Reginald L. Goodwin's Posts

Peer Review...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 21, 2014 at 5:00am

Timberwood Park, San Antonio, TX: Caveat emptor

Yesterday (17 March), researchers from the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) telescope at the South Pole revealed that they have detected the first evidence for the primordial B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The astronomers claimed that the primordial B-mode polarization signal – which is related to primordial gravitational waves that flowed through the early universe – is the first direct evidence for cosmic inflation and has been measured to a statistical certainty of 3σ. Now, cosmologist and Perimeter Institute director Neil Turok, who worked on an inflationary model of his own with Stephen Hawking in the 1990s, urges caution and says that extensive experimental confirmation is necessary before BICEP2's results can be considered as evidence for inflation.

"If...and it's a big if...this is true, it would be spectacular evidence for what happened at the Big Bang," Turok told physicsworld.com. While he agreed that at first glance, the BICEP2 observations are in keeping with inflation "as suggested over 30 years ago, wherein space–time would resonate with the aftershocks of inflation and would ring like a bell", a closer look at the discrepancy between the new results and previous data from the Planck and WMAP telescopes is what worries Turok. Indeed, the tensor-to-scalar ratio of 0.20 that BICEP2 measured is considered to be significantly larger than that expected from previous analyses of data. But the BICEP2 researchers said in their press conference yesterday that they believe certain tweaks could be made to an extension of the ΛCDM cosmological model that could make the two results agree.

"But these tweaks would be tremendously ugly....and in fact, I believe that if both Planck and the new results agree, then together they would give substantial evidence against inflation!" exclaims Turok, further explaining that "[we] must be careful before we treat them as true".

"Extraordinary claims requires extraordinary evidence." Carl Sagan.

Even though Tuesday's announcement was exciting news, and I really want it to be true, it might not be. After the Scientific Method, this is the rigor of peer review and the necessity of it. Without it, we march down the primrose path of pseudoscience and created entities like the Discovery Institute ("intelligent design") and World Science Database (which purports that the Special and General Theory of Relativity have been "disproved" despite yesterday, I was discussing superconducting quantum interference devices - SQUID's). Both organizations are of "sounding brass and tinkling cymbal" to quote Corinthians. The Science Channel - when it's not suggesting UFO close encounters - promotes the tagline "question everything." We really should.

Physics World: Neil Turok urges caution on BICEP2 results

SQUID...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 19, 2014 at 2:58pm

Micrograph of a SQUID amplifier, made at NIST in 2012, that is part of a circuit used to read signals from arrays of superconducting sensors. Small currents generated by the sensors are carried and amplified in the coils, which create magnetic fields detected by the SQUID (two small squares in the center of the image).
Credit: NIST

From humble beginnings in a series of accidental discoveries, SQUIDs have invaded and enhanced many areas of science and medicine, thanks, in part, to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

SQUIDs—short for superconducting quantum interference devices—are the world's most sensitive magnetometers and powerful signal amplifiers, with broad applications ranging from medicine and mining to cosmology and materials analysis.

Physicists from around the world celebrated last week* to mark the 50th anniversary of the first journal paper introducing the SQUID, published in February 1964.

Celebrants heard about the use of SQUIDS to measure brain activity in Finland, discover mineral deposits leading to a large silver mine in Australia, and detect faint light from the early moments of the universe from telescopes all over the world.

SQUIDs measure magnetic fields based on quantum properties created when a superconducting circuit loop, in which electricity flows without resistance, is interrupted with one or two short sections of resistive material. The current across the resistive section varies predictably, based on the strength of the external magnetic field, making the device an exquisitely sensitive detector of magnetic fields. Typically, SQUIDs need to be cooled to cryogenic temperatures below 4 kelvins (-269 degrees Celsius) with liquid helium.

The SQUID was invented at Ford Scientific Laboratories in the 1960s but was further developed at NIST (then called the National Bureau of Standards). James Zimmerman co-invented one type of SQUID (the RF-SQUID) and coined the term while at Ford, before joining NIST where he worked in the 1970s and 1980s.

NIST: Magnetic Attraction: Physicists Pay Homage to the SQUID at 50

Five Sigma...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 18, 2014 at 4:30am

The 10-meter South Pole Telescope and the BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) Telescope against the Milky Way. BICEP2 recently detected gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background, a discovery that supports the cosmic inflation theory of how the universe began. (Photo: Keith Vanderlinde, National Science Foundation)

The detection of gravitational waves by the BICEP2 experiment at the South Pole supports the cosmic inflation theory of how the universe came to be. The discovery, made in part by Assistant Professor Chao-Lin Kuo, supports the theoretical work of Stanford's Andrei Linde.

Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe we inhabit burst into existence in an extraordinary event that initiated the Big Bang. In the first fleeting fraction of a second, the universe expanded exponentially, stretching far beyond the view of today's best telescopes. All this, of course, has just been theory.

Researchers from the BICEP2 collaboration today announced the first direct evidence supporting this theory, known as "cosmic inflation." Their data also represent the first images of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time. These waves have been described as the "first tremors of the Big Bang." Finally, the data confirm a deep connection between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Stanford News:
New evidence from space supports Stanford physicist's theory of how universe began
Harvard Center for Astrophysics: First Direct Evidence of Cosmic Inflation

Dark Matter and Dino...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 17, 2014 at 3:55pm

Artist's impression of a comet striking the Earth. (Courtesy: iStock/PaulPaladin)

Two theoretical physicists in the US have made a surprising connection between dinosaur extinction and dark matter. Lisa Randall and Matthew Reece of Harvard University believe that some of this mysterious invisible matter – which makes up 85% of all matter in the universe – could exist in a special form that affects the rate at which comets strike our planet. A comet crashing into Earth about 66 million years ago is one possible reason why these giant creatures died off.

Comets have smashed into Earth throughout its history, creating huge craters and possibly causing mass extinctions, such as that which befell the dinosaurs. Many of these comets come from the Oort cloud, which is a huge halo of small icy objects that surrounds the Sun, out to a distance of about one light year. But rather than being entirely random, there is some evidence that the frequency of comet impacts oscillates on a timescale of about 35 million years.

Although this oscillation is not certain, if it is true, there could be something on that timescale that affects the rate at which comets from the Oort cloud are sent towards Earth. Two possible explanations have been proposed so far. One – dubbed the "nemesis hypothesis" – involves the gravitational pull of an as-yet-undiscovered distant companion star to the Sun. The other involves the oscillating pull of the dense galactic disc as the solar system crosses and re-crosses the plane of the Milky Way.

Physics World: Did dark matter help kill off the dinosaurs?

Living Well...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 16, 2014 at 10:43am

When I was in elementary school in the public schools of New York City, I distinctly remember that it was important for me to be athletic — in particular, to be able to run fast. I was encouraged by all around me. My reward was the respect and admiration of classmates and especially my streetmates.

In junior high school it was important for me, now that I was certiﬁed the “fastest on the block,” to slam-dunk a basketball. To do this you have to jump high and palm the basketball. On April 17, 1973, I was the ﬁrst in my grade to slam-dunk a basketball. I then asked myself, “Is this all there is to it?” The answer is basically yes, yet one can imagine creative variations such as a 360-degree pirouette in midair preceding the dunk, but you still score only two points.

About the same time, I learned that light, traveling at 186,282 miles per second, moves too slowly to escape from the event horizon of a black hole. This was more astonishing to me than a 360-degree slam-dunk. I soon became scientiﬁcally curious and read everything I could ﬁnd about the universe. I began to see myself as a future scientist — in particular, an astrophysicist. It became a deeply seated dream.

I shortly came to the shattering awareness that few parts of society were prepared to accept my dreams. I wanted to do with my life what people of my skin color were not supposed to do. As an athlete, I did not violate society’s expectations since there was adequate precedent for dark-skinned competitors in the Olympics and in professional sports. To be an astrophysicist, however, became a “path of most resistance.” I began to wonder whether I originally wanted to be an athlete more from society’s interest rather than my own. My brother, Stephen, today a professional artist, could run faster and jump higher than I could. He, too, felt these forces of society.

In high school, nobody probed further about how I became captain of the wrestling team. But when I became editor-in-chief of my school’s annual Physical Science Journal, my qualiﬁcations were constantly queried. And when I was accepted to the college of my choice, I was continually asked for my SAT scores and grade point average. Indeed, one fellow student, who worked in the ofﬁce of the guidance counselor, threatened to ﬁnd the ﬁle in the school records to read my scores himself, if I didn’t tell.

When I ﬁrst entered graduate school, before transferring to Columbia, I was eager to pursue my dreams of research astrophysics. But the ﬁrst comment directed to me in the ﬁrst minute of the ﬁrst day, by a faculty member whom I had just met was, “You must join our department basketball team.” As the months and years passed, faculty and fellow students, thinking that they were doing me a favor, would suggest alternative careers for me.

“Why don’t you become a computer salesman?”

“Why don’t you teach at a community college?”

“Why don’t you leave astrophysics and academia? You can make much money in industry.”

At no time was I perceived as a future colleague, although this privilege was enjoyed by others in graduate school.

When combined with the dozens of times I have been stopped and questioned by the police for going to and from my ofﬁce after hours, and the hundreds of times I am followed by security guards in department stores, and the countless times people cross the street upon seeing me approach them on the sidewalk, I can summarize my life’s path by noting the following: in the perception of society, my athletic talents are genetic; I am a likely mugger-rapist; my academic failures are expected; and my academic successes are attributed to others.

Book Excerpt: The Sky is Not the Limit, by Neil deGrasse Tyson on BillMoyers.com
Site: COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey
Mother Jones: Neil deGrasse Tyson on "Cosmos" (source of podcast below)

Hypatia...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 15, 2014 at 5:01pm

Source: http://wizewomon.blogspot.com/2011/12/hypatia-womon-of-note.html

This is Women's History Month. As a blog that promotes diversity in the sciences, I'm well aware of it. However, I received my midterm exam from Stevens University on the 28th of February. Solid State Electronics II is no less the challenge than Part I was admittedly. I had two weeks to solve, thus my time was fairly focused. I turned in my test at the deadline. I can for a moment breath on this Ides of March.

Hypatia (pronounced "hi-pay-see-a"): I read her name in the book Cosmos that I downloaded to my Kindle. I looked at the "old school" Cosmos show where Carl Sagan mentions her (starts at 3:25), and her sad fate. She's described as mathematician, astronomer, physicist, philosopher, quite lovely apparently and driver of her own chariot! She was a beloved teacher and by social practice a celibate, no doubt frustrating potential suitors of her day.

Interestingly as I predicted to some casually offline, Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey has already had its detractors of the "young Earth"/humans with dinosaurs/faux debate between Evolution and so-called Intelligent Design variety. The odd and breathtaking display of hypocrisy in most of the trolls taking to the Internet - notably in 140 misspelled characters or less - created by the very science and modern physics they rail against; supporting pseudoscience in their destructive wake.

A certain part of the reptilian portion of our minds attacks instinctively that which we think challenges our belief systems - and thus us. Time and again, we've seen the razing of cities, the flaying of martyrs, the murder of not only the person, but new ideas that would take the species forward. This of course, all for adherence to a dogma. Supposedly through evangelism, it is meant as a "sell," and thus adherence is voluntary - zealotry and fanaticism turns it involuntary; totalitarian. Authoritarianism becomes our governance and its dogmatic ruling class the thought police. Sadly, I can't help but think if part of the mob that set upon Hypatia and ended her life so tragically were peopled by members of her own gender, suffering from what would in the 20th century gain the name "Stockholm Syndrome."

I often fear intolerance will rear its ugly head again and plunge us all over the abyss with it, as it did Alexandria, Egypt. They executed Hypatia...for the "crime" of thinking critically and independently of the lordship of patriarchal society. The saying goes "teach a woman and you teach a generation." The library, like Hypatia, soon expired after her forced passing.

For these and other reasons, I will support Dr. Tyson and the relaunch of Cosmos. As Dr. Sagan states above, we "must not let it happen again."

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known as George Santayana

Live From Space...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 14, 2014 at 5:46am

Link: LiveFromSpace.com

Atoms...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 13, 2014 at 7:04am

Source: Quantum Made Simple

Optical Cavity...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 12, 2014 at 2:58pm

A rendering shows a beam of light interacting with an optical nanocavity. The nanocavity boosts light absorption in ultrathin semiconductors. Credit: Advanced Materials

By Cory Nealon

Release Date: March 5, 2014

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Associated with unhappy visits to the dentist, “cavity” means something else in the branch of physics known as optics.

Put simply, an optical cavity is an arrangement of mirrors that allows beams of light to circulate in closed paths. These cavities help us build things like lasers and optical fibers used for communications.

Now, an international research team pushed the concept further by developing an optical “nanocavity” that boosts the amount of light that ultrathin semiconductors absorb. The advancement could lead to, among other things, more powerful photovoltaic cells and faster video cameras; it also could be useful for splitting water using energy from light, which could aid in the development of hydrogen fuel.

The team, comprised of faculty and students from the University at Buffalo and two Chinese universities, presented its findings Feb. 24 in the journal Advanced Materials. The paper, called “Nanocavity enhancement for ultra-thin film optical absorber,” is available here: http://bit.ly/1bGGIbO.

University of Buffalo: An (optical) cavity that you want

The Matter of Matter...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 11, 2014 at 5:28am

A faux historical account of Earth "pre-warp"

Warp drive, as enthusiastically a Trekkie I am, was a plot device created by Gene Roddenberry to get his astronauts from "here-to-there" in a reasonable amount of time to tell a story in an hour or less. NASA on the other hand, needs something other than chemical rockets that once the fuels expended to get the rocket into orbit - Newton's Laws dominate. Which is why currently a manned trip to Mars would take ~ 7 months to 300 days, and have astronauts with muscles of mush and bone mass of jello. VASIMR may get us there one day, thanks to the diligent research of people like Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz, PhD.

Abstract

The Alcubierre warp drive allows a spaceship to travel at an arbitrarily large global velocity by deforming the spacetime in a bubble around the spaceship. Little is known about the interactions between massive particles and the Alcubierre warp drive, or the effects of an accelerating or decelerating warp bubble. We examine geodesics representative of the paths of null and massive particles with a range of initial velocities from -c to c interacting with an Alcubierre warp bubble travelling at a range of globally subluminal and superluminal velocities on both constant and variable velocity paths. The key results for null particles match what would be expected of massive test particles as they approach +/- c. The increase in energy for massive and null particles is calculated in terms of v_s, the global ship velocity, and v_p, the initial velocity of the particle with respect to the rest frame of the origin/destination of the ship. Particles with positive v_p obtain extremely high energy and velocity and become "time locked" for the duration of their time in the bubble, experiencing very little proper time between entering and eventually leaving the bubble. When interacting with an accelerating bubble, any particles within the bubble at the time receive a velocity boost that increases or decreases the magnitude of their velocity if the particle is moving towards the front or rear of the bubble respectively. If the bubble is decelerating, the opposite effect is observed. Thus Eulerian matter is unaffected by bubble accelerations/decelerations. The magnitude of the velocity boosts scales with the magnitude of the bubble acceleration/deceleration.

As you read through the paper, please note the possibility of incinerating the star system/planet/people we'd be trying to hurry up and visit ("we come in peace" \\//_?).

I think - as even Star Trek alludes to - our first interstellar space faring will likely be at sub light speed in sleeper ships. Better to crawl first before running: 1/3 c to begin.

Someone will just have to invent inertial dampers since the Higgs Boson has been discovered so we don't kill ourselves or anyone else out there (another convenient plot device to avoid describing space faring humans as "street pizza" due to rapid acceleration).

In light of crawling, colonizing the moon, mining the asteroid belt and establishing a permanent base on Mars would be a good 1st start. Sagan mentioned terraforming the Red Planet or Venus in his book "The Cosmic Connection," which would be a practical solution on a global economy based on consumption. On the Kardashev scale, we are primitive.

Eventually, our toy/sandbox will be empty on the sandlot we're accustomed to playing in. Staying earthbound as a species will soon be the equivalent of not accepting potty training at the age and maturity one ought to be. Kind of gross, too.

Physics arXiv: The Alcubierre Warp Drive: On the Matter of Matter

Brendan McMonigal,∗ Geraint F. Lewis,† and Philip O’Byrne‡
Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics
A28, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

Related:
Amazon: The Physics of Star Trek, Beyond Star Trek; Lawrence Krauss

Holographic Memory...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 10, 2014 at 5:57am

Prototype holographic memory that uses spin waves. (Courtesy: UC Riverside)

A new type of memory device based on the interference of spin waves has been unveiled by scientists in the US and Russia. Data are stored in the form of magnetic bits and read out simultaneously as holographic images. Because the wavelengths of the spin waves are much shorter than those of light, the storage density of the memory has the potential to be much greater than systems based on optical holograms, and could someday be used to store very large amounts of information.

Conventional holography involves splitting a beam of laser light into an illumination beam and a reference beam. The illumination beam is fired at the object of interest and the deflected light is sent to a detector (or photographic film), where it is reunited with the reference beam. The detector records the interference between the two beams and this information is then used to create a 3D image of the object. As well as being used as a security feature on credit cards and banknotes, holograms also have the potential to store and retrieve large amounts of information in a very efficient way.

However, the storage densities that can be achieved using optical holograms are limited by the relatively long wavelengths of visible light – about 500 nm. Now, Alexander Khitun and colleagues at the University of California, Riverside and the Kotel'nikov Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics in Saratov, Russia, have created a holographic memory that uses spin waves, which have much shorter wavelengths.

Physics World: Data stored in magnetic holograms

Sagan Memoir Online...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 9, 2014 at 9:30am

Carl Sagan (left) and Frank Drake (right), one of the founders of the SETI Institute and former director of the Carl Sagan Center. Photo by David Morrison.

David Morrison, director of the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute, has written a biographical memoir of Carl Sagan (1934-1996), founder of the modern disciplines of planetary science and exobiology.

Morrison’s piece has been published in Biographical Memoirs, an online collection of the National Academy of Sciences that includes more than 1,500 biographies of deceased academy members.

Carl Sagan, you of course know.

Frank Drake: astrophysicist; author of the "Drake Equation" used to estimate the likelihood of extraterrestrial life.

We start the adventure again tonight...COSMOS premieres!

"The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be."

The U.S. Library of Congress has recently designated Cosmos one of the eighty-eight books "that shaped America." It's a roster that includes such earth-shaking works as Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Jack Kerouac's On the Road. They're listed in chronological order and the very first one, published in 1751 (decades before the concept of a constitutional government by, for and of the people, crystallized), is also a science book...The list begins with Benjamin Franklin's Experiments and Observations on Electricity. That book and this one are passionate acts of citizenship by two scientists who wanted science to belong to all of us.

Ann Druyan, creative director of NASA's Voyager Interstellar Message, co-writer of Cosmos, co-creator of the motion picture Contact; executive producer and writer of Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, 2014 (Fox and National Geographic). She was married to Dr. Sagan until his death. The asteroids named after them are in perpetual wedding-ring orbit around the Sun. (From the Foreword)

SETI Institute:
The SETI Institute's David Morrison Publishes Carl Sagan Memoir
National Academy of Sciences Online: Carl Sagan Memoir

The Path to Freedom...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 28, 2014 at 6:00am

* Dedicated to Wilbur and Sandra Banks (both deceased). Wilbur was my cousin by blood; Sandra by marriage. Like Richard and Mildred Loving, a union between the so-called "races" was provocative in 60's North Carolina during the height of the Civil Rights struggle. They made their loving home in Brooklyn, New York in an environment a bit more enlightened than Winston-Salem at the time. I recall noticing as a small child when they visited the south, it was mostly - surreptitiously - under cover of night.

* * *

“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike - and yet it is the most precious thing we have.” Albert Einstein (source of the title to Chapter 2 of Sagan's referenced book below)

We are all - every single human that has ever walked the face of the Earth - from what is now known as the African continent, the soil for the root of humanity's Baobab tree starting 6 or 7 million years ago, thankfully well past the Cretaceous Period. About 200,000 years ago, the wanderlust inherit in us all led us to explore and leave Eden. The angle of incidence for ultraviolet radiation, environment adaption and physical separation for millennium did the rest. We are likely as a space faring species to encounter this Punnett Square diversity on distant worlds - if we survive long enough to reach them, and should not [then, or now] find it at all remarkable.

We as a species have unfortunately exacerbated this separation with faux social constructs, magical thinking - conferring/denying powers to melanin or lack thereof; draconian drug polices, gated neighborhoods, consolidated power, for-profit prisons, "old-boy" hierarchies (dubiously based on debunked Social Darwinism [1]) and income inequality enabled by laws once penned by feudal lords, now de facto pseudoscience reinforced by de jure lobbyists. An appreciation for real scientific knowledge could change that, and set us forward out of the darkness of ignorance on a path towards true freedom.

I have endeavored to celebrate science and African American culture and its impact on astronautics, astrophysics, electronics; gas masks and stop lights, part of the set of myriad cultures of humanity in the 21st century. We should all embrace one anothers diversity when the time and situation warrants and when that embrace and acknowledgement neither disrespects or debases. We are globally all "the melting pot"; we are E Pluribus Unum; we are all cousins*.

In doing so, we might have had just one less 9-11 in the US or 7-7 in the UK (zero for both would have been good); one less mass shooting: mall, school, army/naval base, Sikh temple or otherwise; one less Hadiya Pendleton; one less Amadou Diallo; one less Sean Bell; one less Jordan Davis; one less Oscar Grant; one less Jonathan Ferrell; one less police Officer Willie Wilkins; one less police Sgt. Cornel Young Jr.; one less Trayvon Martin...as a result of our scientific enlightenment. One can only hope...

If it seems strange that I end this month with Carl Sagan - here's the tie-in:

COSMOS begins next month (Sunday, March 9th on Fox; March 10th National Geographic), hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, PhD and Director of the Hayden Planetarium here in New York. At 17, he received a note from Dr. Sagan which went something like this (my Tyson paraphrase): "I hear you're interested in the universe. So am I." Sagan invited a young Mr. Tyson up to Cornell for a tour, which in many ways shows Sagan as someone that allowed science - not the norm or prejudices in his environment and times - to shape him. Scientists at one time were just as guilty of prejudice as society (a small number sadly still are), but Carl only saw a then young Neil and his desire to explore the stars; another human soul interested in science and thrilled with its wonder. As a fellow human, he was more than happy to encourage this desire, as we still should with each other. Science literacy is our "most precious thing," and paramount to effective governance as a democratic republic in a society and a world only increasing in complexity.

"The Path to Freedom" is the title of the 21st chapter to Dr. Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" (ironically coinciding with this century). The entire book is a course in critical thinking; a discourse in logic and reasoning. This particular chapter was so profound, so significant I transcribed an excerpt and embed it below (a link on some platforms), giving its proper credit to Sagan and his lucid thoughts as he'd penned them. I encourage you to buy a copy of the book, available in paperback and e-book format. A quote from the excerpt: "In evaluating these facts, we must be careful not to improperly deduce causation from correlation" should hopefully encourage you to go deeper in the text and perchance download the book at the link provided. As storyteller and science advocate, especially in our current struggles with myriad pseudoscience, he is sorely missed.

Science as a human enterprise has had its foibles and failings (the atomic bomb; the pseudoscience of eugenics) but the Scientific Method makes it remarkably, and thankfully self-correcting.

Science is our candle in the dark; our Nyota Uhura ("freedom star") that lights our way true north on a path to freedom out of willful ignorance into a shared future and a hope...if we would only allow it.

But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Indeed, who does not know such things as these? Job 12:3

Related links:
Seth McFarland's 'Cosmos' gets its closeup
8 of the Most Fascinating Items From Carl Sagan's Personal Archives
(a letter to a young Mr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in 1975 being one of them)

I'll let "Frederick Bailey" explain the rest, and challenge us all to strive towards science literacy (my apologies for the 'good' Captain Auld's language).

1. "Social Darwinism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000

Chapter 21 - The Path to Freedom

Einstein...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 27, 2014 at 6:30am

Source: New York Public Library

In this dramatic, surprise-filled story, unfolding against a backdrop of an era when America was sweat-drenched in fear and paranoia over national security, readers will discover a new dimension to Albert Einstein. The avalanche of Einstein images – genius, brilliant, absent-minded, kindly, bumbling and more – has all but buried Einstein's political dimension, and totally covered up his civil-rights activities which have remained virtually unknown to his tens of millions of fans and followers.

But in an age of increasing tribalization around the world, the fact that Einstein and Paul Robeson, two of the 20th Century's most famous and popular figures, were not only friends but co-chaired the American Crusade to End Lynching and shared a dozen other anti-racist activities, could serve as a role model for millions. Yet the story has remained untold – until now – as has Einstein's support for W. E. B. Du Bois, his friendship with Marian Anderson and his many ties with the African American people living in Princeton's own little ghetto, in and around Witherspoon Street.

Here, the authors interweave Einstein’s civil-rights letters, speeches and articles, brought together in this volume for the first time, with candid interviews with African American Princetonians who remember Einstein, and historical developments, many of which rocked the nation.

As the authors say in their preface, if racism in America depends for its survival at least partly on the smothering of anti-racist voices, then this book is intended to be part of a grand unsmothering.

Excerpts From the Preface:

AUTHORS' PREFACE TO EINSTEIN ON RACE AND RACISM

By Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor

More than one hundred biographies and monographs of Einstein have been published, yet not one of them mentions the name Paul Robeson, let alone Einstein’s friendship with him, or the name W. E. B. Du Bois, let alone Einstein’s support for him. Nor does one find in any of these works any reference to the Civil Rights Congress whose campaigns Einstein actively supported. Finally, nowhere in all the ocean of published Einsteinia – anthologies, bibliographies, biographies, summaries, articles, videotapes, calendars, posters and postcards – will one find even an islet of information about Einstein’s visits and ties to the people in Princeton’s African American community around the street called Witherspoon.

Yet, despite Einstein’s clear intention to make his politics public – especially his anti-lynching and other antiracist activities – the history-molders have seemed embarrassed to do so. Or nervous.

Readers may judge for themselves how much of this oversight is due to forgetting and how much may be due to other motives (including, perhaps, disagreement with Einstein’s point of view). It is not so much the motive for the omission, but the consequence that concerns us. Americans and the millions of Einstein’s fans around the world are left unaware that Einstein was an outspoken, passionate, committed anti-racist. “It is certain – indeed painfully obvious – that racism has permeated US history both as idea and practice,” as the historian Herbert Aptheker states. “Nevertheless,” he adds, “It always has faced significant challenge.”

Racism in America depends for its survival in large part on the smothering of anti-racist voices, especially when those voices come from popular and widely respected individuals – like Albert Einstein. This book, then. aspires to be part of a grand un-smothering.

From "Ideas and Opinions," by Albert Einstein:

"It seems to be a universal fact that minorities--especially when the individuals composing them can be recognized by physical characteristics--are treated by the majorities among whom they live as an inferior order of beings. The tragedy of such a fate lies not merely in the unfair treatment to which these minorities are automatically subjected in social and economic matters, but also in the fact that under the suggestive influence of the majority most of the victims themselves succumb to the same prejudice and regard their kind as inferior beings. This second and greater part of the evil can be overcome by closer association and by deliberate education of the minority, whose spiritual liberation can thus be accomplished.

"The resolute efforts of the American Negroes in this direction deserve approval and assistance."

Mein Weltbild (my conception of the world), Amsterdam: Querido Verlog, 1934, pp 117-118.

Authors' website: Einstein on Race and Racism
Amazon.com: Einstein on Race and Racism

Star Trek...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 26, 2014 at 6:28am

Alas, my scroll HTML is not working in Ning. You can see my original intent here. Enjoy the sample below...

Queen Genesis: Actress Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura

Nichelle Nichols (née Grace Dell Nichols on December 28) is an American actress, singer and voice artist. She sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting. Nichols' most famous role is that of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the popular Star Trek television series (1966-1969), as well as the succeeding motion pictures, where her character was eventually promoted in Starfleet to the rank of commander. Her Star Trek character was groundbreaking in U.S society at the time, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. personally praised her work on the show and asked her to remain when she was considering leaving the series. Wikipedia

Actor William Marshall as Dr. Richard Daystrom

Born in 2219, Daystrom was a brilliant 23rd-century computer scientist, and inventor of the comptronic and duotronic systems. Daystrom won the prestigious Nobel Prize and the Zee-Magnees Prize in 2243, at the age of 24, for his breakthrough in duotronics, which became the basis for computer systems aboard Federation starships for over 80 years.

William Marshall (19 August 1924 – 11 June 2003; age 78) was an American actor, director, producer, and opera singer who appeared on Star Trek: The Original Series, playing Doctor Richard Daystrom in the episode "The Ultimate Computer". He was the cousin of fellow Star Trek actor Paul Winfield.

Actor Paul Winfield as Captain Dathon on TNG

The U.S.S. Enterprise receives a signal from "The Children of Tama," an alien race that has no history of violence, but whose language has been deemed "incomprehensible" to humans. Hovering above an uninhabited planet, Picard and the crew hope to establish relations with the Tamarians. But while he and Dathon, the Tamarian captain, make several attempts to communicate over their viewscreens, neither can understand the other. Suddenly Dathon turns to him, armed with two daggers, and both captains dematerialize and are transported to the surface of the planet below.

Pursued by a large, shimmering beast, Dathon again offers Picard his dagger and this time Picard accepts. As the two captains struggle to communicate in order to fight effectively, Picard hypothesizes that the Tamarians communicate by example, and the proper names and places they cite are references to situations in their history. Picard is then able to begin to communicate with Dathon, and the alien responds enthusiastically to his efforts.

Noted African-American actor Paul Winfield portrayed two powerful roles in his oportunities in the Star Trek universe: as the tragic Captain Clark Terrell in the bigscreen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and then on TNG in the role of metaphor-talking Tamarian captain Dathon in the classic "Darmok" episode.

Actor Avery Brooks as Benjamin Lafayette Sisko, Deep Space Nine

Brooks is best known in popular culture for his role as Commander—and later Captain—Benjamin Sisko on the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which ran for seven seasons from 1993 to 1999.

Brooks won the role of Commander Benjamin Sisko by beating 100 other actors from all racial backgrounds to become the first African-American captain to lead a Star Trek series. What appealed to Brooks about the role was the opportunity to give hope to young people. "Today, many of our children, especially black males, do not project that they will live past the age of 19 or 20," he told Michael Logan of TV Guide. "Star Trek allows our children the chance to see something they might never otherwise imagine."

He directed nine episodes of the series, including "Far Beyond the Stars", an episode focusing on racial injustice.

Series producer Ronald D. Moore said of Brooks: "Avery, like his character (Sisko), is a very complex man. He is not a demanding or ego-driven actor, rather he is a thoughtful and intelligent man who sometimes has insights into the character that no one else has thought about. He has also been unfailingly polite and a classy guy in all my dealings with him." Wikipedia

Actress Felicia M. Bell as Jennifer Sisko

Felecia M. Bell played Jennifer Sisko and her mirror universe counterpart in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She is perhaps best known for her recurring roles in Days of Our Lives from 1990-92 and General Hospital from 1993-97. Bell has also guest starred in Hunter (with Barry Jenner), Night Man, ER, JAG (with J. Patrick McCormack and Eric Pierpoint), Smallville (with John Glover, Robert Picardo and Phil Morris), Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Memory Alpha

Actress Penny Johnson as Kassidy Yates-Sisko

Penny Johnson Jerald is an actress known to Star Trek fans for her role as Kassidy Yates in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She had previously played Dobara in the Star Trek: The Next Generation seventh season episode "Homeward" in 1993. Her costume from "Homeward" was later sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay.

One of Johnson Jerald's early television guest appearances was in an episode of T.J. Hooker, starring William Shatner and her DS9 co-star James Darren. She was a regular cast member on The Larry Sanders Show with Scott Thompson and Wallace Langham as well as during the first three seasons of the popular FOX television series 24 where she played Sherry Palmer, the duplicitous ex-wife to the president of the United States. Memory Alpha

Decoding Photons...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 25, 2014 at 6:09am

This NIST device, 1.5 by 3 centimeters in outer dimensions, is a prototype receiver for laser communications enabling much higher data rates than conventional systems. Superconducting detectors in the center of the small square chip register the timing and position of single particles of light.
Credit: Verma and Tomlin/NIST
high resolution image

It's not quite Star Trek communications—yet. But long-distance communications in space may be easier now that researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have designed a clever detector array that can extract more information than usual from single particles of light.

Described in a new paper,* the NIST/JPL array-on-a-chip easily identifies the position of the exact detector in a multi-detector system that absorbs an incoming infrared light particle, or photon. That's the norm for digital photography cameras, of course, but a significant improvement in these astonishingly sensitive detectors that can register a single photon. The new device also records the signal timing, as these particular single-photon detectors have always done.

The technology could be useful in optical communications in space. Lasers can transmit only very low light levels across vast distances, so signals need to contain as much information as possible.

One solution is "pulse position modulation" in which a photon is transmitted at different times and positions to encode more than the usual one bit of information. If a light source transmitted photons slightly to the left/right and up/down, for instance, then the new NIST/JPL detector array circuit could decipher the two bits of information encoded in the spatial position of the photon. Additional bits of information could be encoded by using the arrival time of the photon.

NIST:
Clever NIST/JPL Technology Decodes More Information from Single Photons, Laura Ost

Winston E. Scott...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 25, 2014 at 6:00am

WINSTON E. SCOTT (CAPTAIN, USN, RET.)

NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)

PERSONAL: Born August 6, 1950, in Miami, Florida. Married to the former Marilyn K. Robinson. They have two children. He enjoys martial arts and holds a 2nd degree black belt in Shotokan karate. He also enjoys music, and plays trumpet with various bands along the Cape Canaveral Space Coast. In addition he remains an active pilot flying various aircraft. Winston's father, Alston Scott, resides in Miami, Florida. His mother, Rubye Scott, is deceased.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Coral Gables High School, Coral Gables, Florida, in 1968; received a bachelor of arts degree in music from Florida State University in 1972; a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1980. Awarded honorary doctorates from Florida Atlantic University in 1996, and Michingan State University in 2007.

ORGANIZATIONS: American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics; Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association; Experimental Aircraft Association; Skotokan Karate Association; Association of International Tohgi Karate-Do; Bronze Eagles Association of Texas.

EXPERIENCE: Scott entered Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School after graduation from Florida State University in December 1972. He completed flight training in fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft and was designated a Naval Aviator in August 1974. He then served a 4-year tour of duty with Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light Thirty Three (HSL-33) at the Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island, California, flying the SH-2F Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System (LAMPS) helicopter. In 1978 Scott was selected to attend the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California, where he earned his Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering with avionics. After completing jet training in the TA-4J Skyhawk, Scott served a tour of duty with Fighter Squadron Eighty Four (VF-84) at NAS Oceana, Virginia, flying the F-14 Tomcat. In June 1986 Scott was designated an Aerospace Engineering Duty Officer. He served as a production test pilot at the Naval Aviation Depot, NAS Jacksonville, Florida, flying the F/A-18 Hornet and the A-7 Corsair aircraft. He was also assigned as Director of the Product Support (engineering) Department. He was next assigned as the Deputy Director of the Tactical Aircraft Systems Department at the Naval Air Development Center at Warminster, Pennsylvania. As a research and development project pilot, he flew the F-14, F/A-18 and A-7 aircraft. Scott has accumulated more than 5,000 hours of flight time in 20 different military and civilian aircraft, and more than 200 shipboard landings. Additionally, Scott was an associate instructor of electrical engineering at Florida A&M University and Florida Community College at Jacksonville, Florida.

NASA SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: Scott was selected by NASA in March 1992, and reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. He served as a mission specialist on STS-72 in 1996 and STS-87 in 1997, and has logged a total of 24 days, 14 hours and 34 minutes in space, including 3 spacewalks totaling 19 hours and 26 minutes.

NASA: Winston E. Scott, Captain, US Navy, (RET)

Bobby Satcher...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 24, 2014 at 6:09am

2004 Astronaut Candidate

There's some scientist in me. There's some explorer in me," says Dr. Bobby Satcher. "There's a humanitarian in me also. Space is the one venue that has the highest potential for benefiting people if we continue to be serious about exploring it."

Satcher, 38, a medical doctor who also holds a doctorate in chemical engineering, is one of 11 Americans selected to begin astronaut training this summer at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "I have always had an interest in service and an interest in science," says the future mission specialist. "I am interested in exploration, too. Becoming an astronaut lets me do all three."

Dr. Satcher comes to NASA from a research post at Northwestern University in Illinois. He's an orthopedic surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

"The focus of my research has been studying how bone cells respond to stresses," he says.

He brings his experience to NASA at a key time, when it's working to fulfill the new Vision for Space Exploration. The vision calls for NASA to focus its research efforts on studying the effects of long-duration space flight. "One problem when it comes to living and working in space is bone loss. I'm interested in looking at ways of preventing that," he says.

In his medical practice, Dr. Satcher treats patients who suffer from cancer in their arms and legs. He teaches doctors-in-training and graduate students as well. "The questions we're interested in are how the skeleton responds to external forces and how cancer spreads to the skeleton.

NASA: Bobby Satcher, M.D.

Neutrinos and Mass...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 24, 2014 at 6:00am

Comparing the value of mass in the universe derived using the CMB as compared with counts of galaxy clusters and gravitational lensing. (Courtesy: Adam Moss, Planck Collaboration)

Scientists know that when they measure the total amount of matter in the universe using two competing methods, one will give a higher value for the total density of matter than the other. To resolve this measurement discrepancy, two separate research groups have now proposed that the missing mass might be in the form of neutrinos. Accurately measuring the total amount of matter in the universe is a crucial cosmological parameter for interpreting a vast number of astrophysical phenomena.

Neutrinos are difficult to study because they interact only by the weak nuclear force, which acts only over very short distances, and by gravity, which is extremely weak. In the Standard Model of particle physics, neutrinos come in three flavours – electron, muon and tau. They were once thought to be massless, but the discovery of neutrino oscillations – whereby neutrinos change flavour, requiring that their masses be different – implies at least two of them have mass, with the rate of oscillation depending on the mass difference of each flavour. The rate has been measured in particle-physics experiments such as Super-Kamiokande in Japan, which has allowed particle physicists to place a lower bound on the sum of the neutrino masses of 0.06 eV, but the absolute values remain unknown.

Physics World: Could sterile neutrinos solve the cosmological mass conundrum?

Leland D. Melvin...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 23, 2014 at 6:11pm

LELAND D. MELVIN (MR.)

ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR EDUCATION

NASA HEADQUARTERS

PERSONAL DATA: Born February 15, 1964 in Lynchburg, Virginia. Unmarried. Recreational interests include photography, piano, reading, music, cycling, tennis, and snowboarding. Loves walking his dogs, Jake and Scout. Chosen by the Detroit Lions in the 11th round of the 1986 NFL college draft. Also participated in the Toronto Argonauts and Dallas Cowboys football training camps. His parents Deems and Grace Melvin, reside in Lynchburg, Virginia.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Heritage High School, Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1982; received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia in 1986; and a master of science degree in materials science engineering from the University of Virginia in 1991.

ORGANIZATIONS: National Technical Association (Hampton Roads Chapter Secretary 1993), American Chemical Society, The Society for Experimental Mechanics.

SPECIAL HONORS/AWARDS: Invention Disclosure Award for Lead Insensitive Fiber Optic Phase Locked Loop Sensor, NASA Outstanding Performance Awards (8), NASA Superior Accomplishment Award (2), Key to the City of Lynchburg, Virginia, NCAA Division I Academic All American, University of Richmond Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee.

EXPERIENCE: Mr. Melvin began working in the Fiber Optic Sensors group of the Nondestructive Evaluation Sciences Branch at NASA Langley Research Center in 1989 where he conducted research in the area of physical measurements for the development of advanced instrumentation for Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE). His responsibilities included using optical fiber sensors to measure strain, temperature, and chemical damage in both composite and metallic structures. Additional projects included developing optical interferometric techniques for quantitative determination of damage in aerospace structures and materials. In 1994, Mr. Melvin was selected to lead the Vehicle Health Monitoring (VHM) team for the cooperative Lockheed/NASA X-33 Reuseable Launch Vehicle (RLV) program. The team developed distributed fiber optic strain, temperature and hydrogen sensors for the reduction of vehicle operational costs and to monitor composite liquid oxygen tank and cryogenic insulation performance. In 1996, Mr. Melvin codesigned and monitored construction of an optical NDE facility capable of producing in-line fiber optic Bragg grating strain sensors at rates in excess of 1000 per hour. This facility will provide a means for performing advanced sensor and laser research for development of aerospace and civil health monitoring systems.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA JSC in June 1998, Mr. Melvin reported for training in August 1998. Astronaut Candidate Training included orientation briefings and tours, numerous scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training and ground school to prepare for T-38 flight training, as well as learning water and wilderness survival techniques. Mr. Melvin has served the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations Branch, the Education Department at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C, and the Robotics Branch of the Astronaut Office. As co-manager of NASA's Educator Astronaut Program, Leland Melvin traveled across the country, engaging thousands of students and teachers in the excitement of space exploration, and inspiring them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. A veteran of two space flights, STS-122 in 2008, and STS-129 in 2009, Leland Melvin has logged over 565 hours in space.

NASA: Leland D. Melvin (Mr.)