Category: Uncategorized

This week end especially on Sunday, I have been working hard. I plotted so many data. But I have to do more. Since I am going to NY in this weekend, I would like to finish analyzing and lot of stuff. I need some conclusions about my current research before I leave.

Throughout being a postdoc, I have been learning so many things, but definitely the habits of plotting and then thinking are helpful future. I have been writing so many graph everyday. I would love to do more. From the graph, we can see some changes as a function of something variable, we do plot, think, and discuss again and again . For Scientists, also we need time for thinking, learning, reading papers, and writing paper. My senior researcher says to me ‘When we are postdoc, you can truly focus on Science.’ I agree with him. I must do more and efficiently. I am enjoying the experience of postdoc.

One of Japanese comedian said that there is always no easy job for you. If you would learn more and become more competent,  there is always the job which is little bit harder than you expect. I agree with him. So after this postdoc program, maybe I will get another postdoc program, but hopefully I would get assistant professor position that position, I will have more responsibilities. And that will happen also when I become an associate professor, a professor. I do not know whether or not that would happen.

Since I have been drawing so many graph since this morning, I have nothing to say today. In this end of semester, everyone is very busy, but the semester end, students will be gone. I will feel kind of loneliness but one of best time to study and learn something by myself. I can not wait that period. I have lot of things I want to do.

I have 2 presentations in this week. I think I will make it. One is introduction about recent theory paper which is very important in our field. The other is the description of the terms from our field. I am going to explain orbiton which have been proved at experiment in 2012. I need time to practice speaking,  

Univ. of Virginia is also going to go end of this semester. I just working for professor, so I do not care the end of semester, but for me, I am going to be crazy for work. Lets do this anyway.

There was Japanese festival today at Fashion square mall in Charlottesvile. To tell the truth, I have never seen so many Japanese in the U.S. I was surprised to see so many Japanese. Haha. I have been in the U.S. for 1 year so far, but I have not told them that I am here. So my Japanese friend who takes care all of me said “Where have you been hidden?” Yes, I had hidden from Japanese because I would like to speak English as much as possible. But, it is time to change.

I met so many Japanese, this was not rare in Japan, of course. But it is rare in the U.S. Some people asks me why Japanese is so few in the U.S. I actually I do not know. But I assume that Japanese society is also mature like U.S. So that, we do not need to go outside to find the jobs. And also Japanese companies are trying to be efficient, so they send Japanese to U.S. branch, and give them important position, but not so many. Conversely, Japanese who lives in the U.S. are very excellent sophisticated Japanese. I have never been boring when we talk.

And also the number of student who study aboard is similar. We already have decent educational institute in Japan. Students may think they do not need to study aboard. Sometimes, studying abroad is not good for student. Because, Japanese university student is so busy for hunting job. They start Job application late autumn at 3rd year. Some of them spends for a year to get a job and applies more than at least 50 company. Because most Japanese company is going to hire them all the way to retirement. They spend so many time and people to find fresh recruits. That may prevent student from studying abroad.

Sometimes, I am asked people, “how can I tell Japanese among the Asians.” My answer is that Japanese would vows each other. We do this unconsciously, maybe. Yesterday, I showed some video of TEDxTokyo Jake Shimabukuro, he also said as a joke. That was funny. Check this out if you want, and his music is also awesome. He will come Jefferson theater next Tuesday in Charlottesville. Unfortunately, I can not make it.

I have not confirmed yet, I am going to NY next weekend. I am very exited to go there. I am going to ask paid leaves but Lets finish a lot of project before I leave. So next week should be tough!! That is O.K. Lets keep busy. NY is waiting for me!!

Practice makes perfect. This proverb is very simple. However, the simple does not mean easy. Because we usually do not know how to practice and how much we need. I have the answer how much. The answer is 10000 hours for to get job, 10 years for being professional.  As for how to practice, I am still trying to find the best way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVb-_14ZXeE

But I do love the music, not just for listening, for playing. But to enjoy playing instruments, I need to practice. The key is habit. I heard that even professional musician practice playing with in 30 min.  Why? Because we can do every day if only the practice is 30 min. The point is that we need to practice every day. That is very difficult. We have many excuses, and music is not work, that means practice is not obligation. O.K. Lets start practice only 30 min everyday, shall we?

Japanese business man are often told that they should take time for 30 mins to 1 hours to learn something other than work. That is good idea. The person who keep learning 30 mins everyday becomes someone when he becomes 30 years old. Since almost Japanese starts job around 22 years old, they would have some skills which he would learning 8 years.

http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_mcafee_are_droids_taking_our_jobs.html

I will change the subject. I happened to find the book “Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy“. I have just ordered this book on amazon.com. But, I think that I will find some answer which I have been searched for. The answer would tell us that we are going to lose against the machines. We have to change the strategy.

One of my best book I have read is “How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom” by  Garry Kasaprov. He is best chess player in the history. However he was defeated by IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in a game of chess, that happened just 15 years ago. After I knew the fact, I started to think differently. 

The happiest story is, as workers age population growth, the number of jobs increase. But why is American GDP growing, but unemployment rate is stable. Why Japanese GDP is merely (Haha)  growing, even the workers population is decreasing. I have not confirmed yet, maybe is machine taking our job? I am going to survey more.

As for physics, there are quite a few region that we can beat machine. However, I have to always think which task may be taken by machine.

I got several chances to make presentations. I hated to speak in public. I was always nervous.  But I started realizing I might like making presentations. The point is preparation and main idea. If I have a clear images of what I am going to say and If I take a enough time to consider how to convey my idea effectively, the presentation must be fun every time.

I have been reading ‘presentationzen’, I like this book, I have not finished yet, however this book gave me a lot of idea about presentation. I will review this book, however I will write down what l learned recently. I would like to read this book every time before making presentation. I strongly recommend you this books.

Like a everything  else, making presentation is never ending story. We need to practice to make presentation better. What I learned recently are following.

Know your audience : Recognizing our audience is important. Who is your audience? Professionals, students, or common people? Which terms should we explain more or less? We might give overview to audience at first slide, is it good overview or introduction? How can we convey our idea directly to audience?

Draw pictures before siting in front of the computer : I was surprised to read ‘presentationzen’. That book explained that we had better write pictures or images on notebook by hand before starting making power point. Before making slides, we had better sketch the image in notebook. That is not digital. But since I read this book, I always write images on notebook, that helps me a lot.

Make it simple : What is the main idea that we are going to deliver? If we have to chose only one word or sentence, what would we say on each slides? It is also good to write a notebook. Let’s ask ourselves every time, what is the main point of this slide?.

Do not waste the time : Do not waste my time? No. But also not audience’s. If we had 100 audiences, and If I we made a bad presentation, we would waste 1 minute? That it? No. we would waste 101 minutes. So do not wasted time, be more prepare otherwise we would waste not only our time, but everyone’s time. Conversely, we have the great chance to use the other person’s time. Let’s use them effectively.

I just wrote what I came up with down. I should have written more. I could not do every time what I was learned and taught but I realize that the practice and theory for good presentation are very important. Let’s practice and stand in front of audience again and again. Practice makes perfect.

Today, I happened to meet my Chinese friend on my way home. I just realized he was crying. He said he just lost his grand mother. I was very sorry. And I thought this would happen to me. Everyone gets over this. So I called grand mother. We have good time to talk. She said ‘ありがとう’ so many times in conversation, maybe direct translation ‘ありがとう’ into English is ‘thank you’, but original meaning of this word is ‘有り難し’ that means, how can I explain, something like, this should not happen without your (can be someone beyond human being’s) will, so thank you. The existence of I and my grand mother are, and that conversation was ‘有り難かった’ (rare and valuable). Thank you for sharing time with me.

As for me. two weeks left for this semester. This week has been busy. After this week, I will have more flexible time schedule. I would like to have more time to read. And I have no summer break, but i would love to do something fun in summer. I am planning to go somewhere in the U.S., that will be fun. But after this semester end, I will be apart some of my friends. I would like to share good time with them before they leave.

I am going to make presentation tomorrow, I have to practice but I can not do anymore today. On this presentation am going to present the definition. To present definition, I have to explain to the background of words and make audience understand. I am going to explain orbiton which is not widely known word. This is kind of new word but I would like my classmate to know this word.

As for physics, I am working on PDF (Pair Distribution Function) analysis method. Unlike usual  crystal structural analysis, this PDF method uses the data which was thought as the background. Because we are analyzing so small change in the material, there may be some more information in backgrounds. However, It is hard to get clear information. It is difficult to get clear experimental evidence. This method has been used for amorphous material, however we are going to apply for crystals.

Today was due of writing class. I realized that I need to improve more about writing. Writing is never ending. I need to practice and learning and sometimes I need to be given advice to improve my writing. I need to write paper for my research, I would love to spend practice writing English and also I would love to write long essay. And I would love to write books in the future.

This paper developed the theory about the interplay between the magnetism and ferroelectricity in material which opened the possibility new type of electric magnetic devices.

‘Spin Current and Magnetoelectric Effect in Noncollinear Magnets’ http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v95/i5/e057205
Throughout the history of material science, magnet has been used by applying magnetic field, ferroelectric material has been used by applying electric field. That makes sense. But, what if we could control magnet by electric field or control ferroelectric material by magnetic field? We will have much wider option to make useful component by using the phenomena that we call it magnetoeletric (ME) effect.

The ME effect is a phenomenon in which the magnetization is induced by the electric field or the electric field induced by magnetic field. Firstly, Pierre Curie surmised ME effect in 1894[1]. And then, the phenomenological theory of the ME effect was developed Landau [2] and Dzyaloshinskii [3] that was about 50 years ago. There the symmetry consideration is essential to classify ME effect via magnetic point group. Especially time reversal and spatial inversion are key symmetries to the ME effect. After these theories developed, ME effect in several materials has been discovered. However, it is difficult to apply to product because that effect is too small to apply. Scientists need more concrete plan to study ME effect. A fully microscopic theory based on the electricity state was still missing. However, this group developed theory of the ME effect starting from the electric Hamiltonian taking into account the spin-orbit interaction. That opened new possibility.

Putting aside the detailed calculation, the most important result of this paper is this equation. They could simplify the phenomena in the equation as following

P_ij=A e_ij×(e_i×e_j ) —- (1)

This equation gave the experimentalist helpful suggestion. That suggestion said ‘Look for spiral magnetic materials’. As shown Fig. 1, the theory showed that the spiral magnetic material can produce ferroelectricity. Because of its simplicity, so many material experimental scientists could have worked finding the new material. They found more than 8 within 2 years after this paper published. And these materials had been studied 5 years, now the companies are going to apply this material to the products.

Fig. 1 The spiral magnetic structure and ferroelectricity.

Some experimentalists found the material which does not follow this equation, so that someone develop several theory to explain these exception but, we might not have found so many maltiferroic material and the supplemental theories if this simple suggestion had never not existed.

Unfortunately, for the application we need to time to research and development at company level. But we will get unexpected cool product soon.

[1] P. Curie: J. Phys. (Paris) 3 (1894) 393.
[2] L. D. Landau and E. Lifshitz, Electrodynamics of Continuous Media (Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 2002), p. 176.
[3] I. E. Dzyaloshinskii, Sov. Phys. JETP 10, 628 (1960).

I was supposed to post my last article ‘The sign’. I just forgot put ‘publish’ button yesterday night. Haha. Today is Saturday, I could get good rest, and think about the future of this blog. I write several series of article, I have stopped writing. I am sorry. I am going to write again. Let me do it again. Thank you for reading everyone.

Writing tips : What makes someone good writer? Looking for this answer, I have been reading  and listening the lecture and book about writing. I learned two things today. One is ‘Good writer is always good reader’ That is true. I was not good reader. Let try reading proactively. The other is ‘Never underestimate readers’. It is important. I have to excuse my grammatical error but I need to improve. But more importantly, I have responsibility about contents and do my best for my writing.

Japanese lecture : O.K. Let do this again. For Japanese lecture, we are going to discuss verb, adjective, adverb. These topic is important for Japanese learner, so I was careful to write. I am going to spend a lot of time this 3 topics. I am Japanese native speaker, so that I have to admit, I am not familiar with Japanese grammar. To teach mother language is tough. But I want to be better teacher for my students.   

Book review : Since I have full time jobs, it was hard to take the time to read. Reading English was hard for me. But reading is source of growth for me. I need to spend more reading. And reading more effectively, let me write review here. What I actually write is not review though, it is like what I feel when I read these books. But some review would help you which book you read next.

Economist : I have stopped reading journal. I have to resume this. Economist article is very profound, so sometimes I need to think and research more. Let me review what I learn.

Physics : This is very hard job. I have not decided the reader’s level for physics. If I focus on the common people, I have to rephrase terms into common words. But it is challenging, sometime confusing and I do not want to omit detail even when I use common words. But I am physicist, let me try.

The great course : I have been learning several topics watching DVD. I am watching investment. On this blog, we are going to discuss, Bond, Mutual Funds for the next. And also I have been watching about ‘Brain’ and ‘Writing’ which are also fun. I would like to share on this blog.

Music : I actually want to write music more, as a player. So I am thinking how I can write about playing the guitar on this blog, let me find out. I am going to write chart of effective practice and philosophy for playing. But I need more vocabulary to describe music. Give me time to organize how to write about music on my blog. And Give me time practicing the guitar more.

O.K. That is all what I came up with. Thank you for your reading.

Friday, I am always tired because I work hard. I guess. Haha. As for my study, this week has been kind of hard. I was struggling to get meaningful analysis results. As I said here before, I am analyzing tiny changes in the magnetic material, so that it is difficult to get clear information. What make me most frustrate was that I could not get same result using the same parameters which I used before. This may be because there is software problem. If so, it will be hard to fix. Even I could fix, I have to analyze again. That will be tough.

I went to the art galley after work, That art galley was prepare by students in school of arts at Univ. of Virginia (We call it UVA). We could see photograph, arts, short movies and so on. Honestly, there are still many possibility to make the works better, but I could see their seeds of creativity.

We have many chances to see arts, even in daily life, when we watch TV, movie, advertisement, book cover, online and of course great museum. These works was made by proffesionals. Today, I just realized how good they make for every works. I did not realized that we are living with full of sophisticated arts they made.

Compared to proffesionals works, the arts by students are not so good on a technical level. However, clearly, student arts are more energetic, powerful, impressive, sometimes imaginative. They are the most important parts of art. I could tell student was trying to make something creative.  Student works remind me that creativity is the strength of youth and  imagination comes hard work. And Imagination and creativity are the most important part of life.

After that, I have a chance to talk with my friends about sign in our life. The sign is like point which lead us to the goal of our life. Someone might say that the sign is the God’s work to lead him. Like Steve Jobs said, if I look back my life, I can tell which was the sign. When I was student, I wanted to be physicist, but I did not to how to become. Does Getting Ph.D make us physicist? The answer is no. They are just title. So, what makes someone physicist? Oh, that is another story. But I can tell what lead me to be physicist. So I can believe these sign lead me to the future. Because of that, I have confidence when I make decision in my life.