Chu's Final Breakthrough Before Taking Office 233
KentuckyFC writes "While preparing for the job of US Secretary of Energy in the incoming Obama administration (and being director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Nobel Prize winner to boot), Steven Chu has somehow found time to make a major breakthrough in the world of atom interferometry. One measure of an interferometer's sensitivity is the area that its arms enclose. Chu and colleagues have found a way to increase this area by a factor of 2,500 by canceling out the noise introduced by lasers, which work as beam splitters sending atoms down different arms (abstract). One thing this makes possible is the use of different types of atoms in the same interferometer, allowing a new generation of tests of the equivalence principle. (This is the assumption that the m in F=ma and the m's in F= Gm1.m2/r^2 are the same thing). Let's hope he's got equally impressive breakthroughs planned for his encore as US Secretary of Energy."
I know, right? (Score:5, Funny)
(This is the assumption that the m in F=ma and the m's in F= Gm1.m2/r^2 are the same thing).
That's what she said.
Re:Not "final" (Score:1, Funny)
You've got to be fucking kidding me. Eye can't believe you just did that.
Obviously... (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously this is just an attempt by the democrats to distract from the nation's problems as Obama takes office. They should be ashamed of themselves for exploiting the public's interest in atom interferometry this way.
Re:Any relation to Alex Chu? (Score:1, Funny)
http://www.alexchiu.com/
So Let me get this straight (Score:5, Funny)
Our incoming president reads spiderman comics and his secretary of energy is some incredible nobel prize winning genius who ran a program called "Bio-X", can we possibly get more nerdy?
Re:Any relation to Alex Chu? (Score:3, Funny)
Just because it's a popular last name doesn't mean that everyone with the last name 'Chu' is sterile, you insensitie clod.
Re:I know, right? (Score:5, Funny)
(This is the assumption that the m in F=ma and the m's in F= Gm1.m2/r^2 are the same thing)
Bah! Just another example of More-of-the-Same! Where's the change we were promised from the Obama Administration!
Just another example of an Obama appointee trying to maintain a status quo!
Re:Interferowhatsjiggy? (Score:5, Funny)
People with mod points.
Re:practical use? (Score:3, Funny)
^-- I'm with stupid
Re:Not "final" (Score:5, Funny)
I'd just love to hear him use the phrase, "Look at me, still talking while there's science to do."
Dammit Steve Chu (Score:3, Funny)
1. Prove the Riemann Hypothesis.
2. Bring peace to the Mid-East.
3. Turn out that to have made an amazingly human AI in his free time that escaped and now calls itself Randall Munroe and writes xkcd.
Re:Dammit Steve Chu (Score:5, Funny)
No, he'll bring Linux to the desktop, cure cancer, and get Adobe to release 64-bit Photoshop for the Mac... in that order.
Re:Wrong experience ? (Score:3, Funny)
The last thing you want is someone so hands on in a high level position.
Worked for Monika Lewinsky.
Re:Wrong experience ? (Score:3, Funny)
Worked for Monika Lewinsky.
Lewinski? Don't want to stain that good name. Might get a dressing-down.
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wrong experience ? (Score:3, Funny)
Lewinski?
Close, but no cigar.
Re:Interferowhatsjiggy? (Score:5, Funny)
*raises hand*
Some of us don't have time to learn EVERYTHING, since we do go outside every once in a while. That's that bright place between your folks' basement and the D&D store, btw.
Re:Not "final" (Score:2, Funny)
I want to hear him testify before congress and use the phrase "Science... it works, bitches."
Re:Obviously... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:more than that. (Score:4, Funny)
... more than lazzis faire.
Yeah. Damn lazy fairies.
Re:Not "final" (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Nice Change (Score:5, Funny)
Does he have a habit of laughing while doing an experiment in the lab in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm?
Re:Any relation to Alex Chu? (Score:3, Funny)
Just because it's a popular last name doesn't mean that everyone with the last name 'Chu' is sterile, you insensitie clod.
Quite the opposite, I would think.
Re:Oh really? (Score:1, Funny)
Dude, I aced the inkblot. Wouldn't like to meet the sick bastard who draws those things, though.