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Face Huggers to Covenant...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 31, 2017 at 7:01am
The Alien, or xenomorph. Credit: TM & © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Topics: Commentary, Science Fiction, Space Exploration

I was sixteen when my best friend and I saw the first "Alien" movie in Winston-Salem, NC. We jumped, guffawed and were amazed at the special effects and the "Amityville Horror in space" motif. And just like any Earthbound horror flick, we both asked the same question each scene: "what the HELL are you still doing there?" I'm not sure we knew the alien as a xenomorph, just something big, menacing, acid-breathing and ugly.

From the review, they do make a nod to neutrinos and solar sails. Everything is apparently at relativistic speeds that are one day attainable. Prevalent in the movies was the mechanized nature of the spacecraft and the reference to corporations that in a Star Trek universe, gave way to warp drive, world brotherhood, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle-defying replicators, money becoming obsolete; peace, love and phasers.

I was equally surprised to find a review on Physics Today. The quintessential question science fiction repeatedly asks "what does it mean to be human" has in this review the spotlight has been turned in reverse:

"Should we improve on our design?"

"What if our improvement no longer needs us?"

*****Spoiler Alert*****

In 1979 Ridley Scott shocked and delighted filmgoers with Alien, a tense tale of the crew of the spacecraft Nostromo. Despite the movie’s science-fiction theme, the subtext was pretty basic: “It was seven people locked in the old, dark house,” Scott says. “Who’s going to die first, and who’s going to survive?” Buried within the tale were questions about the role of humanity, the human condition, and the hubris of greedy corporations. Those themes were explored more thoroughly by other directors in the action-packed sequels Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien: Resurrection.

When Scott returned to the Alien universe by directing the 2012 prequel, Prometheus, what had been side notes to the horror and action became significant plot points. Prometheus looked more closely at the relationship between humans and our progeny, whether carbon or silicon based, and at how we influence and adapt to our environment. The film pondered the nature of the legacy that humans—or, for the purposes of the movie, a superintelligent alien species—hope to leave when they pass on.

The movie is beautifully filmed by Scott. It is nice to see old-school techniques such as building giant sets instead of using green screens to create a new world. The Covenant’s bridge has 1500 working lights and displays, and the astronaut suits were inspired by modern deep-sea diving suits. The acting, as you would expect from a Scott movie, is top notch; Fassbender (the androids David and Walter) stands out because he has the best lines.

Physics Today: Review: Alien: Covenant is more than an origin storyPaul K. Guinnessy
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Puff N Stuff Planet...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 30, 2017 at 7:33am
An artist’s rendering of KELT-11b, a “Styrofoam-density” planet recently discovered by Lehigh astronomers that orbits a bright star in the Southern Hemisphere. (Image by Walter Robinson/Lehigh University)
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Exoplanets, Space Exploration

Fifth-graders making Styrofoam models of the solar system may have the right idea. Lehigh researchers have discovered a new planet orbiting a star 320 light years from Earth that has the density of Styrofoam. This “puffy planet” outside our solar system may help solve the long-standing mystery of the existence of a population of highly inflated giant planets.

“It is highly inflated, so that while it’s only a fifth as massive as Jupiter, it is nearly 40 percent larger, making it about as dense as Styrofoam, with an extraordinarily thick atmosphere,” said Joshua Pepper, astronomer and assistant professor of physics at Lehigh, who led the study with researchers from Vanderbilt University and Ohio State University, along with researchers at universities and observatories and amateur astronomers around the world.

The research, “KELT-11b: A Highly Inflated Sub-Saturn Exoplanet Transiting the V+8 Subgiant HD 93396,” is published in The Astronomical Journal.

The planet, called KELT-11b, is an extreme version of a gas planet, like Jupiter or Saturn, but is orbiting very close to its host star in an orbit that lasts less than five days. The star, KELT-11, has started using up its nuclear fuel and is evolving into a red giant, so the planet will be engulfed by its star and will not survive the next hundred million years.

Lehigh University: ‘Styrofoam’ Planet May Help Solve Mystery of Giant PlanetsAmy White, Kurt Pfitzer
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Dawn's First Light...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 29, 2017 at 6:43am
Image Source: Link below

Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Big Bang, Black Holes, Cosmology, Theoretical Physics

Not long after the Big Bang, all went dark. The hydrogen gas that pervaded the early universe would have snuffed out the light of the universe’s first stars and galaxies. For hundreds of millions of years, even a galaxy’s worth of stars — or unthinkably bright beacons such as those created by supermassive black holes — would have been rendered all but invisible.

Eventually this fog burned off as high-energy ultraviolet light broke the atoms apart in a process called reionization. But the questions of exactly how this happened — which celestial objects powered the process and how many of them were needed — have consumed astronomers for decades.

Now, in a series of studies, researchers have looked further into the early universe than ever before. They’ve used galaxies and dark matter as a giant cosmic lens to see some of the earliest galaxies known, illuminating how these galaxies could have dissipated the cosmic fog. In addition, an international team of astronomers has found dozens of supermassive black holes — each with the mass of millions of suns — lighting up the early universe. Another team has found evidence that supermassive black holes existed hundreds of millions of years before anyone thought possible. The new discoveries should make clear just how much black holes contributed to the reionization of the universe, even as they’ve opened up questions as to how such supermassive black holes were able to form so early in the universe’s history.

In the first years after the Big Bang, the universe was too hot to allow atoms to form. Protons and electrons flew about, scattering any light. Then after about 380,000 years, these protons and electrons cooled enough to form hydrogen atoms, which coalesced into stars and galaxies over the next few hundreds of millions of years.

Starlight from these galaxies would have been bright and energetic, with lots of it falling in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. As this light flew out into the universe, it ran into more hydrogen gas. These photons of light would break apart the hydrogen gas, contributing to reionization, but as they did so, the gas snuffed out the light.
Quanta Magazine: Discoveries Fuel Fight Over Universe’s First LightAshley Yeager
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Ultra Cold and Fermi-Hubbard...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 26, 2017 at 6:24am
Raw fermionic microscope image (left) and processed image showing that spin-up atoms occupy alternating lattice sites as expected in an antiferromagnet. The spin-down atoms have been removed from the image. (Courtesy: A Mazurenko et al. / Nature)

Topics: Condensed Matter Physics, Optical Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Solid State Physics, Superconductors

New insights into a popular and potentially useful model of how electrons behave in solids have been provided by an experiment involving ultracold atoms. Markus Greiner and colleagues at Harvard University in the US studied the behaviour of lithium-6 atoms that are held in an optical lattice and interact according to rules set out by the Fermi-Hubbard model.

They found that the system becomes magnetic at low temperatures – and that the magnetism disappears when the density of atoms is reduced. The team can now use its atomic simulator to explore regimes of the Fermi-Hubbard model that could harbour very interesting physics including high-temperature superconductivity.

The electronic properties of solid materials arise from quantum-mechanical interactions between large numbers of electrons. It is notoriously difficult to calculate these properties, so physicists rely on simple models to simplify the mathematics – but even models have significant computational challenges. One such scheme is the Fermi-Hubbard model, which represents electrons as Fermi–Dirac particles (fermions) that hop between fixed sites on a lattice and only interact with each other when they occupy the same lattice site.

Physics World: Ultracold atoms shed light on the Fermi-Hubbard modelHamish Johnston
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Tabby's Star...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 25, 2017 at 6:32am
Another explanation for the dimming is that KIC 8462852 is surrounded by a swarm of dusty comets.
Topics: Astrophysics, Dyson Sphere, Exoplanets, Kardashev Scale, Kepler Telescope, SETI

Astronomers and alien life enthusiasts alike are buzzing over the sudden dimming of an otherwise unremarkable star 1300 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. KIC 8462852 or “Tabby’s star” has dimmed like this several times before, prompting some researchers to suggest that the megastructures of an advanced alien civilization might be blocking its light. And now—based on new data from numerous telescopes—it’s doing it again.

“This is the first clear dip we have seen since [2013], and the first we have ever caught in real time,” says Jason Wright, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University in State College. If they can rope in more telescopes, astronomers hope to gather enough data to finally figure out what’s going on. “This could be the first of several dips about to come,” says astronomer David Kipping of Columbia University. “Many observers will be closely watching.”

KIC 8462852 was first noticed to be dipping in brightness at seemingly random intervals between 2011 and 2013 by NASA’s Kepler telescope. Kepler, launched to observe the stellar dimmings caused when an exoplanet passes in front of its star, revealed that the dimming of Tabby’s star was much more erratic than a typical planetary transit. It was also more extreme, with its brightness sometimes dropping by as much as 20%. This was not the passage of a small circular planet, but of something much larger and more irregular.

Science Mag: Star that spurred alien megastructure theories dims againDaniel Clery

#P4TC related links

Needle In A Haystack...October 19, 2015Occam's Razor...February 8, 2016
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Sleuthing Antimatter...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 24, 2017 at 7:31am
Two white dwarfs head toward a collision in this artist’s illustration. New research suggests that the Milky Way's preponderance of positrons could come from a specialized type of supernova from colliding low-mass white dwarfs — an explosion that is difficult to detect, but rich in an isotope that generates this kind of antimatter.

Credit: NASA/Tod Strohmayer (GSFC)/Dana Berry (Chandra X-Ray Observatory)
Topics: Antimatter, Astrophysics, High Energy Physics

The majority of antimatter that pervades the Milky Way may come from clashing remnants of dead stars, a new study finds.

The work may solve a 40-year-old astrophysics mystery, the study's researchers said.

For every particle of normal matter, there is an antimatter counterpart with the opposite electrical charge but the same mass. The antiparticle of the negatively charged electron, for instance, is the positively charged positron. [Will Antimatter Power the First Starships?]

When a particle meets its antiparticle, they annihilate each other, giving off a burst of energy. A gram of antimatter annihilating a gram of matter would release about twice the amount of energy as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

More than 40 years ago, scientists first detected that the kind of gamma-rays that are given off when positrons are annihilated were being emitted from all around the galaxy. Their findings suggested that 10^43 positrons — that's a 1 with 43 zeroes behind it — were being annihilated in the Milky Way every second. Oddly, most of these positrons were detected in the galaxy's central bulge rather than its outer disk, even though the bulge hosts less than half of the Milky Way's mass.

Charles Q. Choi
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Aluna's Encounter: The Fissure

Posted by Lauren on May 23, 2017 at 1:13pm

I planted my feet firmly on the ground. I never felt more connected to the planet where I stood than where I was right then in that moment. I took in a large, deep breath. It felt like I was breathing in the essence of crisp fresh snow.

And then I released.

This part of the plateau no one was allowed near. Off to the distance, I could see our city, Sheba, the buildings were made of gold and the streets were littered with diamonds and gems.

I zipped my jacket up and hid behind a large rock and waited.

The reason why people weren't allowed out this far from Sheba was because of the instability of the terrain. The scientists said that our world sometimes would converge with another world; a more dangerous world.

But this terrain was also where the agents came in and out of around this time of the evening. I wanted to see who they were bringing back this time.

A crackling of lightning and static happened and immediately two agents appeared with a boy in their arms, not much older than me 15 or maybe 16?

"Aluna! Call for help!" my older cousin Ndulu commanded me.

I guess my hiding spot wasn't so great at all, I was scared to call for help because I knew I would get into trouble but as I dialed the number on my cell phone the boy began to speak.

He struggled to speak, Ndulu's girlfriend Kissa placed her hand on the boy's chest and sung to him.

The blood pouring out of his body stopped but he was still dying. Kissa had harnessed the power of her voice to heal but it was a minor fix.

The doctors arrived quickly and performed emergency surgery on the young boy right there on the plateau. They made me help, I thought for certain I would be yelled at or chastised but I wasn't.

We were there for hours. Finally, when he was stable and the doctor's felt like he was in the clear to be moved. He lifted his hand, he was pointing behind me. Another crackle, another distortion in the air, I could only hear the wind and I was gone.

Read the Rest of Part One

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Myth of Perfection...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 23, 2017 at 10:00am
Researchers are trying to extract DNA from skeletons buried in the ancient Philistine cemetery of Ashkelon, in what is now Israel.

Topics: Biology, Diversity, Existentialism, Politics

“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.” ― Stephen Hawking

- The first Miss Japan of color, Ariana Miyamoto (her father an African American serviceman) reluctantly wears the racist assigned pejorative "Hafu" (half).

- A 60-ish year old black man - Timothy Caughman - killed by a white supremacist who drove up from Maryland to kill any random black man he could find in New York City (judging from the picture, it could have been me easily on any given day).

- A young man - Richard Collins III - commissioned a second lieutenant in the US Army was stabbed to death two days before his graduation from Bowie State University at the University of Maryland by the same, demented twisted ideology (alt-Reich).

- Dylaan Roof (whose name it disgusts me mentioning) has been sentenced to death for killing 9 African American church members...during a traditional Wednesday night prayer meeting, their "sin" - merely existing on the planet.

From jihadists to white supremacists, each demented group is motivated by a bizarre "utopia" that they either want to "get back to" or establish a divine kingdom on Earth that will somehow magically spring forth after the Ragnarok their sick minds project online and in dark printed media. It will somehow thereafter "lasts forever," the carnage replaced by rose petals, rainbows and butterflies; built on the bones of the dead they've damned for skin color, religion, sexual orientation or miscegenation.

NEVER MIND that no one else the DSM-V Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines as SANE share their ideology, or by the sin of breathing and existing somehow screws up their entire self-concept of superiority to all other humanoid life forms not by any superior effort, but some "divine" light pigmentation; twisted interpretation of particular scriptures or farting without a whiff of methane.

The fact that we are HERE...sentient, THINKING and creating; moving, loving and living out our lives should be enough specialness without applying "other"; "them"; "outsiders"; "infidels" and other demeaning epithets that makes murder so easy for other humans to accomplish on one another. It is a goosestep march of psychopaths.

I am currently disgusted with my species. The wrong animals are in the zoo.

When the first busloads of migrants from Syria and Iraq rolled into Germany 2 years ago, some small towns were overwhelmed. The village of Sumte, population 102, had to take in 750 asylum seekers. Most villagers swung into action, in keeping with Germany’s strong Willkommenskultur, or “welcome culture.” But one self-described neo-Nazi on the district council told The New York Times that by allowing the influx, the German people faced “the destruction of our genetic heritage” and risked becoming “a gray mishmash.”

In fact, the German people have no unique genetic heritage to protect. They—and all other Europeans—are already a mishmash, the children of repeated ancient migrations, according to scientists who study ancient human origins. New studies show that almost all indigenous Europeans descend from at least three major migrations in the past 15,000 years, including two from the Middle East. Those migrants swept across Europe, mingled with previous immigrants, and then remixed to create the peoples of today.

Using revolutionary new methods to analyze DNA and the isotopes found in bones and teeth, scientists are exposing the tangled roots of peoples around the world, as varied as Germans, ancient Philistines, and Kashmiris. Few of us are actually the direct descendants of the ancient skeletons found in our backyards or historic homelands. Only a handful of groups today, such as Australian Aborigines, have deep bloodlines untainted by mixing with immigrants.

“We can falsify this notion that anyone is pure,” says population geneticist Lynn Jorde of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Instead, almost all modern humans “have this incredibly complex history of mixing and mating and migration.”

Science Mag: There's no such thing as a 'pure' European—or anyone else
Ann Gibbons

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MG Hardie's THEM Takes Humanity to That Sunken Place

Posted by MG Hardie on May 23, 2017 at 9:00am
THEM by MG Hardie opens with the protagonist running for his life through a murky swamp. His clothes burned and his pursuer closing in on him. The novel takes the reader through a collapsing cave to South American sights and sounds to ocean depths to African castles to Middle Eastern villages.
 
“THEM starts deep and hard and continues in this vane, it’s thoughtful and fast. The insights into the human condition and the system had me asking myself questions and staying up late to finish reading. This is no normal superhero novel, Devon is more like Captain America, with a masters in law. The final scene is as in depth and thought provoking as any book I’ve ever read.”- http://www.jeremypoole.net/blog/-book-review-them-by-mg-hardie
"The way MG Hardie achieved that balance between story moving forward and philosophy reminds me of Richard Bach and Michael Crichton books...this one had me hooked." - Corey at Carbor Reviews
 
 
Alongside world travel are supernatural battles and explorations of social and political issues. In THEM, Hardie takes unflinching looks at complex issues such as the moral ramifications of violence, along with the nature of history, with themes of redemption, and belief. 
 
MG Hardie's THEM poses the question: Does talent, hard work, or fate determine who gets the contract, the promotion, the gig, or the role? Or it's THEM...
 
 
In Paperback and Ebook on May 23
 
Listen to chapter 1 of THEM by MG Hardie for free.
 
THEM review video
###
 
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Free Everywhere including Amazon

Posted by Larry Johnson on May 22, 2017 at 7:30pm

Excerpt from Terror on Telderan


"Walls of the great chamber where alliance meetings were held were covered with fine priceless art gathered from various galaxies through the years. Soft blue lighting emanating from the oval table lit the room.
Lazon’s Apex was the first to arrive, his long tan robe fluttered behind him as he briskly approached his seat at the head of the oval glass table. Shortly after his arrival the Emperor of Natropi entered the chamber, he was followed by King Ashnar of Deltor, Elder Manook from the planet Tygalon, King Zerlious of Xanar, and the Supreme Ruler of the water planet Nep’o. One by one the members entered the room, greeted each other and sat down on one of the gray high back chairs. Each chair was equipped with a panel concealing buttons and switches allowing members to vote or view images on the glass table in front of them. When the sixteenth member took his seat the Apex glanced over at the empty chair once occupied by the ruler of Otar and began the meeting."
 

          Smashwords

          http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9290

          Barnes and Knoble

          http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/terror-on-telderan-lawrence-johnson-sr/1020987242?type=eBook

          Amazon Kindle

           Terror on Telderan: Prequel to Escape 2 Earth (Escape 2 Earth Short Story Series)

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The mystery of Black people and futuristic movies

Posted by KENNETH E JAMES on May 22, 2017 at 6:28pm

Have you ever wondered about the mystery of the human race and the so called evolution of people in according to movies? I have seen many movies and love the science fiction genre but i always tend to wonder how i don't know how many times where in the blazes black people went. Did we all die off first? Were we like the game show the Weakest link? Did we all die off first like in every movie if so the animal kingdom is prejudiced and seriously love them some dark meat. Did white people turn into cannibals and eat us all like chicken? Exactly what happens to us in all of the movies and shows television shows alike. Did we all turn on each other and tear each other apart? Somebody has got to have an answer out there or am i just tripping. And lets talk superheroes.....Really??? Does everyone have to have Black in front of their name?? Black Lightning!Black Goliath! The Black Panther!!!! Dun dun dun!!!!! Hello where are the Latino heroes? No where in every movie they are either dirt poor in the hood or drug dealers for some cartel with a cliche background of drugs or gang raised. And not a father figure to be found Really???? Why are all of the portrayals negative? So what did they catch that disease too and die off with us in the future? Last week i saw a post on FB of a 14 year old black student graduating from college the youngest ever! Where are all of these bright stars now like him. Did somebody just tuck them away somewhere and experiment on them in a lab or something? Why haven't we changed things yet? Why are we the most of the homeless in america? Why are we the most unemployed in America? Why are we not more successful in business and life then we are. And why is it that when we think we have arrived we shut the door on where we came from and pretend we don't belong to our past by not helping anyone else to get there? It's not really that difficult to see when you step away and think about it. I thought about this for a long time as i traveled the world in the military. Being away makes you think about home a lot and reflect on your experiences and life while away. Things like why someone like Terry Crews hasn't even been considered for a superhero role i mean seriously everyone in Hollywood has to go through hell in training to look like that and he is that way everyday of the year. What about Michael Jai White? Have you seen Blood and Bone turn that man loose and give him a suit! He could actually kick everybody else's butt without breaking a sweat! So tell me why hasn't anyone written something that he could take on and own? Its simple because the people who own Hollywood don't want it so what do we do? Why hasn't anyone done anything about it yet? Producers? Black producers and heavyweights in Hollywood?? Why do we mistrust each other so much that we cant pull this off? Its laughably easy to do so why haven't we? Is everyone that jaded that they wont work as a team for not even one thing to work? Is our pride that bad that we cant support each other? Did we forget where we came from like our moms used to say? My mom died a couple of years ago and her words of wisdom are like gold to me now. Things haven't changed a bit if they only knew and understood that the money they spent on those new shoes would buy stock in the same companies and the long term would get them the credit and cash they need to live by. There is a way.... to be continued tomorrow.

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Xenophobia...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 22, 2017 at 6:00am
Image Source: CBS News - Collateral Damage, Bill Whitaker
Topics: Diversity, Diversity in Science, Women in Science

Realizing espionage is the focus of our current national angst in the last election, this is more than a bit over-the-top and would have occurred in the last administration. Vetting as well as protecting our intellectual property is important, but the motivation for this comes from an ethnic nationalism birthed in bigotry, an ugliness that has always existed, but we've never fully admitted about our national selves.

A nation of immigrants is becoming what almost doomed us in WWII: isolationists. The "good old days" many want to magically return to they forget is when the US became a part of and major driver of the world order. That also entailed the embrace of immigrants like Professor Einstein et al.

Going forward for our continued success, it still does.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana

*         *         *         *         *

Last August a headline in this media-analysis venue charged, “Journalists scant scientists’ ethnic-profiling accusation against the federal government.” With exceptions, reporters and editors were generally overlooking injustices perpetrated against scientists, including National Weather Service hydrologist Xiafen “Sherry” Chen and Xiaoxing Xi, who is a fellow of the American Physical Society and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Physics at Temple University. The piece criticized media inattention to unfounded, abortive criminal prosecutions that devastated the US citizens’ lives.

As of 12 May 2017, that media criticism from August still stands. Xi and Chen are still struggling, and although new information has arisen in their cases, most journalists continue scanting it. Again, with a few exceptions, there’s been little coverage of the March administrative hearing in which Chen sought to get her job back or of Xi’s May lawsuit against an FBI agent.

Among the silent so far in 2017 has been CBS. But in May 2016, the network introduced a 60 Minutes segment by recalling an earlier report that illuminated the source of the harmful federal zeal. The Justice Department, CBS reported, saw a “national security emergency” costing hundreds of billions of dollars in Chinese espionage intended to “rip off American trade secrets and intellectual property.” CBS described a government effort to fight back aggressively with a dragnet strategy that wasn’t “just catching Chinese spies” but was “ensnaring a growing number of Americans who aren’t spies at all.”

Steven T. Corneliussen
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Download “Kingdom of Lethe” Free

Posted by Tonya R. Moore on May 19, 2017 at 4:00pm

Greetings everyone!

My short story, Kingdom of Lethe is FREE to download from amazon.com for the next three days only. 

STORY DETAILS

Title: Kingdom of Lethe
Author: Tonya R. Moore
Genre: Science Fiction (futuristic, steampunk)
Blurb: a new case drags a detective into the strange world of a woman claims her beautiful memories have been stolen.
 
Click the link below to Download :
The regular price for this Kindle ebook is $2.99, so please try to download a copy while it's still free.
About the Author

'm a Jamaican writer of speculative fiction–short stories, web serials, and novelettes. Currently living in Florida, I'm pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English with a concentration in Fiction.

 

Homepage: https://tonyarmoore.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonya_writes

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonya.writer

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Plasma Jet Engines...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 19, 2017 at 8:30am
"Plasma Stingray" Leaving on a plasma plane Future Workshop Electrofluidsystems TU Berlin

Topics: Aeronautical Engineering, Green Tech, Plasma Physics

Plasma jet engines were initially the fanfare of science fiction, and in theory quite practical. In the weightless and vacuum of space, it could propel astronauts to Mars in a little over a month, as in the case of the VASIMR project by NASA.

The caveat to this is that electrical plants are in and of themselves massive affairs, and typically not flight worthy or aerodynamic.

This will require thought, creativity, engineering miniaturization (likely exploiting nanotechnology designs yet dreamed or drafted) and above all: national will. It would be thrilling to work on such a project and bring such devices into existence. The roar of jet engines at airports and service shows could be reduced (in my imagination) to a hum and a distant memory. This could be the beginning of shuttle designs for ascending to orbital space stations or decent from mother ships on distant worlds.

Sadly, since traditional jet engines use fossil fuels, I can foresee armies of lobbyists and current industries invested in keeping the status quo allied against this endeavor.

As the oft stated colloquialism goes: "This is why we can't have nice things."

FORGET fuel-powered jet engines. We’re on the verge of having aircraft that can fly from the ground up to the edge of space using air and electricity alone.

Traditional jet engines create thrust by mixing compressed air with fuel and igniting it. The burning mixture expands rapidly and is blasted out of the back of the engine, pushing it forwards.

Instead of fuel, plasma jet engines use electricity to generate electromagnetic fields. These compress and excite a gas, such as air or argon, into a plasma – a hot, dense ionised state similar to that inside a fusion reactor or star.

Plasma engines have been stuck in the lab for the past decade or so. And research on them has largely been limited to the idea of propelling satellites once in space.

Berkant Göksel at the Technical University of Berlin and his team now want to fit plasma engines to planes. “We want to develop a system that can operate above an altitude of 30 kilometres where standard jet engines cannot go,” he says. These could even take passengers to the edge of the atmosphere and beyond.

The challenge was to develop an air-breathing plasma propulsion engine that could be used for take-off as well as high-altitude flying.

New Scientist:
Plasma jet engines that could take you from the ground to space
Sandrine Ceurstemont

Related link

Scientific American:
Young Scientist Makes Jet Engines Leaner and Cleaner with Plasma
Melissa C. Lott

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Qubit Supremacy...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 18, 2017 at 8:30am
Image Source: Link below
Topics: Computer Science, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics

IBM Research has built its most powerful quantum chips yet, and is putting them up for use by researchers via the cloud.

The most impressive of its new chips is a prototype that uses 17 of the quantum equivalent of digital bits known as qubits. That’s up from five last year, and more than the nine that were featured in a device recently tested by Google. Like some of Google’s other latest quantum chips, IBM is starting to lay out qubits in orientations where they sit side by side. In the past it’s been hard to do that and ensure that the hardware still works, but the fact that it’s now achievable suggests that scaling up the devices even further will be plausible in the future.

The second of the new chips, pictured above, features 16 qubits, which makes it less powerful than the larger chip. But this device is robust enough that IBM is using it to upgrade its online service, which allows any researcher to test algorithms on quantum chips. The previous version of the service, which was part of the first-ever head-to-head quantum computer race, used the firm’s five-qubit chip. Meanwhile, the 17-qubit device will be opened up to just a handful of specific researchers to test.

MIT Technology Review:IBM Nudges Ahead in the Race for Quantum Supremacy, Jamie Condliffe
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Cyber Bomb...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 18, 2017 at 8:00am
Computer virus bomb. Credit: Hiroshi Watanabe Getty Images
Topics: Biology, Computer Science, Medical Physics, Politics, Research

I use Opera almost exclusively because it allows me to surf with a personal VPN I've set up. I don't know what measures mobile phone providers are coming up with countermeasures for the malware that makes the Internet the wild west. As a nation, we have the self-inflicted wound of a "healthcare" system that is oxymoron, less geared towards service than profitability. The dollars swimming in their stock portfolios makes the greedy inadvertently along with all of us targets.

My father's advice still rings true: "locks are made for honest people."

Hospitals and medical devices in the U.S. are extremely vulnerable to the type of massive cyber attack that tore through more than 150 countries Friday, and some health care providers here may have already been—or soon will be—hit, cybersecurity analysts warn.

The attack relied on a type of malicious software called ransomware, which keeps users from accessing their computer systems until they pay a ransom. The pernicious new strain, aptly named WannaCry, froze or slowed business and health care computer systems around the world, including several within the U.K.’s National Health Service.

The malware exploits a vulnerability in the Windows operating system that many system administrators have not yet patched—including at many U.S. hospitals, experts warn. Moreover, WannaCry does not distinguish between a computer, smartphone or medical device. And, unlike the case with many other cyber attacks, a user need not click a link to unknowingly install it; if a health care system is connected to the internet and using an outdated system, the malware can find it and infect it.

Scientific American: U.S. Hospitals Not Immune to Crippling Cyber Attacks
Dina Fine Maron

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Particles, Doctors and Art Sleuths...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 16, 2017 at 10:10am
A photographer takes a picture of the inside of a prototype of a drift tube of the new linear accelerator Linac 4, the newest accelerator acquisition since the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is due to feed the CERN accelerator complex with particle beams of higher energy, during its inauguration at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin near Geneva, Switzerland, May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
Topics: Cancer, CERN, High Energy Physics, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics

A new particle accelerator unveiled at CERN, the European physics research center, is expected to spawn portable accelerators that could help doctors treat cancer patients and experts analyze artwork.

CERN is gradually upgrading its hardware to get more data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), its 27-km (17-mile) circular accelerator that smashes protons together at almost the speed of light to probe basic questions about the universe.

Its latest upgrade, resembling a 90-metre oil pipeline hooked up to a life support machine, replaces the 39-year-old injector that produces the flow of particles for the LHC.

Standing by the new Linac 4 machine, which cost 93 million Swiss francs ($93 million) and took 10 years to build, project leader Maurizio Vretenar said CERN had miniaturized the technology and saw many potential uses.

"It's a brave new world of applications," he told Reuters in Linac 4's tunnel 12 meters under Geneva.

CERN has already built a version to treat tumors with particle beams and licensed the patent to ADAM, a CERN spin-off owned by Advanced Oncotherapy.

Another medical use is to create isotopes for diagnosing cancers. Since they decay rapidly, they normally have to be rushed to patients just in time to be used.

Reuters Science: New CERN particle accelerator may help both doctors and art sleuthsTom Miles
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The Power of Comedy...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 16, 2017 at 10:06am
Image Source: Poem Hunter
Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, Politics

The FCC is leading a faux investigation into the late night comedian Stephen Colbert using the bleeped "cock holster," yet apparently silent about the current resident of the country's seat of power using the phrase "grab 'em by the p----" in a Hollywood Access hot mic moment (they'll say he was a candidate then, and it didn't count). The bar for acceptable presidential behavior has obviously been substantially lowered.

Comics in particular, from court jesters, Bill Maher and Jon Stewart have a knack to point out the absurd under the cover of levity. We laugh as we are informed, meanwhile the much maligned mainstream media is always in the hunt for Nielsen Ratings, in a precarious balancing act between financial viability and Constitutional duties.

Some, like Al Franken put down the shtick long enough to run for public office and become effective in the senate, perhaps replacing Ted Kennedy as its "lion."

Democratic republics are not like microwave popcorn: they don't just "work" when you set the timer and walk away. They require a vigilant citizenry and engagement in every election that occurs in your municipality. Otherwise, the horror vacui will be filled by dark money and not in line with the goals of the citizens of a republic.

Whether this one survives is not exactly a laughing matter.

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Now, We Are Here...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 5, 2017 at 5:55am
Battle of Puebla - Wikipedia
Topics: Diversity, Diversity in Science, Hispanic Americans, Latino Americans, Politics, Women in Science
If you do a search on the words "Cinco de Mayo" on the blog, this post as well as many others come up celebrating Hispanic/Latino Heritage and diversity. I re-post last year's entry as it was during the divisive campaign that as I say in this rendering, now "has us here" with the same xenophobia that is sweeping across Europe with Russian assistance, ushering in (as Chris Hedges writes) a Reign of Idiots.

Now...they have repealed the Affordable Care Act in the House (originally a republican idea), mostly as a reaction to their own pejorative "Obamacare," not caring that if it had a snowball's chance of passing the Senate, their own constituents will bear the brunt of losing healthcare coverage. As with the former president, it is image of brown people dancing in their heads as they take a "victory lap." Apparently being a woman, rape or domestic violence is a "preexisting condition." The definitions for dystopia and sadomasochism are more descriptive and accurate for what happened yesterday. Other nations have universal healthcare, some of them not exactly our friends. This is essentially a tax break poorly disguised as healthcare reform. 

Today is Cinco de Mayo. Dreamers told to "rest easy" are being deported. Hispanic/Latino culture is appropriated and commercialized in the USA from foods, fashion and Mariachi Bands. Like other contributions from people of color: Jazz, Rock and Roll, Hip Hop; the BANJO - America is willing to appropriate their traditions, claiming them as their own, and disrespect the people that originated them.

November 6, 2018 is the date of US midterms. Silence or apathy is compliance.
Important link: Indivisible Guide. Last year's post past the asterisks.
Note: Blog vacation. Back in a week.

*****

The presumptive nominee of one of our major political parties used a xenophobic attack against Hispanics/Latinos - he called them drug dealers and rapists; he'll build a wall, and make Mexico pay for it; Muslims are barred at the border; African Americans have been injured and denigrated at his rallies; Women and LGBT have been insulted; Native Americans were burned by him in a bad casino deal. He's stirred the melting pot and bigots have bubbled out of the cauldron, the 2012 autopsy all but ignored. Someone commented to me that their father "didn't leave the Democratic Party in 1967; it left him." I bit my own tongue at the political dodge: the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act may have had something to do with his father's exodus, as it did many others. The hashtag movement to oppose the rise of the presumptive nominee has fallen to dust.

It is befitting today I repost this reminder of our diversity. I make no predictions and take nothing for granted. 538 and a lot of pundits predicted demises that didn't materialize. All the models were based on typical political science rules in elective politics. He is not following the rules: he's wrestling, WWE style.

I was 18 in 1980. I could at that time, drink as well as vote; the drinking age was raised to 21 when I turned 21 three years later, so it didn't impact me as much as generations afterwards. I voted along the party lines of my parents, affected by a party that championed the '64 and '65 acts my sister put her life on the line in demonstration lines for. The "Gipper" posed at his first rally in Philadelphia, Mississippi near the site of three murdered Civil Rights workers. It was an understood "wink and nod" at a group of disgruntled, disappointed and bigoted voters soon known as "Reagan Democrats." Using the dark machinations of the "Southern Strategy," so clearly elucidated by Lee Atwater, you will eventually get what you want: take from "them" because "they" didn't earn anything, despite a holocaust born of a mass continental kidnapping, rape, hangings, cross burning, domestic terrorism in the form of poll taxes and other voter suppression, castrations and reparations deferred forever. You did it with subtle, verbal Jujitsu; not openly as now: Moochers...Welfare Queens...Takers...Thugs...Rapists...all with a distinct hue in the gradient of Melanin. This has been one long backlash to the "established order" since January 20, 2009, when things got so terrible for many that bought into the myth of their inherit superiority. The president's main sin is the destruction of a narrative as long as the republic.
I make no predictions, but I give a sharp warning: Reagan was joked about in "Back To The Future" (Doc Brown: Who's president in 1985? Marty: Ronald Reagan. Doc Brown: The actor?), because as a B-Movie star, his only notable film was "Bedtime for Bonzo." Biff Tannen, the antagonist to Marty McFly's father - is based off the same real estate mogul, the Birther-in-Chief and reality TV star that is his party's presumptive nominee.
B-Movie actor...reality TV star... "What's past is prologue." William Shakespeare.

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a celebration held on May 5. It is celebrated nationwide in the United States and regionally in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla, where the holiday is called El Dia de la Batalla de Puebla (English: The Day of the Battle of Puebla). The date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride, and to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War. In the state of Puebla, the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. Contrary to widespread popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day—the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico—which is actually celebrated on September 16. (Wikipedia)
The National Society of Hispanic Physicists has a recognition page of Hispanic Americans in Physics - Past, Present and Future. Similar to what I posted during the month of February, my intention is to give the same attention to Hispanic Scientists and Engineers during the celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Teaching for Change: Book link here
Almost 10 years before "Brown vs. Board of Education," Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Mendez was denied enrollment to a "Whites only" school. Her parents took action by organizing the Hispanic community and filing a lawsuit in federal district court. Their success eventually brought an end to the era of segregated education in California.

Praise for "Separate is Never Equal" by Duncan TonatiuhSTARRED REVIEWS"Tonatiuh masterfully combines text and folk-inspired art to add an important piece to the mosaic of U.S. civil rights history."--"Kirkus Reviews," starred review"Younger children will be outraged by the injustice of the Mendez family story but pleased by its successful resolution. Older children will understand the importance of the 1947 ruling that desegregated California schools, paving the way for Brown v. Board of Education seven years later."--"School Library Journal," starred review"Tonatiuh ("Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote") offers an illuminating account of a family's hard-fought legal battle to desegregate California schools in the years before "Brown" v. "Board of Education.""--"Publishers Weekly""Pura Belpre Award-winning Tonatiuh makes excellent use of picture-book storytelling to bring attention to the 1947 California ruling against public-school segregation."--"Booklist"
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
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