questions in physics: does quantum gravity exist? Photo: IceCube/NSF

LOWER IMAGE....A neutrino sensor being lowered deep into the South Pole ice sheet. Photo: IceCube/NSF

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #astrophysics

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