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Chu's Final Breakthrough Before Taking Office

Posted by kdawson on from the chewing-up-the-scenery dept.

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."

3 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. Nice Change by zwekiel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's a nice change from the previous high level government officials of the Bush Administration, who were appointed not based on their knowledge and experience in a given field, but their willingness to bend the truth according to the Bush administration dogma.

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    1. Re:Nice Change by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's a nice change from the previous high level government officials of the Bush Administration, who were appointed not based on their knowledge and experience in a given field, but their willingness to bend the truth according to the Bush administration dogma.

      That was my initial reaction. But at that level of responsibility I much prefer someone being appointed for their competency to manage well rather than their ability to do technical work. I have no idea if Chu is a good manager or not, just saying that the Peter Principle is something to be avoided.

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  2. Re:For the Record... by artor3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Chu is a big name, so its hard to tell whether he was the driving force behind this research, or tossed on the list of authors to get funding. Muller is an Assistant Professor. Chiow is a post-doc.

    Herrman, I can't find a position for via a quick google search, but it looks like he's been putting out papers under Muller for 5 years, which means he's been working under him even longer. The only way you'd work under one person for that long without having a larger internet presence is as a meek and lowly grad student.

    Therefore, my guess is this - Muller or Chu comes up with idea. Chu gets funding. Muller does the over-arching theory behind the idea (probably with help from Chu). Chiow leads in actual lab work, while Herrman does the grunt work. But hey, at least its better than being an undergrad. Those poor saps probably got jobs like "write down the number on this display every ten minutes for the next four hours", and they don't even end up getting listed.