Практикум

A

THE FIRST ENTANGLEMENT OF THREE PHOTONS has been experimentally demonstrated by researchers at the University of Innsbruck. Individually, an entangled particle has properties (such as momentum) that are indeterminate and undefined until the particle is measured or otherwise disturbed. Measuring one entangled particle, however, defines its properties and seems to influence the properties of its partner or partners instantaneously, even if they are light years apart. In the present experiment, sending individual photons through a special crystal sometimes converted a photon into two pairs of entangled photons. After detecting a "trigger" photon, and interfering two of the three others in a beamsplitter, it became impossible to determine which photon came from which entangled pair. As a result, the respective properties of the three remaining photons were indeterminate, which is one way of saying that they were entangled (the first such observation for three physically separated particles). The researchers deduced that this entangled state is the long-coveted GHZ state proposed by physicists Daniel Greenberger, Michael Horne, and Anton Zeilinger in the late 1980s. In addition to facilitating more advanced forms of quantum cryptography, the GHZ state will help provide a nonstatistical test of the foundations of quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein, troubled by some implications of quantum science, believed that any rational description of nature is incomplete unless it is both a local and realistic theory: "realism" refers to the idea that a particle has properties that exist even before they are measured, and "locality" means that measuring one particle cannot affect the properties of another, physically separated particle faster than the speed of light. But quantum mechanics states that realism; locality - or both - must be violated. Previous experiments have provided highly convincing evidence against local realism, but these "Bell's inequalities" tests require the measurement of many pairs of entangled photons to build up a body of statistical evidence against the idea. In contrast, studying a single set of properties in the GHZ particles (not yet reported) could verify the predictions of quantum mechanics while contradicting those of local realism.

A NEW ONLINE EXHIBIT DEVOTED TO WERNER HEISENBERG traces the birth of quantum mechanics, the wartime effort to build a German atom bomb, and other episodes from a remarkable life. Prepared by leading Heisenberg biographer David Cassidy, the exhibit is available now on the website (www.aip.org/history/heisenberg) of the Center for History of Physics, the premier clearinghouse of physics-related archived papers, photos, and taped interviews (3000 hours' worth). Located at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland, the Center houses the Niels Bohr Library, strong in books from the mid-19th century to the present, and the Emilio Segre Visual Archives (containing 25,000 items).

The Center itself possesses several valuable collections of papers and provides support to other institutions in their efforts to archive the papers of important physicists. The Center has a prominent place on the Internet (www.aip.org/history), where it maintains the International Catalogue of Sources for History of Physics and Allied Sciences. In addition to the Heisenberg site, the Center website is also home to two other widely popular exhibits, one devoted to Albert Einstein and one to JJ Thomson's discovery of the electron. Soon an exhibit devoted to Andrei Sakharov will also be available.

LIGHT HAS BEEN SLOWED TO A SPEED OF 17 m/sec by passing it through a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of sodium atoms at nK temperatures. In general light is slowed in certain materials, a property exploited in making optical lenses. As the index of refraction of these materials gets higher, however, absorption increasingly takes its toll on the light beam. In an experiment at Harvard, physicists have used a BEC (and its enormous index of refraction) as the optical medium, but with the following important modification. They contrived a system of laser beams whose pattern of interference created an effect called electromagnetically induced transparency, allowing light to propagate unabsorbed but at greatly reduced speeds, in this case a factor of twenty million compared to the speed of light in vacuum; greater light-speed slow downs are expected, to as low as cm/sec. The researchers also observed unprecedentedly large intensity-dependent light transmission. Such an extreme nonlinear effect can perhaps be used in a number of opto-electronic components (switches, memory, delay lines) and in converting light from one wavelength to another.

TUNABLE X-RAY WAVEGUIDE WITH AN AIR GAP. At synchrotron light sources, electron beams make floods of x-rays, which must be tamed before they can be used in experiments where typically they probe the structure of some tiny biological sample. One of the ways to focus the beam onto the sample is to compress it and guide the x-rays through a thin strip of material sandwiched between reflecting surfaces. Usually the guiding material, often carbon, absorbs a substantial portion of the x-rays. Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have now produced a waveguide out of two parallel reflecting plates with only air in between. This not only greatly reduces x ray losses but also, when the gap is filled with liquid, permits the x-ray study of lubricants and colloids. In optics geometry is destiny; the coherent wave pattern in the Amsterdam device can be tuned by prising apart the two flat plates which form the body of the waveguide. For the whole process to work the plates (only about 250 nm apart) must be extremely parallel, the equivalent of suspending one soccer field over another at a height of about 5-mm.

A TWO-DIMENSIONAL BOSE - EINSTEIN CONDENSATE (BEC) has been observed by a University of Turku (Finland) - Kurchatov Institute (Russia) collaboration. The condensate occurred in hydrogen atoms sitting on top of a layer of liquid helium-4 at a temperature of 120-200 mK (Safonov et al., Physical Review Letters, 23 November 1998). Strong magnetic fields force the nuclei and electron spins of the hydrogen atoms to align. Magnetic fields also help to herd the atoms together into a small portion of the helium surface, achieving the density needed to begin the process of atom overlap at the heart of the BEC process. Explanations for this type of 2D-quantum fluid are lacking. (Physics World, Feb 1999.) 

B

Clinton Seeks Ban on Child Labor

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS June 16, 1999

GENEVA (AP) - On the opening of a week-long European trip, President Clinton is seeking a worldwide agreement to ban the most egregious cases of child labor, such as preteens working in bondage, handling toxic substances or being indentured to companies that make hand-knotted carpets.

Clinton begins his trip with a speech in Switzerland today urging the International Labor Organization to work toward abolishing such child labor practices as forced labor and slavery. The organization, an arm of the United Nations, estimates that at least 250 million children, ages 5 to 14, work in developing countries - nearly half of them full time and tens of millions under exploitative and harmful conditions.

On Thursday, Clinton is to meet with leaders in France and then depart for Germany to attend the 25th annual economic summit of the world's seven richest nations, joined by Russia, where discussion over three days will range from peacekeeping in Kosovo to overhauling the global financial system.

On Monday, Clinton is to attend a U.S.-European Union summit and then travel to Slovenia, a country slightly smaller than New Jersey that declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and wants to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the EU, which is striving to foster political cooperation and economic integration among European nations.

As the first U.S. president to address the labor organization convention, Clinton is expected to expand on remarks he made at a University of Chicago commencement on Saturday. That same day he signed an executive order directing U.S. government agencies to make sure they do not buy products made by forced or indentured child workers.

"People will say 'Well, we're a poor country. We have to earn money however we can," Clinton told the graduates. "If you could see the conditions these 8- and 9-year-old children are working in. If you want them to go to school. If you understand those countries will never grow until they begin to educate their children, we have to start with the abolition of child labor."

In 1997, the U.S. government bought $57 million in products made by industries known to rely on child labor, according to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the leading Senate proponent of child-labor reform and who is accompanying Clinton on the trip. The Clinton administration has identified several problem industries, including carpets and bricks from India and Pakistan; fishing platforms from Indonesia; and fireworks from Guatemala.

The economic summit that begins Friday in Cologne, Germany, will be a meeting of the Group of Eight, comprising leaders of Russia, the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada. The leaders are to discuss who will pay to rebuild Kosovo and help neighboring Balkan countries following NATO's 78-day bombing campaign of Yugoslavia.

"We welcome the European Union's intention to assume the lion's share of the financial burden and, given the U.S. role in the military campaign, this is an appropriate division of labor," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Monday.

Other topics to be broached include human rights, the environment, trade, terrorism, drug trafficking and crime. The leaders are to consider proposals urging developing nations to be more forthcoming in revealing their finances and complete work on a plan to provide more debt relief to poor nations.

Clinton was accompanied on the trip by his wife, Hillary, and daughter, Chelsea.  

C

Americans vs. Japanese

The Americans and the Japanese decided to engage in a competitive boat race. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance.

On the big day they felt ready. The Japanese won by a mile. Afterward, the American team was discouraged by the loss. Morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, so a consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem and recommended corrective action. The consultant's finding: The Japanese team had eight people rowing and one person steering; the American team had one person rowing and eight people steering.

After a year of study and millions spent analyzing the problem, the consultant firm concluded that too many people were steering and not enough were rowing on the American team.

So as race day neared again the following year, the American team's management structure was completely reorganized. The new structure: four steering managers, three area steering managers and a new performance review system for the person rowing the boat to provide work incentive.

The next year, the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the American corporation laid off the rower for poor performance and gave the managers a bonus for discovering the problem....

Success always occurs in private, and failure in full view.Quality of Life

The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, only a little while.

The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The American then asked, "but what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15-20 years."

"But what then?"

The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions.. Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

The life which is unexamined is not worth living. - Plato (428-348? BC)

 

 Travel Agency Terminology

TOUR GUIDE TERM	TRANSLATION
Old world charm	Room and a path
Tropical	Rainy
Majestic setting	A long way from town, at end of dirt road
Options galore	Nothing is included in the itinerary
Secluded hideaway	Directions to locate unclear
Some budget rooms	Sorry, already occupied
Explore on your own	At your own expense
Knowledgeable trip hosts	They've flown in an airplane before
No extra fees	No extras
Nominal fee	Outrageous charge
Standard	Sub-standard
Deluxe	Barely Standard
Superior accommodations	One complimentary chocolate, free shower cap
All the amenities	Two chocolates, two shower caps
Plush	Both top and bottom sheets, bed shakes
Gentle breezes	In hurricane alley
Light and airy	No air conditioning
Picturesque	Theme park nearby
24-hour bar	Ice cubes at additional cost (when available)

II-2	Безличные и неопределенно - личные предложения

В соответствии со строем английского предложения в нем обязательно наличие при сказуемом подлежащего, хотя бы формального.

Поэтому русские безличные предложения (типа: Холодно. Поздно.) и неопределенно-личные предложения (типа: Говорят, что он здесь.) передаются в английском языке с помощью формальных подлежащих it, one, they, которые выполняют чисто грамматическую функцию и не переводятся на русский язык.

II-2.1

Формальное подлежащее it

It is evening.	Вечер.
It is late.	Поздно.
It is said that he has come.	Говорят, что он приехал.

В некоторых случаях, из стилистических соображений, истинное подлежащее ставится после сказуемого, на место дополнения, а его место занимает формальное подлежащее it:

It was impossible to dissolve the substance in water	Было невозможно растворить вещество в воде.
It is clear that he will not come.	Ясно, что он не придет.

Примечание: В тех случаях, когда местоимение it не является формальным подлежащим, а заменяет собой существительное предыдущего предложения, оно переводится в зависимости от рода заменяемого существительного, т.e. он, она, они уже не соответствует русскому безличному обороту:

Hydrogen is the lightest gas; it is used for filling balloons.

Водород является самым легким газом; он используется для наполнения воздушных шаров.

II-2.2

Эмфатический оборот с формальным подлежащим it

Для сильного эмфатического выделения любого члена предложения, кроме сказуемого, употребляется оборот it is (was) ... that (who, whom), причем выделяемый член предложения помещается в середине этого оборота и становится предикативом главного предложения, например, предложение:

Popov invented the radio in 1895

можно передать следующими эмфатическими вариантами, которые при переводе передаются личными предложениями со словом именно:

It was Popov who invented the radio in 1895.	Именно Попов изобрел радио в 1895 г.
It was the radio that Popov invented in 1895.	Именно радио изобрел Попов в 1895 г.
It was in 1895 that Popov invented the radio.	Именно в 1895 г. Попов изобрел радио.

 Таким же образом можно выделить и придаточное предложение; в переводе оно выделяется словом только, например, предложение:

We could complete rehabilitation of our ruined cities after we had defeated fascist Germany.

Мы смогли завершить восстановление наших разрушенных городов после того, как мы разгромили фашистскую Германию.

можно перестроить так:

It was after we had defeated fascist Germany that we could complete rehabilitation of our ruined cities.

Только после того, как мы разгромили фашистскую Германию, мы смогли завершить восстановление наших разрушенных городов.

II-2.3

Неопределенные подлежащие one, they

Когда высказывание касается людей вообще или группы людей, объединенных общим признаком, то в качестве подлежащего употребляются местоимения one или they.

При этом one указывает на то, что говорящее лицо включается в сферу действия высказывания, тогда как they имеет в виду людей вообще (исключая говорящего).

Перевод таких предложений производится с помощью неопределенно-личного или безличного оборота.

Примечание:

one must (one should) переводится нужно

one can переводится можно:

One must be careful when handling mustard gas.	Нужно быть осторожным при обращении с горчичным газом.
One can easily decompose mercuric oxide at high temperature.	Можно легко разложить окись ртути при высокой температуре.
They say the weather will be better to-morrow.	Говорят, что погода будет завтра лучше.