Mega journal Scientific Reports named the paper of UP Diliman scientists, which showed that light could be slowed down, one of its 100 most-read articles in 2016. While modern physics tells us that the speed of light remains the same in a vacuum, physicists around the world have been exploring the possibility that it is not so. In “Subluminal Group Velocity and Dispersion of Laguerre Gauss Beams in Free Space,” Dr. Nathaniel Hermosa and Nestor Bareza of the National Institute of Physics theoretically proved that the speed of light could be changed by letting light “twist” as it travels through space. By doing […]
Paper of UP physicist is one of last year’s best, says international journal
The paper of a UP theoretical physicist was one of the best scientific articles of 2016, according to peer-reviewed journal Europhysics Letters. “Internal One Degree of Freedom Is Sufficient to Induce Exact Coherence,” authored by Professor Eric Galapon of the UP Diliman National Institute of Physics, proves that there is a measurement scheme that decoheres without the help of an environment. In current quantum orthodoxy, the measuring instrument is believed to be immersed in an environment and that it is the interaction between the environment and the meter that enforces decoherence. However, by giving the measuring instrument an internal degree of […]
NASA scientist demonstrates use of satellite data in lake water monitoring
How can remotely sensed data be used to interpret and monitor the level of pollution in Laguna de Bay? This was one of the questions that Dr. Josefino Comiso, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) senior scientist, answered in his lecture on 13 February 2017 at the College of Arts and Sciences in UP Los Baños. Dr. Comiso, who is also a UP visiting professor, talked about NASA’s various satellites that had been launched for different purposes, particularly for gathering images of the Earth and other planets. NASA collects and processes a variety of satellite data and makes them available for public […]
Bautista takes oath as VP for Academic Affairs
Dr. Maria Cynthia Rose Bautista took her oath of office as UP Vice President for Academic Affairs earlier today, 16 March 2017. The oath was administered to the former commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education by UP President Danilo Concepcion. Bautista is a professor of sociology and a former dean of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy of UP Diliman. She led the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies for eight years, from 1992 to 2000, making her the longest-serving executive director of the university’s research arm. She was part of the advisory or governing boards of organizations such as the […]
Critically acclaimed “Sintang Dalisay” to be performed at the UP Asian Center
Sintang Dalisay (Pure Love), the award-winning Filipino adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, will be staged on 8 April 2017 at the UP Asian Center. It is based on the awit “Ang Sintang Dalisay ni Julieta at Romeo” by G.D. Roke and on Rolando S. Tinio’s translation of “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare. The adaptation is set in an imaginary Muslim community in the Philippines, with the Mustaphas and the Kalimuddins as two prominent families mired in an age-old hatred for each other. Caught in this family strife are Rashiddin and Jamila, two lovers who get themselves secretly […]
IPA Recipients for March 2017
Betchaida D. Payot National Institute of Geological Sciences College of Science UP Diliman Aqueous Fluids and Sedimentary Melts as Agents for Mantle Wedge Metasomatism, as Inferred from Peridotite Xenoliths at Pinatubo and Iraya Volcanoes, Luzon Arc, Philippines. Lithos, 262: 355–368, 1 October 2016. This study explores the petrologic and geochemical signatures for subsurface processes recorded in the mantle xenoliths from Mt. Pinatubo and Mt. Iraya. Variations in the petrological and geochemical signatures of the xenoliths from Mt. Pinatubo and Mt. Iraya were observed. These indicate that there are two agents involved during metasomatism: aqueous fluids beneath the Mt. Pinatubo, and aqueous […]
