Nanotomography...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 7, 2017 at 7:50am

A vertical slice of the internal magnetic structure of a sample section. The sample is 0.005 millimetres (5 microns) in diameter and the section shown here is 0.0036 millimetres (3.6 microns) high. The internal magnetic structure is represented by arrows for a vertical slice within it. In addition, the colour of the arrows indicates whether they are pointing towards (orange) or away from the viewer (purple). Graphics and text: Paul Scherrer Institute/Claire Donnelly

Topics: Atomic Force Microscopy, Atomic Physics, Electromagnetism, Optical Physics, Nanotechnology

Thanks to a technique called hard X-ray magnetic tomography, researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, the ETH Zurich and the University of Glasgow have succeeded in imaging the magnetization in 3D bulk-like magnets and observe features down to just 100 nm. In particular, they have observed structures known as Bloch points, which were predicted theoretically more than 50 years ago but never actually seen in an experiment until now. The new work could help us better understand the relationship between the magnetic structure and the behaviour and performance of bulk magnets, and so improve the everyday applications in which they are employed.

“Although it was possible to image the arrangement of magnetic moments in 3D before now in films of up to around 200 nm thick using soft X-rays and electrons, it was not possible to study the internal micromagnetic structure of larger, bulk, systems,” explains team member Claire Donnelly of the PSI. “In general, it is not possible to slice down a magnet to investigate its structure because the magnetic configuration will change accordingly. Scientists have tried to overcome this problem in the past using neutron magnetic imaging, but they were only able to achieve a spatial resolution of tens to hundreds of microns using this approach.

“In our new work, we are able to study the internal magnetization within a micron-sized system with 100 nm spatial resolution and observe micromagnetic details within the bulk for the first time.”

The researchers, led by Laura Heyderman, imaged the internal magnetic structure of a micron-sized pillar made of the magnetic material gadolinium-cobalt using hard X-ray magnetic tomography, a technique developed at PSI during the course of this study. “We had to make a number of advances in developing this method,” explains Donnelly. ‘First, we developed hard X-ray magnetic imaging with nanoscale magnetic resolution (this work was published last year). Hard X-rays have a much higher energy than soft X-rays and thus a much larger penetration depth, which allows us to study thicker samples with high spatial resolution.

X-ray nanotomography reveals 3D magnetization structures, Belle Dumé, Nanotechweb.org

ComicCon in Seoul!

Posted by Stephen Alexander on August 6, 2017 at 8:30pm

So this year marks the first time ComicCon, the US comics convention, came to Seoul, South Korea. The good Korea (Pyeongyang is the bad one).

"So, who was there, how was it, did you get any good pics?" you're probably wondering.

Lots of shows, not much for the English language viewer. Many of the exhibitors spoke a bit of English, and few were working on English Language projects.

I even got a part time job offer! DynaComics is looking for English writers to transcribe their partner comics. Their Korean translators will change your transcription into Korean language so readers can read it in a special Android/IOS app. I see potential for BSFS comic artists to get their comics in another audience. Swing by dynacomics.com or email support@dynacomics.com if you're interested.

Also I saw the infamous Dark Tower exhibit. I won a ticket in their shooting game. BUT...they had one of their exhibitors in blackface. Honestly, I thought it was orange-face because it was too orange.

Lots of beautiful cosplay- and a lack of groping! I didn't hear or see any groping. Also, the costumes were put together well. Most of the cosplayers used sturdy costumes after the infamous ComicWorld brawl in Busan City when Link fought Tracer and Captain America because they damaged his costume somehow.

Even the kids got into it

And the 501st Legion paid a visit.

If you're into Cosplay, two Cosplay experts from Russia showed up to talk about how they make their stylish and amazing costumes. I took a few videos of their explanation.

I saw quite a few black Cosplayers. A Storm, a Black Panther, a Brock, few others. Everybody gets into the spirit of "adult costume day". LOL

Steven Yeun was the main guest along with a famous Marvel artist. Mikkelson I think. I didn't spend the extra money to see them. Not really my thing. He got amazing crowd support.

There wasn't much in the way of food, but there was Shwarma, the mideastern food eaten at the end of Avengers. Mine was cold. Was it supposed to be cold? But no matter. COEX has a large food court and many upscale places to eat, so why bother selling food?

Saw some VR activities. You'll be seeing more of those in the future.

My drone piloting could use some work. It flew out of the tent and attacked random people walking by.

Everybody was pretty excited to be there. It was packed but it wasn't an elbow grinder like the other ComicCons are.

Would I go again? Sure!

Should BSFS spend $3,000 on a booth for three days? Well...we'd need one helluva product to make back what we spent.

These overseas events are a lot of fun! If you're patient and want to learn artistic things, they can be useful as well.

The Flying Bullet: Graphic Novel

Posted by Christopher Love on August 4, 2017 at 4:49pm

Print Edition and E-Book Available

SUPPORT THE CAUSE RIGHT HERE

Lt. Curt Masters, a Tuskegee Airman, is flying a combat mission over the skies of Nazi Germany in 1945. He encounters an alien craft. He engages the craft unsuccessfully. Soon, he is aboard the UFO and is charged with Obstruction of Galactic Operations. He and the people of earth are on trial for their survival. Can Curt Masters free himself from over a billion miles away? Will he ever return home? Or will he die at the hands of The Warlord. In this new universe, he meets Aliena-a Galactic Police officer, Sutter-a mysterious friend or foe and ARC, who is an android without a will of his own. Curt will learn that once you Look Forward you can Never Go Back. Written by Chris Love, this graphic novel offers new worlds and possibilities. A companion feature film has been adapted from this graphic novel.

DIVERSE BOOKS RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW

New Audio Release Short Stories from the Spiral Galaxy

Posted by Larry Johnson on August 4, 2017 at 2:00pm

Short Stories from the Spiral Galaxy: Featuring Intergalactic Detective Da'Quan

Audiobook – Unabridged

Lawrence Johnson Sr. (Author, Publisher), James Romick (Narrator)

Listen to this book for FREE when you try Audible.

With a 30-day Audible trial

http://amzn.to/2ffE19G

The Flying Bullet:

Posted by Christopher Love on August 3, 2017 at 5:56pm

THE FLYING BULLET

Lt. Curt Masters, a Tuskegee Airman, is flying a combat mission over the skies of Nazi Germany in 1945. He encounters an alien craft. He engages the craft unsuccessfully. Soon, he is aboard the UFO and is charged with Obstruction of Galactic Operations. He and the people of earth are on trial for their survival. Can Curt Masters free himself from over a billion miles away? Will he ever return home? Or will he die at the hands of The Warlord. In this new universe, he meets Aliena-a Galactic Police officer, Sutter-a mysterious friend or foe and ARC, who is an android without a will of his own. Curt will learn that once you Look Forward you can Never Go Back. Written by Chris Love, this graphic novel offers new worlds and possibilities. A companion feature film has been adapted from this graphic novel.

Borrowed Stuff...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 3, 2017 at 4:43pm

A pair of nearby galaxies where "intergalactic transfer" may be happening. (Fred Herrmann)

Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology

EVANSTON - In a first-of-its-kind analysis, Northwestern University astrophysicists have discovered that, contrary to previously standard lore, up to half of the matter in our Milky Way galaxy may come from distant galaxies. As a result, each one of us may be made in part from extragalactic matter.

Using supercomputer simulations, the research team found a major and unexpected new mode for how galaxies, including our own Milky Way, acquired their matter: intergalactic transfer. The simulations show that supernova explosions eject copious amounts of gas from galaxies, which causes atoms to be transported from one galaxy to another via powerful galactic winds. Intergalactic transfer is a newly identified phenomenon, which simulations indicate will be critical for understanding how galaxies evolve.

“Given how much of the matter out of which we formed may have come from other galaxies, we could consider ourselves space travelers or extragalactic immigrants,” said Daniel Anglés-Alcázar, a postdoctoral fellow in Northwestern’s astrophysics center, CIERA (Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics), who led the study. “It is likely that much of the Milky Way’s matter was in other galaxies before it was kicked out by a powerful wind, traveled across intergalactic space and eventually found its new home in the Milky Way.”

Milky Way’s origins are not what they seem, Megan Fellman, Northwestern University

Tagging...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 2, 2017 at 6:20am

Conceptual illustration by Yuen Yiu, staff writer Image credits: zhouxuan12345678 via flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

Topics: Biology, Biophysics, Biotechnology, Consumer Electronics, Nanotechnology

Electronics small enough to fit inside cells may one day help scientists track individual cells and monitor their behavior in real time, a new study finds. These new devices could help analyze diseases from their origins in single cells, researchers said.

The new electronics are microscopic radio-frequency identification tags, which are essentially bar codes that can be read from a distance.

An RFID tag usually consists of an antenna connected to a microchip. A nearby reader known as a transceiver can emit electromagnetic signals at the tags, and the tags can respond with what data it has stored, such as its identity, when and where it was made, how to best store and handle it, and so on. Many RFID tags do not have batteries -- instead, they rely on the energy in the signals from the transceivers.

These tags are already being used in many applications today, including key cards, toll passes, library books and many other items, but the typical RFID tags are millimeters to centimeters in size. The new microscopic tags in comparison are only 22 microns wide each, or roughly one-fifth the average diameter of a human hair, making them the smallest known RFID tags, the researchers said. They detailed their findings online July 26 in the journal Physical Review Applied.

Tiny Electronic Tags Could Fit Inside Cells, Charles Q. Choi, Inside Science

Photoresist-Free...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on August 1, 2017 at 7:43am

A true-colour image containing around 8 × 10⁵ RGB subpixels directly photopatterned using Cs₂N₃– capped quantum dots. Scale bar, 5 mm. Courtesy: D Talapin

Topics: Applied Physics, Nanotechnology, Optical Physics, Semiconductor Technology, Quantum Dots, Quantum Mechanics

Photolithography is an important manufacturing process widely used in the semiconductor industry that employs photoresists (usually made from polymers) whose solubility change when illuminated with ultraviolet light. Although it is precise and can generate patterns with nanoscale resolution, it is limited in that it cannot easily pattern nanomaterials such as quantum dots (which are increasingly being used in flat-panel displays, for example). A new photoresist-free technique, developed by researchers at the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory, both in Illinois in the US, could help overcome this problem.

“Our new technique, dubbed DOLFIN (for Direct Optical Lithography of Functional Inorganic Nanomaterials) can be used to optically pattern a variety of inorganic materials, including metals, semiconductors, catalysts and magnetic materials without using photoresists,” explains team leader Dmitri Talapin. “No residual polymer-based impurities are present in the patterned layers, which means that they have good electronic and optical properties. Indeed, their conductivity, carrier mobility, dielectric and luminescence properties are on a par with those of state-of-the-art solution-processed materials.”

DOLFIN involves first preparing patternable materials in the form of nanoparticles with the desired size and shape. Next, the surface of these nanoparticles is decorated with special molecules designed to decompose when they are illuminated with UV light.

Optical lithography goes photoresist-free, Belle Dumé, Nanotechweb.org

Aiming at Einstein...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 31, 2017 at 6:00am

Images Source: Link below

Topics: Astrophysics, Black Holes, Einstein, General Relativity, Diversity in Science, Women in Science

If you cast an observational lasso into the center of the Milky Way galaxy and pull it closed, you will find a dense, dark lump: a mass totaling some four million suns, crammed into a space no wider than twice Pluto’s orbit in our solar system.

In recent years, astronomers have come to agree that inside this region is a supermassive black hole, and that similar black holes lurk at the cores of nearly all other galaxies as well. And for those revelations, they give a lot of credit to Andrea Ghez.

Since 1995, Ghez, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Los Angeles, has used the W.M. Keck telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to see fine details at the center of the galaxy. The observations that Ghez has made of stars racing around the Milky Way’s core (alongside those of rival Reinhard Genzel, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany) have proven to most astronomers that the central object can be nothing but a black hole. But to be able to see these fine details, Ghez had to become a pioneering user of adaptive optics, a technology that measures distortions in the atmosphere and then adjusts the telescope in real time to cancel out those fluctuations. The technique produces images that look as if they were taken under the calmest possible skies.

In Ghez’s mind, new discoveries require that scientists take risks. “If you have a new idea, the thing you are going to encounter first and foremost is ‘no, you can’t do it,’” she said. “I can’t tell you how many times in the course of this project I have been told ‘this won’t work.’” Her first proposal to image the galactic center was turned down; two decades later, Ghez, now 52, has received a MacArthur Fellowship, among other awards, and was the first woman to receive a Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Black-Hole Hunter Takes Aim at Einstein, Joshua Sokol, Quanta Magazine

Workplace Bias...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 28, 2017 at 6:23am

The Women in Astronomy IV conference was held in Austin, Texas, following the American Astronomical Society meeting in June. Credit: J. Hellerman, NRAO/AUI/NSF

Topics: Astronomy, Diversity, Diversity in Science, Women in Science

Unfortunately, even in STEM fields you primarily run into two types of individuals: assholes and servants.

The assholes are driven and cutthroat. They'll promote in industry and likely discover a few things of wide commercial use. They also don't lend much in light of human interactions as to its efficacy (meeting a few, you'd rather NOT). A few of them being selfish and self-serving become Ayn Rand wealthy (their patron saint), feeling their callousness and viciousness rewarded.

The servants title is not meant as a pejorative: they are both "in the world and of the world" and look at ways for their love of STEM to be spread beyond themselves to improve it - a kind of tech evangelism. Many are active in outside organizations* that share that passion. Unlike the former, you won't feel soiled after meeting us, and you might want to contact us again.

I'd seen this guy (before his self-destructed demise) in specials on the Science Channel:

One of the biggest names in astronomy resigned his professorship at the University of California at Berkeley on Wednesday over the fallout from a damning investigation into his conduct with female students. The news demonstrates that not even star scholars enjoy impunity when it comes to sexual harassment, but in the end it was Geoff Marcy’s fellow scientists -- not the Berkeley administration -- who forced him out. Source: Inside Higher Education

What I'm about to describe I call the "Jedi mind trick": the best way to keep a particular group out of a STEM field and keep it predominately privileged is to make conditions uncomfortable for others the majority consider "outside." One direct way is propositioning for a date or physical contact without consent. A few snide remarks (e.g. under the breath into their collar - "black lives matter" when the conversation was on a work-related technical problem - they shrink when challenged with simply "what did you mean by that?"); quiet when someone walks in a room (for no reason), an overly aggressive challenge to the results of an experiment or research proposal can make anyone doubt their ability to complete the dream of a PhD.

It is ironic that feelings that I've experienced now has data behind it, and workplace bias extends to an area society has deemed too "Spock-like" to have systemic issues. Over time, you develop coping mechanisms and support systems* outside of your work that makes it more endurable. One of the things you realize quickly as a person of color is the world is full of assholes. Love what you do, take DEEP breaths and power through the bullshit. Most importantly, above all: DON'T QUIT. That's what they want you to do.

“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don't let the bastards grind you down.” Margaret Atwood, "The Handmaid's Tale."

Further inaction on bias can only be seen clearly under one glaring banner: cowardice.

*****

Christina Richey is not a crier. But she went home and sobbed when she saw the results of an online survey she had co-organized on workplace harassment. For the astrophysicist and past chair of the American Astronomical Society’s Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy, the data put numbers on the stories she’d been hearing for years. And the numbers revealed that harassment in her field was even more prevalent than she had realized.

“I’d heard about issues, mostly gender based, and also race based,” says Richey. But, she adds, the members and leaders of the astronomy and planetary science community would often brush off the stories as anecdotal. That led her and colleagues to run an online survey in early 2015—months before the Geoffrey Marcy harassment scandal broke. Their results appear in the July issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

In their survey, the researchers posed 39 questions about verbal and physical harassment, including sexual harassment and comments about ability, masculinity, femininity, race, and religion. Volunteers reported their observations and experiences from the preceding five years. A total of 474 people took part in the survey. The researchers analyzed the responses by gender, race, and career stage.

A whopping 88% of respondents reported hearing negative language from peers, and about 52% had heard such language from their supervisors. Some 39% reported experiencing verbal harassment, and 9% said they had been physically harassed. “It doesn’t have to be directed at you,” Richey says. “Just hearing comments can be isolating.”

White women and women of color experienced verbal harassment related to gender nearly equally (43% and 44%, respectively). In addition, 35% of women of color experienced verbal harassment related to their race. The report says women of color are at “double jeopardy” for harassment.

Both white women and women of color reported higher frequencies (about 13% and 18%, respectively) than did men of skipping classes, meetings, fieldwork, or other professional events because of feeling unsafe. Men of color (6%) skipped such events for that reason more often than did white men (1%).

Widespread harassment reported in astronomer survey, Toni Felder, Physics Today

HOLLYWOOD'S CONSTANT "RE-REGURGITATION"....NO NEW IDEAS,

Posted by Terry "the warrior" Reece on July 28, 2017 at 5:32am

CONSTANT "RE-REGURGITATION"....NO NEW IDEAS, and too Arrogant and Selfish to Breed and Establish any "BOLD/NEW/EXCITING" Franchise Brands and IDEAS; Hollywood has some "Changing to DO!"

WANT to SEE SOME "ALL NEW ORIGINAL" Franchise Brands and IDEAS; HERE WE ARE!
WE do NOT "COPYCAT" off of Marvel/DC/DISNEY/IMAGE or Others; "YES", Those GIANTS "INSPIRED/INSPIRE US"; BUT we Create/Write and Develop OUR OWN NEW/EXCITING/COPYRIGHTED" Franchise Brands and Characters/////

we "HONOR" WOMEN & MOMS, and MILITARY Females with our NEW, EXCITING "G.i.J.i.M.O.M." Series: http://thesiborg.com/ http://familymediasite.com/ http://tdmcomics.com/ http://post-up.me/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/…/box-office-hollywoods-fr…

Box Office: Hollywood's Franchise Crisis Worsens Over July Fourth

HTS...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 27, 2017 at 9:26am

Image Source: Aventurine

Topics: Bose-Einstein Condensate, Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science, Superconductors

The perfect performance of superconductors could revolutionize everything from grid-scale power infrastructure to consumer electronics, if only they could be coerced into operating above frigid temperatures. Even so-called high-temperature superconductors (HTS) must be chilled to hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit below zero.

Now, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Yale University have discovered new, surprising behavior by electrons in a HTS material. The results, published July 27 in the journal Nature, describe the symmetry-breaking flow of electrons through copper-oxide (cuprate) superconductors. The behavior may be linked to the ever-elusive mechanism behind HTS.

"Our discovery challenges a cornerstone of condensed matter physics," said lead author and Brookhaven Lab physicist Jie Wu. "These electrons seem to spontaneously 'choose' their own paths through the material—a phenomenon in direct opposition to expectations."

Strange electrons break the crystal symmetry of high-temperature superconductors, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Phys.org

Return of A.G. is HERE!

Posted by Marcus Haynes on July 26, 2017 at 1:09pm

The day has come! It's been two years (real world time and book time) since we last heard about the superpowered teens, the Elementals, working to protect their world. Now, they are focused on stopping the Prudence kids from enacting their worst plan yet: bringing back A.G.

This book of diverse and intersectional superheroes is all about showing what happens when narratives get twisted, and how important it is to trust in yourself. The Elementals learn a lot about the world in this sequel, and that lesson takes you on an adventure you won't forget!

The book is available NOW on Amazon, Kindle, CreateSpace, and of course my website. Get your copy today and support the diverse superhero movement!

Snapped...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 26, 2017 at 7:30am

Image Source: NYT

Topics: Climate Change, Environment, Geophysics, Weather

Note: The climate that has changed is that of Antarctica, at least in the physical sense.

"Antarctica Animals -South Polar. Antarctic animals - The most abundant and best known animals from the southern continent. Penguins, whales seals, albatrosses, other seabirds and a range of invertebrates you may have not heard of such as krill which form the basis of the Antarctic food web." Source: Cool Antarctica.

As in the Arctic, the loss of essentially land mass cannot be good for hunting and spawning patterns, thus the normal continuation of species that would inevitably affect the food chain, that we are inexorably a part of. The nominal excuse of using the warmed climate as "good sea lanes" for shipping fossil fuels doesn't hold water here, as far as I know. A Native American proverb (attributed to many Nations) comes to mind:

"Canada, the most affluent of countries, operates on a depletion economy which leaves destruction in its wake. Your people are driven by a terrible sense of deficiency. When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you can’t eat money."

Alanis Obomsawin (born 31 August 1932) is a Canadian filmmaker of Abenaki descent born in New Hampshire, and raised primarily in Quebec; she has produced and directed many National Film Board of Canada documentaries on First Nations culture and history. Source: Wikiquote

A chunk of floating ice that weighs more than a trillion metric tons broke away from the Antarctic Peninsula, producing one of the largest icebergs ever recorded and providing a glimpse of how the Antarctic ice sheet might ultimately start to fall apart.

A crack more than 120 miles long had developed over several years in a floating ice shelf called Larsen C, and scientists who have been monitoring it confirmed on Wednesday that the huge iceberg had finally broken free.

There is no scientific consensus over whether global warming is to blame. But the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula has been fundamentally changed, according to Project Midas, a research team from Swansea University and Aberystwyth University in Britain that had been monitoring the rift since 2014.

“The remaining shelf will be at its smallest ever known size,” said Adrian Luckman, a lead researcher for Project Midas. “This is a big change. Maps will need to be redrawn.”

An Iceberg the Size of Delaware Just Broke Away From Antarctica, Jugal K. Patel and Justin Gillis, New York Times

Afterbirth...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 25, 2017 at 7:39am

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft captured this view of a sunspot rotating into view between July 5 and 11, 2017. (Source: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO/Joy Ng, producer)

Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Heliophysics, Magnetism

I figure after yesterday's "Debbie downer," something a little more uplifting and quite literally "sunny" was in order.

I guess I just can’t get enough of time-lapse animations.

Today it’s the one above, showing a sunspot group seeming to zip by as the Sun rotates on its axis. It’s actually from earlier in July, and since then, the active region on the Sun that this sunspot group is associated with has produced an explosive flare and massive of ejection of solar material out into space.

The active region — an area of intense magnetic field — rotated into view and grew quickly in this video captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory between July 5-11, 2017. The associated sunspot group was the first to appear after the Sun had gone completely spotless for two days.

The rotation of the Sun on its axis — which is obvious from the two animations above — can cause lines of magnetic force beneath the surface to become twisted over time. And that’s intimately connected to the sunspots as well as the spectacular activity that can occur in those regions.

Here’s a terrific explanation from Windows to the Universe, produced by the National Earth Science Teachers Association:

The best way to think about the very complicated process of sunspot formation is to think of magnetic “ropes” breaking through the visible surface (photosphere) of the Sun. Where the rope comes up from the solar surface is one sunspot and where the rope plunges into the photosphere is another sunspot.

Meanwhile, the Sun keeps rotating, and those ropes continue to get increasingly twisted, until… SNAAAAP!:

When the tangled fields reach a “breaking point”, like a rubber band that snaps when wound too tight, huge bursts of energy are released as the field lines reconnect. This can lead to solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs).

Incredible video shows northern lights shining above Michigan’s Mackinac Bridge during the early morning hours. https://t.co/sroBjEAofA pic.twitter.com/9efeFd5K34
— ABC News (@ABC) July 18, 2017

The material in the coronal mass ejection was aimed toward Earth — where it triggered beautiful displays of the auroral borealis farther south than usual, including in northern Michigan, as seen in the beautiful animation above.

Watch as a lonely sunspot grows larger than our planet, turns toward Earth, and gets ready to blast hot stuff at usTom Yulsman, Discover Magazine

The Physics of Doomsday...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 24, 2017 at 7:30am

Image Source: Business Insider

Topics: Geophysics, Politics, Research, Science

I thought about delaying this one until Friday, but who wants to start the weekend with an image of the Grim Reaper (albeit an SNL skit)? It gets better through the week...

As of this posting, the current administration has yet to encounter a real world, geopolitical crisis (except the ones it creates on its own - I'll amend if that changes). "Wars and rumors of wars" is not simply biblical poetry and cliché, but a continuous existential threat that furrows brows and grays the manes of most normal, sane men or imaginative filmmakers. We can usually resolve our imagination-fueled angst in a few hours. Reality is not that forgiving. The Marshal Plan in Europe wasn't a microwave oven recipe we hit "start" on and walked away. The current world order - being openly defied by our current government - took seven decades to establish.

Wikipedia: Doomsday

Mother Nature is another matter. A government so dysfunctional that we're presently stressing over foreign election hacking here and abroad, that the crises involving what we cannot control - earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and our used-to-be usual, example-setting HUMANITARIAN response to them, typically the model of the world...before summing in all up in 140 characters of a "killer tweet."

Natural hazards threaten lives and livelihoods across the globe and can result in huge financial costs. Despite significant progress in understanding hazards, we are still feeling powerless and inadequate in the aftermath of destructive events, which can strike with little warning and often affect vulnerable communities. One of the core missions of the US Geological Survey (USGS) is to conduct research into a range of natural hazards so that the public and policymakers can be better prepared for these events.

The underlying physics of natural hazards, Physics World Multimedia

SALE on Elemental gear!

Posted by Marcus Haynes on July 21, 2017 at 1:19pm

In honor of the release of my second novel, Return of A.G., next week, I'm running a sale of all the Legend of the Orange Scepter t-shirts and posters! Check out the website store and support the Elementals and the diverse superhero movement. There's something for everybody; just look at he stuff above!

Banana Republic...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 21, 2017 at 7:30am

Image Source: Cagle Comics

Topics: Civics, Existentialism, Politics

Banana Republic, Cambridge Dictionary (noun): a small country, especially in South and Central America, that is poor, corrupt, and badly ruled

Also from Cambridge Dictionary, Junta (noun): a government, especially a military one, that has taken power in a country by force and not by election

Now by the purity of the definitions, the United States is not small by a long shot and takeovers by Juntas are usually bloody and violent. With the advent of cyberwarfare and hacking attacks, we may be living through the prescient original Star Trek episode "A Taste of Armageddon." However, at the abdication of leadership on the world stage, it makes us appear "small." Diplomacy-by-tweet and not studious discipline devoted to LEARN the job can be construed as badly ruled. The United States - with little analysis and observation is approaching a stratification between classes; wages have been pretty much stagnant since the 1970s such that there is a dangerous paradigm we're approaching as a nation that we won't be able to incarcerate ourselves out of (by that I mean our fellow citizens, specifically people of color that can't afford high-price lawyers). It is a recipe for modern Eugenics.

American influence is less hard power (military, nukes) than soft power (culture, influence). Retreating from the world stage leaves us lacking in the latter and backed in a corner where the former may be our only deadly lever. Another ominous recipe for species extinction, for which there is no reset button.

*****

This is something I originally said on Facebook with reference links I've added to explain the source of my feelings at the time of the post.

To Whom it May Concern:

I share my thoughts as a US Veteran (and I sincerely hope I'm wrong).

I'm sorry, I CAN'T:

1. As someone who possessed a Top Secret Special (now called Sensitive) Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) clearance as a Communications Officer for an Intelligence Squadron, I recognized the last election as an intelligence operation, as people like Malcolm Nance et al did.

2. Chaos in our body politics on both sides only helps the interests of Putin and other oligarchs, who gave up being communists a LONG time ago for the pure pursuit of money.

3. That being said, they expertly had Paul Manafort lobby and REMOVE all language from the GOP platform hostile to Russia and their invasion of the Ukraine.

4. Their bots/hackers have been active in France, England and soon Germany's democratic elections.

5. The Russian economy only has one product and industry - oil, and no other diversification. It is the major reason the fossil fuel industry and the oligarchs are so "friendly" with one another (e.g. Ex-Exxon CEO and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson receiving the Order of Friendship directly from Putin).

6. Returning to the chaos theme of point 2, it behooves Russia to have constant infighting within both major political parties such that they are essentially nonfunctional. Third party candidates like Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are merely used as related-to major political parties tangentially (right e.g.: Ross Perot with the Reform Party as "republican-lite") as spoilers to drain votes. If an independent like Bernie Sanders were to gain traction, bots/hackers would disseminate disinformation on HIM; American political tribalism and racism (Antisemitism) would take over.

Our republic is lost. (Postscript: Only if we want it to be.)

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Know thy self, know thy enemy. Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."

Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 20, 2017 at 9:37am

The cosmos can be considered as a collider for human to access the results of particle physics experiments at ultimate high energies. Credit: Department of Physics, HKUST

Topics: Cosmology, Particle Physics, Standard Model, Theoretical Physics

Our observable universe is the largest object that physicists study: It spans a diameter of almost 100 billion light years. The density correlations in our universe, for example, correlations between numbers of galaxies at different parts of the universe, indicate that our vast universe has originated from a stage of cosmic inflation.

On the other hand, elementary particles are the smallest object that physicists study. A particle physics Standard Model (SM) was established 50 years ago, describing all known particles and their interactions.

Are density distributions of the vast universe and the nature of smallest particles related? In a recent research, scientists from HKUST and Harvard University revealed the connection between those two aspects, and argued that our universe could be used as a particle physics "collider" to study the high energy particle physics. Their findings mark the first step of cosmological collider phenomenology and pave the way for future discovery of new physics unknown yet to mankind.

The research was published in the journal Physical Review Letters on June 29, 2017 and the preprint is available online.

"Ongoing observations of cosmological microwave background and large scale structures have achieved impressive precision, from which valuable information about primordial density perturbations can be extracted, " said Yi Wang, a co-author of the paper and an assistant professor at HKUST's department of physics. "A careful study of this SM background would be the prerequisite for using the cosmological collider to explore any new physics, and any observational signal that deviates from this background would then be a sign of physics beyond the SM."

Scientist reveal new connections between small particles and the vast universe, Xingang Chen et al, Standard Model Background of the Cosmological Collider, Physical Review Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.261302 , On Arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.06597, Phys.org

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Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on July 19, 2017 at 8:26am

This image shows the NIST logo made from glowing nanowire LEDs. While the color of the nanowires in the image looks blue, they are actually emitting in the ultraviolet with a wavelength of approximately 380 nm. The other two images, from a scanning electron microscope, show the overall structure of the nanowires.

Topics: Atomic Force Microscopy, LEDs, Nanotechnology, Optical Physics

One of the persistent challenges in 21st century metrology is the need to measure ever-more-detailed properties of ever-smaller things, from microchip features to subcomponents of biological cells. That’s why, four years ago, a team of NIST scientists patented (link is external) the design for a nanoscale probe system that can simultaneously measure the shape, electrical characteristics, and optical response of sample regions a few tens of nanometers (nm, billionths of a meter) wide. 100 nm is about one-thousandth the width of a human hair.

Now the researchers from NIST’s Physical Measurement Laboratory are closing in on a working prototype. The newest version of the device, which has a probe tip that functions as an ultra-tiny LED “spotlight,” holds great promise for identifying cancer-prone tissue, testing materials for improved solar cells, and providing a new way to put circuits on microchips, among other uses.

The Integrated Near-Field Optoelectronic (INFO) system has the general configuration of an atomic force microscope (AFM), in which a probe tip on the end of a tiny cantilever beam passes a few nanometers over the surface of a sample, recording exact details of its morphology. But the metal-plated INFO probe also serves as a transmitter that projects microwaves into the sample as well as a receiving antenna that detects the altered microwaves coming back out. The nature of that alteration reveals electrical and chemical properties of the material.

Sub-microscopic LEDs Shed New Light on Advanced Materials, Ben Stein, NIST

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