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A new animation series THE THREE BROTHERS is inspired by an African folklore and tells a modern tale

Posted by Robert Penn on June 10, 2017 at 7:00pm

https://igg.me/at/TheThreeBrothers

"The Three Brothers" is inspired by a folktale from a small African village. Help us bring that story to a screen near you.

 

The adventures of "The Three Brothers" entertain and educate. Our characters are 18, 15 and 12 and a half. They come from a culture where magic is an everyday reality and technology is an increasing part of life.

 

Since elementary school, I've wanted to see more animated African stories on TV and in theaters. And I don't mean talking animals. You may think this is obvious, but civilized people populate Africa. They are flesh and blood, serious and funny, laborer and professional just like you and me. So why does the dark and primitive stereotype persist in America? Because too few people have invested the time, energy and money needed to produce films and TV shows that reflect the many African cultures.

 

That is, until now.

 

Please spread the word and add your support to the campaign: https://igg.me/at/TheThreeBrothers

 

Folklore is vital and varied. Parables, riddles, legends, and folktales define cultures and help young people learn right from wrong, their place in the environment and how to solve problems.

 

Sincerely,

Robert Penn, Creator of "The Three Brothers" and the development team at 3 Degrees Films

 

P.S.

I've been a member of Black Science Fiction Society for several years. This is my first blog post. It announces a project that I've been working on since 2007 when I made my first of two trips to a remote section of Sierra Leone, West Africa. A traditional storyteller told me a riddle, which he left unanswered. He requested that I write it down and make it my own. I did that, initially in prose and later as a screenplay. Around 2011, I met Lightning Yumeku, an animation producer, for unrelated reasons. Subsequent to the completion of the other project, Lightning, who is also American but legally changed his name, asked if he could read some of my work. I shared “The Three Brothers” screenplay with him. After reading it, he suggested that I develop it as a family-oriented 30-minute animated series. I developed the primary characters - including the titular brothers Bala, Mamoun and Saiya Mansaray, and the villain Sumaro, who lives in two worlds, as well as secondary characters such as Mr. and Mrs. Mansaray, the chief and elders of their village, and the classmates of Mamoun and Saiya who are still in school. I also prepared a springboard for 72-episodes. In 2015, I entered into a development deal with 3 Degrees Films, the animation company Lightning founded. Last year, Lightning brought on a character designer and a background designer. They've done amazing work! As a result of our development meetings, I've added 4 episodes to the front end of the springboard. That is the four-part miniseries that will introduce the characters, their world, their main challenges and set the young men on the paths they’ll follow throughout the series.

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NIOBE: She is Life (and Death)

Posted by Sebastian Jones on June 9, 2017 at 10:00pm

Hi All,

About thirty years ago I started my journey into creating a fantasy world, one that was culturally inclusive, for a global audience. Now, I have the honor of seeing it come to life at Stranger Comics, working with incredible artists, and telling stories that hopefully reflect not only our reader, but also our stories. One such tale is NIOBE: She is Life. I wrote with Amandla Stenberg (Hunger Games, Everything Everything) and Ashley A. Woods did the beautiful art. Darrell May on layouts. With covers by Hyoung (The Last of Us) to Jae Lee (The Dark Tower) on the sequel She is Death. Sheldon Mitchell (The Darkness) does the interiors on the sequel and they are all incredible. 

She is Life is a beauty and the beast love story threaded with murder and mystery that leads to all out war, about a young girl who has returned to her ancestors to find her faith. But she finds more than what she bargained for in the coming of age tale.

"With a world divided, who do you turn to?"

This first volume became the first ever nationally distributed comic with a black female author, artist, and hero in the history of comics and I am so happy to share the story and world with you. In the sequel, She is Death, Niobe becomes a badass bounty hunter, tracking down human traffickers and traders. If you get a chance, please check Niobe out as we are 2 weeks away from finishing a kickstarter campaign. We have already smashed through our target, so now it is just free goodies with stretch goals.

Also as ADD ONS, you can grab the DUSU Path of the Ancient hardcover (a tale of Niobe's tribe) and the Niobe Pathfinder module, among other things.

HERE IS THE LINK TO NIOBE SHE IS LIFE!

I hope you enjoy!

Best,

Seb

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Confirmed Again...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 8, 2017 at 8:29am
FILE PHOTO: This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the bright star-forming ring that surrounds the heart of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097, a Seyfert galaxy. NASA/ESA/Hubble/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Topics: Astrophysics, Einstein, General Relativity, Gravitational Lensing

The first observation of gravitational microlensing by a star other than the Sun has been reported by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope. Predicted by Albert Einstein as a consequence of his general theory of relativity, gravitational microlensing involves the gravitational field of a star bending light coming from a more distant star. It was first observed during a total eclipse in 1919 by looking for deflections in the positions of stars in parts of the sky next to the Sun. Now, Kailash Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute in the US and an international team have measured the gravitational lensing of a background star by a white dwarf star called Stein 2051 B. Because the background star is not lined-up perfectly with Earth and Stein 2051 B, a combination of gravitational lensing and Earth's motion around the Sun causes the background star to appear to trace out a loop around Stein 2051 B. Sahu and colleagues mapped its position at five different times in 2013-14 and used this information to calculate the mass of Stein 2051 B. It turns out that astronomers have puzzled over the mass of the white dwarf for over 100 years. It is part of a binary system and the motion of its distant companion suggests that Stein 2051 B has a smaller mass than most white dwarfs, implying that it might have an exotic composition. This recent work, however, suggests that the star has a mass expected for a white dwarf of its radius. The observations will be described in and upcoming paper in Science. [1]

* * * * * * * * * *

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronomers have found a new application for Albert Einstein's century-old theory of relativity - using it to directly measure the size of a star beyond the sun.

In research published on Wednesday, scientists said they used the Hubble Space Telescope to plot minute changes in the path of light coming from a distant background star as it passed by a relatively close target star, known as Stein 2051B.

Researchers applied Einstein's findings to measure how Stein 2051B's gravity warped the background star's light, a phenomenon the physicist predicted more than 100 years ago and a direct means to assess its mass. The technique could be applied to other stars.

"It was like measuring the motion of a little firefly in front of a light bulb from 1,500 miles away," astronomer Kailash Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore said at a news conference.

The research was presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday and also published in this week's issue of the journal Science. [2]

1. Flash Physics: Bent light reveals stellar mass, amorphous topological insulators, Tibetan Plateau rose rapidly, Sarah Tesh, Physics World2. Einstein's theory provides new technique to size up stars, Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Letitia Stein and Bill Trott, Reuters Science
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Smart Fools...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 7, 2017 at 7:35am
Credit: michaelquirk Getty Images

Topics: Commentary, Education, Politics

BOSTON—At last weekend’s annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) in Boston, Cornell University psychologist Robert Sternberg sounded an alarm about the influence of standardized tests on American society. Sternberg, who has studied intelligence and intelligence testing for decades, is well known for his “triarchic theory of intelligence,” which identifies three kinds of smarts: the analytic type reflected in IQ scores; practical intelligence, which is more relevant for real-life problem solving; and creativity. Sternberg offered his views in a lecture associated with receiving a William James Fellow Award from the APS for his lifetime contributions to psychology. He explained his concerns to Scientific American.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

In your talk, you said that IQ tests and college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT are essentially selecting and rewarding “smart fools”—people who have a certain kind of intelligence but not the kind that can help our society make progress against our biggest challenges. What are these tests getting wrong?

Tests like the SAT, ACT, the GRE—what I call the alphabet tests—are reasonably good measures of academic kinds of knowledge, plus general intelligence and related skills. They are highly correlated with IQ tests and they predict a lot of things in life: academic performance to some extent, salary, level of job you will reach to a minor extent—but they are very limited. What I suggested in my talk today is that they may actually be hurting us. Our overemphasis on narrow academic skills—the kinds that get you high grades in school—can be a bad thing for several reasons. You end up with people who are good at taking tests and fiddling with phones and computers, and those are good skills but they are not tantamount to the skills we need to make the world a better place.

What evidence do you see of this harm?

IQ rose 30 points in the 20th century around the world, and in the U.S. that increase is continuing. That’s huge; that’s two standard deviations, which is like the difference between an average IQ of 100 and a gifted IQ of 130. We should be happy about this but the question I ask is: If you look at the problems we have in the world today—climate change, income disparities in this country that probably rival or exceed those of the gilded age, pollution, violence, a political situation that many of us never could have imaged—one wonders, what about all those IQ points? Why aren't they helping?

What I argue is that intelligence that’s not modulated and moderated by creativity, common sense and wisdom is not such a positive thing to have. What it leads to is people who are very good at advancing themselves, often at other people’s expense. We may not just be selecting the wrong people, we may be developing an incomplete set of skills—and we need to look at things that will make the world a better place.

Do we know how to cultivate wisdom?

Yes we do. A whole bunch of my colleagues and I study wisdom. Wisdom is about using your abilities and knowledge not just for your own selfish ends and for people like you. It’s about using them to help achieve a common good by balancing your own interests with other people’s and with high-order interests through the infusion of positive ethical values.

You know, it’s easy to think of smart people but it’s really hard to think of wise people. I think a reason is that we don’t try to develop wisdom in our schools. And we don’t test for it, so there’s no incentive for schools to pay attention.

Is the U.S. Education System Producing a Society of “Smart Fools”? Claudia Wallis, Scientific American

Related links:

Alfred Binet, New World Encyclopedia

The Silicon Valley Billionaires Remaking America’s Schools, Natasha Singer, New York Times

#P4TC related link: TIC...February 17, 2013
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Pushing the Quantum Limit...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 6, 2017 at 7:23am
A zoom in on the Josephson junctions. Two layers of niobium are visible in the image, with the upper film colored blue and the lower film colored red. Josephson junctions are formed in the circular pits (they look a bit like an element of a muffin tin) where the two layers overlap (green). Credit: K. Lehnert/NIST/JILA

Topics: Black Holes, Dark Matter, General Relativity

Here’s a surprising fact: We don’t know what makes up 80 percent of the matter in the universe. I don’t mean that the matter is made of atoms, and we just don’t know which kind of atoms. What I mean is that four-fifths of the universe appears to be made of something that isn’t atoms at all, or more to the point, it’s not made from any of the fundamental particles that we know of.

Why do we think that this mystery matter exists? The short answer is that Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity, general relativity, has painted us into a corner. When we look through telescopes at stars and galaxies moving through the universe, something we can’t see is causing their motion to bend in a particular way. Einstein’s theory of gravity tells how much of this invisible mass—physicists call it “dark matter”—there must be to bend the trajectory of things we can see.

Faced with a situation like this, we make guesses (hypotheses) that we hope explain our strange observations. A good hypothesis should both be consistent with every known fact and have other detectable consequences. If we look for these other consequences and don’t find them, we discard or revise our hypothesis.

Somewhat to my surprise, I find myself working on an experiment designed to look for the consequences of a hypothetical dark matter particle known as the axion. This was surprising because physicists, like those in all professions, divide themselves up into distinct sub-fields. Predictably there are rivalries between, and stereotypes associated with, different cultures that build up around the subfields—the rough equivalent of engineering versus sales in the corporate world.

NIST: Pushing the Quantum Limit in the Search for Dark Matter, Konrad Lehnert
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Our Closest Star...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 5, 2017 at 7:34am
An artist's rendering of the newly named Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the sun. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Topics: Astrophysics, Heliophysics, NASA, Research, Solar Flares

It's a mission that's been in the works for nearly 60 years. NASA says it will launch a spacecraft in 2018 to "touch the sun," sending it closer to the star's surface than ever before.

The spacecraft is small – its instruments would fit into a refrigerator — but it's built to withstand temperatures of more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, all the while maintaining room temperature inside the probe.

"Even though the sun is so close to us, there's actually a lot about it we don't understand," says heat shield lead engineer Betsy Congdon from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Scientists are hoping the data gathered might solve some of the big mysteries about the sun.

NPR: NASA Plans To Launch A Probe Next Year To 'Touch The Sun'Rae Allen Bichell, Merrit Kennedy
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On Stupid...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 2, 2017 at 7:46am
Intellectual Takeout - Bonhoeffer on the ‘Stupidity’ That Led to Hitler’s Rise, Annie Holmquist

Topics: Existentialism, Stochastic Modeling, Politics

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, The Gap, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, National, Grid, Apple, Adobe, Danfoss, Levi Strauss & Co., Mars Incorporated, Hewlett Packard, Enterprise, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Morgan Stanley, Unilever, Tiffany & Co Dignity, Health Ingersoll, Rand, Intel Corporation, PG&E Corporation, Johnson Controls, Royal DSM, The Hartford, Salesforce, Schneider Electric, VF Corporation

“A lot of US businesses are concerned about the potential trade ramifications of a US withdrawal,” Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, the organization that sponsored the full-page ads, told Business Insider. “They think it’s important that the US remain in Paris to ensure them access to the growing clean energy markets around the world, and they see that a US withdrawal could hurt their access to those markets.”

During his time as CEO of Exxon Mobil, Trump’s now Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the company supported the agreement.

“At Exxon Mobil, we share the view that the risks of climate change are serious and warrant thoughtful action,” Tillerson said at a speech in 2016. “Addressing these risks requires broad-based, practical solutions around the world.” [1]

We have joined Nicaragua - a country we decimated in the "war on drugs" to arm the Contras and Syria - currently in a meltdown of civil war and refugees - and Russia as now one of four nations opting out of the Paris Climate Accords, hat tip to Pittsburgh.

I have an appreciation that when you talk about the age of the universe and the younger in comparison age of the Earth, humans have a perspective of "I'm from Missouri: I'll believe it when I see it." So, sense we've never SEEN a billion years its hard even with radiometric dating to prove to fellow humans that such an age is...provable.

2050 is 33 years, or a little over a traditional generation away. Non-scientists question actual scientists' stochastic models. President Bannon has reasserted himself by damning generations yet born. [2] Thirty-three years is enough time for incremental changes in the climate to take place and be seen by human eyes either living or born in 2017.

The non-sensational name of the phenomenon is "anthropogenic climate disruption." Despite the list of companies covering two fossil fuel companies and many that use them in either manufacture, power generation or transportation of goods and services, our chief "executive" wants to renegotiate ala his ghostwriter's inaugural tome, obviously to put his stamp on it as his ego won't allow him to follow the policies of his predecessor.

The irony is it will be China that will lead the way in green tech and alternative energy generation because they HAVE to: the very air is the number 1 way of dying in their vast country. [3] They will employ their billions of citizens and leave us in the global dust. [4] This will diversify their economy from electronics to that market, making solar and wind cheaper in comparison. In response to rising seas, they will likely move their populations over that landscape inland as other parts of the planet ponder other options. Lobbyists for the fossil industry (my guess) will make laws to combat the "free market" in this regard, similar to solar being so prohibitive to own in Koch-ruled Oklahoma. [5] Germany, China et al will step forward as well, time's arrow in Entropy points always inexorably to the future...it is only the Neanderthals denying science howling at the moon that revel in the nation's dark past as "ideal."

1. 28 major US companies that don’t want Trump to abandon the Paris agreementVeronika Bondarenko, Business Insider2. Trump Will Withdraw U.S. From Paris Climate Agreement, Michael D. Shear, NY Times3. China's Smog Is as Deadly as Smoking, New Research Claims, Feliz Solomon, TIME4. China cementing global dominance of renewable energy and technology, Michael Slezak, The Guardian5. The Koch Brothers' Dirty War on Solar Power, Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone

Related links:

Are You Proud to be an American Today? Charlie Pierce, Esquire MagazineGiant iceberg poised to snap off from Antarctica: scientists, Mariëtte Le Roux, Yahoo! News
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Fifth at the Center...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 1, 2017 at 5:40am

Topics: Astrophysics, Black Holes, Cosmology, Einstein, General Relativity

General relativity has stood the test of time. But researchers are still exploring alternatives to the theory, attempting to unify gravity with other forces or to explain observations attributed to dark matter and dark energy. Many of these theories involve an additional force beyond the four known fundamental forces. Now, Andrea Ghez and Aurélien Hees at the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-workers, have analyzed the orbits of stars around the Milky Way’s center to derive limits on such a fifth force. While similar constraints had been obtained in weak gravitational fields, this is the first time fifth-force scenarios have been tested in a strong field, such as that created by the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy. [1]

* * * * * * * * * *
Our current understanding of the Universe states that it's governed by four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetic, and the strong and weak nuclear forces.

But there are hints of a fifth force of nature, and if it exists, we'd not only be able to fill the remaining holes in Einstein's general relativity - we'd have to rethink our understanding of how the Universe actually works. And now physicists have figured out how to put this mysterious force to the ultimate test.

Gravity and the electromagnetic force are on the larger end of the scale - electromagnetic force is needed to keep our molecules together, while gravity is responsible for ensuring that entire galaxies and planets aren't ripped apart.

It's all very neat and sensible, but there's a problem - in a lot of ways, gravity is the 'odd one out' in this very important group.

For one thing, gravity is the last of the four fundamental forces that humans haven't figured out how to produce and control.

It also doesn't appear to explain everything that it should - studies have shown that there's more gravity in our Universe than can be produced by all the visible matter out there. [2]

1. Synopsis: Restricting the Fifth Force, Matteo Rini2. Physicists Are Probing The Centre of Our Galaxy to Find The Missing Fifth Force of Nature,BEC CREW #P4TC related link Fifth Force...May 31, 2016
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Puff N Stuff Planet...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 30, 2017 at 7:33am
An artist’s rendering of KELT-11b, a “Styrofoam-density” planet recently discovered by Lehigh astronomers that orbits a bright star in the Southern Hemisphere. (Image by Walter Robinson/Lehigh University)
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Exoplanets, Space Exploration

Fifth-graders making Styrofoam models of the solar system may have the right idea. Lehigh researchers have discovered a new planet orbiting a star 320 light years from Earth that has the density of Styrofoam. This “puffy planet” outside our solar system may help solve the long-standing mystery of the existence of a population of highly inflated giant planets.

“It is highly inflated, so that while it’s only a fifth as massive as Jupiter, it is nearly 40 percent larger, making it about as dense as Styrofoam, with an extraordinarily thick atmosphere,” said Joshua Pepper, astronomer and assistant professor of physics at Lehigh, who led the study with researchers from Vanderbilt University and Ohio State University, along with researchers at universities and observatories and amateur astronomers around the world.

The research, “KELT-11b: A Highly Inflated Sub-Saturn Exoplanet Transiting the V+8 Subgiant HD 93396,” is published in The Astronomical Journal.

The planet, called KELT-11b, is an extreme version of a gas planet, like Jupiter or Saturn, but is orbiting very close to its host star in an orbit that lasts less than five days. The star, KELT-11, has started using up its nuclear fuel and is evolving into a red giant, so the planet will be engulfed by its star and will not survive the next hundred million years.

Lehigh University: ‘Styrofoam’ Planet May Help Solve Mystery of Giant PlanetsAmy White, Kurt Pfitzer
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Face Huggers to Covenant...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 31, 2017 at 7:01am
The Alien, or xenomorph. Credit: TM & © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Topics: Commentary, Science Fiction, Space Exploration

I was sixteen when my best friend and I saw the first "Alien" movie in Winston-Salem, NC. We jumped, guffawed and were amazed at the special effects and the "Amityville Horror in space" motif. And just like any Earthbound horror flick, we both asked the same question each scene: "what the HELL are you still doing there?" I'm not sure we knew the alien as a xenomorph, just something big, menacing, acid-breathing and ugly.

From the review, they do make a nod to neutrinos and solar sails. Everything is apparently at relativistic speeds that are one day attainable. Prevalent in the movies was the mechanized nature of the spacecraft and the reference to corporations that in a Star Trek universe, gave way to warp drive, world brotherhood, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle-defying replicators, money becoming obsolete; peace, love and phasers.

I was equally surprised to find a review on Physics Today. The quintessential question science fiction repeatedly asks "what does it mean to be human" has in this review the spotlight has been turned in reverse:

"Should we improve on our design?"

"What if our improvement no longer needs us?"

*****Spoiler Alert*****

In 1979 Ridley Scott shocked and delighted filmgoers with Alien, a tense tale of the crew of the spacecraft Nostromo. Despite the movie’s science-fiction theme, the subtext was pretty basic: “It was seven people locked in the old, dark house,” Scott says. “Who’s going to die first, and who’s going to survive?” Buried within the tale were questions about the role of humanity, the human condition, and the hubris of greedy corporations. Those themes were explored more thoroughly by other directors in the action-packed sequels Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien: Resurrection.

When Scott returned to the Alien universe by directing the 2012 prequel, Prometheus, what had been side notes to the horror and action became significant plot points. Prometheus looked more closely at the relationship between humans and our progeny, whether carbon or silicon based, and at how we influence and adapt to our environment. The film pondered the nature of the legacy that humans—or, for the purposes of the movie, a superintelligent alien species—hope to leave when they pass on.

The movie is beautifully filmed by Scott. It is nice to see old-school techniques such as building giant sets instead of using green screens to create a new world. The Covenant’s bridge has 1500 working lights and displays, and the astronaut suits were inspired by modern deep-sea diving suits. The acting, as you would expect from a Scott movie, is top notch; Fassbender (the androids David and Walter) stands out because he has the best lines.

Physics Today: Review: Alien: Covenant is more than an origin storyPaul K. Guinnessy
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Dawn's First Light...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 29, 2017 at 6:43am
Image Source: Link below

Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Big Bang, Black Holes, Cosmology, Theoretical Physics

Not long after the Big Bang, all went dark. The hydrogen gas that pervaded the early universe would have snuffed out the light of the universe’s first stars and galaxies. For hundreds of millions of years, even a galaxy’s worth of stars — or unthinkably bright beacons such as those created by supermassive black holes — would have been rendered all but invisible.

Eventually this fog burned off as high-energy ultraviolet light broke the atoms apart in a process called reionization. But the questions of exactly how this happened — which celestial objects powered the process and how many of them were needed — have consumed astronomers for decades.

Now, in a series of studies, researchers have looked further into the early universe than ever before. They’ve used galaxies and dark matter as a giant cosmic lens to see some of the earliest galaxies known, illuminating how these galaxies could have dissipated the cosmic fog. In addition, an international team of astronomers has found dozens of supermassive black holes — each with the mass of millions of suns — lighting up the early universe. Another team has found evidence that supermassive black holes existed hundreds of millions of years before anyone thought possible. The new discoveries should make clear just how much black holes contributed to the reionization of the universe, even as they’ve opened up questions as to how such supermassive black holes were able to form so early in the universe’s history.

In the first years after the Big Bang, the universe was too hot to allow atoms to form. Protons and electrons flew about, scattering any light. Then after about 380,000 years, these protons and electrons cooled enough to form hydrogen atoms, which coalesced into stars and galaxies over the next few hundreds of millions of years.

Starlight from these galaxies would have been bright and energetic, with lots of it falling in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. As this light flew out into the universe, it ran into more hydrogen gas. These photons of light would break apart the hydrogen gas, contributing to reionization, but as they did so, the gas snuffed out the light.
Quanta Magazine: Discoveries Fuel Fight Over Universe’s First LightAshley Yeager
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Ultra Cold and Fermi-Hubbard...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 26, 2017 at 6:24am
Raw fermionic microscope image (left) and processed image showing that spin-up atoms occupy alternating lattice sites as expected in an antiferromagnet. The spin-down atoms have been removed from the image. (Courtesy: A Mazurenko et al. / Nature)

Topics: Condensed Matter Physics, Optical Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Solid State Physics, Superconductors

New insights into a popular and potentially useful model of how electrons behave in solids have been provided by an experiment involving ultracold atoms. Markus Greiner and colleagues at Harvard University in the US studied the behaviour of lithium-6 atoms that are held in an optical lattice and interact according to rules set out by the Fermi-Hubbard model.

They found that the system becomes magnetic at low temperatures – and that the magnetism disappears when the density of atoms is reduced. The team can now use its atomic simulator to explore regimes of the Fermi-Hubbard model that could harbour very interesting physics including high-temperature superconductivity.

The electronic properties of solid materials arise from quantum-mechanical interactions between large numbers of electrons. It is notoriously difficult to calculate these properties, so physicists rely on simple models to simplify the mathematics – but even models have significant computational challenges. One such scheme is the Fermi-Hubbard model, which represents electrons as Fermi–Dirac particles (fermions) that hop between fixed sites on a lattice and only interact with each other when they occupy the same lattice site.

Physics World: Ultracold atoms shed light on the Fermi-Hubbard modelHamish Johnston
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Tabby's Star...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 25, 2017 at 6:32am
Another explanation for the dimming is that KIC 8462852 is surrounded by a swarm of dusty comets.
Topics: Astrophysics, Dyson Sphere, Exoplanets, Kardashev Scale, Kepler Telescope, SETI

Astronomers and alien life enthusiasts alike are buzzing over the sudden dimming of an otherwise unremarkable star 1300 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. KIC 8462852 or “Tabby’s star” has dimmed like this several times before, prompting some researchers to suggest that the megastructures of an advanced alien civilization might be blocking its light. And now—based on new data from numerous telescopes—it’s doing it again.

“This is the first clear dip we have seen since [2013], and the first we have ever caught in real time,” says Jason Wright, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University in State College. If they can rope in more telescopes, astronomers hope to gather enough data to finally figure out what’s going on. “This could be the first of several dips about to come,” says astronomer David Kipping of Columbia University. “Many observers will be closely watching.”

KIC 8462852 was first noticed to be dipping in brightness at seemingly random intervals between 2011 and 2013 by NASA’s Kepler telescope. Kepler, launched to observe the stellar dimmings caused when an exoplanet passes in front of its star, revealed that the dimming of Tabby’s star was much more erratic than a typical planetary transit. It was also more extreme, with its brightness sometimes dropping by as much as 20%. This was not the passage of a small circular planet, but of something much larger and more irregular.

Science Mag: Star that spurred alien megastructure theories dims againDaniel Clery

#P4TC related links

Needle In A Haystack...October 19, 2015Occam's Razor...February 8, 2016
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Sleuthing Antimatter...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 24, 2017 at 7:31am
Two white dwarfs head toward a collision in this artist’s illustration. New research suggests that the Milky Way's preponderance of positrons could come from a specialized type of supernova from colliding low-mass white dwarfs — an explosion that is difficult to detect, but rich in an isotope that generates this kind of antimatter.

Credit: NASA/Tod Strohmayer (GSFC)/Dana Berry (Chandra X-Ray Observatory)
Topics: Antimatter, Astrophysics, High Energy Physics

The majority of antimatter that pervades the Milky Way may come from clashing remnants of dead stars, a new study finds.

The work may solve a 40-year-old astrophysics mystery, the study's researchers said.

For every particle of normal matter, there is an antimatter counterpart with the opposite electrical charge but the same mass. The antiparticle of the negatively charged electron, for instance, is the positively charged positron. [Will Antimatter Power the First Starships?]

When a particle meets its antiparticle, they annihilate each other, giving off a burst of energy. A gram of antimatter annihilating a gram of matter would release about twice the amount of energy as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

More than 40 years ago, scientists first detected that the kind of gamma-rays that are given off when positrons are annihilated were being emitted from all around the galaxy. Their findings suggested that 10^43 positrons — that's a 1 with 43 zeroes behind it — were being annihilated in the Milky Way every second. Oddly, most of these positrons were detected in the galaxy's central bulge rather than its outer disk, even though the bulge hosts less than half of the Milky Way's mass.

Charles Q. Choi
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Aluna's Encounter: The Fissure

Posted by Lauren on May 23, 2017 at 1:13pm

I planted my feet firmly on the ground. I never felt more connected to the planet where I stood than where I was right then in that moment. I took in a large, deep breath. It felt like I was breathing in the essence of crisp fresh snow.

And then I released.

This part of the plateau no one was allowed near. Off to the distance, I could see our city, Sheba, the buildings were made of gold and the streets were littered with diamonds and gems.

I zipped my jacket up and hid behind a large rock and waited.

The reason why people weren't allowed out this far from Sheba was because of the instability of the terrain. The scientists said that our world sometimes would converge with another world; a more dangerous world.

But this terrain was also where the agents came in and out of around this time of the evening. I wanted to see who they were bringing back this time.

A crackling of lightning and static happened and immediately two agents appeared with a boy in their arms, not much older than me 15 or maybe 16?

"Aluna! Call for help!" my older cousin Ndulu commanded me.

I guess my hiding spot wasn't so great at all, I was scared to call for help because I knew I would get into trouble but as I dialed the number on my cell phone the boy began to speak.

He struggled to speak, Ndulu's girlfriend Kissa placed her hand on the boy's chest and sung to him.

The blood pouring out of his body stopped but he was still dying. Kissa had harnessed the power of her voice to heal but it was a minor fix.

The doctors arrived quickly and performed emergency surgery on the young boy right there on the plateau. They made me help, I thought for certain I would be yelled at or chastised but I wasn't.

We were there for hours. Finally, when he was stable and the doctor's felt like he was in the clear to be moved. He lifted his hand, he was pointing behind me. Another crackle, another distortion in the air, I could only hear the wind and I was gone.

Read the Rest of Part One

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The mystery of Black people and futuristic movies

Posted by KENNETH E JAMES on May 22, 2017 at 6:28pm

Have you ever wondered about the mystery of the human race and the so called evolution of people in according to movies? I have seen many movies and love the science fiction genre but i always tend to wonder how i don't know how many times where in the blazes black people went. Did we all die off first? Were we like the game show the Weakest link? Did we all die off first like in every movie if so the animal kingdom is prejudiced and seriously love them some dark meat. Did white people turn into cannibals and eat us all like chicken? Exactly what happens to us in all of the movies and shows television shows alike. Did we all turn on each other and tear each other apart? Somebody has got to have an answer out there or am i just tripping. And lets talk superheroes.....Really??? Does everyone have to have Black in front of their name?? Black Lightning!Black Goliath! The Black Panther!!!! Dun dun dun!!!!! Hello where are the Latino heroes? No where in every movie they are either dirt poor in the hood or drug dealers for some cartel with a cliche background of drugs or gang raised. And not a father figure to be found Really???? Why are all of the portrayals negative? So what did they catch that disease too and die off with us in the future? Last week i saw a post on FB of a 14 year old black student graduating from college the youngest ever! Where are all of these bright stars now like him. Did somebody just tuck them away somewhere and experiment on them in a lab or something? Why haven't we changed things yet? Why are we the most of the homeless in america? Why are we the most unemployed in America? Why are we not more successful in business and life then we are. And why is it that when we think we have arrived we shut the door on where we came from and pretend we don't belong to our past by not helping anyone else to get there? It's not really that difficult to see when you step away and think about it. I thought about this for a long time as i traveled the world in the military. Being away makes you think about home a lot and reflect on your experiences and life while away. Things like why someone like Terry Crews hasn't even been considered for a superhero role i mean seriously everyone in Hollywood has to go through hell in training to look like that and he is that way everyday of the year. What about Michael Jai White? Have you seen Blood and Bone turn that man loose and give him a suit! He could actually kick everybody else's butt without breaking a sweat! So tell me why hasn't anyone written something that he could take on and own? Its simple because the people who own Hollywood don't want it so what do we do? Why hasn't anyone done anything about it yet? Producers? Black producers and heavyweights in Hollywood?? Why do we mistrust each other so much that we cant pull this off? Its laughably easy to do so why haven't we? Is everyone that jaded that they wont work as a team for not even one thing to work? Is our pride that bad that we cant support each other? Did we forget where we came from like our moms used to say? My mom died a couple of years ago and her words of wisdom are like gold to me now. Things haven't changed a bit if they only knew and understood that the money they spent on those new shoes would buy stock in the same companies and the long term would get them the credit and cash they need to live by. There is a way.... to be continued tomorrow.

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Free Everywhere including Amazon

Posted by Larry Johnson on May 22, 2017 at 7:30pm

Excerpt from Terror on Telderan


"Walls of the great chamber where alliance meetings were held were covered with fine priceless art gathered from various galaxies through the years. Soft blue lighting emanating from the oval table lit the room.
Lazon’s Apex was the first to arrive, his long tan robe fluttered behind him as he briskly approached his seat at the head of the oval glass table. Shortly after his arrival the Emperor of Natropi entered the chamber, he was followed by King Ashnar of Deltor, Elder Manook from the planet Tygalon, King Zerlious of Xanar, and the Supreme Ruler of the water planet Nep’o. One by one the members entered the room, greeted each other and sat down on one of the gray high back chairs. Each chair was equipped with a panel concealing buttons and switches allowing members to vote or view images on the glass table in front of them. When the sixteenth member took his seat the Apex glanced over at the empty chair once occupied by the ruler of Otar and began the meeting."
 

          Smashwords

          http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9290

          Barnes and Knoble

          http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/terror-on-telderan-lawrence-johnson-sr/1020987242?type=eBook

          Amazon Kindle

           Terror on Telderan: Prequel to Escape 2 Earth (Escape 2 Earth Short Story Series)

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Download “Kingdom of Lethe” Free

Posted by Tonya R. Moore on May 19, 2017 at 4:00pm

Greetings everyone!

My short story, Kingdom of Lethe is FREE to download from amazon.com for the next three days only. 

STORY DETAILS

Title: Kingdom of Lethe
Author: Tonya R. Moore
Genre: Science Fiction (futuristic, steampunk)
Blurb: a new case drags a detective into the strange world of a woman claims her beautiful memories have been stolen.
 
Click the link below to Download :
The regular price for this Kindle ebook is $2.99, so please try to download a copy while it's still free.
About the Author

'm a Jamaican writer of speculative fiction–short stories, web serials, and novelettes. Currently living in Florida, I'm pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English with a concentration in Fiction.

 

Homepage: https://tonyarmoore.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonya_writes

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonya.writer

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Plasma Jet Engines...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 19, 2017 at 8:30am
"Plasma Stingray" Leaving on a plasma plane Future Workshop Electrofluidsystems TU Berlin

Topics: Aeronautical Engineering, Green Tech, Plasma Physics

Plasma jet engines were initially the fanfare of science fiction, and in theory quite practical. In the weightless and vacuum of space, it could propel astronauts to Mars in a little over a month, as in the case of the VASIMR project by NASA.

The caveat to this is that electrical plants are in and of themselves massive affairs, and typically not flight worthy or aerodynamic.

This will require thought, creativity, engineering miniaturization (likely exploiting nanotechnology designs yet dreamed or drafted) and above all: national will. It would be thrilling to work on such a project and bring such devices into existence. The roar of jet engines at airports and service shows could be reduced (in my imagination) to a hum and a distant memory. This could be the beginning of shuttle designs for ascending to orbital space stations or decent from mother ships on distant worlds.

Sadly, since traditional jet engines use fossil fuels, I can foresee armies of lobbyists and current industries invested in keeping the status quo allied against this endeavor.

As the oft stated colloquialism goes: "This is why we can't have nice things."

FORGET fuel-powered jet engines. We’re on the verge of having aircraft that can fly from the ground up to the edge of space using air and electricity alone.

Traditional jet engines create thrust by mixing compressed air with fuel and igniting it. The burning mixture expands rapidly and is blasted out of the back of the engine, pushing it forwards.

Instead of fuel, plasma jet engines use electricity to generate electromagnetic fields. These compress and excite a gas, such as air or argon, into a plasma – a hot, dense ionised state similar to that inside a fusion reactor or star.

Plasma engines have been stuck in the lab for the past decade or so. And research on them has largely been limited to the idea of propelling satellites once in space.

Berkant Göksel at the Technical University of Berlin and his team now want to fit plasma engines to planes. “We want to develop a system that can operate above an altitude of 30 kilometres where standard jet engines cannot go,” he says. These could even take passengers to the edge of the atmosphere and beyond.

The challenge was to develop an air-breathing plasma propulsion engine that could be used for take-off as well as high-altitude flying.

New Scientist:
Plasma jet engines that could take you from the ground to space
Sandrine Ceurstemont

Related link

Scientific American:
Young Scientist Makes Jet Engines Leaner and Cleaner with Plasma
Melissa C. Lott

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