Category: Uncategorized

 I got several texts lately from someone. I personally don’t know so much about her. However, I might not see her, because I don’t like the way of her writing. Her texts have a lot of abbreviated words. Not only I am having hard time to read and understand, but also it sounds awkward. How do you feel when you read texts or emails which have a lot of abbreviated words, such as bc = because, r = are? I do not see any intelligence and sense of beauty and sound. I am feeling so, while I am listening Bach: Invention No.13 A minor BMW 784. I am not a classics person though. I don’t think this is because I am reading a foreign language. That happens also in Japanese. It seems I got old enough to claim the beauty of language.

I keep researching the instrument which is so called ‘Triple axes spectrometer’ which was invented by Bert Brockhouse (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1994) at Chalk River in Canada. The instrument is used at reactors to study several kinds of excitations in materials, magnetic structure analysis, and so on. This instrument is used at neutron scattering experiment. It seems several points to make this instrument better.

1. Back ground.

As experimental physicists, firstly, we are expecting to observe something which might be anticipated by theory or which might not. However, we do not know ‘something’ before we observe. The signals from ‘something’ sometimes are much weaker than we expect. So, the best we can do is to reduce the noise in the process on the experiment as the least as we can. This is also applicable for the triple axes spectrometer. We have to check the experimental environment carefully, keep finding out the cause of background of the experiment. It takes for 1-2 years, because the neutron is the quantum particle, we can’t actually see it. It comes sometimes like crowds.

2. Focusing

Triple axes mean ‘monochromator, sample, and analyzer’. Using monochrometor, we monochromize the neutron beam, which make us know what kind of beam we are using for incident, and let neutrons scatter by sample, then analyze the scattered neutrons by using analyzer. By analyzing the beam, we can know what kind of beam we get as the final. Since, the condition for sample changes when we change our sample. We have to do focusing every time we do experiment. We have to get the best focusing condition for the monochrometer and analyzer at the same time. We need to get the best conditions for monochrometer and analyzer ready for the experimentalist.

3. Software

You might wonder why physicist cares about the software, but the experimental user friendly software is sometime crucial to observe new phenomena. Even we are trying to find ‘something’ keenly, too much information or too less information sometimes make us look the other way. Also it is important to have the software which is easy to use, understand, and prevent us from humanly mistakes.

I will study this subject further. I am going to use Triple axes spectrometer so long time, I think it worth spending a lot of my time.

I think I need to do journaling more. I used to write a diary. At some point, I did stop. I think the biggest reason was because I started writing a diary in English to learn, that made me frustrate. Now, I am feeling much better by writing my diary in English, I can write down what I am thinking and how I am feeling. The science of happiness showed that the people who do journaling are feeling happier than those who don’t. Why don’t you try?

Lately, I had heard from the man who is in charge of the position which I applied the job in Australia. While this job seems very nice, it seems very competitive. They made a short list of 5, out of many candidates. I made it!! Among 5 candidates, I am the youngest candidate for this job, but I am not willing to give up this opportunity. I will have interview in one month. Also, I got an offer from Korea which is very nice. I have one place to go at least. Also, I am going to apply for 2 or 3 more in Japan and Germany. Still, it is tough time for me, only I can do is doing my best.

I will make a presentation for this job. I would like to spend a certain time to prepare. My favorite chess player Garry Kasparov said ‘Your life is your preparation’. I will do my best preparation on this job. I would promise in front of readers, I am going to do my best for this presentation. I will learn a lot during the preparation. Most of you are not interested in, but I will write them here to ponder.

If I got this job, I would be an instrument scientist. The instrument scientists help the scientist to do experiments at reactors and accelerators. He is the specialist for instruments. This is huge opportunity for young scientist like me. Not only I can learn about the instrument, but also I can collaborate with many of scientist. What I am doing now is how I can make the instrument I am applying special in the world.

To be honest, the study I am currently working on is not so good situation. I am struggling to make a story for the paper. As an experimental physicist, I strongly believe that high quality data is everything. Even though we have good instruments and techniques, we should know what we are proving, what is needed to enough to convince people? We have to get best data under given condition.

I am currently reading ‘Music, Language, and Brain’. I have been thinking there is close relation between music and language. This book gave me a lot of answers. Still a lot of questions and I need to understand this book more. This book is very academic, but also fun. It has well chosen and structured contents. You will also enjoy. Also this book is about cognitive science, we can know what science currently knows about language and music.

I got a mail from sister in law. She gave me my nephew’s pictures. She is very cute, is going to be 2 years old in February. I miss her a lot. My brother, parents and relatives are going well.

This week flied so fast. I visited to NC to visit my friend this weekend. He graduate Univ. of Virginia last May, now he is in the program in Wake Forest Univ. He is my first friend in the U.S. I was glad to see him. We had great time this weekend. He is very kind to me, he treat me the best he could!! It could not be better.

 We watched the movie ‘Book thief’. The movie was nice. I don’t think the main character stole books as many as the title makes us think. But, this movie reminded me how we are living happily. I can buy, borrow, download, and sometimes copy the books very easily. I can read almost any books I want. I do not need to burn books. I can believe that, while the world has still a lot of problems, the world is becoming better place little by little. There are still wars, starving, diseases, and so on, however, thanks to many people’s hard working, sometimes we have solutions. Thanks to many ancestors sacrifice, we are living happier. So, why don’t I do something for this world with my talent I have?     

 I am keeping learning English. One of reasons I started learning books is for my career in Physics. Almost every journal was written in English. I have to write papers in English as well. I need to make the presentations in English. It was natural for me to have chosen to learn English. Now, I am still learning though, I can read almost every book in English. But the problem is that I just realized that the reason why I can’t read the paper well is not problem about my English skill. That was physics problem. This is like joking!!

 By looking back the paper I read, I realized that I understood the words almost everything, but I catch the meaning of paper barely. Yes, I should have read more easily. But, anyway, I crashed one of my bottle necks, and find new ones. That’s O.K., let’s start reading Physics books again, and make sure I understand physics.

 I am currently reading ‘Think of numbers’ by John Verdon. This book is what is called the detective story, reminds me Sherlock Homes (I need to read them again!!). This story is really fantastic, I can’t wait reading ending of this story. And I just finished listening to ‘What I talk about when I talk about running’ by Haruki Murakami. He writes his philosophy in writing and running. I really like his style of writing, makes me calm. ‘The pain is inevitable, the suffering is optional’. This is his mantra when he runs marathon. The external world is not main variables for happiness of life we are being leaded. For books lovers, I want to meet you guys tell me what you are reading and please ask me what I am reading.

The new week is coming, let’s get good sleep and prepare for the coming exiting week!! I can’t wait waking up Monday morning!! Good night.

We had a book club last Thursday. I was really looking forward to it. And It was fun. We read a new Malcolm Gladwell’s book titled “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants”. He is a good writer and story teller. But, I personally am not really into him. It is because he uses his simplified theories and writes stories to support the theories. But, for me, since I can not agree with his theory at first, I cannot be into the stories.

The reason why I cannot believe his theory is “Big Data”. Malcolm Gladwell described “natural experiment” in this book though, ‘Big data’, which is the largest natural experiments human race has been doing, does not support his theories. For example, Paul Adam who wrote “Grouped” proved that the tipping point has not been observed when he analyzed data on Facebook. Google can anticipate the distribution of flu, because they can analyze when and where, and maybe who searched “flu” from his computer. I believe that “Big data, people just started analyze the “Big Data” though, will give us great impact. In this case, his hypotheses should be tested by Big data at first. The data should have been already taken, the problem is we need appropriate “Why?” to sort huge data.

I had a discussion about Science and Philosophy with my friend on Saturday. I used to read a lot about Philosophy but I am not into lately. Since I am working as a physicist full time. It seemed I became strong believer of scientific method. I need to think about this relation carefully, I need time to pounding though, I write some pre-discussion here,

When I am thinking about Philosophy, I always think about the consideration of Heisenberg on “What is minimum unit in the world?” Plato’s conclusion was world consists of polyhedrons. Heisenberg knew Plato was wrong, but his question is why Plato could have been wrong even Plato could think very critically almost anyone else.

My answer is because he thought too much.

Physics is evident based science. The hypothesis should be tested. If the hypothesis is right, we should observe the evidences by experiments. We expand our knowledge step by step. We have spent, spend, and will spend a lot of time for this “step” to confirm. Higgs boson might have been philosophy until it had been observed. I am proud of being an experimental physicist.

This is end of pre-discussion.

In addition to these, I think I have a problem speaking English. I can read and listen, but I can not explain my idea very well. I have been so frustrated lately. Because I clearly understood what I wanted to say, but I could not express my thinking well in speaking. That happens also writing. Only I can do may be practicing speaking, presentation, discussion with native speakers. I would love to have the chance for that as many as possible.

  This weekend was O.K. I am looking forward to Monday. Let’s do science. Anyway.

As the ultimate goal to learn English

I am not a teacher of history class but let me ask you my question first. Why do you think there are a pile of books all around the world? The answer is easy. It is for recording of someone’s speaking, isn’t it? So, speaking language is the first, and then the language has been recorded on books to make someone to learn something. Remember, the reading is not the first things to do for learning foreign languages. The sense of sound of the language is very important. We should work on before we read. So, learning the pronunciation is the first, and then, you should learn listening, and then start reading in general.

To check this, what you can do is book discussion. If you could understand the sound of language by reading, you could store the vocabulary and context in your brain directly. When you meet someone, if you can summarize the book you read using the vocabulary, phrase you got. That is good. If not, you had better work on pronunciation. This is similar with copying music. Almost everyone can listen to music, but few can play after he listened to music. We need to play language like music, so you should get pronunciation (instruments), get vocabulary, phrases, and its meaning as accurate as possible (copy licks, phrases and its context) and then talk with native speakers (play appropriate situation).

However, once you have learned sound of language, reading book is the best way to learn English for two reasons. The best musician learns a lot from just reading the pieces.

It is because books are best source.

And who do you think write books? I am an experimental physicist. I am a professional physicist. I spend all weekdays on physics. Do you think I can deserve to write a book about my research area? The answer is totally no. Only top level people are allow to write books. Why don’t you know what top 1 percent people want people to know? This is applicable every area, Fiction to Science, every book was written by one of the best suitable person, and revised by publisher before you buy.

We do not need to catch up everything on news. The more you work on news you lose your strength in your professional area. Because everyone is reading and listening to news, which means the value of information fade so fast. You should work on specific topic you know better than anyone else, to be someone to say something. Do not waste your time reading news so much. If it should be known by you, you would notice or someone tells you. Do not worry.

It is because you learn at fastest speed.

Do you know how many words we can get a minute? You learn fastest by reading. A study shows that people feel comfortable when he listen to books at 160 wpm (words per minute). You can listen to an audio book at X2 speed (320 wpm) on the audible apps. But reading you can reach more than 500 wpm. The more you read, the faster you can read. We can grasp meaning several words, even several sentences at the same time. You know how smart your brain is. So, the reading is the most efficient way if you can speak well.

I will write the art of reading next. I have to mention TED as well. TED seems a strong competitor of books. I do not watch so much though.

Figure : What a cold weather!! But, this is benefit of waking up early!! Stay warm and be happy everyone!!

This week has been tough because it is first serious week for work. I needed rehabilitation. But, I found one of solution for physics problem I am working on, which made me so happy. I have been working on the analysis of the magnetic structure of the old system as I wrote here before. The problem has not been solved for 30 years. Finally, my calculation explained the experimental results. I need to check the process of calculation though, I am so happy to find out. I am going to go to American Society meeting in Denver, CO, this March. I am going to make presentation. I feel kind of relief because, at least, I have something to propose.

As I wrote in my resolution 2014, I will read 240 books this year. 20 books a month. Also, I have to write more though. I have been reading interesting books. Take quick reviews.

1. Aiming High.

This is the biography for Son Masayoshi. I don’t know how much he is known in the U.S. But, I believe he is one of most important person in the information technology, like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. He is a CEO of the Softbank. As you know, Sofbank bought sprint last year. And the sprint is looking to buy T-mobile, if it were allowed to. If that happen, the mobile and sprint can be the third competitive party on the mobile market the U.S. You think Japanese are good at only car, don’t you? Japanese is coming also on the mobile market!!. However, what I learned from him is not only about the recent mobile market in the U.S.  He always reminds me I should not look around with my level where I am now. I should aim high wherever I am, I can find always harder way and higher way to be great.

2. Never eat alone.

Since, I found out how the connection is important in every area we are working on. My father told me his story with Son Masayoshi. Son built the memorial hall for Mr. Oh who was best home-run butter in Japanese baseball team, he had world record. Son invited 1000 business man to the exhibition. Son and Mr. Oh shake hands every each person in the front of the building before the event begin. Never eating alone is one of things I have never done for my life. I always eat alone. Because that is comfortable for me. That was all wrong. On this book, there is the story about the former president of the U.S. Bill Clinton. When he is young, he was always taking the memo when he talked somebody at the party. So, someone asked why. He said “I am going to run for ***(I forgot) in the future, so I keep my record for everyone I have met” Everyone wants to be known better to some extent. Who cannot support him for the election?

I guess I had better write the rest later.

Also about the writing. I am going to write something longer than 3000 words this year, ideally more than 10000 words, I will try to keep writing it every month. This month, I am going to write “How to learn English around 30” especially for Japanese. I believe many Japanese cannot use his talent to full by not being capable of speaking and writing English. I might not be wright person though, I would love to give them some ideas to improve their English skills.  I have been in the U.S. almost 2 years, I am sure that I have something to say for them.

 

I am here as a man, Japanese, physicist, English learner, musician, reader and runner to contribute to make the world better place. I am never afraid of taking risks. Always learn, always study, always stay creative, always take actions, always be happy, and always thank for living healthy with family and friends. I will do my best for what I can, with what I have, where I am.

Physics

1. Submit 5 papers to the physics Journals. I would not say “publish” because there is uncertainty to get published.
2. Build 3 categories I know the best in the world
3. Focus 80 percent of time on the paper that I will be working.
4. Invest 20 percent of time for future studies and set the monthly goal for them.
5. Think always how to be a unique physicist and how I can contribute the science and community

English

1. Have chances to talk to native speakers as much as possible.
2. Practice pronunciation 1 hour every day.
3. Read aloud 60 hours a month.
4. Read and listen 20 books in English a month. Keep the record.
5. Get 120 points at TOEFL by the end of 2014, get 110 points by the end of June 2014, and get 100 points constantly until the end March of 2014. Spend 1 hour for TOEFL practicing every day.
6. Write 2 articles (at least 500 words) a week on my blog.
7. Write the summaries of an article of the Economist a week (500 words)
8. Write an essay (longer than 3,000 words, ideally 10,000) monthly.

Reading

1. Read or listen 240 books in English a year.
2. Write 30 summaries at least 500 words.
3. Lead my book club, attend book clubs.

Music

1. Buy classic guitar and practice classic guitar
2. Perform the guitar or band on the stages
3. Practice at least 5 minutes every single day however busy I am.

Running

1. Be the most careful for not getting injured
2. Run 1 marathon and 2 half marathon.

The other

1. Donate 10 percent of money which I can allocate.
2. Spend 10 percent of time that I can spare for volunteering.
3. Give presents by using 10 percent of money I can allocate
4. Write a diary in English every day.
5. Travel at least 2 countries other than Japan and the U.S.
6. Know Japan and world history as much as I can.

Read this resolution every single day in 2014.

Happy New Year!!

Shinichiro Yano at Charlottesville, Virginia, the U.S. 2014/1/1

Thank you for being my friends. I am happy with you here in this world. I want to review my 2013. I would love to keep in touch with you guys. Tell me your story too.

Physics

1. Published 2 papers in the Physics journals.
2. Made presentation at American Physical society meeting at Baltimore.
3. Survived 1 year as a professional physicist.
4. I learned PDF analysis and Magnetic structural analysis,

Running

1. Ran without injuries.
2. Ran with group every Tue and Thu at 6 a.m., Sat and Sun at 7 a.m.   
3. Ran one marathon, one half marathon, one 10K, one 4 miler, and one 5K marathon.

Reading

1. Read average 18 books a month in English (My record says May 14, June 13, July 21, August 22, September 16, October 14, November 10, December 16) I did not keep record throughout 2013 though.
2. Started my own book club.

English

1. Practiced the pronunciation 8000 words at least 424 times. 
2. Read aloud 130 hours (I started October).
3. Wrote 109 blog articles those are at least 300 words length.
4. Practiced writing with a tutor every week.
5. Attended 3 ESL classes and got “Satisfied”.

Music

1. Started reading pieces. 
2. Practiced with professional guitarist once a week.

The other

1. Called my parents once a week.
2. Traveled 6 cities in the U.S.
3. Made a lot of lovely friends.
4. Tried to catch up with my friends.

Happy New Year!!

Shinichiro Yano at Charlottesville, Virginia, the U.S. 2014/1/1

 

Picture : Beautiful Christmas decoration on neighbor’s house.

I have many things I want to write. I want to write about Thanksgiving journey to Philadelphia, NYC, and Boston. I want to write physics I am working on. I want to write about my thinking about religion and science. I have been busy for this year, but, finally, I am resting. I will write one by one.

Everything and everyone in the U.S. are now in holiday mode. I ran with our group yesterday, we went to see illumination of Christmas decoration in our town. These are so beautiful; it is far from my description. I took a lot of pictures, but I will show you one here. Maybe, I will show more on Facebook later. Everyone is enjoying this holiday, including me. I am going to go theater today to watch the play ‘Christmas Carol’. I am looking forward to it.

Let me start physics. I am currently working on one of project. I cannot what, but my task is to solve the magnetic structure of kind of old system. The more I worked on this, it became curiouser and curiouser. This system had been studied a lot around later 1970’s, so many people had worked on this system. But still people study now. Yes, this is actually challenging. But we have developed theory and new points of view. Let’s try again.

To be honest, so far, every idea from my boss and me had failed. This is not easy. But I learned a lot of things during the analysis. And, I found several mistakes on the old papers. Also, I am thinking why these smart people had not solved this problem, even made mistakes? I have still several ideas to try, and I would be the only person who is trying to solve this problem now. And I also need more data to support my hypothesis. I would like to work on also in 2014. It will be fun to do the experiments and keeping analyses. Yes, I am enjoying my job.

I am thinking of writing a lot during holiday. I wanted to write but I was busy. Now, I can spare sometime to write what I am thinking. Firstly, I would love to write about how to learn English, especially for around 30’s. Around 30’s is my point. I am not young like undergraduate or graduate student. I went to the private university in Tokyo, I got a Ph.D in science there, I came here in the U.S. As you know, to learn something new, sports, language, music, or whatever, the older you got the harder you learn. That is hard story?? I have also thought so. But, the harder you get, the harder you lose is also true. The research shows that the person learns foreign languages even when he got older, whose brain is more activated, while bilinguals who learn 2nd language simultaneously did not show this symptom. This is because, I believe, the older person has to or can learn systematically. For the older person, to learn something new is not his first experience. We can learn efficiently. We have to make up for the natural talent by using experiences. I will write about this later.

Thank you for reading, have good holidays everyone!

The picture : The back gate of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Since, I have worked for Univ. of Virginia as a physicist. This is the longest vacation of this year. I planned to go to Philadelphia, NYC, Boston to visit Universities and Museum for 5 days.

On the first day. I went to Philadelphia museum. I love to go to museum. As a scientist, sometimes, I need inspirations from arts. (To be honest, I do not know how these arts and works inspire me.) Just watching beautiful and creative works make me feel relieved. These works give me inspirations beyond my rational thinking and also remind me how imagination is important for us.

On the museum, I re-realized how silver is beautiful. And elaborated oil paintings are so beautiful. Also there are a lot of arts made me stop. I can not express my feeling precisely, unfortunately!! But my subconscious must have gotten so many inspirations. I bought pin badges on which there are works. Even though these works are small but beautiful. I bought for souvenir, tell me if you want it, I will give it to you!!

I have not written this blog almost 2 weeks. Let me summarize my November!!

The last last week was Japan week for me. On the Tuesday, I was teacher of Japanese calligraphy at international center Univ. of Virginia. I really enjoyed teaching calligraphy. To be honest, I forgot a lot of things for writing by using special pen for calligraphy. And last Thursday, I attend language fair as a native Japanese speaker. 

We had a drinking party with some of Japanese in Charlottesville area. Since Japanese is rare in Charlottesville, we have never had the chance to have party here. I talk and listen Japanese a lot. That was so much fun.

I finished running the Richmond Marathon on Nov. 16th. My time was 4 hours and 18 minutes. Actually, this is not good result, but for me, I am proud of myself for running more than 4 hours in the rain. Even though every parts of my body feel sore, I would love to run again. I do not why, maybe I want to do the revenge. I should not have run faster the first half 13 miles, which made my the later half so hard. Running pace slowed down, I could not keep up with the other runner. So many runners passed me, which made me so nervous.

I finished big presentation last last Tuesday. The presentation was just 25 mins though, it was important, made me nervous. Making presentation is good chance, I can use 25 minutes of every person in the room if I could do make presentation well.

I am so tired today. I drove, I don’t know, for 8 hours?? While I was driving, I was listening the book called “Good to great” I actually could not follow the author’s point. For me, I could not find new things. Tomorrow, I am going to see the parade in NYC with my friend. I am looking forward to it. I will sleep early.

Have a good week everyone.

2013.11.27 Shinichiro Yano@Comfort inn near the JFK airport.