Seen and heard
Weird and wonderful stories from the world of physics
Carb your enthusiasm
One curious result of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a rising interest in sourdough bread, which you can make at home by fermenting dough with naturally occurring lactobacilli and yeast. The loaf gets its characteristic sour taste from the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli, which also lets the bread last longer. Sourdough “starter cultures” can be created from scratch, but it’s a lengthy process, which is why bakers often share them. One such sourdough starter was brought to Fermilab three years ago by Ryan Mueller, a PhD student from Texas A&M University. Arriving in Chicago with a jar of microbes, he began to share recipes and his starter with other researchers at the lab. “I didn’t have any idea that people would find starters so cool once I gave them a little bit of rotted flour,” he told Symmetry magazine. “And I’m really thrilled, because all of them are making all sorts.” The starter has proved particularly valuable during lockdown and Mueller even delivered it to Fermilab colleagues to help them get a slice of the action. We’ll toast to that.
Quantum 5G woo
Would you pay £339 for a USB stick that claims to offer “protection” from 5G mobile networks? That’s what’s being charged by the UK firm 5GBioShield, which is selling a USB stick that, it says, can protect the user against the effects of 5G. According to the company, the device uses quantum technology to protect against 5G and includes a “holographic nano-layer catalyser”. Thanks to a process of “quantum oscillation”, its USB key apparently “balances and re-harmonizes the disturbing frequencies arising from the electric fog induced by devices”. It sounds like nonsense and the UK standards office is far from convinced by those claims either. Describing the device as being no more than a basic USB memory stick, it is now seeking a court order to take down the firm’s website. There was also a warning from Jim Al-Khalili from the University of Surrey. “As a ‘renowned world expert’ on quantum biology, quantum entanglement and relativistic time dilation,” he Tweeted, “I can say, categorically, that if you spend £339 on a 5GBioShield then you’re an utter numpty.”
Friday on my mind
Come Dine with Me is the brilliant British TV show in which amateur home cooks take turns hosting a dinner party for each other throughout the course of a week. Each dinner is scored in private by the other contestants on the evening it’s served and whoever racks up the highest score at the end of the week wins a cash prize. Now, two physicists from the University of Hamburg have analysed results from 2268 episodes of the German version of the show – Das Perfekte Dinner – and concluded that you have more chance of winning if you host a dinner later in the week. Cook on a Monday and you might as well just open a jar of sauerkraut (arXiv:2006.02677). Peter Blum and Marc Wenskat say that their finding is an example of the “secretary problem”, which arises when things are rated consecutively using the same criteria. Apparently, the application of those criteria change as each scoring occurs, skewing the results. “When competing, one should always carefully choose when to compete,” the authors write. So if you want perfection, go last.
Colourful physics
There is something deeply therapeutic about colouring in pictures and it has certainly helped many people during lockdown. Perhaps it takes some of us back to a childhood before the Internet and smartphones. Whatever the reason, if you fancy a bit of physics-related colouring, then the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) in Canada has released colouring versions of its “Forces of Nature” poster series. The free PDFs feature 10 influential women in physics, including Emmy Noether, Annie Jump Cannon as well as the 2018 Canadian Nobel-prize winner Donna Strickland. “We hope you’ll take this chance to think about the impact these pioneers made to science, frequently against overt and systemic challenges,” the PI says. “We hope it’ll give you a nudge to learn more about their work.”