Recently by Matin Durrani

Eric Goff testing ball trajectories

By Matin Durrani

Qualification for next summer’s football World Cup in South Africa reaches its climax tomorrow — highlights include France’s return play-off with Ireland and Egypt squaring off against arch-rivals Algeria on the same day.

But some teams, like England, have already secured their passage to the world’s greatest sports tournament and will no doubt be already be dreaming of lifting the famous trophy.

England’s players have a night off tomorrow but if star midfielder David Beckham is feeling a bit bored, he might want to read a new paper in the American Journal of Physics by John Eric Goff of Lynchburg College, Virginia, and Matt Carré of the University of Sheffield in the UK.

Goff and Carré carried out a series of experiments in which soccer balls were launched from a machine while two high-speed cameras recorded portions of their trajectory. The equipment allowed the researchers to vary the balls’ launch speed and spin — balls could be fired either with no spin, topspin, backspin, sidespin or any combination.

From the resulting data, the two physicists then calculated the “lift” drag coefficient on the ball and the “sideways” drag coefficient, C_S. If the ball has pure topspin or pure backspin then C_S is zero, but if the ball has any other spin, the value of C_S is not zero.

All lovely stuff, of course, but where does Beckham come in? Well, Goff and Carré then examined Beckham’s famous 90th-minute free kick taken against Greece in October 2001 that secured England’s qualification for the 2002 World Cup in France. His carefully taken kick bent around the wall before landing plum in the back of the Greek net and secured England a dramatic last-minute equalizer in the 2—2 draw.

Using TV footage of the famous match, the two physicists calculated that the ball left Beckham’s foot at a speed of 36 m/s at which point its “Reynolds number” (air speed times ball diameter, divided by kinematic viscosity) was of 5.1 × 10⁵. The ball had an average rotational velocity of 63 radians per second, rose above the height of the crossbar during the flight and moved about 3 m sideways, before slowing down to about 19 m/s as it dipped into the corner of the goal.

Goff and Carré then did a back-of-the-envelope calculation to estimate a value for C_S, which was found to be about 0.2 for the famous shot.

And the punchline? Sorry folks, there isn’t one. But maybe the paper will persuade Becks, who’s currently on loan from LA Galaxy at AC Milan, to swot up on a bit of simple physics before next summer’s tournament. Assuming he makes the team, that is.

Vitaly Ginzburg in Stockholm in 2003

By Matin Durrani

Vitaly Ginzburg, who turned 93 last month, is without doubt one of the leading Russian theorists of the 20th century, who shared the 2003 Nobel Prize for Physics with Alexei Abrikosov and Tony Leggett for their work on the theory of superconductors and superfluids.

He’s a long-standing admirer of Physics World magazine — having first written for us back in 1997 — and when the opportunity arose to interview him, I jumped at the chance.

Ginzburg gave answers to our questions in Russian, which were then translated into English by Vitaly Kisin, a former colleauge of mine here at Institute of Physics Publishing. I must also thank Maria Aksenteva, who is the managing editor of the journal Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk, which Ginzburg has edited for the last 11 years. She is very much his “eyes and ears”.

In the interview, which you can read by following this link, Ginzburg talks about how his interest in physics developed, why he distrusts the Church’s growing role in Russian society, and how his role in developing a hydrogen bomb for the Soviet Union was what saved his life.:

The interview is in the opinion section of physicsworld.com’s In-depth channel which currently contains a couple other great articles worth checking out.

In How to publish a scientific comment Rick Trebino relives the time he tried - and failed - to have a comment published in a scientific journal. You couldn’t make the story up.

Then as Imperial College London counts down to a debate on the pros and cons of human space flight on 12 November, the two panellists write exclusively for us, presenting their arguments for and against manned or robotic space missions in the article Human spaceflight: science or spectacle? Championing robotic missions is David Clements, a lecturer in astrophysics from Imperial. Making the case for human space flight is Ian Crawford, a reader in planetary science and astrobiology from Birkbeck College, London.

Finally, Robert P Crease probes arguments made by US energy secretary Steven Chu that the next generation of synchrotron sources are an essential tool for meeting the energy challenge — check out his article “The Lure of Synchrotrons” by following this link

By Matin Durrani

A reconstruction of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover at the Quantum to Cosmos festival

I’ve been here at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics for four days now and I felt it was time I should visit the special “tent” containing hands-on displays and exhibits for the public as part of the Quantum to Cosmos festival .

First up inside is a full-scale model of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover, which is due to take off in autumn 2011 and land on the red planet in summer 2012.

Round the corner were exhibits explaining quantum computing, superconductivity, polarization and more.

In the centre of the tent, meanwhile, was a 3D movie containing simulations of galaxy collisions, black-hole mergers and the early universe, with a voice-over from Stephen Hawking.

A still of the Alice and Bob videos, which can be watched online

There was also face-painting corner for children, with special paint that only shows up under ultraviolet light.

Visitors could also watch a great series of one-minute cartoons about quantum mechanics, featuring two characters called Alice and Bob.

All good stuff - but the question is whether such events will persuade young people to study physics.

Many pupils, and most importantly their parents, decide what to study based on the career opportunities that their chosen field will provide. Somehow we need to show pupils that physics isn’t kids’ stuff - but a decent career move too.

Perimeter Institute director Neil Turok with one of its many blackboards

This is my first visit to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada.

Physics World has been following the progress of the institute since it first began in 1999 so I knew what the ethos of it would be like - it encourages staff to work on unorthodox areas that are outside the mainstream, it strives for excellence, and it provides a supportive environment where nothing is taken for read.

There are no big shots whose views cannot be called into question and postdocs are given lots of freedom to pursue the ideas they are most interested in - to do pretty much what they want.

The founders of the institute also knew that a key factor would be the building itself. After spending its first few years in a temporary home — a former red-brick Victorian post office — the Perimeter Institute moved into a brand new building in 2004.

It was specially constructed, and is filled with lots of comfy, low sofas where people can stop and discuss weighty matters. The offices all have glass walls so that you can see if someone is in, and the corridors are deliberately narrow so that people are forced to stop and talk. (And in an amusing in-joke, there are seminar rooms known as the Alice Room and the Bob Room, named after the two people used in thought experiments on quantum cryptography.)

Free coffee is on tap. There are pool tables, stripped floorboards, lots of natural light, real log fires, and blackboards everywhere.

I’d heard about the blackboards. But what it is interesting is that they are actually used. So too are the Blackberries that all staff are given: the institute was founded by Mike Lazaridis, whose company Research in Motion makes these hand-held devices.

What was also nice to see was that the institute’s director, Neil Turok, did not see it beneath himself to make me a cup of tea before sitting down for an interview for an article I will be writing for the December issue of Physics World magazine.

I can’t imagine most lab bosses would pesonally make tea for their visitors. He even washed the cups out beforehand.

I just wish I understood what was on his blackboard.

By Matin Durrani

Enrico Fermi was a real lover of back-of-the-envelope “guestimation” calculations and was fond of posing them to his would-be PhD students.

The Quantum to Cosmos festival is on now in Waterloo, Canada

He famously asked how many piano tuners there are in Chicago and in July 1945 calculated the strength of the first atomic-bomb test blast by dropping pieces of paper before, during and after the explosion.

It is that ability of physicists to make rough “ball-park” estimates, off the cuff, of various quantities that inspired today’s “Art of Guestimation” event at the Quantum to Cosmos festival in Waterloo, Canada.

Holed up in the Princess Twin cinema were three young physicists - Sarah Croke and Robin Blume-Kohout from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and Robert McNees from Loyola University in Chicago — who were given 10 minutes to answer various “Fermi questions” put to them by the audience before the gong went.

We had time for five questions, which are listed below, along with the panel’s answers. As with all these things, there are no right or wrong solutions. The point of the session was to show the logical way that physicists think when they want approximate solutions.

How much memory would an individual person need to store everything they could see in a lifetime? About 1 exobyte - on the assumption that the eye works like a movie film, storing visual information at about 30 frames a second, with each frame being stored in high definition (1920 × 1080 pixels) and with each pixel needing 32 bits to store colour. (The panel ignored what happens when you sleep, which would only open another can of worms.)

How many humans have ever lived since Homo Sapiens first walked on the planet? This question has been asked before - it’s about a hundred billion. Very roughly speaking, there as many people alive now as have ever lived.

How many “eh”’s would a typical Canadian say in a lifetime? (Bit of a silly one this - the “joke” is that Canadians say “eh” a lot.) The panel’s answer was seven million, assuming Canadians talk for three hours a day, that each sentence lasts five seconds and one in 10 sentences include the word “eh”. Eh?

How many Loonies are there in circulation? (No, we’re not talking mad people, but Canadian one-dollar coins.) This got the panel really stuck - their final answer was between two and four hundred million before the gong went.

How much salt is there in the Atlantic Ocean? The critical point was knowing how much salt there is in a litre of sea water. Just multiply that number by the volume of the ocean to give, ooh, about 10 to the power 19 kg.

The session was a lot of fun. Although I am not sure if this kind of event has ever been done before, I reckon it could be a winner at other science festivals too. It certainly got the audience involved, which has to be a good thing.

By Matin Durrani

What big question in physics keeps you awake at night?

That was the poser for a nine-strong panel of top physicists taking part in yesterday’s inaugural event of the Quantum to Cosmos 10th anniversary festival here at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada.

Sitting in a row of directors’ chairs on the main stage in the institute’s auditorium, the panel gave a range of answers related to pretty fundamental physics — not surprising given their interests and those of the institute itself,

In a nutshell, here are their answers - and apologies in advance if I have glossed over any subtleties. The panel session was only meant to be a bit of fun, after all.

Sean Carroll, Caltech
Why are the laws of physics the way they are?

Katherine Freese, University of Michigan
What is the universe made of?

Leo Kadanoff, University of Chicago
How does complexity develop in the universe?

Lawrence Krauss, Arizona State University
Have we come to the limits of our knowledge?

David Tong, Cambridge University
How will we ever know if string theory is correct?

Neil Turok, Director, Perimeter Institute
What happened at the singularity of the Big Bang?

Andrew White, University of Queensland
What is life?

Anton Zeilinger, University of Vienna
How far are we along the road of scientific discovery?

As for the ninth member of the panel — Gino Segrè from the University of Pennslyvania — I wasn’t quite sure what his answer was. I quizzed him afterwards in the Perimeter Institute’s candle-lit “Black Hole Bistro”, where the panel and special guests, myself included, were fed by the institute’s catering staff with plates of crab cakes and bite-sized pizza slices.

I think Gino was most concerned about the world not having enough young physicists to answer all those big questions that keep the rest of the panel awake

Gino recently reviewed for Physics World a book on how Wolfgang Pauli’s dreams were analyzed by Carl Jung. That got me thinking — what would be really interesting would be to analyze the panel’s dreams after thinking all those big questions.

I just hope they’re not having nightmares.

By Matin Durrani

The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada, which kicks off its 10th anniversary festival today

“Make sure you don’t blow the world up!”

That was the parting shot from one of my fellow passengers as the minibus we were sharing from Toronto airport dropped him off outside his house here in Waterloo, Canada.

It took me a while to realise what the guy was on about. You see, I had mentioned to him that I was travelling to Waterloo to attend the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

In passing, I had also talked about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and it was only later that I twigged what he meant: he had obviously assumed that the only thing physicists are hell bent on doing is making potentially life-threatening black holes.

All of which underlines the importance of Perimeter Institute’s 10-year bash, which focuses on explaining to the public what the institute and its physicists are trying to do.

The festival, entitled From Quantum to Cosmos, contains a string of exciting public events, ranging from panel debates and exhibitions to film screenings and a science-fiction workshop.

The first event takes place tonight, featuring an all-star list of physicists including Lawrence Krauss, Anton Zeilinger and Sean Carroll who will discuss the small matter of “what lies ahead in physics”. It will be streamed live on the web from the festival website

The Perimeter Institute, in case you weren’t aware, was set up in 1999 by Mike Lazaridis - the man who founded the company that makes Blackberry handheld phones.

The institute focuses on basic topics like particle physics, string theory and cosmology as well as quantum information, quantum gravity and the fundamentals of quantum mechanics.

I’m here for the next few days so I’ll keep you posted on life inside the Perimeter. One thing’s for sure: there’s no-one here planning to blow up the world. I just hope that guy on the minibus is here to find out what they really do.

The energy puzzle: download yours for free

By Matin Durrani

The new-look physicsworld.com has now been live for a couple of weeks. The relaunch went pretty smoothly from a technical point of view and we’ve snared most of the inevitable glitches, of which there were thankfully few.

Apart from a fresh new look, we’ve now got a multimedia channel, which kicked off with an exclusive video interview with the CERN director-general Rolf-Dieter Heuer. Watch out for more videos like that and keep an eye out for our webinar series, which we’ll be expanding too in the coming months.

One question we have been asked is: where is Physics World magazine? The short answer is that you can find it by following this link.

However, user testing that we carried out before relaunching the site told us that most people didn’t actually go to the website to find magazine content on a month-by-month basis. That’s hardly surprising: a website that’s updated daily is very different in tone and feel from a monthly magazine

So what we’ve done is change the focus of physicsworld.com away from being the website of a monthly magazine and, instead, onto breaking news, multimedia content, and our regularly updated blog.

All of which explains why physicsworld.com is no longer dominated — as it used to be — by a large photo of the cover of the latest issue.

But don’t worry if you love the magazine as much we do. Selected articles from each issue of Physics World magazine continue to appear in our in-depth section, which you can, by the way, cleverly filter according to different fields of interest, should you so wish.

And don’t forget that if you’re a member of the Institute of Physics, you can get free access to a full digital version of the latest issue as well as to a searchable archive of the first 20 years of the magazine. Check out the latest issue by following this link

As an added bonus just for this month, you can, whether you’re a member of the Institute of Physics or not, download a free PDF of the October issue of Physics World by following this link.

The focus of the issue is energy and climate change, with some great articles by the likes of the physicist and former BP chief executive Lord Browne, who argues that the biggest barriers to a low-carbon economy are not scientific or technological but political. Other articles look at progress in climate modelling, the materials-science challenges standing between us and clean, long-lasting energy, as well as how in the future we could all be connected to a hydrogen SuperGrid.

Download the free October issue here.

The pirate physicist: Jens Seipenbusch, third from left, with other members of the Piratenpartei

By Matin Durrani

It was all smiles for Angela Merkel in Germany’s general election as she won another term as chancellor. Her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), scooped 239 seats in the Bundestag — enough for Merkel to hold on to power through a new coalition with the pro-business free democrats (FDP). Her former partners, the social democrats (SPD), now face a spell in opposition.

Yes, all very interesting but what’s this got to do with physics? Well, as I’m sure you know, Merkel is one of the few political leaders to be a physicist too.

The 55-year-old Merkel studied physics at Leipzig University, in the former East Germany, between 1973 and 1978, before obtaining a PhD from the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1986 for a thesis entitled “The calculation of speed constants of reactions of simple hydrocarbons”. She is also married to Joachim Sauer, a chemistry professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin.

Merkel’s background in physics is well known, but did you know that another German political leader is a physicist too?

Let’s say hello to Jens Seipenbusch , 40, who is founder and leader of the fringe Piratenpartei (Pirate Party), which was campaigning for increased freedom of speech, copyright reform and less intrusive government surveillance, particularly of the internet.

Seipenbusch studied physics at the University of Münster. He founded the party in 2006, serving as leader until 2007 before taking the top job again earlier this year.

I haven’t been able to find out too much about his physics career, but it appears that he was a research assistant at Münster from 1994 to 1998, having studied physics at the Ruhr University in Bochum from 1987 to 1989. From one website I stumbled upon, it looks like he used to be involved in non-linear and quantum optics.

Sadly for Jens, his party didn’t cross the 5% hurdle that you need to get seats in the Bundestag. The pirates ended up with about 2% of the vote, although they reached the giddy heights of 2.6% in Munich and 3.5% in Tübingen.

But that’s not even the end of the matter. I have been reliably informed by my wife, who is German, that the leader of the left-wing Die Linke (The Left) party, Oskar Lafontaine, is a physicist too. According to his party’s website , he has a master’s degree in physics from the universities of Bonn and Saarbrücken. His party got 76 seats from 11.9% of the vote.

It seems as if the Germans have a thing about physics political leaders.

Who’s who of science and engineering

By Matin Durrani

This will be my last blog entry during my visit to KAUST — Saudi Arabia’s new research university, which opened on Wednesday.

The highlight of yesterday was the inaugural symposium entitled “Sustainability in a changing climate”, which is a key part of KAUST’s mission.

First to speak was George W Bush’s former energy secretary Samuel Bodman, who outlined four priorities for tackling climate change — increased energy efficiency, new-generation nuclear reactors, growing use of renewables and advanced biofuels, and better exploitation of fossil fuels such as clean coal.

Next up was Alec Broers, former president of the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering, who discussed the importance of engineers in sustainability. “Scientists have sounded the alarm. Engineers need to find the solution”; he said. Mind you, he would say that — Broers trained as a physicist at the University of Melbourne before a career in engineering.

Madly perfect?

After words from a couple of other heavyweights — Imperial College rector Sir Roy Anderson and University of Southern California president Steven Sample — on to the stage came Chen Ning Yang, the 87-year-old physicist who shared the 1957 Nobel prize with Tsung-dao Lee.

Remarkably young looking, Yang stressed the importance of basic research, pointing out how quantum theory in the early decades of the 20th century led to semiconductors, which led to transistors, which led to chips — without which computers, TV and the rest of modern life — would not exist.

Yang’s view, widely held, is that basic research leads to applied research in a linear path. Actually, things are a lot more complicated than that, but cosily ensconsed in my leather seat high up in KAUST’s vast auditorium, I kept quiet.

As I stepped out of the symposium into the warm evening air, the angular, university buildings were lit up beautifully and a troupe of singers could be heard singing in the main square where small tables lay with cold drinks. Guests pressed forwards to the music, and there, above the scene, as if by arrangement, was a half-crescent moon, the symbol of Islam. Like KAUST itself, the whole scene seemed madly perfect — and almost too good to be true.