Link Think - Science/Technology

1. Nicholas Carr in New York Times, why with all their foibles and fallibility humans are not, and probably never will be, obsolete.

He notes "We should view computers as our partners, with complementary abilities, not as our replacements. What we’ll lose if we rush to curtail our involvement in difficult work are the versatility and wisdom that set us apart from machines."

2. Nature has released a special May issue discussing the prospects and challenges facing Indian science.

The article India by the Numbers includes a telling and instructive summary of statistics, such as "about 40% of Indian researchers work abroad" -- the highest percentage of brain drain than any other country in the world!

3.  Interesting three-part series of articles in Quanta Magazine on how quantum entanglement leads to space time geometry. It discusses one of the most mysteriously addictive equations I have come across, ER = EPR (sorry Podolsky!).

i. Entangled Wormholes

ii. Network Tapestry

iii. Quantum Geometry

Wired also featured a commentary about this series.

4. Ross Andersen in Aeon magazine has a long piece about current state of cosmology. He gives a detailed account of the recent BICEP2 saga where initial hopes of detection of gravitational waves were, quite literally, shattered to dust. Reading about the entire episode in detail made me think that demanding stringently objective standards of science is not equivalent to assuming that its practitioners are less prone to usual (and frankly, expected!) human prejudices and biases. This is especially true while practicing science in the contemporary times of hyper-hype and hyper-competitiveness. I, for one, would try to be more sympathetic not just to the cause of science but to that of scientists, who put in honest and sincere work with no deliberate intent of scientific misconduct, while struggling to win over all their prejudices and biases with varying success. We need to remind ourselves that scientists are human after all!

5. Singularity hub recently published a report that gives a synopsis of leading quantum computing (QC) efforts in the world right now. It especially highlights superconducting circuit based QC, my field of research. 

Blog about my favorite blogs

On the science side, I have found iflscience quite entertaining -- whose editor is Elise Andrew, creator of the hugely popular I fucking love science facebook page. Its articles are pretty accessible too and you don't need any formal background, but just a healthy interest in science. Quantum Pontiff and Quantum Frontiers (run by Caltech's Institute of Quantum Information and Matter) are also interesting but rather technical and focused mostly on quantum information processing, so some may not like it as much as I do.

For Mathematics, I simply adore John Baez's blog Azimuth. The description of the blog actually clarifies that the focus is broader covering Physics, Earth science, Biology and technology too, but personally I find his maths posts most appealing. One of the absolute gems I have read from him is this beautiful exposition on relation between symplectic and unitary structures (okay I digress..). It is really amazing and has profound implications across fields. I was awed into stupefaction for full two weeks during my Ph.D. when I understood and used it in my research.

For a life in academia, I like the blog from Xykademiqz the most, where a full professor in Physical sciences at a major US research university shares her experiences (some might know her from blogger as Academic jungle). Scientopia which is a community blog on science is also worth checking -- personally I do not visit it super-often, as its dominant focus and contributors seem to come from biology. But people who worry about NIH grants, ethics in medical research etc may find it more engaging.

On the social and financial impacts of economics in our lives, mathbabe Cathy O'Neil and very much opinionated Noah Smith take the cake. Mathababe also runs an advice column Aunt Pythia on saturdays where she answers nerdy to kinky questions with equal panache.

One of my absolutely favorite blogs in recent time is the bad advisor --- who gives the advice people "want" to hear. This example shows why I love her blog so much. Also this. She sometimes even has interludes of giving good advice, which can be actually useful for some one. Keep rocking bad advisor!

Plus, there always is goodreads to go and wander amidst my loyal and comforting friends (a.k.a books).

And for my occasional indulgence in urdu poetry, I follow urduwallahs (it has a few gems such as full text with translation of Kaifi Azmi's composition "Aurat" but they need to be searched for!). A collection of poetry by Faiz Ahmad Faiz along with full texts and translation can also be found at this webpage hosted by Columbia University.

Link SING!

 What is a really really fun ways to talk about physics?  Answer: Music, as proved by the links below.

1. A cappella String theory, loops, renormalization (basically everything none of us quite understand).

2. A sonnet on Quantum Error Correction by Daniel Gottesman.

3. A poem on Quantum Cryptography by John Preskill. I liked it so much that I am putting it here.

Alice said to her friend Eve,

"Why do you practice to deceive?

You know I need to talk to Bob.

Without that I won't have a job.
 

"Bob can't know where my note has been.

He thinks that you are listening in.

He wonders if it's safe enough

For me to send him secret stuff.
 

"And Bob's right not to trust you, Eve,

With quantum tricks stuffed up your sleeve.

But he thinks we can freeze you out,

With quantum tricks we've learned about.
 

"With quantum states, what we achieve

Defeats whatever you conceive.

So even Bob has to believe

That you can’t hear us, can you Eve?"  

                                      (John Preskill)

You can "eve-sdrop" on some of Preskill's other verses here.

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Link Think

Hi bloggers,

I am starting a new feature where I am going to share interesting web-links. mostly related to Science. These may include news articles, popular physics essays or even blog pieces written by the vibrant community of scientist bloggers. Here is the first installment.

1. John Preskill's nice piece, where he summarizes the different viewpoints prevalent in the scientific communities on the "Firewall Paradox", recently put forward  by the AMPS team (the acronym draws from the initials of the four researchers involved this work --- Ahmed Almheiri, Donald Marolf, and James Sully, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Dr. Polchinski of the KITP, Santa Barbara.) It boils down to a revisitation of the black hole information paradox, over which John Preskill had won a bet against Stephen Hawking in 2004. For an accessible commnetary, correct in essentials, see the New York times article here.

2. Scott Aaronson on NSA's recent claim about their groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities. He entertainingly alludes to the possibility of NSA acquiring a quantum computer from D-wave - a company of whose claims he is the self-proclaimed Chief Skeptic!

3. A slightly old, but really well written commentary in Quanta Magazine, on a recent theoretical breakthrough which shows how an untrusted or noisy quantum system may be employed for secure quantum key distribution.