Applied Physics

Flat-panel televisions are nothing new.   I think even my father has one in his toolshed by now.  But legitimate flat-panel loudspeakers are harder to come by.     There are single-speaker surround sound systems, and those are admirable, but speakers, unlike today's televisions, require a great deal of old-fashioned physics, analog-style, because that's how sound reaches our ears - so flat panel ones, though a terrific concept in size, haven't been great in practice.    If you're suffering from 7.1 channel space overload, there may be good news.   Flat-panel…

Researchers at the University of Warwick have found what could be the signal of ideal wave 'surfing' conditions for individual particles within the massive turbulent ocean of the solar wind, a discovery that could give a new insight into just how energy is dissipated in solar system sized plasmas such as the solar wind and could provide significant clues to scientists developing fusion power which relies on plasmas. The research, led by Khurom Kiyanai and Professor Sandra Chapman in the University of Warwick’s Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, looked at data from the Cluster…

IPL Cs-137 dose point verification using excel spreadsheet. Download here

Would you like to make your own black hole before the LHC supposedly dooms us all (though it has to stop breaking first before it can unleash  physics-induced Eschaton)? Dartmouth researchers say they may be able to do it. Writing in Physical Review Letters, they propose a new way of creating reproduction black holes in the laboratory on a much-tinier scale than their science-fiction staples.  The new method, if it works, would create tiny quantum-sized black hole and allow researchers to better understand what physicist Stephen Hawking proposed more than 35 years ago; that…

The first reported used of x-ray therapy to treat prostate cancer, which claimed to have an excellent result is done by Imbert and Imbert in 1904. The investigation of x-ray radiation for patient therapy continued until it is adapted into clinical routine in the early 1920s (1). Progress in this area has been published by numerous scientists worldwide and served as the turning point for the development of new techniques and modalities. Current Imaging Techniques1. Ultrasonography Contrast-enhanced Gray-scaleTransrectal Ultrasound-guided Prostate Biopsy in Men with Elevated Serum Prostate-…

Glasgow radiotherapy accident, 2006Treatment Date: January 5-31, 2006Location: Glasgow, Scotland, United KingdomType of event: Radiation Therapy OverexposureDescription:A 15-year-old female patient had undergone radiation therapy to treat her brain tumor at Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow.  She was given 19 treatments over a period of time, which started in January 5, 2006. As a consequence of human error, all treatments were far in excess of the prescribed dose by about 60 percent. The error was not identified until after her 2nd to last treatments were administered, shortly before…

CHECK SOURCE OPERATING PROCEDURE Prior to performing a radiation survey using the survey meter, the RHSO must first ensure that the instrument is functioning properly. The RHSO must perform an operational check using the check source (Strontium-90) that is affixed to the side of the instrument. The location of the check source is marked with "Caution - Radioactive Material" (CRAM) tape and an "X" to indicate where to position the probe when performing the operational check. Also, affixed to the instrument is a sticker that states the range limit for the probe. The operational reading must…

“I am very pleased to be working with PhysMath Central as I believe open access is the future for publication of all bio-related research. I am also excited at the prospect that online publishing brings the ability to post video and raw data as supplementary to each article, and hope our authors will make extensive use of this ability.” Huan-Xiang Zhou, Editor-in-Chief – PMC Biophysics As a graduate student I have free access through my Universities library to any journal I want (well, most of them anyway).  But, not everyone has this luxury including most readers of the blogs here on…

One of the emerging techniques in prostate cancer imaging is magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), which provides bio-chemical information from body tissue in a safe and noninvasive method. In the presence of an applied external magnetic field, the atomic nuclei within molecules behave like tiny magnets and resonate at different frequencies at the same magnetic field strength. This is the basic principle of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (1-4). MRS displayed the relative concentrations of key chemical constituents, i.e. Citrate, choline, and creatinine, of the cellular…

Because I have played guitar some 30 years, I have always been interested in guitar construction.   I have multiple guitars because they all have different tones and are used for different things - that doesn't always make sense to people because a guitar is a guitar but I am not even in the top 50,000 guitarists obsessed with tone.     Eric Johnson, most famous for "Cliffs of Dover"(1) says he can hear a difference in the batteries he uses in his gear - and I believe him.  There are too many instances of elite (yeah, I used that word) people doing extraordinary things to…