Charles H. Townes and his MASER
It is my observation that the most famous and largest contributors to meaningful scientific truths are religious scientists: Newton, Galileo, Christiaan Huygens, and the list goes on.
In Our Day
In our day, and not well known, is Charles H. Townes. One of his inventions is a laser, which came after the maser. Can you imagine how many laser scanners there are just in grocery stores across the globe—many billions? Townes claimed that many of his important scientific discoveries, like his inventions of the maser and laser, occurred as a “flash” much more akin to religious revelation. This has happened to me on many occasions, and I know the Lord is there and hears every sincere pray (Matt. 7:7-8).
The synchronism that occurs in masers and lasers reminds one of ONEness that will occur in the ideal Zion society that is coming in preparation for the Lord’s Coming. They will be of one mind and one heart, with no poor amongst them, and be pure in heart. That society will resonate with love and kindness as they serve one another, bringing forth the Lord’s designed purposes for that society. It is the society that we should all seek. It is the society that brings a fullness of joy and in due process brings us into celestial realms of glory. “Flashes” of personal revelation will come to those there as they use their time and talents to help achieve an Oneness with the whole of that ideal society. And the Lord will be in their midst.
Townes Quote
Quoting from the Wikipedia article about Charles H. Townes:
1. Faith: Townes argued that the scientist has faith much like a religious person does, allowing him/her to work for years for an uncertain result.
2. Revelation: Townes claimed that many important scientific discoveries, like his invention of the maser/laser, occurred as a “flash” much more akin to religious revelation than interpreting data.
3. Proof: During this century, the mathematician Kurt Gödel discovered that there can be no absolute proof in a scientific sense. Every proof requires a set of assumptions, and there is no way to check whether those assumptions are self-consistent because other assumptions would be required. [Gödel shows that a scientist has to have faith. Nothing can be proven for sure. We don’t know enough. Only God knows enough to know if a theory or hypothesis is TRUE! If God says it, then we know it. That is why personal revelation is so important.]
Synchronism in masers, lasers, and metronomes
Huygens invented the first pendulum clock, which improved the world of timing greatly until the advent of quartz-crystal oscillators centuries later. Back in 1665, Huygens noticed that two pendula would synchronize with each other if placed in proximity. He didn’t know it, but he had discovered the principle of synchronism in how masers and lasers work. There is a fun (less than two minute video) video with Daniel showing this synchronization phenomenon with metronomes. You will enjoy watching it. The common sounding board brings these metronomes into synchronism. This is how a maser and a laser work. The sounding board for the metronomes is like the resonant cavity in the case of a maser or laser.
Townes was involved with the invention of both the maser (Microwave amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and the laser (Light amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). The first atomic clock was an ammonia maser (Lyons, et. al.) in 1948-49 based on Townes’ invention. An ammonia maser was the first atomic clock I worked on when Jim Barnes hired me with the National Bureau of Standards in 1960. Laser frequencies are about 100,000 times higher than microwave frequencies.
The principle is the same for the metronome, or the maser, or the laser. The sounding board coupled to the metronomes causes all of them to be synchronized. The resonant cavity for both the maser and laser stimulates the atom or molecule, which is in an excited quantum state, to give off its photon in synchronism with all the other photons in the cavity. Physicists don’t talk about microwave photons, but again, the concept is the same. The ammonia molecules or hydrogen atoms in their excited quantum state are stimulated to give off their microwave energy resonant with the frequency energy in the cavity and also in phase (same mean time; they are all synchronized like the metronomes).
My Flash
My “FLASH” of personal revelation regarding how to measure this level of synchronization in masers came in 1981. Jim Barnes and I wrote a paper sharing, “A modified ‘Allan variance’ with increased oscillator characterization ability.” The Modified “Allan Variance” is denoted as MVAR in the literature. MDEV is the square root of MVAR.
As in this diagram, the slope on a log-log plot reveals the kind and or color of the time variations in the clock. The plot also reveals the level of the time variations. The international navigation community invited me to write a paper, give a talk and chair a panel around MVAR—giving me a free trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2015.
The above is an MDEV plot of a hydrogen maser’s frequency stability as a function of the averaging time, τ. The short-term stability is due to all the microwave photons in the cavity being synchronized together. It is called white-noise phase modulation (PM). The first two data points on the left are a measure of the level of this synchronization–like the synchronization of metronomes with a coupled sounding board.
At the request of the telecom community, we developed the “Time Variance” TVAR. TVAR is derived from the Modified Allan variance: TVAR = τ^2 MVAR/3. TDEV is the square root of TVAR. MVAR and TVAR are able to characterize six different kinds or colors of time variations.
NASA/JPS uses active hydrogen masers in their Deep Space Tracking Network (DSN) because of their outstanding short-term timing stability. Their main tracking stations are in Goldstone, CA, Madrid, Spain, and Canberra, Australia.
The above diagram shows the white-phase noise for this hydrogen maser to be only 9 picoseconds at 100 seconds, and improving at τ^-1/2 for TDEV. A picosecond is one quadrillionth of a second (10^-12 s). This is one thousandth of the timing error needed for GPS-synchronized constellation clocks, which are synchronized to about a nanosecond (a billionth of a second). It is this kind of time stability that is needed for the DSN to track and communicate with spacecraft like Voyager 1 and 2. Voyager 2 is now out in interstellar space—141 times further from us than is the sun. It now takes about 40 hours—round-trip time—for Canberra, Australia, to communicate with Voyager 2. It is gathering unprecedented data.
Another Flash
I had another “FLASH” personal revelation on how to build a special GPS receiver that would allow the comparison of atomic clocks around the world with near-nanosecond accuracy. I shared the idea with the folks at JPL, and they gave us (NBS, Boulder) a quarter of a million dollars to develop the GPS Common-view high-accuracy timing receiver. We then provided receivers at the three main DSN stations in Goldstone, CA, Madrid, Spain, and Canberra. It was a major breakthrough for them. It also became the main means of communicating atomic clock data to the BIPM for the generation of TAI and UTC (official time for the world). 28.pdf and 689.pdf.
The synchronization of the metronomes and atoms and molecules in masers reminds me of the Lord’s request for us to be one (a grand harmony for the ideal celestial society. I have a blog article on how to be one with God. The Lord has given us a parable: “Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.” (D&C 38:27) May we synchronize our souls with Elohim, I pray.
David W. Allan
PS Regarding uncertainty, Townes believed that we should be open-minded to a better understanding of science and religion in the future. This will require us to modify our theories, but not abandon them. For example, at the start of the 20th century, physics was largely deterministic. But when scientists began studying quantum mechanics, they realized that indeterminism and chance play a role in our universe. Both classical physics and quantum mechanics are correct and work well within their own bailiwick, and continue to be taught to students. Similarly, Townes believes that the growth of religious understanding will modify, but not make us abandon, our classic religious beliefs.
Charles H. Townes died in 2015 99 years old and his wife Frances died in 2018 at the age of 101. They had four lovely daughters. Charles was very devout.
PPS My first book harmonizes science and religion, It’s About Time. I believe true religion and true science have to harmonize. There, we become ONE with Elohim and a fullness of JOY in the offering.
PPPS In the above diagram, the line going down as τ^-1/2 shows the maser hunting for the ammonia frequency resonance and is called white-noise frequency modulation (FM).