Jim Carrey and Conan O'Brien talk quantum physics

Back, by popular demand, Jim Carrey and Conan O'Brien discuss quantum physics.

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Jim Carrey and Conan talk quantum physics: Part III

I apologize for horribly neglecting this blog during the past few months. I see, though, that a great many NanoBot readers are searching for a video I posted last year of Jim Carrey and Conan O'Brien discussing quantum physics. It's a classic moment in the geek world. My previous posts here and here now lead to video dead-ends, so I found another source for the discussion (which also includes E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg). Just click the video above (or go here) and enjoy.

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My plural marriage with Utah students

My contribution to higher education for the coming semester: My rescue and reposting of a video clip of Jim Carrey and Conan O'Brien teaching drummer Max Weinberg a thing or two about quantum mechanics has made it onto the syllabus for Physics 3740: Introduction to special relativity and quantum mechanics at the University of Utah. Not bad for a former English and Journalism major.

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Einstein's dice and the nano Sopranos

Jim Carrey and Conan talk quantum physics II

I see that a great many readers are searching for a clip of Conan O'Brien and Jim Carrey chatting about quantum physics. I posted the clip a few weeks ago, courtesy of YouTube. But I see that NBC has pulled the plug. So, I've saved it onto my own server. Click above or here to download the clip. Enjoy.

Update 12/7/08: The video can now be found here.

Einstein's dice and the nano Sopranos

I have not picked up any more nanobot inferences on ABC's "Lost," but in a recent episode Josh Holloway's character wisecracked, "I say Pasadena." I am not certain of this phrase's cultural meaning, if there is one, but since Sawyer's comment appeared to be random I could only conclude that it was intended as a message for me.

"Why not Pasadena?" I ask myself. For that matter, "Why not Lansing?" where business editor at the State Journal would have been a perfectly respectable alternative.

So, as the multiverse's parallel Howards who made different choices (or who ended up rolling Heisenberg's and Bohr's dice slightly differently) toil away in Lansing and Pasadena, I feel today like Schrodinger's cat: both alive and dead.

Speaking of dead, all this is just a wordy lead-in to a clip of one of the best television scenes of all time. It's from a recent episode of "The Sopranos." There are many elements to this short, minute-and-a-half scene, but it does more to bring quantum physics to street level than any book I've read on the subject. To me, it ranks up there with the "Chuckles the Clown" funeral on Mary Tyler Moore.

Enjoy the video above. Now get the fuck outta here.

What, Prey tell, are you talking about?

I know what they say about people who live in glass houses, and that's why I'm ordinarily reluctant to pick apart the work of other journalists, especially those who are forced by an editor to learn all there is about nanotechnology in one day so they can cover a speech by a visiting lecturer. I feel their pain. So, I hope this writer from the East Valley Tribune will forgive me, but this story perfectly illustrates a few issues I've been thinking about lately.

First of all, somebody on the copy desk should have caught this first sentence right out of the gate: "Nanotechnology is all about small objects — less than 100 microns ..." Yeah, that's correct. Also less than 100 parsecs, kilometers and light years. But if you want to be more precise, go smaller into the nanometer range. Hey, is that why they call it "nanotechnology?"

But that's not really what drew my attention. This did:

The reason these particles have so much potential is their size and the fact they don’t always follow conventional laws of physics.

"That’s a double-edged sword," said Michael Moffitt, vice president of environmental services for Western Technologies, a Phoenix consulting firm. Moffitt was speaking to a group at the Semiconductor Environmental, Safety Association convention in Scottsdale last week.

... Moffitt says nanotechnology poses a couple of challenges for the cleaning crews. The first is detecting and measuring the hazards. Not that much is known about how some of these particles might interact with living tissue. More here

It's difficult to say whether Moffitt got it wrong or the reporter misunderstood what he said. But this illustrates perfectly a discussion started by Richard Jones at Soft Machines, called The Quantum Bridge of Asses (Apparently, my friend Richard feels the need to compete with me when it comes to important search-engine words. I ran pictures of asses, so he needs to put the word in a headline).

In any case, I've interviewed some of the researchers working on the effect of nanoparticles on living cells, and quantum physics never comes into play. They're not checking to see whether the particle turns into a wave, or whether there's a dead cell in this universe and a live one in a different dimension or any of that craziness that even left Einstein scratching his head and muttering about God not playing dice. No, they're using old-fashioned techniques grounded in classical physics to see what happens when you let a dendrimer or a buckyball loose in your body.

An then, the story kicks me in the ... um ... tushie on the way out with this one:

Anyway "Prey" is going to be made into a movie. And Moffitt fears this will frame public debate.

I've heard these vague "Prey" movie references ever since the day the book came out. Over the past few years, I even assigned a couple of Tinseltown reporters to find out more about this "film." People who know people who know people say that there's no director and no cast, which means that everybody in the nano business can just calm down for a while. Your worst nightmare will not come true anytime soon. Unless somebody out there has more information on this, let's give the "movie version of 'Prey' is coming soon" stuff a rest.

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Howard,

First let me say that I am an avid follower of Kabbalah for about 10 yrs now, I am also involved in research and investment in nanotech, I for one appreciate the direction you took with that article. Religion and science are often referred to as opposite sides of a coin, but as we move along into the quantum realm, we will discover they are more like two sides of triangle, the further we move along, the closer we get to a common point.

That being said, you know as well as I do, that as passionate as we may be about the simplicity of it all, it is near to impossible for the average reader who has no Kabbalah experience to get a grasp of what you were trying to put across. I do however applaud your attempt.

I must confess something to you: Ein Sof has always been a tough concept for me, I have pondered about for hours at end but never really got a grasp, so I just filed it in the back of mind in the ‘check back later’ folder. While reading your article, you mentioned Zeno's paradox in relation to Ein Sof. I sat up in my chair, eyebrows raised, it is so simple! I have not had a spark of insight strike me like that in a long time, its all so clear now! I must thank you for that!

Regards,
(Name withheld at writer's request. He says he doesn't like "mixing religion and business." Translation: He can't be associated publicly with my kind of nano voodoo. After all, unlike me, some people care about their reputations in the eyes of the science and business community. But I digress ...)

Dear (Name withheld -- see rant above)

Wow. I must be better than I thought! I do come from a line of rabbis -- yet, I'm certainly not rabbinic material. I'm glad you got something out of my piece. This has got to be the first time anybody has told me they've found God in anything I've done!

Howard

Well, I didn’t really find God, just got infinitely closer ...

(Name Withheld, blah blah blah)

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