Pub Date : 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0012
Peter Townsend
Even with children’s building blocks one can make an intuitive first guess at the structure of localized imperfections. However, experimentally designing, identifying, characterizing and controlling them is far more difficult. One reason is that many defect sites have extremely long-range consequences and, in these cases, intuition is hard. Nevertheless, the need to do this and predicting the potential benefits are significant. Long-range effects uses are not just for semiconductors, but apply equally to radiation dosimetry, archaeological dating, information storage, plus chemical and biological reactivity. One can gain intuition by considering human interactions and how our lives are defined, not just by immediate contacts, but by political, social, legislative and factors that control the flow of goods and information across the globe.
{"title":"Small anomalies and long-range consequences","authors":"Peter Townsend","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Even with children’s building blocks one can make an intuitive first guess at the structure of localized imperfections. However, experimentally designing, identifying, characterizing and controlling them is far more difficult. One reason is that many defect sites have extremely long-range consequences and, in these cases, intuition is hard. Nevertheless, the need to do this and predicting the potential benefits are significant. Long-range effects uses are not just for semiconductors, but apply equally to radiation dosimetry, archaeological dating, information storage, plus chemical and biological reactivity. One can gain intuition by considering human interactions and how our lives are defined, not just by immediate contacts, but by political, social, legislative and factors that control the flow of goods and information across the globe.","PeriodicalId":180044,"journal":{"name":"The Power of Imperfections","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126529378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0004
Peter Townsend
Wood is rarely considered as a high technology material but, in reality, it is more important than modern examples of, say, semiconductors or optical fibres. A historical list of uses is discussed, with examples from ancient usage for archery to modern furniture, decorative inlays, new variants of heat reflective and building coolant structures, as well as being the basis of many building materials. Dendrochronology of wood grain is extremely valuable in archaeology and dating of musical instruments, such as violins. Trees are similarly a key resource for medical and food stuffs, as well as being a key factor in controlling atmospheric carbon dioxide. A refocus and preservation on forests and tree species is, therefore, an essential factor in combating climate change and decisions of land usage.
{"title":"A short log of technology from wood","authors":"Peter Townsend","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Wood is rarely considered as a high technology material but, in reality, it is more important than modern examples of, say, semiconductors or optical fibres. A historical list of uses is discussed, with examples from ancient usage for archery to modern furniture, decorative inlays, new variants of heat reflective and building coolant structures, as well as being the basis of many building materials. Dendrochronology of wood grain is extremely valuable in archaeology and dating of musical instruments, such as violins. Trees are similarly a key resource for medical and food stuffs, as well as being a key factor in controlling atmospheric carbon dioxide. A refocus and preservation on forests and tree species is, therefore, an essential factor in combating climate change and decisions of land usage.","PeriodicalId":180044,"journal":{"name":"The Power of Imperfections","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124919581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0013
P. Townsend
Photonics is a broad topic describing light based systems that are part of a wide range of technologies which have recently emerged in commercial systems. The central effort has been associated with signal processing for fibre optics, as this necessitates developments of lasers, pulse coding, multi-wavelength transmission and repeater units that function simultaneously and independently for as many as 100 carrier wavelengths, before wavelength-dependent separation, detection and routing. This is a phenomenal achievement that enables all modern communication. The chapter explains the simplicity of the concepts and design of examples of the technology. There are also far more complex proposals, such as early stage examples of invisibility cloaking, and recent progress with advances in photonics in medicine for both diagnostics and treatment.
{"title":"Photonics in the twenty-first century","authors":"P. Townsend","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"Photonics is a broad topic describing light based systems that are part of a wide range of technologies which have recently emerged in commercial systems. The central effort has been associated with signal processing for fibre optics, as this necessitates developments of lasers, pulse coding, multi-wavelength transmission and repeater units that function simultaneously and independently for as many as 100 carrier wavelengths, before wavelength-dependent separation, detection and routing. This is a phenomenal achievement that enables all modern communication. The chapter explains the simplicity of the concepts and design of examples of the technology. There are also far more complex proposals, such as early stage examples of invisibility cloaking, and recent progress with advances in photonics in medicine for both diagnostics and treatment.","PeriodicalId":180044,"journal":{"name":"The Power of Imperfections","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127426966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0008
P. Townsend
Optical fibres and their associated signal processing of laser pulses are the backbone of modern communications but, without exception, every aspect of their structure, and component items, rely totally on extremely fine and accurate control of impurities, which were once discussed as unwanted dopants and imperfections. The history and techniques to make the fibres are discussed from their initial usage in medical internal probes for visual inspection, their progress from a limited useful range of a metre (because of optical absorption) to networks measured in hundreds of kilometre length transporting, and sorting, millions of signals simultaneously. The challenges are to add dopants to vary their refractive index, remove those that absorb light, and add others to create fibre lasers and amplifiers, and to do all such steps simultaneously is an incredible achievement. Without optical fibres the world as we now know it could not exist.
{"title":"Optical fibre communication","authors":"P. Townsend","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"Optical fibres and their associated signal processing of laser pulses are the backbone of modern communications but, without exception, every aspect of their structure, and component items, rely totally on extremely fine and accurate control of impurities, which were once discussed as unwanted dopants and imperfections. The history and techniques to make the fibres are discussed from their initial usage in medical internal probes for visual inspection, their progress from a limited useful range of a metre (because of optical absorption) to networks measured in hundreds of kilometre length transporting, and sorting, millions of signals simultaneously. The challenges are to add dopants to vary their refractive index, remove those that absorb light, and add others to create fibre lasers and amplifiers, and to do all such steps simultaneously is an incredible achievement. Without optical fibres the world as we now know it could not exist.","PeriodicalId":180044,"journal":{"name":"The Power of Imperfections","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122040054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0002
Peter Townsend
Historically, it was only the presence of imperfections in flint that enabled them to be shaped into our first Stone Age tools, as fracture of perfect flints would have been impossible. The use of fire for cooking equally revealed the presence of metals and silicates in ores and experience slowly introduced the complex fields of metallurgy and simple glasses. Historically, all later advances followed this initial pattern by revealing that we needed traces of imperfections and impurities. In essence, there are very close parallels with cookery and the needs for traces of salt and spices. The influence of tiny minorities is no different in society where individuals, and their political dominance, can control and influence millions of other people (as for impurities in modern technologies).
{"title":"The case for technological imperfections","authors":"Peter Townsend","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Historically, it was only the presence of imperfections in flint that enabled them to be shaped into our first Stone Age tools, as fracture of perfect flints would have been impossible. The use of fire for cooking equally revealed the presence of metals and silicates in ores and experience slowly introduced the complex fields of metallurgy and simple glasses. Historically, all later advances followed this initial pattern by revealing that we needed traces of imperfections and impurities. In essence, there are very close parallels with cookery and the needs for traces of salt and spices. The influence of tiny minorities is no different in society where individuals, and their political dominance, can control and influence millions of other people (as for impurities in modern technologies).","PeriodicalId":180044,"journal":{"name":"The Power of Imperfections","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125128293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0019
P. Townsend
This is truly an idealistic chapter as it is simple to recognize past mistakes in human activity, with all the weaknesses of behaviour for personal advancement and wanting power or wealth, that have led to wars and persecutions. Identifying typical human imperfections is simple, but trying to overcome them is perhaps an impossible challenge, not least as the faults of greed or power have often been the inspiration, or funding, for many of the advances which we now see as being very positive science. Our difficulty is to exploit the human weaknesses as motivation, but limit their extent so as to have progress without the negative aspects. Human imperfections can potentially destroy both countries and cultures, hence thoughts on how to attack such problems are considered.
{"title":"Improving our future lives","authors":"P. Townsend","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0019","url":null,"abstract":"This is truly an idealistic chapter as it is simple to recognize past mistakes in human activity, with all the weaknesses of behaviour for personal advancement and wanting power or wealth, that have led to wars and persecutions. Identifying typical human imperfections is simple, but trying to overcome them is perhaps an impossible challenge, not least as the faults of greed or power have often been the inspiration, or funding, for many of the advances which we now see as being very positive science. Our difficulty is to exploit the human weaknesses as motivation, but limit their extent so as to have progress without the negative aspects. Human imperfections can potentially destroy both countries and cultures, hence thoughts on how to attack such problems are considered.","PeriodicalId":180044,"journal":{"name":"The Power of Imperfections","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133823518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0017
Peter Townsend
A bonus of writing a book at the end of a career is that hindsight offers thoughts on how it could have progressed more efficiently, or better exploited results and opportunities. The chapter considers many key factors that lead to success in science, with topics ranging from fields of interest, to training, promotion of image, attendance at conferences etc. Many ideas apply beyond science but are rarely widely discussed, nevertheless they’re valuable even with changing patterns of work and communications. A further factor is that it is possible to realise that knowledge should not be confined to a narrow topic area, one should recognize and welcome discoveries and thoughts even if generated by serendipity, and understand how to optimize a scientific image. Finally, scientific opinion is not always correct, even if ideas have been promoted for a very long time.
{"title":"Hints for a successful scientific career","authors":"Peter Townsend","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0017","url":null,"abstract":"A bonus of writing a book at the end of a career is that hindsight offers thoughts on how it could have progressed more efficiently, or better exploited results and opportunities. The chapter considers many key factors that lead to success in science, with topics ranging from fields of interest, to training, promotion of image, attendance at conferences etc. Many ideas apply beyond science but are rarely widely discussed, nevertheless they’re valuable even with changing patterns of work and communications. A further factor is that it is possible to realise that knowledge should not be confined to a narrow topic area, one should recognize and welcome discoveries and thoughts even if generated by serendipity, and understand how to optimize a scientific image. Finally, scientific opinion is not always correct, even if ideas have been promoted for a very long time.","PeriodicalId":180044,"journal":{"name":"The Power of Imperfections","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128453148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0015
Peter Townsend
Music is a universal pleasure, but totally individual in terms of our hearing response, cultural background, and the pleasure that different performances and genres of music generate. Our hearing is also individual and varies with age and lifestyle. There are immense differences between instruments, musical scales (around 80), concert halls, audio electronics and broadcasting, plus each of us has a unique hearing response. This provides both originality and pleasure (or the reverse). All these various differences may be viewed as imperfections, or as the source that is essential to our enjoyment of music. For example, there are tangible compromises with instrument construction, such as the use of an equal temperament scale on keyboard instruments to allow one to play with different key signatures (in fact it is a highly imperfect, and significant, detuning imposed on a piano).
{"title":"Imperfections in music","authors":"Peter Townsend","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0015","url":null,"abstract":"Music is a universal pleasure, but totally individual in terms of our hearing response, cultural background, and the pleasure that different performances and genres of music generate. Our hearing is also individual and varies with age and lifestyle. There are immense differences between instruments, musical scales (around 80), concert halls, audio electronics and broadcasting, plus each of us has a unique hearing response. This provides both originality and pleasure (or the reverse). All these various differences may be viewed as imperfections, or as the source that is essential to our enjoyment of music. For example, there are tangible compromises with instrument construction, such as the use of an equal temperament scale on keyboard instruments to allow one to play with different key signatures (in fact it is a highly imperfect, and significant, detuning imposed on a piano).","PeriodicalId":180044,"journal":{"name":"The Power of Imperfections","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129181090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0006
Peter Townsend
This chapter introduces simple ideas of chemical bonding with a focus on glass type materials. It includes the impact of additives and impurities on strength and colour of many minerals and transparent materials, and how the same dopant ions that produce colour can alter their chemical binding when heated. It notes that many of the visual changes are totally determined by the presence of impurities included in the material, at levels as low as parts per million. Hence, thermal changes in heating or cooling can generate different results in the same material. The consequences are visually recognizable and exemplified by materials such as ceramics, glass and enamels. The chapter offers insights into changing methods of glass manufacture, the role of ion size, and their specific ways of chemically binding together. No prior knowledge of the topic is required.
{"title":"Key features of chemistry and solids","authors":"Peter Townsend","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192857477.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter introduces simple ideas of chemical bonding with a focus on glass type materials. It includes the impact of additives and impurities on strength and colour of many minerals and transparent materials, and how the same dopant ions that produce colour can alter their chemical binding when heated. It notes that many of the visual changes are totally determined by the presence of impurities included in the material, at levels as low as parts per million. Hence, thermal changes in heating or cooling can generate different results in the same material. The consequences are visually recognizable and exemplified by materials such as ceramics, glass and enamels. The chapter offers insights into changing methods of glass manufacture, the role of ion size, and their specific ways of chemically binding together. No prior knowledge of the topic is required.","PeriodicalId":180044,"journal":{"name":"The Power of Imperfections","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133986296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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