Author(s): Jakob J. Metzger, Ragnar Fleischmann, and Theo Geisel
Waves traveling through random media exhibit random focusing that leads to extremely high wave intensities even in the absence of nonlinearities. Although such extreme events are present in a wide variety of physical systems and the statistics of the highest waves is important for their analysis and...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 203903] Published Fri May 23, 2014
Author(s): Chihhui Wu, Alessandro Salandrino, Xingjie Ni, and Xiang Zhang
Optical cavities are used to amplify light-matter interactions that are essential to many quantum technologies, but the ideal characteristics of a high quality factor and a low mode volume are difficult to achieve simultaneously. Now, a theoretical study shows that subwavelength spherical cavities composed of multiple concentric metal-dielectric bilayers can meet this challenge.
[Phys. Rev. X 4, 021015] Published Tue Apr 22, 2014
Author(s): D. Schlippert, J. Hartwig, H. Albers, L. L. Richardson, C. Schubert, A. Roura, W. P. Schleich, W. Ertmer, and E. M. Rasel
A new experiment using matter-wave interferometry confirms that different atoms free fall in gravity at the same rate.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 203002] Published Thu May 22, 2014
Da un paio d’anni a questa parte, il gruppo Dibattito Scienza si è messo in mente di fare qualche domanda ai partiti politici in vista delle elezioni. Nato su Facebook, il gruppo conta quasi quattromila iscritti. Ci sono ricercatori, insegnanti, appassionati, qualche giornalista scientifico, accomunati dalla convinzione che in una società in cui la scienza ha un ruolo sempre più rilevante nella nostra vita quotidiana, una corretta informazione in materia sia una garanzia a tutela dei cittadini e un importante strumento a disposizione di chi deve assumere decisioni in nome di tutti. E che la ricerca scientifica sia uno snodo fondamentale per lo sviluppo di un paese.
Quest’anno, alle cinque domande proposte da Dibattito Scienza, hanno risposto soltanto tre partiti: il Partito Democratico, Fare per fermare il declino e la lista Green Italia Verdi Europei. Tre liste su dodici [grazie al solerte e preciso amico Yopenzo per la correzione], e il solo PD tra i grandi partiti.
Così, senza troppe sorprese, ci troviamo a registrare la campagna elettorale più becera dopo il big bang. Umiliante, addirittura.
Non per noi, beninteso. Ma per lo stato in cui è ridotta la politica italiana. Umiliante per sessanta milioni di cittadini che sono chiamati a eleggere candidati che molto probabilmente non hanno mai visto, travolti dal presenzialismo ingombrante di leader che, a queste elezioni, non sono nemmeno candidati.
Eppure i 73 malcapitati che spediremo a Strasburgo dovrebbero avere grandi competenze. Perché il Parlamento Europeo non è solo l’assemblea legislativa dell’Unione. È, soprattutto, l’istituzione che esercita il potere di bilancio, ovvero che ogni anno esamina e approva il progetto di bilancio presentato dalla Commissione, l’organo esecutivo. E ha il potere di modificarlo.
Ed ecco che c’entra la scienza, oltre a tutto il resto. Da qui al 2020, l’Unione Europea assegnerà quasi 80 miliardi di euro in finanziamenti alla ricerca scientifica, attraverso il programma quadro settennale Horizon 2020. Più una consistente quota dei fondi strutturali che l’Unione assegna ai singoli paesi, tra cui per esempio i PON, che l’Italia ha scelto di destinare al sostegno delle attività di ricerca e innovazione nelle quattro Regioni dell’Obiettivo “Convergenza” (Puglia, Calabria, Sicilia, Campania).
Insomma, ai candidati che manderemo al Parlamento Europeo sarebbe richiesto anche di saper fare lobbying, non solo per i marchi DOP del settore agroalimentare ma pure per dare all’Europa un’immagine dell’Italia come un paese responsabile e consapevole delle sfide che abbiamo davanti.
Invece no. Sui temi proposti nelle cinque domande, le risposte che sono arrivate sono a volte infelici e lacunose, quando non palesemente false o sintomo di dubbia preparazione. Per non dire di ciò che si intuisce dalle più o meno sguaiate campagne elettorali di chi non ha risposto. Perché tra citazioni di efferati dittatori e slogan contro l’euro o, peggio, insulti contro primi ministri stranieri che hanno la sola colpa di saper governare – colpa imperdonabile, evidentemente, agli occhi di certa parte della politica italiana – noi in questa campagna elettorale avremo sentito parlare solo (e poco, e male) di questioni nazionali più o meno serie (in genere meno) e quasi per nulla di temi comunitari concreti. Che sono sicuramente più noiosi, teutonicamente noiosi, di un bello show di battute sarcastiche, ma anche terribilmente più importanti.
Così andremo lì, per lo più, a mettere la nostra croce su un simbolo vuoto di contenuti. È il destino di noi italiani, diversamente cittadini.
Author(s): O. Lozan, M. Perrin, B. Ea-Kim, J. M. Rampnoux, S. Dilhaire, and P. Lalanne
Experiments looking at surface-bound light emanating from a thin slit find less of the light is absorbed by the surface material than expected.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 193903] Published Fri May 16, 2014
Author(s): Marco Leonetti, Salman Karbasi, Arash Mafi, and Claudio Conti
We report the experimental observation of the interaction and attraction of many localized modes in a two-dimensional system realized by a disordered optical fiber supporting transverse Anderson localization. We show that a nonlocal optically nonlinear response of thermal origin alters the localizat...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 193902] Published Wed May 14, 2014
Article
Bloch oscillations—oscillatory motions of wave packets in periodic potentials acting under constant forces—have been observed in semiconductor superlattices and photonic waveguide arrays. Here, the authors extend these ideas to plasmonics to observe Bloch oscillations and discrete diffraction.
Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/ncomms4843
Authors: A. Block, C. Etrich, T. Limboeck, F. Bleckmann, E. Soergel, C. Rockstuhl, S. Linden
Nature Physics 10, 394 (2014). doi:10.1038/nphys2927
Authors: Bo Peng, Şahin Kaya Özdemir, Fuchuan Lei, Faraz Monifi, Mariagiovanna Gianfreda, Gui Lu Long, Shanhui Fan, Franco Nori, Carl M. Bender & Lan Yang
Established in 1885 by George Frederick Smith in London, G . F Smith is a paper merchant originally sourcing only paper from other mills around the world and now also designing and manufacturing its own line. Its collection includes their own Colorplan offering as well as selections from Mohawk, Cranes, Beckett, Gmund, and Strathmore, among others. With a storied past, including the complete destruction of its plant in Hull during bombings in World War II, G . F Smith today is not just a great company for the design industry but for its employees as well, with 36 people currently working there having been at the company for 20 years or more. They recently introduced a new identity designed by London-based Made Thought.
Along with a new typeface, the identity includes two new marks: a mark of custodianship, and a mark that acknowledges G . F Smith's current role as curators of its remarkable paper Collection, the craft that lies behind their services, and the people at the heart of the company.
The brand name is that of our founder — George Frederick Smith — the man who set us off on this path. Its austere simplicity imparts a sense of honesty, integrity and trust — values we still hold today. The new mark is also an acknowledgment of our role as a custodian. Far from being focused on the past, our own view is that this sense of duty to protect what we have today makes us best placed to be ready for what tomorrow might bring. We're certainly proud of our beginnings in 1885, and of the path that George Frederick Smith set out upon, and it is why this mark bears his name; every time it appears, it signifies our determination to live up to his standards.
Alongside a proud history, we must be sure that what we are creating today is protected with equal care and a sense of history. So when we say that we are a business from '1885 Onwards' it is far from a need to be tied to the past, but an acknowledgment that as a forward looking company, G . F Smith is proud of its history because our people, our collection, our reputation and the knowledge embodied in all of this have all been formed from our experiences across the generations. Everything we do today acknowledges our great past and pioneering spirit, with a sense of progression and moving forward rather than looking back.
The previous logo had been designed by SEA based on a 1960s version that they digitized and was meant to represent paper passing through a paper-making machine. As recognizable as it had become in the last ten years since being adopted as the official logo it was an awkward piece of lettering at best and an illegible piece of lettering at worst. Were it not for the "Paper from GFSmith" line underneath, it would be impossible to figure out what the logo stood for. The new logo couldn't be any clearer and it's a lovely and playful piece of typography using the dot as both the period between the "G" and "F" and the tittle of the "i". At first the spacing between the "G" and "F" is disconcerting but once you see what it's doing, it works wonderfully. The "1885 ONWARDS" text adds a bit of extra texture in the smaller point size and I love how it's a spin on the typical "Est." or "Established" by looking to the future as opposed to just relying on the past.
These enamel badges were designed to denote and reward the length of service an individual has been with G . F Smith. For up to five years; a silver nickel badge. For 5 to 10 years, a bronze nickel badge. For 10 to 20 years, a white enamel badge. For 20 to 30 years, a black enamel badge, and to reward 30 years of service, a 24k gold badge. Each badge is packaged in a hand-made Colorplan box.
In 2014, 36 people currently working at G . F Smith have been at the company for 20 years or more.
The badges above are probably the single best thing about this identity. It's the kind of object you would find at a flea market.
Alongside the new brand mark is a symbol to represent our role as curators. Whether finding paper, making custom-sized envelopes, putting together bespoke book dummies or assembling orders from The Paper Smith, much of what G . F Smith does is still by hand. […] Our Curator Mark is as much recognition of this physical reality as it is symbolic of the personal stake each of us takes in the quality and beauty of everything we do.
The addition of the "Curator" mark works nicely as a secondary device to clarify that the company is about paper and the tactility of their product. The drawing of the hand, the angle of the paper, the fold, the splitting of the "1885"… it all works, even when it shouldn't. It's another beautiful execution in this identity and I really enjoy how it can work in lock-up with the main logo by obscuring the dot.
The early part of the 20th century saw the dawn of the machine age. Companies were born, industries were formed, and a new family of typefaces emerged to respond to this revolution in the means of production. Less austere than the sans serifs that originated in Germany, but clearly still unrelated to the predominant serif style of the day, these became known as humanist sans, where shapes and outlines were melded from the mechanised and the handcrafted. It is in the same spirit that we have created our own typeface, G . F Smith, a conscious balance of machine and calligraphy and a powerful acknowledgment of our roots.
It's not Gill Sans! 10 or 15 years ago, Gill Sans would have probably been the obvious and accepted answer for a type choice for a paper company in the UK. Luckily we got a really nice font that has just enough quirk to make it stand out on its own and provide some of that British flavor without resorting to the obvious choice.
Part sample book, part history book, 'Portrait of a Company' chronicles the history of G . F Smith through a series of very human accounts drawn from both their archive and interviews with present team members.
A photoshoot was specially commissioned to capture the characters that make up the G . F Smith team today. From this shoot 12 were selected to feature on the case bound cover, representing the face of G . F Smith. The 96pp case bound book utilises 18 papers drawn from the Collection, including Plike, Colorplan, Zen, Phoenixmotion and Strathmore. Throughout the book, tip-in's demonstrate the array of specialist processes and services available from the company.
Showcasing most of the new identity and aesthetics is a new promotional book, Portrait of a Company, that chronicles the history, present, and future of the G . F Smith. It's a very handsome publication that clearly defines the new simple and contemporary look for the company. Overall, the new identity is stunning in its confidence and simplicity.
Author(s): Brandon Redding, Li Ge, Qinghai Song, Glenn S. Solomon, and Hui Cao
By imposing a set of harmonic perturbations to a microcavity boundary, we induce conversion and mixing of orbital angular momentum of light via surface scattering. Multiple scattering paths are available due to high-order scattering, which can be greatly enhanced by quasidegenerate resonances. By ma...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 163902] Published Fri Apr 25, 2014
Thanks, Will.
Atley
Riccardo Sapienzaanother animal in the zoo? what is this?
Author(s): Y. Mazor and Ben Z. Steinberg
Confluent with the single dimension of time, breach of time-reversal symmetry is usually perceived as a one-dimensional concept. In its ultimate realization—the one-way guiding device—it allows optical propagation in one direction, say +z, and forbids it in the opposite direction −z. Hence, in studi...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 153901] Published Fri Apr 18, 2014
Author(s): N. Killoran, M. Cramer, and M. B. Plenio
Identical particles and entanglement are both fundamental components of quantum mechanics. However, when identical particles are condensed in a single spatial mode, the standard notions of entanglement, based on clearly identifiable subsystems, break down. This has led many to conclude that such sys...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 150501] Published Tue Apr 15, 2014
Author(s): Victor M. García-Chocano, Johan Christensen, and José Sánchez-Dehesa
This Letter reports the design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of hyperbolic materials showing negative refraction and energy funneling of airborne sound. Negative refraction is demonstrated using a stack of five holey Plexiglas plates where their thicknesses, layer separation, hole ...
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 144301] Published Thu Apr 10, 2014
Riccardo SapienzaAttack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c- beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
