The Diary of A Simple Man

"Pacific Island Countries are microcontributors of greenhouse gases yet they are likely to be affected most. Some large nations have blatantly shown their lack of concern on these issues and they seem to believe that their economy and well-being are much more important than the survival of the people from PICs. This sounds inhumane to us. How can we make our voice heard? Are we over-reacting? One thing is for sure: we are vulnerable."
-- Janita Pahalad, Fiji Meteorological Service (Gillispie & Burns, 2000, p223)

For a few years I've more than a usual interest in the climate affairs of the Pacific (including a master's dissertation from the University of Wellington), with the recent completion of a major research paper on energy production which, as the wheel turns very slowly, will hopefully be published soon in the Intergovernmental Research and Policy Journal. In the meantime, however, I have also been nose to the grindstone and have just completed another paper for the same journal, this time on the current and future modelling of sea level change in the Pacific. There are three major improvements in this area: firstly, the adoption of satellite altimetry rather than tidal gauges; secondly, the continued abandonment of the "bathtub" models; and thirdly, the very significant improvements in sheer computational power, especially with general-purpose GPU programming.

Satellites provide a much broader scope for measuring sea level rise, capable of tracking the entire planet rather than just where tidal gauges are located. Further, altimetry actually measures variations in sea-level height, whereas gauges can be subject to subsidence. As for the "bathtub" models, they were fine for predicting sea-level rise due to thermal expansion, but not so good at predicting the effects of storm and wave surges and erosion. Newer, dynamic models are doing a better job at this. Finally, with this additional quantity of data and the complexity of interactions, we are very fortunate to have improvements in computing power through GPGPU programming, which enables massive parallel computation.

Anyway, doing such research has taken up a sizeable portion of my non-working life for the past few weeks, so it's good have some light the end of this project, before I move on to the next topic, which will either be a study in mitigation and adaptation in developing countries or environmental economics, both areas that I know quite well - all depends what my supervisor thinks is best. On a more practical and immediate note, however, it looks like I'll be taking another (short, small) international trip in a couple of weeks to really knuckle down on a major, relevant project for Pacific Island Nations that covers both energy generation and sea-level rise. Who knew that after years of formal study and research, one might be able to make a significant and serious contribution to a chosen subject.

As a consistent, long-standing, albeit irregular contributor to Rocknerd, it is to my shame that I have not contributed anything since February (March Violets, Crocodile Promises). The stack of things that I should review has grown, and, having decided to take a day of rest from work, study, and politics, I turned my attention to art and worked my way through four reviews with an electronica focus:

* Rüfüs Du Sol, Inhale / Exhale (2025). Australia's most successful contemporary electronica-dance band for 15 years, this late review of their latest album notes mostly consistent positive tempo, coupled with a tale from euphoria to loss.
* Basement Jaxx, Sidney Myer Music Bowl. A live review of one of the biggest names in UK garage electronica, known for maximalist performances with high-tempo anthems. Great sounds, albeit with hefty ticket prices and sometimes questionable sound quality.
* Leftfield, Botanical Gardens. Previously reviewed on Rocknerd 15 years ago, Leftfield are an example of beauty in music: "Leftfield are the music of passionate defiance from people who have nothing but each other". Very loud and very clear, the concert would have been improved with length.
* Cut Copy, Botanical Gardens. Unpretentious, often understated, Melbourne's Cut Copy provided a good selection of the past and their most recent album, "Moments". Rather than dancefloor bangers, they provide a continuous joyful vibe.

Now for a brain-dump of some hypotheses on the music of physics, as speculated by a non-physicist. Following Louis de Broglie's hypothesis and Quantum Field Theory, it is fair to say that everything is a wave. From de Broglie was the hypothesis that what we think of as matter has wave-like properties, which has been confirmed through electron diffraction experiments (apropos, waves also exhibit particle-like behaviour). This is accepted as mainstream quantum mechanics; particles are described by a wavefunction, ψ. In Quantum Field Theory (QFT), the fundamental entities of the universe are quantum fields (e.g., electron fields, quark fields, photon fields, etc), and particles themselves are excitations in those fields. Unlike an "everyday wave", like a wave on the ocean, there is no external cause for this it's the fundamental force and motion from the universe.

When a quantum state occurs periodically in time, it can be associated with a frequency. A frequency measured over equal intervals is essentially an oscillation, or, in musical terms, a beat. For a state with definite energy E, the wavefunction evolves as: f=E​/H, the Planck-Einstein relation, where a particle of energy E has an associated oscillation frequency, f. Now, when there is a single eigenstate, a quantum oscillation is more like a single tone. However, the universe has multiple quantum states superimposed with interference, and from that beat frequencies appear. If everything is ultimately oscillating quantum fields, then the universe is an ensemble of coupled rhythms. How far I can push these hypotheses will be explored on another day; however, I am tempted to also map this to the insights between the relationship between music and psychology and the philosophical concept of harmony. But all that's for another day; two paragraphs on quantum mechanics and music is enough for today.