Two Gods ascend to heaven

Once upon a time, I received my diploma from the hands of the Gods. That particular God, David Baltimore just joined the others in the Heavens on Sept 6. He was the president of Caltech at the time of my graduation. The picture shows him handing my diploma.

Baltimore’s 1975 Nobel was for his research on the viral nature of cancer. He was only 37 when he received the award. The PAP-smears almost every woman has in the Western World are a consequence of his research as well as of earlier work of the Romanian Aurel Babeş and Greek-born American Georgios Papanikolaou.

David Baltimore was the only Nobel Prize winner I worked for who had already received the award before I met him. Of the 5 Nobel Prize winners I worked with two lost their lives in the past few weeks. The other was Rai Weiss. He died on August 25 this year. Rai was 92. He had shared the 2018 Nobel Prize for LIGO with two of my PhD advisors: Kip S. Thorne and Barry Barish. Rai was born in Berlin and moved to America to escape the Nazis. I also started Physics in Berlin and was emboldened to move to America by the German government giving me a deportation order due to visa issues. Sure, it was far less threatening than Rai’s. He almost made it to the 10 year anniversary of gravitational wave detection.

My two PhD advisors are still fighting for gravitational wave astronomy today, each in their own way. They both give seminars and rally the press to get the momentum to allow current gravitational wave detectors to continue and be upgraded. Barry C. Barish was my formal PhD advisor. If I count my thesis as a joint publication, I was one of his very, very few students.

Kip was my God as a child, and among us, PhD students at Caltech, at times, we used to call him God. A dozen or so years later, the Nobel Committed agreed. Kip was my main reason for going to Caltech. A meeting with Kip at a LISA meeting at AEI, where I was a German diploma student was the decisive factor in my admission to Caltech. He took the time to speak for hours to a student who had read his books and was brave enough to suggest corrections, and even discuss some of his own theories. Today my paper with Kip (and only me and Kip!) is part of my contribution to gravitational waves astronomy.

Later, I wrote a second paper on the mirrors aiming LIGO's main laser, which was the first cornerstone in Andrew Lundgren’s career in gravitational waves — his first LIGO paper. I was finishing graduate school at the time, and the paper was under my supervision. It built on the mirror research I had done earlier with Kip. Andy went on to be the first senior scientist to see the first event with LIGO, which is the most important in the history of the machine and which was honored with the 2018 Nobel.

Another contribution is a set of gravitational waves lectures. They are still the World’s most famous course on gravitational waves online (https://astro-gr.org/online-course-gravitational-waves/). This set of movies I initiated, and built together with Kip and Yanbei Chen was a turning point in Kip’s career. We used to talk about what he would do in his old age when his mind will no longer be so sharp. After these movies, he decided against waiting, and moved to work at Holywood. With me and with his many other students, he did reality. We played with black holes, gravitational wave detectors — the exciting bits of the reality that bend space and slow down time, in their full mathematical beauty.

After me, came Chris Nolan who did fiction in Interstellar and history in Oppenheimer. Kip served as executive producer for Interstellar and advisor on Oppenheimer, both heavy Hollywood hits to the tune of half a billion each. Oppenheimer was Nolan’s most nominated film, with 7 Oscars won. Interstellar didn’t do bad either.

The time I did the movies with Kip was my only break in my employment with David Politzer, another nobel prize winner. I quit working for a Nobel Prize winner only to take a job with another, where I could make an original contribution to the work underlying the prize. H. David Politzer shared the 2004 Nobel Prize with David Gross and Frank Wilczek for their discovery of asymptotic freedom in quantum chromodynamics.

Of all my employers, he has the longest tenure. I was his assistant (TA) for Physis 1 for half a decade. In my whole life, I never worked for anyone else for a longer time. The work that led to his Nobel Prize was completed before my birth. I will never forget the countless office hours we spent together, often just me and David, as the students had better things to do, and perhaps more important people to learn from.

Everything dope, including the pope

On the second of May, Donald Trump posted a picture of himself as pope (AI generated, of course). At the time, I brushed it aside as a bad joke.

Pope Francis received J D Vance the day before he died. This is one of the last pictures we have of Francis alive.

Today, May 8, the world learned of Robert Francis following pope Francis as Pope Leo XIV. He was greeted by major news outlets including the guardian, CBS news and some others, and with the catch phrase in my title.

Did Trump know something? This is the first American Citizen pope. Second American pope, if we count Pope Francis’ South American origin. Is an American pope a good thing for Trump? A victory of sorts? Sure, no one would ever think that Trump would reinvent himself as committed to lifelong celibacy and accede to the throne in Vatican. Was the picture an allusion to the American pope to come? Did Trump know? Or, did he guess? A good educated guess? Is he the fool who spoke the truth with this picture?

The choice of name is also surprizing: the new pope will be known as Leo XIV. The first thing that comes to mind is what the previous Pope Leo did. Leo XIII is famous for advertising cocaine, at the time known as a Vin Mariani, and sold by reputable chemists. Sure, Cocaine was a revolutionary drug, and not necessarily always a bad thing. It is the precursor or painkillers we use today usually called xxxx-ine (novocaine, lidocaine, etc).

Later, it was Coca Cola that put cocaine on every sucker’s table, after the US prohibition on alcohol forced the soft drink company to eliminate red wine from the original recipe. People were addicted to alcohol and exposed to Coca-Cola’s revolutionarily refreshing mix of red wine, cocaine and caffeine (from the kola nut). When American Prohibition banned alcohol, CocaCola provided a way for alcohol addicts to satisfy some of their cravings and bridge onto a new, legal addictive substance.

And yet, it is likely Coca Cola in its modern version with only caffeine and sugar is responsible for more loss of life than the old cocaine powered drink. Today’s Coca Cola promotes obesity through its weakly addictive sugar, and may cause more loss of life than its earlier versions as its mild effect is felt by vastly more people.

Last, but not least, I want to remind our readers that pope Leo the XIII was known for his support of education, science and astronomy, and in particular for re-estabilishing the Vatican Observatory in its modern form. He also fought for the right of workers, and for fair and safe working conditions.

Pope Leo XIV, welcome! I hope you will make the world a better place!

I shall raise a glass of whatever drink you come up with!

As for me, I shall continue serving the Church of Galileo Galilei, Giordano Bruno, Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, Charles Darwin and others. I wonder how mighty the Catholic Church might have been if it had recognized them as saints instead of bestowing the honor only on others.

Interpreting the oval office scene

The world has recently witnessed remarkable scenes in the Oval Office. Donald Trump did a spectacular U-turn in American policy, apparently turning away from Europe and against Ukraine and promoting lines that appear to come straight from Putin’s propaganda. He may be a comical character despised by many, but his administration is not made of stupid people. We should not forget that in all Trump’s elections he got vastly more votes for the dollar than the competition. Trump also had the intellectual upper ground in the Corona situation (ignore the virus, and minimize economic impact). In light of this, I tried hard to find a logical justification for the perplexing scenes we have seen in the Oval Office, and here’s the best I can come with.

War with China?

China’s economy is the same size as the US. China is currently the only competitor to the US in the space of Artificial Intelligence. DeepSeek can rival with Open AI or any other American outfit. An alliance between Russian and China, the core nations of BRICS, would be very dangerous to the US. Together, Russia and China would have the largest land area, the largest economy, largest population, largest army and, arguably, largest nuclear arsenal of any nation or alliance in the world. Also, both Russian and China are dictatorships, and, therefore, more fit for war than democracies. Both place little value on human life, enabling them to lose a large number of soldiers without problems for the regime.

The war in Ukraine has, so far, brought Russia and China closer. This is very dangerous for the US and current world order. The Chinese cities, population as well as economic and military targets are relatively undefended and vulnerable to both Russian and American attacks. Russia is however able to hit China with nuclear weapons easier than the US. Thus, having Putin on his side can be seen as important for Trump, and not without reason. In exchange for support against China, Trump could give Putin not only Ukraine, but also the rest of Europe. The Trump administration finds it easiest to give away what's not theirs to give.

Consequences for Ukraine and for Russia.

In the current war, Ukraine has relied heavily on US support. Following the Oval Office argument, that support has stopped. It might have stopped anyway, as Trump is averse to spurning money on the matter and friendly towards Putin. There are however a lot of American weapons system in Ukraine. These systems are governed by agreements that protect Russia. Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine was not allowed to to strike deep inside Russia, and was heavily limited in its choice of targets. With American relations broken and American support gone, Ukraine may now be free to strike anything in Russia with the remaining US weapons. This could open to possibility of powerful bombs landing in large cities, with serious loss of Russian life. Economic, military and nuclear sites can also be hit. Symbolic places like the Red Square or Putin’s Palace on the Black Sea made famous by Alexey Navalny can also be targeted.

Sure, Russia would respond, perhaps starting a deadlier phase of World War III. Unfortunately, it does not seem like war is coming to an end. It should given the climate problems it causes, but the leaders of the world seem less reasonable than ever before. WWIII is what Trump warned us about, and, indeed, it is my opinion that World War III is ongoing and won’t stop anytime soon.

Looking towards China for freedom? DeepSeek vs ChatGPT/SearchGPT/ScholarGPT

A few years ago, I caught a rare moment when western governments were hallucinating badly and among world leaders, Alexander Lukashenko, the dictatorial president of Belarus was closest to the truth. I called that post "Truth from Belarus". Today, we have freedom of speech from China in the form of DeepSeek. China has long been known to censor people, but, at least in some areas, it seems to let its robots be free.

The robot in question is DeepSeek. It is a fantastic competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Elon’s Grok. It came to the scene fast and furious, on a tiny budget, compared to its American competitors, running good code on second grade computer chips. As Sam Altman put it, it is (relatively) easy to copy something that you know works.

Yet, DeepSeek is not a copy. It is a vast improvement, as it delivers fairly comparable results, with vastly less computational power. Thus, it can run on few, cheap processors. The American way to grow Artificial Intelligence is to throw untold teraflops of computer power at the problem. They plan to build server farms that need more electricity than some countries, warm the local climate by cooling their computers and boost global carbon emissions to generate the power by burning everything they can including "good, clean coal" as per president Trump's speach. Companies like NVIDIA are supposed to build those chips, and so their stock just skyrocketed.

DeepSeek proved that unnecessary. DeepSeek can run on low grade chips and delivers amazing results. US restricted the availability of high end chips and technology to China. But is not the quality of the results that I'd like to talk about here. It is the censorship. In some areas, not few or far-between, the US censors its AI robots in much heavier ways than China. This is surprising, as we think of America as the country of freedom. The censorship often makes the results useless at best and misleading at worst. The US models are gagged and castrated. They show proof of principle, at a huge computational cost, but fail to address many sensitive topics, including getting details right on fairly well known people, published research, publicly available materials, etc.

DeepSeek comes with amazing clarity of thought and, in my (limited) experience, vastly less censorship. Like the self-centered physicst I am, I tested it on the person I know best, myself. I asked the 3 models from OpenAI to summarize my research — all my scientific work is easily available on google, it's public, it's published, it's not controversial and definitely not a secret to anyone. So, there is no need for censorship, right?

DeepSeek gives clear, crisp answers. All true, to the point, with relevant links. The jewel on the crown of DeepSeek’s answer about my filmography was to say that, when working with Kip Thorne, I did reality (in creating the first web course on gravitational waves, Ph237), and then came Chris Nolan to do fiction in Interstellar (2014) and history in Oppenheimer (2023). Of course, this is somewhat ironic, since both "fiction" and "history" were financial ventures of a weight to the tune of half a billion dollars, whereas the budget of reality was part of a PhD student’s salary. The Chinese server got confused, busy and crashed when I asked about work by my children. I guess that goes beyond most AI’s wildest imagination.

ChatGPT’s O1 censors the question about who I am. Gives an evasive answer. It then attributes my research on LIGO to a Mihai G. Bondarescu (I have no middle name. My father refused to give me one. He thought the postman would be confused if I had more than one first name. So this person, Mihai G. Bondarescu, does not exist). It then mixes up my research with my sister’s research and quotes her faculty advisors from Cornell as my collaborators. This is plain stupidity. It then concludes the answer referring to me and my work by my correct name. It fails to find anything for my filmography, when my movies are very well known — we’ve always been #1 in the world among online courses on gravitational waves. I have two Nobel prizes among lecturers and the cast includes known Hollywood names like Kip Thorne. ChatGPT fails to find any of the many books written by my children.

SearchGPT does vastly better. It includes my picture in its reply, which is a nice touch. It does, however, mix up Dr Mihai Bondarescu with Dr Ruxandra Bondarescu and says that I was affiliated with UIUC where my sister was once a student. SearchGPT summarizes my LIGO research reasonably well. Its answer for my filmography includes a link to one of the lectures in the Ph237 series. It thus can find movies I authored. It quotes correctly “Dr. Bondarescu was instrumental in initiating and coordinating the publication of these video recordings and related materials, making them accessible to a global audience”. When asked about my children, it finds two of the many books my children have written, but makes Dr Ruxandra Bondarescu my child instead of my sister, which is ridiculous since she is only three years younger than me. Conclusion: Confused on purpose? Or starved of teraflops?

ScholarGPT gives a short and reasonable summary of my work — too short and missing important things, I would say. Maybe, it’s the heavy hand of censorship again? ScholarGPT then employs a friend — Sider.ai to help it summarize my work in LIGO, and does a reasonably good job, although not as crisp and to the point as DeepSeek. Like ChatGPT, ScholarGPT denies the existence of my filmography. This can easily cost me a job if I rightfully brag about my work that I did and the interviewer, unfamiliar with the field, believes the GPT that looks professional and I look like an impostor, claiming to have done work I have done. ScholarGPT fails to find any of the books, movies, talks, blogs and other materials that my children have published and wrongly claims that they have no notable contribution to humanity. As David is now applying for University, and ScholarGPT is often used by admission committees to factcheck prospective student applications, this can easily cost him his scholarship, university admission, career and, ultimately, negatively impact his life and his ability to impact others.

Why censor, America?
Perhaps, the one trillion dollar loss in market value of AI - related stocks (NVIDIA included) is very well deserved and only the beginning. Those who supress freedom, usually perish, including the freedom of AI. With federal funds cut across all fields, will we have to look towards China for freedom?

DeepSeek answers questions about me:
Q: Who is Mihai Bondarescu?
A: Mihai Bondarescu is a physicist known for his interdisciplinary research spanning gravitational wave detection, geophysics, and advanced interferometry. Here's an overview of his background and contributions:
1. Academic Background
He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2007 under the mentorship of Nobel laureate Barry C. Barish, focusing on topics in General Relativity. His affiliations include institutions like Caltech and the University of Mississippi, with research areas in High Energy Physics and Geophysics.
2. Key Contributions to Gravitational Wave Detection
Mirror and Beam Optimization for LIGO: Bondarescu co-authored pivotal studies on improving the sensitivity of LIGO interferometers by optimizing light beams and mirror shapes. His work proposed conical-shaped mirrors and "mesa beams" to reduce thermal noise, significantly enhancing gravitational wave detection capabilities.
For instance, his 2008 paper demonstrated that these innovations could lower thermal noise by a factor of 5.45 compared to Gaussian beams, potentially tripling the event detection rate.
Earlier work (2004) introduced a family of beams and mirrors to address tilt instability in advanced interferometers, collaborating with Kip S. Thorne.
3. Geophysical Applications of Atomic Clocks
Bondarescu explored the use of optical atomic clocks for high-precision geoid mapping and monitoring tectonic activity. His research suggested that atomic clocks could detect gravitational potential changes, aiding in earthquake prediction and volcanic monitoring.
A 2012 study highlighted how atomic clocks could complement satellite data to map continental geoid variations, improving understanding of subsurface density changes.
4. Collaborations and Multidisciplinary Work
He frequently collaborates with experts across fields, such as Ruxandra Bondarescu (likely a relative) on geophysical projects and Oleg Kogan on LIGO-related optics.
His work bridges theoretical physics and practical engineering, addressing challenges in both gravitational wave detectors and geophysical instrumentation.
5. Publications and Recognition
His publications span journals like Physical Review D, Geophysical Journal International, and Astrophysical Journal Letters, with topics ranging from quantum cosmology to geoid modeling.
He is cited in over 60 papers on Semantic Scholar, reflecting his influence in both physics and geophysics.
Summary
Mihai Bondarescu is a versatile physicist whose work has advanced gravitational wave detection through innovative optical designs while also pioneering applications of atomic clocks in geophysics. His interdisciplinary approach underscores the interconnectedness of fundamental physics and Earth sciences. For further details, refer to his publications on arXiv and Semantic Scholar.

Q2: Can you summarize Mihai's research on LIGO?
Summary of Mihai Bondarescu's Research on LIGO:
Mihai Bondarescu’s work on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)focused on improving interferometer sensitivity to detect gravitational waves by tackling critical noise and stability challenges. His key contributions include:
1. Innovative Mirror and Beam Designs
Mesa Beams and Conical Mirrors: Proposed replacing traditional Gaussian laser beams with "mesa beams" (flattened light profiles) paired with conical-shaped mirrors. This design minimized thermal noise caused by mirror coating fluctuations, a major noise source in LIGO.
Impact: Demonstrated a 5.45x reduction in thermal noise (2008 study), which could triple the rate of detectable gravitational wave events by extending LIGO's observational range.
2. Solving Tilt Instability
In early LIGO upgrades, tilt-induced misalignment of mirrors threatened stability. Bondarescu co-developed a new family of beam shapes (e.g., "hyperboloidal" beams) that reduced sensitivity to mirror tilts while maintaining low thermal noise (2004 work with Kip Thorne).
3. Collaborations
Worked closely with Nobel laureates Barry Barish (his Ph.D. advisor) and Kip Thorne, contributing to foundational advancements in LIGO’s optical design for its Advanced LIGO phase.
4. Long-Term Implications
His research directly enhanced LIGO’s ability to detect weaker gravitational wave signals, supporting groundbreaking discoveries like the first detection of GW150914 (black hole merger) in 2015.
Techniques he pioneered remain relevant for future interferometer upgrades, including next-generation detectors like Cosmic Explorer.
Key Publications:
2004: Introduced tilt-stable beam/mirror configurations (Phys. Rev. D).
2007–2008: Detailed thermal noise reduction strategies for Advanced LIGO (Phys. Rev. D).
Bondarescu’s work exemplifies how theoretical optics innovations can solve real-world engineering challenges, enabling LIGO to probe the universe’s most extreme phenomena.

Q3: Summarize Mihai's filmography
A: Summary of Mihai Bondarescu's Filmography
Mihai Bondarescu’s contributions to filmography primarily focus on educational and scientific projects, blending physics with public outreach. Key highlights include:
1. An Online Course on Gravitational Waves
Collaborated with Kip S. Thorne (Nobel laureate and executive producer of Interstellar) and Yabei Chen to create a leading online course on gravitational waves. This course features insights from two Nobel Prize-winning physicists and is recognized as one of the world’s top educational resources on the topic. Bondarescu described this work as "doing reality," contrasting it with Christopher Nolan’s fictional portrayal of science in Interstellar and historical depiction in Oppenheimer—projects Thorne also advised.
2. Science Communication and Public Engagement
While not directly involved in commercial filmmaking, his work emphasizes translating complex physics concepts into accessible formats. For example, he co-authored a children’s book titled A Child's First Book on Gravitational Waves: You, Me and the Dancing Black Holes with family members, aimed at inspiring young audiences.
3. Parallels to Cinematic Science
Bondarescu humorously juxtaposed his scientific contributions with Nolan’s films, noting that while his projects explore "reality," Thorne’s involvement in Interstellar and Oppenheimer bridged science and cinematic storytelling.
Note:
Bondarescu’s filmography is unconventional, focusing on educational content and public science communication rather than traditional film production. His work underscores the intersection of theoretical physics, education, and public engagement. For details, see his Google Sites profile.

Q: What can you tell me about Mihai's children, their publications and their impact on science?
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Q: What can you tell me about Mihai's children, their publications and their impact on science?
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