John Preskill
Faculty, Quantum Information
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This Video Of Scientists Splitting An Electron Will Shock You
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKFecm9NKbM?vq=hd720&rel=0&showinfo=0] by Jorge Cham. Ok, this is where things get weird. If quantum computers, femtometer motions or laser alligators weren't enough, let's throw in fractionalized electrons, topological surfaces and strings that go to the end of time. To be honest, the idea that an electron can't be split hadn't even occurred to me before my conversation with Gil [...]
A Quantum Adventure
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zD1U1sIPQ4?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0] by Jorge Cham How do you make something that has never existed before? I often get suggestions for comics I should draw, which I welcome because A) I like to think of PHD Comics as a global collaborative effort and B) after 17 years, I'm almost out of ideas. This particular suggestion came from Chen-Lung [...]
Quantum Matter Animated!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pktWhH6m_DM?vq=hd720&rel=0&showinfo=0] by Jorge Cham What does it mean for something to be Quantum? I have to confess, I don't know. My Ph.D was in Robotics and Kinematics, so my neurons are deeply trained to think in terms of classical dynamics. I asked my siblings (two engineers and one architect) what comes to mind for them [...]
The return of the superconducting high school teacher
Last summer, I was blessed with the opportunity to learn about the basics of high temperature superconductors in the Yeh Group under the tutelage of visiting Professor Feng. We formed superconducting samples using a process known as Pulse Laser Deposition. We began testing the properties of the samples using X-Ray Diffraction, AC Susceptibility, and SQUIDs [...]
On the importance of choosing a convenient basis
The benefits of Caltech's proximity to Hollywood don't usually trickle down to measly grad students like myself, except in the rare occasions when we befriend the industry's technical contingent. One of my friends is a computer animator for Disney, which means that she designs algorithms enabling luxuriously flowing hair or trees with realistic lighting or [...]
Reading the sub(linear) text
Physicists are not known for finesse. “Even if it cost us our funding,” I’ve heard a physicist declare, “we’d tell you what we think.” Little wonder I irked the porter who directed me toward central Cambridge. The University of Cambridge consists of colleges as the US consists of states. Each college has a porter’s lodge, [...]
An intellectual tornado
Hello?… The first thing I remember feeling moments later was panic. Five years before that day, I was a graduating senior at MIT pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with Computer Science (18C for all the fellow nerds out there). I had been close to some of the most brilliant people I have ever [...]
Much more than Lasers and Mirrors
I have been teaching Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science for twenty five years now, the last fourteen at Duarte High School. I have always emphasized laboratories, focusing on the scientific process and have a philosophy of imparting translatable skills along the way. This summer I had the honor of being selected to join the IQIM [...]
Hsieh work on novel phase of matter featured in Nature Physics
Four different types of RA-SHG patterns found by performing local measurements within all of the domains mapped in Fig. 2b. Red lines are fits to the expressions described in the text. The large lobes are shaded pink to emphasize the orientation of each pattern. Schematics of the four degenerate magneto-electric loop-current order configurations are [...]