Stone Mountain and Atlanta (1)

I've travelled to Stone Mountain in Georgia in the US for the conference. It was a short trip for about a week, but meaningful to me in that it was the first visit to the US and the first talk in a conference. Talking about the conference tends to be boring to readers and myself. So, I'm gonna make it brief.

The conference took place at Evergreen Marriott Conference Resort. I stayed in the conference hotel for the first two nights and had to move out to the other hotel due to the expensive hotel rate. I was quite nervous in the first day of the conference since I was supposed to give a presentation. To make things worse, my condition was terrible on the first day probably because of food. (I really really hate continental breakfast)

Majority audience were lecturers and professors. My presentation was uncontentious, and the Q&A was quite easy. I find that presentation is always easy, but Q&A is not easy. Q&A is more difficult to execute well, and I want to be good at it. Most people came to the conference as a group, and some people individually came. During the session in which I was, I was able to meet several famous scholars. They are equivalent to Lady Gaga to the students studying the same subject. The invited speaker gave a presentation for his latest research, followed by three presentations for the conference papers.  
 
It was great to meet people, particularly PhD students from other Universities in the US. I've never met such many american people and it was great to talk with american students. I got extremely inspired and motivated during the banquet. It is a great opportunity to look at myself, and I realized that I had been meaninglessly spending such a precious time in the UK. This introspection might be the biggest gain from the conference. 



The banquet at the famous aquarium in Atlanta

 From the third day in the conference, I stayed in the other hotel, located several miles away fron the conference resort. I had to take taxi whenever I move around because there is no public transportation other than taxi. I went hiking to Stone Mountain. Readers can get information from a number of website for Stone Mountain. At the beginning, I imagined a hill, but when I reached the peak of Stone Mountain, I realized that it was a kind of mountain. My T-shirt and my face were completely wet by sweat during hiking and the weather was warm enough to remind me that I was in the South US. The scenery of the town was not very special, but very peaceful probably because of the lake.

After spending half an hour in the peak of the mountain, I felt like to go to the park located in front of the memorial carving depicting three confederate leaders of the Civil War. On the way down, I met two women, on their way up to the mountain, asking me how much they have to walk to get to the peak. I was thinking something which I don't remember now, and it felt like I was at the peak just 5 minutes ago, so I said 5 minutes. They said "Thank you". After they had gone, I realized that it was way more than 5 minutes. I appologize if one of you are reading this now!

Walking around the town Stone Mountain was quite enjoyable. This is probably because I had been busy since I started my study in Oxford. On the day, I was chased by nothing. I've already booked in a hotel in Stone Mountain, so even if I rush looking around the town, there was nothing else I could do in the town after that. This is maybe the reason why I remember the people I saw on the day and my image for the town is so clear.

In the park, unlike my expectation, just a few people were enjoying the sunny day with the memorial carving. I could see American people's effort to commercially exploit their treasure. But unfortunately, they were some construction and refurbishment. At around 5pm I took a taxi, and came back to my hotel.

 

The skyscrapers in the downtown of Atlanta



The memorial carving in Stone Mountain 

Three confederate leaders in the Civil War,
President Jefferson Davis, Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson

Miss Saigon and technical perfection - Yuna Kim (3)

Yuna's rehersal for gala. "Only Hope"

When we talk about Yuna, her 2nd senior season is evaluated not splendid as much as other seasons. Nevertheless, I cannot and won't forget both Die Fledermaus and Miss Saigon, because of the special connection with me. From this season, I started watching Yuna's performances in Grand Prix. Technically, she became world champion in 2009, but her skating skill reached the perfection in this season. Since I don't remember all the scores, I am going to make reference to Wikipedia.

'Kim started off the 2007-2008 season winning the 2007 Cup of China with a total score of 180.68 points, which was 24.34 ahead of silver medalist Caroline Zhang.'
'At the 2007 Cup of Russia, Kim won both the short programme scoring 63.50 points and the free skate with 133.70 points, to finish first overall with 197.20 points, 24.43 ahead of silver medalist Yukari Nakano, which set a world record for the free skate score under the ISU Judging System.'

The author watched both Grand Prix competitions, and stongly felt that Yuna's skating skill was upgraded. First of all, she looked comfortable in senior competition and technically stronger than the previous season, probably because other problems such as skating boots and her back injury had been sorted out. The author strongly felt that she was going to be unbeatable in the season, and she successfully accomplished defending her champion in Grand Prix Final.

Comparing 'Die Fledermaus' with Yuna's other short programs, I would say 'Die Fledermaus' is quite unique. She was able to make impressive debut due to the strong character in the short programme 'El Tango de Roxanne'. In the following season, 'Die Fledermaus' was a trial to show her different view. In fact, I really liked this programme. She was so cute and adorable... but the programme failed to present her high score. Since then, Yuna has tended to stick to the music with strong beat like 'Danse Macabre' and 'James Bond Medley', and this is why I take 'Die Fledermaus as a unique programme for Yuna.

'Miss Saigon' is not my favorite long programme. But she was extremely strong during Grand Prix in China and Russia with this programme. Particularly in Russia, she made it flawless for the first time in her senior competition, setting new world record. I was one of the people who were expecting Yuna to set new world record breaking 200 point at World Championship in Sweden.

Back then, I was working in a company in the UK, and when I got to know that World Championship was going to take place in Sweden, I seriously considered travelling to Sweden to watch Yuna's skating. In 2007 to 2008, I had time and money. So I did it. Spending the whole vacation with World Championship in any sports even was one of those things I used to dream about, so I booked all the events: singles (men and women), pair skating and ice dancing. If you are a big fan of Yuna and have read carefully this story so far, some of you may be able to guess the dramatic point of the story. Yes, it is Yuna's injury right before the Championship. Before she got injured, I already made all the reservations for hotel, flight and World Championship. One month before the competition, her manager has announced that they have to see the state of recovery to decide her participation.

In fact, back then I was fascinated by figure skating itself, so Yuna's injury was a disappointing news rather than the end of the world. With said that, having a world-class skater like Yuna who you can support during the competition was the most important reason for my travel plan, so I had to keep my eyes and ears on the news about her recovery. In the end, she decided to participate the competition, but most people would have thought that the circumstance will be different in the Championship because Yuna had been off the ice for a couple of weeks.

In March 2008, the World Figure Skating Championships was held by Gothenburg in Sweden. I had to spend most of time in Scandinavium, the venue of the competition, because the weather was quite cold. When I arrived in Scandinavium, pair skaters were practicing on the ice. I clearly remember this because of Aliona and Robin. 'Gorgeous, Graceful, Artistic ...' this was my first mipression.
Watching World Figure Skating Championship was amazing. In particular, I was blown away by men singles. In 2008, there were several competitors for gold medal, making it hard to predict who's gonna win the competition. When the last group was introduced by the announcer, the fever in Scandinavium was just like a concert hall. Just to remind you who were in the competition, there were Jeffrey Buttle, Brian Joubert, Johnny Weir, Daisuke Takahashi, Stephane Lambiel and Patrick Chan. Though Jeffrey won gold medal, my favorite was Daisuke due to his sensational short programme, hip hop version 'Swan Lake'. The choreography was brilliant, but he's got short and speedy style of skating skills nobody could easily copy. I personally think 2008 was one of his best seasons though he ended up with no dedal in World Championship. I actually supported Daisuke in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Men singles was the highlight not just because of the Japanese hit hop dancer but the diversity of world-class skaters. The two Russian giants swept the world from late 1990s to early 2000s. Since Evgeni Plushenko left the ice, there has been no king in mens single. My favorite is Alexei Yagudin, and he is the only one who can present me both technical perfection and artistic impression in mens skating. Since Michael Jordan left a basketball court, a number of fans left courts with him. But the situation was different in mens single skating. Several great skaters could not shine under the giants, but they had been wating with great talents. Jeffrey, Brian, Johnny, Daisuke and Stephane. Watching these skaters' performances was literally fantastic. You can easily tell the different styles of each skater. A good analogy would be tasting five chocolates with five different flavours. When it comes to men singles, it was definitely better than Vancouver Olympics.

I quite liked pairs event. All the techniques were magnificent. And it seemed like advantageous than singles in that they've got their partner to play with. Watching pair event was quite similar with watching music videos. There is a story, a partner and a music. Ice dancing was a bit boring maybe because I have no ability to tell the difference between good and bad performances. But Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir looked nice. (They are a real couple, aren't they?)

Lastly, female singles. After all, Yuna failed to win the competition. However, this experience was so precious and important to her. Injury can happen to any sports event and any player. And gaining know-how to avoid injury is extremely important. I think Yuna learned this through World Championship in 2008, and she hasn't made the same mistake again. Probably it was the most valuable bronze medal in her skating career.

Since watching 2008 World Championship in Gothenburg, I became a big fan of figure skating. I really enjoyed individual skater's show and their competition. When it comes to football and baseball, I personally prefer watching it in a pub with a pint of beer. But figure skating is worth travelling to the place, watching the performance and feeling the atmosphere.

Lang Lang visits the Oxford Union

Friday is always somewhat difficult to focus on working. Particularly, on 17th February, a Chinese pianist Lang Lang was supposed to visit the Oxford Union, so I left my office at 4pm with no hesitation. I had no information for Lang Lang other than his performance at the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics. But the rumor had it that he will play some pieces of classic music in the debating chamber, so I was excited about watching one of the best pianists and the performance. That's probably all graduates want to do on Friday.

He spent one and a half hour in the chamber. His performance was impressive as everyone would have expected, but his life story was also quite interesting. Even though I have quite many chinese friends in Oxford, I haven't seriously thought about China's 'One child policy' before. But Lang Lang's story in his early years allowed me to taste what the policy have been like in China.

In Asian culture, a child is a hope as well as a present. We are quite familar with the stories of a number of artists and sports stars encouraged (occasionally forced) to practice harder by their parents. As I have introduced previously, a Korean figure skater Yuna Kim is well known for her enthusiastic mother as well as her skating skill. I have neither negative nor positive opinion on those types of parents. To be honest, if I happen to find a great potential and talent from my kids in the future, I might do the same thing. It might be one of the most important parent's responsibilities to discover the kid's talent and encourage it. Children have right to be treated as independent human beings, and yet we also have to admit that their lack of experience, and this is where the parent's role comes in. According to me, the two most important responsibilities of parents are giving love under no condition, and discover, encourage their talents.

No one can earn everything losing nothing. Trade-off has to be remembered. To climb to the peak where no one can easily reach, you must give up something anyone can easily gain and experience. The important thing is there should be 'no regret' when you retrospect your past life.

Photon (Nano Story - 1)

'Don't tell me sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon'

I've come across this from the TV show 'The Apprentice' on BBC.  The one who came up with this for the first time might have thought this is brilliant, but it feels like it rather tends to clarify the limit which is Neil Armstrong's footprints on the moon. For this reason, I prefer 'Sky is the limit' as sky also means Universe in a larger context.

In the last year, I've experienced multidisciplinary nature of nanotechnology in the lecture theatres and laboratories at Cambridge. Nanotechnology incorporates physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, material science and bioscience. My background is mechanical engineering and there was another student who had the same background with me in the master's programme. She and I both had to admit that nanotechnology is way more interesting than mechanical engineering. There is nothing wrong with mechanical engineering, but simply nanotechnology was amazing and mind-blowing.

A number of scientists across the world are carrying on diverse projects associated with nanotechnology, and the outcome is normally published in journal articles. However, the public (here, I define the public as non-scientiests) cannot readily access those scientific papers, so this is where the scientific news articles come in. Yet I still occasionally find that scientific news articles often fail to deliver scientific information to the public because they are always missing the introduction part of the story. Among method is to use analogy to introduce the concept and the impact of technology, but it tends to rather exeggerate the original story. This motivates me to introduce novel technologies focusing on the fundamental nanotechnologies where the new devices and techniques are based on. Any one who happens to read my scientific blog, and find any part incorrect or controversial, please do not hesitate to make comments. Criticism is always welcome!

"Tripping the light fantastic"  (Original Article)

I am going to begin this story with throwing one of the most significant questions to physicians, 'What is light?' Light is definitely sort of a wave. But could you believe that light also consists of particles called 'photons'? Fundamentally speaking, Li-fi is based on photons. In fact, light emitting diode and laser diode also exploit manipulating photons.

As most would know, 'photo' has a meaning 'photograph' as well as 'light'. Then how about 'photon'? In quantum mechanics, all the particles are treated as waves as well as particles, and this is called 'Wave-particle duality'. To help your understanding, we better get started with 'Double-slit experiment with electron'.

Double-slit experiment (from Wikipedia)

The above figure shows the principle of double slit experiment. A plane wave of light illuminates the screen with two slits, and the waves interfere each other after passing through the slits. In terms of interference, the light can be regarded as a wave, but the illuminated light on the screen is also observed groups of particles.



Inteference pattern on the screen (from Wikipedia)

This figure illustrates that the intensity of absorbed particles on the screen increases over time. From this aspect, the light behaves as particles do. However, the figure also shows the similar pattern which is normally observed from wave interference. As I remember from the lecture 'Physics at the nanometre-scale' at Cambridge, we still get this interference pattern even if you shoot a single electron to the screen including two slits. Therefore, the fact of the matter is that, nobody knows whether electron is particle or wave. With said that, a number of physical experiments are well explained when we regard them as waves.

The wave-particle duality of electron is a good example to introduce photon since it corresponds to the particle of light wave. Thus, the light generated from LED is a series of photons. Whe it comes to the technology of those devices, the key issue is how to manipulate every single photon. To improve the efficiency of light generation, a specific semiconductor is chosen and engineered for the specific purpose. And in semiconductor industry, one of the key technologies is confining electron and hole in a extremely small area, and hence doping in nanometre scale is required. Accordingly, several fabrication techniques to deposit dopants in such small area have been developed. Equally importantly, characterization techniques also became extremely important, and hence gradually have been developed. To observe and evaluate the heterostructure in nanoscale, electron and atomic force microscopy are preferentially used in industry and research institutes. I believe there willl be more chances in the future to talk about characterization techniques and why those structures cannot be observed through optical microscope.

The Lark Ascending and Yuna - Yuna Kim (2)

The lark ascending was 'art' rather than 'sport'

Her first season as a senior skater was in 2006 right after the gold medal from world junior championship. In short, I would say her performance was incomplete version due to her injury, but the short programme 'El Tango de Roxanne' and the long programme 'The Lark Ascending' were great enough to become the legends. A number of her loyal fans including the author particularly love these two programmes since she was just a girl rather than the queen.

'El Tango de Roxanne' showed that a music with strong and fast beat so well fit together with her skating style and techniques. She broke world record by scoring 71.95, and this definitely showed the world what they were about to see from Yuna for the next several years. Her performance in short programme in world championship is famous for high score and her debut performance in world championship, and yet many South Koreans' favourite might be 'The Lark Ascending'.

People agree that Yuna's 'The Lark Ascending' has something special. For me, I think it's special because her jumps, spins, step sequences and spirals do not look like the compulsory elements in the programme but a part of her choreography. Watching other figure skaters' skating, you get to count how many jumps they have done during performance. But in 'The Lark Ascending', all the technical elements are so beautifully integrated with the whole choreography, so the whole programme runs extremely smoothly. Of course, 'The Lark Ascending' is the masterpiece of Yuna's choreographer David Wilson. With that said, no skater other than Yuna can execute the choreography in such a beautiful way. When Yuna reached the level of perfection with 'Danse Macabre' or 'James Bond Medley', I used to think that Yuna's 'The Lark Ascending' was possible because she was a young girl back then. But when Yuna came back with 'Homage to Korea' in 2011 World Championship, her choreography in Arirang seemed to be another version of 'The Lark Ascending'. Yuna's got long arms and legs, which would be a great advantage for expressing a music with slow tempo. On top of that, Yuna is simply a good dancer. She knows how to dance with a music with slow tempo as well as fast and slow beat.

I hope Yuna include 'The Lark Ascending' in her ice show someday. She's got so-called legendary programmes such as 'Danse Macabre' and 'Concerto in F', which will resound for a long time as a classic skating programme. Yuna hasn't done clean programme and broken world record with 'The Lark Ascending', but it will remain forever as one of the best programmes in figure skating history to her fan and to me.

World Junior Champion - Yuna Kim (1)



Yuna won 2005-2006 World Junior Championships

January 2012 is a quite brutal season so far. It's the second term of the first year, and now I serious feel the rapidly growing pressure that the specific goal of my PhD must be decided and the first outcome must be created in a couple of months of time. So, recently there has been no fun since I came back from skiing trip, and there will be no exceiting thing for a while. My life has been occasionally boring like this and probably will be like this from time to time during my PhD study. Yet this blog should be stayed alive. So, I decided to talk about the number one celebrity in South Korea for the last five years, Yuna Kim.

In this world, there are two types of prodigies. Some prodigies shine bright in their early ages, but the great expectation is not continued, and the name is soon forgotten among the public. The other type grows up with  their great talents. The representative super star of the latter case is Yuna Kim. The history of figure skating in South Korea is distinguished by before and after the appearance of Yuna Kim. She is such a super hero!

The weather in South Korea is cold enough in winter to present good background for winter sports such as skiing and skating. For a last decade, South Korea has been quite good in winter olympics due to one specific event, short track. In 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, South Korea was able to sweep gold medals from speed skating and figure skating as well as short track probably thanks to the ambitious project for 2018 winter olympic campaign which was confirmed to be Pyeongchang in South Korea by IOC committee. In fact, ice sports are relatively not restricted by weather condition, so those countries under an equatorial climate still have an opportunity if massive investment could be followed. But when it comes to snow sports, climate and topographic conditions are extremely important, so european countries have significant advantages. In South Korea, the amount of rainfall in winter is extremely small, so skiing resorts have to rely on artificial snow. After having skiing trip to Chamonix, the author felt that european countries are almost unbeatable in snow sports.

For South Koreans, 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic was the most dramatic because two miraculous events happend. One was Mo Taebum's the first gold medal in speed skating followed by Lee Sanghwa's another gold medal. Both won gold medals from the shortest track event 500m, which means the fastest man and woman on the ice were all South Korean. The second miracle was Yuna Kim's perfect gold medal. She broke the world record in both short and long programme, accordingly the total as well. This story will be followed later in detail.

A frontier always deserves compliment. South Korea had never received attention in the field of figure skating, and now there are hundreds and thousands times of young figure skaters in South Korea who want to follow Yuna Kim's beanten track. But, Yuna's life story tells us how difficult it is to blaze a new trail.

I got to know her for the first time when she won silver medal in world junior championship in 2004-2005. Back then I though she was one of those prodigies who might be easily forgotten but I also felt she was having something speciall in her personality and appearance (she's got just adorable style). So I immediately knew she was going to be a star (of course didn't expect a super star like now). Figure skating has been known as the flower of winter olympics. The author still remember the rivary relationship between Michelle Kwan and Tara Linpinski because it has been introduced by several TV programmes in South Korea, even though there had been no Korean figure skater in world class level. So, when Yuna Kim won silver medal in 2005-2006 and eventually gold medal from world junior championship in 2006-2007, she was a present to South Koreans but also there was a question mark whether she would be able to overcome the gap between junior level and senior level.

Chamonix Mont Blanc (2nd and 3rd)

I woke up every three hour, and everytime I looked out the window. I couldn't see mountains clearly until half past seven in the morning. The mountains viewed through the window was literally magnificent and could be compared with one of the highest mountains in South korea.



The mountain view from the hotel room

After having one of the worst breakfast at 14 euro in the hotel, we rent a ski and a snowboard. It's been two years since I went to a ski resort. Ski boots were quite heavier than I remembered. On the second day, we were planning to go to Balme because of skier-friendly(?) slopes. There are diverse slopes including beginner and intermediate levels in Balme according to the guide map. Skiing is obviously a dangerous sports (some people may not agree with this), so we wanted to try easy one on the first day. Additionally, we watched a video clip on youtube someone took while skiing in Balme, and the scenery of the slopes was pretty amazing. Yet we didn't know how far Balme was located from the hotel. Actually the ski resort Balme was located far away from the town, so we had to take the coach for about 50 minutes. When we arrived at Balme, it was already 12 o'clock, so we rushed to the lift after purchasing lift passes. The lift pass covers most of the best ski resorts in Chamonix and tour programmes for three days at 104 euro. The slopes viewed from the lift on the way to the peak were quite steep more than we thought. When we reached the top of the mountain, two of us were extremely pleased due to the panorama and the fact that we are in Alps. Believing that I'm experienced traveller, I strongly suggested that we should take pictures right now since the weather was not terrible yet. According to weather forecasts, there was going to rain soon. But Mr Chun looked extremely motivated to snowboard, so we took just a few pictures at the peak of Balme. These photos are only memorable photos from the first day because of what happened in ten minutes.

On the way to the ticket office



Chamonix covered with clouds. It was raining in the town and snowing in the mountain. This often happens in Chamonix, so the official Chamonix website provides the anticipated altitude at which rain transform into snow for skiiers



Lost!! Let me see my map~



Balme. It was relatively good except the location and the weather.

Originally, we were planning to take the longest and most gentle slope at the beginning. When we watched youtube, the slope had a potential issue for Mr Chun due to the narrow. Particularly, I realized that a narrow and gentle slope could be the hardest course for the snowboarders in intermediate level. When he got in the slope, both of us immediately realized that it could be serious. So, I let him go to the other slope and he let me go alone. That was around 12:30 pm, and we couldn't see each other until 5:00 pm.
For over four hours, I had to ski alone. I don't usually mind skiing alone, but on the day, the weather was extrmely foggy and my ski skill was on the way coming back. Particularly turning didn't work well, so I had to slide down the slope not via ski blades but my whole body. The first day ski was quite painful. It was a big mistake to go to the peak straightaway. Whenever trying to turn particularly into right, I failed to shift my weight from the left to the right. It takes time to recover the sense and skill, and the first skiing experience after two years gap was not very enjoyable.

The third day in Chamonix and the second day of skiing was the highlight of the holiday. The weather forecast had been assuring that the weather was going to be fantastic (sunny), so we just crossed our fingers. Since yesterday was quite foggy and skiing was pretty much struggling, I desperately wished the weather would be nice.
We were planning to go to Brevent-Flegere. This resort covers quite large area in mountains, being located right in front of the Chamonix village. So, it took only 5 minutes from the hotel to the resort. Since we rushed to the resort from 7am, we were able to get ready to go by 9am. In contrast to the weather forecast, it was quite foggy again in the morning. But, the cloud was lightly touching the mountains, and the state of clouds felt different from that of yesterday. Hoping the cloud and fog disappear in a few hours, we decided to spend the entire morning at the slope for beginners.
Meanwhile, I was slowly recovering the skill in the morning. I realized that yesterday my entire weight was not properly shifted from the right to the left when I tried to turn right. This was sorted out by moving my body weight downward, which in turn effectively delivers my weight to my foot. Between 11.30 and 12.00, we saw a miracle. All the clouds suddenly disappeared, and we were able to see blue sky at 12.00.
Skiing at Brevent was one of the best things I've ever done in my life. The only one factor of the resort, the location, is good enough to be one of the best ski resorts in the world. People were enjoying skiing appreciating the panorama Alps mountains including Mont Blanc are presenting. The level of the slopes Planpraz was for us just enough to ski, and the quality of snow was extremely helpful to control the direction and speed. Originally we were planning to cross two different mountains and resorts via lifts: Planpraz and Flegere. But it seemed that the lift connecting two different area was off so we had to just hang around in Planpraz. Besides, there was not enough time to go through all the slopes for a couple of hours in the afternoon. If you ski in Brevent-Flegere, you cannot just keep moving forward because the slope is extremely beautiful, which makes you want to come back to the area. Here are some pictures from Brevent ski resort.

Brevent-Flegere

The most dramatic moment of the journey. The disappearance of clouds and the appearance of blue sky.

A panorama from the peak of Brevent

A panorama from the peak of Brevent

Skiing at Brevent

Skiing at Brevent

Probably have seen this picture from one of postcards with a title 'Alps'?

Taking a lift was a bit nerve-racking.



BTW, anybody could tell me who Sandrine Quétier is?
OMG she's got a nice style!