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How It Works...

Source: The Economist



I have four previous posts about BICEP2 and how the initial roll out (i.e. announcement) was heady for some; aggrandizement for others.



This next to the last paragraph at the bottom of The Economist sums it succinctly:



Rowing back on a triumphant announcement about the first instants of creation may be a little embarrassing, but the saga is a useful reminder of how science works. There is no suggestion that anyone has behaved dishonourably. Admittedly, the BICEP team’s original press conference looks, with hindsight, seriously overconfident. More information-sharing between the various gravitational wave-hunters, all of whom guard their data jealously, might have helped tone down the triumphalism. But science, ideally, proceeds by exactly this sort of good-faith argument and honourable squabbling—until the weight of evidence forces one side to admit defeat.



Now, the last paragraph points to a joint paper that's coming from the European Planck Telescope & BICEP2, (open adversaries to) the BICEP2 team. This seems confusing to those that would use this to point to scientific findings as "just theory," and if the scientists were so sure, they wouldn't change their minds on it. It atomizes the academy and politicizes reported results.



This however, is the nature of science and how it works.



There has to be an understood release to public scrutiny - not at all like (emphasis: unequal to) opinions trolled on Social Media - but peer review, which can be brutal for the uninitiated.



Whatever your findings are, become vetted by like-trained professionals who will first attempt to: 1. Read and understand your report and its results; 2. Using the conditions you've described in your paper, attempt to simulate and/or duplicate or get statistically close to your reported results within an acceptable percent error range.



The pseudosciences are not apt to subject themselves to this kind of scrutiny, often becoming openly hostile to any challenge to their veracity. The projected accusation is usually the scientific community is close-minded, reactionary and projecting a "religion of secular humanism."




All scientists are not humanists, that is a generalization. However, for a field to call itself a "science," it must be willing to allow this kind of public scrutiny, and if proven wrong: acquiescence to the prevailing evidence. Otherwise, it is mere notion and political canard for manipulation of a public that wishes to hear it for their own comfort at the sacrifice of their advancement and empowerment.



How Stuff Works:

How The Scientific Method Works
Scientific Method Steps
Scientific Method Videos
History of the Scientific Method

#P4TC: Ibn al-Haytham

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Michael E. Lopez-Alegria...

International Space Station Imagery

MICHAEL E. LOPEZ-ALEGRIA (CAPTAIN, USN, RET.)

NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)

PERSONAL DATA: Born May 30, 1958, in Madrid, Spain, and grew up in Mission Viejo, California. Lopez-Alegria enjoys sports, traveling and cooking and is interested in national and international political, economic and security affairs.



EDUCATION: Graduated from Mission Viejo High School, Mission Viejo, California, in 1976; received a bachelor of science degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1980 and a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1988. Graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security. Speaks Spanish, French and Russian.



EXPERIENCE: Following flight training and designation as a Naval Aviator in 1981, Lopez-Alegria served as a flight instructor and then as a pilot and mission commander of EP-3E aircraft. In 1986, he was assigned to a 2-year cooperative program between the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland. His final tour before being assigned to NASA was at the Naval Air Test Center as an engineering test pilot and program manager. He has accumulated more than 5,700 pilot hours in over 30 different aircraft types.



NASA EXPERIENCE: Lopez-Alegria reported for training to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in August 1992. Following a year of training and designation as an astronaut, he was first assigned to be the Astronaut Office technical point of contact to various space shuttle project elements. Lopez-Alegria was then assigned to Kennedy Space Center (KSC), where he provided crew representation on orbiter processing issues and support during launches and landings. Following his first spaceflight, he served as NASA Director of Operations at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. After his second mission, he led the International Space Station (ISS) Operations branch of the Astronaut Office. Following his third spaceflight, he was assigned as the technical liaison to JSC’s Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Office. A veteran of four space flights, Lopez-Alegria has logged more than 257 days in space and performed 10 spacewalks totaling 67 hours and 40 minutes of EVA. He retired from the Navy in June 2008 and left NASA in March 2012. Lopez-Alegria currently serves as President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation in Washington, D.C.



NASA: Michael E. Lopez-Alegria, Captain, US Navy (retired, former astronaut)

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Victor Celorio...

“The first time I saw a laser printer, I thought about making books with it.”

Born July 27, 1957 in Mexico City. Victor is an inventor who obtained patents for the technology popularly known as InstaBook or Book On Demand, as well as that of Distributed Printing technology in which an e-book is distributed among as many printing centers as required for immediate production and delivery, thereby creating a vast network of digital bookstores and libraries.



At a young age Celorio had a huge appreciation for the written word. Celorio loved to read and wanted to become a writer. Unfortunately there were not many bookstores in the area he lived in and always had a hunger for more books. This is where his idea to make books more accessible started, from his own battle in obtaining them. Celorio knew that books not only needed to be more accessible but affordable. The problem with publishing as Celorio saw it was actually found in the distribution system. Typically, a book retailer orders the number of books it thinks it can sell. But should the title prove to be popular, the store may not be able to order more if the publisher’s inventory is depleted. Alternately, small stores can’t afford to keep slow moving titles in stock. With these thoughts in mind, the idea for Print on Demand technology was born.



Amazing Mexicans: Victor Celorio, Inventor

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A Line in the Sand...

Please Do Not Spin the Moon

...rather than our heads. Although, I think this might be an Emu.



The National Academies - Science, Engineering, Medicine, Research - has a page called "America's Climate Choices." I feel our coy obfuscation for the moneyed has reduced our time necessary to respond. As a democratic republic, we should demand more of our elected officials and the sacred trust of representative government.



Especially in this country, there's obviously a litmus test on how much science one can deny. There was a People's Climate March in New York City last Sunday, and you wouldn't know it from most corporate-owned media. Google (the owners of Blogger) had to be embarrassed at a shareholder's meeting by climate activists to finally sever ties with ALEC - responsible for not only climate change denial and deniers, but the authors of "Stand Your Ground" legislation that has resulted in fostering a frontier climate in (at least on the calendar) a modern republic; a modern trail of tears and blood beyond Oklahoma's Native American history.



The Sociological Quarterly published a riveting study of the politicization and polarization of climate change in America in 2010 by Aaron C. McCright and Riley E. Dunlap. It's more than that: it's now whether we accept reality represented as data gathered and analyzed, or unicorns.



When someone asks me "do you believe in global warming"; "do you believe in the Big Bang"; "do you believe in Evolution" they are expressing articles of faith, which the Constitution freely allows. My response is usually: "Do you believe in the Pythagorean Theorem?" Blank stare...crickets..."of course I do!" Or the other one: "that's avoiding the question." I calmly state, no it's not. Not in any particular order:



A Belgian priest named Georges Lemaître first suggested the big bang theory in the 1920s when he theorized that the universe began from a single primordial atom. The idea subsequently received major boosts by Edwin Hubble's observations that galaxies are speeding away from us in all directions, and from the discovery of cosmic microwave radiation by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson. National Geographic



Science never takes places in a void and evolutionary thought is no exception. Although Charles Darwin is considered to be by many the "father" of evolutionary thought, he was in fact aided and guided by the works of many scientists before him. The theories and ideas proposed by his predecessors were limited to the information available at the time. Darwin himself had no knowledge of genetics and therefore, his theory of natural selection as an explanation of evolution was based solely on what he observed and knew at the time. AAAS Science Net Links



Even though Pythagoras' name is on the theorem, several other people - the Babylonians (now Iran and Iraq), China and India - all had possibly discovered it well before his birth in Samos, Greece.



I present an embed (a link in some platforms) I fetched from the National Academy's site. Once opened, start with the formula bar, education for those open to it.

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Zero-Friction Quantum Engine...

Scientists have devised a way to run a quantum cycle based on the use of quantum shortcuts to adiabaticity, where friction-like effects are quenched. Shown are the four steps of a quantum Otto cycle, where heat enters (exits) the working medium and those where work is performed by (done onto).
Credit: A. del Campo, et al. ©2014 Nature Scientific Reports

(Phys.org) —In real physical processes, some energy is always lost any time work is produced. The lost energy almost always occurs due to friction, especially in processes that involve mechanical motion. But in a new study, physicists have designed an engine that operates with zero friction while still generating power by taking advantage of some quantum shortcuts.



The laws of thermodynamics successfully describe the concepts of work and heat in a wide variety of systems, ranging from refrigerators to black holes, as long as the systems are macroscopic. But for quantum technologies on the micro- and nano-scale, quantum fluctuations that are insignificant on large scales start to become prominent. As previous research as shown, the large quantum effects call for a complete reformulation of the thermodynamics laws.

What a quantum version of thermodynamics might look like is not yet known, and neither are the limitations or possible advantages of the quantum devices that would be described by such laws. However, one intriguing question is whether it may be possible to build a reversible quantum engine—one in which the engine's operation can be reversed without energy dissipation (an "adiabatic" process *).



In the new paper, the physicists have shown one example of a quantum engine that is "super-adiabatic." That is, the engine uses quantum shortcuts to achieve a state that is usually achieved only by slow adiabatic processes. This engine can achieve a state that is fully frictionless; in other words, the engine reaches its maximum efficiency, while still generating some power.



* See:

Hyper Physics: Adiabatic Processes
Princeton Wiki: Adiabatic process

Phys.org: Physicists design zero-friction quantum machine

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Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cardenas...



Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cardenas -- Mexican Chemical Engineer



At age 25, he co-discovered the synthetic compound norethindrone, which formed the chemical basis for the first oral contraceptive, or birth control pill.



Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cardenas was just a 25-year-old undergraduate chemistry student when he began at Syntex Corporation, a fledgling biochemical company in Mexico City, where he joined the research team of senior chemists Carl Djerassi of Austria, and Hungarian-born George Rosenkranz. Luis would later make science history with them.



Other Achievements: For his role in the development of the birth control pill, Luis (who as a chemical engineer also made his mark in other areas of his field -- from organic chemistry to petrochemistry and atmospheric chemistry) was bestowed with numerous awards and honors. Among them: Receiving the Mexican Prize in Chemistry; being elected as one the world's most influential chemical engineers of all time by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), and named among the three most important Mexican chemists of all time.


Carl Djerassi, George Rosenkranz, and Luis Miramontes were granted US patent 2,744,122 for "oral contraceptives" on May 1, 1956. *

Education: He obtained his Degree in chemical engineering at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and was a founding researcher of the Institute of Chemistry of at UNAM. In addition, Luis served as professor on the Faculty of Chemistry at UNAM, director and professor of the School of Chemistry at the Universidad Iberoamericana, and deputy Director of Research at the Mexican Institute of Petroleum.


USA Science Festival: Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cardenas

*About.com: Top List of Mexican Inventors, Mary Bellis

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Polonium-209...

Credit: Irvine/NIST

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have determined* that polonium-209, the longest-lived isotope of this radioactive heavy element, has a half-life about 25 percent longer than the previously determined value, which had been in use for decades.



The new NIST measurements could affect geophysical studies such as the dating of sediment samples from ocean and lake floors. They often employ Po-209 as a tracer. Because sediment cores are used for determining human impact on the environment over the past century, the new measurement could impact these studies as well as other environmental measurements and biological assays.


NIST: Polonium's Most Stable Isotope Gets Revised Half-Life Measurement, Chad Boutin

*R. Collé, R.P. Fitzgerald and L. Laureano-Perez. The half-life of 209Po: revisited. Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics 41 (2014) 105103, doi:10.1088/0954-3899/41/10/105103

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Dr. Angel Alcala...

Dr. Angel Alcala. See Famous Scientists link below

Angel Alcal has more than thirty years of experience in tropical marine resource conservationa. Angel Alcala is considered a world class authority in ecology and biogeography of amphibians and reptiles, and is behind the invention of artifical coral reefs to be used for fisheries in Southeast Asia. Angel Alcala is the Director of the Angelo King Center for Research and Environmental Management.



Angel Alcala - Degrees:



Undergraduate degree Silliman University

Ph.D. Stanford University [1]



Angel Alcala was born on the first of March in 1929. He and his family were from Cauayan, Negros Occidental. His mother Crescenciana Chua and his father Porfirio Alcala were residing in Caliling, a coastal village in Negros Occidental. Because of his exposure to a coastal setup, it is no wonder where Angel Alacala’s awareness and love for marine life came from. While they lived in a humble and rural setup, their simple living had always been supported by the bounty of the sea.



His early years in school had been indicative of his thirst for knowledge and desire to excel. He finished his high school years in Kabankalan Academy where he was one of the scholars. He had also been an active member of the academy’s debate team, and had taken part in their Boy Scout troop as well as other extra-curricular activities.



It was in 1948 when Angel Alcala took his pre-medicine course. He had his courses which made him earn his undergraduate degree in Silliman University, the oldest American building and institution in the Philippines, and the oldest university in Asia that was founded by the Americans. Because of his promising potential and evident intelligence, he was later on accepted to be a student of the University of the Philippines’s College of Medicine.



However, Alcala decided not to let the opportunity go due to the financial circumstances that his family faced. In 1951, he had finished the biological studies he started at the Silliman University and he graduated as the magna cum laude of his batch. Despite having given up the opportunity at the University of the Philippines, Angel Alcala was marked to make a change in history after his graduation from the Silliman University.



Walter C. Brown who happened to be one of the Fulbright professors of Stanford University arrived at Silliman University. He had then taken Alcala as one of his protégés and their partnership paved the way for numerous scientific researches concerning biology in the Philippines. They worked together on several publications and went on numerous field trips to come up with data for their researches and publications.



Through the support of Walter Brown, Alcala was granted a well-deserved Fulbright/Smith-Mundt Fellowship which was what had helped him earn his master’s degree. In 1964, Alacala went back to Stanford to finish his doctorate and two years later, he became one of the associate professors of Silliman University. [2]



1. Filipino inventors: Angel Alcala - Filipino Biologist, Mary Bellis
2. Famous Scientists: Angel Alcala, PhD

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Sword and Soul Lives...

      Its starting to be count down time for my art book.

             

       I wanted to show this image of Azana,again.

             

        She will be featured several times in the full
            
             

         coffee table version of the book.

          her story will be told in an upcoming

           anthology, along with other heroes to fit

           the magazine that should be a most interesting

            read.  Yep, all of this and more in...


                 Aura- The Art of Winston Blakely


                   Coming October 14

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Dr. Ellen Ochoa...



1st Hispanic Female Astronaut: text source here

Originally September 26, 2013 with update embeds below...

Ellen Ochoa was born on May 10, 1958 in Los Angeles, CA. She received her bachelor of science degree in physics from San Diego State University, and a master of science degree and doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University.



Ellen Ochoa’s pre-doctoral work at Stanford University in electrical engineering led to the development of an optical system designed to detect imperfections in repeating patterns. This invention patented in 1987, can be used for quality control in the manufacturing of various intricate parts. Dr. Ellen Ochoa later patented an optical system which can be used to robotically manufacture goods or in robotic guiding systems. In all, Ellen Ochoa has received three patents most recently one in 1990.



In addition to being an inventor, Dr. Ellen Ochoa is also a research scientist and astronaut for NASA. Selected by NASA in January 1990, Dr. Ellen Ochoa is a veteran of three space flights. She has logged over 719 hours in space, her most recent mission was a 10 day mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery in May of 1999.


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Dark God's Gift Season 2

Dark God's Gift short story anthology season 2 jumps off in 1 week!

Read dark tales by some of the BSFS most prolific authors and contributors; K. Ceres Wright (COG), Ronald T. Jones (Warriors of the Four Worlds), H. Wolfgang Porter (Book of Dragon's Teeth) and William Hayashi (The Darkside Trilogy.) 

Be transported to dark exotic streets teeming with techno-gangsters, battles amongst the gods, deep inside a dark matter cloud and to the desert during the atomic age! All coming September 29th. Woe unto those who possess the Dark God's Gift!

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Narciso Monturiol...

SellosMundo.com

Narciso Monturiol was a Catalonian physicist and inventor who researched underwater navigation and designed an early submarine. In 1856, Narciso Monturiol built a submarine called the "Ictineo".



Despite popular folklore, Narciso Monturiol did not build the very first submarine. (Our "Timeline of Submarine History" illustrates that submarines were being built as early as 1620.) However, Narciso Monturiol did build one of the most advanced submarines available at the time.



Narciso Monturiol was inspired to invent a device to aid the Spainish coral divers who fished off the coast of Cadaques. His submarine was intended to save the divers manual labor and reduce their exposure to diving risks. In 1859, Narciso Monturiol's Ictineo submarine was first launched from Barcelona and proved to be submergable for up to two hours. The Ictineo was manually powered by sixteen men turning the propeller. By 1864, Narciso Monturiol had redesigned the Ictineo adding a steam generator for power. The Ictineo could then reach depths of up to thirty meters, and stay submerged for up to seven hours.
Poster Lounge



One interesting fact about the Ictineo submarine is that Jules Verne, the famous writer of "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" based his fictional Nautilus submarine after the Ictineo.



Hispanic Inventors: Narciso Monturiol

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Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus...



Cuban born, Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus of Newton, New Jersey invented an improved photographic print and negative wash machine (see patent drawing). During the process of developing a photographic print or negative, the product is soaked in several chemical baths. The print wash neutralizes the chemicals in each bath process, so that the time the chemicals effect a print can be exactly controlled. Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus believed his method would eliminate over washing that could soften the photograph too much.




Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus also invented an improved machine for embossing photographs (see patent drawing left). His machine was designed to both/either mount or emboss a photographic print. Embossing is a method or raising parts of a photograph for a relief or 3D look.



Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus's other inventions included an applicator for applying color liquid dyes to shoes and heels, and a hose leek stop.

List of patents:

#535,820, 3/19/1895, Device for applying coloring liquids to sides of soles or heels of shoes
#537,442, 4/16/1895, Machine for embossing photographs
#537,968, 4/23/1895, Photographic print washer
#629,315, 7/18/1899, Hose leak stop



Clatonia Joaquin Dorticus - invented an improved photographic print wash machine and method,
Mary Bellis

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Maven...

Source: NASA.gov, Image Credit: NASA/GSFC

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is nearing its scheduled Sept. 21 insertion (this Sunday) into Martian orbit after completing a 10-month interplanetary journey of 442 million miles.



Flight Controllers at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado, will be responsible for the health and safety of the spacecraft throughout the process. The spacecraft’s mission timeline will place the spacecraft in orbit at approximately 9:50 p.m. EDT.



“So far, so good with the performance of the spacecraft and payloads on the cruise to Mars,” said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The team, the flight system, and all ground assets are ready for Mars orbit insertion.”



The orbit-insertion maneuver will begin with the brief firing of six small thruster engines to steady the spacecraft. The engines will ignite and burn for 33 minutes to slow the craft, allowing it to be pulled into an elliptical orbit with a period of 35 hours.



Following orbit insertion, MAVEN will begin a six-week commissioning phase that includes maneuvering the spacecraft into its final orbit and testing its instruments and science-mapping commands. Thereafter, MAVEN will begin its one-Earth-year primary mission to take measurements of the composition, structure and escape of gases in Mars’ upper atmosphere and its interaction with the sun and solar wind.



NASA.gov: NASA Mars Spacecraft Ready for Sept. 21 Orbit Insertion
Dwayne Brown

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Pedro Flores...

Image source: Yo-Yo.net (link below)

The word yo-yo is a Tagalog word, the native language of the Philippines, and means 'come back.' In the Philippines, the yo-yo was a weapon for over 400 hundred years. Their version was large with sharp edges and studs and attached to thick twenty-foot ropes for flinging at enemies or prey. People in the United States started playing with the British bandalore or yo-yo in the 1860s.



It was not until the 1920s that Americans first heard the word yo-yo. Pedro Flores, a Philippine immigrant, began manufacturing a toy labeled with that name. Flores became the first person to mass-produce yo-yos, at his small toy factory located in California.

The Philippines was a Spanish colony for over 300 years, leaving what can now be called Filipino culture and people semi-Hispanicized. Under Spanish rule, most of the Filipino populace embraced Roman Catholicism, yet revolted many times to its hierarchy. Due to a colonial program, almost all inhabitants adopted Spanish surnames from the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos published in 1849 by the Spanish colonial government.

Wikipedia



Inventors: Pedro Flores, Hispanic Inventors by Mary Bellis
Yo-Yo.net: History of the Yo-Yo

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Plasmonic Nanolaser...

See description *

A new design for a cavity-free nanolaser has been proposed by physicists at Imperial College London. The design builds on a proposal from the same team earlier this year to reduce the group velocity of light of a particular frequency to exactly zero in a metal–dielectric–metal waveguide. The laser, which has yet to be built, makes use of two such zero-velocity regions, and would achieve population inversion and create a laser beam without the need for an optical cavity. The researchers suggest that the design could have important applications in optical telecommunications and computing, as well as theoretical implications in reconciling the physics of lasers with plasmonics.

* Diagram of how the nanolaser would work: light is trapped in the stopped-light region (curved gold arrows) and this leads to the stimulated emission of light (upward-pointing arrows). The system is pumped by slow light (the large gold arrow) and the laser is confined to a region denoted by h and w, where the group velocity of the light (Vg) is zero. (Courtesy: A Freddie Page and O Hess/Imperial College)



Physics World: New plasmonic nanolaser is cavity-free, Tim Wogan

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IXS Enterprise and Alcubierre...

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953


The central theme of November's "Interstellar" and space exploration in particular...

If we even get 1/10 c (say, via a fusion or antimatter drive - more conceptual for physicists. I suspect the "exotic matter" as the star ship would require is possibly dark matter, and for now hard to define, find or manufacture). That technological leap will be for society energy-liberating, and we'd owe that to Dr. Miguel Alcubierre Moya (see link below).

Images sourced from: Daily Mail Online


Caption:

Pictured is an illustration of Dr White's IXS Enterprise, an interstellar ship drawn by artist Mark Rademaker that could be an accurate representation of what the first mission beyond the solar system will look like. The IXS Enterprise is a theory-fitting concept for a faster than light (FTL) ship.

#P4TC:
Miquel Alcubierre Moya
Speaking of Warp Drive

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Diversity in STEM...

Mural, 24th. Street, Chicago. (Seth Anderson via Flickr)

What is diversity?



One challenge to conversations about diversity is a lack of precision in language. The word “diversity” is used in many contexts to mean many different things. Often, and unfortunately, diversity is used as the antonym of heterosexual, able-bodied, middle-class-to-wealthy white male. This is not what diversity is about. The New Oxford American Dictionary gives us this definition:



diversity |diˈvərsitē, dī-| noun: (a) the state of being diverse; variety: there was considerable diversity in the style of the reports. (b) a range of different things: newspapers were obliged to allow a diversity of views to be printed.



Why does diversity matters in science?



1. Diversity is critical to excellence.

2. Lack of diversity represents a loss of talent.

3. Enhancing diversity is key to long-term economic growth and global competitiveness.



Scientific American: Diversity in STEM, Kenneth (Kenny) Gibbs, Jr., PhD
Cancer Prevention Fellow, National Cancer Institute.

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