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HD-DVDs and Nanotech...


Researchers at the University of Missouri in the US have shown how surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based fluorescence amplification platforms can be produced at very low cost by using features found in commercially available HD-DVDs as a starting mold. The group reports that the discs, which come pre-fabricated with sub-micron-sized grating patterns, have the right dimensions to couple surface plasmons in the visible range.

Sensing platform: plasmonic gratings fabricated using HD-DVDs



Nano-gaps are important
In the study, the scientists used a simple PDMS-based microcontact printing/replication process to reproduce the surface features of an HD-DVD-R disc (dissected into two parts to reveal the grating pattern on the inner side of the polycarbonate substrate) on conventional glass substrates. An important consequence of the fabrication process was the generation of defects in the form of nano-gaps that cut across the printed gratings.

Nanogap

The presence of nanogaps within the grating structures led to substantial field localization and amplification – propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) travel as surface waves with high field intensity towards the metallic nanogap where the sudden field discontinuity causes “extreme crowding” of the surface charges, leading to very high field intensities.


Nanotech Web Lab Talk:
HD-DVDs provide low-cost starting mould for fabricating plasmonic gratings
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BaBar Time Reversal...

BaBar (Physics World) - Wikipedia explains how it was named

The BaBar collaboration has made the first direct observation of time-reversal (T) violation. The results are in agreement with the basic tenets of quantum field theory and reveal differences in the rates at which the quantum states of the B0meson transform into one another. The researchers say that this measured lack of symmetry is statistically significant and consistent with indirect observations.

 

The BaBar detector at the PEP-II facility at SLAC in California was designed to study the collisions of electrons and positrons and to determine the differences between matter and antimatter. In particular, physicists working on the experiment are interested in the violation of the charge–parity symmetry (or CP violation). Although the detector was decommissioned in the spring of 2008, data collected during the period of operation continue to be analysed.


Physics World:

Nature:

SLAC:

Science Daily:
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47XX

A morsel from my upcoming novel, TIC ONLINE. Please enjoy.

Various tests were conducted on the upgraded SmartSkin over a five-year period, with NAVYSPACE scientists discovering that there was no increase in physical attributes in all of the male test subjects. Female test subjects, however, outperformed their male counterparts 100 percent of the time, showing all the desired increases in speed, strength, and lethality with absolutely zero side effects. No one knows for sure why this is so but it is hypothesized and argued often that the female karyotype simply “works” with the special operations version of the S3BS, and because of this the special operations SmartSkin is more commonly known in the field as the 47XX. The 47XX allows its wearer to jump higher, hit harder, run faster, and kill more effectively than their male counterparts.

Considered the best of the best, Tameka Gates took the 47XX and rewrote the book on how to conduct special operations with over forty missions and a flawless success rate, making her the number-one-rated asset in the fleet. Lonewolf, Gates’s former pupil, planned to take that book and incinerate it. Thomas studied under Gates for three long, agonizing years. Three years of insults and hazing, nigh effective against Thomas’s unwavering confidence. Three long years of tagging along and taking unwarranted punishment from Gates while on missions gave Thomas the training and tools to quickly become the new go to asset in the fleet. Not much was known about this Georgia native, donning customized black armor and armed with a fuel cell accelerated .50-caliber sniper rifle dubbed “Cherokee Rose.” Thomas’s missions ranged from reconnaissance, sabotage, tactical extractions, and wetworks. Feeling her number-one spot quickly slipping away, Gates’s alpha female attitude, coupled with her explosive temper, had gotten her pulled from several jobs, opening the door for Thomas, among several other operatives, to move up the ranks. Gates now loathed her former apprentice and her rapid ascension to the special ops corps de’ elite, The Valkyries.

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Monday PAnd0RA 001 returns to keep you going after the holiday and with a new official cover for the series! Special thanks to Artist Ken Bishop for not getting bent about the unofficial use of his work 'Maja'. PAnd0RA finds her presence aboard the Interstellar Transport, DROMEDARY has made her a celebrity. Learning to contend with her sometimes rabid 'Fans' and life with her new companion Captain Gital to be quite a challenge. While the pinnacle of Android engineering navigates life aboard her new home, a crack Contingency Team is in pursuit of the DROMEDARY to retrieve its mysterious cargo. PAnd0RA's curiosity continues to grow concerning the undocumented Gray Transport BOX, but what lay inside may be more than she or anyone in the Galaxy wants to know! Will the Contingency Team arrive in time to claim the BOX before PAnd0RA's curiosity gets the best of her? Answers will be revealed in 'The PAnd0RA Ultimatum' EPISODE TWO: A Tale of W.O.E.S.

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COLONY (excerpt) *Warning Adult Content*

(Sneak peek of my forthcoming novel)

In the North air traffic tower above Old San Francisco, Willie, a short light-brown man with a thick afro, sat in his swivel chair with jazz flowing through his ear plugs and an open book on his lap. Music was one of the few things that hadn’t died with earth’s decline. A few libraries, crumbling dilapidated buildings that they were, had survived. They were free too, for anyone who had a mind to visit them. The diskettes had survived as well, and Willie was a music lover. He had hundreds of them that he kept in his satchel.

The tower was now used exclusively for monitoring extra-terrestrial contact. In the twenty years since the tower had been converted, there hadn’t been any. Only one employee maintained the upper tower staff.

The monitors were blank and, as always, Willie was alone on his night-duty shift. Hence, the ear plugs. It was a dream job. I ain’t got to do nothing but show up…bring some music, a book and ride the clock.

He glanced over at the screens. Flat lines. So what else is new? and dropped his head back to the crime novel in his lap.     

He didn’t hear the young woman come in. She was shapely and dark, with a long braid of hair hanging down her back. And she was dressed in the totally unpractical Early Earth grab, if you weren’t rich, of jeans and t-shirt. She walked over to Willie. He felt her presence, and jumped in surprise at the sight of her.

The young man snatched his ear plugs out. “You ain’t supposed to be in here! How’d you get in?”

“I know the guard.”

Damn she fine! Her pert breasts with their dark nipples were poking through her shirt like bee stings. And she had a tiny waist tapering down to wide, luscious hips. She ain’t wearing a bra, either.

“Well…” he stammered, “what you want?”

The young woman smiled fetchingly, displaying the dimple in the corner of her rosebud mouth, batted her lashes over her big brown eyes, and moved in close so that (censored) was right in front of his face. Willie restrained himself from licking his lips.

“You baby…” she simpered.

The young man’s lips spread in a wide goofy smile. Then he checked himself. This fine **** could be a plant! “You’re not supposed to be in here Miss!” he said again gruffly. “You need to leave. Now.”

In answer, she pulled her shirt over her head. Both her nipples and her navel were pierced.

“Damn!” Willie exploded. She started to unbutton her pants. “Wait!” he said. “Not here!” he jumped up, ran past her to the door opened it and looked up and down the hallway. “Come on!” he hissed waving her over.

They scooted out of the room and into the first broom closet on his left. “I’m Willie…what’s your name?”

“Melody,” she whispered. “I live in your dome…I been watching you…You look so good…” All the while, she was slipping out of her jeans. She wasn’t wearing any panties.

And Willie had stopped listening...

Copyright Valjeanne Jeffers 2012 all rights reserved.

Read the short story atamazon,nookand smashwords. The Full novel will be available later this year :)!

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4 Degrees of Separation...

To give you an idea of scale: a 4°C rise in global temperatures (by itself) equals 39.2°F.

 

°C * (9/5) + 32 = °F

 

25°C * (9/5) + 32 = 77°F
26°C * (9/5) + 32 = 78.8°F
27°C * (9/5) + 32 = 80.6°F
28°C * (9/5) + 32 = 82.4°F

29°C * (9/5) + 32 = 84.2°F

 

25°C equals 77°F (room temperature), so an increase of 4°C is 84.2°F (sweat, fans and AC).


Over the years at the U.N. climate talks, the goal has been to keep future global warming below 2°C. But as those talks have faltered, emissions have kept rising, and that 2°C goal is now looking increasingly out of reach. Lately, the conversation has shifted toward how to deal with 3°C of warming. Or 4°C. Or potentially more.
Drought in Yunnan Province, China

And that topic has made a lot of people awfully nervous. Case in point: The World Bank just commissioned an analysis (pdf) by scientists at the Potsdam Institute looking at the consequences of a 4°C rise in global temperatures above pre-industrial levels by 2100. And the report appears to have unnerved many bank officials. “The latest predictions on climate change should shock us into action,” wrote World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in an op-ed after the report was released Monday.



So what exactly has got the World Bank so worried? Partly it’s the prospect that a 4°C world could prove difficult—perhaps impossible—for many poorer countries to adapt to.

Washington Post:

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OPENING RECEPTION NOV. 19th: "20 Years: Living In The Black Age!" This is the Black Age display and group art / multimedia exhibition at ONLI STUDIOS on the 4th floor of the Bridgeport Art Center. Also it will feature a screening of the historic DVD "Black Age Central" featuring the late & great L.A. Banks, from the 2010 Black Age of Comics Convention: Featuring creatives like Arie Monroe, John Jennings, Mshindo Kuumba I, Jamal Igle, Afua Richardson, Corey Greene, Rebeckah Younger, Eric Battle, N. Steven Harris, Turtel Onli and more.   The landmark "Black Comix" coffee table resource book and a variety of Black Age graphic novels will also be available for researchers or collectors.  Ours is such a growing community.  Black Age Central can be seen on YouTube under the same name.  ONLI STUDIOS is located at the Bridgeport Art Center.

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 One: Downtown Boston 2199   

It is early spring in Boston, Massachusetts. The city is inhabited by humans and robots that walk and drive there hover cars and hover cycles in the streets carrying out there everyday tasks. Officers who uphold the national lockdown law patrol the streets. They walk on the streets carrying their laser rifles and pistols they also patrol there riding their hover cycles. 12 ft. 2000lb metal bipedal robots called IncBots who are heavily armed with laser weapons aid them. Two hover cars descend and land down on the surface of Tremont St. The car doors vertically open up. Three men get out of the car, one Asian man named Lee who is 5ft 7in tall, stalky build one black man named Mike who is 6ft 5 in. tall, athletically build and one white man named Peter who is 6ft even, muscular build. One of them takes one drag from a cigarette then he exhales the smoke and then thumps it on the cement sidewalk. "Hey you put your litter in its proper receptacle that's an order" the 2000lb, heavily armed bipedal Incbot shouted. "Sure thing" Peter replied. Mike walks over to the other hover car parked in back, the window rolls down on the driver's side. The beautiful face of an Indian woman whose name is Shana is revealed. "You all coming in the café with us" Mike asked. "No baby, we're going to ride around the town a bit, see what's happening" Shana responded. Mike runs his hand through Shana's long, ebony black silky hair and kisses her lips. "See you later baby,” she said. "Not if I see you first" Mike replied winking his eye at Shana. The window rolls up, the hover engine ignites and the car vertically and emerges into the ongoing air traffic. Mike, Peter and Lee walk into café, they sit down at a table at the far end.

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First Star on the Right...

HubbleSite

November 15, 2012: By combining the power of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and one of nature's own natural "zoom lenses" in space, astronomers have set a new distance record for finding the farthest galaxy yet seen in the universe. The diminutive blob, which is only a tiny fraction of the size of our Milky Way galaxy, offers a peek back into a time when the universe was 3 percent of its present age of 13.7 billion years. The newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, is observed 420 million years after the big bang. Its light has traveled 13.3 billion years to reach Earth.

 

HubbleSite: NASA Great Observatories Find Candidate for Most Distant Galaxy Yet Known

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What More...

Scientific American - more at link below

Earlier this week, evidence was presented measuring a very rare decay rate — albeit not incredibly precisely — which point towards the Standard Model being it as far as new particles accessible to colliders (such as the LHC) go. In other words, unless we get hit by a big physics surprise, the LHC will become renowned for having found the Higgs Boson and nothing else, meaning that there’s no window into what lies beyond the Standard Model via traditional experimental particle physics.



But that by no means is the same thing as saying “the Standard Model is all there is.” There are a large number of observations that tell us quite clearly that there’s very likely more to the Universe than just the quarks, leptons, and bosons of the Standard Model. While experiments are telling us that low-energy supersymmetry and extra dimensions probably don’t exist (and the LHC will either turn them up or even further constrain them towards the point of irrelevance), there are plenty of pieces of evidence that there is more to existence than these particles and their interactions.





Top 5:



1. Dark matter

2. Massive neutrinos

3. Strong Charge Conjugation, or C-symmetry Problem

4. Quantum gravity

5. Baryogenesis

Starts With a Bang: So just what is out there beyond the Standard Model?

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Since I've started writing sci-fi my research has been turning up some truly interesting science tidbits. We've all seen the Earth and other planets get annihilated left and right from 'gizmo beams', etc. But when you look at the Earth seriously, though it's much smaller than the Gas Giants it's the largest of the all the rocky planets including the planet-like moons in the solar system. When you seriously consider the Earth, it's really a giant ball of iron with some rock along with thin sheets of water and air over it. It is strongly believed early in the Earth's existence a collision with a rogue planet contributed to it's current mass and gave us the Moon as well. They estimate the planet was around the size of Mars but even that wasn't enough to obliterate the Earth! Here's a list of the Top 10 Ways to actually Destroy the Earth:

The Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

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Fast Lane...

Fast lane. Within the carefully sculpted waveguide, (left) light waves typically overlap to make a banded pattern (middle). However, depending on the width of the waveguide, waves of a certain wavelength travel infinitely fast, making the whole waveguide light up.

Credit: AMOLF and University of Pennsylvania


Within a nanometer-scale device, visible light travels infinitely fast—by one measure—a team of physicists and engineers reports. The gizmo won't lead to instantaneous communication—the famous speed limit of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity remains in force—but it could have a variety of uses, including serving as an element in a type of optical circuitry.

 

In empty space, light always travels at 300,000,000 meters per second. In a material such as glass, it travels slower. The ratio of light's speed in the vacuum to its speed in a material defines the material's "index of refraction," which is typically greater than one. However, scientists have begun to manipulate the interactions of light and matter to tune the index of refraction in weird ways, such as making it negative, which leads to an unusual bending of light.

So how does an everywhere-at-once light wave not violate relativity? Light has two speeds, Engheta explains. The "phase velocity" describes how fast waves of a given wavelength move, and the "group velocity" describes how fast the light conveys energy or information. Only the group velocity must stay below the speed of light in a vacuum, Engheta says, and inside the waveguide, it does.

 

Science NOW: Nanoscale Device Makes Light Travel Infinitely Fast

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Detroit in 2014 Bid (open for input)

I am part of the group of people putting forward a bid for the North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC) to be in Detroit in 2014: http://www.detroitin2014.org is our website, which is just getting started.

If the bid is successful I am optimistic that we will have strong program tracks in black sf and local black history, which is quite rich. We are open to suggestions of themes and topics, as well as suggestions for Guests of Honor, which will not be revealed until we either win or lose the bid.

Let me know your thoughts!

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Beautiful, vivacious and made to order! The Android PAnd0RA 001 returns in the last week of November in a new episode and with new cover art! The uncannily human-like android is finding her mission to 'bond' with her new human companion challenging. What does one do when their companion sees them as nothing more than an a machine? Not even a planetary network full of data holds the answer to that difficult question. Somehow PAnd0RA must solve that equation. She'll get her chance during a big upcoming event aboard the Corporate Interstellar Transport DROMEDARY! Meanwhile, the owner of that mysterious BOX wants it back and is going to take extraordinary steps to retrieve their property. Here's a sneak preview from EPISODE TWO:

MILKY WAY GALACTIC AUTHORITY EREBUS Class Deep Space Planetary Station -

OASIS 10
      Station Commander Sette Clavon waited anxiously as a single technician worked the hard light display’s Particle Wave Receivers controls. To have been awakened in the middle of his sleep cycle for reception of a classified transmission of personnel from PROMETHEUS GROUP Security was unsettling. For an MHG 1.5 like himself gaining command over a DSPS had been a monumental achievement even if he only got to see actual sunlight once every ten Earth Standard Years on his leave cycle. One of the major downsides of commanding a critical jump point in a Black Zone between five stellar systems was having to oversee important transmissions such as this. The arrival of a classified team from the Galaxy’s think tank could not be a good thing.

      The Commander watched the viz feed as a large Direct Transport Cube coalesced inside the Reception Chamber. He whistled between clenched teeth at the thought of those inside it undergoing direct site to site Particle Wave Transmission. Direct Transmission was a much faster method than traveling by transport as there was far less mass to compress within a warp bubble. However, the bubble time from site to site could last for decades! No one could travel in this manner without being in stasis.

      Problem was even in stasis, the mind must have periods of activity in order for humans to be fully functional upon arrival. On rare occasions, the activity cycles are not properly calibrated to match the individual. When a person is brought out of stasis, they are always disoriented. If their mental activity cycle was off calibration for decades, the individual would come out of stasis quite mad often, violently so.

      Amber scanning beams swept over the Cube revealing six stasis containers and one large Transport BOX. Each beam after having swept over a container registered with a green ‘CLEAR’ graphic on the technician’s display. The beam scanning the BOX suddenly flashed red and the display’s AI audio feed said, “Warning! Unauthorized unknown materials detected. Initiating security containment field.”  Abruptly a blue hard light energy field enveloped the BOX and the Commander exclaimed, “What in the Stygian Cloud did they bring aboard my station?” The Display’s AI then announced, “Unauthorized unknown materials contained at Level 6. Stasis Cycles complete. Six personnel are now online.”  

      Pointing to the display the Commander said, “Technician, display arriving personnel files. To the Commander’s dismay five of the files were blocked by the red CLASSIFIED graphic. However, one was viewable. A 2D image of a dark-skinned high-level Modified human male stared at him with fierce eyes making Commander Clavon involuntarily flinch. “PROMETHEUS GROUP Security Operations Officer Rewar Talvi? Who in the Black Cloud was this savage and what were he and a classified team doing on my station?” It would be several minutes before the arrivals would be cleared to embark the station. Somehow, Commander Clavon did not believe he would like the answers.”
© 2012 H. Wolfgang Porter. All Rights Reserved.

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Our friend and resident Astrophysicist Dr. Holbrook is on Facebook and will be tweeting with regard to the Eclipse, today. I have excerpted some information but encourage you to read the entire update she posted at: 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=63615542&l=1f85b8f1e7&id=338846586205682

Here are the particulars on when the tweeting begins!

Join us and find out, as we live tweet (in Australia, the eclipse occurs at 6:39 am on Wednesday, 11/14; In the states: today Tuesday, 11/13 at 1:39 pm PST, 3:39 pm CST, and 4:39 pm EST) at @blacksun2012doc and @astroholbrook


Please support the post-production efforts of Black Sun 2012. Your tax-deductible donation will help part our "financial clouds," and can be made today at https://www.austinfilm.org/film-black-sun

PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!

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Now is the time to support a project that is truly legendary in the making. Learn about this character and his world.  If you're truly a warrior for change in the comic and novel industry now is the time for you to act and to tell others. Thank you for reading this post.  My name is Eric Cooper and I approve this message.

Knight Seeker KickStarter Preview. Goes live Nov 16th Friday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Getting This One...



NEW YORK -- Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson just did Superman a super favor.


The scientist, who is director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, was approached in late summer by DC Comics, home of the long-running Superman series.

Originally, the comic book makers just wanted permission to feature Tyson and the planetarium in an upcoming issue of the series where Superman would view the demolition of his home planet, Krypton, which orbits an alien star named Rao.

"I said, 'Why don't I get you an actual star?'" Tyson told reporters during a meeting Thursday (Nov. 8), the day of the comic book's release.


DC Comics jumped at the chance to infuse real science in the story, and a collaboration was born.



"I was proud and honored that our institution could serve this role," Tyson said. "If they're just making stuff up, they don't need us."


How a Real-Life Astrophysicist Found Superman's Planet Krypton: The Inside Story by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor

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HoloHands...

See link below - THERE'S A VIDEO!

Microsoft's Kinect is a motion-sensing device that allows people to control Xbox video games using body movements alone. It consists of a webcam-like camera for creating an image of players, an infrared laser for measuring their distance, and a specialised microchip that interprets the data to track people and objects in three dimensions.



Microsoft's hope in launching the Kinect was to change the way people interact with and play video games. But many users immediately recognised that the device had broader applications and began to hack it for their own projects. Before long, Microsoft released software developer kits allowing anybody to develop applications for the Kinect on both the Xbox and Windows.



Enter David McGloin and buddies at the University of Dundee in Scotland, who are experts in an area of physics called optical manipulation: the use of highly focused laser beams to trap, move, and even rotate small particles such as cells.

 

Wednesday, 7 November was this famous scientist's birthday with a readable quote:


 

Technology Review: Physicists Build Laser Tweezers Controlled With Kinect

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Tricorder LOC...

A microfluidic lab on a chip device sitting on a polystyrene dish. Stainless steel needles inserted into the device serve as access points for fluids into small channels within the device, which are about the size of a human hair.

Credit: Cooksey/NIST


Lab on a chip (LOC) devices—microchip-size systems that can prepare and analyze tiny fluid samples with volumes ranging from a few microliters (millionth of a liter) to sub-nanoliters (less than a billionth of a liter)—are envisioned to one day revolutionize how laboratory tasks such as diagnosing diseases and investigating forensic evidence are performed. However, a recent paper* from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) argues that before LOC technology can be fully commercialized, testing standards need to be developed and implemented.

 

Link: NIST Focuses on Testing Standards to Support Lab on a Chip Commercialization

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