A Wiradjuri librarian's interpretation 

Surveyors Scale 

Measurements – a pound of flesh – a metre there – a nose too broad, a criminal-divides and shapes – a map that steals – my name and limbs – with tools that trace – how much of me is for sale – I’m not very good – that’s just science – calculated with a tool of no agenda – it stabs and cuts all the same – and I bleed in inches that can be weighed – sizing me up to take a bite

Nathan “mudyi” Sentance is a Wiradjuri librarian and museum educator who grew up on Darkinjung Country. Nathan currently works at the Powerhouse Museum as Head of Collections, First Nations and writes about history, critical librarianship and critical museology from a First Nations perspective. His writing has been previously published in the Guardian, British Art Studies, Cordite Poetry, and Sydney Review of Books and on his own blog The Archival Decolonist. 

Hear more from Nathan:

Archival Decolonist

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An experimental physicist's perspective

I have always been fascinated by tools that help us to perform otherwise complex tasks quickly. Although these specific rules were made for surveyors and architects, the slide rule was once a commonly used item for anyone working with numbers. They are an important precursor to the desktop calculator - a device which we’ve now all but entirely replaced with our smartphones and laptops. The captured metal pieces slide against a set of rails or each other, and marked scales on each side show the input and output values of a calculation.

It surprises people quite often to learn how high-tech some of these older devices really are - and in some ways how low-tech a lot of our modern devices are. The materials that this device is made of - the brass and copper at least - are still used to this day in scientific equipment in labs like mine. Brass and similar alloys were used because the combination of copper and zinc produces a material that is stronger and more stable than either of its component parts. This may sound antiquated - literally Bronze Age technology - but we still use brass for all the above reasons, but also because it’s a good conductor of both heat and electricity, and it can be machined accurately and reliably. In experimental physics labs like mine, brass, copper, and gold are some of the more commonly found materials.

Precision measurements and calibration are a key part of any design and building process, and in my mind the Slide Rule is a nice example of this - this device is used to enable those measurements and calculations for new builds, and its own construction required a state-of-the-art capacity for precision manufacture in its time. 

Tim Newman is an experimental physicist and engineer working on next generation quantum technologies for communication and information processing. Tim is midway through his PhD, and has spent the last two years designing and building experiments using lasers, optics, microwave electronics, and a state-of-the-art cryogenic system. 

In the lab, Tim uses these tools to precisely measure and control atoms of the element erbium which have been implanted into a crystal. These atoms can hold information in the form of light for tens of milliseconds at a time - this is surprisingly long in the context of a computer! Tim is using the results from these investigations to inform the designs of new quantum bits - the quantum equivalent to the ‘zeroes and ones’ we use in our computers every day. Electronic and optical devices like these will be the foundational piece of a future Quantum Internet.

Outside the lab, Tim will often be found riding his bike, mostly in the direction of a beach. He’s a huge music fan too; if you keep an eye out you’ll start noticing him at all manner of events. Do say hi!

Hear more from Tim:
"Building the Quantum Internet," Sydney Quantum Academy
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