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The Inner, Inner Core...

Image Source: Link Below


Topics: Earth, Inner Core, Geology, Geophysics, Research


There appears to be more to Earth's inner core than previously thought. Researchers at the University of Illinois and Nanjing University in China have determined that there is a mystery material at our planet's inner core. The researchers say they founded a distinct inner-inner core in the Earth using seismic waves.

Xiaodong Song, a professor of geology at the University of Illinois, says in a statement, "Even though the inner core is small - smaller than the moon - it has some really interesting features. It may tell us about how our planet formed, its history, and other dynamic processes of the Earth. It shapes our understanding of what's going on deep inside the Earth."

Science, Space and Robots: Scientists Find Earth's Inner Core has an Inner Core

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Speculative Futures #10...



Topics: Diaspora, Historical Fiction, Speculative Fiction


The Last King
By A. Yamina Collins

Twenty-eight year Emmy Hughes has never quite fit in---she's six feet tall, dark-skinned, and daydreams of being Galadriel from Lord of the Rings. But when she is badly injured in a car accident that kills her mother, Emmy does not dream of fantastical worlds anymore---she just wants her shattered life to be normal again. Unfortunately, normalcy is the last thing in store for her once she meets Lake George's newest arrival, Dr. Gilead Knightly. Granted immortality from a line of people whose Great Ancestor marched into the Garden of Eden and ate from the Tree of Life, Gilead has been alive for centuries and has met everyone from Nubian kings to Napoleon.

More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/book-of-the-month

Amazon.com Author Page: The Last King, A. Yamina Collins

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War On Science



Topics: Economy, Education, Politics, STEM, NASA, Space Exploration


This has always fascinated me in the intensity, and frankly the audience it comes from. I saw this cover in the grocery store and bought the magazine. I got the image above from the NatGeo site, and provide the link below. The title of the post came from the magazine cover. As a "hook," it did its job.

I got into an exchange twice individually with two younger men (I presume don't still) believe the moon landing occurred, i.e. it was faked. Even my testimony as a living eyewitness was not enough to dismay or sway their confidence in the Oracle of You Tube. They are in their thirties, and showed considerable sophistication in accessing and using technology otherwise.

The democratization of information has diminished what used to be the arbiters of what is true: The Encyclopedia Britannica; Colleges and Universities; Clergy; Civics; Congress; Engineering; Global Knowledge; Mathematics; Public Discourse; The Public Library, The Military; Professors; Science; Teachers; Technology and NASA. We now confuse "armchair quarterbacks" with actual trained professionals; conspiracy theorists with theoreticians; "millions-of-hits" online with peer review.


We are in the throws of hunted-for confirmation bias and willful (or, willed) ignorance. There is a disdain for deep expertise in any subject area, as if the "University of Google"  - with noted "graduate" Jenny McCarthy - equips one fully for any rigorous endeavor. (Experiment: Use the same credentials on a mother giving birth, and see how far that gets you!) We now have Measles in Disneyland, a resurgence of Whooping Cough and Meningitis at Princeton. As we advance technologically, regressive minds in the U.S. and the world over reach back for the "good old days" whose date they can never quite pin down, nor explain with clarity why backwards time travel - a violation of causality and the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics - is a rational path to pursue. To quote a part of the article:

In this bewildering world we have to decide what to believe and how to act on that. In principle that’s what science is for. “Science is not a body of facts,” says geophysicist Marcia McNutt, who once headed the U.S. Geological Survey and is now editor of Science, the prestigious journal. “Science is a method for deciding whether what we choose to believe has a basis in the laws of nature or not.” But that method doesn’t come naturally to most of us. And so we run into trouble, again and again.

* * * * *


"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."

"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge."

"Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense."

Carl Sagan

National Geographic:
Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science? Joel Achenbach

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Dr. Warren M. Washington...

Image Source: NOBCChE (below)


Topics: Climate Change, Global Warming, Meteorology, Nobel Prize


Following the rousing opening luncheon at the 2011 NOBCChE National Meeting, Dr. Warren M. Washington, a renowned climate-change scientist who received a National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama in 2010 and who was one of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winners, gave the Henry A. Hill Lecture, entitled, “Present and Future Climate Change: Grand Challenges for the Science, Engineering, and Society.” The Henry A. Hill Lecture honors the first black president of the American Chemical Society, and was co-sponsored by the ACS Northeast Section and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Chemistry Department.

Dr. Washington is a senior scientist and Chief Scientist of the DOE/UCAR Cooperative Agreement at National Center for Atmospheric Research in the Climate Change Research Section of the center's Climate and Global Dynamics Division. The Climate Change Research Section (CCR) is part of the Climate and Global Dynamics (CGD) Division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Washington became one of the first developers of groundbreaking atmospheric computer models in collaboration with Akira Kasahara when he joined NCAR in the early 1960s. These models, which use fundamental laws of physics to predict future states of the atmosphere, have helped scientists understand climate change. As his research developed, Dr. Washington worked to incorporate the oceans and sea ice into climate models. Such models now include components that depict surface hydrology and vegetation as well as the atmosphere, oceans, and sea ice. His current research involves using the Community Earth System Model (CESM) to study the impacts of climate change in the 21st century. His models were used extensively in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment, for which NCAR scientists, including Washington, and colleagues around the world shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. *

As the second African-American to earn a doctorate in the atmospheric sciences, Washington has served as a role model for generations of young researchers from many backgrounds. He has mentored dozens of graduate students, as well as undergraduates in the UCAR-based SOARS program (Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science).

National Organization for the Professional Advancement of
Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE): Dr. Warren M. Washington


* Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"

"The Nobel Peace Prize 2007". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 8 Feb 2015. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/

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STEM and Other Biases...

Image Source: eGFI


Topics: Diversity, Diversity in Science, Education, STEM, Women in Science


Related: The Columbia Law School and African American Policy Forum just published - "Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected." The young "sassy" African American female in school is typically on track to become the "angry black woman," or the favorite racial dog whistle of Ronald Reagan: "welfare queens," lamenting they are not "pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps" and irresponsibly pregnant as teens when we are making education a privilege of the elite and a burden to the poor; preferring "abstinence only" as sex education in many municipalities - like Texas - with exploding teen pregnancy rates. The ability to control when and what time one can and wants to get pregnant is the first stage of empowerment in women, regardless of culture; the second is an education that is affordable, meaningful and doesn't put the young in crushing debt. I lament the sex education we got in the 1970's that I used to laugh at - is far in advance of what happens now. My undergraduate degree was paid by my parents until an AFROTC scholarship picked up the rest and I served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force. We will no longer be Winthrop's "shining city on a hill" making it difficult for women in general to be more independent, and African American women in particular. This is cutting off our noses to spite our faces to our own national peril. This is the way you create a third world country. 

At a time when organizations urgently need workers with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and math, new research suggests that women, and especially women of color, might be leaving STEM fields thanks to pervasive gender and racial bias.

Organizations today face a dilemma: Thanks to the growth in technology, they urgently need workers with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), but the number of qualified individuals with these skills isn’t keeping pace. What’s worse, it’s possible the growth in supply is actually being hampered by destructive workplace conditions.

That’s because women, and especially women of color, might be exiting the STEM fields thanks to pervasive gender and racial bias at work, according to a report by Joan C. Williams of the University of California, Hastings College of Law; Katherine Phillips of Columbia Business School; and Erika Hall of Emory University’s Gouizueta Business School.

Columbia Business School:
Workplace Bias Could Be Alienating Valuable STEM Talent

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Speculative Futures #9...



Topics: Crime, History, Horror, Speculative Fiction

Blind Corners
Written by Jemir Johnson

Art by Luis Sierra & Winston Blakely

This comic-book stars Jemir Johnson’s seminal character Jay Nova, a tough female Private Investigator who has a secret power to read minds. And while you’d think that would be an extremely useful ability in that line of work, it also has the unfortunate side-effect of causing her massive pain, therefor she only tries to use it as a last resort. There are 4 short stories in this book, the first three illustrated by Luis Sierra and the fourth and final story is illustrated by Winston Blakely.



More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/featured-comic-book
Amazon.com Kindle: Blind Corners, (W) Jemir Johnson, (A) Luis Sierra, Winston Blakely

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Self Caricature...

Image source: [4] below


Topics: Commentary, Disrespect, Dog Whistle Politics, President


To the (never-once) honorable former Mayor Rudy Giuliani:

The legacy of your reign of terror in New York is evident in the malcontent police and their disrespect for your current successor. If Europeans abroad, as you've said, lament the racism of New York City's police force, perhaps supporting the cavalier and violent enforcement of "broken windows" (an ironic analogy of the movie "Minority Report") is a reason why.

CNN has opined your fall as America's Mayor; you've deemed yourself non-racist because you share the same culture as the president's deceased mother. Your excuse was amateurish; sophomoric. Perhaps before you cast stones at glass houses, you should patch up the damages in your own.

“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Mr. Giuliani said at the event. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up, through love of this country.”

1. 300,000,000+ Americans and their various demarcations: African, African American, Asian, European, Hindi, Hispanic, Muslim, Sikh...were not brought up the way either you or I, or anyone else were brought up with respect to each other. This is the meaning of diversity, and a refute of the "melting pot" we tout so often in our ideals we seem never capable of living up to. At the base of the Statue of Liberty is the poem "New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. Midway it says:

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.

You would do well sir, if you've ever read these words, to read them again in their entirety.


2. Neither your son or daughter wanted anything to do with your campaign in 2008. Perhaps it was the callous way you treated their mother as you romanced your mistress (who became your third wife, and presumably First Lady had you won the presidency).

3. "The rebellious daughter of former law-and-order Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was busted today for allegedly stealing makeup from an upscale beauty and skin care shop near her Upper East Side home, officials said.

"Cops said Caroline Giuliani, 20, a student at Harvard University, was arrested after security cameras caugh her stuffing makeup into her jacket pocket at a Sephora store at E. 86th Street and Lexinton Avenue shortly before 2 p.m." The New York Post used to be kinder to you.

4. An entire page is devoted to you, generated in the background of the aforementioned 2008 campaign, detailing your father and uncle's ties to the mob; your sexual and marital improprieties; the corruption in your administration and the source of the photo above.

So I conclude and say again: Perhaps before you cast stones at glass houses, you should patch up the damages in your own.

You are a sad caricature, a fallen icon, self-deluded in your own importance. If you had a career beyond mayor of New York City - a "noun, a verb and 9-11" (Vice President Joe Biden), it is now hopelessly gone, lost in the seams of your drag queen dress. Your only audience that you now soak callously and annually for million dollar speaking engagements are the declining rabid, toothless canines you dog whistle to.
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I am really enjoying working with author, Rachel Neumeier. This is our second project together, and we're already planning one other, Pure Magic. Rachel is a hybrid-author, publishing books through both traditional houses and indie formats; and she's not the only author I work with following this trend.

For the cover of Black Dog Short Stories, which is a soon-to-be available companion publication to her Black Dog novel, published through Strange Chemistry, we chose a hypothetical scene from one of the four short stories contained within.

Blurb:

Natividad is delighted when the Master of Dimilioc gives her permission to go Christmas shopping in a real town, since she definitely needs to find gifts for her brothers. But did Grayson have to assign Keziah to go with her?

Étienne Lumondiere has annoyed Miguel once too often, throwing his weight around and belittling ordinary humans. But Miguel’s going to fix that. He just needs to work out a few more details of his clever plan.

It’s tough for a black dog raised outside Dimilioc to adjust to being a team player. But Thaddeus is determined to impress Grayson . . . until he is unexpectedly confronted by a black dog kid who reminds him a little too much of himself.

The Dimilioc executioner is the mainstay of the Master’s authority, as Ezekiel knows better than anyone. He has never questioned his role in Dimilioc . . . until now.

“Christmas Shopping,” “Library Work,” and “A Learning Experience” all take place between Black Dog and Pure Magic. “The Master of Dimilioc” is a prequel story that takes place several years before the events of Black Dog.


Be sure to visit Rachel's website and follow her on Twitter. :D



Onto wrapping up the next book :-D


Until next time ...


This post edited by Grammarly*


*Blurbs and quotes provided are not edited by WillowRaven, but posted as provided by author/publisher. 


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Dr. William M. Jackson...

Image Source: History Makers [link below]


Topics: Astrophysics, Astrochemistry, Lasers, Mentoring, Photochemistry, Research


Chemist and academic administrator William M. Jackson was born on September 24, 1936 in Birmingham, Alabama. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from Morehouse College in 1956 and Catholic University of America, CUA in 1961, respectively. His expertise is in photochemistry, lasers chemistry, and astrochemistry.

Jackson has been a research scientist in industry at Martin Co (now Lockheed-Martin) and the government at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). He has been an academician at the University of Pittsburgh (1969-1970), Howard University (1974-1985), and the University of California, Davis (UCD). He joined the faculty at UCD as a chemistry professor in 1985. He then became a distinguished professor in 1998, and chair of the chemistry department from 2000 to 2005. He was awarded millions of dollars in research and education grants and has taught and mentored under representative minority students at Howard University and UCD. Under his direction, the minority student population of the UCD chemistry graduate students increased. He continues to do research, as well as, recruiting and mentoring minority students in chemistry, even though he is officially retired.

History Makers: William M. Jackson, PhD

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NuSTAR...



Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast out radiation and ultra-fast winds, as illustrated in this artist's conception. NASA's NuSTAR and ESA's XMM-Newton telescopes show that these winds, containing highly ionized atoms, blow in a nearly spherical fashion. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Topics: Black Holes, Einstein, General Relativity, NASA, Space Exploration


NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and ESA’s (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton telescope are showing that fierce winds from a supermassive black hole blow outward in all directions -- a phenomenon that had been suspected, but difficult to prove until now.

This discovery has given astronomers their first opportunity to measure the strength of these ultra-fast winds and prove they are powerful enough to inhibit the host galaxy’s ability to make new stars.

"We know black holes in the centers of galaxies can feed on matter, and this process can produce winds. This is thought to regulate the growth of the galaxies," said Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California. Harrison is the principal investigator of NuSTAR and a co-author on a new paper about these results appearing in the journal Science. "Knowing the speed, shape and size of the winds, we can now figure out how powerful they are."

Supermassive black holes blast matter into their host galaxies, with X-ray-emitting winds traveling at up to one-third the speed of light. In the new study, astronomers determined PDS 456, an extremely bright black hole known as a quasar more than 2 billion light-years away, sustains winds that carry more energy every second than is emitted by more than a trillion suns.

NASA: NASA, ESA Telescopes Give Shape to Furious Black Hole Winds

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Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/02/prweb12525243.htm

I was combing the web when I stumbled upon this article about an artist who was re-creating Superhero movie posters into African-American Superheroes. The talented digital artist is African-American and seems to have promise. The concept is great and the artwork is beautiful. I would like to see actual movies with these types of characters made. We need to be control of our imagine and represent ourselves in the media more.

Check out more graphics from this artist here: http://alijahvillian.com/portfolio/black-superheroes-reimagined-pt-2

What do you think about this artist's work?

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Speculative Futures #8...



Topics: Diaspora, Speculative Fiction


Dumisai And The Covenant Of The Ancestors
by Christopher R. Obie

Dumisai, a first-generation American child born of African immigrants, discovers that he has been chosen to wield an awesome power. He soon realizes however, that with his new-found power comes a tremendous responsibility. If he is to keep this power known as the Gift of Great Consequence, he must use it for the betterment of the world. In his search to understand the meaning of the Gift, Dumisai is told by the village elders that he represents the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy and has been chosen to help rescue the world from its deliberate path toward disaster.

More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/book-of-the-month
Amazon: Dumisai And The Covenant Of The Ancestors. by Christopher R. Obie

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Rise of the Taikonauts...

Image Source: http://aragec.com/taikonauts.html


Topics: Astronaut, China, Economy, NASA, Space Program, STEM, Taikonaut


(Reuters) - China's space program is catching up with that of the United States and Washington must invest in military and civilian programs if it is to remain the world's dominant space power, a congressional hearing heard on Wednesday.

Experts speaking to Congress's U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said China's fast advances in military and civilian space technology were part of a long-term strategy to shape the international geopolitical system to its interests and achieve strategic dominance in the Asia-Pacific.

They also reflect an enthusiasm for space exploration which in the United States has faded since the Apollo Program which landed Americans on the moon in 1969, they said.

"China right now is experiencing its Apollo years," Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, told the hearing. "China gets the funding its needs."

Meanwhile (literally, "back at the ranch")...

Slate: Texas Public Schools Are Teaching Creationism
An investigation into charter schools’ dishonest and unconstitutional science, history, and “values” lessons.
Zack Kopplin

Scientific American: 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense
Opponents of evolution want to make a place for creationism by tearing down real science, but their arguments don't hold up
John Rennie


For clarification: I am very happy China has the clarity and sense of mission to expand their knowledge of STEM fields, thus their economy and cultivate a pool of candidates for their expanding space program. That, like the Apollo program, will have spin off dividends in their economy.

I only say this tongue-in-cheek because Texas is not only a big state: it's a big education book market affecting the buying decisions and curriculum outside their borders, and so the nations'. Thus, other states are taking their lead in the curriculum - charter or public - they decide to expose their students to. China is apparently disabused of such illusions. Sadly...

KING HENRY V:
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;...

'Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!' speech of Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598.


Meaning: let's try this one more time (see link).
Though, we seem to be trying and doing, over and over, all the wrong things!
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Dr. Estella Atekwana...

Image Source: Oklahoma State University Faculty Page [2] 


Topics: Biogeophysics, Geophysics, Research, Tectonics, Women in Science

Estella Atekwana, PhD
Geophysicist
Oklahoma State University


Estella Atekwana grew up in Cameroon. “My parents very much wanted me to do medicine,” she writes. “So I got into sciences with that intention. However, I took a course in geology in high school and the teacher indicated that geology was not for girls. I was challenged then to demonstrate that girls could do geology and perform the same as boys or even better. I ended up with the science award that year in chemistry, biology, and geology.” She moved to North America to study the geosciences, earning a bachelor’s and master’s in geology from Howard University and a Ph.D. from Dalhousie University in Canada. “Today, they call me Doctor and that’s fine with my parents.”

She is now Sun Chair at Oklahoma State University, where she is a leader in the new field of biogeophysics. [1]

1. Science Update: Estella Atekwana, PhD
2. Oklahoma State University: Estella Atekwana Faculty Page

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Quantum Random Walks...



In the experimental test by Robens et al., the caesium atom moves in one of two possible optical fields, here indicated in red and blue. The fields have a periodic "egg-carton"-like potential. The authors prepared the atom in a superposition of two atomic states, which was equivalent to the atom simultaneously sitting in the red optical carton and the blue optical carton, and determined the atom's position by detecting its fluorescence as the two cartons were slid apart. (Courtesy: Phys. Rev. X 5 011003)

Topics: Cesium, Macrorealism, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Random Walks, Quantum Superposition, Superposition

Is there a limit on how large a quantum superposition can be or can macroscopic objects, such as humans or say cats, also exist in a superposition of quantum states? Our daily experience seems to suggest that large objects do not obey the rules of quantum mechanics and are said to behave classically. This suggests that there could be a fundamental boundary between the quantum and classical worlds.

To try and nail down exactly where this boundary lies, researchers in Germany have tracked the motion of a large atom in an optical lattice. They found that the atom moves in a non-classical way, behaving as a quantum superposition that occupies more than one location at any given time.

Boundary conditions


Probing the classical–quantum boundary is currently of great interest to physicists, with a variety of different experiments trying to work out where such a cut-off may lie. Indeed, in the past few years, physicists have been placing ever-larger objects into states of quantum superposition. These are often interference experiments, whereby large molecules are sent through a double slit and made to interfere with themselves.

But in 1985 Anthony Leggett and Anupam Garg took a decidedly different approach to the quest by developing a theory known as "macrorealism". Instead of showing that quantum theory holds, they aimed to show that anything apart from a quantum description would disagree with experimental observations. In explicit contrast with quantum theory, the theorists posited that in the worldview of macroscopic realism, large objects must be in one determinate macroscopic state at any given time, allowing for no superposition or blurriness in the system. Macrorealism has two main criteria: that macroscopic superpositions are not allowed and that it is possible to make a measurement of the system without influencing the system in any way, meaning that you can always measure, say, the location of a large object without disturbing it.

If macrorealism were true, repeated measurements, at different times, of a single macroscopic system would only be statistically correlated up to a certain degree, giving what they called the Leggett–Garg (LG) inequality. The aim then was to violate the inequality with experimental evidence. This is similar to the Bell inequalities, which set out to show that another basic quantum effect, known as entanglement, is indeed possible. The difference is that for Bell's inequalities, the measurements are made at different points in space, while for the LG inequality, the experiments take place at different times. Over the years, a number of experiments on photons, nuclear spins and superconducting circuits have been carried out to violate the LG inequality.

Physics World: Quantum random walks put a limit on superposition
Tushna Commissariat is a reporter for physicsworld.com
Quantum random walks - an introductory overview, Julia Kempe

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