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Materials shape human progress—think Stone Age or Bronze Age. The 21st century has been referred to as the molecular age, a time when scientists are beginning to manipulate materials at the atomic level to create new substances with astounding properties.



Taking a step in that direction, Jens Bauer, at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and his colleagues have developed a bone-like material that is less dense than water but as strong as some forms of steel. "This is the first experimental proof that such materials can exist," Bauer said.



Ars Technica: New laser-printed material is lighter than water, as strong as steel

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Plasma Etching...

Image from Black Inventors

Plasma etching utilizes a gas excited/ionized in an electromagnetic field into a plasma - the fourth state of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma). Etching is how the semiconductor industry transfers a pattern in a photomask (a designed chrome mask) using UV light and photoresist. The resist captures the pattern, and is developed like photos (in old-style film and a camera). The plasma uses physical as well as chemical processes that react with the film to remove it leaving the exposed pattern. The resist is usually stripped away before subsequent processing in the wafer fab.

Plasma etch is used to transfer that pattern (s) becoming the integrated circuits in your cell phone; remote control; your thermostat in your home; your security system; your laptop; its mouse, servers for banks and the Internet: basically everything electronic you can think of.



You have the genius of this man to thank for it:



Physicist George Edward Alcorn, Jr. is best known for his development of the imaging x-ray spectrometer. Born on March 22, 1940 to working class parents, Alcorn was an excellent student and star athlete. He was awarded an academic scholarship to Occidental College in Pasadena, California, where he completed his B.A. in Physics in 1962. From there, Alcorn pursued graduate studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He earned his master’s degree in nuclear physics in 1963, and his Ph.D. in atomic and molecular physics in 1967.



At NASA Alcorn developed the imaging x-ray spectrometer. An x-ray spectrometer assists scientists in identifying a material by producing an x-ray spectrum of it, allowing it to be examined visually. This is especially advantageous when the material is not able to be broken down physically. Alcorn patented his “method for fabricating an imaging x-ray spectrometer” in 1984. He was cited for his method’s innovative use of the thermomigration of aluminum. For this achievement he was recognized with the NASA/GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center) Inventor of the Year Award.



Alcorn is credited with more than 20 inventions, and holds at least eight U.S. and international patents, many of these related to the semiconductor industry. For instance, he developed an improved method of fabrication employing laser drilling, and a process for improving the process of plasma etching.



MIT Inventors of the week: George Edward Alcorn, Jr. PhD
Plasma Etching: Dr. Lynn Fuller, RIT
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NA62...


In autumn this year a brand new experiment at CERN called NA62 will start taking data and it will have the exciting goal of seeking physics beyond the Standard Model. The physicists working on it are now in the final stages of installing their 270-m-long experiment on the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) – which itself has a circumference of 7 km and feeds protons into the Large Hadron Collider. The NA62 collaboration comprises about 150 physicists at 20 institutes worldwide and its primary aim is to make an extremely precise measurement of the probability that a positively charged kaon will decay to a positively charged pion plus a neutrino/antineutrino pair.



Physics World: NA62 joins the search for new physics at CERN

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Diaspora, 7 February 2014 (Repost)


I've discussed my own past before, and on a recent visit to South Carolina, I found out how things haven't much changed. My cousin and our family historian were granted a tour of the plantation that my Great-Grandfather Julius and his wife Epsy lived. They toured the grounds and the slave quarters. They were then told they (and by extension, any other family member) were "invited to never come again." Sad...




This is not physics obviously, but the tabulation of the cost of service - never paid, mind you - is quite accurate, and it expresses the time-worn phrase: "living well is the best revenge" (George Herbert).
Escaped slaves in Virginia, 1862, Library of Congress


Source of letter: The Freedmen's Book and Letters of Note

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee


Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.




I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.




As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.




In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson

Jourdon: Touché!

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inserting the "A" into STEM

STEM, Science Technology Engineering Math. It is a wonderful concoction of techno giberish of the kind that is suppose to fix us but good. Can you imagine the cold hard logic and precision of the human mentality, analytical, circuits, machines, synthetics, bio-nano-techno-diversity. Give me the gadget, show me the numbers!! What happens when there is no longer a big red push button for stop? If you put STEM in your children, can you live with the results? When that child has to apply STEM to the real world you still live in. Ooh man, show me the shuttle so I can get off this rock.

Schools cut art first to save sports. Sports, the gladiator games, OK! You can learn teamwork and grunt for physical excellence. Gladiators are good for military stuff too. And sports make money and head injuries. He's a 4.0 athlete but head butting pulverized his brain to a palsy. Dr. So and so used to be a football player and.... Oh nurse, I'm want to check out of here!

To save us from becoming totally inert, add an "A" to STEM. "A" is for ART.

What does "art" bring to the table? Design, color, composition, human sensibility, humanity. Art is in the box and out the box and use a bag if necessary. Art is the application of STEM according to us, the elegant solution that is workable, accommodates who we are, makes us comfortable, improves us, gets the job done and were not dead or dying. Art is our fingerprint. Art is the application of STEM. Without art, STEM is just research, theory. Art is visualization, planning, prototyping, producing and deployment of the final piece.

Lots of mumbo-jumbo talk by educators about STEM. It's like tooting your own horn. But if you want to play a melody you need one more note, an "A". When art is in there you can apply your STEM to what is needed.

I'm not knocking STEM, just letting off a little STEAM.

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Gas Masks and Stoplights...

Garrett Morgan

In 1912, Morgan developed another invention, much different from his hair straightener. Morgan called it a Safety Hood and patented it as a Breathing Device, but the world came to know it as a Gas Mask. The Safety Hood consisted of a hood worn over the head of a person from which emanated a tube which reached near the ground and allowed in clean air. The bottom of the tube was lined with a sponge type material that would help to filter the incoming air. Another tube existed which allowed the user to exhale air out of the device. Morgan intended the device to be used "to provide a portable attachment which will enable a fireman to enter a house filled with thick suffocating gases and smoke and to breathe freely for some time therein, and thereby enable him to perform his duties of saving life and valuables without danger to himself from suffocation. The device is also efficient and useful for protection to engineers, chemists and working men who are obliged to breathe noxious fumes or dust derived from the materials in which they are obliged to work."



The National Safety Device Company, with Morgan as its General Manager was set up to manufacture and sell the device and it was demonstrated at various exhibitions across the country. At the Second International Exposition of Safety and Sanitation, the device won first prize and Morgan was award a gold medal. While demonstrations were good for sales, the true test of the product would come only under real life circumstances.



That opportunity arose on July 24, 1916 when an explosion occurred in a tunnel being dug under Lake Erie by the Cleveland Water Works. The tunnel quickly filled with smoke, dust and poisonous gases and trapped 32 workers underground. They were feared lost because no means of safely entering and rescuing them was known. Fortunately someone at the scene remembered about Morgan's invention and ran to call him at his home where he was relaxing. Garrett and his brother Frank quickly arrived at the scene, donned the Safety Hood and entered the tunnel. After a heart wrenching delay, Garrett appeared from the tunnel carrying a survivor on his back as did his brother seconds later. The crowd erupted in a staggering applause and Garrett and Frank reentered the tunnel, this time joined by two other men. While they were unable to save all of the workers, the were able to rescue many who would otherwise have certainly died. Reaction to Morgan's device and his heroism quickly spread across the city and the country as newspapers picked up on the story. Morgan received a gold medal from a Cleveland citizens group as well as a medal from the International Association of Fire Engineers, which also made him an honorary member.


Although he could have relied on the income his Gas Masks generated, Morgan felt compelled to try to solve safety problems of the day. One day he witnessed a traffic accident when an automobile collided with a horse and carriage. The driver of the automobile was knocked unconscious and the horse had to be destroyed. He set out to develop a means of automatically directing traffic without the need of a policeman or worker present. He patented an automatic traffic signal which he said could be "operated for directing the flow of traffic" and providing a clear and unambiguous "visible indicator."


Satisfied with his efforts, Morgan sold the rights to his device to the General Electric Company for the astounding sum of $40,000.00 and it became the standard across the country. Today's modern traffic lights are based upon Morgan's original design.



Black Inventor: Garrett Morgan

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The "Jackie Robinson" of P&G...

WCPO 9, Cincinnati, Ohio

From "The African History Network":



Did you know that Crest Toothpaste, Folgers Coffee, Bounce Fabric Softener and Safeguard Soap were all created by an African-American Man? I have talked about Dr. Herbert Smitherman Sr. before on The African History Network Show before. In 2011 I spoke at an 8th grade graduation and told the audience about him to show them their potential. Most of the audience including parents had never heard of him and were amazed by his story.



Dr. Herbert Smitherman was a pioneering executive and professional chemist at Proctor & Gamble who led the way for other African-Americans at the prestigious company in the 1960s. He was the first black person with a doctorate hired at Proctor & Gamble.



With a PhD in physical organic chemistry, Dr. Smitherman developed a number of incredibly popular patents, including Crest toothpaste, Safeguard soap, Bounce fabric softeners, Biz, Folgers Coffee and Crush soda, to name a few. Not only are they still on the shelves, but many of them are on display at the Cincinnati Museum Center in the featured exhibit, “America I AM: The African-American Imprint.”



Nicknamed the “Jackie Robinson of Proctor & Gamble,” Dr. Smitherman spent 29 years there before turning in his labcoat to work as a professor at Wilberforce University. But after serving at the historically black college, Smitherman turned his attention to starting a high school called the Western Hills Design Technology School to help black students perform better in math and science.



A child of the south, Dr. Smitherman’s family lived in Birmingham, Alabama, where his father served as a reverend. A young Smitherman would see his father’s church burn down twice during their push for voting registration and voting rights.



He died on Oct. 9, 2010.



Black America Web: Dr. Herbert C. Smitherman Sr.
Cincinnati Herald: Dr. Herbert C Smitherman Sr broke barriers
Cincinnati NAACP: Dr. Herbert C. Smitherman

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Energy Teleportation...

See link below

Energy could be moved over long distances by quantum teleportation, according to calculations done by a team of physicists in Japan. While energy teleportation is not a new concept, it had been thought that the amount of energy that could be sent dropped rapidly beyond short distances. The new proposal removes this shortcoming, allowing energy to be transferred much farther. The team believes that the theory could be verified in a semiconductor device and that similar energy teleportation could have occurred in the early universe.




Quantum teleportation is a remarkable idea that was first proposed by IBM's Charles Bennett and colleagues in 1992. It involves two parties, usually called Alice and Bob, who "teleport" a quantum state between each other. The scheme allows Alice to send information about an unknown quantum state to Bob, who is then able to construct a perfect copy of that state. To do so, the pair exchange classical information while sharing particles that are entangled quantum mechanically with each other. Physicists have since been able to teleport atomic states over distances of several metres and photon states over distances greater than 100 km.






While this formulation of quantum teleportation does not provide a means to exchange energy, in 2008 Masahiro Hotta of Tohoku University unveiled a theory explaining how energy could be teleported. In Hotta's formulation, Alice sends Bob the information that he needs to extract energy from the vacuum. This extraction is possible because in quantum field theory the vacuum is not devoid of energy but contains virtual particles that continually bubble-up and then vanish.



Physics World: Energy can be teleported over long distances, say physicists

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Conception!

A sequel to Discovery, the second in a series by William Hayashi. In Discovery the world discovers black people on the moon. Conception reveals how black people got there and why. First of all, the black lunar inhabitants are African American. Second, they are all experts in various STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields. Their knowledge makes them vastly qualified to meet the challenges of building and sustaining a habitat in an extraterrestrial environment. Their heritage provides the grievances fueling their drive to leave Earth, specifically the United States. The story centers around Benjamin Christopher Wright, a brilliant graduate student in physics who discovers a revolutionary new technology.

Realizing the world shaking implications of his discovery and fearing for his safety Christopher opts to keep this technology a secret. Christopher's bitterness over his father's death alienates him from American society. So much so that he embarks on an ambitious plan to use his discovery to relocate to the moon. He enlists the aid of childhood friends in his project. Soon, he and his team recruit hundreds of similarly alienated African Americans to populate his lunar utopia.

The research the author poured into this work shows in the authenticity of the science and technology depicted in the story. Real world tech is seamlessly woven into the fantastical tech underlying the characters' ability to travel back and forth between the moon and Earth. Other advances made by the moon colonists, from an interactive AI to anti-aging is equally plausible.

The characters are well defined and powerfully motivated. Christopher is a force of nature throughout the book. His determination to build a new civilization away from what he sees as the ills of American society is wrapped in a seething rage that pulsates from each page. Conception is a story about process. It's a step by step journey to the moon, detailing successes, setbacks, and subterfuge. It is also a story about a collision course. Because now the secret is out and a few thousand colonists who have thrived on the moon for decades will face a world determined to obtain their technology one way or another. How this confrontation unfolds will be revealed in book 3. Stay tuned!

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Investing Wisely...


Meanwhile, the US has yet to get a clue...
T-shirt Guru



Further details have emerged of a new £270m initiative being funded by the UK government to convert quantum-physics research into commercial products. The five-year initiative, which will include the creation of a network of quantum-technology centres, was one of a number of measures revealed by the government in its Autumn Statement in early December 2013 to boost the UK's science base. The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne says that the money was "additional investment" in research and that science was a "personal priority" of his.



The initiative, which will begin in 2015, will focus on areas such as chip-scale atomic clocks for improved GPS communication, quantum-enabled sensors, quantum communication and quantum computing. Some cash will go to existing university research groups, while about £30m per year will go to the Technology Strategy Board – the UK's national innovation agency – to support immediate commercialization of technology. There will also be money for PhD students and postdocs, while some £4m will go on equipment for the new Advanced Metrology Laboratory being built at the National Physical Laboratory.



Physics World: UK splashes out £270m on quantum technology

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American Specter by Rasheedah Prioleau.


The blog tour is coming to an end!  I want to thank BSFS and Genesis Science Fiction Radio for kicking off the American Spector blog tour weekend!  The interview was incredible and you can listen in here: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/127374

The book launches tomorrow and in celebration I am having a Virtual Book Release Party, on Facebook, Twitter and right here on the BSFS website from 3pm-9pm EST.  You can sign up ahead of time on my website www.rasheedahprioleau.com for early bird giveaways.  

If you want a sneak peak here you go:

American Specter Sneak Peeks! 
Prologue: http://t.co/SISMC5iQhx 
Chapter 1:http://t.co/q7d6TMT85R
Chapter 2: http://t.co/EtzNVAefEf

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Frontiers of Quantum Information Science was the theme for the 31st Jerusalem winter school in theoretical physics, which takes place annually at the Israeli Institute for Advanced Studies located on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The school took place from December 30, 2013 through January 9, 2014, but some of the attendees are still trickling back to their home institutions. The common denominator is that our very own John Preskill was the director of this school; co-directed by Michael Ben-Or and Patrick Hayden. John mentioned during a previous post and reiterated during his opening remarks that this is the first time the IIAS has chosen quantum information to be the topic for its prestigious advanced school–another sign of quantum information’s emergence as an important sub-field of physics. In this blog post, I’m going to do my best to recount these festivities while John protects his home from forest fires, prepares a talk for the Simons Institute’s workshop on Hamiltonian complexity, teaches his quantum information course and celebrates his birthday 60+1.



The school was mainly targeted at physicists, but it was diversely represented. Proof of the value of this diversity came in an interaction between a computer scientist and a physicist, which led to one of the school’s most memorable moments.

Quantum Frontiers: Reporting from the ‘Frontiers of Quantum Information Science’

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Genesis of Uhura...

Source: Memory Alpha link below


Reading for Uhura...

Naming Uhura...

Discussing Uhura...


Memory Alpha: Nyota Uhura, literally "star freedom" or "freedom star," an allusion to the Underground Railroad. In some translations, Uhuru also means "truth."

The book Ms. Nichols refers to: "UHURU: A Novel of Africa Today," Hardcover – January 1, 1962, Robert Ruark.
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Ouverture...

Source: Omega Deone Wilhite on FB

The Challenger Disaster happened 28 years ago last month, 28 January 1986. Dr. McNair, along with Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Christa McAuliffe, and Gregory B. Jarvis became the sad reminders of the sometimes grim price of exploration and adventure.



I open African American/Black History Month ("ouverture" - en Francais) with some recollections I've posted previously on this blog, as well as Langston Hughes' "I Too" poem reenactment, born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. Mr. Hughes and Dr. McNair were fraternity brothers in the Greek Letter organization known as Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc (part of the "Divine Nine"). I do not know if either man ever met the other...



Discovery article: The Physics of...Karate

I recalled having met Dr. McNair when I was an undergraduate Engineering Physics major at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro back in '84. He's an alumni of the university, and we celebrated him being the 1st black astronaut from an HBCU. I was in Air Force ROTC, marched in the parade in his honor after his first mission, and introduced him at the Army/Air Force ROTC joint banquet. It was a busy weekend.



"Whenever you're in Texas, you should give me a call."



So I did. I lived in Austin, Texas at the time, stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base (now the airport). Back then, I called information; asked for Dr. Ronald E. McNair in Houston, Texas. That was as close to "Google it" as we got back then.



I got to speak to him for a good three hours. I found out some things:


  • 5 weeks before his dissertation defense, someone purged his data (also known as sabotage). Without data, he'd essentially have failed to get his PhD. He said he stayed up for 3 weeks and re-accomplished 5 years of research. He slept for a week after that.
  • He was planning to leave NASA and go into academia. Challenger would be "his last mission." That was sadly true. It devastated me, and inspired some creative writing in his honor.
  • A lot of his determination he learned as a participant on the school karate team, which a the time. According to my Calculus instructor and his teammate Dr. Gilbert Casterlow (Sensei), you could get a disqualification for "unnecessary redness of the skin." The rule was designed not to favor African Americans, obviously.


Recalling this makes me determined to stay in science, contribute, help when and if I can, and stand on the shoulder of this and other giants (he was actually only 5'6", but you get the idea).




“When getting an education is a revolutionary act & dreams are the province of men,” Stanley Tucci.
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Mathematical Physics...


Physics Database: In this course from the Perimeter Institute Carl Bender introduces the basics of mathematical physics. The covered topics include: perturbation theory, asymptotics, Schrodinger equation, Shanks transform, eigenvalue problems, Euler summation, divergent series and others. For more physics lectures check out our lecture page.
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Permittivity Measurements...

FIG. 2.
SEM micrographs of the KTN thin films deposited on (a) MgO and (b) LaAlO3.
Citation: J. Appl. Phys. 115, 024103 (2014); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4858388

ABSTRACT



The dielectric properties of a KTa0.65Nb0.35O3 ferroelectric composition for a submicronic thin layer were measured in the microwave domain using different electromagnetic characterization methods. Complementary experimental techniques (broadband methods versus resonant techniques, waveguide versus transmission line) and complementary data processing procedures (quasi-static theoretical approaches versus full-wave analysis) were selected to investigate the best way to characterize ferroelectric thin films. The measured data obtained from the cylindrical resonant cavity method, the experimental method that showed the least sources of uncertainty, were taken as reference values for comparisons with results obtained using broadband techniques. The error analysis on the methods used is discussed with regard to the respective domains of validity for each method; this enabled us to identify the best experimental approach for obtaining an accurate determination of the microwave dielectric properties of ferroelectric thin layers.



© 2014 AIP Publishing LLC

Scitation:
Intercomparison of permittivity measurement techniques for ferroelectric thin layers

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