"To the dismay of Ellis and many of his colleagues, the multiverse has developed rapidly from a being merely a speculative idea to a theory verging on respectability. There are good reasons why. Several strands of theoretical physics - quantum mechanics, string theory and cosmic inflation - seem to converge on the idea that our universe is only one among an infinite and ever-growing assemblage of disconnected bubble universes."

By Jonathan Fildes Technology reporter, BBC News

Hi-tech helps Iranian monitoring The new cyber battlefield in Iran

Euro MPs have "strongly" criticised telecoms firm Nokia Siemens Networks for providing "surveillance technology" to the Iranian authorities.

In a resolution adopted on Wednesday, the MEPs said the hardware was instrumental in the "persecution and arrests of Iranian dissidents".

But Nokia Siemens said that the implication that it had provided censorship technology was "wrong"

It has previously said that it had installed "lawful" technology in 2008.

"We will be clarifying any inaccuracy in their understanding of our business in Iran with the European Parliament," Ben Roome of the firm told BBC News.

Nokia Siemens said the technology that it had installed was similar to that used "in all EU member states and the US".

Mr Roome stressed that the technology not used to monitor, filter or censor the internet.

"When you set up a modern network - as an operator - if you want a licence to operate you have to have a standard surveillance capability in the network," Christina Dinne, also of the firm, said.

Net benefit

Nokia Siemens told BBC News that it had provided "very basic surveillance" capabilities to Iran Telecom in 2008. The product is called Monitoring Centre and can be used to monitor local telephone calls.

"You can't track keywords," said Mrs Dinne.

Google says its Gmail traffic has dropped sharply in Iran

Details of Nokia Siemens activities in Iran first came to light in June 2009 when media reports accused the firm of helping the Iranian government intercept communications.

Technology - such as mobile phones - were widely used in protests following Iran's disputed election.

"We are, of course, aware of reports from Iran, and condemn any abuse of communication technologies that may have taken place," said Mr Roome.

"We strongly believe that mobile networks enhance individuals' lives, promote transparency, and empower citizens with effective means of feedback.

"In Iran they have clearly played a pivotal role in their ability to communicate, organise, and share their story with the outside world.

However, the MEPS called on the EU to ban similar exports to "governments and countries such as Iran".

The statements were part of a wider resolution that included a call for Iran to "restore the transparency of its nuclear programme".

Iran has said that it has begun a new phase of uranium enrichment at its Natanz plant.

The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the country has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to 20% at a rally marking Iran's revolution.

The anniversary is the most important day in Iran's political calendar.

The opposition Green Movement is also trying to stage counter-demonstrations.

In the past these have been coordinated via social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook as well as through e-mail and mobile phones.

Reports suggest that the internet has been throttled with services such as Google's Gmail service markedly reduced.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

First, they teleported photons, then atoms and ions. Now one physicist has worked out how to do it with energy, a technique that has profound implications for the future of physics.

In 1993, Charlie Bennett at IBM's Watson Research Center in New York State and a few pals showed how to transmit quantum information from one point in space to another without traversing the intervening space.

The technique relies on the strange quantum phenomenon called entanglement, in which two particles share the same existence. This deep connection means that a measurement on one particle immediately influences the other, even though they are light-years apart. Bennett and company worked out how to exploit this to send information. (The influence between the particles may be immediate, but the process does not violate relativity because some informatiom has to be sent classically at the speed of light.) They called the technique teleportation.

That's not really an overstatement of its potential. Since quantum particles are indistinguishable but for the information they carry, there is no need to transmit them themselves. A much simpler idea is to send the information they contain instead and ensure that there is a ready supply of particles at the other end to take on their identity. Since then, physicists have used these ideas to actually teleport photons, atoms, and ions. And it's not too hard to imagine that molecules and perhaps even viruses could be teleported in the not-too-distant future.

But Masahiro Hotta at Tohoku University in Japan has come up with a much more exotic idea. Why not use the same quantum principles to teleport energy?

Today, building on a number of papers published in the last year, Hotta outlines his idea and its implications. The process of teleportation involves making a measurement on each one an entangled pair of particles. He points out that the measurement on the first particle injects quantum energy into the system. He then shows that by carefully choosing the measurement to do on the second particle, it is possible to extract the original energy.

All this is possible because there are always quantum fluctuations in the energy of any particle. The teleportation process allows you to inject quantum energy at one point in the universe and then exploit quantum energy fluctuations to extract it from another point. Of course, the energy of the system as whole is unchanged.

He gives the example of a string of entangled ions oscillating back and forth in an electric field trap, a bit like Newton's balls. Measuring the state of the first ion injects energy into the system in the form of a phonon, a quantum of oscillation. Hotta says that performing the right kind of measurement on the last ion extracts this energy. Since this can be done at the speed of light (in principle), the phonon doesn't travel across the intermediate ions so there is no heating of these ions. The energy has been transmitted without traveling across the intervening space. That's teleportation.

Just how we might exploit the ability to teleport energy isn't clear yet. Post your suggestions in the comments section if you have any.

But the really exciting stuff is the implications this has for the foundations of physics. Hotta says that his approach gives physicists a way of exploring the relationship between quantum information and quantum energy for the first time.

There is a growing sense that the properties of the universe are best described not by the laws that govern matter but by the laws that govern information. This appears to be true for the quantum world, is certainly true for special relativity, and is currently being explored for general relativity. Having a way to handle energy on the same footing may help to draw these diverse strands together.

Interesting stuff. There's no telling where this kind of thinking might lead.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1002.0200: Energy-Entanglement Relation for Quantum Energy Teleportation

Matthieu Ricard: Meditate yourself better

• 03 February 2010 by Curtis Abraham

How did you become involved in the science of meditation?

The Dalai Lama often describes Buddhism as being, above all, a science of the mind. That is not surprising, because the Buddhist texts put particular emphasis on the fact that all spiritual practices - whether mental, physical or oral - are directly or indirectly intended to transform the mind.

So it wasn't surprising that when a meeting was held in 2000 with some of the leading specialists in human emotions - psychologists, neuroscientists and philosophers - they spent an entire week in discussion with the Dalai Lama at his home in Dharamsala, India. Later we agreed to launch a research programme on the short and long-term effects of mind training - "meditation" in other words.

What have we discovered about meditation and the human brain?

Experiments have indicated that the region of the brain associated with emotions such as compassion shows considerably higher activity in those with long-term meditative experience. These discoveries suggest that basic human qualities can be deliberately cultivated through mental training. The study of the influence of mental states on health, which was once considered fanciful, is now an increasing part of the scientific research agenda.

Do you have to be highly skilled to experience the benefits of meditation?

No, one does not have to be a highly trained: 20 minutes of daily practice can contribute significantly to a reduction of anxiety and stress, the tendency to become angry and the risk of relapse in cases of severe depression. Thirty minutes a day over the course of eight weeks results in a considerable strengthening of the immune system and of one's capacity for concentration. It also speeds up the healing of psoriasis and decreases arterial tension in people suffering from hypertension.

Tell us about your new book, The Art of Meditation.

The book tackles the question: why should we bother to meditate? The answer is that we all have the potential for positive change, which largely remains untapped. That's a great pity, because we know the virtue of training and learning. We spend years going to school and training in things like sports, but for some strange reason we don't think that the same need applies to developing and optimising our human qualities.

Tell us about the Mind and Life meeting that will discuss compassion in economic systems.

At the conference - in Zurich in April - will be some bold economists who can demonstrate that altruists are able to influence global markets. In the past, such studies were often refuted by sceptical financial analysts. However, someone like Ernst Fehr, the famous Swiss economist, will show that if altruists make the rules and it is in the interests of selfish people to cooperate, then society can function in a more cooperative way.

Profile

Matthieu Ricard is a French Buddhist monk with a PhD in molecular biology. He has participated in numerous experiments into the effects of meditation on the human brain

A Turko-German consortium has announced a liquid glass product "that will revolutionize everything" (it's a "new kind of glass," as Mr Wolfram might put it). Seriously, it sounds like the applications for this stuff are endless, and yes, that's what everyone said about aerogel and the Segway, but maybe this time... They're shipping to the UK soon, but "many supermarkets, may be unwilling to stock the products because they make enormous profits from cleaning products that need to be replaced regularly, and liquid glass would make virtually all of them obsolete."

Goddammit, Big Detergent is screwing up my future again!

Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products.

The liquid glass spray (technically termed "SiO2 ultra-thin layering") consists of almost pure silicon dioxide (silica, the normal compound in glass) extracted from quartz sand. Water or ethanol is added, depending on the type of surface to be coated. There are no additives, and the nano-scale glass coating bonds to the surface because of the quantum forces involved. According to the manufacturers, liquid glass has a long-lasting antibacterial effect because microbes landing on the surface cannot divide or replicate easily.

Other organizations, such as a train company and a hotel chain in the UK, and a hamburger chain in Germany, are also testing liquid glass for a wide range of uses. A year-long trial of the spray in a Lancashire hospital also produced "very promising" results for a range of applications including coatings for equipment, medical implants, catheters, sutures and bandages. The war graves association in the UK is investigating using the spray to treat stone monuments and grave stones, since trials have shown the coating protects against weathering and graffiti. Trials in Turkey are testing the product on monuments such as the Ataturk Mausoleum in Ankara.

The liquid glass coating is breathable, which means it can be used on plants and seeds. Trials in vineyards have found spraying vines increases their resistance to fungal diseases, while other tests have shown sprayed seeds germinate and grow faster than untreated seeds, and coated wood is not attacked by termites. Other vineyard applications include coating corks with liquid glass to prevent "corking" and contamination of wine. The spray cannot be seen by the naked eye, which means it could also be used to treat clothing and other materials to make them stain-resistant. McClelland said you can "pour a bottle of wine over an expensive silk shirt and it will come right off".

Spray-on liquid glass is about to revolutionize almost everything (Thanks, Rick!)

• 17:43 01 February 2010 by Andy Coghlan

No ill effects were reported by hundreds of volunteers who took part in a mass-overdose stunt around the world to demonstrate that homeopathic remedies are nothing more than sugar pills.

"There were no casualties at all, as far as I know," says Martin Robbins, spokesman for the "10:23" campaign, created to highlight the alleged ineffectiveness of homeopathic remedies.

"No one was cured of anything either," says Robbins. Like an estimated 300 volunteers in several cities in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US, he swallowed a bottleful of around 80 homeopathic "pillules" at exactly 10.23 am on Saturday. Each pillule is a tiny sugar pill dabbed with a drop of a homeopathic remedy, produced through "infinite" dilution – the process whereby a solution is diluted to the point where no molecules of an active component are likely to remain.

They want to believe

Robbins says that the aim of the stunt was to draw attention to homeopathic medicine's lack of scientific foundation and to embarrass the British high-street pharmacist Boots into withdrawing its treatments from sale.

Responding to the stunt, Boots said: "We know that many people believe in the benefits of complementary medicines and we aim to offer the products we know our customers want."

Robbins said that the campaign, conceived and orchestrated by the Merseyside Skeptics Society, would be a success if it prompted the public to ask more questions about what homeopathy actually is.

Worldwide Day of Prayer to Heal Trig Palin: pray4trig.com

"Science has no way to undo this condition, which is the result of an extra chromosome; but God can. When Trig Palin is found to be miraculously healed, everyone but the most hardened atheist will have to acknowledge God's Majesty!" Pray 4 Trig, the "Worldwide Day of Prayer to Heal Trig Palin." (via Steven Leckart)

• 15 January 2010 by Paul Parsons

NO ONE ever tells you how dangerous this stuff can be: they just go on pumping it out, hour after hour, day after day. You're consuming it right now, without a clue about the possible consequences. The worst thing is, evolution has predisposed your brain to crave it as much as your body craves fat and sugar. And these days - as with fat and sugar - you can get it everywhere.

That's because we live in the information age - and the stuff that risks doing the damage is information itself. As certain scientists and philosophers see it, the discovery and dissemination of knowledge is far from being an unqualified boon. We might be in danger of knowing too much. "Information can potentially be extremely dangerous," says philosopher Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. "The effects arising from knowledge can be momentous."

Humans are uniquely at risk because we have always craved information. Anthropologist Robin Dunbar and his colleagues at the University of Oxford suggest that this trait has almost certainly been bred into us during our evolutionary history. Evidence for this idea comes from the observation that in birds and primates, brain size is correlated with the ability to reason, to develop new feeding strategies and to survive extinction. "Clearly, the capacity to discover novel facts about the environment has a very ancient basis," Dunbar says.

For humans, new information has in the past brought a clear evolutionary advantage. The invention of spiked clubs, triremes, longbows, gunpowder and all the other military technologies can be traced to the discovery of new information. Each one enabled its inventors to steal a march on the competition. The information embodied in the laws of thermodynamics led to the development of efficient steam engines and, in short order, all the prosperity and exploitation of the British empire.

The question now rearing its head is whether we now know too much. Does the recent explosion in available information, primarily thanks to the internet (see graphs), bring dangers we have not anticipated? Bostrom fears that it might. "Research and education have become like motherhood and apple pie: harmless, wholesome and completely unobjectionable," he says. "It behoves us to develop a more reflective and qualified view about the value of knowledge."

Statements like this come as a bit of a shock. After all, most of us take it as a given that the more we know - the more information we have at our disposal about the world around us - the better off we will be. As the philosopher Francis Bacon pointed out back in the 17th century, knowledge is power. The thing is, power can be put to bad uses as well as good. "Right now, for example, we're thinking about how to prevent the growing knowledge and power arising from biotechnology from being put to evil ends," Bostrom says.

Bostrom has coined a term for the danger that arises from knowledge: he calls it "information hazard". A case in point relates to the influenza virus that spread around the world in 1918, killing more than 50 million people. Now its genome has been made publicly available in the online GenBank database, and anyone with the right tools and skills can reconstruct it.

In an article in The New York Times in 2005, futurologist Ray Kurzweil and computer scientist Bill Joy, the former chief technology officer of Sun Microsystems, condemned the publication of the genome as "extremely foolish". Recreating the virus from this information would be easier than building an atomic bomb, they claimed. And once that was done, releasing it could cause far greater devastation.

Not everyone takes this pessimistic view. Geoffrey Smith, a virologist at Imperial College London, opposes censorship of the kind Kurzweil and Joy appear to be advocating. Risks from biotechnology have been exaggerated, he says, pointing out that the security threat posed by biotechnology research is reviewed at numerous stages, from funding onwards. Data should always be published, Smith reckons. "That removes the feeling that there's something secret going on."

The human craving for information makes censorship a particularly problematic response to any perceived information hazard, and openness is often the preferred option. As swine flu started to spread last year, for example, governments and bodies such as the World Health Organization were quick to make the public aware of the risks. Bitter experience has taught us the dangers of allowing the suspicion to take hold that the authorities are withholding information. People's appetite for facts goes into overdrive and it gets easier for false notions to gain credence. "This happened in the UK with the MMR vaccine," says Ian Pearson, a futurologist at the Futurizon consultancy in Switzerland. "The government created a situation where one lone scientist was able to cause mass panic, which has resulted in many kids catching measles - and, of course, a few have died."

Out of control

The fear that information is being kept secret causes havoc in other areas too. A run on a bank can be caused if people feel they can no longer trust those who control the information about the bank's ability to meet its debts, and here, too, gauging the appropriate response is tricky. If governments guarantee deposits - something that the UK government did in 2008 after a rush of savers withdrawing their money threatened to bring down the Northern Rock bank - that can create a further information hazard. "Sometimes banks refuse government assistance as it could be interpreted as a sign of weakness, leading to a further loss of public confidence," Bostrom says.

An information hazard is also confronting the health insurance industry. The advent of companies that offer genome scans has allowed individuals to assess their likelihood of succumbing to various ailments over the course of their lifetime. This threatens to upset the risk-sharing that is the cornerstone of insurance. "The insurance market only functions where neither the individuals nor the company can tell for certain who will actually need the insurance," Bostrom says.

Pearson sees problems like this as unavoidable. Secrecy, censorship and curtailing of scientific research are dangerous options, fuelling distrust of the censors, and depriving society of potentially beneficial discoveries: such "cures" are likely to turn out to be worse than the disease, he reckons. And if external censorship is bad, expecting self-censorship from people who are naturally inclined to satisfy their every craving is just unrealistic. "I don't think there is much scope for people self-regulating their information consumption effectively," Pearson says. "There is no evidence that they can limit their consumption in other areas."

I don't think there is much scope for people self-regulating their information consumption

That leaves us with a problem - and the search for a solution is under way. "Information hazards will become an increasingly critical area of inquiry," says George Dvorsky, a director of the US-based Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

A little knowledge is a said to be a dangerous thing, but a little knowledge about the power and importance of knowledge itself might be more dangerous still. "This is an area we neglect at our peril," Pearson says.

Bibliography

1. "Information Hazards: A typology of potential harms from knowledge", by Nick Bostrom (bit.ly/hHfhs); for a YouTube video of astronomer Martin Rees speaking at the 2008 TED conference in Monterey, California, see bit.ly/I7peH

Paul Parsons is a writer based in the UK, and the author of The Science of Doctor Who (Icon Books)