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On The Dot...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 13, 2015 at 7:35am
Physicists in Finland and Russia have shown how graphene quantum dots can be used to split Cooper pairs. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Mopic)


Topics: Cooper Pairs, Graphene, Modern Physics, Superconductivity, Quantum Computers, Quantum Mechanics


Superconducting "Cooper pairs" of electrons have been split to create entangled pairs of electrons in a new device built by physicists in Finland and Russia. The device employs two quantum dots made of graphene. Although other types of quantum dots have been used for this purpose, the latest research suggests that graphene quantum dots should deliver long-lived entangled electron pairs that could be used in quantum computers.

Entanglement is a quantum-mechanical phenomenon in which properties of fundamental particles are correlated so that making a measurement on one particle can instantaneously affect another particle – even across very large distances. In principle, a quantum computer can use this connectedness to perform certain calculations much faster than a conventional computer. Although practical quantum computers do not exist today, some potential designs involve using the intrinsic angular momenta, or "spin", of electrons as quantum bits (qubits) of information that can be entangled.

Superconductors provide a ready source of entangled electrons because the Cooper pairs that allow these materials to conduct electricity with little or no resistance are in fact entangled pairs of electrons with opposite spin. Splitting the pairs while preserving the electrons' entanglement can be done simply by connecting ordinary metal wires to either end of the superconductor. If the set-up is just right, each wire will carry away one electron from a pair. However, it is more often the case that both electrons will end up going down the same wire.

Physics World: Graphene quantum dots split Cooper pairs, Edwin Cartlidge

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Pencil Gladiators Contest

Posted by Carles CJ Juzang on March 12, 2015 at 2:43pm

Hit the links below for more info about the Pencil Gladiators Contest for those beginner comic artists. The First Prize is N30,000 (bragging rights of THE GLADIATOR and some other deals from our sponsors) converts to a little more than $150.00 USD and check the links for sponsor deals...

One of the Judges is MSHINDO KUUMBA so spread the word!

http://comicpanel.org/index.php/content-blog/333-comicpanel-set-to-host-drawing-competition-4

http://comicpanel.org/index.php/content-blog/306-comicpanel-set-to-host-drawing-competition-2

http://comicpanel.org/index.php/content-blog/309-meet-our-first-judge-for-pencil-gladiator-art-competition

Enjoy.

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If you are in LAGOS, NIGERIA on Saturday, March 21, 2015, you may want to check this Workshop out!

Posted by Carles CJ Juzang on March 12, 2015 at 2:30pm

COMICPANEL THE ACADEMY TRAINING WORKSHOP

 This is usually a one day training workshop held on a Saturday and on any aspect of creativity at all, be it digital painting, animation, graphics, cinematography, editing etc which we aim at introducing young individuals and giving them the basics of these skills.

 

This year, one of Nigerias Top Digital painters GODWIN AKPAN will be anchoring the class and its going to be a workshop that will teach you everything you need to know about digital coloring and using the Wacom tablets to achieve this. You can check his work out HERE

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Basics of Digital Colouring.

Understanding Photoshop CS6

Creating Realistic portraits

Creating Matte Painting for film

How to use a Wacom Tablet.

ENJOY!

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A Tougher Quantum Computer...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 12, 2015 at 6:53am
This photograph of the quantum-computing device shows the nine superconducting qubits arranged in a row. The qubits interact with their nearest neighbours to detect and correct errors. (Courtesy: Julian Kelly)


Topics: Modern Physics, Nanotechnology, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics


A system of nine quantum bits (qubits) that is robust to errors that would normally destroy a quantum computation has been created by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Google. The device relies on a quantum error-correction protocol, which the team says could be deployed in practical quantum computers of the future.

In principle, powerful quantum computers can be built from a collection of qubits. For a qubit based on an electron, for example, these states would be "spin up" and "spin down", with one state representing a logical "1" and the other "0". Each qubit can be in a superposition of two quantum states at the same time and N qubits could be quantum-mechanically entangled to represent 2N values simultaneously. This would lead to the parallel processing of information on a massive scale not possible with conventional computers.

However, quantum computers are extremely fragile, and a computation can be easily destroyed by "bit errors" that occur when external noise in the environment affects the values of the qubits. While it is proving very difficult to create practical qubits that are robust enough to eliminate such errors, an alternative approach is to accept that errors will occur and to try to correct for them as the quantum calculation progresses.

Now, UCSB's John Martinis and colleagues have taken an important step forward by demonstrating repetitive error correction in an integrated quantum device that consists of nine superconducting qubits. Each qubit is a small circuit consisting of a capacitor and a Josephson junction, and is made from an aluminium film evaporated onto a sapphire substrate. The qubit can be thought of as an artificial atom with information stored in its quantum states.

Physics World: How to make a tougher quantum computer, Belle Dumé, nanotechweb.org

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Dr. Ada E. Yonath...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 12, 2015 at 6:57am
Source: NobelPrize.org


Topics: Biology, Chemistry, Nobel Prize, Research, STEM, Women in Science

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome".

Born: 22 June 1939, Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel)

Affiliation at the time of the award: Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Field: biochemistry, structural chemistry


I shared a rented, four-room apartment with two additional families and their children. My memories from my childhood are centered on my father's medical conditions alongside my constant desire to understand the principles of the nature around me. The hard conditions didn't dampen my curiosity. Already at five, I was already investigating the world. In one of my experiments, I tried to measure the height of our tiny balcony using the furniture from inside the apartment. I put a table on another table, and then a chair and a stool on top, but I did not reach the ceiling. Hence, I climbed up on my construct, fell down to the back yard on the ground floor and broke my arm ... Incidentally, the results of this experiment are still unknown, since the current tenants in the apartment have remodeled the ceiling.

Dr. Ada E. Yonath - Interview

"Ada E. Yonath - Facts". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 12 Mar 2015. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/yonath-facts.html

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In 180 Days...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 11, 2015 at 7:45am


Topics: Aeronautical Engineering, Flight, Green Energy, Green Tech, Solar Power


A pioneering flight around the world will use nothing but sunshine for fuel. In the dusty peach dawn of a desert day, the Solar Impulse 2 airplane took flight at 11:12 PM Eastern time on March 8 from Abu Dhabi on the first leg of a bid to fly around the world exclusively powered by electricity generated from sunlight.


The primary structural component is carbon-fiber sheets that weigh just 25 grams per square meter, or roughly three times lighter than a similar sized piece of paper. That carbon fiber is used sparingly in structural spots where forces push on the airplane. But the interior of the wings, the fuselage and other areas are empty to save even that tiny bit of weight, co-pilot Bertrand Piccard explained to Scientific American.

Atop those wings, as well as the body and even the tail of the plane, are 17,248 solar cells as thin as a human hair that generate electricity as the plane flies, some of which is stored in four lithium polymer batteries. Those batteries take over powering the plane’s four electric motors at night, which spin the two propellers under each wing. All told the plane weighs 2,300 kilograms and the four batteries are the heaviest passengers, weighing in at 633 kilograms. Making the plane required 12 years of calculations, computer simulations, building and testing, according to Piccard, and some $140 million.

Scientific American:
Solar Plane Takes Flight to Circle Globe in 180 Days [in Photos], David Biello
Site: Solar Impulse
You Tube: Solar Impulse Channel

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17 Game Changers...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 11, 2015 at 7:49am

Topics: Astrophysics, Dark Matter, Diversity in Science, Nobel Prize, Women in Science

Two who advanced what we know about astrophysics:



And, one so familiar and deep cover, she was literally "hidden in plain sight":



From discovering pulsars to correcting the optics of the fuzzy Hubble Space Telescope, here are 17 stories of women who made undeniably vital contributions to astronomy and physics.

Popist: These 17 Women Changed The Face Of Physics, Mika McKinnon

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Giving Them What They Want: Super Sikh: a superhero in a turban fighting injustice and ignorance

Posted by William Hayashi on March 9, 2015 at 7:00pm

When a group of Sikh children were asked who their favourite superheroes are, the answers were barely surprising: Iron Man, Batman, Superman and the usual list of DC and Marvel old-hands.

But when they were asked if they knew of a Sikh comic book superhero, their response was unanimous: an emphatic no.

“And then we asked them, ‘Would you like to see one?’ The looks on their faces was just priceless,” says Supreet Singh Manchanda, a technology executive and comic creator based in San Francisco.

“They just beamed.”

Click here for the full story

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Super Black

Posted by Marcus Haynes on March 9, 2015 at 10:33am

My website, "The Ratchedemic" discusses issues and occurrences in the world around us, highlights Black excellence, and promotes me on my journey to my life goals. In the three months since I first started this website and blog I have done great things with discussing and highlighting, but not so much on the promotion aspect. Now with today's newest post all that changes, check it out at the link below and learn about how my love of the fantastic has made me who I am today; a "Super Black"!

http://theratchedemic.squarespace.com/blog/2015/3/9/super-black

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The Limit as it Approaches...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 9, 2015 at 7:48am

Topics: Bias, Diversity in Science, Education, STEM, Women in Science


This is a re-post from 2012 whose title I didn't quite explain: "the limit as it approaches" is a term in Calculus - helped to co-develop by Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz to define The Derivative; Leibniz's impact was Integration. The point of the article in Physics Today I think is still three years hence quite relevant, as well as PT's own Calculus social reference.
South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement
Harvard Theoretical Physicist Dr. Lisa Randall

PHYSICS TODAY: Of all the sciences in the US, physics continues to have the lowest representation of women. Currently, women earn just 21% of bachelor’s degrees and 17% of PhDs in the field. Discourse about women in physics often centers on representation, and the unspoken assumption seems to be that if the representation of women were to increase to some higher level, all would be well. However, the focus on representation obscures important issues and ignores the day-to-day experiences of women physicists.

In fact, women physicists could be the majority in some hypothetical future yet still in their careers experience problems that stem from often unconscious bias. After all, science, and especially physical science, is seen by many cultures as a primarily male domain. But do women actually experience problems in their day-to-day work as physicists? Do they have equal access to opportunities and resources? If not, how does that inequity affect their careers? If harmful, sex-based differences of access exist, then those of us who care about the situation of women in physics need to come up with a solution that encompasses more than just increasing female representation.




I had the pleasure of being educated by Dr. Elvira Williams at North Carolina A and T State University. She was the fourth African American female awarded a PhD in physics in the United States, specifically Condensed Matter-Diffusion Physics, from Howard University (she's third from the bottom of this list). She last taught at Shaw University.
Dr. Elvira Williams: Cambridge Who's Who

I'm proud and honored to have studied General Physics II and Electromagnetic Field Theory from her.

Physics Today: Women in Physics: A Tale of Limits

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Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 8, 2015 at 10:58am
Image Source: NobelPrize.org


Topics: Biology, Genetics, Nobel Prize, Research, STEM, Women in Science

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009


Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase".

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to three scientists who have solved a major problem in biology: how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation. The Nobel Laureates have shown that the solution is to be found in the ends of the chromosomes – the telomeres – and in an enzyme that forms them – telomerase.

The long, thread-like DNA molecules that carry our genes are packed into chromosomes, the telomeres being the caps on their ends. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak discovered that a unique DNA sequence in the telomeres protects the chromosomes from degradation. Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn identified telomerase, the enzyme that makes telomere DNA. These discoveries explained how the ends of the chromosomes are protected by the telomeres and that they are built by telomerase.

If the telomeres are shortened, cells age. Conversely, if telomerase activity is high, telomere length is maintained, and cellular senescence is delayed. This is the case in cancer cells, which can be considered to have eternal life. Certain inherited diseases, in contrast, are characterized by a defective telomerase, resulting in damaged cells. The award of the Nobel Prize recognizes the discovery of a fundamental mechanism in the cell, a discovery that has stimulated the development of new therapeutic strategies.

"The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 7 Mar 2015. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/

National Institute of Health:
Discrimination, racial bias, and telomere length in African-American men.
Chae DH1, Nuru-Jeter AM2, Adler NE3, Brody GH4, Lin J5, Blackburn EH5, Epel ES3.

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A Testament To Originality: Welcome to Bitch Planet: the comic that's reimagining feminism

Posted by William Hayashi on March 6, 2015 at 8:06pm

In the near future, troublesome women are marked “noncompliant” and trucked off to a space age Auxiliary Compliance Outpost – aka Bitch Planet – which is also the name of a new comic series by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro.

Click here for the full story

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Amelia Boynton...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 7, 2015 at 9:40am
Source: Biography.com

Dicebat Bernardus Carnotensis nos esse quasi nanos gigantium humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine, aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvehimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea.

Translation: Bernard of Chartres used to say that we were like dwarfs seated on the shoulders of giants. If we see more and further than they, it is not due to our own clear eyes or tall bodies, but because we are raised on high and upborne by their gigantic bigness. John of Salisbury, Wikiquote

Topics: Bloody Sunday, Civil Rights, Soldier, Voting Rights, Women's Rights


I knew I wanted to talk about this hero on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. The president will speak today in Alabama, and I would presume some part of his commentary will mention her particular shoulders (like my sister's) that stood up for one like me when I was just learning to walk. Going backwards, as I've stated, violates causality and the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. It is better to go forward, together, lifted on shoulders that pushed us all here. She and many others, made our foray on astronautics at NASA; education and engineering; sports and politics up to and now inclusive of the presidency possible. The conditions were not as ubiquitous nor taken for granted as they are today. Thus, we have a generation that believes in magic; that neglecting the sacrifices of the past will have no impact on the present; that their rights taken for granted will always be there if they don't act upon them. There wouldn't be an effort at Voter ID for a non-problem, if your voice made no difference; had no impact.

Civil rights activist Amelia Boynton helped Martin Luther King Jr. plan the Selma to Montgomery March on Bloody Sunday, which led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Amelia Boynton was born on August 18, 1911, in Savannah, Georgia. Her early activism included holding black voter registration drives in Selma, Alabama, from the 1930s through the '50s. In 1964, she became both the first African-American woman and the first female Democratic candidate to run for a seat in Congress from Alabama. The following year, she marched on Bloody Sunday. In 1990, Boynton won the Martin Luther King Jr. Medal of Freedom. Today, she tours on behalf of the Schiller Institute.

Also in 1964, Boynton and fellow civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. teamed up toward their common goals. At the time, Boynton figured largely as an activist in Selma. Still dedicated to securing suffrage for African Americans, she asked Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to come to Selma and help promote the cause. King eagerly accepted. Soon after, he and the SCLC set up their headquarters at Boynton's Selma home. There, they planned the Selma to Montgomery March of March 7, 1965.

Some 600 protesters arrived to participate in the event, which would come to be known as "Bloody Sunday." On the Edmund Pettus Bridge, over the Alabama River in Selma, marchers were attacked by policemen with tear gas and billy clubs. Seventeen protesters were sent to the hospital, including Boynton, who had been beaten unconscious. A newspaper photo of Boynton lying bloody and beaten drew national attention to the cause. Bloody Sunday prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965, with Boynton attending as the landmark event's guest of honor.

Biography.com: Amelia Boynton, Civil Rights Activist

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Dr. May-Britt Moser...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 6, 2015 at 8:01am
Image Source: Nobel Prize link below


Topics: Biology, Diversity in Science, Medicine, Nobel Prize, STEM, Women in Science

Born: 4 January 1963, Fosnavåg, Norway


Affiliation at the time of the award: Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

Prize motivation: "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain"

Field: physiology, spatial behavior

"May-Britt Moser - Facts". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 3 Mar 2015. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2014/may-britt-moser-facts.html

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Race Matters: Showing Race or Racial Issues Is Important

Posted by Alicia McCalla on November 14, 2011 at 4:46am

SkinwalkerSo, I like it when an author puts race in front of my eyes.  I enjoy visualizing what a character looks like, race and all.  When it's done correctly, the experience can deepen the reader's relationship with the character.  There are some people who say that showing race in this way is racist.  They enjoy reading or writing raceless, race free, or characters of color with little or no physical description. I contend that this approach is racist. Read More

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Dr. Nadya Mason...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 5, 2015 at 7:27am


Mayer                                            Mason


Topics: Carbon Nanotubes, Diversity in Science, Nanotechnology, Women in Science

Dr. Nadya Mason

University of Illinois, repost: 2012 Maria Goeppert Mayer Prize recipient

Citation:


"For innovative experiments that elucidate the electronic interactions and correlations in low-dimensional systems, in particular the use of local gates and tunnel probes to control and measure the electronic states in carbon nanotubes and graphene."

 

Additional note: The first photograph of a Maria Goeppert Mayor Prize recipient seems to be in 1996 with Dr. Majorie Ann Olmstead, most likely made a part of the site as society got comfortable with the Internet, advances in tools and what could be posted. The prize has been awarded by APS since 1986: "To recognize and enhance outstanding achievement by a woman physicist in the early years of her career, and to provide opportunities for her to present these achievements to others through public lectures in the spirit of Maria Goeppert Mayer." Dr. Mason seems to be - at first brush of the site - the first African American woman awarded this honor.

I attended her talk at the NSBP conference in Austin, Texas. Nobel Prize next, Dr. Mason!
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