Germany = cheaper

Since the last post a full weekend plus some has passed! I have been to Germany and back (for a food shopping trip) and within Switzerland I've been to Baden (twice) where I did a little sightseeing with Bennie and enjoyed a celebratory evening with my colleagues.

I'm thinking of making a website that will be a self-contained introduction to the physics I'm working on. I'm aware it won't interest everyone, but that way at least it won't (hopefully) put what readers I do have off reading my blog. It'll be helpful for me to write it and even if I feel it should have an audience of 5000 rather than the 5 I am more likely to get (if that!), well it might be worth it. It'll be better to make a whole website dedicated to it really, because there's way too much information to fit into blog pots in a coherent fashion. (Aaahhahaha, coherent!!!) A couple of extra clicks on your part, but what price to keep the internet tidy, hmmm?

The SLS has been having a few problems recently. Not massive problems, but little incidents nonetheless. We think it could just be because the weather is now so hot. At some point last night the SLS ran out of liquid nitrogen so we lost the monochromator halfway through a scan. It's above 30C every day right now. Inside the SLS is kept at a constant temperature so it's nice to sit at the beamline all day in a cool 23-odd degrees, then of course when you leave the building and take a gasp of air that's ten degrees warmer you forget how hot it's been and start getting sticky again.

Germany was exciting! We only went across the border to do some cheap food shopping, but still, I found it a bit of a novelty to be in Switzerland one minute and Germany the next. Didn't even have to show my passport. There is a checkpoint for cars, and the control officers only check randomly or if they're suspicious of you I guess. There are limits on how much fresh meat, alcohol, dairy etc you can take across the border, so we were calculating our purchaii carefully! With one gram more than our designated meat quota (which probably wouldn't have been a problem anyway), the control officer just waved us past, taking a look at the bumper as we passed. We had to laugh when we got back.. you see, some friends played a prank a few days ago, flouring the car in good spirits. Only, the bumper wasn't cleaned too well and there was this powdery residue all over the back in the cracks of the lights surrounding the number plate (Dutch, no less). What the control man must've thought, hehehe...!

Saturday - Baden. I uploaded some photos, after a really hot, sticky hike. We visited an old castle ruin, there were some really nice views. Later that day I was in Baden again (after a shower!) as I was invited to dinner with my work colleagues to celebrate a recent acceptance of a publication and a birthday. It was a really nice gesture and I had a super evening with lovely people and great food - especially the homemade traditional Canadian maple syrup profiterolls!

Sunday - another hot, sticky hike. Well worth it though. I'm enjoying all the activity here! After enjoying the wind at the top of the hill and a pretty nice view of Villigen (even spotting the Alps in the distance), there was a great gathering of friends in the forest for a barbecue by the river. It was a humid afternoon so I enjoyed stepping up to the dry heat of the fire then back again to cool off every so often. Again, I uploaded photos of the day. A couple of people enjoyed the water - I just dipped my legs in. Maybe after ten more hiking trips I'll consider getting into a swimming costume. Unless it gets much hotter, in which case I'll just jump in as is!

Pictures of Physics

I quickly uploaded some anticipated photos of taken from the beamline - follow the link as usual. There are quite a few and with not much explanation as to what everything is, sorry about that. I've not really got time at the moment. I am preparing the physics lesson though!! I have reached the end of the blue section in my notebook...

I've been finding out a bit more about what else happens at PSI - beyond what I am part of I mean - I've friends who work on the Proton Therapy side of things, and I was in that building today taking a look at the neutron beam. Neutron beams are pretty crazy, and the equipment is much bigger than the X-ray stuff I've become used to at the SLS. I felt a bit odd walking past bins marked radioactive waste.. but they have this machine that scans you before you leave the building and I was surely "nicht kontaminiert", phew.

Short post today - I am working pretty hard here - and it doesn't go unnoticed which is nice. Evenings and weekends are non-worky, so I think I have a pretty good balance!

I love physics....

Hutch Rats

I felt compelled to share this picture of my tea - perhaps I haven't lived enough but I've never seen such pretty teabags before... they are pyramids and shiney smooth to the touch.

Anyway ;)

It's a few days since my last post - apologies. I have been exceedingly busy. I have a notebook which I use to document my learning at work - it is colour coded into sections, the first being blue. A recent goal was to reach a siginificant level of understanding about my project by the time I reach the end of the blue section. With 4 sides to go, I think I might just manage that! The best test of understanding is definitely trying to explain the whole thing to someone else. Your turn will come. All in good time, readers.

I love my job. I (will) get paid a sum not to be sniffed at, but to be totally honest I feel like I am being paid in experience! I love PSI and I love real Physics. Real Physics is where people don't always know the answers but use what was taught in uni as a basis for the wonderful things yet to come!

So, the "Hutch Rats" - that is what the X-Ray Diffraction Microscopy team have become. The Hutch is what the beamline room is called.. and that is where we are living at the moment. I don't do much with the beamline - I am a study monster in the next room, absorbing what information flows between the scientists. I am understanding more and more - the more I learn the happier I become but the thing about learning more is, the less you really know because the more there is to know. Follow me?

I wish X-rays were green or something, because for all the equipment, it doesn't look like much is happening when the beam is running. Of course, the computers show that diffraction patterns are being collected etc, but I did expect at least some impressive whizzing sound, or mini explosion.

I have explored a little nearby - and have cycled to the next town, where there is a Co-op Supermarket (different to our Co-op). I've been in Baden to the cinema, and in Brugg on Saturday evening Jason and Jolanta had a bunch of us over for some food and games - much fun! I'm so happy to have met such super people - and to be staying with such super ones too! I've uploaded some photos to Flickr (see top link to the left) of some of the sights of late.

I must stop eating Swiss chocolate. It probably cancels out all the walking and cycling!

4-1!

*** New Link - PHOTOS ***

I was recruited this evening (ie. Friday) by the Dutch to go to Bern and support their country! What an atmosphere!! Yes, I have finally met some fellow PSI people who are here on traineeships - friends, woo! So we travelled to el Capitale and amidst the sea of Orange we soaked up the glory of a 4-1 win against France. The photo here shows the crowd after the first goal :)

Train travel in Switzerland is expensive. It rivals the UK. I didn't have time today but I will definitely get the Halbtax-Abo card sorted (It costs 150 CHF but with that card all travel is half price. To put it in perspective, a return to Bern without the Halbtax is 64 CHF. I'll be traveling to Zurich and thereabouts quite a bit I expect so it'll be a worthwhile purchase. There is also a further card, the Gleis7 - for people under 26, this card along with the Halbtax makes train travel free after 7pm! Done deal.

It is the weekend, and the cSAXS surely have beamtime for a whopping three weeks. I have now met the entire team - super people - and the latest update from the beamline is that they've got some nice diffraction patterns from their test samples. Work today was spent in meetings - the content of which was mostly over my head. I still maintain that it's great to be a part of it though. I haven't really mentioned before.. but PSI is actually a bit special in terms of research institutions, and the things I am getting the opportunity to see, not a lot of people get that chance - and I mean a lot of people in the industry don't get the chance. What these things are will become clear over the next few weeks - but there are some pretty awesome things in store.

I have also managed to get a bike for a few days - a week and a half. PSI loan bikes for a maximum of two weeks. It has cut down my commute to 5 minutes. There are dedicated cycle lanes here - 2 laned cycle lanes at that - which make the whole process relatively stress free.

I shan't be back at work until Monday, so I have the weekend to cycle about a bit, relax, meet up with people. What a week this has been! I am finally getting to see what life outside work is like. Work is of course very amazing, but I have been told by the nice people I work with to make sure I take some time off to see Switzerland. No problems there then! Hope you who are reading these posts are enjoying them, I see the time ahead becoming busier as my social life lives up but I still aim to update you with the daily haps.

I saw a large and marvelously stripey snail today.

Beamtime!

I have not mentioned how comfy the seats at PSI are... they are extremely so.

Tomorrow is the start of the booked cSAXS beamtime for my group. Beamtime is, as you might have guessed, the time of availability of beam. The beam in this case is X-ray. It has to be arranged well in advance, starting off with a proposal from the experimental team and depending on the "rating" it gets, I think that determines how long people have to wait before they can carry out their practical work. I don't know how long this team has had to wait - I know they got an extremely high rating of 1 or 2 - but I have heard of people (worldwide I mean) waiting for months for beamtime. Also tomorrow is a seminar and meeting that I'll probably head along to.

Most of today was spent at the beamline, where myself and mostly Martin (my PhD student and mentor for my first week since the team leaders have been away) completed the experimental set up and tested the distances and limits of the moving parts. It's all linked up to computer so remote controlled from the next room. Controlling the parts involves a few Linux commands.. and it is SO unbelievably MUCH cooler to plug in coding and see machinary move than it is to plug in ordinary differential equations and see confusion. Of course it doesn't move much, but the point is I did Science today and it was COOL.

I've updated the links on the left-hand side to include a link to the cSAXS beamline and its research. It's so cool, please don't just take my word for it.

I must try to remember my camera for tomorrow.

Slugs and Snails

"Showing a Fourier transform to a physics student generally produces the same reaction as showing a crucifix to Count Dracula"

James, J.F. A Student's Guide to Fourier Transforms 2nd Edt. Cambridge University Press 2002

I think I might like this book.

I've decided that I am not going to bother trying to "teach" you physics, because while I want to make what I am covering accessible to all, it's just not going to be possible, considering I am using a Master-diploma thesis to help me out with my own understanding of the topics involved... Instead I might just mention things of interest, trying not to be too technical.

I am really in awe at people who do science at this level. It's completely different to university. I am free to spend all day reading up on the areas I need to read up on, getting all the support/help I need. The way this differs from university is that there are no assessments or courses that get in the way of the stuff I want to be doing. And I genuinely want to what I need to do - that is read up on and understand the research.. because soon I am going to have to get on with my own.

So the research is in the field of lensless X-ray microscopy. The method that's really breaking ground is called PIE - Ptychographical Iterative Engine. Ptycography is a word from the Greek meaning "fold" - so it's an imaging technique that involves layering. Iterative means repetive - so there's something in the technique that is repeated over and over and built upon. Engine, well it's a means to an end. And that end is that PIE is a scanning coherent-diffraction technique. Coherent is what the light is. Diffraction produces patterns of an object which can be used to gather information about the material, and scanning means that the object doesn't have to be a finite size - it can be moved about, scanned to cover more of the surface. So if you're thinking what's up with a normal microscope instead, well the PIE microscopy works at a much higher resolution and the X-rays allow properties that you wouldn't otherwise have known about to be detected. It's not the only coherent X-ray diffraction microscopy method out there, but it overcomes loads of problems that such conventional methods suffer from - all because of the folding thing (ptychography).

That's as non technical as I can be really. I'm going to be studying some mathematical means to an end for the next little while. It's not so bad, it's a tool after all. I should have mentioned yesterday that cSAXS, the beamline I am on, it stands for coherent Small Angle X-Ray Scattering.

Oh the title - just an observation - there are hundreds of slugs and snails on the paths here when it's wet.

Problem solving

Although not in the way you might expect. See, for the past few days I had been aware of my skin emitting a fresh scent like tea-tree oil. Now, it's not a bad smell.. so I wasn't too worried, just bemused as to what should cause my pores to excrete such a thing, because I wasn't using any tea-tree products, nothing in the soap... certainly nothing in the food... but today I figured it out. It is in fact Olbas oil, which is impregnated on the hankies I have been using. Sorry for the anticlimax, but it had been puzzling me for some time.

Today was spent digesting all of yesterday's information (and the afternoon, digesting a "warm lunch"). It feels like a slow process but I may actually have an inkling of what the research is about now. Without getting too technical I'll attempt to give a primer to the research which I'll build upon in later posts. I'll start by explaining what the Swiss Light Source actually makes possible... well to start off with you should know that it's a synchrotron to provide light, if it wasn't already obvious from the name. It gives access to wavelengths between infrared light and Hard X-Rays.


The image to the left (linked to source), is a diagram of the SLS and its beamlines. It's at these beamlines that different research takes place. People who are based at PSI use it - visiting institutions use it too. For a concise explanation of what the SLS is and why it is, read PSI's own guide. If you don't know what a synchrotron is, read this first. I work on the cSAXS beamline where we use hard X-rays (Hard X-rays differ from soft X-rays in that they are higher in energy, and X rays produced in a synchrotron have a far greater intensity than those from an X-ray tube, like in hospitals).

So she's working with X-Rays....

Yes. The research is to do with X-ray microscopy. It's microscopy at a level that doesn't need a lens - the light is focussed using a method of diffraction instead. The next piece of information you need to understand is that a wavelength has an amplitude and a phase. And there's this thing called the "phase problem" - when you measure a wavelength, all the information about the phase is lost. Unfortunately the phase contains useful information about whatever it is that's being measured. This problem has been tackled through things called algorithms - just sequences to process data in a particular way.

And that's probably enough information to be getting on with, eh?

So she doesn't really get what's going on beyond this...

Not true! It gets a bit complicated from here and I haven't found a way to explain it yet. Give me time.

It remains very warm, I think I already have t-shirt lines, or my usual ones are accentuated. It's hard to believe that the weather isn't always so nice here but I am assured that it is not. In fact there's meant to be Donner und Blitzen tonight. There is a river that splits the two sides of PSI. I work on PSI West, and I have drawn in the Synchrotron in this picture (maybe slightly big, but perhaps not too exagerated), as Google maps weren't so up to date... construction of the SLS began in 1998. I heard the images on Google maps were meant to be updated every 4 years. Or maybe 7. I digress...

I have my own computer at work to go along with my fancy email address, and it is FAST. The machines waste NO time! They operate with Scientific Linux and (get this) should my machine not be fast enough for whatever reason, I can log on to another system that gives me some 16GB RAM. It's great working with a small team who are ever ready to answer my questions - explaining in greater detail some things that were touched on in university lectures. That's to be expected of course, the undergraduate degree at university gives a broad education of as much as possible - to be built on further if any research is to be entered into. Actually seeing a point to these things makes it a lot more enjoyable.

Thus I become... a Scientist!

A tired Scientist at that. Having been used to getting up at 6 or 7 am for the duration of exams, I was pleasantly surprised to be told "the scientists won't come in until 9, or maybe later...", although I failed to ask when work was until. I left just before 6pm leaving the proper scientists to their work, which might not seem so bad but it was physics all day long! Real, new-imformation Physics! Ah, and I have encountered a little dreaded mathematics. So, almost reaching information-overload today but everyone is very nice. I am only slightly disgruntled that I can speak French or Polish but not German. I was wilting through the day due to the heat, the information, everything.. and I wondered how on earth people stay there so long! We had lunch of course, there are "warm lunches" or a sandwich bar. I opted for the sandwich bar where I had a quite delicious salad. Warm lunches are bigger, and I wondered why anyone might want a large lunch (I thought it would make me tired), but I guess they need the energy because they stay at work quite late. I do remeber working harder in Poland than in the UK, or feeling like people generally worked harder (I mean academically)... so maybe Britain's just soft. I think I still choose to be British.

I haven't got any pictures to show you, but I have been in the SLS and it was a "wow" moment, considering the closest I have ever been to a synchrotron before is a picture in my Solid State lectures (which, by the way I am glad of because we covered diffraction, and I'll be working on a specific bit of diffraction, sort of...). So, practical work with the SLS will be carried out beginning Friday. This afternoon I was helping to set up the experiment, and I have to say it made Advanced Practical Physics seem infantile. You should see the size of the equipment they're using.

The temperature has been at least 25'C all day I think, and inside the SLS it was pretty much 25'C also. Needless to say I had a shower as soon as I got back. Oh, and I removed my "comfortable shoes", which were comfy for all of 30 minutes. Wondering if they just need worn in...?

Villigen itself is small, very small. There's one fairly well stocked shop. I managed to find some English Breakfast amongst all the silly continental teas. I think veganism may have to take a back seat (in fact it already has) but whatever. The ethics never quite got to me yet anyway. I did buy Organic milk... I hope there are no vegans reading this.

I probably won't get out of Villigen until the weekend, I am not sure if I will go on any expeditions this weekend or just take it easy and check out Brügg. As a final note for today, Lindt IS cheaper here and the scenery is stunning. All in all good then!

Arrival

First thing noted - the advertisements mown/grown into the lawn at the airport, so I can remember to buy a Vixtorinox Swiss Army Knife...

I'm pleased to report that all travel has gone smoothly. No luggage (belonging to me) lost at Terminal 5, managed to get the right train to Brugg where I was duly met by the young couple I am renting a room from. The flat is great, very roomy and in an idealic village - country surroundings and all. Immediately downstairs is a restaurant, part of a guesthouse.

After unpacking all less-than-20-kilos of my stuff (not including the hefty package of laptop and newspapers aquired through the day) I took a stroll to see where exactly the old workplace is. It's a 20 minute walk away. Tuneful clanging came from amidst the trees and hills as I ventured this evening and in the clearing I could see several cows. Definitely in Switzerland then!

It's humidish here, I noted 18 degrees at 7.30pm. I enjoyed a superbly powerful shower to clean off all the travel-sweat, and some food - Nadja prepared nice soup for me. Oh, I was extremely glad of my Wet Ones while traveling.

First day of work tomorrow, how surreal! I aim to update as I go along.