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Fast Lane...

Fast lane. Within the carefully sculpted waveguide, (left) light waves typically overlap to make a banded pattern (middle). However, depending on the width of the waveguide, waves of a certain wavelength travel infinitely fast, making the whole waveguide light up.

Credit: AMOLF and University of Pennsylvania


Within a nanometer-scale device, visible light travels infinitely fast—by one measure—a team of physicists and engineers reports. The gizmo won't lead to instantaneous communication—the famous speed limit of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity remains in force—but it could have a variety of uses, including serving as an element in a type of optical circuitry.

 

In empty space, light always travels at 300,000,000 meters per second. In a material such as glass, it travels slower. The ratio of light's speed in the vacuum to its speed in a material defines the material's "index of refraction," which is typically greater than one. However, scientists have begun to manipulate the interactions of light and matter to tune the index of refraction in weird ways, such as making it negative, which leads to an unusual bending of light.

So how does an everywhere-at-once light wave not violate relativity? Light has two speeds, Engheta explains. The "phase velocity" describes how fast waves of a given wavelength move, and the "group velocity" describes how fast the light conveys energy or information. Only the group velocity must stay below the speed of light in a vacuum, Engheta says, and inside the waveguide, it does.

 

Science NOW: Nanoscale Device Makes Light Travel Infinitely Fast

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Cheap Quantum Optics...

Technology Review

One of the great mysteries of modern physics is the link between quantum mechanics and general relativity or gravity. But quantum phenomena generally occur on the very smallest scales while gravity generally crops on the largest scales. Never the twain shall meet.

 

At least, not without some clever thinking. One idea is to entangle a pair of photons, hang on to one and send the other across a distance so vast that gravity is significant, in other words, far enough for the gravitational curvature of space to come into play.

 

Technology Review: Europe Proposes Cheap Quantum Optics Link to ISS

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Ferromagnetic Nanocontact...

National Institute of Advanced Industrial and Science Technology (AIST)


The FULL title (below) is quite a mouthful!


Points



• Theoretical analysis was performed on a ferromagnetic nanocontact using a simulator developed by AIST.

• Control of oscillating frequency is possible within a range of 5–140 GHz by varying the applied direct current.

• Microwave and millimeter-wave transmitters for use in next-generation wireless communication technology and sensor technology are expected to be realized.



Summary



Hiroshi Imamura (Leader) and Hiroko Arai (AIST Postdoctoral Researcher), Theory Team, the Spintronics Research Center (Director: Shinji Yuasa) of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; President: Tamotsu Nomakuchi), have demonstrated theoretically that oscillation of 5–140 GHz is possible by supplying direct current to a ferromagnetic nanocontact device.



Conventional giant magnetoresistive devices or ferromagnetic tunnel junction devices provide only low frequency oscillation and have been deemed unsuitable for applications requiring millimeter-wave (30–300 GHz) oscillation, including radar. However, upon analyzing precessional motion of spin induced by supplying a current to a ferromagnetic nanocontact device using a simulator developed by AIST, it was predicted that varying the current supplied to the ferromagnetic nanocontact device would cause the device to act as a current control-type oscillation device in the microwave to millimeter-wave range. If such a ferromagnetic nanocontact device is realized, it is expected to have applications in next-generation wireless communication technology and sensor technology.



Details of the results will be published online shortly in Applied Physics Letters, a US scientific journal.
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Our friend and resident Astrophysicist Dr. Holbrook is on Facebook and will be tweeting with regard to the Eclipse, today. I have excerpted some information but encourage you to read the entire update she posted at: 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=63615542&l=1f85b8f1e7&id=338846586205682

Here are the particulars on when the tweeting begins!

Join us and find out, as we live tweet (in Australia, the eclipse occurs at 6:39 am on Wednesday, 11/14; In the states: today Tuesday, 11/13 at 1:39 pm PST, 3:39 pm CST, and 4:39 pm EST) at @blacksun2012doc and @astroholbrook


Please support the post-production efforts of Black Sun 2012. Your tax-deductible donation will help part our "financial clouds," and can be made today at https://www.austinfilm.org/film-black-sun

PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!

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Beautiful, vivacious and made to order! The Android PAnd0RA 001 returns in the last week of November in a new episode and with new cover art! The uncannily human-like android is finding her mission to 'bond' with her new human companion challenging. What does one do when their companion sees them as nothing more than an a machine? Not even a planetary network full of data holds the answer to that difficult question. Somehow PAnd0RA must solve that equation. She'll get her chance during a big upcoming event aboard the Corporate Interstellar Transport DROMEDARY! Meanwhile, the owner of that mysterious BOX wants it back and is going to take extraordinary steps to retrieve their property. Here's a sneak preview from EPISODE TWO:

MILKY WAY GALACTIC AUTHORITY EREBUS Class Deep Space Planetary Station -

OASIS 10
      Station Commander Sette Clavon waited anxiously as a single technician worked the hard light display’s Particle Wave Receivers controls. To have been awakened in the middle of his sleep cycle for reception of a classified transmission of personnel from PROMETHEUS GROUP Security was unsettling. For an MHG 1.5 like himself gaining command over a DSPS had been a monumental achievement even if he only got to see actual sunlight once every ten Earth Standard Years on his leave cycle. One of the major downsides of commanding a critical jump point in a Black Zone between five stellar systems was having to oversee important transmissions such as this. The arrival of a classified team from the Galaxy’s think tank could not be a good thing.

      The Commander watched the viz feed as a large Direct Transport Cube coalesced inside the Reception Chamber. He whistled between clenched teeth at the thought of those inside it undergoing direct site to site Particle Wave Transmission. Direct Transmission was a much faster method than traveling by transport as there was far less mass to compress within a warp bubble. However, the bubble time from site to site could last for decades! No one could travel in this manner without being in stasis.

      Problem was even in stasis, the mind must have periods of activity in order for humans to be fully functional upon arrival. On rare occasions, the activity cycles are not properly calibrated to match the individual. When a person is brought out of stasis, they are always disoriented. If their mental activity cycle was off calibration for decades, the individual would come out of stasis quite mad often, violently so.

      Amber scanning beams swept over the Cube revealing six stasis containers and one large Transport BOX. Each beam after having swept over a container registered with a green ‘CLEAR’ graphic on the technician’s display. The beam scanning the BOX suddenly flashed red and the display’s AI audio feed said, “Warning! Unauthorized unknown materials detected. Initiating security containment field.”  Abruptly a blue hard light energy field enveloped the BOX and the Commander exclaimed, “What in the Stygian Cloud did they bring aboard my station?” The Display’s AI then announced, “Unauthorized unknown materials contained at Level 6. Stasis Cycles complete. Six personnel are now online.”  

      Pointing to the display the Commander said, “Technician, display arriving personnel files. To the Commander’s dismay five of the files were blocked by the red CLASSIFIED graphic. However, one was viewable. A 2D image of a dark-skinned high-level Modified human male stared at him with fierce eyes making Commander Clavon involuntarily flinch. “PROMETHEUS GROUP Security Operations Officer Rewar Talvi? Who in the Black Cloud was this savage and what were he and a classified team doing on my station?” It would be several minutes before the arrivals would be cleared to embark the station. Somehow, Commander Clavon did not believe he would like the answers.”
© 2012 H. Wolfgang Porter. All Rights Reserved.

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Now is the time to support a project that is truly legendary in the making. Learn about this character and his world.  If you're truly a warrior for change in the comic and novel industry now is the time for you to act and to tell others. Thank you for reading this post.  My name is Eric Cooper and I approve this message.

Knight Seeker KickStarter Preview. Goes live Nov 16th Friday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Getting This One...



NEW YORK -- Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson just did Superman a super favor.


The scientist, who is director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, was approached in late summer by DC Comics, home of the long-running Superman series.

Originally, the comic book makers just wanted permission to feature Tyson and the planetarium in an upcoming issue of the series where Superman would view the demolition of his home planet, Krypton, which orbits an alien star named Rao.

"I said, 'Why don't I get you an actual star?'" Tyson told reporters during a meeting Thursday (Nov. 8), the day of the comic book's release.


DC Comics jumped at the chance to infuse real science in the story, and a collaboration was born.



"I was proud and honored that our institution could serve this role," Tyson said. "If they're just making stuff up, they don't need us."


How a Real-Life Astrophysicist Found Superman's Planet Krypton: The Inside Story by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor

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Detroit in 2014 Bid (open for input)

I am part of the group of people putting forward a bid for the North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC) to be in Detroit in 2014: http://www.detroitin2014.org is our website, which is just getting started.

If the bid is successful I am optimistic that we will have strong program tracks in black sf and local black history, which is quite rich. We are open to suggestions of themes and topics, as well as suggestions for Guests of Honor, which will not be revealed until we either win or lose the bid.

Let me know your thoughts!

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Malala Day...

Source: Facebook

"Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow... but only empties today of its strength." C. H. Spurgeon

"You have not converted a man because you have silenced him." John Morley - (1838-1923)

“Misunderstanding arising from ignorance breeds fear, and fear remains the greatest enemy of peace.” Lester B. Pearson

“Fear always springs from ignorance.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American lecturer, poet, and essayist

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
 


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

NBC News: 'Malala Day' marked in Pakistan amid security fears

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The Truth...

From "What's The Worst That Could Happen? A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate"

I once used the term "Nate Silver is The TRUTH" to someone fretting Tuesday on Facebook. I provided the link, and followed as each state vindicated the model.

Nate Silver is the statistician behind the now more famous Five Thirty-Eight blog hosted by the NY Times. He and Joe Scarborough made a testy bet due to Joe's doubt of the model's objectivity. I guess no one can doubt much now.

It has so far, correctly predicted the presidential races with the exception of Florida which will be out today at noon EST. It's leaning heavily towards the president. If they award it to him, he will correctly have predicted the outcome in every state; he got 49/50 states correct in 2008. A triggered recount would be at this point inconsequential.

 

From Urban Dictionary, "The Truth":

 

A superlative. The greatest or most positive form it is possible for a person or thing to be.

 

And that's the part of the definition I'm comfortable referencing (the originals from Shaq's description of Paul Pierce's performance - superlativewould be an understatement).

 

This election has been about the question: what is truth?

 

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: Climate change is likely to be worse than many computer models have projected, according to a new analysis.

The work, published yesterday in Science, finds evidence that Earth's climate is more sensitive to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than some earlier studies had suggested.

If the new results are correct, that means warming will come on faster, and be more intense, than many current predictions. Moreover, the impacts of that warming, including sea level rise, drought, floods and other extreme weather, could hit earlier and harder than many models project, said study co-author John Fasullo, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

 

Related link: Allergies from Pollen Projected to Intensify with Climate Change

 

Computer models are just that: models, kind of like the mock up the architect builds to show you how the final project might look, but you can't livethere. They can accurately predict outcomes within a few percentage points of accuracy. For example, as superlative as Nate Silver's predictions have been (his book has rocketed up the NY Times Best Seller's Listing), his model predicted Ohio would be the deciding factor. It was not. Colorado tipped the president to 272 electoral votes. His model as with anything of a predictive nature is in the high 90 percentile in accuracy.

 

Stochastic Modeling is used heavily by the finance and insurance industries and your meteorologist. The Monte Carlo Method was most famously used by the Manhattan Project to model the nuclear bomb (yes, I slipped the physics in there, didn't I?).

 

Earlier I posted a video from a physics teacher in Oregon, Greg Craven that went viral on You Tube. He said it was the most frightening video anyone would see. It resulted in a published book "What's The Worst That Could Happen? A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate."

 

I've recreated the decision matrix he used above. It's called a Punnett Square, developed by Reginald C. Punnett (easy name at least for meto remember). In science, it's initial use was the description of parent/child relationships and mapping certain genetic traits passed down.

 

You could argue that Greg's use wasn't the initial intended function, and should be questioned. That's fair. However, the Punnett Square is also used to teach Algebra to Ninth Graders (I know - I've done it): it's an especially good method for visualizing FOIL (first-outer-inner-last) without all the arrows. You can also argue that was not its intended original purpose, yet it works.

 

Greg is a high school science teacher. He admits he's not a climate scientist. However, his motivation is no income (though he's probably made some), but his daughters and handing them a planet that is livable for them and any future grandchildren.

 

What is truth?

 

For Greg, his kids, my kids and yours: we'd better hold our leaders accountable to find out.

I (and my sinuses at least) are for the lower-left quadrant, by-the-way, avoiding the lower-right.Smiley

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HoloHands...

See link below - THERE'S A VIDEO!

Microsoft's Kinect is a motion-sensing device that allows people to control Xbox video games using body movements alone. It consists of a webcam-like camera for creating an image of players, an infrared laser for measuring their distance, and a specialised microchip that interprets the data to track people and objects in three dimensions.



Microsoft's hope in launching the Kinect was to change the way people interact with and play video games. But many users immediately recognised that the device had broader applications and began to hack it for their own projects. Before long, Microsoft released software developer kits allowing anybody to develop applications for the Kinect on both the Xbox and Windows.



Enter David McGloin and buddies at the University of Dundee in Scotland, who are experts in an area of physics called optical manipulation: the use of highly focused laser beams to trap, move, and even rotate small particles such as cells.

 

Wednesday, 7 November was this famous scientist's birthday with a readable quote:


 

Technology Review: Physicists Build Laser Tweezers Controlled With Kinect

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Sunrise in Cairns, Australia

Clear Skies! When I landed in Cairns last night and drove to town I was thrilled at the stars that were visible with little or no light pollution to mar the view.This morning sunrise was clear but clouds have drifted in from the east and west. The Total Solar Eclipse will be ending about this time next week so I will be up at 6 am each morning watching what happens to try to anticipate weather events during the eclipse.Where I am staying in downtown Cairns, there is a hill to the east but the Sun is now several degrees above the hill. Fortunately, for the eclipse we will be on a beach north of the airport so should have an unobstructed view towards the eastern sunrise.In terms of beauty, from what I can see of Cairns from my balcony it is tropical with palm trees and tropical woods. It is pretty quiet considering that I am downtown but perhaps I should wait until rush hour to draw conclusions.My goal is to take a walk to the beach, a few blocks away, before going to the airport to pick up Dr. Alphonse Sterling and his equipment. Fortunately @Hertz rental car gave me a free upgrade giving me a vehicle large enough to haul equipment. I will be taking pictures and film clips of Alphonse which will embarrass him, but are important for our documentary "Black Sun" @BlackSun2012 @BlackSunDoc www.BlackSunMovie.com.Be a part of Black Sun. Donate at https://www.austinfilm.org/film-black-sun it is US Tax Deductible!
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Tricorder LOC...

A microfluidic lab on a chip device sitting on a polystyrene dish. Stainless steel needles inserted into the device serve as access points for fluids into small channels within the device, which are about the size of a human hair.

Credit: Cooksey/NIST


Lab on a chip (LOC) devices—microchip-size systems that can prepare and analyze tiny fluid samples with volumes ranging from a few microliters (millionth of a liter) to sub-nanoliters (less than a billionth of a liter)—are envisioned to one day revolutionize how laboratory tasks such as diagnosing diseases and investigating forensic evidence are performed. However, a recent paper* from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) argues that before LOC technology can be fully commercialized, testing standards need to be developed and implemented.

 

Link: NIST Focuses on Testing Standards to Support Lab on a Chip Commercialization

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Tomorrow...


Tomorrow I will gladly blog about physics, at least 98% of the time.

 

Tomorrow has been decided today. Reason and rationality won. The dreams of our forefathers have been validated.


I include Lincoln because above all others, he planted the seed of diversity that we currently are musing about in the future, as we all move towards 2042 - three decades away.

Dr. King because: he did have a dream, and was a "Trekkie," encouraging Nicelle Nichols to stay on as important to our people, and quite frankly the depiction of African/Black Americans in film/images beyond just science fiction.
 
1 - 43P(W) = 100%, P(O) = 0%
1 - 44P(W) = 97.7%, P(O) = 2.3%

 

P(W) = probability of white male being president

P(O) = probability of "other-than" white male being president (which, I think now and should include women)

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Science Debate That Never Was...


I voted, and will be elated when the spectacle is over.

Whomever winds up as Chief Executive, they have a mess to clean up in New York and New Jersey, and the responsibility to prepare for the next climate change event. We can argue the semantics of whether man-made or natural later. One impact I can forecast is the willingness (or lack thereof) for insurance companies to cover damages with respect to super storms like Sandy. It could become too expensive to guarantee, thereby changing where we as humans choose to live.

Here are each candidates' answers ranging from Climate Change, Education, NASA and Research support:
 

Science Debate 2012

 

Real Clear Politics: Greatest Scientific Experiment on Earth - Democracy

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Distractions...


I am quite human.

So, it's understandable with work, graduate school and cold-calling swing states, I can get distracted. Coupled with the reality of Hurricane Sandy, campus closures in Hoboken, New Jersey, contacting my classmates via email and tempering my calls with "how are you since the storm?" distraction from the tenor of this blog I hope is understandable.
 

The following essays will explain:


This blog champions science and diversity, a reality that is fast approaching this nation in 2042. I'm a Sputnik Child, post October 4, 1957 when America entered the Space Race. Despite our differences and social problems, to compete, we had to educate the entire population. We still do.

I was a beneficiary of that focus. I saw myself and others like me study science and engineering. I and my classmates have traveled all over the world, as our college song: "from Dare to Cherokee." I am concerned; we are concerned about the future: for our sons and daughters, for which we wish in the words of Jeremiah "a future...and a hope."

And as I'm apt to say: my older sister was one of those young adults, teenagers that secured the right to vote for all Americans, braving harrowing resistance to change like this:
 

I've been distracted, but trust me: I've been working hard!
It is for her and others like her, I've been understandibly distracted.
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More From the LHC...

I'm a little late. I've been preoccupied. I'll explain tomorrow.

p-Pb collision event display, CMS

The first data from proton–lead collisions at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN include a "ridge" structure in correlations between newly generated particles. According to theorists in the US, the ridge may represent a new form of matter known as a "colour glass condensate".



This is not the first time such correlations have been seen in collision remnants – in 2005, physicists working on the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York found that the particles generated in collisions of gold nuclei had a tendency to spread transversely from the beam at very small relative angles, close to zero.

 

Physics World: Unexpected 'ridge' seen in CMS collision data again

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Black Widow Pulsar...

Artist's impression of a black widow pulsar: a rapidly spinning stellar remant that strips matter off a companion star and evaporates it by intense radiation.

NASA/ESA/M.J. Jee and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University)/Hubble Field), AEI/Milde Marketing Science Communication


Pulsars are the dense, rapidly spinning remains of stars much more massive than the Sun. To really get a pulsar revolving quickly, it needs a companion star: matter stripped from the partner falls onto the pulsar, speeding it up until it can rotate hundreds of times every second. Astronomers discovered these millisecond pulsars by their radio emissions, but many of them are also very strong gamma ray sources.


Astronomers have now used the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope to identify a "black widow" pulsar that's stripping mass off a close companion star while simultaneously evaporating it by emitting intense radiation. It's having these dramatic effects because the pulsar and its companion orbit each other so closely that they complete an orbit once every 93 minutes, making this the tightest black widow binary yet discovered.

 

Ars Technica: First black widow pulsar found from gamma ray observations

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Pedantic Semantics...


Sunday's Dilbert especially: a sad case of art imitating recent disturbing revelations in life. And in light of recent events, we could use something that make us...Smiley

Pedantic: 2. : narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned. 3. : unimaginative, pedestrian.



Semantics: 1.The branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning.

2.The meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text: "such quibbling over semantics may seem petty stuff".



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