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| Photon-shaping technique could lead to "nuclear" quantum computers. (Courtesy: iStockphoto/polygraphus) |
A way of modulating the waveforms of individual, coherent high-energy photons at room temperature has been demonstrated by researchers in the US and Russia. The advance opens the way for new quantum-optics technologies capable of extremely high-precision measurements, as well as the possibility of <>quantum-information systems based on nuclear processes. The new approach could also be useful for those doing fundamental research in a variety of areas, ranging from the role of quantum phenomena in biological processes to fundamental questions in quantum optics itself.
The technique was developed by Olga Kocharovskaya, Farit Vagizov and colleagues at Texas A&M University and the Kazan Federal University. Their set-up bears some similarity to a Mössbauer spectroscopy experiment. A sample of radioactive cobalt-57 decays to an excited state of iron-57, which then decays by emitting a 14.4 keV "soft" gamma-ray photon. This photon can then be absorbed and re-emitted by a nearby stainless-steel foil containing iron-57. Because of the Mössbauer effect, no energy is lost in the recoil of the stainless-steel lattice and the photon is emitted at 14.4 keV with very little spectral blurring.
As the foil absorbs and re-emits the photons, it is vibrated at megahertz frequencies. By making clever use of the Doppler effect, the team is able to shape a single photon into a double pulse and even a train of ultrashort pulses. This makes it possible to use the gamma-ray photons to encode quantum information in a "time-bin qubit" – quantum bits in which information is encoded in terms of the relative arrival time of pulses.
Physics World:
Gamma-ray shaping could lead to 'nuclear' quantum computers
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| The process of producing anti-counterfeit nano-fingerprints based on randomly distributed silver nanowires. [1] Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are prepared by the self-seeding method and an amorphous silica shell is coated on the surface using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS). [2] Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and rhodamine B-isothiocyanate (RITC) are attached covalently to the surface of the pre-formed silica shell by allowing the formation of covalent bonds between the silica surface and 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS). [3] A photolithographic process is used to inscribe the direction and target markers on the surface of the PET film. The orientation marker (“KAIST”) can be used to determine the correct direction of the PET film. The target marker (“X”) has an empty space in its central region where AgNWs are loaded to generate fingerprints. |
Counterfeiting is a steady and increasingly important problem that occurs in nearly every trade and industry. Recognizing the difficulty in distinguishing counterfeit goods from genuine products, new nanoscale technologies are being developed to prevent and identify this illegal practice. Using dye-coated one-dimensional (1D) nanowires, researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea have demonstrated that randomly distributed nanowires can generate unique and simple barcode patterns readily applicable by many to anti-counterfeiting.
Reporting in Nanotechnology, nanoscale fingerprint patterns are generated by simply casting fluorescent dye-coated silver nanowires onto a transferrable flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film. The direction and target markers ("KAIST" and "X") are patterned by a photolithographic technique to provide positional information for identification and the nanowires are cast onto it. Then, using an optical microscope, the resulting unique fingerprint patterns can be visually authenticated in a simple and straightforward manner, as shown fully in the figure above.
Nano Tech Web: Combatting counterfeit goods with nanoscale fingerprints
A little something to do while vegging on the couch (nothing on the "boob tube" except COSMOS, really).
Controlling a lab from home
The Remote Control Glow Discharge (RGDX) is a plasma that you can control from the comfort of your browser. YOU have control of the entire experiment including the gas pressure inside the tube, the voltage produced by the power supply that makes the plasma, and the strength of an electromagnet surrounding the plasma. You can perform experiments from any computer anywhere in the world!
In 2002, we began developing plasma sources for educational purposes and one of our devices won 2nd place in the National Apparatus Competition sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers. In 2003, we began controlling our plasma sources by computer for a plasma exhibit in a science museum. The progression of this has led to remote control of a plasma from any location by anyone with an internet connection. This type of control could serve as an experimental component of an online physics class or for a school that typically does not have plasma physics equipment.
As with all other Science Education Department labs, the RGDX has been developed in large part by high school and undergraduate interns.
The Remote Glow Discharge Experiment was officially released to the public on 3/12/2014. The story can be found here.
On 18 June 2009, NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to map the surface of the Moon and collect measurements of potential future landing sites as well as key science targets. After two and a half years in a near-circular polar orbit, LRO entered an elliptical polar orbit on 11 December 2011 with a periapsis (point where the LRO is closest to the surface) near the south pole, and the apoapsis (point where LRO is furthest from the surface) near the north pole. The increased altitude over the northern hemisphere enables the two Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs) and Wide Angle Camera (WAC) to capture more terrain in each image acquired in the northern hemisphere. As a result, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) archive now contains complete coverage from 60°N to the north pole (except of course for areas of permanent shadow) with a pixel scale of 2 meters.
The LROC team assembled 10,581 NAC images, collected over 4 years, into a spectacular northern polar mosaic. The LROC Northern Polar Mosaic (LNPM) is likely one of the world’s largest image mosaics in existence, or at least publicly available on the web, with over 680 gigapixels of valid image data covering a region of the Moon (2.54 million km², 0.98 million miles²) slightly larger than the combined area of Alaska (1.72 million km²) and Texas (0.70 million km²) -- at a resolution of 2 meters per pixel! To create the mosaic, each LROC NAC image was map projected on a 30 m/pixel Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) derived Digital Terrain Model (DTM) using a software package called Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS). A polar stereographic projection was used in order to limit mapping distortions when creating the 2-D map. In addition, the LROC team used improved ephemeris provide by the LOLA and GRAIL teams and an improved camera pointing model to enable accurate projection of each image in the mosaic to within 20 meters.
Established in 1847, the Children's Home provides a range of services and programs giving hope and healing to abused and neglected children in the Hudson River Region. The Children's Home served 397 children and their family members last year. The Home provides a full range of residential services including campus-based care, community-based group homes and boarding homes, and independent living apartments. It also provides regular foster care and intensive therapeutic foster homes.
Throughout our 167 year history, the underlying mission of the Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie has remained the same: The Home is dedicated to providing a safe and nurturing environment that improves lives and empowers at-risk children and families in the Hudson Valley and surrounding communities.
I did this presentation on Saturday, 22 March at the behest of the local Alpha Kappa Alpha alumni chapter. I have done such presentations before. I was more than happy to do it.
It was a focused audience of five young men and three young women. They participated well, and at least a few of them said they were going to purchase electronics snap kits from "The Shack." I came away encouraged and inspired by the curiosity of these young people in spite of their challenging circumstances. Especially in an era of error and pseudoscience propagated as alternate "truth" more outreach like this is needed: these are the "meek who will inherit the earth" and will need the tools to manage it.
Physics teachers: all the links in the embed are active, including those in the pictures of slides 8 and 12. If you want the Power Point version with all the "bells and whistles" of this embed, email: physics4thecool@gmail.com. Please attribute the source. My reference to Korea on slide 4 was a quote from "The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way," by Amanda Ripley and not meant to be derisive: the Korean children spend 16 hours a day in school M-F and 8 hours on Saturday. They are brilliant via focus and immersion.
I used parts from Electronics 101 and Electronics 303 kits purchased from Radio Shack. Apparently, Radio Shack only carries the Electronics 101 snap kit. I'd try their service number for the more advanced Electronics 303. However, Amazon carries comparable manipulatives: SC-100, SC-300 and SC-750. Good luck.
Get American Specter for $1.99 on Kindle!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1WQ72QKMB0D5W/ref=cm_cr_dp_pdp
1. Mind House (Barcelona, Spain)
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| credit: Angelo Amboldi |
2. The Crooked House (Sopot, Poland)
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| credit: tomek.pl via strangebuildings.com |
3. Stone House (Guimarães, Portugal)
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| credit: Feliciano Guimarães via strangebuildings.com |
My Science Academy: Top 17 World's Strangest Buildings
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| Timberwood Park, San Antonio, TX: Caveat emptor |
Yesterday (17 March), researchers from the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) telescope at the South Pole revealed that they have detected the first evidence for the primordial B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The astronomers claimed that the primordial B-mode polarization signal – which is related to primordial gravitational waves that flowed through the early universe – is the first direct evidence for cosmic inflation and has been measured to a statistical certainty of 3σ. Now, cosmologist and Perimeter Institute director Neil Turok, who worked on an inflationary model of his own with Stephen Hawking in the 1990s, urges caution and says that extensive experimental confirmation is necessary before BICEP2's results can be considered as evidence for inflation.
"If...and it's a big if...this is true, it would be spectacular evidence for what happened at the Big Bang," Turok told physicsworld.com. While he agreed that at first glance, the BICEP2 observations are in keeping with inflation "as suggested over 30 years ago, wherein space–time would resonate with the aftershocks of inflation and would ring like a bell", a closer look at the discrepancy between the new results and previous data from the Planck and WMAP telescopes is what worries Turok. Indeed, the tensor-to-scalar ratio of 0.20 that BICEP2 measured is considered to be significantly larger than that expected from previous analyses of data. But the BICEP2 researchers said in their press conference yesterday that they believe certain tweaks could be made to an extension of the ΛCDM cosmological model that could make the two results agree.
"But these tweaks would be tremendously ugly....and in fact, I believe that if both Planck and the new results agree, then together they would give substantial evidence against inflation!" exclaims Turok, further explaining that "[we] must be careful before we treat them as true".
"Extraordinary claims requires extraordinary evidence." Carl Sagan.
Even though Tuesday's announcement was exciting news, and I really want it to be true, it might not be. After the Scientific Method, this is the rigor of peer review and the necessity of it. Without it, we march down the primrose path of pseudoscience and created entities like the Discovery Institute ("intelligent design") and World Science Database (which purports that the Special and General Theory of Relativity have been "disproved" despite yesterday, I was discussing superconducting quantum interference devices - SQUID's). Both organizations are of "sounding brass and tinkling cymbal" to quote Corinthians. The Science Channel - when it's not suggesting UFO close encounters - promotes the tagline "question everything." We really should.
Physics World: Neil Turok urges caution on BICEP2 results
That's Right! The OTHER SCI FI Talkshoe Live Podcast "Discussions from the Otherhood which we record just about every Saturday at 4pm EST is now a free Podcast on iTunes!
To find us go to:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewRoom?fcld=529293810
And initiate a Search for "Other Sci Fi" in the Podcasts section of the menu.
Listen in and maybe... just maybe you'll decide to join us one of these Saturday afternoons!
If you have any problems locating us at iTunes, contact me here or at p.flynn@otherscifi.com for additional information!
~P.Flynn
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| Micrograph of a SQUID amplifier, made at NIST in 2012, that is part of a circuit used to read signals from arrays of superconducting sensors. Small currents generated by the sensors are carried and amplified in the coils, which create magnetic fields detected by the SQUID (two small squares in the center of the image). Credit: NIST |
From humble beginnings in a series of accidental discoveries, SQUIDs have invaded and enhanced many areas of science and medicine, thanks, in part, to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
SQUIDs—short for superconducting quantum interference devices—are the world's most sensitive magnetometers and powerful signal amplifiers, with broad applications ranging from medicine and mining to cosmology and materials analysis.
Physicists from around the world celebrated last week* to mark the 50th anniversary of the first journal paper introducing the SQUID, published in February 1964.
Celebrants heard about the use of SQUIDS to measure brain activity in Finland, discover mineral deposits leading to a large silver mine in Australia, and detect faint light from the early moments of the universe from telescopes all over the world.
SQUIDs measure magnetic fields based on quantum properties created when a superconducting circuit loop, in which electricity flows without resistance, is interrupted with one or two short sections of resistive material. The current across the resistive section varies predictably, based on the strength of the external magnetic field, making the device an exquisitely sensitive detector of magnetic fields. Typically, SQUIDs need to be cooled to cryogenic temperatures below 4 kelvins (-269 degrees Celsius) with liquid helium.
The SQUID was invented at Ford Scientific Laboratories in the 1960s but was further developed at NIST (then called the National Bureau of Standards). James Zimmerman co-invented one type of SQUID (the RF-SQUID) and coined the term while at Ford, before joining NIST where he worked in the 1970s and 1980s.
NIST: Magnetic Attraction: Physicists Pay Homage to the SQUID at 50
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| The 10-meter South Pole Telescope and the BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) Telescope against the Milky Way. BICEP2 recently detected gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background, a discovery that supports the cosmic inflation theory of how the universe began. (Photo: Keith Vanderlinde, National Science Foundation) |
The detection of gravitational waves by the BICEP2 experiment at the South Pole supports the cosmic inflation theory of how the universe came to be. The discovery, made in part by Assistant Professor Chao-Lin Kuo, supports the theoretical work of Stanford's Andrei Linde.
Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe we inhabit burst into existence in an extraordinary event that initiated the Big Bang. In the first fleeting fraction of a second, the universe expanded exponentially, stretching far beyond the view of today's best telescopes. All this, of course, has just been theory.
Researchers from the BICEP2 collaboration today announced the first direct evidence supporting this theory, known as "cosmic inflation." Their data also represent the first images of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time. These waves have been described as the "first tremors of the Big Bang." Finally, the data confirm a deep connection between quantum mechanics and general relativity.
Stanford News:
New evidence from space supports Stanford physicist's theory of how universe began
Harvard Center for Astrophysics: First Direct Evidence of Cosmic Inflation
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| Artist's impression of a comet striking the Earth. (Courtesy: iStock/PaulPaladin) |
Two theoretical physicists in the US have made a surprising connection between dinosaur extinction and dark matter. Lisa Randall and Matthew Reece of Harvard University believe that some of this mysterious invisible matter – which makes up 85% of all matter in the universe – could exist in a special form that affects the rate at which comets strike our planet. A comet crashing into Earth about 66 million years ago is one possible reason why these giant creatures died off.
Comets have smashed into Earth throughout its history, creating huge craters and possibly causing mass extinctions, such as that which befell the dinosaurs. Many of these comets come from the Oort cloud, which is a huge halo of small icy objects that surrounds the Sun, out to a distance of about one light year. But rather than being entirely random, there is some evidence that the frequency of comet impacts oscillates on a timescale of about 35 million years.
Although this oscillation is not certain, if it is true, there could be something on that timescale that affects the rate at which comets from the Oort cloud are sent towards Earth. Two possible explanations have been proposed so far. One – dubbed the "nemesis hypothesis" – involves the gravitational pull of an as-yet-undiscovered distant companion star to the Sun. The other involves the oscillating pull of the dense galactic disc as the solar system crosses and re-crosses the plane of the Milky Way.
Physics World: Did dark matter help kill off the dinosaurs?
When I was in elementary school in the public schools of New York City, I distinctly remember that it was important for me to be athletic — in particular, to be able to run fast. I was encouraged by all around me. My reward was the respect and admiration of classmates and especially my streetmates.
In junior high school it was important for me, now that I was certified the “fastest on the block,” to slam-dunk a basketball. To do this you have to jump high and palm the basketball. On April 17, 1973, I was the first in my grade to slam-dunk a basketball. I then asked myself, “Is this all there is to it?” The answer is basically yes, yet one can imagine creative variations such as a 360-degree pirouette in midair preceding the dunk, but you still score only two points.
About the same time, I learned that light, traveling at 186,282 miles per second, moves too slowly to escape from the event horizon of a black hole. This was more astonishing to me than a 360-degree slam-dunk. I soon became scientifically curious and read everything I could find about the universe. I began to see myself as a future scientist — in particular, an astrophysicist. It became a deeply seated dream.
I shortly came to the shattering awareness that few parts of society were prepared to accept my dreams. I wanted to do with my life what people of my skin color were not supposed to do. As an athlete, I did not violate society’s expectations since there was adequate precedent for dark-skinned competitors in the Olympics and in professional sports. To be an astrophysicist, however, became a “path of most resistance.” I began to wonder whether I originally wanted to be an athlete more from society’s interest rather than my own. My brother, Stephen, today a professional artist, could run faster and jump higher than I could. He, too, felt these forces of society.
In high school, nobody probed further about how I became captain of the wrestling team. But when I became editor-in-chief of my school’s annual Physical Science Journal, my qualifications were constantly queried. And when I was accepted to the college of my choice, I was continually asked for my SAT scores and grade point average. Indeed, one fellow student, who worked in the office of the guidance counselor, threatened to find the file in the school records to read my scores himself, if I didn’t tell.
When I first entered graduate school, before transferring to Columbia, I was eager to pursue my dreams of research astrophysics. But the first comment directed to me in the first minute of the first day, by a faculty member whom I had just met was, “You must join our department basketball team.” As the months and years passed, faculty and fellow students, thinking that they were doing me a favor, would suggest alternative careers for me.
“Why don’t you become a computer salesman?”
“Why don’t you teach at a community college?”
“Why don’t you leave astrophysics and academia? You can make much money in industry.”
At no time was I perceived as a future colleague, although this privilege was enjoyed by others in graduate school.
When combined with the dozens of times I have been stopped and questioned by the police for going to and from my office after hours, and the hundreds of times I am followed by security guards in department stores, and the countless times people cross the street upon seeing me approach them on the sidewalk, I can summarize my life’s path by noting the following: in the perception of society, my athletic talents are genetic; I am a likely mugger-rapist; my academic failures are expected; and my academic successes are attributed to others.
Book Excerpt: The Sky is Not the Limit, by Neil deGrasse Tyson on BillMoyers.com
Site: COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey
Mother Jones: Neil deGrasse Tyson on "Cosmos" (source of podcast below)
Hello,
My name is Antwan Floyd Sr. I am a publisher and author of several titles. I am venturing into the graphic novel genre. This will be my first title in this genre. I am currently seeking an artist to illustrate for the novel. The novel will typically be written in 15-20 pages. Not sure as to rather the book will be in black and white, color, or both. Anyone interested please leave a message in my inbox with a link to where I can see your previous work or leave a sample in in my inbox with your rates and turnaround time.
Thank you,
Antwan Floyd Sr.
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| Source: http://wizewomon.blogspot.com/2011/12/hypatia-womon-of-note.html |
This is Women's History Month. As a blog that promotes diversity in the sciences, I'm well aware of it. However, I received my midterm exam from Stevens University on the 28th of February. Solid State Electronics II is no less the challenge than Part I was admittedly. I had two weeks to solve, thus my time was fairly focused. I turned in my test at the deadline. I can for a moment breath on this Ides of March.
Hypatia (pronounced "hi-pay-see-a"): I read her name in the book Cosmos that I downloaded to my Kindle. I looked at the "old school" Cosmos show where Carl Sagan mentions her (starts at 3:25), and her sad fate. She's described as mathematician, astronomer, physicist, philosopher, quite lovely apparently and driver of her own chariot! She was a beloved teacher and by social practice a celibate, no doubt frustrating potential suitors of her day.
Interestingly as I predicted to some casually offline, Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey has already had its detractors of the "young Earth"/humans with dinosaurs/faux debate between Evolution and so-called Intelligent Design variety. The odd and breathtaking display of hypocrisy in most of the trolls taking to the Internet - notably in 140 misspelled characters or less - created by the very science and modern physics they rail against; supporting pseudoscience in their destructive wake.
A certain part of the reptilian portion of our minds attacks instinctively that which we think challenges our belief systems - and thus us. Time and again, we've seen the razing of cities, the flaying of martyrs, the murder of not only the person, but new ideas that would take the species forward. This of course, all for adherence to a dogma. Supposedly through evangelism, it is meant as a "sell," and thus adherence is voluntary - zealotry and fanaticism turns it involuntary; totalitarian. Authoritarianism becomes our governance and its dogmatic ruling class the thought police. Sadly, I can't help but think if part of the mob that set upon Hypatia and ended her life so tragically were peopled by members of her own gender, suffering from what would in the 20th century gain the name "Stockholm Syndrome."
I often fear intolerance will rear its ugly head again and plunge us all over the abyss with it, as it did Alexandria, Egypt. They executed Hypatia...for the "crime" of thinking critically and independently of the lordship of patriarchal society. The saying goes "teach a woman and you teach a generation." The library, like Hypatia, soon expired after her forced passing.
For these and other reasons, I will support Dr. Tyson and the relaunch of Cosmos. As Dr. Sagan states above, we "must not let it happen again."
"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known as George Santayana
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Went to a place on the continent we all know and love. The host told me eons ago some visitors built a large box with a glass top and buried it in the sand. We put the market on top of it, been that way ever since. It was a shanty town. Women sitting on door stoops making things to sell and kids running in the street. Ragged shantys as far as one could see. They all were similar, corrugated top, sides and an Nubian arched doorway. I thought it was an unusual feature. To spend so much effort to have such an elegant door when the rest of the house was so shabby, there must be a reason.
I stayed in the visitors sector, a hotel with views overlooking the whole town, had everything to make a guest happy only not so big. Hey you wouldn't want to out shine the locals too much now would you? I asked the clerk, why the people were so content in such obvious poverty. He chuckled and under his breath he said practice. He said out loud talk to my host which I did.
My host Carl was a fine man with the most mischievous children, I still think he was running game on me. His youngest picked my pocket, was off down the street with my wallet. Carl laughed, I was not amused and dashed after him. He ran into a twisted rusted old shack, I was dead on his heels. Through the arch of the doorway he went and just as he was a few feet on the other side I let out a gasp that would startle a herd of camels. Opulence, colors, bright colors, flowing curtains, a sweet breeze instead of rusted iron air and birds singing. I felt the tiny hand push my wallet into my hand and the small voice apologized. Carl came in he couldn't contain himself, doubled over in laughter. This is our space via the arch. It folds space so that we each can have as much space as we want. I asked, is it virtual, or something he put in my food? He showed me many rooms all laid out and a spacious court yard and a deck over the sea. We came back through the arch, same old dusty street. I tore away, ran back into the shack to see if I was dreaming. Crashed into a table not far from the door in the middle of the shack. A stack of pots I knocked over made a terrible racket. When I came out Carl was in fits. His neighbor smiled and said the arch teaches great wisdom too. Permission to enter is by it's owner only.
I never told a soul, till today.
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| A rendering shows a beam of light interacting with an optical nanocavity. The nanocavity boosts light absorption in ultrathin semiconductors. Credit: Advanced Materials |
By Cory Nealon
Release Date: March 5, 2014
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Associated with unhappy visits to the dentist, “cavity” means something else in the branch of physics known as optics.
Put simply, an optical cavity is an arrangement of mirrors that allows beams of light to circulate in closed paths. These cavities help us build things like lasers and optical fibers used for communications.
Now, an international research team pushed the concept further by developing an optical “nanocavity” that boosts the amount of light that ultrathin semiconductors absorb. The advancement could lead to, among other things, more powerful photovoltaic cells and faster video cameras; it also could be useful for splitting water using energy from light, which could aid in the development of hydrogen fuel.
The team, comprised of faculty and students from the University at Buffalo and two Chinese universities, presented its findings Feb. 24 in the journal Advanced Materials. The paper, called “Nanocavity enhancement for ultra-thin film optical absorber,” is available here: http://bit.ly/1bGGIbO.
University of Buffalo: An (optical) cavity that you want
"As soon as a character of color is introduced in a story, imagination stops". Toni Morrison
As a young boy, I loved The Twilight Zone, The Planet of the Apes and anything that provided insight into other worlds and possibilities.
It is only as we age, that we learn dreaming and committing to difference, exploration and comfortability with difference can and often does make you an outsider.
A young black child who loves Science Fiction is asking for a heap of trouble and ridicule.
Collectively, we (black folks) have been tortured and brutalized as a result of "difference" and should look to new worlds as places that not only allow dreaming but adamantly encourage it.
Black folks need all the thinking and devotion to self defining that Sci Fi will allow.
As a teacher to young Black and Hispanic teenagers in an alternative high school, I discovered what prevented several of my students from expecting and striving for excellence. None of them had ever seen anyone who looked like them leading a revolution, being self defining or self creating.
It is difficult to design a life of forward movement if there is no tangible example of what is possible.
My baby sister is a lawyer.
She has watched her mother and several family friends attend law school and obtain jobs in their chosen field.
Dreaming of and then becoming an attorney was not an impossibility for her.
We all need vivid and tangible examples of accomplishments and what the price is for achieving our life's objectives.
Science Fiction lets our imaginations soar. We need creativity that reinvents us and what we can achieve.
At 27, I finally got around to reading Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower.
In this wonderful book, the protagonist, a young black girl of fifteen invents a religion, leads a sojourn and makes herself the center of a movement based in love, communion with others, a sharing of resources and the questioning of God.
Many black folks I know associate the Sci Fi world with whiteness, green little men, silver suits and the questioning of the definition of God given to us by the Judeo Christian ethic we were all reared in.
I once had a very intense debate with my sister about the demons, witches , etc in the Harry Potter series. Apparently, magic, sorcery and all the rest of that "mess" was something that our young people shouldn't read. My argument was that as long as a child is reading does it matter what the material is if it opens his mind and leads to more reading and knowledge hunger.
When the adults around me lied, were irrational or flat out denied reality, it was this genre and all reading that provided solace and sanity.
It was clear that there were other ways of living and being.
The Twilight Zone forced me to consider other worlds where the rules were different. This brilliant show also let me know about the human condition and that I could hope for and demand more in my life.
This is Sci Fi's greatest strength.
Like Shakespeare's work, it illuminates humanity and all its complicated and endlessly annoying traits and foibles. It allows us to examine our lives and our choices through the lenses of another time and space. We are encouraged to move beyond voyeuristic consumption of other worlds.
It forces us to imagine our lives and whether we harm or help others when certain situations arise.
As a young kid unable to hide his homosexuality, I was bullied from childhood through college. I learned to thrive amidst a world and people bent on destroying me.
As I began my teaching career, I noticed that this part of the educational experience had not vanished or been dealt with constructively.
To combat this horrid fact, I began to introduce my favorite Science Fiction Short Stories.
My personal favorite: Those Who Walk Away From Omelas, provided my young students with a case of the "willies" and always sparked a great deal of conversation regarding domination, bullying and fair treatment for all.
So many of the themes and struggles are recognizable no matter the time period.
We must take our place in worlds wherein animals and inanimate objects speak, reason and wage war.
Is it impossible to consider worlds where we matter ? Is it impossible to imagine a world where diversity works and oppression is nonexistent ?
Visiting and dabbling in different worlds with different intelligences could provide a great deal of insight into modern day problems.
We often are able to invent solutions when the results are not life threatening.
Pick up some Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, Ursula Le guin and Daryl Sturgis' Solstice.
These wonderful authors are effortlessly and poignantly(brilliantly) offering us characters and worlds that could be implemented in current society and beyond.
Be fearless in your explorations and expectations.
