Nobels 2012, etc.

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Voronwë the Faithful
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Primula Baggins wrote:Aw, c'mon. I think pretty highly of Paul Krugman. (He's a longtime science fiction geek who sometimes shows up at conventions.)
Actually, it was Paul Krugman winning the Economics Nobel Prize that most soured me on it. I'm sure that he did something to deserve it (though I really don't know what), but he is so relentlessly (and often obnoxiously) partisan, that it is hard for me to see him as more of a part of the solution than a part of the problem.
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Post by River »

Before he was a blogger, he was an academic. That's what he won the prize for.
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http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/ ... press.html

Reading Krugman meant I did pretty well investment wise during the meltdown in 2008, because he predicted it coming in 2005 or so for reasons that made tremendous sense to me. I got out of stocks at that point, and back in when they bottomed.
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Yes, it is that time of year again.

2014 Nobel Prize for Physics goes to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura for perfecting LED light. Nakamura works at the University of California at Santa Barbara; the other two work at Nagoya University in Japan.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/07/world/eur ... index.html
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by Primula Baggins »

I'm grateful for LED lights. We're slowly installing them as we can spare the $$, now that they have dimmable bulbs that give off warm light. I realize there's a whole lot more to them than that, but I do love the 2-watt strings of Christmas lights.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by axordil »

And the colors of LEDs are soooo intense by comparison to the old bulbs...especially the PURPLE.
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by Primula Baggins »

Indeed! Though the blue isn't too shabby.

My daughter raves about the new possibilities for theatrical lighting (that's her major): light arrays with instantly and infinitely tuneable color, for example, which could only be done in a limited way with the old colored gels that couldn't be swapped out because the lights were out of reach and dangerously hot—you could only fade one color out while another faded in. Now she can do almost anything. The school can't buy the new lights very fast, but they do have some. I'm starting to see LED lights for home use that can also be tuned in color for mood lighting.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by axordil »

*puts on Barry White* What, there's another kind of mood lighting?
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by River »

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Eric Betzig of HHMI, Stefan W. Hell of the
Max Planck Institute, and William E. Moerner of Stanford “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”.

Hell developed a means of beating the diffraction limit of limit (roughly half the wavelength) in order to achieve nanometer-scale images with visible light. Moerner and Betzig used that technique to look at single molecules. In vivo no less. It's exciting stuff, though I'm not sure microscopy is really chemistry. Most of the single-molecule microscopists I've known are either straight up physicists with a thing for biology or bioscientists of some kind with a strong stomach for advanced instrumentation. Especially in the beginning, when these techniques were being developed, the microscopes were home-brewed and that takes a far amount of skill with optics and electronics.

In other words, six people won a Nobel in Physics this year. :P
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by River »

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Eric Betzig of HHMI, Stefan W. Hell of the
Max Planck Institute, and William E. Moerner of Stanford “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”.

Hell developed a means of beating the diffraction limit of limit (roughly half the wavelength) in order to achieve nanometer-scale images with visible light. Moerner and Betzig used that technique to look at single molecules. In vivo no less. It's exciting stuff, though I'm not sure microscopy is really chemistry. Most of the single-molecule microscopists I've known are either straight up physicists with a thing for biology or bioscientists of some kind with a strong stomach for advanced instrumentation. Especially in the beginning, when these techniques were being developed, the microscopes were home-brewed and that takes a far amount of skill with optics and electronics.

In other words, six people won a Nobel in Physics this year. :P
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by Frelga »

So... that's fluorescence from Hell?
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by River »

More like hella resolution.

I'll show myself out.
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by Primula Baggins »

Mr. Prim showed me some images from a (sales tool) article he wrote about this a while back, and DAYUM. Looking in visible light at a network of fibers that are actually molecules and are less than a nanometer in diameter. In contrast to a view of the same sample with conventional light microscopy. The kids today and their overturning the laws of physics that were firmly planted in my head by highly respectable professors!
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by River »

These technologies also allow us to watch single molecules move. Miserably hard experiments. But y'all know that. You've been reading me whine for years.

Single-molecule imaging, fluorescence, and force spectroscopy all straddle the lines between biology, chemistry, and physics. However, though they put it in the chemistry bin today, the work being rewarded is really more in the realm of physics.

Whatever. Single molecules FTW!
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Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Passdagas the Brown wrote:
axordil wrote:As the fates of Sadat and Rabin demonstrate, a Nobel medal provides little in the way of armor.
All that demonstrates is that a medal does not ensure safety, which is obvious. But IMO, a Nobel Prize victory could decrease the likelihood of an attack on her, as there would exist a greater international buffer. Much like the phenomenon of terrorists generally (though certainly not always) being averse to targeting UN peacekeepers.

Whether it seems credible or not, Taliban leadership does actually think about PR. And at least at the leadership level, a Taliban commander would not likely think it a great idea to murder a 16-year old Nobel laureate.

Of course, Taliban leaders have limited control over their rank and file, but the point is that such an international honor might contribute to at least a slightly higher likelihood of physical safety.
Well, I guess we might find out, because Malala was in fact awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year, along with an Indian children's rights activist, Kailash Satyarthi.
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by Primula Baggins »

She's an impressive young woman, using her fame to speak truth to power.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by axordil »

She's been bearing up under the self-assumed burden of international appearances well. Good for her and good for the Nobels.
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by Passdagas the Brown »

An astoundingly inspiring person.
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by River »

axordil wrote:She's been bearing up under the self-assumed burden of international appearances well. Good for her and good for the Nobels.
She fully recovered from getting shot in the head. It's going to take way more than a Nobel to knock her off her stride.
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Re: Nobels 2012, etc.

Post by axordil »

River wrote:
axordil wrote:She's been bearing up under the self-assumed burden of international appearances well. Good for her and good for the Nobels.
She fully recovered from getting shot in the head. It's going to take way more than a Nobel to knock her off her stride.
Celebrity has messed up more than one extraordinarily tough person. Different skill sets. The last year has demonstrated she's got more than one kind of moxie.
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