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Nobel Prize 2016 Physiology...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 4, 2016 at 8:15am
Figure 1: Our cells have different specialized compartments. Lysosomes constitute one such compartment and contain enzymes for digestion of cellular contents. A new type of vesicle called autophagosome was observed within the cell. As the autophagosome forms, it engulfs cellular contents, such as damaged proteins and organelles. Finally, it fuses with the lysosome, where the contents are degraded into smaller constituents. This process provides the cell with nutrients and building blocks for renewal.


Topics: Nobel Laureate, Nobel Prize, Physiology


I doubled up today due to yesterday's Netflix post. I'll follow the schedule as rolled out on NobelPrize.org:

October 3: Physiology or Medicine

October 4: Physics

October 5: Chemistry

October 7: Peace

October 10: Economic Sciences

Press Release

2016-10-03



The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award



the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine



to



Yoshinori Ohsumi



for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy



Summary

This year's Nobel Laureate discovered and elucidated mechanisms underlying autophagy, a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components.



The word autophagy originates from the Greek words auto-, meaning "self", and phagein, meaning "to eat". Thus,autophagy denotes "self eating". This concept emerged during the 1960's, when researchers first observed that the cell could destroy its own contents by enclosing it in membranes, forming sack-like vesicles that were transported to a recycling compartment, called the lysosome, for degradation. Difficulties in studying the phenomenon meant that little was known until, in a series of brilliant experiments in the early 1990's, Yoshinori Ohsumi used baker's yeast to identify genes essential for autophagy. He then went on to elucidate the underlying mechanisms for autophagy in yeast and showed that similar sophisticated machinery is used in our cells.



"The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Press Release". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 3 Oct 2016. 
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The Power of Imagery...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 3, 2016 at 5:32am
Image Source: VIBE


Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, Science Fiction


Marvel Comics has the distinction of diversifying American Mythology (comics) first with The Black Panther, Luke Cage et al, and it would be a while before DC Comics "got the memo." As is now evidenced in real-time after the Agents of Shield, Ant-Man, Avengers, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hulk, Iron Man franchises and the soon-coming Black Panther and (yet another) Spider-man reboot, DC still appears to be behind the curve. "Black Lightning" and "Static Shock" seem to be clones of one another, as well as going from Hal Jordan to Jon Stewart as Green Lantern, ostensibly selected as a "backup." Mr. Terrific has had several incarnations in comics and on the CW's Arrow series. Cyborg, who will be in the Justice League movie, is an interesting yet mechanized character, more machine than man and gives rise to questions of his own humanity as well as Hollywood and technology's power over black bodies.

The latest is Luke Cage on Netflix, which had the distinction of being so popular this weekend it crashed their site [1]. An inquiry online found at least one friend had the same experience during our weekend's binge watching. I checked my credit card, and Netflix had taken its usual monthly fee on schedule.

There is as with any retelling some similarities and a lot of differences between the original character and the newer version. Such as: Luke had an Afro and "talked a lot of jive," which resonated with the audience Marvel was trying to reach at that time. It definitely did with me and my friends. This Luke reads a lot of black literature with a clear knowledge of self and history, and is a subtler, hipper version of the now defunct (but in DVD format) "Schoolhouse Rock."

Netflix alludes to his previous career in law enforcement that wasn't in the original version, which explained his tracking abilities pre his eventful "accident," aided by a rabidly racist guard. The "science" or fiction thereof as anything else in Marvel stems from the Super Soldier serum that created Captain America and most of the Marvel superhero pantheon. His prison break was as I remembered, but his homage to how "Luke Cage: Hero for Hire" used to look was brief and hilarious to witness! I won't spoil it, but if you're confused, Google some old classic images of him, and compare it to Mike Colter's enactment. As the actor eludes, Harlem is as much a character in the series [2], a subtle history of literature and heroes like Crispus Attucks, Malcolm X, David Dinkins and others name-dropped for a new generation of millennials that have lost faith in traditional institutions like government, church and Civil Rights leaders, who may be ready for an impervious Steve Biko from "around-the-way."

The shear brilliance of a bullet-proof black superhero in light of black bodies falling in the streets is ironically well-timed; as artful as starting a lot of the stories from their end, and filling in the blanks the rest of the episode, a respite from what the author Touré (last week) filling in on the Karen Hunter Show on Sirius XM aptly referred to their sheer repeated orgy and negative psychological impact as "snuff films." Netflix's Luke Cage series gives those of us affected in our spirits a world of larger-than-life heroes as well as the quintessential villains (Cottonmouth) as respite to momentarily escape to.

 "We are one bullet away from being a hashtag" is an oft-repeated meme as frustration builds when media follows the typical formula after the pending hashtag expires from life: any infraction with the law, even jaywalking must be trotted out as an evidence and reason for the public execution by the state. From a brief humorous cameo in his former seventies hero garb; to the homage to Trayvon Martin slaughtered by an unqualified idiot (whose name I won't type or mention). The Luke Cage for THIS age like his original version has no mask, disguise or secret identity. He's a man as "Pops" inspired him to be, "going forward" garbed in nothing but grit, bullet-proof skin, super-powered muscles, righteous indignation, honor, nobility...

And a HOODIE! We are all Luke Cage. #HoodieUp

1. Entertainment: Marvel's Luke Cage is so popular, it actually caused Netflix to crash
2. NBC News: 'Luke Cage' Stars, But Harlem is Second Lead in Netflix Series

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400 ppm...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 30, 2016 at 6:17am
Image Source: Link below


Topics: Climate Change, Existentialism, Global Warming


I can callously not care: after all, giving patterns in my own family, I'm doubting I'll be here in 2050 (88) or 2100 (138) especially. I would like to think my remains - reclaimed in promession - will be aiding a Maple tree with nourishment and growth.

However, there is a strong possibility my children will be here, and so will in turn any children they may procreate.

Resources are strained as we have overachieved in the Biblical mandate "be fruitful and multiply"in a society that encourages consumption, eschews conservation and praises waste. This naturally leads to income disparity and hoarding and callousness by the 1%. John Calhoun's experiments with our rodent cousins he wrote up in 1962 (joy: the year of my birth) was likely used as source material for many Dystopian novels. The bridge from Utopian to Dystopian society had the coined apropos name "behavioral sink."

Despite the best wishes of Stephen Hawking, we're not at the point of sub-light or warp travel. And, what about our behaviors would change to where we wouldn't become "Manifest Destiny" intergalactic locusts, in due time with colonial capitalism ravage yet another habitable planet?



I can't "complete the circle of life" nourishing a tree on a dysfunctional planet.

The bad news: Earth's climate change problem just passed a point of no return. Atmospheric carbon levels have passed 400 parts per million, and they won't return to more environment-friendly levels "ever again for the indefinite future."

The good news? Oh, wait, no. Sorry. We're pretty screwed.

We already knew it was bad. After all, in the last 20 years, humanity destroyed 1.27 million square miles—10 percent—of the Earth's wilderness. Climate change has "devastated" 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef. The world's so screwed that genius Stephen Hawking recently claimed that "the human race has no future if it doesn't go to space."

But now we really, really know we're in trouble. Scientist Ralph Keeling, who's in charge of the Scripps Institute for Oceanography's carbon dioxide monitoring program, wrote in a blog that "it already seems safe to conclude that we won’t be seeing a monthly value below 400 ppm this year—or ever again for the indefinite future."

Similarly, NASA's chief climate scientist Gavin Schmidt told Climate Central, “In my opinion, we won’t ever see a month below 400 ppm.”



A lot of problems come with climate change. Because of it, one-fourth of the Earth's species could be extinct by 2050. It also screws up food webs, as polar bears are finding out the hard way. Millions and millions of people will have to relocate due to rising sea levels, with scientists estimating that over 13 million Americans might have to move by 2100.

Complex:
Enjoy Earth While It Lasts: Atmospheric Carbon Levels Pass the Point of No Return
Mac MacCann

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Sustaining Qubits...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 29, 2016 at 12:20pm
Image Source: Link below


Topics: Computer Science, Photonics, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics


When the quantum computer was imagined 30 years ago, it was revered for its potential to quickly and accurately complete practical tasks often considered impossible for mere humans and for conventional computers. But, there was one big catch: Tiny-scale quantum effects fall apart too easily to be practical for reliably powering computers.

Now, a team of scientists in Japan may have overcome this obstacle. Using laser light, they have developed a precise, continuous control technology giving 60 times more success than previous efforts in sustaining the lifetime of "qubits," the unit that quantum computers encode. In particular, the researchers have shown that they can continue to create a quantum behavior known as the entangled state—entangling more than one million different physical systems, a world record that was only limited in their investigation by data storage space.

This feat is important because entangled quantum particles, such as atoms, electrons and photons, are a resource of quantum information processing created by the behaviors that emerge at the tiny quantum scale. Harnessing them ushers in a new era of information technology. From such behaviors as superposition and entanglement, quantum particles can perform enormous calculations simultaneously. The report of their investigation appears this week in the journal APL Photonics.

Phys.org: Quantum computing advances with control of entanglement

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Shrinking Hard Drive...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 28, 2016 at 5:22am
Photomontage of a diamond and a hard-drive head. (Courtesy: I Jakobi)


Topics: Computer Engineering, Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science


A nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond has been used to create a magnetometer that can measure the broadband magnetic fields generated by hard-disk write heads. The work was done by researchers in Germany and the UK who have shown that a single NV can detect the oscillating and static magnetic fields associated with write heads at nanometre resolution. The new work could help further miniaturize hard-disk drives, thereby increasing their data-storage capacity.

"The hard-disk industry currently has no established sensors that can resolve the magnetic field of write heads on the scale of 5–10 nm," explains team-member Ingmar Jakobi of the University of Stuttgart. "This is a serious impediment for developing these devices, which will carry the biggest share of data in the ever-growing digital world."

The NV defect in diamond offers a solution to this problem because it comprises a single electron spin that is highly isolated from its immediate surroundings. This spin is essentially a tiny magnet that could be used to detect changes in a magnetic field over nanometre distances.

Physics World:
Diamond magnetometer could help shrink computer hard drives, Belle Dumé

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MOSAIC and SOLO from MARVEL comics

Posted by Geoff Thorne on September 27, 2016 at 11:30am

i don't know if i mentioned this but i have two comics coming out from MARVEL next month. One is MOSAIC and you can get a free prelude to the book at AMAZON or COMIXOLOGY.

FREE MOSAIC PRELUDE

FREE MOSAIC ON COMIXOLOGY

I'm also co-writing SOLO with Gerry Duggan. It's a spinoff from DEADPOOL. It's a globe-spanning adventure with spies and assassins and lots of humor. 

There's no free preview but we think it's big fun.

Both series are ongoing and BOTH should be of interest to this community. Neither is bringing what folks seem to expect.

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FAST Telescope...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 27, 2016 at 6:39am
Image source: Nature News, link below


Topics: Astronomy, Gravitational Waves, Radio Astronomy, SETI


Set in a remote natural depression in the mountainous region of Guizhou, China, the world’s largest single-dish telescope is on the brink of sparking a new era in radio astronomy. But scientists also worry about the daringly complex structure of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST).

“It will be the instrument of choice for any exotic object in its range,” says Matthew Bailes, an astrophysicist at the Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Australia. But “its design is so radical, we’re all wondering if it will work.”

On 25 September, FAST’s construction was declared officially complete. Some 200 scientists from around the world attended an inauguration ceremony and got their first look at FAST’s preliminary data, which will be used to debug the telescope. That process could take three years or more, says Peng Bo, an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing and the project’s deputy manager.

Then teams from around the world will be able to bid for time to use the telescope, FAST chief scientist Nan Rendong told Nature.

Many observatories are open to international teams, but astronomers were unsure whether FAST would be. “This is critical to achieving the best possible science,” says astronomer Jason Hessels at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy in Amsterdam.

FAST has twice the effective collecting area of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and will scan twice as much sky (see ‘Galactic giant’). Size matters because many celestial objects are tough to detect. Spinning stars called pulsars and the cosmic clouds of hydrogen that hold clues to the origin of the Universe emit faint signals, whereas mysterious ‘fast radio bursts’ are transient. A larger -telescope increases the number of signals available, aiding the discovery and characterization of such objects.

Nan, who is an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing, says FAST will also be able to detect molecules from outer space that are suggestive of life, and plans to enlist the telescope in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI). The giant telescope is also likely to discover something completely unexpected, say astronomers.

Nature: Daring Chinese telescope is poised to transform astronomy, David Cyranoski

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Dolphin Dreams...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 26, 2016 at 6:42am
Artist's rendering of what the surface of the new planet Proxima Centaur B might look like Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser


Topics: Astrobiology, Astrophysics, Exoplanets, SETI, Star Trek


I recently purchased the documentary "For the Love of Spock" by Adam Nimoy, Leonard Nimoy's son (he had a son and daughter in his first marriage). It is a very good and touching biopic. One of the many scenes of the actor's career was Spock "mind-melding" with a humpback whale in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," in which Nimoy was very insistent on a story about them since then (and now) they're endangered with extinction. In the story line of Home, aliens were trying to communicate with Earth in a signal that Lieutenant Uhura unscrambled as the songs of whales, which existed only on Earth pre-23rd Century and pre-WWIII. The aliens - Spock reasoned - would have communicated with the only sentient species available at the time, since humans were kind of between Homo Erectus and building their first tools. This of course lead to the ubiquitous plot device of "sling-shot" time travel and a LOT of suspended belief if you are sitting in the theater quite familiar with "The Grandfather Paradox." It's "Trek": go with the bit...

Anyway, the title drew me in: "Do Dolphins Dream of Space Travel?" It was rather poetic, but it seemed to allude to a similar plot device that the author abandoned almost mid-essay, though it was very good writing. I wondered what a world - a water world - of dolphins would be like, or if beyond a brief foray about the surface of their oceans if they would regard the stars at all? It got me thinking of our fascination with the stars: we can see them as well as our other land sharing denizens too numerous to name; we're just the only ones that built telescopes to view them, writing and fiction to speculate about them and intact imaginations to fuel them.

It got me thinking about my Texas box turtle, "Speedy" (she's actually pretty fast, especially when she's hungry). Her terrarium is cleaned weekly; her water daily. She's fed at regular intervals a diet of crickets, land tortoise food with reptile vitamins and calcium coinciding with her UV lamp, timed on and off at 12-hour intervals.

What does she THINK of all this? What does she think of my (from her perspective) disembodied hand that reaches in and does all this "stuff" for her? When man was primitive with a limited understanding of the world, doxologies and myths were created before science was discovered. Now the two areas struggle to be the arbiters of explanation and meaning.

I guess for Speedy to have any thoughts about what all of my intervention means existentially, she would have to have an opposing thumb and develop her own language and writing to express them. On occasion, I take her out in the grass - weather permitting - to walk around as I stand guard for hawks that could swoop down and take her away. Maybe I should show her the stars as well to see how she reacts to them, the only evidence so far that I have of what she "thinks."

Scientific American: Do Dolphins Dream of Space Travel?
Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz is an astronomer at The Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

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A People's Journey...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 23, 2016 at 6:09am
Image Source: Washingtonian


Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, History, STEM


As a parent, I exposed my sons to our culture and history through books like "Selected Poems by Langston Hughes"; "Complete Poems by Langston Hughes"; "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison; "Native Son" by Richard Wright. I also exposed them to books about black inventors, since I made most of my income in a STEM field.

Today is my oldest son's 34th birthday. Tomorrow, the National Museum of African American History and Culture opens. I gave a generous donation on the one day giving last Wednesday September 14th, a day before what would have been my mother's 91st birthday were she still alive. It was also to honor her memory.

I grew up in a de jure segregated neighborhood in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I usually open a conversation with someone of strong political views and negative stereotypes: "Have you ever met someone from a ghetto?" They are usually surprised to hear they've been talking to someone born into one. The home my parents owned was due to the laws at the time, legislating where a segment of society lived, even where I was born: Kate Bitting Hospital, at the time was one of 12 hospitals exclusively for African Americans. My kindergarten - Bethlehem Community Center - was specifically named by the Methodist Ministries as a designation of location: Bethlehem Community Centers were on "our" side of town; Wesley Community Centers on the west, whiter side, both have integrated over time. I didn't have a computer (no one did), but my parents purchased The Encyclopedia Britannica, a chemistry set, a microscope, a telescope, an electronics kit, tools and comics. I was as thrilled by educational shows like "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" as I was by Star Trek. I had excellent teachers that supplemented our out-of-date books with copies they xeroxed at their own cost. Both they and my parents were supporting all of us in a society designed to not give the proper resources for my friends and I to succeed. It had its moments, but it wasn't the dystopian nightmare some orange political figures have recently labeled it.

I lament the crisis going on in Charlotte, North Carolina. The seeds of this bitter outrage were sown with Klan activities both repelled and lethal; threats and crosses burned when certain families left "their place"; redlining as I alluded to in my parents' case and the shooting of yet another Scott: Walter in South Carolina, Keith in North Carolina. As is now customary in such crises, the dead's previous sins are brought forward by the media, and used to justify their public execution. It is ironic that Walter had a weapon dropped next to his body; Keith was murdered (if it was a gun, and not a book) ironically, by a black policeman in an open carry state.

We have sojourned in this land since 1619. Benjamin Banneker laid the design and foundations of our nation's capital. Slaves built the Executive Mansion. Norbert Rillieux, Benjamin Montgomery, Elijah McCoy, Lewis Howard Latimer, Andrew Jackson Beard, Jan Earnest Matzeliger, Daniel Hale Williams, M.D., Granville T. Woods, George Washington Carve, Madame C. J. Walker, Garrett Augustus Morgan, Ernest Everett Just, PhD; Frederick McKinley Jones, David Nelson Crosthwait, Jr., Percy Lavon Julian, PhD, Charles Richard Drew, M.D., Claude Harvard, Jane Cook Wright, M.D., Meredith Gourdine, M.D., Michael Croslin, PhD, Earl D. Shaw, PhD, John P. Moon, George E. Carruthers, PhD, Shirley Ann Jackson, PhD: all in the book "Black Stars: African American Inventors" by Otha Richard Sullivan and Jim Haskins. I hope they are ALL in the museum, a dream and life's mission of Congressman John Lewis. There are too many negative stereotypes constantly reinforced by an entertainment complex dominated by the European culture with citizens that typically don't live near African Americans and to this day, de facto self-segregate economically through opportunities and resources allocated in political fiat. It is the very reason ALL elections are important.

Also I hope, along with inventors, the one man that broke a 232-year hegemony of white male rule. 100% efficiency is anathema in Thermodynamics, as it implies something that cannot exist: a perpetual motion machine. Barack Hussein Obama has been vilified because of his name, because of his complexion, because of his intellect, because of his preparation; because of his effectiveness. A meeting was held the night of his inauguration to oppose ANYTHING he proposed, even if they had previously been for it. He was forced to show his long form birth certificate by the current front runner who wasn't satisfied and doubted it publicly for four years until last Friday in a faux news conference/hotel infomercial. He is the only chief executive that was disrespected during a State of the Union (Joe Wilson - R-SC) "you LIE." He's had records set on the number of filibusters filed against his legislation. He has brokered the Paris Climate accords. He is arguably our most effective president, but for the not-too-subtle subtext of America that predates him, a sour milk of rage nursed from the end of the Civil War to the present. He is both the culmination of what's possible in America and a public indictment to its hypocrisy. Hopefully, that door of 2.3% "Other" will be expanded to 4.4% as another wall; another glass ceiling crumbles. Change is a part of life. That is the change that will make us an even better nation than callously stoked fears.

America could not be America without our input. Every movement: Women's Suffrage; Women's Rights; LGBT and Human Rights have patterned themselves after our straightened backs did not bend. Our backs are further braced by the demonstrators in Charlotte exercising their First Amendment Rights, and my fraternity brother Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem to express his.

This is a journey we've made and continue to make for a better nation. We should be proud of it, and ourselves.
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What i've been up to

Posted by Mecanical Pencils on September 22, 2016 at 2:23pm

Hello creators!. Been dabbling in writing again. Hope to start with short stories to get my feet wet and some illustrations to go along with it. I'm pretty shy about posting my written work...like most people, you are your worse critic.....lol. But thanks to a network of awesome talented friends i'm pushing myself out ther. 

wish me luck!

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Monthly reviews.

Posted by Nelo Maxwell on September 22, 2016 at 9:13am
I may start doing monthly reviews again. If I can find the time. Mainly on comics but I will also take requests. I won't have time to do books but I can do Web series and movies if anyone is interested.
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Electric Realpolitik...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 22, 2016 at 7:30am
Figure 1. A discharging battery converts chemical potential into electric potential. At the anode, an oxidation reaction frees electrons (e−) from their parent atoms. The electrons pass through an external circuit, where they do work on a load, while the ions they leave behind diffuse through an electrolyte and separator to the cathode. There, the electrons and ions recombine via a reduction reaction. During recharging, the process is reversed, and the anode is restored. In lithium-ion batteries, the electrode materials are typically layered structures, with lithium stored in the gaps between layers.

Topics: Alternative Energy, Electrical Vehicles, Green Tech, Global Warming, Solid State Physics

This post reminded me of the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and the synopsis that powerful forces - the same that fuel climate change denial as it did obfuscation on the dangers of cigarette smoking - are holding back progress because they want no other competition is the "free market" of commerce. Sounds less libertarian and more like targeted socialism for the already well-heeled 1%.

The electric vehicle’s history offers a lesson to the wise: Harvesting the fruits of basic science requires industrial foresight, investment, and a healthy dose of realpolitik.

By 2004 the all-electric vehicle seemed destined for the dustbin of history. General Motors (GM) was recalling and destroying all copies of the EV1, its first-generation electric car, after company officials convinced themselves and regulators that fuel cells, not batteries, were the ultimate power source of the future electric car. Meanwhile, hybrid electrics had begun to proliferate as a more economically viable alternative in the short run. Most batteries were then considered simply too expensive, too heavy, and too weak to power cars on their own. Then came the lithium-ion battery. (See the article by Héctor Abruña, Yasuyuki Kiya, and Jay Henderson, Physics Today, December 2008, page 43.) With higher energy density than older rechargeables—and with the ability to release that energy quickly on demand—the battery is widely viewed as having led a revival of the electric vehicle. Tesla Motors pioneered its use in automobiles with the Roadster, and today most all-electric vehicles have batteries that use some sort of lithium chemistry. Although concerns about safety, cost, and durability linger, few would dispute that the lithium-ion battery has been the chief technological enabler of the renaissance of the all-electric vehicle.

The emergence of the lithium-ion battery did not happen overnight. It was shaped for decades by the influence of materials scientists. It was the product not of a singular eureka moment but of many strands of research tracing back to the rise of the US national security state at the dawn of the Cold War. That’s when John Goodenough, a physicist by training, found himself helping to build a sophisticated air-defense computer for the US military. Although he couldn’t have imagined it at the time, he was about to embark on research that would help found solid-state ionics—the science of inserting and storing ions inside solids without changing their fundamental structures—and contribute to revolutionizing automobile transport.

The many twists and turns that ensued illustrate the unpredictability and contingency of innovation. The story of the long road to lithium-ion power shows how changing social, economic, and environmental conditions after World War II altered the R&D priorities of government and industry. It affords insight into how trends in the energy economy shaped science and engineering over time. And it reveals a hidden history of the shifting fortunes of physics, a discipline that has traditionally relied on state patronage.

Physics Today:
Cold War computers, California supercars, and the pursuit of lithium-ion power
Matthew N. Eisler

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Laser Plasma...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 21, 2016 at 5:20am
Simulation of a laser pulse that's created a plasma aperture in a thin foil. (Courtesy: Bruno Gonzalez-Izquierdo et al/Nature Communications)

Topics: Laser, Optical Physics, Plasma Physics, Research


The quality of laser-accelerated proton beams can be improved by controlling the polarization of the incident laser light, researchers in the UK have discovered. The finding could help physicists to create compact sources of proton beams for use in medicine, lithography or even astrophysics.

Beams of protons and other positive ions have a wide range of applications, including particle physics, materials processing and medicine. Proton-beam therapy, for example, is used to destroy some cancerous tumours with a minimum of collateral damage to surrounding healthy tissue. However, the practical use of proton and ion beams is held back by the need for large and expensive particle accelerators to generate high-quality beams.

One way forward is laser-plasma acceleration, in which a high-power laser pulse is fired into a target. This creates a plasma in which the electrons separate from the ions. This creates huge electric fields that are capable of accelerating protons, ions and electrons to very high energies.

Physics World: Laser polarization boosts quality of proton beams, Tim Wogan

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7 Kilometers...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on September 20, 2016 at 5:44am
Calgary has seen quantum communication
brettA/Getty

Topics: Computer Science, Entanglement, Quantum Computer, Quantum Teleportation

A little math for perspective: 7 kilometers x 1,000 meters/1 kilometer x 39.37 inches/1 meter x 1 foot/12 inches x 1 mile/5,280 feet = 4.35 miles. Fiber optic cables typically have a range, and stations to repeat/boost the signals. This could be improved of course, and part of an infrastructure buildup that could spur the education industry K-12 and post secondary to prepare future workers for building a new communications architecture. A lot of automated and outsourced jobs are not coming back, and these likely wouldn't be frustrated by old money, like the fossil fuel industry does alternative energy.

A new world record for quantum teleportation has been set, bringing quantum communication networks that can stretch between cities a step closer. Two independent teams have transferred quantum information over several kilometres of fibre optic networks.

Being able to establish teleportation over long distances is a crucial step towards exchanging quantum cryptographic keys needed for encoding data sent over the fibres.

Quantum teleportation is a phenomenon in which the quantum states of one particle can be transferred to another, distant particle without anything physical traveling between them. It relies on a property called entanglement, in which measuring the state of one particle immediately affects the state of its entangled partner, regardless of the distance between them.

Conceptually, one way of doing teleportation involves three participants: say, Alice, Bob and Charlie. In order for Alice and Bob to exchange cryptographic keys, they have to first establish the capacity for teleportation, with Charlie’s help.

First Alice sends a particle (A) to Charlie. Bob, meanwhile, creates a pair of entangled particles (B & C), sends B to Charlie and holds on to C. Charlie receives both A and B, and measures the particles in such a way that it’s impossible to tell which particle was sent by Alice and which by Bob. This so-called Bell state measurement results in the quantum state of particle A being transferred to particle C, which is with Bob.

New Scientist:
Quantum teleportation over 7 kilometres of cables smashes record, Anil Ananthaswamy

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Incus Interactive Productions at Steam Dev Days 2016!

Posted by Incus Interactive Productions on September 19, 2016 at 7:16pm


     

      Hello BSFS,

      I would to announce that Incus Interactive (William Smith member) has been invited to special game

      development event based in Seattle, Washington called Steam Dev Days 2016. This event (press-free)is going to

      go over many topics from computer (Steam) hardware development to virtual reality development and a lot more!         My invite is good for up to four more people to go with if interested and the link is here; 

      http://steamcommunity.com/devdays.

      William Smith Jr.| Incus Interactive Productions 

      Technical Artist and Steam Hardware OEM

      https://incusinteractiveproductions.wordpress.com/

      

  

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