CORONAVIRUS WEEK 34: WD'S RECOLLECTION OF ROGER PENROSE

Our friend, WD (Bill), in his early nineties and a widower, lives alone in his own house and continues to be 'shielding' from the Coronavirus.  He doesn't complain; he has his books, books and books plus Countdown on television.  

I visit him from time to time.  If we cannot sit, socially distanced, in his back garden (directly under the Glasgow Airport flight path -   quiet these days!) I stand at his front door while he stands in the porch and we catch up on our news.

This week it was the front porch  where I proffered a chocolate cupcake from Marks. He misses 'treats' and finds my baking a bit too crunchy or crusty for his liking. 

For reasons I cannot remember I have been searching for geometric patterns, not so much from the natural world, e.g. sunflower whirls, (with which I am familiar) but rather something along the line of of molecular structures (i.e. a different part of the natural world). It occurred to me that the DNA helix would be an example. I mentioned this to our friend Ken M., whose subject is crystallography, and he told me to google 'Penrose tiling'.  Oh my goodness!  What an intriguing topic! It is all about a geometric pattern with five-fold symmetry and furthermore the pattern can be expanded infinitely without ever repeating itself.  "Weird", I say to myself.  There is a whole area of science related to this. What I find fascinating are the aesthetic aspects.

Once I started looking at the shapes and colours and how it can be incorporated in decorative use, it just got interesting-er and interesting-er. 

Basically it is about "aperiodic tilings of the plane, made from 2 sort of tiles : kites and darts". [1] 

Photo: Herbert Kociemba

As it happens on October 6th the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez for their work on black holes.

Two Anecdotes:

An article from Prospect Magazine: [2] 

Before I get to Bill's story, here is an item relating to the significance of his geometric contribution to science.

The author states: "These tilings – there are other shapes that have an equivalent result – are strikingly beautiful, with a mixture of regularity and disorder that is somehow pleasing to the eye. This is doubtless why, as Penrose explained, many architects have made use of them. But they also have a deeper significance. After Penrose described the tiling [in 1974], the crystallographer Alan Mackay – one of the unsung polymathic savants of British science – showed in 1981 that if you imagine putting atoms at the corners of the tiles and bouncing X-rays off them, you can get a pattern of reflections that looks like that of a perfect crystal with the forbidden five- and tenfold symmetries. Four years later, such a material was found.

You can use these tiles, he [Penrose] said, to represent the rules of how things interact in a hypothetical universe in which everything is non-computable: the rules are well defined, but you can never use them to predict what is going to happen until it actually happens."

In the article  the author included an anecdote about Penrose "inspecting a new tiling being laid out on the concourse [...]. Looking it over, he felt uneasy. Eventually he saw why: the builders, seeing an empty space at the edge of the tiling, had stuck another tile there that didn’t respect the proper rules for their assembly. No one else would have noticed, but Penrose saw that what it meant was that “the tiling would go wrong somewhere in the middle of the lawn.”  "  

Penrose in the foyer of the Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A University, standing on a floor with a Penrose tiling. 

[Photo: Wikipedia]

Bill's recollection of Penrose:

 

Bill, a mathematician, did not know about this tiling business but told me that he knew Penrose and was friendly with him when they were both at Cambridge in the early 1950s.

Standing on the doorstep he told me "He was by far the smartest man I ever knew... and the closest I will ever come to knowing a Nobel Prize winner!  I played squash with him and one year we travelled to Amsterdam to a conference." * 

Bill mentioned that Penrose was supervisor to Steven Hawking and noted:  Hawking would make claims and then later retract them; "Penrose never did that."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Paving done using Penrose tiling. Photo by Sattuman soittoa.  

*

[Update:  February 2021: Bill had his 94th birthday on Jan 20th.   A note from a previous conversation says that trip to Amsterdam was 1963. It was with Douglas Munn where they attended a Mathematical Congress.

_ _______________________________________________

[1] http://www.neverendingbooks.org/penrose-tilings-and-noncommutative-geometry

[2]  Prospect magazine 2013 article by P Ball :

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/blog/science-blog/fearful-symmetry-roger-penroses-tiling/

CORNAVIRUS WEEK 33: HAIRDRESSERS STILL ABLE TO OPERATE BUT FOR HOW LONG?!

Another week with rising numbers of people getting coronavirus.  I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact that there is a Track and Trace system in place.   Apparently we are at the same level as when Lockdown was imposed back in March. However with no Track and Trace at that time it makes me think there were actually a lot more cases. (In March the level was taken to be the number admitted to hospital, and eventually, those in care homes.)  This would be yet  another example of  a type of 'science' where it is only expressing that which is measured. Or put it another way: if it is not measured, then it doesn't exist.

An interesting point relating to the history of epidemiology: there have been some very good studies, for example, James Lind's demonstration in 1747 that a diet which included citrus fruit prevented and cured survey; Ignaz Semmelweis's evidence in 1845 that cleanliness prevented puerperal fever and John Snow in 1854 identified that the local water supply (in Soho, London) was the source of cholera infection (known as the Broad Street Pump study - below).

Back to life's simple pleasures:

Autumn colours - our garden this week

The grandchildren, at lease 2 of the 4 of them: Harriet and Ellie in the park.  Apparently there is a case of Covid in the secondary school that Ish and Alastair attend, but it is not in their year. The affected child had a university student sibling and that particular class has to self-isolate. I guess this is how things are going to be now.

I got my hair cut this week. Having had to wait 6 months to be able to get my hair cut earlier this year I made sure I wasn't going to risk the same thing happening again.  

Then we managed to get out a bit this week... to have coffee, socially distanced, of course, with friends.

These photos were taken in Drymen, in the village square.  Iain is in the second photo.

Restaurants are closed but some tea-rooms are open. However I am now seeing shops boarded up (possibly temporarily?) and  For Sale signs on property.   

At the end of October:  Government furlough payments stop in 2 weeks' time.

The clocks go back so we will be heading into shorter days and longer nights ... alas darker days in more ways than one.

CORONAVIRUS WEEK 32: SECOND WAVE ACKNOWLEDGED

The news is full of statistics and graphs showing how the pandemic is worsening.  Hospital admissions are up and, in England, they are preparing the Nightingale  facilities (temporary hospitals which are empty in readiness for a surge).

Scotland has already closed bars and restaurants for a fortnight.  It is the school holidays just now so this is seen as a 'circuit breaker' attempt to stem to rise in cases (and deaths).  

People whose jobs have been put on hold (musicians, entertainment people, for example) are looking at a continued life of no income. 

On the other hand there are people like us who are not spending money ... at all.  No petrol for a car that is not going anywhere, no new clothes for events that have been cancelled, no special food or drink for visitors who are not allowed to visit. And so it goes.  

We are keeping busy however with house and garden activities.  Here is Iain preparing venison for dinner.  He likes to fry up a steak.

We saw the 2 youngest grandchildren at the weekend.  We comply with socially distancing by sitting in the park behind our house as seen below.

* * * * * * * * * A PUZZLE * * * * * * * * * 

A friend sent me this photo and asked me if I could take a guess at what it was.  

I tried: a rather nice room with military people on the edge of the group.  A  man wearing a fez in the background.  Easter European? I thought. But that's about as far as I could manage.

It is of the trial of Gavrilo Princip [centre front] and his fellow-prisoners on the charge of assassinating the Archduke Francis Ferdinand (and his wife). It is a well-known fact that the assassination was the catalyst that started the First World War.  

When talking about this event with some friends this week it appears that it was a bit of a fluke that it happened the way it did. The car the Archduke was in ... seen here minutes before the assassination...

drove the wrong way (from the rest of the motorcade) and had then stopped to buy a sandwich. [Really?!] The assassins saw them and took their chance;  the rest is history.

Millions of soldiers lost their lives .... all because of a sandwich?

CORONAVIRUS WEEK 31 OF LOCKDOWN: HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY SUFFERING

Mid-week there was an announcement to say that restrictions are to be increased in the Glasgow (and central belt) area.  Pubs and restaurants are to close and other hospitality places are to be more restricted in their serving hours.  Travel restrictions are 'advisory' only.  Basically, these changes do not affect our lifestyle, such as it is these days.  All off this is because the infection rate and number of hospital admissions has risen sharply.  Death rate has not, however.

A sign on the door of the TSB bank in Milngavie. "We're closed but we're still here to help."  What a joke!  A bank that helps?  "Gee us a break!" , as they say in Glasgow.

Banks, and many other establishments are increasingly not open, open but not staffed, staffed but only with limited services available.  I am sure there are many good reasons but sometimes I do wonder! I suppose when things break down it is harder to get workmen out, if there are any workmen still in their jobs!

* * * * * *  AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES * * * * * * 

Harriet and Ellie are in our social bubble; i.e. they come after school for 2 hours once a week.   If we can't get to the park behind the house we tend to stay in the kitchen.  To that end I have gathered materials to keep them busy at the kitchen table.  They love being busy... of course, they are at the age when industriousness is a dominant feature.

Harriet just loves constructing things.  She has always loved Lego but once the box of bits has been put together the play in it is  limited.  

I got together some boxes, tape, bits and pieces like lollipop sticks. Also I dug out my button box. She's off....  actually we start out building something together but I am careful to say "Let's see where it takes us.... we are going to be 'creative' today."

This photo shows a 'project' I thought might interest her but really did not fly.  We made a see-saw using the Toblerone chocolate bar box for a fulcrum.  Iain supplied the stick and we tried a bit of balancing.  However I think that is going to have to be for another day.

Ellie and I made a cake from a cake mix. This is the final result here.  There's a long story here which will go in another (subsequent) post.  

Ellie got the Hundreds and Thousand sprinkles and carefully spooned the whole bottle on to the top of the cake (many  of which tumbled to the floor!).   It certainly kept her occupied and that, basically, was the object of the exercise!

To keep Ellie from disturbing Harriet I purchased a Practice Your Letters book at the local newsagent.  It was money well spent! She sat at the kitchen table totally absorbed until she finished every page: "This page took forever!"  (Uh-h-h... yes, that was the idea, pal!)

This was Ellie at the weekend. She had her dolls lined up in the corner of the kitchen and was having a picnic.  She is very much Little Miss Razzle Dazzle so this was her in one of her rare 'quiet' modes!

 * * * * * * * * AUTUMN COLOURS * * * * * * * * 

Early morning photo today

CORONAVIRUS WEEK 29 OF LOCKDOWN - RISING NUMBERS WITH STUDENTS GIVING PROBLEMS

This post did not get posted in the sequence so here it is now. The pandemic situation has been worsening, not dramatically, but slow and steadily.  It appears it is to do with he student population.  To be expected, I suppose. now that universities have gone back.

Mairi, Iain and wee Ellie showing what she bought at Gavin's Mill for him (chutney).  Mairi purchased this lovely rug which I had long admired as it hung on the stone wall of the cafe but lately in the stairwell.

This sign was in the shop window of MacFarlane's in Balfron. With other customers we waited outside the shop in a queue until the one and only customer allowed is was served.  That's the bad news; the good news is that I went to this lovely old fashioned ironmongers with a list of things that one can no longer buy locally (clothes pegs, electrical tape, paring knife) and got everything I went for!  Like so many ironmongers it is an Aladdin's Cave and the lady - mother and daughter - were really helpful.  None of this "Have you checked on on-line?" as soon as you ask an assistant a question! Giving service is not one of Britain's strong points and it is now worse as on-line shopping is becoming more used whether by choice or necessity.

I tried to make Parkerhouse Rolls this week in a fit of bread-making on a wet Sunday.  They turned out more like ship's biscuits!  These rolls were very much something my mother would make for her bridge nights or perhaps they would appear at Christmastime as 'dinner rolls'.  As 2 of the folk who eat my bread offering are having problems with their dentures I wanted to make these very soft little rolls or buns.  Next time I will make a richer dough and not overcook them so they dry out.

CORONAVIRUS WEEK 30: SPAM TEXTS NOW FLOURISHING

It has not been a good week. As for the pandemic, the cases are rising (as they appear to be in many other countries) and full lockdown is immanent.

However, my  headache this week was the fact that I responded to an O2 (my iPhone provider) text which turned out to be a spam "Oh yes, it is very common....".  Well  it never entered my head to question it.  Here is the text and I put it here to raise awareness of what is becoming an increasing problem.

After notifying the bank that there might be a problem I tried to facilitate "Block This Caller' on my iPhone SE Version 13.   I had great trouble doing this and I now realise that because my iPhone was updated about 5 months ago the method for doing this has changed.

Below is the image which shows where this facility is accessed.  After tapping the i with a circle around it (which is what you get when you tap the phone number) this screen comes up.  Very close the the telephone image (for a return call) is the  greater-than sign. This is what you tap to get to get to the "Block This Caller" page.  I would advise using a pencil so as not to make a mistake due to the close proximity ... another candidate for my Book of Bad Design!

Now all this is fine but really what is needed here is a sort of 'Mind Set' to ask the  right questions which are to do with trouble-shooting (which I am not good at!)

I would have saved myself a lot of time and distress if I had said to myself (having realised that I made a mistake  which needed sorting):  What kind of iPhone do you have? i.e. what model/version etc.  OK.... What is the answer you are looking for?  Activate the verb when googling "to block a text on iPhone 13 ...".

I found the answer on 9to5mac.com. Interesting to note that there was nothing on the O2 site about the increasing problem of spam.

On our home phone we are finding more and more harassing phone calls too.... sign of the times, apparently.