cathedrals of light

I'm a graduate student in condensed matter physics. I study glow-y crystal stuff and tiny whispering galleries for light (ie. quantum dots and microresonator chemical sensors). I keep meaning to talk about it but I usually get distracted. This blog is the general science-y and teacher-y mundanities of my life. (they / their or other singular agender pronouns)

[sciencetylia]

What was wrong with your Calc prof?

He skipped steps, rushed through the material, and the textbook material was not very helpful either. So if you didn’t get it, you were stuck.

[pseudo-human-deactivated2021061]

I assume at this point, there are no good Calculus profs. They are a myth, fantasy, something students whisper about in quiet corridors before exams, wishing they existed, wondering what it would be like to finally, finally have a Calculus professor who could explain math in varied and nuanced ways.

[cosmicpi]

If you aren't a mathematician, one of the most painful ways to learn calculus is from a mathematician.

[cosmicpi]

Hey cousins! Any of you going to be at SDCC perchance?

[cosmicpi]

When I work with sensors that are highly sensitive to motion/temperature/air currents, I become so much more aware that I’m moving and breathing in a fluid, with each movement sending ripples and generating vortices and leaving agitation in my wake...

[cosmicpi]

someone should have said, try what you will, prepare what you will, but thesis writing will always feel like that raw scraping exhaustion and also I’m not the only person I know adjusting to meds at the same time as writing

I mean, it’s really cool that you can shine polarized light on a metal film at a certain angle and excite waves of electrons and I’m all here for all the things you can do with whispering gallery modes but I also want to stab myself (hyperbole) right now because I’m so sick of my writing and sick of how long it takes to make myself focus and squeeze out two bloody sentences from the lump of rock that is my brain

aaaaand now I’m just 100% done

[astrotaz]

So here’s a cool thing! Each image in this animation is plotting a solution to a set of equations we usually call the Lorenz equations. I’m increasing the value of a specific parameter in the equations in subsequent images, to see how this solution changes. 

At first, the solutions all just spiral towards a certain point. But, when the parameter gets large enough, the solutions get chaotic and start tracing out something that kind of looks like a figure eight. This set of chaotic solutions is called the Lorenz attractor. 

[cosmicpi]

One of my favourite things period. The Lorenz equations (which I was just reminded by wiki were derived to model atmospheric convection):

where x, y, z are coordinates in space, and t is time (ie. these describe evolution over time)

astrotaz You changed rho? Also what program? :D

[murderboyfriends]

@ people who use they/them pronouns: I am so sorry you have to deal with know-it-alls who think they & them are only used for multiple people and I’m also sorry you have to deal with people who try to get you to use he/him or she/her pronouns you keep doing you ok

[astropunkz]

hey “know-it-alls” have you ever used a dictionary

[joanhello2]

The second definition of “they” is very old, but in the 18th century a lot of VIPs in the British government were in love with the idea of the Roman Empire and wanted to make England more like Rome in every way they could. They promulgated a whole bunch of new rules of grammar (like never splitting infinitives) in an attempt to make English more like Latin. The rule that “they” can only refer to more than one person and that, when referring to one person of unspecified sex, “he” should be used (on the theory that “the male includes the female”) is one of those. You can see it in Spanish, which is Classical Latin’s most direct modern descendant. To use “they” isn’t just to be politically correct in a modern sense; it’s to uphold the heritage of English as a member of the Germanic language family and to throw off a 250-year-old layer of Latinizing pretense.

[cosmicpi]

just had this conversation at group meeting today. It was...interesting. People are learning.

[calmingmanatee]

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A photograph of an anhinga in flight, with one eye fixed on the camera. TEXT: “Some people are never going to get you, and that’s okay. Quantum physics is hard to understand, and that shit is important as hell.”]

[whatshouldwecallgradschool]

WHAT I HEAR MYSELF SAYING TOO MANY TIMES DURING THE DAY

[listentothisnoise]

As cool as the acoustics of a whisper are, you’re unlikely to be able to enjoy them at a distance. Unless, that is, you find yourself in a whispering gallery. While there are many so-called whispering galleries in the world (any smooth round room or arch will do), the most famous is likely St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Trevor Cox considers this among the sonic wonders of the world as you can clearly perceive a whisper some 42 meters away with your ear up to the wall. Whispering galleries even have a type of wave named after them. First correctly described by Lord Rayleigh after visiting St. Paul’s Cathedral, these waves travel along curved surfaces with a series of short specular reflections, essentially clinging to the wall such that the sound carries around the outer rim of the gallery without interacting at all with the gallery’s interior. These types of waves can even set up special modes that are only excited by sources near the wall! While many of these walls or arches have become famous (the whispering arch in Grand Central Station), it can be fun to look for them yourself. Next time you see a smooth rounded arch or wall, try giving it a whisper and see if you can discover your own whispering gallery! (Photo credit Aiwok)

[cosmicpi]

So this is the first update I’ve written in a while. First I was working, and then basically I now probably have chronic fatigue and I’m waiting to see what I get out of this med. After 1.5 months on the med I’m getting something back…it’s still hard to think though and I hope that goes away soon. (My prof has been the second most patient person I know.) I do know at least one other person thats gone through this and they say theyve recovered eventually so there’s that.

I got a lot of pen and paper writing done while I literally couldn’t do anything else including sleep, so trying to edit that now.

Is there a life lesson? Shit happens, I guess, and ruins our plans. Get good health insurance if you can. Antidepressants are expensive…

[haethel-deactivated20181216]

Journalists vs Scientists: summarised by an animated GIF

by Achintya

[impishtubist]

Okay, but this is actually really important. The media is notoriously bad at reporting science. Like, headdesk awful at it. So whenever you read a news article about a scientific report or study or discovery, go back to the source to see what really happened. Always, always go back to the source.

[matociquala]

Somebody giffed today’s comet-landing xkcd. Everything is better now.

[cosmicpi]

Day...9 months in: MINIONS!

I got a minion undergrad student to help me this summer! This week is all about lab safety and equipment training, but now from the other side for me.

Basically boils down to:

don't look into the laser beam

avoid putting your eyes or anyone else's eyes at the beam level

wear laser goggles (for the appropriate wavelength) when aligning optics that can redirect the beam

try to align the beam away from you

adjust the beam path at lowest laser power

don't leave flammable things in the beam path eg. cardboard, your hand

think things through before doing anything (eg. trace the laser beam path before turning laser on, let the laser cool down before turning off cooling water)

exercise chem lab safety with chemicals

keep a clean and organized lab space

I couldn't think of a menial task today though, so I guess she'll miss out on that rite of passage.

[rosethi]

photo ops with the amazing Matt and Karen! Karen makes the best unamused face.

[cosmicpi]

Still weirded out that we went to London to see Matt Smith and Karen Gillan at the 50th...and these photos were taken in Calgary. CALGARY. I wonder if they'd even heard of Calgary before being invited.

(also look look SECOND DOCTOR. No one else was dressed as Second. Missing from photo: the Middle Earth map leggings.)

[cosmicpi]

Dear younger self: Modelling pro-tip

If you're fitting exponential functions, take the logarithm of everything before starting. Linear fitting > Polynomial fitting >> exponential fitting. It will save...months.

(err. I may need to read more on stretched exponentials.)

[fuckyeahgreatplays]

When I was a freshman in high school, on March 15 we were studying Julius Caesar in English class, and we spent our first period writing quotes on paper daggers. At an agreeed time, our entire class stormed the Latin classroom, yelling “THE IDES OF MARCH HAVE COME!” And taped daggers on everything and everyone.

Basically proving my theory that Shakespeare is only boring if it’s made boring.

[icwutudidthardotcom]

Happy Ides Of March, Romans and countrymen(and everyone else)