Well that explains why the United States is not mentioned in the Bible! I always wondered about that one.
Holevo Additivity Falls? The Quantum Universe Gets Even Stranger
Major news from the quantum information front. Today I see posted on the arXiv a paper by M.B. Hastings: arXiv:0809.3972 “A Counterexample to Additivity of Minimum Output Entropy.” If correct this resolves one of the most famous open problems in quantum information theory, and, even more interestingly says that in a quantum world, transmitting classical information down quantum channel defies your classical intuition. Blessed be our quantum world, which just continues and continues to amaze.
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Theoretical Physics Jobs. Now With Crazy Proposed Solutions!
Over at Information Processing, the bit processor, Steve, has an interesting post up about your chances of getting a faculty job in high energy theoretical physics. (In between the best posts on the financial turmoil around 1, 2, 3.) If you’re a high energy theoretical physics graduate student, and don’t want to get depressed today, I would recommend avoiding the post so as to keep up your illusion of safety, but if you want a good dose of reality, check it out.
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New Word for Wednesday
A word which might be useful in describing depictions of Jesus in South America:
Iconotropy noun. The misinterpretation of icons of an earlier cult by a later cult. Especially so as to bring the beliefs of the old school in line with the new school.
The monotheist bested the polytheist by repeated counterarguments of iconotropy.
New Word for Tuesday
The word which is closest in the dictionary to my name:
Daven. verb. 1. To recite a prayer. 2. To rock too and fro (as if praying.)
Have you ever noticed how some very smart mathematicians daven when they are excitedly talking about research?
Kitaev Wins MacArthur!
I just saw the news that Alexei Kitaev, a pioneer in quantum computing and an incredible physicst/computer scientist, has won a MacArthur “genius” award. Awesome!
Kitaev was my next door neighbor while I was a postdoc at Caltech, and among the many highlights of my short life I count listening to Kitaev’s amazing, confounding, brilliant and way over my head ideas. One event in particular I will always remember involved Alexei talking to theoretical computer scientists and, halfway through the talk, pointing out how Majorana fermions were essential to understanding what was going on in that particular computer science problem. Sure in retrospect I understood what he was saying, but how the hell did he make that connection?!?! Truly a genius and completely deserving of the MacArthur award. Congrats Alexei!
Update 8pm PST: Seems that news article has been taken down. Hmm.
Update 12:30am PST List of fellows now posted here. In a local note, David Montgomery who studies geomorphology has also been named a MacArthur fellow.
Two New Mersenne Primes
Two new Mersenne primes: 243,112,609-1 and 237,156,667-1. The former is now the largest prime number known. Interestingly the larger was discovered before the former, thus winning $100,000 from the EFF for Edson Smith who installed the software which identified this Mersenne prime on a UCLA computer. The $100K prize was for the first 10 million digit prime. The next prize is $150K for a 100 million digit prime number. Pretty amazing that two 10 million digit Mersenne’s were discovered within weeks of each other.
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University of Maryland Joint Institute Scores Big
The University of Marland’s Joint Quantum Institute has won an NSF Physics Frontier Center. $12.5 million over five years. This is the first frontier center devoted exclusively to quantum information science. Congrats to UM! Press release below the fold.
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A Reminder To Myself
This blog post is for me, not for you. Brought to you by a trip down memory lane visiting my adviser at Caltech.
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Seattle Scienceblogs Million Comment Party
Scienceblogs has now passed its millionth comment! In celebration many of us are having our own local Scienceblogs million comment parties. See here for your local party.
What does all that boring writing mean in the last paragraph? No need to read it. Just read this one if you’re going to be in Seattle at the end of September:
Join Sandra Porter, Maria Brumm, (hopefully) GrrlScientist, and myself for our millionth comment shin dig at Ozzie’s in lower Queen Anne (105 W Mercer St.) That’s right: beer, beer beer! At 4pm on September 27th. Considering the themes of three of four of the blogs, this will sure shape up to be an epic showdown between rock, physics, and biology. Or at least a good excuse for a party (by the way what is the natural ordering on rock, physics, and biology? Who beats who?) If you can make it drop a note in the comment section so we can get a guesstimate on the number of people attending.