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Genesis Planet...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 13, 2016 at 5:27am
Image Source: Daily Galaxy link below


Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Big Bang, Cosmology, White Dwarfs


I took the title from the Daily Galaxy's original post. It seemed apropos and succinct, but I am aware of the strong feelings it may generate.

Science strives mightily to fight "confirmation bias" : "the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories." The way scientists try to weed out minutiae is through peer review. Feelings are bruised, but truth is winnowed from social and preconceived chaff. Previous theories once held in high regard are thrown away. As new technology and instruments become available, this disciplined process is repeated. A scientific discovery may or may not confirm already preconceived notions. It's usually the latter. Such is not science, but the seeds of the boondoggle, pseudoscience and superstition; it is the natural tendency in an ever-changing world to reach for the comfortable instead of lighting "a candle in the dark" (Carl Sagan).

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

"I would rather have questions I can't answer, than answers I can't question."

Richard Feynman

In 2015, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope precisely measured the mass of the oldest known planet in our Milky Way galaxy. At an estimated age of 13 billion years, the planet is more than twice as old as Earth's 4.5 billion years. It's about as old as a planet can be. It formed around a young, sun-like star barely 1 billion years after our universe's birth in the Big Bang. The ancient planet has had a remarkable history because it resides in an unlikely, rough neighborhood. A few intrepid astronomers have concluded that the most productive to look for planets that can support life is around dim, dying stars white dwarfs.

"In the quest for extraterrestrial biological signatures, the first stars we study should be white dwarfs," said Avi Loeb, theorist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and director of the Institute for Theory and Computation. Even dying stars could host planets with life - and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade.

The ancient planet orbits a peculiar pair of burned-out stars in the crowded core of a cluster of more than 100,000 stars. The new Hubble findings close a decade of speculation and debate about the identity of this ancient world. Until Hubble's measurement, astronomers had debated the identity of this object. Was it a planet or a brown dwarf? Hubble's analysis shows that the object is 2.5 times the mass of Jupiter, confirming that it is a planet. Its very existence provides tantalizing evidence that the first planets formed rapidly, within a billion years of the Big Bang, leading astronomers to conclude that planets may be very abundant in our galaxy.

The Daily Galaxy:
Hubble Space Telescope Reveals "The Genesis Planet" --The Oldest Known Planet in the Milky Way (Today's Most Popular)

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cQED...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 12, 2016 at 6:30am
A. Houck/Princeton

Figure 1: Scanning defect microscopy provides a map of photons in a resonator lattice. Houck and colleagues demonstrated the technique using 49 resonators (grey lines) that were coupled together to form a kagome lattice. This configuration consists of a triangular arrangement of three resonators at each point in a honeycomb lattice.

Topics: Electrical Engineering, Nanotechnology, Quantum Electrodynamics


A scanning probe detects the quantum states of photons in a microwave circuit, providing the information needed for quantum simulations.

Quantum mechanics rules the dynamics of light and matter. Yet performing a quantum-mechanical simulation of a material from first principles is practically impossible on a classical computer because the complexity of the simulation increases exponentially with the number of particles involved. The solution, according to Richard Feynman, was to build a machine out of quantum building blocks that could directly emulate the material itself [1]. Prototypes of such quantum simulators that are based on ultracold atoms, ions, photons, and superconducting microwave circuits are now available [2], with the latter, in particular, having attracted Silicon Valley’s interest. The challenge with these circuit-based simulators, however, is that they are 2D, which complicates the readout of their constituent elements. Andrew Houck from Princeton University, New Jersey, and colleagues have now delivered an attractive solution by developing a technique [3], called scanning defect microscopy (Fig. 1), that determines the number of photons occupying each mode of a 2D microwave circuit. It is this information that would serve as the fundamental input and output for certain quantum simulations.

Superconducting microwave circuits combine electronic and photonic degrees of freedom [4, 5]. The main element of the circuit is a transmission line, which is made up of a central superconducting wire separated by a gap from two grounded plates. All of these structures are on a single plane, as if one had taken a 2D slice through a coaxial cable. When truncated, the transmission line becomes a resonator, which can host discrete photon modes within its gaps. Large lattices of resonators can be engineered in various 1D or 2D geometries by coupling two, three, or more resonators together via a capacitive interface. In many ways, photons in such devices behave similarly to electrons in a solid.

To make microwave circuits that can simulate quantum phenomena faster than a classical computer, however, resonator lattices have to be integrated with superconducting qubits. Such qubits are controlled with electrical currents in a Josephson tunnel junction, and in many respects, they behave like artificial atoms, which couple to the photons in the circuit. As a result, superconducting microwave circuits can be used to explore the coupling between the quantum states of light and matter, the regime of circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED). Photons in these devices often exhibit striking matter-like behavior [6, 7], providing the basis for the simulation of complex materials. Such circuits can be fabricated on a substrate using standard lithographic techniques, with qubits and resonators that are hundreds of micrometers or even millimeters in size.

APS Viewpoint: A Bird’s Eye View of Circuit Photons
Sebastian Schmidt, Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland

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CFP: Afrofuturism in Time and Space

Posted by Rebecca Hankins on July 11, 2016 at 2:50pm

Sharing this post from the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA-L) Listserv:

Dear Comrades:

 

I'm delighted to announce that Isiah Lavender III and I seek essay proposals for an anthology called "Afrofuturism in Time and Space." Please see the CFP below and attached for more details. Also, please note that we thought we'd posted this sooner, and so the deadline in is just a few weeks.... If you are interested and need a bit more time to develop your proposal, please contact either me or Isiah off list.

 

Thanks, enjoy, and please pass along the good word. I hope to see proposals from some of you soon!

 

Best, Lisa

 

CFP: Afrofuturism in Time and Space

 

Co-editors Isiah Lavender III and Lisa Yaszek seek essays on black speculative art across

centuries, continents, and cultures for a new collection called “Afrofuturism in Time and Space.” When Mark Dery coined the term “Afrofuturism” in 1993 to describe art that explores issues of science, technology, and race from technocultural and science fictional perspectives, he did so primarily in reference to postwar African-American art, music, and literature. Over the past decade, however, scholars and artists alike have begun to redefine Afrofuturism, pushing its temporal boundaries back to the 17th-century roots of modern science and industry while expanding its geographic boundaries to include diasporic black and pan-African speculative fictions. As editors, we seek scholarly essays and artists’ case statements that demonstrate how to productively rethink Afrofuturism as a globe-spanning tapestry of creative voices and aesthetic practices linking historic African American, contemporary black Atlantic, and pan-African authors together in provocative new ways. That is to say, we are looking both backward through

history and outward from the U.S. At the same time, we also welcome works that treat what we might now call “classic” Afrofuturist authors and themes from new methodological perspectives.

 

While we, of course, welcome proposals on Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, and Nalo

Hopkinson, we also seek essays that address:

 

• Early African American literature

• Slave narratives and neo-slave narratives

• Jim Crow and Apartheid

• Poetry, film, graphic narrative, and sonic fictions

• Black Atlantic and other black diasporic aesthetic traditions

• Pan-African and regional African speculative fictions

• Little-known artists, understudied artists, emerging artists, and mainstream artists

working with Afrofuturist themes

• Occult or native scientific practices as they inform Afrofuturist texts

 

The editors invite submissions that respond to the focus of the volume and also welcome general inquiries about a particular topic’s suitability. Please submit 250 word abstracts, a working bibliography, and a brief CV electronically as MS Word attachments to Isiah Lavender III at isiahl@lsu.edu and to Lisa Yaszek at lisa.yaszek@lmc.gatech.edu by July 30, 2016.

 

Accepted articles should be between 5000 and 6500 words in length, including “Works Cited,” and prepared in MLA style, and forwarded as MS Word attachments.

 

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Fuels and Futures...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 11, 2016 at 6:30am


Figure 1. The correlation between hydrocarbon-based power consumption and economic output for most countries on Earth. A power-law fit finds that annual GDP per person is G = $10 500 (C/kW)0.64, where C is hydrocarbon-based energy consumption per second per person. The tight power-law relationship indicates that economic prosperity is not currently feasible without consumption of hydrocarbon fuels. The power law is reminiscent of scaling laws in biology; 15 the flow of petroleum through economies resembles the flow of blood in mammals. On average, the hydrocarbon power consumed in the US is 8 kW per person, the same as 80 incandescent 100 W bulbs burning continuously. If the US were to rely only on its currently available renewables—biomass cogeneration, wood, hydropower, geothermal, wind, passive solar, and photovoltaics—power consumption would drop to four bulbs per person; eliminating hydropower and biofuels would reduce the number to one or two. The reduction would entail such a change in lifestyle as to make the US unrecognizable. 16 (Data source: Central Intelligence Agency, World Factbook, 2015; DOE/Energy Information Administration, 2015.)



Citation: Phys. Today 69, 7, 46 (2016); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3236



 Topics: Alternative Energy, Economy, Green Energy, Green Tech, Politics


President George W. Bush famously said: "we're addicted to oil." That's an understatement, as it is evident this is the underpinning of the planetary economy.

The sad part is, without physics to give an intervention of sorts, the kind of utopia envisioned by Gene Roddenberry in Star Trek is highly unlikely. We're already showing the strains of automation, globalization and trade deals without a forethought on the impacts with populations at the bottom of societal ladders. It makes way for demagogues in the US, the UK and elsewhere that don't quite have a clue how to solve the problem, but play into xenophobic fears (as evidenced) to their advantage.

To contend with the challenges of fueling modern society, the physics community must collaborate with other disciplines and remain broadly engaged in research and education on energy.

For how long and in what ways can humans sustain the energy-intensive way of life we take for granted? That consequential question is one that physicists must help answer. As we pass the middle of 2016, oil prices are at a 10-year low, partly because of the surge in production of oil and natural gas from fracking. The current fracking boom may ease the transition to a new mix of energy resources. Conversely, it may make us complacent and delay the transition or incite popular resentment and impede the transition.

The physics community must participate in shaping how energy issues play out over the coming decades. The development of fusion reactors, photovoltaic cells, and other potential energy sources clearly requires contributions from physicists. As educators, many of us occupy the central position of teaching students the very definition of energy and the fundamental limits on extraction of free energy from heat. Beyond the classroom, we should all be concerned with the public’s understanding of what energy means. Even in the specific case of fossil fuels, there is room for our increased technical engagement through collaboration.

Physics Today: Physics, fracking, fuel, and the future
Michael Marder, Tadeusz Patzek and Scott W. Tinker

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The Death of Justice

Posted by A. Y. Emanuel on July 9, 2016 at 1:30am

The Death of Due Process

 

Well, Texas has just put the final bullet in due process. Is that offensive? Too soon? GOOD!

 

They sent in a BOMB to assassinate the Dallas shooter. No arrest, no arraignment. And then the Governor of Dallas, Greg Abbott, proudly got up on television and proclaimed that "the sole suspect", Michael Xavier Johnson, "now has received his justice." The same justice that Sandra Bland got? The same justice that Philando Castile got? The same justice that Alton Sterling got? Or Tamir Rice? Or Freddy Gray? Or Treyvon Martin? Or Deven Guilford? Or the many, many others who were shot or otherwise killed by police without cause? Do I have to name them all?

 

It's not enough that they can practice civil forfeiture, and take private property as part of the income of the police department. It's not enough that they can come in without warrants to the wrong house and shoot an old lady to death. It's not enough that these people, who are supposed to PROTECT AND SERVE do nothing of the kind, but rather sow fear and distrust, and don't even get indicted when they commit these murders.

 

No. Now they are sanctioned ASSASSINS in our midst, and they can send a robot with a bomb into YOUR home, and blow you up, too. And why even wait for Black, Latino, Women, Underprivileged, whoever, to do wrong? Why don't they just set up stands on the highway and pick us off as we drive past? Why not just send some plastique to expectant, non-white, or non-rich mothers, and take out the next generation before they even take their first breath? Why not make flu-shots in non-affluent areas hot-shots, and smile as you cheerfully eradicated the surplus population?

 

And let's not forget that one of the top ten professions that draws psychopaths is Police Officer.

 

Are we surprised? Are we scared enough, yet, to do something? Is there anything we can do, besides saw friggin Texas and all other deeply red states off of the continent and set them adrift, to safe-guard the rest of us?

 

I have a home I can go to... The Caribbean holds some sanctuary for me. But what about the millions who call this nightmare place home, who have been here twice more generations than their affluent oppressors, because they die younger and more frequently due to exactly the circumstances we are witnessing before our eyes? The average American citizen should NOT have to leave their homes with a reasonable expectation of DYING due to a police stop, but that is exactly the way things are going. The thin veneer of civilization that the middle and upper middle class so fervently believes in is being stripped away to show what has ALWAYS been happening.

 

We are seeing the extraordinarily horrible as the everyday commonplace. And now Texas has just wiped its ass with the Constitution. So please, Republicans, no more bullshit about protecting the Constitution, and believing in the equality of all people. Your Poster-Boys of Conservatism have just shown their asses, and it is Rich, White, and the boys in Blue. Now stand up and tell ME to say the pledge of friggin Allegiance!

  

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Story Formation and Polishing

Posted by A. Y. Emanuel on July 8, 2016 at 7:30am

I go through a definite process to make a finished story. There is the initial writing - I might write the beginning and ending, or some intermediate scene, that the story works towards. Sometimes stories start with a single great scene, a beautiful beginning, that drives the plot for a while, a good long while. But eventually that impetus runs out, and other things are needed to keep the story moving forward. A great ending can help, for it gives the story the goal to strive toward, but I have found that not even that can completely fill a story out. 

 

I world-build - I set up the world and the rules, and keep a little library of them for each story that i consult as I am filling in the details. This can also help drive the story, because the plot and the people must obey the rules, and that can help inform the actions that they need to take, and what must come next.

 

When I write, the initial manuscript is full of holes - places where i skip words when i cannot think of exactly the right word, so I put a space-holder, or entire scenes where I can't or don't want to try to come up with the next logical scene, but work on the juicy ones, the dramatic ones that are easy to write.

 

Once all the juicy parts have been written, I try to find a good ending place. It might not be the ending I originally wrote, in fact, most times it is not. As I write, it may be that my original ending needs to come later, or too many things are happening, and the story would be too long to reach that ending. Things get rushed, details get glossed over, so I push that scene back and look for another ending.

 

Ending in place, (possibly), I screw around for a while, reading and chewing over what I have, but then I knuckle down and get serious about filling in all the holes. I make sure that the story is self-consistent, that I have gotten all the plot threads, and if it is not the first book in a series, but the second or third, I reread the preceding books to make sure I have everything right.

 

Then comes the polish - making sure that I don't repeat a descriptive word too many times, replacing all y place-holders with just the word I want, adding descriptions, making sure the transitions are just right.

 

Last is the error and spell-checking - this is the hardest part, and some errors do get past me and my editors (my family members pressed into service). But once they give the green light, I copyright, and put the story up as soon as the copyright payment is confirmed. If your next question is: do i wait for the copyright certificate before I post the book, the answer is no. I post it as soon as I finish the online copyright form. Why? Because works are actually copyrighted as soon as you create them - registering a  copyright is just your back-up legal defense if someone tries to claim it as theirs. Once the file is uploaded to the Library of Congress, I feel safe enough to put it on amazon.

 

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Octavia, One Day...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 8, 2016 at 5:26am
Image Source: Fusion Article
Why is Hollywood ignoring this incredible black science fiction writer?

Topics: #BlackLivesMatter, Biology, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, Science Fiction, Women in Science

You probably haven't heard of Octavia Estelle Butler unless you've read her work, or follow online forums like Black Science Fiction Society (as I do). It might not be important to you if you're not a part of the culture. What will likely be somewhat related and familiar is Justin Timberlake's first #inspired to Jesse Williams' speech at the BET Awards and his rejoinder to black twitter (when they accused him of appropriating the culture, but not the struggles for profit). It's unfortunate, but not equivalent to the dismissive #alllivesmatter (just clumsy). Daily there are those who strive mightily to make the Diaspora infantile based on its concerns, political choices, perspectives...and tastes in science fiction. The deaths... no: the executions of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota proved again "we're all one bullet from being a hashtag." The Dallas shooting, opposite the peaceful protest of these assassinations was an action-reaction to congressional inaction to previous mass shootings; action-reaction to a Justice System blind and mute to black bodies abused by overzealous officers. This "post-racial society" isn't.

In my readings on the subject of "Afrofuturism," I've come across the notion many times that the transatlantic slave trade was essentially the first "alien abduction," replete with advanced technology; different dialects; aloof foreign-looking men appropriating black bodies on mother ships - the 1st christened hauntingly as the "Good Ship Jesus."

In a post February 3, 2015 I titled "The Grand Dame," I said this:

I came to Octavia Butler in "Mind of My Mind" midway in the Patternist series; followed by "Parable of the Sower" and "Parable of the Talents." It was a respite from often, science fiction clearly written without other cultures in mind. Literary whitewashing tends to translate in realities where diversity cannot be tolerated. She sadly left us in 2006 due to poor health. It is a wonder some of her books haven't made it into the theaters, especially the Parable series. I can only hope they will be one day.

I purchased her novel "Dawn" at the news on Facebook (via io9) it was optioned to be made into a television series. As with most of her works I've read, it is exciting and disturbing at the same time. The aliens seem to have three genders: male and female Oankali and Ooloi - a third sex. When it was written, it was groundbreaking but not without precedent: some Native American tribes recognized FIVE genders before the European invasion and the imposition of authoritarian rule. In today's expansion of LGBT rights, it could be a hit in the current zeitgeist post the Supreme Court ruling last year. The Oankali and Ooloi, if depicted as my mind's eye does during the rapt reading on my Kindle, have to be digested in bites; sexuality between not just humans, but whole other alien SPECIES (through the Ooloi) is a bit much. I envisioned Amazon Prime, Hulu or Netflix would at least take it up, since traditional network television tends to go for the what I call the "dominant default": the space hero must be a clone of Buck Rogers and John Wayne; any minorities other than Lieutenant Uhura being conveniently placed in the infamous "red shirts" with short series and/or screen time.
I literally just found this here, but it's what I see in my mind's eye some FX guru could bring to life.

One day...
Kinda...The artist had a different definition, but some of his comments recalled Butler's book.

Then I read this article in Fusion:

There is no better time for Octavia Butler’s work to be adapted. Unlike most of her contemporaries, she did not deal with robots, mechanized suits of war, or quantum physics. She eschewed these to explore aliens, mutants and mutagens, space travel, and biological manipulation. Her hyperspace was the body. With body hackers and body modification techniques experiencing exponential growth, and scientists engaging in genetic tinkering with the likes of Crispr, Butler’s Xenogenesis saga would be the visual representation of the early 21st century’s zeitgeist, despite being written decades ago.

We should be seeing Butler’s work on screen. We need more science fiction film and television from a black perspective. We have seen multiple visions of utopian and dystopian futures from white men. We’ve yet to see science fiction worlds from a hyper-marginalized lens.

When you see the world as one not to be conquered or defended, but as one that is oppressive and limiting and dangerous, you will tell more than just good-versus-bad stories. You will avoid the typical tropes of science fiction. And you will give voice to, and render visible, the voiceless and the unseen. Octavia Butler does this, and so much more. The question is still out there: Why hasn’t any of Butler’s work been adapted for the screen?

We, her many fans, are still patiently waiting...one day.

Related link:
Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy: A Biologist’s Response
by Joan Slonczewski, presented at SFRA, Cleveland, June 30, 2000

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Current WIP - STRONGHOLD - By Jessica Cage

Posted by Jessica Cage on July 7, 2016 at 10:13pm

Stronghold

by Jessica Cage

Her afro had chunks of gray flesh accompanied by a thick sticky grey substance, the blood of the alien beast she had just cut down. She caught a quick glimpse of herself, a reflection in a darkened window and smiled hungrily. Ranish had just taken out three Larken with no assistance from her team who were still in route and she had no intent of stopping. The war was underway. They'd gotten word in advance of the approaching vessels and were able to get most to safety. Ranish was a fighter, one of the best and now, in the midst of battle, was her when she really got to show out.

“Ra, let's go!” Her commander called to her and she moved back into action cutting down another of the slimy beasts on her way. The Larken were hideous things, nine legs that lined their circular bodies, the front most acted as a weapon to stab its enemy and inject it with a deadly toxin. The key was to get beneath it. The common attack was long range, this often proved ineffective as the hard outer shell protected the monster from most gun fire. If the shooter wasn't skilled, they were ineffective and likely the next item on the meal plan. Just underneath the exoskeleton was a soft underbelly, the monsters’ weak spot.  Ranish easily slid beneath, blade at the ready, and slit each one from ass to throat.

It didn't bother her, the mess of the slaughter. She actually enjoyed the close up kill more than the distance shot. There was nothing better than witnessing first hand, the life drain away from her enemy. This was the method of her train which started early on in her childhood. The golden rule was to never show fear, never back away from what you needed to do. To show fear, to let your enemy know that you were afraid, was to present a weakness. The day Ranish let fear control her actions on the battlefield would be the day she would lay down her weapons for good.

Her tactic was made easier knowing that her opponents were mindless creatures with no real skill for fighting and nothing driving them but their foundation of death. Larken were beasts that were bred for destruction. They were brought to Earth in crates and dropped from the skies. Packages that shattered and spewed forth waves of hungry beasts that caused the deaths of countless people. Their masters were the Sav, aliens from another world who had called for war with Earth some 90 years earlier. Nearly a century later and Earth was still holding on, but only just barely. The Sav knew that they were close to a victory and if Ranish and her team could help hold them off just a bit longer, their weapon would be ready to deploy. The launch would turn the tides in favor of the human population. It took nearly a century to understand the Sav’s technology but it had been replicated and their weapons would soon be able to penetrate force fields that once proved impervious. The playing field would finally be leveled.

Ranish took a higher sense of pride in her kills as her weapons were hand crafted by her father. Her tools were made from the very metal of the first Sav ship that had fallen, taken down by her father’s crew. It was stronger than any found on earth and her father made her two perfect knives and a double tipped spear that not only expanded into three points on both ends but could be detached at the middle for ease of use in combat. The weapons were lightweight which meant that they were easy to maneuver and cut those beasts like butter.

The target was the control room. It was still secure but under heavy attack. If the damn things made it inside, their city would be the first to fall, and if they allowed that to happen, others would collapse quickly after. Additional artillery was on its way, they just had to keep the center secure until the cavalry arrived. Inside those doors, a timer was counting down. Just 48 hours until the missiles would launch, 48 hours until the Sav would finally come to see that earth wasn't for the taking and the human population wouldn't just lie down and die.

War was in her blood. The only daughter of a war hero, the granddaughter of a highly awarded soldier, she had been raised, built for battle. Ranish and the captain came up on the tail end of the group of monsters trying to break through the strong hold. Three of their men lay dead in the room, the Larken fed on their lifeless bodies. Ranish wanted to make her move as soon as she took in the sight and begin to dismantle the disgusting things limb by limb. The captain, who knew exactly where her mind was going, signaled her to hold. The rest of her team was coming. They were grossly outnumbered and needed as much backup they could get. She wanted to rush forward but held her position. She wouldn't get expelled from duty for not following a simple command.

Three long minutes later, backup arrived. Three men joined them; Jemal, the tech, Lex, the shooter, and Tone, that strategist. Together with Ranish, they were the top of their class, the best of the best and hand-picked by the Captain to fight by his side. It had been nearly a decade that their team operated together, a single unit protecting their home. Their first outing, Ranish had proved herself among the team of men and had earned their respect when she saved Lex from two Larken who had him cornered. She often wondered if the Captain had put them in that situation for that very reason. From that moment forward, she never felt anything but camaraderie and a sense of family, a welcome feeling after the death of her mother and father.

She was away at training when it happened. Bombers took out a nearby city, but masses of Larken fell right on top of them. Her father was bombshell ready but they weren’t prepared for the Larken. The doors closed, but it was too late, one of the damn things had made it inside. It was the first time those beasts were dropped and they took her parents from her. Ranish did everything she could to never think of her parents last moments alive.

Eagerly she waited for the signal to move forward. Her job was always the same. Take down as many of the damned things as possible. Keep moving, keep killing. Two silent taps the captain's right thigh was her confirmation. Show time.

It was instantaneous, the transformation that happened almost like the flip of a switch. Skilled killer emerged and like a ballet of bloodshed she moved through the mass of alien intruders. Lex was on her flank making sure that she wasn't taken by surprise. Jemal and the captain headed for the main panel. The secondary wall of defense to the control panel had jammed and they hoped like hell that their tech guy would be able to get the damned thing closed. Once there, Jemal was protected as he worked.

Ranish kept in motion. More Larken were coming, the pounding of clawed feet hitting the ground sounded like a storm of hail rushing in their direction. It didn't matter what was coming, all that mattered was what they were already facing. The screeching cry of the beast as she dismembered the back two legs gave her pleasure and motivation to keep moving.

“Jemal, get that door shut!” Ranish yelled out as she finished another kill. The floor had become slick with the blood that spilled from the dying bodies of the Larken.

“I’m almost there; just hold them off a bit longer!”

Tone and Lex took the lead, with the immediate threat subdued; it was their time to keep the approaching threat at bay. Long range fire arms which shot out nets of lasers take down groups of the beasts at once but they are still coming and their line is quickly closing in.

Ranish fell back; she caught her breath while taking inventory of the slaughter on the floor. Anything that twitched got another blow from her spear. Too many times she had seen someone lose their life because they didn't take the time to make sure their kills were clean and final. She never claimed her victories until she was sure the job was done.

“They’re closing in Jemal! Tell me you found gold.”

“Just give me one more minute!”

Ranish looked out the approaching herd. The beasts were nearly at their door. She took a deep breath and centered herself. She would go down fighting. She lifted the spear and engaged the release to turn one into two. Holding the weapons at her side, she stared ahead. The thunderous sound of the Larken approach was now paired with strong tremors in the floor.  

“As soon as that door closes, hit the kill switch! All of those bastards will burn!” Jemal told the Captain who left his side to access the panel just a few feet away. He lifted the glass casing that protected the controls. His hand hovered just above the switch, his eyes were trained on the door.

There were just a few yards left between them and the threat. Tone and Lex were doing their best to hold the line back, but there were just too many of them to shoot down. Those yards turned into feet and their hope of securing the control room diminished.

Just as Ranish centered herself, ready to flip her internal kill switch, the doors initiated and begin to slide shut. Three of the bastards managed to get in before it closed. The Captain slammed on the kill switch and the cries of the Larken rang out and echoed the sounds of their monster brothers who managed to make it inside. The smell of burning flesh seeped into the room through small overhead vents as once again Ranish confirmed her kill.  Lex did the same with the two he had taken out.

“Yeah!” Tone high-fived Lex who hooted his excitement, the two did their usual battle field dance as Ranish and Jemal laughed.

“Let’s not get too excited.” The Captain patted a sweat covered Jemal on the shoulder. “We still have to keep this room secure for the next 17 hours. Once that missile launches, then we celebrate.”

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Outsourcing Security Is Dumb and Deadly

Posted by Cortez R Law III on July 7, 2016 at 4:50pm

Michelle Malkin | Posted: Jun 29, 2016 12:01 AM

It is not a theory that delegating the protection of our embassy and military personnel to other countries risks lives. It is a reality bathed in American blood.

The latest reports on Benghazi released this week underscore the persistent dangers of outsourcing security.

By all accounts, the security conditions at the State Department's consular facility in Libya were "deplorable," as the House Benghazi committee's final summary report described it. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been warned a month before the attack that violence was "on an upward trend" and "unpredictable;" "lawlessness was increasing," and local militia groups that were providing security in many areas were at the same time "undercutting it in others."

One of those local militia groups just happened to be in charge of providing interior armed security at the Benghazi Mission compound: the February 17 Martyrs Brigade militia.

Yes, we entrusted armed Islamic strongmen -- linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, supportive of al-Qaida, and financed by the Libyan defense ministry -- to guard our diplomats. No, this is not an Onion parody.

Instead of serving as a "quick reaction force" as they were contracted to do, the Muslim militiamen fled. (What's Arabic for "cut and run force"?) Two days before Ambassador Chris Stevens was scheduled to arrive in Benghazi, the "martyrs" informed State's Diplomatic Security Agents that they would no long provide off-compound security during transport or meetings off-site. "The meeting underscored that the militias in Benghazi controlled what little security environment existed there," the House Benghazi final report noted.

The other entity providing internal security support was the British-operated Blue Mountain Guard Force, which employed unarmed personnel at three entrance gates and inside the compound. As documents previously obtained by Judicial Watch revealed, BMG guards had been abandoning their posts for three months before the attacks out of fear for their safety. Officials warned the State Department that they were "undermanned."

Reuters interviewed the Libyan commander in charge of the local guards at the mission, who had applied with BMG after hearing about the company from a neighbor. "I don't have a background in security; I've never held a gun in my life," he told the news service.

As Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton concluded, the internal communications showed that the "U.S. Special Mission at Benghazi was a sitting duck. ... All security indicators were flashing red and, perhaps, with a show of strength to secure the Benghazi mission, U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods might be alive today."

The same is true of two U.S. Marines, Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell, who lost their lives three days after Benghazi. Remember Camp Bastion? On Sept. 14, 2012, three days after the deadly siege on our consulate in Libya, the Taliban waged an intricately coordinated, brutal attack on the base in Afghanistan. Fifteen Taliban infiltrators decimated eight U.S. aircraft, refueling stations, and a half-dozen hangars, in addition to killing the heroic Marines and wounding a dozen others.

As I've reported over the past four years, the Bastion families discovered to their horror that watchtower security at the besieged and vulnerable facilities had been outsourced to soldiers from Tonga who had been widely known on base to fall asleep on the job. Compounding the insecurity on base, President Obama's politically correct military leaders insisted on disarming Marines out of respect for their Afghan allies.

Two years after Benghazi and Bastion, the Obama administration still had learned nothing. A November 2014 federal inspector general's audit exposed how the State Department's outsourced contractor in Kabul, Aegis Defense Services, failed to properly vet guards hired from Nepal and failed to obtain proper training documentation from explosive detection dog handlers. A separate contractor, Armor Group North America, shelled out $7.5 million to settle claims it had misrepresented the work experience of 38 third-country national guards it contracted to do work at the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

From Benghazi to Bastion and beyond, cutting corners has cost too many of our best and brightest. American forces and American diplomats deserve the best in American-led protection and security abroad. If we can't look after our own people, we have no business sending them to look after the rest of the world's.



*MY TAKE: I can't add much more to what Michelle said but, well said. Can't cut corners on domestic and international security. It's getting close to Election Day. Who do Americans trust to protect us from this persistent threat? Think long and hard and listen to the Trump and Clinton camps readers. It's almost time to decide which direction the United States will go for the next four years. I've heard how important the Election is for the last three or four, but with this one, which choice are you more comfortable with: Someone we already know what to expect from or someone we don't know what to expect from and frankly both choices are fraught full of potential danger. Stay prayed up and keep informed.*

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Quantum Break Up...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 7, 2016 at 6:00am
On the left is experimental data showing the distribution of strontium atoms after dissociation has occurred. The centre panel shows the quantum-chemistry simulation of the distribution, and the panel on the right is the quasi-classical model. (Courtesy: M McDonald et al./Nature)


Topics: Chemistry, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, Quantum Mechanics


A new study of how light causes diatomic molecules to break apart has revealed significant flaws in the traditional theory describing the photodissociation process. The work has been carried out by physicists and chemists in the US and Poland, and suggests that the dissociation of molecules prepared in pure quantum states is best described by a recently developed quantum-chemistry model. As well as providing further insights into the quantum nature of molecules, the experimental technique could form the basis of a new source of entangled atoms for matter-wave experiments.

Photodissociation occurs when a molecule is blown apart by absorption of a photon, and it has long been used to study the physics and chemistry of molecules. The process usually involves the electric-dipole moment of the molecule coupling to the oscillating electromagnetic field of the photon – although symmetry considerations forbid this interaction in some situations.

The process is usually studied by creating an ultracold, supersonic molecular beam that is irradiated with light from a pulsed dye laser. However, the minimum achievable temperature of such a molecular beam is too high to allow molecular ensembles to be prepared in pure quantum states before dissociation. Instead, what is observed is the average of the dissociation patterns of multiple quantum states. These observations are described very well by the quasi-classical model for electric-dipole dissociation that was developed in the 1960s by Richard Zare and Dudley Hershbach of the University of California, Berkeley, in 1963. Hershbach shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on molecular beams.

Physics World: Molecules break up under quantum control, Tim Wogan

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Return to BSFS

Posted by Jan S on July 6, 2016 at 11:16pm

Wow. Nearly 2 yrs since I last posted here? Well, I could trot out the usual excuses (all of which are valid, btw), but what's the point? It'd be a long list of illness (physical and mental), lack of money and motivation, etc. blah woof.

So. I'm back here, for now. Looking forward to what's been happnin since I was last here. Book reccs welcomed. Last one I read by a non-white person was Errick Nunnally's Blood for the Sun, which I liked a lot. Reviewed it for Foreword Reviews Magazine.

The peregrine has landed.

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Beauty and Symmetry...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 6, 2016 at 6:33am
Figure 13.8, the center vertical position for the unusual mirrored structure in the parliament building in Berlin
Jim Zuckerman on Composition: Symmetry


Topics: Geometry, Mathematical Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Theoretical Physics


DATE: Saturday, June 4, 2016

TIME: 2:00 PM-3:30 PM

VENUE: NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts

MODERATOR: John Hockenberry

PARTICIPANTS: Robbert Dijkgraaf, David Gross, Alan Lightman, Maria Spiropulu

From a bee’s hexagonal honeycomb to the elliptical paths of planets, symmetry has long been recognized as a vital quality of nature. Einstein saw symmetry hidden in the fabric of space and time. The brilliant Emmy Noether proved that symmetry is the mathematical flower of deeply rooted physical law. And today’s theorists are pursuing an even more exotic symmetry that, mathematically speaking, could be nature’s final fundamental symmetry: supersymmetry. Join some of the world’s preeminent scientists to explore the core role symmetry plays in our unraveling of nature’s deepest secrets—and catch a glimpse of profoundly important symmetries that may be awaiting us just over the horizon.

The Big Ideas Series is supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation.

Image Credit: Miles Verkade

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Brexit and Exits...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 5, 2016 at 8:04am
Image Source: Clean Technica


Topics: Existentialism, Politics


There is a typical mythology around the fear of unification, cautionary tales of the abuse of power by strongmen that would misuse the levers of republic meant for the common good. The League of Nations - precursor to the United Nations - was formed in the wake of the Great War, (as World War I was known, until it had a sequel). The idea behind it was to always have lines of communication between nations such that war between particularly European nations would be unthinkable, and economically impractical. The European Union formed in the wake of the sequel and the ruins of Europe and WWII, with similar goals and reasons to avoid internal conflicts (The Irish Republican Army comes to mind).

Enter the conspiracy provocateurs. Foaming at the mouth about obscure ancient texts in Holy Writ warning of nation state confederacies: the dragon; 7 heads, 10 horns; the "mark of the beast" (usually compared to RFID chips currently found in your smart phones), and of course: the onslaught of refugees either from Mexico or Syria. Doom must be avoided so as not to give supreme authority to an overarching, powerful figure that will show no mercy to humanity: the Antichrist. He was given a limited run as Damien in the Omen movie series, and several world leaders including presidents 43 and the current 44 have been accused of being the antidemocratic prince of darkness.

In a Facebook forum, I said these short comments the day after Brexit:

The Brexit vote has two parallels within the US: the disdain and disrespect for expertise and xenophobia for the future.

There was a time we lamented access to "The Information Superhighway" as the Internet was referred to in the age of phone lines and dial-up modems. Home computers cost on average $2,500 in the 90's, making purchase and access prohibitive to people of color in the US. Now that we have the equivalent of supercomputers in our hip pockets, we comment on every article without reading them; our attention spans to information is fleeting; we share a preponderance of cat videos; we become "Google scholars" and everyone with a URL, a loud mouth and with a large following becomes an "expert," despite no academic preparation in their curriculum vitae.

Brexit split along generational and cultural lines: the older more conservative wanting to exit the EU, remembering Halcyon days of empire (when the UK actually had one) instead of the interconnected world we now have. Racist and xenophobic forces used the refugee crisis to their crass advantage, putting out the British equivalent of the "Willie Horton ads" during the 88 election by George HW Bush and his political adviser Lee Atwater. Fear is an excellent motivator to bring constituents to the polls, inevitably voting against their own best interests as many in the UK are now becoming cognizant to. Within the US, conservatives have voted for small government, family values representatives that continue to treat them less than constituents and more like Pavlovian canines they manipulate with Jingoism, Sloganeering and scripted. faux 3-point-sermons they obviously don't actually believe by their demonstrated lifestyles. It points to the demonstrated fact that all elections are about the apportionment of power and a sophisticated display of tribalism. We're not nearly as advanced beyond the caves as we delude ourselves to think.

In my previous state, Texas is considering its own version in "Texit" - which is somehow more sophisticated than the a traditional, unconstitutional secession. Despite the dodge of states' rights, articles of secession from the Confederacy were not so pandering, and mention slavery numerous times as their raison d'etre. That apparently goes away if the reality TV blowhard they have a hard on for becomes our 45th president. The Halcyon days they wish for in Dixie is a return to the 1850s: Eisenhower had the tax rate for top earners at 91%, and the nascent Civil Rights movement was energized by Brown vs. Board and Emmett Till's execution in the "Happy Days" 1950s. We started trying to afford pesky things like roads, education, integration and a space program. In the 1850s we had dirt roads, plantations, "free labor" and mint julep tea.

,,,"all elections are about the apportionment of power and a sophisticated display of tribalism."

As the demographics of nations diversify, the dominate cultures of those nations perceive an immediate loss of power and a need to protect it from "the others." Immediately after Brexit, there were reports of xenophobic attacks. Hate crimes sadly rose in breathtaking percentage estimates post-Brexit. The motivation for the UK's exit from the European Union - immigration, especially now during the Syrian refugee crisis - would probably be better managed within the EU.

Ironically, the countries that would have loved to witness an actual Brexit in their by-force-colonized lifetimes is an exceptionally long list.


Not to say the EU doesn't have its flaws, and free trade has had a disproportionate impact on blue collar workers on both sides of the pond. The Bilderberg Group is an actual "thing," but so is the Council on Foreign Relations, just a little more accessible. NAFTA is the favorite boogie man of the aforementioned provocateurs and doomsday preppers, ignoring the history of Ronald Reagan in 1984; George HW Bush thereafter as well as both parties in Washington in its implementation. In the UK and the US, globalization has enriched the 1%, who usually own the dominant industries and media outlets in their countries, as well as finance the politicians running for office that map out trade deals. Trade agreements allow them to pursue any cheaper labor force outside of their host nations of origin, thereby "taking jobs" from those not as educated or prepared for changes in the global economy. The caveat is simply eliminating trade agreements isn't an answer either: Foxconn in China just replaced 60,000 workers with robots, so even the cheapest labor force isn't safe from the automaton. In my hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, someone who wasn't "college material" could make a reasonable living and raise a family at Hanes Dye and Finishing (as my father did) and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (where my sister retired from). Both companies have reduced their presence substantially in the US, most of their manufacturing operations shipped overseas. When manufacturers go for cheap labor and profits, it reduces the quality of life and even education in the municipalities they expatriate. The crass idea that companies can sell their product back in their host countries is born out by the facts they have been so far wildly successful. Blaming the immigrant and/or refugee for "taking jobs" is a convenient dodge at the moment, until the crowds with torches and pitchforks become painfully aware that they have been bamboozled.

The irony being that in two demagogues with exceptionally bad hairdos in the UK and the US, to protect their foaming-mouthed followers from "the other"; to ensure no nefarious New World Order confederacy is formed (or more likely: reasonably trying to avoid conflict, and fairly employ citizens in their home countries) we're about to turn over the reins of power not to Damien-type avatars from the pit: but two* loudmouthed racist, xenophobic nincompoops. With the North Korean supremely badly-quaffed leader, I guess we have a trifecta of idiocy: an "axis of evil" pompadours?

Oh well, I guess that's far better than being under the boot of Beelzebub.

* I wrote this before the London head mop and his UKIP stooge bowed out of managing the mess they've made. They're political pyromaniacs: 1) they lit a fire; 2) gleefully watched the castle burn; 3) on charged with accountability, denies having lit said fire.

Related Links:

Balkinization:
Some observations about Brexit (and the relevance of constitutional theory)
Sandy Levinson
The Daily Beast: I'll let you click through to Samantha Bee's blunt title
#P4TC: Terms of Indifference

Lastly, John Oliver for the appropriate after-independence fireworks:

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Reid’s exit will make fighting Yucca Mountain project tougher, ex-governor says

Posted by Cortez R Law III on July 4, 2016 at 12:20pm

By SEAN WHALEY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

*Here's another background story on America's issue with nuclear waste from The Waste Lands Report.*

CARSON CITY — Former Nevada Gov. Richard Bryan told a legislative panel on Friday that although the state’s case against Yucca Mountain is strong, keeping the high-level nuclear waste repository at bay will be a challenge with U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s departure.

Bryan, chairman of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects, said Reid, D-Nev., has succeeded in keeping the high-level nuclear waste dump from getting the funding needed to push it forward during his Senate career, which is ending.

Bryan, who helped initiate Nevada’s opposition to the dump in 1983 while governor, noted that the original plan was to have the repository open in 1998.

“I believe Nevada’s case is stronger today than it has ever been,” Bryan told the Legislature’s Committee on High Level Nuclear Waste. 

But efforts continue in Congress to proceed with the project, he said.

“Suffice it to say, it is going to be a challenge,” Bryan said.

There is a new effort in Congress this year to provide funding to proceed on Yucca Mountain. The Fiscal 2017 Energy-Water Appropriations bill, HR 5055, would allot the U.S. Department of Energy $170 million to continue an application process to license the project as a nuclear storage facility. A similar effort last year failed largely because of Reid’s efforts.

There is no Yucca funding in this year’s Senate budget bills.

Members of Nevada’s congressional delegation have criticized the latest funding effort.

The Obama administration in 2010 shelved the controversial Yucca Mountain project, which many Nevada political leaders and citizens had opposed, but efforts to revive it never seem to end.

Nye County Commissioner Dan Schinhofen also testified at the meeting. He said he was not advocating for Yucca Mountain, but was asking to let the review process proceed.

“Let’s hear the science,” he said. “Let the 219 contentions by the state to be heard. We welcome them to be heard. People deserve to hear the science.”

Nevada’s objections to the project involve everything from the technology proposed to store the waste to transportation concerns.

Bob Halstead, executive director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the state would likely need $8 million to $10 million a year in funding if full licensing proceedings by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission resume.
​
The agency continues to receive funding to maintain its efforts to participate in the limited licensing process now in progress.

Gov. Brian Sandoval remains opposed to Yucca Mountain.

Bryan said he supports “consent-based” sighting of the project, and legislation called the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act, which would require projects such as Yucca Mountain to receive approval from local governments in affected areas, is being sponsored by members of Nevada’s congressional delegation.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Find him on Twitter:@seanw801

U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio and Rep. Cresent Hardy, R-Nev., walk along the train tracks during a congressional tour of the Yucca Mountain exploratory tunnel Thursday, April 9, 2015. (Sam Morris/Las Vegas Review-Journal) Follow Sam Morris on Twitter @sammorrisRJ

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Rep. Dina Titus critical of congressional effort to push Yucca Mountain project forward

Posted by Cortez R Law III on July 4, 2016 at 12:19pm

By SEAN WHALEY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

*Here's another background story on America's issue with nuclear waste from The Waste Lands Report.*

CARSON CITY — It is a riddle for the ages: What is dead but never dies? The answer in Nevada is the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

As a state legislative panel overseeing the moribund Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste repository gets ready to meet later this week, Rep. Dina Titus has criticized a new effort in Congress to move the project forward.
In a news release last week, Titus, D-Nev., spoke out about a plan to fund the project in the Fiscal 2017 Energy-Water Appropriations bill, HR 5055.

The provision would allot the U.S. Department of Energy $150 million to continue an application process to license the project as a nuclear storage facility. The legislation also prohibits any funds from being used to close Yucca Mountain as a future storage option.

Titus noted that congressional supporters of Yucca Mountain made the same attempt last year but failed to see it become law.

Titus has sponsored the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act, which would require projects such as Yucca Mountain to receive approval from local governments in affected areas.

“Yucca Mountain is not a secure depository that would seal dangerous waste safely for a million years,” Titus said.

“It is instead a proposal based on bad science and faulty assumptions. Specifically, the NRC confirmed that it is not secure, that it will leak, and that radiation will travel miles through underground water sources to farming communities in the Amargosa Valley on its way to Death Valley National Park.”

The waste will also have to be transported across the U.S. to the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Obama administration in 2010 shelved the controversial project, which faced opposition from many Nevada political leaders and citizens, but efforts to revive it continue.

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., sent a letter to the House Appropriations subcommittee members on April 12 asking that the provision, and another $20 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to advance the Yucca Mountain license application, be removed from the legislation.

“I would urge the subcommittee to prioritize funding for the Department of Energy’s efforts to advance alternative long-term storage options for our nation’s spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste,” he said.

“While I understand that many of my colleagues disagree with me on the issue of Yucca Mountain, Nevadans have a right to be safe in their own backyards.”

Nevada’s Committee on High-Level Radioactive Waste will meet for the first time this year on Friday to get an overview of the status of the project from various officials, including Bob Halstead, executive director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects.

While some house members may want to move the project forward, the Senate version of an appropriations bill contains no such funding.
Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada has repeatedly said the project is dead.

But presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has not 
made it clear where he stands on the issue.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Find him on Twitter:@seanw801

Congresswoman Dina Titus, D-Nev. (Erik Verduzco/Las Vegas Review-Journal) Follow @Erik_Verduzco

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Eyes on Juno...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 4, 2016 at 6:25am
Image Source: NASA.gov


Topics: Jupiter, Moon, NASA, Space Exploration


I've had some fun with the following app, courtesy of the Jet Propulsion Lab:

At the bottom of the NASA mission pages, I found this link: Eyes on Juno. The app is versatile for any mission NASA is currently undertaking, plus your curiosity will be pleased with the excellent motion simulation. Juno is currently going at 9,187 miles/hour, not "warp speed," but faster than our respective cars. I'll update once more info comes up on the local news.

Enjoy your holiday if in the US. I hope yours is a safe one, with respect to current situations around the world.

Here's more info I found at NASA.gov:

 Monday, July 4 – Orbit Insertion Day
Noon -- Pre-orbit insertion briefing at JPL
10:30 p.m. -- Orbit insertion and NASA TV commentary begin

 Tuesday, July 5
1 a.m. -- Post-orbit insertion briefing at JPL

 To watch all of these events online, visit:

 http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

 http://www.ustream.tv/nasa

 http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

 Live coverage on orbit insertion day also will be available online via Facebook Live at:

 http://www.facebook.com/nasa

 http://www.facebook.com/nasajpl


I found this related and quite funny. This parody is pure satire, funny and sad in its true depiction of our online selves. I said in sharing it: "we're seriously doomed."


Tomorrow: Brexit and Exits

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Juno Genesis...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 1, 2016 at 6:47am


Topics: Jupiter, NASA, Planetary Science, Space Exploration


This Independence Day, millions of Americans will look to the sky to watch dazzling fireworks. But across the country, scientists will be looking up for an entirely different reason: On July 4, NASA's Juno spacecraft will enter an orbit of Jupiter, giving us an unprecedented window into the history of our solar system's oldest planet.

Jupiter is a strange world, but Juno will make it a little more familiar. In doing so, it could give scientists valuable insight into our own origin story — and clues in the ongoing hunt for alien life.

Jupiter is a planet unlike any other. If every other planet in our solar system teamed up to form one massive monolith of a world, Jupiter would still be two and half times heavier. That incredible mass only becomes more impressive when you consider the fact that Jupiter is a gas giant: With the exception of a rocky core that may or may not exist at its very center, the planet is made entirely of gaseous and liquid elements. When a quarter of your mass comes from helium molecules, it takes a lot of space to carry any real weight. More than 1,300 Earths could fit inside it.

At that size, Jupiter comes close to being more of a sickly star than a powerful planet. In fact, scientists have found many alien stars that bear a striking resemblance to the fifth planet from the sun. Some even have raging storms like Jupiter's Great Red Spot, which has been churning in the planet's atmosphere for hundreds of years.

"Jupiter is a planet on steroids," principal investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute said during a June 16 press briefing. "Everything about it is extreme."

Washington Post: How NASA’s Juno mission could help tell us where we came from
Rachel Feltman

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From MOSFETs to GAAFETs...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 30, 2016 at 5:38am

Topics: Consumer Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Nanotechnology



 The MOSFET – Metal Oxide FET

Image Source: Electronics Tutorials

As well as the Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET), there is another type of Field Effect Transistor available whose Gate input is electrically insulated from the main current carrying channel and is therefore called an Insulated Gate Field Effect Transistor or IGFET. The most common type of insulated gate FET which is used in many different types of electronic circuits is called the Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor or MOSFET for short.

The IGFET or MOSFET is a voltage controlled field effect transistor that differs from a JFET in that it has a “Metal Oxide” Gate electrode which is electrically insulated from the main semiconductor n-channel or p-channel by a very thin layer of insulating material usually silicon dioxide, commonly known as glass. Source: Electronics Tutorials
By Appaloosa - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10213475

A multigate device or multiple gate field-effect transistor (MuGFET) refers to a MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor) which incorporates more than one gate into a single device. The multiple gates may be controlled by a single gate electrode, wherein the multiple gate surfaces act electrically as a single gate, or by independent gate electrodes. A multigate device employing independent gate electrodes is sometimes called a Multiple Independent Gate Field Effect Transistor (MIGFET). Multigate transistors are one of the several strategies being developed by CMOS semiconductor manufacturers to create ever-smaller microprocessors and memory cells, colloquially referred to as extending Moore's Law. Source: Wikipedia
Image Source: IEEE

We demonstrate undoped-body, gate-all-around (GAA) Si nanowire (NW) MOSFETs with excellent electrostatic scaling. These NW devices, with a TaN/Hf-based gate stack, have high drive-current performance with NFET/PFET IDSAT = 825/950 μA/μm (circumference-normalized) or 2592/2985 μA/μm (diameter-normalized) at supply voltage VDD = 1 V and off-current IOFF = 15 nA/μm. Superior NW uniformity is obtained through the use of a combined hydrogen annealing and oxidation process. Clear scaling of short-channel effects versus NW size is observed. Additionally, we observe a divergence of the nanowire capacitance from the planar limit, as expected, as well as enhanced device self-heating for smaller diameter nanowires. We have also applied this method to making functional 25-stage ring oscillator circuits. Source: IEEE
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Life on Enceladus...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 29, 2016 at 5:28am
Saturn's icy moon Enceladus is thought to host a liquid ocean beneath its frozen surface that could be hospitable to life. Credit: NASA


Topics: Astrobiology, Astrophysics, Moon, NASA, Planetary Science, Space Exploration


Saturn’s frozen moon Enceladus is a tantalizing world—many scientists are increasingly convinced it may be the best place in our solar system to search for life. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, currently orbiting Saturn, has made intriguing observations of icy jets spewing from a suspected underground liquid ocean on the mysterious world that might be hospitable to alien life.

Cassini’s tour is due to wind down in 2017, and scientists badly want to send a dedicated mission to Enceladus to look for signs of life. In fact, some have already started seriously thinking about exactly how they might do this—including planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, who is the imaging team leader for Cassini.

Although Enceladus is small in size and shrouded in a thick shell of ice, it appears to be a habitable world: It has a source of energy from friction created by its orbit around Saturn, organic compounds that are building blocks for life and a liquid water ocean underneath all that ice. But just because Enceladus may be hospitable to life does not mean life exists there; it will take much more work to definitively prove it. At the Berkeley meeting, scientists laid out the data Cassini has collected for Enceladus—they discussed analyses of its geysers, measurements of its ice shell, ideas on what its ocean chemistry might be like, and more. Yet even with all the newest data and models scientists have, they are not even close to detecting organisms on Enceladus—hence the need for a space mission.

Scientific American: Excitement Builds for the Possibility of Life on Enceladus
Annie Sneed

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