SCIENCE: Squeezing What Hasn’t Been Squeezed Before: Scientists Score Another Victory Over Uncertainty in Quantum Physics Measurements.

Over the past few decades, scientists have learned to cheat a bit on the Uncertainty Principle through a process called “squeezing,” which has the effect of changing how the uncertainty is shown graphically. Changing the circle to an ellipse and ultimately to almost a line allows one component of the complementary measurements – the momentum or the position, in the case of an object – to be specified more precisely than would otherwise be possible. The actual area of uncertainty remains unchanged, but is represented by a different shape that serves to improve accuracy in measuring one property.

This squeezing has been done in measuring properties of photons and atoms, and can be important to certain high-precision measurements needed by atomic clocks and the magnetometers used to create magnetic resonance imaging views of structures deep inside the body. For the military, squeezing more accuracy could improve the detection of enemy submarines attempting to hide underwater or improve the accuracy of atom-based inertial guidance instruments.

Now physicists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have added another measurement to the list of those that can be squeezed. In a paper appearing online February 26 in the journal Nature Physics, they report squeezing a property called the nematic tensor, which is used to describe the rubidium atoms in Bose-Einstein condensates, a unique form of matter in which all atoms have the same quantum state. The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

I was going to add some sort of uncertainty-related tagline, but I wasn’t sure which one to use.

Related: IBM Touts Quantum Computing Breakthrough. “Scientists at IBM Research today said they have achieved a major advance in quantum computing that will allow engineers to begin work on creating a full-scale quantum computer. The breakthrough allowed scientists to reduce data error rates in elementary computations while maintaining the integrity of quantum mechanical properties in quantum bits of data, known as qubits.”

COMPUTERS: Why The Progress Bar Is Lying To You?

WELL, PRENATAL IS TOUGH: How Young Is Too Young to Learn to Code?

#OCCUPYFAIL: AgitProp hoax exposed. “Sorry, The Restaurant Receipt Left By That Nasty, Rich Banker Is A Photoshop Hoax.”

WELL, IF WE PROGRAM THEM IN, THEY WILL: Will Artificial Intelligences Have Motivations?

HEY, LOOK: Senate Democrats Who Took Campaign Contributions from Koch Industries. Including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden. I guess they didn’t realize Koch was evil until after the check cleared.

CHANGE: Home prices fell in December in most US cities.

MORE ON THAT HAWKER BEECHCRAFT/EMBRAER ISSUE: Breaking: Air Force Sets Aside Controversial Light Air Support Contract. “An email from the USAF, which the Tatler has obtained from a source on the Hill, says that the Air Force is reevaluating its controversial Light Air Support (LAS) decision. The email, which went out today from Air Force’s Senate Liaison office, also promises an investigation.”

CHANGE: Americans Get Reacquainted With IUDs. “After decades of sloppy research, bad publicity, lawsuits and widespread fears of health hazards, the intrauterine device is making a major comeback in the United States. . . . Use of IUDs declined drastically in the 1970s and 1980s when one device, the Dalkon Shield, was linked to severe infections. Poorly designed studies blamed all IUDs for infections that damaged a woman’s tubes and caused infertility. The Dalkon Shield was taken off the market, but later studies that were better designed found that, all other factors being equal, there were no more cases of pelvic inflammatory disease among IUD users than occurred in nonusers.”

AN INTERESTING-LOOKING Second Amendment symposium at Fordham on March 9.

HEH: You Could Make an Entire Semester Legal Ethics Class From Righthaven’s Problems.

STEVE HAYWARD: The Unbearable Gleickness of Being: An Omnibus Climate Update. “Evelyn Waugh couldn’t make this stuff up.”

“IF YOU AREN’T GETTING SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, YOU AREN’T GETTING YOUR FAIR SHARE:” Share of Government Aid in Personal Income Doubles.

SHOCKER: Obama-Supporting Law Firm Advised on Failed Fisker Loan.

A NEW BLOG PROJECT for Justin Katz.

THE DANGER OF THE “MIDDLE INCOME TRAP.” More on that here. Reader Eric Schubert writes that it’s time to break out the Robert Heinlein “bad luck” quote again.

THE INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE Joins The ObamaCare Fight.

UPDATE: Much more from Prof. Elizabeth Price Foley.

SCIENCE: “Yes, yes, remember the old rule: Whenever researchers find something to be true of females, they will interpret and report it as evidence of female superiority. As I’ve pointed out many times, this rush to patronize women reveals an underlying fear that women actually are inferior.”

YOGA AND SEX SCANDALS: No surprise here. “Why does yoga produce so many philanderers? And why do the resulting uproars leave so many people shocked and distraught? One factor is ignorance. Yoga teachers and how-to books seldom mention that the discipline began as a sex cult — an omission that leaves many practitioners open to libidinal surprise. . . . Since the baby boomers discovered yoga, the arousal, sweating, heavy breathing and states of undress that characterize yoga classes have led to predictable results. In 1995, sex between students and teachers became so prevalent that the California Yoga Teachers Association deplored it as immoral and called for high standards.”

AT AMAZON, it’s the Automotive Outlet sale.

“SMART DIPLOMACY:” Obama Administration Ignored Iranian Opposition’s Advice. Plus, Sen. Schumer’s back-channel to Iran.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Durable Goods Orders in U.S. Slump 4%, Most in Three Years.

KILL IT. Europe In Turmoil Over Internet Anti-Piracy Legislation. “In the wake of the public outcry in the United States over proposed domestic antipiracy legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), international regulation is also taking a hit. The edifice of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) seems to have crumbled. This time, however, it happened in Europe.”

HILLARY CLINTON: These Republicans are inflaming the situation in Afghanistan by criticizing Obama for apologizing. Allah comments: “I can see why she’s ‘somewhat troubled.’ If there’s one thing the Democratic Party stood for between 2003 and 2008, it’s the principle that the opposition party should tread lightly when criticizing the president lest it inflame opinion abroad.”