Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 24, 2015)
3C THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2015 BOOKS WHAT ARE THEY READING? T he Daily Astorian invites people to sub- mit titles of books they are reading and share a few thoughts about the work. This week, Don Haskell, a retired attorney and former Clatsop County commissioner, shares some of his favorites about physics. To submit, send to news@dailyastorian.com O ne of my favorite books discusses the most famous mathematical equation in all of physics. Although not an easy read like a Tom Clancy spy novel, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw’s “Why Does e = mc²?” ex- plains Albert Einstein’s discovery why there’s enough pent-up energy in the period at the end of this sentence to blow up Astoria. And, of course, Einstein’s discovery led to the atomic bomb. My interest in physics began when I was laid up with a broken ankle 15 years ago. My library now has most lay- mans’ physics books published since then. And the more I read about physics, the more won- drous becomes the universe and the human in- tellect trying to ¿ gure it all out. In “The Fabric of the Cosmos,” Brian Greene introduces a universe so vast it’s almost impossible to picture how large it is. Greene describes it as one so vast that if the earth were the size of the entire cosmos, the observable universe we can see with our largest telescopes would be smaller than a grain of sand! One faraway star is so large that if you were À ying in an airplane at miles per hour, it would take you , years to À y around its equator! At the other end of the scale, Timothy Smith describes in “Hidden Worlds” the small- est things physicists know anything about — quarks, which can’t be divided further and are part of every atom. And a quark is so small that if it were the size of the average person, the tiny atom would be much larger than the earth! What is human consciousness? Surprisingly however, no physicist has yet been able to ¿ gure out Must what human con- sciousness really is; although a chemist, Fran- cois Tibika, makes an interesting attempt at it in “Molecular Consciousness.” 1or has anyone ¿ gured out what biologi- cal life itself actually is, although in “Biocen- trism” Dr. Robert Lanza tries to ¿ gure it out from the medical viewpoint. Nor has any physicist been able yet to ¿ gure out the invis- ible stuff that makes up over 95% of the observable universe. Physicists everywhere call this mysterious stuff dark energy and dark matter. Richard Panek describes this strange state of affairs in a fascinating way in “The 4% Universe.” In “Time Reborn” Lee Smolin explains the amazing conclusion of physicists ev- erywhere that light is at the same time both a particle and a wave that travels 1, miles per second — about million mph). Smolin discusses Einstein’s universally accepted conclusion that “time” doesn’t exist for anything going that fast. Past, present, future are one The mind-boggling conclu- sion of physicists around the world is that the past, present and future are actually one — i.e., everything that happens, that has already happened, or will ever happen, is all part of one continuum — a concept extremely dif¿ - cult for most human minds to understand, let alone accept. As physicist Michael Lockwood argues in “The Labyrinth of Time,” what we all perceive as the “passage of time” is an il- lusion. It’s simply part of the human condition — what our minds have been conditioned to think is reality in order to survive. To me the most fascinating physics books describe the smallest things in the universe. Physicists call the ¿ eld quantum physics, which has different natural laws than classical physics, which describes the largest. Classical physics was proposed by Isaac Newton centuries ago and is what my genera- tion learned in high school physics classes in the 194s. The new quantum physics has giv- en us television, the Internet, the computer, the iPhone, the iPad, the laser, medical imaging, and many other marvelous things that didn’t exist when I was grow- ing up. Yet no physicist in the world today really understands what’s happening at the smallest level. Robert Feynman, the famous Princeton University physicist is known for his statement that, “if you think you understand what happens at the quantum level, you obviously don’t un- derstand it.” ‘Entangled’ As one example, many thou- sands of experiments around the world prove that at the quantum (smallest) level, two particles can become “entangled” such that information about them is passed instantaneously be- tween them no matter how far apart they are, even thousands of miles apart — or even at opposite ends of the universe. Yet the result that information somehow goes faster than the speed of light is im- possible according to Einstein’s universally accepted theories of relativity. This conÀ ict is described in technical detail in a dif¿ cult read by theoretical physicists Tony Hey and Patrick Walters in “The New Quan- tum Universe.” And another mystery of the quantum world is even weirder. In “Quantum Enigma,” physicists Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner explain that at nature’s smallest level nothing happens unless there is some form of interaction by conscious beings to decide what will happen. As unbe- lievable and nonsensical as that sounds, that apparent rule of nature has been con¿ rmed by thousands of experiments by physicists ev- erywhere. To most physicists that means the human condition creates its own reality — an- other concept very dif¿ cult to understand, let alone to accept as a natural law. Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Don Haskell is fascinated by the mysteries of physics. Mysterious state of affairs The mysterious state of affairs with quantum physics has led many physicists to theorize, as Paul Davies explains in “Other Worlds,” that there must be an in¿ nite number of universes with an in¿ nite number of copies of every- thing, including us. But so far nobody’s been able to detect other universes, so at least for now the concept of parallel worlds is a creature only of theoretical physicists. For many years physicists have tried to re- solve the mystery why the smallest things in quantum physics and the largest things in Newtonian physics appear to follow entirely different natural laws. As Rosenblum and Kuttner put it, “classical phys- ics explains the world quite well; it’s Must the details it can’t handle. Quantum physics han- dles the details perfectly, it’s Must the world it can’t explain.” Personally, I think it’s no surprise scientists all over the world are nowhere near close to answering the mystery. Books about physics describe a universe simply too wondrous for the human intellect to ever know everything. Lights: It takes about 2 to hours to sequence the lights to each song Continued from Page 1C It takes Mike about to hours to sequence the lights to each song. He began that process months ago. The week before Thanksgiving, the Adelmanns began putting up the decorations, ¿ nishing by the start of December. Because they were designing for a new and slightly less familiar loca- tion, they used only a portion of the decorations they have stockpiled. “There wasn’t enough time to get a full display,” Mike said. A decorated Victorian The Adelmanns said they enMoyed decorating the 9ic- torian home, a stark Muxtapo- sition to their former stucco, À at-roofed home in New Mex- ico. Already they have plans to expand on the proMect next year and create an even greater, more complex display. When searching for a house, the ability to be decorated was one of the couple’s criteria, along with a nearby hospital for Teale, who works as a nurse . The couple also wanted a view of water and that the house be somewhat different — not “the cookie-cutter home” they were used to, Teale said. The historic house, perched by the Skipanon River and only about 12 miles from Provi- dence Seaside Hospital, ¿ t the bill. “This checked all those box- es,” she said. When they moved in, they FREE PUBLISHED THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH January 2015 Katherine Lacaze/EO Media Group Lights brighten the holiday season. constructed a garage in the back with a new power line speci¿ cally to run the lights and also to store all the decorations, lights and thousands of feet of homemade extension cords. A few months ago , the house was decked in a differ- ent display — rife with hues of orange and black, singing pumpkins and skeletal ¿ gures — to celebrate Halloween. ess Chronicling the Joy of Busin in the Columbia-Pacific Region The Adelmanns got permission from the Skipanon Marina for people to park there and walk to the house to trick-or-treat and watch the show. For Christmas, however, spectators are encouraged to relax in their cars. A sign posted in front of the house tells spec- tators which frequency to tune into. The music and speaking portions play on a loop. striverbusinessjournal crbizjournal.com • facebook.com/coa Volume 10 • Issue 1 stry spo allenges Inside: Indu copes with ch Shellfish farm an conditions oce nging s optimistic despite cha tlight: Taylor remain NEWS County makes a splash ‘A continuous ÀRZRIFDUV¶ There have been few traf¿ c back ups so far — sometimes three or four motorists are wait- ing their turn to get the prime viewing location. Usually, “there is a continuous À ow of cars,” Mike said. As of now, the couple only decorate for Halloween and Christmas and there are no plans to put up light displays for other holidays, although Teale has envisioned some fun things that could be done for 9alentine’s Day. For the Adelmanns, the most ful¿ lling part of the proM- ect is seeing the Moy and smiles from observers. Through an informational website on the house, the couple has received emails expressing apprecia- Now inserted into The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer For more information call 503-325-3211 PacifIc in the pot biz page 10 NEWS Seaside Muffler and Off-Road 21 revs up its reputation page BOAT OF THE MONTH The Sadie out of South Bend, Wash. page 24 tion for the light show. Some- times spectators will wave or honk their horns, or kids will get out and dance to the mu- sic. The couple likes “to see how happy the people are, that they came by and enMoyed it,” Teale said. “We make someone’s day. W e make them smile,” she add- ed. They also take personal pleasure going outside to watch the show themselves every few nights. “It’s pretty emotional to see the lights, especially when ‘Amazing Grace’ comes on,” Teale said. “It’s Must beautiful to see the whole house and how it’s lit up.” Their neighbors, here and at past residences, have not complained. The couple tries to be respectful by turning off the display by a decent hour, Teale said. Additionally, the traf¿ c has not been over- whelming. “We’ve never heard any- thing but positive feedback from neighbors,” Mike said. In fact, their current neigh- bors, George and Doris War- ren, have Moined in the fun. In lieu of decorating the exterior of their house, the Warrens put up a sign, lined with lights, that reads “Ditto” and has an arrow pointing to the Adelmanns’ house. “At ¿ rst, we didn’t know how they would respond, be- cause it might be too much for some people, but they Must love it,” Mike said. crbizjou rn a l.com
