Perpetual Notion Machine

Computers have gone through significant progress in the last 20 years. With such technology as android, bluetooth, and smartphones, processing capacity and speed has increased, while the physical hardware has shrunk. But the basic design or architecture is pretty much the same as a classic mainframe IBM. So, how can the computer revolution continue? By shrinking the size down even further to the atomic and subatomic level of quantum mechanics, a generally broad area of research in physics. Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine welcomes UW-Madison physicist Mark Saffman as guest. In classic computers, all processing and data storage is in the form of 0’s and 1’s, that is, bits in the binary number system. Computer language and coding instructions, and the data itself are strings and sequences of 0 and 1, but ONLY 0 or 1. Mark talks about quantum bits or qubits, which means that they can be either 0 and/or 1, or BOTH. When qubits can be a combination of 0 and 1 at the same time, this is referred to as superposition. Mark also explains the property of entanglement where particles of two separate qubits exist in a single quantum state. This help stabilize the qubits and makes quantum computing at a larger scale possible.

For a good description of quantum computing, click on this link to the MIT Technology Review Explainer.

Another source from Science Alert is a little more basic.

And finally, for a side-by-side comparison between quantum computing and conventional computing, check out this website Geeks for Geeks.

“Science and society…have each invaded the other’s domain, and the lines demarcating the one from the other have virtually disappeared.” 20 years after Michael Gibbons wrote that, scientific developments from CRISPR to AI have made the lines between science and society even hazier. As scientists themselves have increasingly taken up the call toward civic engagement, a number of politically-focused science groups have also emerged, especially since 2016: March for Science, 314 Action, and myriad campus science policy organizations. Leaders from one such group, UW-Madison’s Catalysts for Science Policy (or CaSP), join me, Kevin Lauterjung, to talk science policy imperatives and efforts underway. And they are Marie Fiori, Shannon Walsh, and Caitlin Warlick-Short.

Find out more information about CaSP, NSPN, or the National Science Policy Symposium, coming to Madison 11/1/2019.

Joe Skarlupka and Kevin Lauterjung talk to Randall Munroe, creator of the popular blog xkcd and numerous books, including the new How To: Absurd Advice for Common Real-World Problems. In How To…, seemingly simple questions are answered in the most absurd, yet scientifically sound, ways possible. Questions like, “How can I be more on time?”, “How can I power my house?”, or “How do I throw things?” are revisited through an absurdist lens. Munroe takes inspiration from the belief that “bad ideas” are worth exploring, and often end up teaching you a lot, though not always about what you were looking for. Kevin and Joe talked with Randall about the new book, obscure research, and nerd culture.

Energy reporter Chris Hubbuch of the Wisconsin State Journal joins the Wisconsin Energy Broadcast to discuss Evers new 100% clean energy goal for Wisconsin and all the major energy developments in the last twelve months.

This is the two year anniversary of the Wisconsin Energy Broadcast!  And we are enormously grateful to you, our listeners.  As a big thank you for listening, we are covering all the highlights from the last year.  Listen to this episode and get updates on the:

Cardinal Hickory Creek Transmission Line

The We Energies Rate Case

The dropped proposal for a new solar tax from We Energies

The Badger Hollow Solar Farm approval and the Two Creeks Solar Farm groundbreaking

And Governor Evers’ announcement of a 100% clean energy goal.   It has been a big year and Chris Hubbuch puts it all in perspective for the Wisconsin Energy Broadcast.

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine looks into a new book that asks the question: “What is mental illness?” The book is called How the Brain Lost Its Mind: Sex, Hysteria, and the Riddle of Mental Illness. PNM host Dennis Shaffer talks with the authors Dr. Allan Ropper and Brian David Burrell. Allan is a neurologist at Harvard Medical School, and besides being an author of several books, Brian is a faculty lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Historically, the medical profession believed that anything “mental” must have a physical or organic cause, that is from the brain. But many disorders were unexplained. So, the authors looked into mental illness through the contention between the brain and the mind. To explain the brain vs. the mind debate over the years, the book focuses on two diverse ailments: syphilis and hysteria. As a sexually transmitted disease, syphilis was known to infect the body, but was not known 200 years ago to infect the brain. But syphilis was the “great imitator” in that it could resemble many different diseases, including the brain. And often syphilis didn’t reveal itself until 10 or more years later. Hysteria was a “catch-all” term for mental or mind disorders like seizures, compulsive-obsessive behavior, hallucinations, paranoia, and psychosis. In the late 1800’s the medical profession of neurology studied hysteria, believing the cause was in the brain, not the mind.

Despite much progress in the study of the brain and psychology, today, Allan and Brian state that we’re no closer to finding an answer to what mental illness is. After all, each depressed person is different, not all antidepressant drugs will cure the problem.

Below is a painting by French artist Andre Brouillet from 1887 called A Clinical Lesson at the Salpetriere Hospital. In it, the leading neurologist of the time, Jean-Martin Charcot demonstrates and treats hysteria in one of his patients, the legendary Blanche Wittman, to a group of overly attentive colleagues and students. In this case of hysteria, Wittman displays improper, immoral behavior by swooning. It seems, at this time, hysteria was a female problem. But notice how insensitive Charcot and the others appear toward her, just to exploit her for “medical” reasons.

Tonight’s episode of the Perpetual Notion Machine looks into the use of social media mostly by international college students, plus how Snapchat filters can play into a person’s self-image. Our guest is Yanzhuo “Amy” Niu, a Ph.D. candidate in UW-Madison’s Department of Educational Psychology. She talks with PNM’s Josh Mitchell about her studies into how social networking sites help international students transition to colleges in the United States. But she is also about to embark on a study on how Snapchat’s auto-beauty filters affect female college student’s self evaluation. For this study, Amy received the UW Global Health Institute’s 2019 Graduate Student Research Award. Amy mentions that not only Snapchat can automatically enhance a person’s image, but in China, phones can default ALL selfies to digitally alter EVERY self-image taken. Over time, these images can have a psychological effect on one’s own looks, evaluation, and esteem. And this may even convince the person to have cosmetic surgery to look like the enhanced, filtered, selfie image.

The photo image above is that of Amy Niu from Snapchat.