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| Image source: Adoption History Project: Eugenics [+] |
Topics: Civil Rights, Commentary, History, Human Rights, Politics, Science
A new year with the same old/new challenges to our republic. Perfection is an admirable, and Utopian ambition. It is typically striven for, but never fully achieved. Getting close to perfection is typically quite enough. In the wrong hands, the pursuit of perfection can become the tools of genocide. Some things to consider November 6, 2018 (congressional midterms) and November 9, 2020 (the next presidential elections).
"Good genes, very good genes." Paraphrase of an oft-repeated self-admonition/description by the 45th president*.
Merriam-Webster says eugenics is : "a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed." I'm not the editor, but I think Webster could have thought this definition through better. As practiced in America and quickly adopted by the Nazis in Europe, it fell from whatever grace it may have enjoyed and is largely considered a pseudoscience. Reasonable people in our nation's complicated history gave it credence, like Dr. William Shockley - of the Shockley Diode Equation if you're tech, and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics for co-invention of the transistor. He also has the notable distinction of having his own page at the Southern Poverty Law Center in their extremist files for his irrational eugenics views. His colleagues, Dr.'s John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain if they held these beliefs, didn't rise to Shockley's level of notice, or distinction.
"Good genes, very good genes"...
Snopes verified as true that "One aspect of President* Donald Trump’s proposed federal budget for the 2018 fiscal year has come under criticism for its potential effect on low-income seniors, particularly during winter months in colder parts of the U.S.
"The president’s* proposed budget eliminated funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which assists people who need help paying their energy bills."
Not that an ethnicity is emphasized, but low income citizens tend to comprise mostly people of color. If a few Anglos lose funding, they're probably considered negligible statistical "noise." This is the same president* that's stacked his administration with white nationalists and downplayed the actions of them, even before Charlottesville. Adding insult to injury, the corporate tax cut is paid for with the lives of people that will suddenly be with less healthcare, and Speaker Paul Ryan is gunning for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cuts on his way out to "retire, and spend time with his family," as his is the archetype made popular by the media.
"Good genes, very good genes"...
President* Trump doesn't yet have his "big, beautiful" border wall, but the administration is ramping up recruitment of border agents going into the new year in a bid to enhance security with more manpower – if not bricks and barbed wire.
Up until now, the White House’s fix to immigration issues has included Trump reversing many of his predecessor’s policies, increasing round-ups of illegal immigrants and restricting the number of refugees allowed into the country.
There are probably not "good genes" at the Texas-Mexico border, in Puerto Rico; the Virgin Islands as there are none [by this philosophy] in California, or any largely blue state with a growing diverse population. There are no "good genes" from the particular countries the Muslim travel ban prohibits. There's no reason to allow the Affordable Care Act (originally, a conservative idea from the Heritage Foundation) to actually work if the majority of people applying for it didn't get the fortunate/blessed/kismet luck-of-the-draw of "good genes," wealth and power's particular favoritism to a lack of Melanin.
"Good genes, very good genes"...
Positive eugenics encouraged the biblical "fruitful multiplication" of the aforementioned "good genes" and discouraged the procreation of "bad genes" (negative eugenics). In America, and sadly in the sordid history of my home state, that was achieved via a dark calculus, and forced unconstitutional means:
This of course is conspiracy theory, quackery and the highest level of intellectual buffoonery that can only result in innocents being irreparably harmed for myth.
This tree is an evil we've seen before as a species, dropping anvils on the heads of the Earth's meek and calling it rain. It's attributed to Mark Twain that “History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” A forced sterilization is not likely in our futures even as erstwhile congressmen known for throwing racial flamethrowers in gasoline pits coyly hint at it. What happened in North Carolina should be instructive to those of us that aren't cis-gender WASPs (white, Anglo Saxon Protestants). Terminating all 16 members without notice of the president's advisory council on HIV/AIDS can only have the eventual effect of increasing HIV/AIDS from recoverable and manageable back to its previous epidemic levels. For all intents and purposes, a genomics Dachau aimed at the LGBT community. “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” (Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol")
As we try to make sense of the callous legislation that has come and will come, Occam's razor applies. As we see it affect heating to low income elderly, access to the voting booth; the response to the dwindling of the Republican Party's demographics, the majority status of people of color in 2042 (an online calculator at a growth rate of 0.02 shows us at ~541 million by then); the retweet of British white nationalists and white genocide by this country's president*; in a nation founded on the genocide of Native Americans and the uncompensated kidnapping of African Americans, we can no longer be surprised at the audacity of this scion of Andrew Jackson, or subtle in our response. We can no longer be surprised what a party dwindling in numbers and power would do, is capable of doing, or will do, nor can we be subtle calling that which is evil... just that!
"Good genes, very good genes"...
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
"What the hell do you have to lose?" ... I can think of a few things.
[+] Many people believe that eugenics disappeared in America after the specter of Nazism made eugenics synonymous with racism and genocide. While public discussion of taint and degeneration certainly decreased after World War II, blood and biology remained central themes in adoption history. Anxieties about miscegenation in transracial adoptions and international adoptions, as well as strenuous efforts to make racial predictions and offer genetic counseling in cases of mixed-race infants illustrate that eugenics did not disappear so much as change into a less aggressive, more polite form.
*The usage of the asterisk (*) next to president* I borrow from and attribute to Charles P. Pierce, a writer for Esquire magazine and frequent media commentator on MSNBC. He's also author of the prescient book: "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free." And so, despite his and other authors' warnings to the contrary, our republic is at the stage-edge of this cliff...
Related links:
#P4TC:
Greeting and Salutations, fellow Blerds!
I'm currently hosting the Talk About it Tuesdays program and I'd like to add some music to the program.
So far, I've been winging it with various tracks from the YT audio library.
If you're a musician, or just musically inclined (which I am not), then I want to make you an offer.
Send me some voice-free/background tunes that I can add to my review, and I can credit your work and put your website in the video description.
You win some free advertising and I win music that helps the feel of the show. A win for everyone!
Send me a PM to discuss the matter if you need more details. I'm not living in the States, so my response times might be slow or at weird hours of the night.
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| March for Science protesters gather in front of the White House with Muppet character Beaker. Credit: Jessica Kourkounis/Getty |
Topics: Commentary, Science, Research
It is poignant that this is the last post of 2017. Since the repeal of Net Neutrality (translation: Internet equality, i.e. all income levels can access the commons), I'll see how it goes the first weeks of 2018, or when any tiered charges take effect. With any luck and Gestapos notwithstanding, I should be back the 1st Monday in January.
The absence of Net Neutrality may or may not affect movements like #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo et al that got started essentially as viral mobilizations, like large flash mobs. That won't mean movements will be silenced, just likely they'll go back to some of their previous analog models and pool resources for access. If it affects the bottom lines of Amazon, CBS All Access, Hulu and Netflix, expect lawsuits. It may force a few of us to read more books at bookstores and newspapers, three commodities that have suffered from the advent of the Internet, and seeking a PDF versus a book, or buying a subscription to a newspaper or magazine. I have also felt the impact at the movies, since I'll be the first to admit I tend to wait until its streamed or released to video. It brings clarity to the colloquialism: "why buy the cow, when you can get the milk for free?" - from salaciousness to economics.
The Nature article below covers the following topics:
- The first observed collisions of Neutron stars using LIGO and Virgo;
- SESAME, the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, was inaugurated on 16 May;
- Quantum entanglement;
- The inauguration of our tragicomic, adolescent, pathological lying, conspiracy-theory influenced, Twitter-addicted septuagenarian, the 45th president*;
- The March for Science, which I participated in the local one in Poughkeepsie, New York;
- BREXIT and its heretofore unimagined consequences to science and UK tourism;
- "On 12 July, an iceberg twice the size of Luxembourg broke free from the Antarctic Peninsula" (read that one again);
- The EPA changed its acronym from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Environmental Pirating and land grab Agency (my pun);
- Genetics, hybrid fetuses with human and pig cells that could one day pave the way to grow organs for people;
- Cassini took a nose dive and we discovered TRAPPIST-1 has seven Earth-sized planets;
- #MeToo
- California wildfires exacerbated by climate change;
- AI and Quantum Computers.
* Random thoughts:
Perhaps anything, including selling out the country and their own souls.
Related link:
How To Talk to a Science Denier Without Arguing: A simple strategy with the acronym EGRIP can be surprisingly effective Gleb Tsipursky, Scientific American
1. 2042: When white Americans becomes the numerical minority in the US, only 25 years, or a generation away. This was ironically published in 2008 on my birthday and before the election of the first African American president in the history of the US republic, launching a wave of bigotry almost unparalleled in recent memory.
2. It isn't much of a stretch that a political party that historically championed Civil Rights for African Americans - fighting a war over it, during which it started the National Academy of Science and now is anti-science, anti-evidence, anti-fact and anti-intellectualism would eventually find its avatar in a "reality" television star. Also note: birtherism was the first modern genesis of "alternative facts." Like the term "alt-right," it's the same old lies. It even creeps into history books.
3. The GOP is losing with women and youth: African Americans, Asians and Hispanics as visibly participating members are minuscule, statistical "noise." The party is becoming older, whiter and dying off. After the 2012 election, the GOP did an autopsy that was largely ignored. Wink-and-nod dog whistles were converted to carnival-barked foghorns by their eventual bigoted and Russian-assisted presidential candidate.
4. Howard Dean introduced small-dollar donations, followed by Senator then President Obama and imitated by every democratic candidate since. Republicans get the majority of their campaign money from big donors, hence the tax cut for them.
5. Russian interference in our elections hasn't been acted on as a priority by 45, nor by the republican-led congress - see random thoughts 1 and 2.
6. Unchecked, that interference will be in play during the midterms November 6, 2018 that like Alabama December 12, 2017, have to be overcome by sheer numbers.
7. The DNC hack is labeled as "fake news" by 45's White House of horrors, while not much is made of the RNC hack that occurred at the same time. Joy Reid seems to have connected-the-dots, and they lead to Kompromat.
Perhaps anything, including selling out the country and their own souls.
The article below speaks for itself at the link. See you next year (hopefully).
2017 in news: The science events that shaped the year, Nature Ewen Callaway, Davide Castelvecchi, David Cyranoski, Elizabeth Gibney, Heidi Ledford, Jane J. Lee, Lauren Morello, Nicky Phillips, Quirin Schiermeier, Jeff Tollefson & Alexandra WitzeRelated link:
How To Talk to a Science Denier Without Arguing: A simple strategy with the acronym EGRIP can be surprisingly effective Gleb Tsipursky, Scientific American
Black lives will matter when Blacks deal more in legal Black-Money practices!
According to the Fed, Blacks now spend over 1.5 Trillion dollars on goods and services beyond housing, meds and food.
the new tax law-bill will ad about 1.5 Trillion to the national debt profile of the USA. Dealing in legal Black-Money would make a tremendous positive improvement in the financial, social, and cultural situation of Black Americans along with Blacks globally.
But currently most Blacks seems to prefer to not deal in legal Black-Money thus preferring to spend over 100% of its legal money with operations that are not Black owned or controlled, nor interested in investing in the Black community. So these millions of profit dollars go to penthouses in Tokyo or New York, estates in California or China and banks in Palenstine, leaving financial blight, crime and destruction into much of the Black Community.
10 to 20% improvement in this would circulate how much real legal cash in the Black Community. Millions! Thats dealing in legal Black-Money.
Question: Is your Sci-Fi stash 10 to 20% Black owned?
Are your graphic novels and comic book collections 10 to 20% Black Owned titles and products?
Does the mainstream recycle 10 to 20% of its profits in the Black Community?
For those of you who say its hard to deal in legal Black-Money....take a closer look at the impact and growth rate of Black poverty! That is a much harder life! Crime! Death! Violence! Poor Health! Poor housing! Hmmmmm oh yeah....hopelessness!
Please take a few minutes to think about the merits of 10 to 20% dealing in legal Black-Money!
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| Image Source: TS Knowledge |
Topics: Mars, NASA, Space Exploration, Spaceflight
Scott Kelley spent a year in space.
That's the fantasy of every kid that watched the NASA moon landing (as I did); thrilled to space operas and cartoon shows like "Star Trek", "Space Ghost", "Lost in Space." The films Elysium and Interstellar as well as the CBS Star Trek Discovery laud the ease at which we'll make the transition from terrestrial to space-faring species.
However, the actual reality and challenge is composed of radiation exposure.
Summary
Radiation is energy that travels in the form of waves or high-speed particles. It occurs naturally in sunlight. Man-made radiation is used in X-rays, nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants and cancer treatment.
If you are exposed to small amounts of radiation over a long time, it raises your risk of cancer. It can also cause mutations in your genes, which you could pass on to any children you have after the exposure. A lot of radiation over a short period, such as from a radiation emergency, can cause burns or radiation sickness. Symptoms of radiation sickness include nausea, weakness, hair loss, skin burns and reduced organ function. If the exposure is large enough, it can cause premature aging or even death. You may be able to take medicine to reduce the radioactive material in your body.
Environmental Protection Agency, Med Line Plus dot gov
*****
Spending a year in space takes such a toll on the human body that astronauts literally have to learn how to walk again once they’re back on Earth. At least, that’s what seems to have happened to Scott Kelly — the American astronaut who spent 340 days on the International Space Station (ISS) between 2015 and 2016.
In an exclusive video given to The Verge by PBS, Kelly is seen trying to walk on a straight line right after landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan. He slowly gets up and stumbles. Putting one foot in front of the other looks like a gargantuan task, as if his legs are made of jelly. Six hours after landing, his steps are a bit quicker, but still uncertain. And after 22 hours, he’s much more stable, but still wobbly. It’s as if Kelly is a one-year-old just learning how to walk. [1]
*****
Scientists studying the effects of outer space on the human body hope that Kelly's readjustment to Earth will help them better understand how living sans gravity affects a person's health. Kelly, who has an identical twin brother who also happens to be an astronaut, makes for a perfect subject when examining space-related health issues; both he and his brother, who spent six months in space, could shed light on the short and long-term health problems caused by outer space.
After spending a year back on Earth, Kelly now shares his health struggles in a new book entitled Endurance. Scott Kelly's health problems sound absolutely grueling, and he will face issues with his health for the rest of his life. Space already sounds scary enough, and the effects of space on Scott Kelly's body show living in zero gravity comes with zero health perks.
"I can feel the tissue in my legs swelling. I shuffle my way to the bath room, moving my weight from one foot to the other with deliberate effort. Left. Right. Left. Right. I make it to the bathroom, flip on the light, and look down at my legs. They are swollen and alien stumps, not legs at all. 'Oh sh*t,' I say.
'Amiko, come look at this.' She kneels down and squeezes one ankle, and it squishes like a water balloon. She looks up at me with worried eyes. 'I can't even feel your ankle bones,' she says." [2]
He complains of nausea and skin burns. This will likely be Scott Kelly's life for the foreseeable future.
Reading through the excerpts of his book was painful. It pained the 10-year-old in me that thrilled to the aspect of space as "final frontier" or cool place to travel through. It was a decade old child that didn't know anything about radiation poisoning, time dilation, the third law of motion; the need for gravity wells in orbit or spaceflight - so humans can bear their own weight - for the general health of astronauts.
Though I admire and appreciate his sacrifice for the possibility of journeying to Mars and beyond, this gives pause to the entire enterprise of space travel. At likely less-than-warp speeds, we need polymers that are lightweight and capable of fending off the dosage of radiation Astronaut Kelly has obviously been exposed to.
Otherwise, we're probably earthbound in the near or foreseeable future. Abusing our environment and climate will be counter productive to species survival.
For his courage in the spirit of exploration as to John Glenn, Godspeed Scott Kelly.
[1] Watch astronaut Scott Kelly struggle to walk on Earth after a year in space, as if his legs are made of jelly, Alessandra Potenza, The Verge
[2] Scott Kelly’s Body Has Been Going Through Gruesome Hell Since He Got Back From A Year In Space, TS Knowledge
Related links:
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, Scott Kelly
Scott Kelly Spent a Year in Space—Find Out How Hard It Was, National Geographic
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| Credit: ORNL |
Topics: Green Energy, Green Tech, Lasers, Nuclear Fusion, Nuclear Physics
A laser-driven technique for creating fusion that dispenses with the need for radioactive fuel elements and leaves no toxic radioactive waste is now within reach, say researchers.
Dramatic advances in powerful, high-intensity lasers are making it viable for scientists to pursue what was once thought impossible: creating fusion energy based on hydrogen-boron reactions. And an Australian physicist is in the lead, armed with a patented design and working with international collaborators on the remaining scientific challenges.
In a paper in the scientific journal Laser and Particle Beams today, lead author Heinrich Hora from the University of New South Wales in Sydney and international colleagues argue that the path to hydrogen-boron fusion is now viable, and may be closer to realization than other approaches, such as the deuterium-tritium fusion approach being pursued by U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor under construction in France.
"I think this puts our approach ahead of all other fusion energy technologies," said Hora, who predicted in the 1970s that fusing hydrogen and boron might be possible without the need for thermal equilibrium. Rather than heat fuel to the temperature of the Sun using massive, high-strength magnets to control superhot plasmas inside a doughnut-shaped toroidal chamber (as in ITER), hydrogen-boron fusion is achieved using two powerful lasers in rapid bursts, which apply precise non-linear forces to compress the nuclei together.
Laser-driven technique for creating fusion is now within reach, say researchers More information: H. Hora et al, Road map to clean energy using laser beam ignition of boron-hydrogen fusion, Laser and Particle Beams (2017). DOI: 10.1017/S0263034617000799
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| Image Source: US Holocaust Memorial Museum |
Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, Science, Research
The entrance paragraph on Scientific American couldn't be more stark and foreboding:
Do you want your medical treatment to be based on science? The Trump administration disagrees. It has now banned the top US public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from using seven words or phrases: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.” [1]
Vulnerable - 1 : capable of being physically or emotionally wounded; 2 : open to attack or damage : assailable vulnerable to criticism
Entitlement - 1 : a : the state or condition of being entitled : right; b : a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract
Diversity - 1 : the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : variety; especially : the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization programs intended to promote diversity in schools; 2 : an instance of being composed of differing elements or qualities : an instance of being diverse a diversity of opinion
Transgender - : of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity differs from the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth; especially : of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity is opposite the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth
Fetus - 1 : an unborn or unhatched vertebrate especially after attaining the basic structural plan of its kind; specifically : a developing human from usually two months after conception to birth — compare embryo [2]
Evidence-based - Evidence-based medicine is an approach to medical practice intended to optimize decision-making by emphasizing the use of evidence from well-designed and well-conducted research [3]; Evidence based practice (EBP) is the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about patient care (Sackett, Straus, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, 2000) [4]
Science-based - Science-Based Medicine is dedicated to evaluating medical treatments and products of interest to the public in a scientific light, and promoting the highest standards and traditions of science in health care. Online information about alternative medicine is overwhelmingly credulous and uncritical, and even mainstream media and some medical schools have bought into the hype and failed to ask the hard questions. [5]
Truth is being burned, or at least objective truth. It is a tearing at what used to be our time-honored political norms, only possible in a republic made insipid by "lowest common denominator programming" - reality television, that slowly conditioned an Idiocracy public with as Sagan opined "critical faculties in decline," to think a former star and faux billionaire with a catch-phrase line could be president. It is slowly, daily being eroded by a mountain of lies that eventually he and his enablers figure we'll all get tired of joking our way through with late night hosts and SNL cold openings; that we'll collectively slump from sheer exhaustion of a Sisyphus resistance, and accept the insane. A relativism has crept into the public zeitgeist for at least citizens whose sanity and rationality I have to question, as they dismantle the critical thinking skills of the developing next generation by burning to ash the foundation of The Enlightenment.
This is the digital version to the 20th Century brute-force method done by Sturmabteilung (SA - assault division). Instead of brownshirts, we get irrational strains of credulity in White House press briefings; insane tweets from septuagenarians that somehow think themselves sex symbols still, throwing out 280-character mental defecations during morning bowel movements. We do have them though, as they occasionally show up at pep rally-styled events designed to pump the ego of a narcissist; with tiki torches or as online trolls, howling at anything that challenges their dogma or conspiracy theories. His presidential daily briefs have to be modified - translation: truth either omitted about Russian intelligence operations against us, else he'll be "upset" and the briefing will "go off the rails." Is that the description of an administration, or managing an inmate at Arkham Insane Asylum?
Seven words - magically shat out without a study, peer review or sign off by an authority at the Center for Disease Control (repeat: the Center for DISEASE Control) that won't STOP them from doing their jobs; just the public's understanding of it to be able to support whatever actions they instruct during a crisis. The reaction to pandemics could be slowed. That results in more (unnecessary) dead bodies. Or maybe that is the point.
Seven words - that could easily apply to the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation et al, any number of Biology, Chemistry, Engineering and Physics organizations that rely on objective EVIDENCE to design experiments, evaluate data from the same and make decisions that could affect the lives of 7.6 BILLION PEOPLE ON THE PLANET.
This is existential. This is Orwellian.
If this is NOT opposed and stopped, I am afraid our continuance is not (as it never was) guaranteed. Our brief "Candle in the Dark" out of ignorance is being snuffed by a tribe of baying nincompoops led by someone beyond human comprehension, enabled by opportunistic cowards that before interference by foreign powers, betrayed this republic to oligarchs awaiting our demise to harvest the mineral riches from our properties and corpses, picking their teeth with the bones of gullible brownshirts.
Seven words - that could easily be the lit match to the funeral pyre for our species.
[1] https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/trump-to-cdc-these-seven-words-are-now-forbidden/
[2] Merriam-Webster online, from vulnerable to fetus
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence-based_medicine
[4] http://libguides.library.ohiou.edu/evidence
[5] https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/about-science-based-medicine/
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Schematic of the experimental setup. (A) Heat flows from the hot to the cold spin (at thermal contact) when both are initially uncorrelated. This corresponds to the standard thermodynamic arrow of time. For initially quantum correlated spins, heat is spontaneously transferred from the cold to the hot spin. The arrow of time is here reversed. (B) View of the magnetometer used in our NMR experiment. A superconducting magnet, producing a high intensity magnetic field (B0) in the longitudinal direction, is immersed in a thermally shielded vessel in liquid He, surrounded by liquid N in another vacuum separated chamber. The sample is placed at the center of the magnet within the radio frequency coil of the probe head inside a 5mm glass tube. (C) Experimental pulse sequence for the partial thermalization process. The blue (red) circle represents x (y) rotations by the indicated angle. The orange connections represents a free evolution under the scalar coupling, HJHC = (πh/2)JσzHσzC , between the 1H and 13C nuclear spins during the time indicated above the symbol. We have performed 22 samplings of the interaction time τ in the interval 0 to 2.32 ms. Credit: arXiv:1711.03323 [quant-ph]
Topics: Entropy, Spacetime, Thermodynamics
Abstract
The second law permits the prediction of the direction of natural processes, thus defining a thermodynamic arrow of time. However, standard thermodynamics presupposes the absence of initial correlations between interacting systems. We here experimentally demonstrate the reversal of the arrow of time for two initially quantum correlated spins-1/2, prepared in local thermal states at different temperatures, employing a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance setup. We observe a spontaneous heat flow from the cold to the hot system. This process is enabled by a trade off between correlations and entropy that we quantify with information-theoretical quantities.
The second law of thermodynamics says that entropy, or disorder, tends to increase over time, which is why everything in the world around us appears to unfold forward in time. But it also explains why hot tea grows cold rather than hot. In this new effort, the researchers found an exception to this rule that works in a way that doesn't violate the rules of physics as they have been defined.
The idea of entangled particles has been in the news a lot lately as researchers around the world attempt to use it for various purposes—but there is another lesser-known property of particles that is similar in nature, but slightly different. It is when particles become correlated, which means they become linked in ways that do not happen in the larger world. Like entanglement, correlated particles share information, though it is not as strong of a bond. In this new experiment, the researchers used this property to change the direction of the arrow of time.
Experiment shows that arrow of time is a relative concept, not an absolute one Bob Yirka, Phys.org
Reversing the thermodynamic arrow of time using quantum correlations Kaonan Micadei,1, ∗ John P. S. Peterson,2, ∗ Alexandre M. Souza,2 Roberto S. Sarthour,2 Ivan S. Oliveira,2 Gabriel T. Landi,3 Tiago B. Batalhão,4, 5 Roberto M. Serra,1, 6, † and Eric Lutz7, ‡ Physics arXiv
It was a distinctive pleasure to geek out on the 12/6/17 episode of GRUMPLY OLD NERDS!!!
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| A Kyoto University-based team has unraveled the mystery of gamma-ray emission cascades caused by lightning strikes. Credit: Kyoto University/Teruaki Enoto |
Topics: Modern Physics, Particle Physics, Research, Weather
A storm system approaches: the sky darkens, and the low rumble of thunder echoes from the horizon. Then without warning... Flash! Crash!—lightning has struck.
This scene, while familiar to anyone and repeated constantly across the planet, is not without a feeling of mystery. But now that mystery has deepened, with the discovery that lightning can result in matter-antimatter annihilation.
In a collaborative study appearing in Nature, researchers from Japan describe how gamma rays from lightning react with the air to produce radioisotopes and even positrons—the antimatter equivalent of electrons.
"We already knew that thunderclouds and lightning emit gamma rays, and hypothesized that they would react in some way with the nuclei of environmental elements in the atmosphere," explains Teruaki Enoto from Kyoto University, who leads the project.
Lightning, with a chance of antimatter, Kyoto University, Japan, Phys.org
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| Image Source: CNET: Sci-Tech |
Topics: Carbon Nanotubes, Materials Science, Nanotechnology, Optics
The Science of Vantablack
The name Vantablack® stands for Vertically Aligned Nanotube Array black.
Vantablack is a free-space coating consisting of a 'forest' of aligned and equally spaced, high aspect-ratio carbon nanotubes (CNTs).
The CNT array is patterned and spaced to allow photons to enter. Most of the light, or radiation arriving at the surface enters the space between the CNTs, and is repeatedly reflected between tubes until it is absorbed and converted to heat. This heat (largely undetectable in most applications) is conducted to the substrate and dissipated. The Vantablack array is very largely free-space; the volume of CNTs only makes up about 0.05% of the coating. Consequently, only a minuscule proportion of the incident radiation is able to hit the tip of a CNT, explaining why such a small amount is reflected back to the observer.
Vantablack's exceptional properties
Ultra low reflectance - Vantablack absorbs 99.965% of light (750nm wavelength)
UV, Visible and IR absorption - Absorption works from UV (200-350 nm wavelength), through the visible (350-700nm) and into the far infrared (>16 microns) spectrum, with no spectral features.
Very high front to back thermal conduction - excellent for Black Body calibration sources
Super hydrophobic - Unlike other black coatings, water has no impact on the optical properties
Very high thermal shock resistance - Repeatedly plunging a Vantablack coated substrate into liquid Nitrogen at -196°C and then transferring to a 300°C hot plate in air does not affect its properties.
Resistant to extreme shock and vibration - Independently tested, Vantablack has been subjected to severe shocks and vibration simulating launch and staging.
Information Source: Surrey Nanosystems
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| Image Source: NASA.gov |
Topics: Climate Change, Commentary, Ecology, Politics, Research
Also:
In Photos: The Southern California Wildfires of 2017 Seen from Space, Christine Lunsford, Space.com Contributor
Assuredly climate change has something to do with the California fires, but TIME lists it last as one of a number of causes; CNN says "we don't know," but mention several factors like the Santa Ana winds that can spread it in the years-long dry conditions that preceded this tragedy. There's a tendency to leap to the "aha" and go with what happens to be the proclivities of your particular tribal group. Unfortunately, these tend to be the ones that appreciate and understand science, and those that consider it something to fear when it challenges the other tribe's dogma.
We've had fires with lightening strikes since humanity was comprised of hunter-gatherer migrating groups. We've had fires with the advent of agriculture, cities and civilization. What matters is whether we believe in a collective effort to write policies that will protect life and property - now derisively known as government, that some in the human tribe run for, then put themselves in a position to thwart any solutions from it. "Pluck" alone will not solve our problems. We lack, as I've said on posts previous to this one, a depth of understanding in the following:
Civics - the study of the rights and duties of citizens and of how government works,
Source: Merriam-Webster
Epistemology - Defined narrowly, epistemology is the study of knowledge and justified belief. As the study of knowledge, epistemology is concerned with the following questions: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of knowledge? What are its sources? What is its structure, and what are its limits? As the study of justified belief, epistemology aims to answer questions such as: How we are to understand the concept of justification? What makes justified beliefs justified? Is justification internal or external to one's own mind? Understood more broadly, epistemology is about issues having to do with the creation and dissemination of knowledge in particular areas of inquiry.
Science - a systematic and logical approach to discovering how things in the universe work. It is also the body of knowledge accumulated through the discoveries about all the things in the universe.
The word "science" is derived from the Latin word scientia, which is knowledge based on demonstrable and reproducible data, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. True to this definition, science aims for measurable results through testing and analysis. Science is based on fact, not opinion or preferences.
Scientific Method - When conducting research, scientists use the scientific method to collect measurable, empirical evidence in an experiment related to a hypothesis (often in the form of an if/then statement), the results aiming to support or contradict a theory.
The steps of the scientific method go something like this:
1. Make an observation or observations.
2. Ask questions about the observations and gather information.
3. Form a hypothesis — a tentative description of what's been observed, and make predictions based on that hypothesis.
4. Test the hypothesis and predictions in an experiment that can be reproduced.
5. Analyze the data and draw conclusions; accept or reject the hypothesis or modify the hypothesis if necessary.
6. Reproduce the experiment until there are no discrepancies between observations and theory. "
Science along with its subset engineering deals in the natural sciences, i.e. those things that relate to nature or phenomena that can be observed, defined, measured, calculated, or quantized (quantum mechanics I'm alluding to here). Once the subject goes into the supernatural, whatever the argument, it is no longer science.
That does not mean science is incompatible with wonder:
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light‐years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Thomas Jefferson fashioned our federal republic after Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Francis Bacon and Sir John Locke—the creators of physics, inductive reasoning and empiricism. We have to decide as a species what path we're going to follow - belief or rationality. One is a function of culture, and a source of comfort to many in particular groups; the other the natural outcome of our previous hunter-gatherer ancestors. It is a matter of survival. It would be culturally arrogant and supremely stupid to consider after 5 mass extinction events, we could not hurry the next one. As matter-of-fact, we're within and on track for the sixth. It is a dark poetry that lead (Pb) in-then modern plumbing had previously been suspected as ending the world empire of Rome (it didn't). The current one appears being scuttled by enabled Silicon transistors, transmitting 140 (now 280) characters. Little did we know our future epitaph - that will be unearthed by any curious alien archaeologists, assuming they will have survived their own intelligence Entropy for deep space travel - is being written in this daily inanity of "alternative facts."
Related link:
Nobel Week Dialog: Science and Society - the Future of Truth
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| and before the beginning...Image Source: Link below |
Topics: Astrophysics, Big Bang, Cosmology, General Relativity
Although for five decades, the Big Bang theory has been the best known and most accepted explanation for the beginning and evolution of the Universe, it is hardly a consensus among scientists.
Brazilian physicist Juliano Cesar Silva Neves part of a group of researchers who dare to imagine a different origin. In a study recently published in the journal General Relativity and Gravitation, Neves suggests the elimination of a key aspect of the standard cosmological model: the need for a spacetime singularity known as the Big Bang.
In raising this possibility, Neves challenges the idea that time had a beginning and reintroduces the possibility that the current expansion was preceded by contraction. "I believe the Big Bang never happened," the physician said, who Works as a researcher at the University of Campinas's Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computation Institute (IMECC-UNICAMP) in Sao Paulo State, Brazil.
For Neves, the fast spacetime expansion stage does not exclude the possibility of a prior contraction phase. Moreover, the switch from contraction to expansion may not have destroyed all traces of the preceding phase.
Physicist assumes the possibility of vestiges of an Universe previous to the Big Bang Staff Writers, Space Daily
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| Illustration of `Oumuamua, the first-known interstellar asteroid. Its unusual shape and color offer cryptic clues about the nature of objects from other solar systems. The challenge now is to find more of these messengers from the stars. (Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser) |
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Exploration
It isn't aliens. It’s never aliens.
That’s the only sensible answer whenever astronomers spot something truly weird in space. That unusual radio blip from the planet Ross 128b? Not aliens. Potential SETI signal SHGb02+14a? Not aliens. The mysterious ‘alien megastructure’ star? Probably not aliens, either. There are so many unexplored natural explanations for unusual phenomena, and so many ways to make errors, that the starting assumption has to be no, no, a thousand times no, it is not aliens.
Then astronomers observed `Oumuamua, the first known interstellar asteroid, as it raced out of the solar system. Its wildly elongated shape resembles that of a rocket stage or–even more enticingly–the interstellar ship from Arthur C. Clarke’s science-fiction novel Rendezvous with Rama. Soon sober-minded reporters (including this one) were exchanging curious messages: Could this ‘asteroid’ actually be an alien artifact? How would we know?
Deep breath. Let’s take this one step at a time. On October 19, the automated Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (which is primarily intended to scan the sky for potentially hazardous, Earth-approaching asteroids) detected an unusual object. It was originally regarded as a possible comet, catalogued as C/2017 U1. By the end of the month, though, astronomers could clearly see that it was something much more remarkable.
First, the ‘comet’ had no fuzz; it was clearly not a comet but rather a fast-moving asteroid. It got a new designation, A/2017 U1 (A for asteroid). Much more intriguing, though, was its orbit. It was moving past the sun on a hyperbolic path, a trajectory indicating that it originated from beyond our solar system. It got another new designation, introducing a naming scheme never used before: 1I/2017 U1 (I for interstellar).
The Pan-STARRS team quickly picked a more apt name for such an important object. It’s now known as `Oumuamua (pronounced ‘oh-oo-moo-ah-moo-a’), a Hawaiian word that translates roughly as ‘messenger from the distant past.’
That Interstellar Asteroid is Pretty Strange. Could It Be…? Corey S. Powell, Discover Magazine
