Sunday, April 8, 2012 9 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY PHYSICS Physicists SHORT SCIENCE lift hopes for NOW THE INVISIBLE MAN ‘Big Bang’ Eating greens reduces breast cancer mortality progress

WASHINGTON – Chinese women who ate cabbage, broccoli and leafy CERN researchers smash greens saw improved survival rates CAN TAKE THE HEAT after breast cancer compared with sub-atomic particles women who did not eat these at record speed in quest cruciferous vegetables, a US study Scientists who specialise in the dark art in this opposite way. Both scattering Along with Lai Yun, Chen Huan- shows. The findings come from data effects simply cancel out each other. yang and Zhang Zhaoqing, he pub- for the ‘God particle’ on 4,886 Chinese breast cancer of invisibility have succeeded in creating secret Thus, no light can now be detected lished the idea in Physical Review survivors aged 20 to 75. Women who cool spots hidden from the glare of intense heat and the original object is apparently Letters in 2009. His team has even ...... ate more cruciferous vegetables over invisible. gone a step further to create Reuters in Geneva the three years following their ...... He gave an example: X + (-X) = 0. other forms of illusions, for in- diagnosis saw their risk of dying tromagnetic waves, for instance “The X is scattering due to the object stance, “design cloaks that make Adrian Wan from any cause decrease by 27 per microwaves. we want to hide. Our cloak is the (-X) an object look like another object”. Scientists came closer than ever to [email protected] cent to 62 per cent compared to The French team extended the that undoes the scattering due to that “We are just at the beginning. witnessing “Big Bang”-style condi- women who reported eating little or concept for their diffusion equation, object. The hidden object cannot be We now know how to make things tions last week after revving up the none of these vegetables. AFP The science of invisibility has now which governs the flow of heat from seen by the outside world, but it invisible in principle, but in prac- Large Hadron Collider at the CERN thrown its cloak over heat – hiding it one place to another. can see the outside world,” tice, there are still many challenges research centre to smash sub-atomic in a way that objects close to scorch- It is very different from the meth- he said. “And so it has to overcome,” said Chan, also a direc- particles together faster and harder Alternative for sperm ing temperatures remain cool to the od used by a team of physicists at the an advantage.” tor of the university’s William Mong than ever before. touch. Hong Kong University of Science and Institute of Nano Science and Physicists in the control rooms whale wax in perfume It’s another step towards making Technology. Technology. punched the air as multi-coloured things invisible in reality – with one Chan Che-ting, chair professor of For instance, “the operational arcs flashed across their screens, de- VANCOUVER – A product from fir trees Hong Kong physicist leading the physics at the university, said their bandwidth is very narrow – you can bris thrown up by the collisions of and yeast may soon replace quest to, magician-like, make whole approach, called scattering compen- make an object invisible at one fre- some of the millions of protons flung ambergris – the wax-like substance objects disappear. sation, uses artificial materials that quency but it remains visible at around the vast underground circuit secreted by sperm whales – in the The latest breakthrough came are able to scatter light in an opposite other frequencies”. Expanding at close to the speed of light. manufacture of expensive perfume, from a French team. So far, tests have fashion to how light is scattered by the operational bandwidth is “This is a great start to the 2012 researchers say. Scientists have long cloaked areas of just 300 micro- the original object. very difficult for light, and the run. It promises to be an amazing sought alternatives to ambergris as it metres, about a third of a millimetre, Every object scatters light artificial materials that can do year for particle physics,” said Oliver is rare, costly at US$10,000 a bending heat around the “invisible” shone on it to form a pattern. invisibility cloaking are very Buchmueller, a member of the CMS kilogram, and could “be a factor in spot. Our eyes detect the pattern difficult to make. team that is conducting one of the whale hunting”, Joerg Bohlmann, a Most previous work on invisibility and see the object. The interest in accom- two main experiments at CERN, professor at the University of British has revolved around manipulating Chan uses metamate- plishing the “mission impos- which lies on the border between Columbia, said. He and colleague trajectories of waves – light, sound rials – man-made sub- sible” is shared by many sci- France and Switzerland. Philipp Zerbe have found a balsam and the waves that travel through the stances that possess entists in different fields. The proton smashers’ big prize is fir gene that, when introduced into earth and oceans. With heat, no properties not found “Physicists have come up the Higgs boson, the particle which – yeast and grown on a large scale, waves are involved. in nature – that are with innovative ideas. Math- if it exists – explains why things have produces an alternative to The French scientists used a able to scatter light ematicians have developed had mass since the birth of the uni- ambergris called cis-abrienol. Until “thermal” cloak to split space into a the mathematical tools verse 13.7 billion years ago. now, isolating cis-abrienol from sage visible and a dark domain, with the needed to design these nov- or fir plants has been difficult. AFP object hidden in the dark domain el materials. Scientists in shielded from heat. nanoscience and nano- The new approach was released technologies have invent- US medics call for fewer in the journal Optics Express last ed the fabrication tech- week. niques needed to make This is a great start tests in order to cut costs Sabestien Guenneau, who works these artificial materials with both the University of Aix-Mar- for cloaking. Engineers to the 2012 run. It WASHINGTON – Leading US medical seille and France’s National Centre are trying to make real promises to be an associations have urged fewer tests for Scientific Research, did the study samples and worry about for patients with mild health to see if they could control the way applications,” he said. amazing year for conditions and less aggressive heat diffused in a manner similar to “Solving these prob- treatment for advanced cancers in a those achieved for waves. lems is part of my man- particle physics bid to cut costs. They say that: “Heat isn’t a wave – it simply dif- date as a professor to gen- OLIVER BUCHMUELLER, PHYSICIST patients with advanced tumours fuses from hot to cold regions,” he erate new knowledge. who showed no benefit from prior said. “The mathematics and physics These research activities treatments should not be given at play are much different. For in- are very exciting as they Ramping the collider up to 8 Tera chemotherapy; hi-tech scans for stance, a wave can travel long dis- satisfy my quest for curi- electron-volts, 15 per cent more ener- patients with early prostate or breast tances with little attenuation, where- osity. This new knowl- gy than last year, should produce up cancer that appears at low risk of as temperature usually diffuses over edge can be the foundation of to 10 times more data than the previ- spreading should be avoided; smaller distances.” When we are future technologies,” he said. ous two years of work on trying to patients’ exposure to radiation The trick, he said, was to apply the It is this curiosity which has, for replicate the conditions of the birth of should be minimised; ECGs of mathematics of transformation op- making something several years, prompted Chan and energy and matter at the dawn of the patients with low risk for heart tics to the equations describing diffu- his team to ask: “Can we make an ob- universe. disease are of no benefit, as are CT sion. The result, Dr Guenneau and invisible, we are ject invisible? Can we create an opti- More data means more certainty and MRI scans for people with low his colleagues found, was a means to changing the way cal illusion so that an apple would about whether the Higgs lies within back pain, or for those with fainting shuttle heat around at will. look like a banana? Can we create the last narrow band of energy yet to symptoms in the absence of signs of In the study, the researchers pro- light is scattered ‘optical tracker beams’ as those de- be fully explored, or if its existence seizure or other neurological pose a cloak made of 20 rings of mate- picted in the movie Star Trek?” can be conclusively ruled out, which symptoms; colonoscopies could be rial, each with its own “diffusivity” – PROFESSOR CHAN CHE-TING, For those who, for instance, want would entail a rethink of textbook done less often in patients who show the degree to which it can transmit HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE a bite of that apple, the idea may physics and mainstream science. AND TECHNOLOGY no signs of disease; and doctors and dissipate heat. seem dreadful. But Chan said: “It is But the new high speeds also should not prescribe antibiotics for “We can design a cloak so that not scary if we look at the bright side mean more background noise and sinus infections unless they last heat diffuses around an invisibility of the possibilities. static for Higgs hunters around the more than seven days. The region, which is then protected from “When we are making something world to overcome. recommendations are detailed at heat,” he explained. “Or we can force invisible or making an apple look like The first tantalising glimpses of http://choosingwisely.org. AFP heat to concentrate in a small vol- a banana, what we are doing is what might be the Higgs, postulated ume, which will then heat up very changing the way light is scattered or by British theoretical physicist Peter rapidly.” absorbed by an object,” he said. Higgs in 1964, were spotted in the This approach still employed the “The same technology can pro- Large Hadron Collider last year and same fundamental theory, called tect us from harmful or unwanted ra- revealed by researchers in Decem- transformation optics, that was first diation. If a coating can enhance the ber. CERN is now zeroing in. introduced for light in 2006, when absorption for light, it will facilitate After discovering the mystery bo- physicists and mathematicians for light harvesting. If a coating can en- son – often dubbed the “God parti- the first time succeeded in designing hance the absorption for sound, it cle” to the strong disapproval of most invisibility cloaks. will be a potent sound absorber. If a scientists – CERN could turn to more The invisibility cloaks introduced material can focus waves better, it “science fiction” targets such as extra in 2006 work for a set of wave equa- can help us see better. There are a lot dimensions and the “dark matter” Ambergris, secreted by whales, has tions – Maxwell equations – that gov- of potential applications that are believed to make up about 25 per been used in perfume for centuries ern the propagation of light and elec- good for mankind.” cent of the cosmos.

SCIENCE FOCUS WYSS YIM

Rainfall records How volcanic activity has influenced our rainfall Annual rainfall recorded at Observatory heaquarters station (mm) 2008 3,066 Driest Wettest 2005 3,214 2001 3,091 3,500 1889 3,041 1997 3,343 sensitive to wind shifts due to its Shandong province 1982 3,247 Sometimes they cause our driest years, sometimes our wettest, but erupting 2,974 location on the continental margin. respectively. Locally, 2011was the 1891 1975 3,028 volcanoes are among the leading causes of variation in Hong Kong’s climate Under “normal” monsoon seventh driest year on record. 1973 3,100 conditions, summer winds are from The role of water vapour as a 3,000 1957 2,950 ince the establishment in 1883 for the intense El Nino episode. In driest year on record in 1967. the southwest and winter winds are greenhouse gas is underestimated of the Royal Observatory Hong 2008, the Chaiten debris took 35 As for the 10 heaviest episodes of from the northeast. by the Intergovernmental Panel on SKong (renamed Hong Kong days to arrive, and caused the hourly rainfall recorded by the Drought conditions can be Climate Change in comparison with Observatory after the handover), wettest June in Hong Kong’s history, Observatory, all except 1926 explained by the “normal” wind carbon dioxide (CO2). While volcanic 2,500 continuous records have been kept including the once-in-1,100 year occurred within the past 50 years. pattern changing to predominantly eruptions are a natural cause of at the headquarters station in Tsim rainstorm on June 7. Besides severe The first, the second and the ninth- offshore after volcanic eruptions or atmospheric water vapour Sha Tsui, except from 1940 to 1946. flooding in various locations, the ranked have occurred within the large nuclear explosions. redistribution, the world’s seven From 1884 to 2011, the mean intense rainstorm caused more than past five years, which may be Abnormally wet conditions can billion humans are also changing 2,000 annual rainfall at the station was 1,600 landslides on Lantau Island. attributed to the influence of the be explained by the “normal” wind the natural water cycle through their 2,228 mm, ranging from 901.1 to The 10 driest years are relatively urban heat island effect. pattern changing to predominantly actions, including deforestation, 3,343 mm. The top 10 wet and dry evenly distributed from 1898 to 2011. Rainstorms accompanying low- onshore. This is supported by dams and domestic, agricultural and years are indicated in the chart During 1963, Hong Kong’s worst pressure troughs are exacerbated by satellite tracking of the spread of industrial consumption. 1,500 (right), which shows that eight of the drought year, water supply was the heat generated by human volcanic debris, as in 1982 and 2008. A study of the warming power of 1912 1,625 1967 1,570 wettest years occurred during the reduced to just four hours in over activities. Additionally, the air Volcanic eruptions are natural CO2 and water vapour by Paulo 1954 1,367 2011 1,476 past 60. Five were strong El Nino four days. The severe drought has pollutants, including aerosols and atmospheric chemistry experiments Cesar Soares in 2010 concluded that, 1901 1,416 years, with the two wettest years, been attributed to air circulation particulates, may intensify that enable us to learn about unlike CO2, water vapour in the 1997 and 1982, ranking the most changes resulting from the March- rainstorms by acting as climatic variability. Nowadays we atmosphere is rising in tune with 1,000 1898 1,447 1938 1,405 intense and second-most intense May eruption of the Agung volcano condensation nuclei. can study their impacts closely, with monthly temperature changes. respectively. on the Indonesian island of Bali. Hong Kong is particularly Nasa operating five A-train satellites Volcanic eruptions and nuclear 1895 1,164 1933 1,585 1963 901 Satellite tracking of volcanic The June 1991 eruption of the carrying instruments to provide explosions have been overlooked as clouds has indicated that two wet Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines atmospheric observations. natural and anthropogenic causes 1884 second world war 2011 years, 1982 and 2008, were was a factor in Hong Kong’s 11th In January last year, the respectively for extreme rainfall connected to major volcanic events driest year on record. respected Browning Newsletter variability. My findings support a Biggest hourly rainfall totals at Observatory headquarters (mm) – the eruption of the El Chichon Similarly to volcanic eruptions, suggested that volcanic eruptions in greater role for water vapour than 150 volcano in Mexico in March and large nuclear explosions may also Volcanic eruptions the northwestern Pacific were CO2 in driving climate change. April, 1982, and the Chaitén volcano cause drought years. The detonation are ... chemistry responsible for the La Nina episode Wyss Yim is an earth scientist specialising 120 in Chile in May 2008. of the world’s largest nuclear bomb of 2010/2011. Their impact on in environmental change. From 2007 90 The El Chichon debris took 12 in the Soviet Union on October 31, experiments that circulation changes through to2009, he served as the deputy 60 days to reach Hong Kong, 1961, was followed by the 20th driest enable us to learn strengthening of the onshore trade chairman of the Climate Change Science 30 contributing condensation nuclei year on record in 1962. The atomic winds and the offshore westerly Implementation Team of Unesco’s Jun 7 Jul 16 May 8 Jun 12 May 2 Jul 19 Jun 13 Jun 18 Jul 22 Apr 30 for torrential rainfall in late April to bomb exploded by France at about climatic winds helped account for the International Year of Planet Earth. The 2008 2006 1992 1966 1989 1926 1968 1972 2010 1975 May. Stratospheric warming of the Mururoa Atoll in September 24, summer floods in Queensland, views expressed here are his alone, and tropics may have been responsible 1966, was followed by the eighth variability Australia, and the winter drought in are based on his research. Source: Wyss Yim, HKO SMP