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I was actually looking for a video of him playing the saxophone in orbit and happened upon this history by ABCNEWS.com. Related to the previous post: his PhD was in Laser Physics from MIT.
"Education was the secular god of the black community" (a quote I remember, but have no sources for it).
"Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.
"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions." Carter G. Woodson
NASA: Dr. Ronald E. McNair
ADDED: When I lived in Austin, Texas, I recalled meeting Dr. McNair when I was an undergraduate at North Carolina A&T State University. I was in AFROTC, marched in the parade in his honor after his first mission, and introduced him at the Army/Air Force ROTC joint banquet. It was a busy weekend.
"Whenever you're in Texas, you should give me a call."
So I did. Back then, I called information; asked for Ronald Ervin McNair in Houston, Texas. That was as close as "Googling it" as we got back then.
I got to speak to him for a good three hours. I found out some things:
- 5 weeks before his dissertation defense, someone purged his data (also known as sabotage). Without data, he'd essentially have failed to get his PhD. He said he stayed up for 3 weeks and re-accomplished 5 years of research. He slept for a week after that.
- He was planning to leave NASA and go into academia. Challenger would be "his last mission." That was sadly true. It devastated me, and inspired some creative writing in his honor.
- A lot of his determination he learned as a participant on the school karate team, which a the time (according to my Calculus instructor and his teammate Dr. Casterlow), you could get a disqualification for "unnecessary redness of the skin."
Recalling this makes me determined to stay in science, contribute, help when and if I can, and stand on the shoulder of this and other giants (he was actually only 5'6", but you get the idea).
“When getting an education is a revolutionary act & dreams are the province of men,” Stanley Tucci.
The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering is a collaborative project of North Carolina A&T State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
JSNN’s mission is to train students to conduct basic and applied research in nanoscience and nanoengineering, and to work closely with the Piedmont Triad community to help enhance opportunities for economic and academic growth through its outreach and engagement activities.
Although Nanoscience and Nanoengineering deal with structures that are invisible to the human eye, their potential to improve daily life is quite substantial. For example as you are reading this, nanoscience and nanoengineering are providing new means of drug delivery, new dental adhesives, new cosmetics, new heat resistant coatings, and a range of other products that can make our lives safer and more productive. The advances in nanoscience and nanoengineering mean that more corporations are forming to design and produce nanoproducts. The financial implications of these new industries will be significant. According to Lux Research, the projected economic impact of nanotechnology on the global economy is $3.1 trillion by 2015. JSNN seeks to develop collaborations with the local and regional businesses that will raise the Triad’s Nanotechnology profile with the goal of attracting new industry and investment to the area and by doing so helping to stimulate the economic growth.1
Federal funding of a prestigious research institute at N.C. A&T State University that is developing new kinds of biomaterials for use in regenerative medicine has been extended beyond its five-year term.
The extension will bring millions of additional dollars to A&T and give the school more time to develop technologies with commercial potential. It will also increase the possibility of lucrative partnerships with Triad nanotechnology and medical companies.
Officials with the Engineering Research Center for Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials said they have received the results of a critical review by the National Science Foundation. The NSF awarded N.C. A&T a research grant worth about $18.5 million over five years to establish the ERC in 2008.2
1. Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering
2. The Business Journal - N.C. A&T State gets key funding increase for research center
The LEAP (Leadership, Education, and Partnership) Academy University Charter School is a kindergarten through 12th-grade (K-12) public charter school that serves Camden City with one core principle: all children and families deserve access to a quality public education.
Since 1997, LEAP has become a national model for urban education. It provides a high quality, holistic education for 1,000 urban learners and families, while guaranteeing every LEAP graduate an opportunity to earn a college degree.
LEAP Academy's three academic units—LEAP Lower School (K-6), LEAP Upper School (7-12) and a specialized STEM High School (9-12)—promote high expectations for students, personal development and successful college and career goals.
For more than 15 years this innovative approach has translated into tremendous success for students and families. Each year LEAP Academy graduates 100 percent of its senior class with all alumni admitted to college, where they are shaping their futures and the future of Camden City.
The Fabrication Lab (Fab Lab) at the STEM campus is a workshop where students can take their ideas through a complete process from conception to reality. One side of the Fab Lab holds computers with Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software where students draft their ideas. CAD software, Google SketchUp and Autodesk Inventor, allow students to create 3D digital prototypes. The other side of the lab houses machinery that brings students' 3D designs to life.
The CAD Software on the computers and the machinery in the Fab Lab work together enabling students to be creative, imaginative, and highly practical. The Fab Lab at LEAP Academy STEM is a place where students can identify needs and create real, working solutions for social problems in the community. For example, students can use the Fab Lab to design and create a home water filtration system to address the issue of clean water in Camden. Simultaneously, the Fab Lab encourages innovation and community engagement while teaching STEM skills and real world application.
More Information Contact
Dr. Alex Nieves, Director, Fabrication Lab
alex.nieves@camden.rutgers.edu | 856. 614.3292 | Extension 7320
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Physics World |
Physicists in the UK have come up with a new way of storing a handful of photons in an ultracold atomic gas, in which strong interactions between neighbouring photons can be switched on and off using microwaves. The team believes that the technique could be used to create optical logic gates in which single photons could be processed one at a time. The method could also prove useful for connecting quantum-computing devices based on different technologies.
Optical photons make very good "flying" quantum bits (qubits) because they can travel hundreds of kilometres through fibres without losing their quantum information. However, it is very difficult to get such photons to interact either with each other or with "stationary" qubits such as those based on trapped ions or tiny pieces of superconductor. Exchanging quantum information between such devices can therefore be tricky.
What Charles Adams and colleagues at Durham University have now done is come up with a way of storing individual optical photons in highly excited states of an atomic gas. Once stored, the photons can be made to interact strongly, before being released again. An important feature of the technique is that it uses microwaves, which are also used to control some types of stationary qubit.
The Durham experiment involves holding up to 100 rubidium atoms in an optical trap created at the focus of a laser beam, before two pulses of light are fired at the trapped atoms. One pulse is "signal" light that is to be stored and the other is "control" light. The control light allows 10 or so neighbouring rubidium atoms to absorb a signal photon, creating a collective state called a "Rydberg polariton". Such a state is similar to that of a Rydberg atom, which has an electron in a highly excited state – in this case, with a principal quantum number of 60.
Physics World: Stored photons interact with atom cloud
http://www.myspace.com/drocksouljah/blog/546696891
Contents for L.I.A. #7
I. Past Super Bowl Winners
II. Films Previewing Intense Change Concerning Baltimore & S.F.
III. Award Rituals for the Super Bowl & the Oscars
IV. TMSP Products & Services Wrap-up
MAY THE REWARDS WE REAP DAILY PROVE TO MAKE THE MOST BENEFICIALLY LONG-TERM LIVING EFFECTS!!!
AL Bey
Author of Tainted Saint: The Autobiography of D-Rock SOUL-Jah
Owner, Tribal Metal Spear-it Publishing, LLC (TMSP)
January 29, 2013
Published: January 29, 2013
By Jodie Sovereign
Hi, my name is Jodie. I am eight years old. I am studying space. I like studying space because we will never know everything about it. When I watched Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking on Blu Ray, it answered a lot of my questions, like How did the universe start and may time travel be possible? Stephen Hawking says he is a physicist and a dreamer. In episode one, "Aliens," he asked the question, "Do aliens exist?" Stephen Hawking had some very creative ideas of what aliens might look like. He also said that they may just take what they need from us—or never think about us.
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Regional Multicultural Magnet School |
Jodie Sovereign is a 2nd grader at the Regional Multicultural Magnet School in New London, Connecticut. Besides science, she enjoys reading, playing with her stuffed animals, and soccer. She hopes to be a teacher when she grows up.
Physics Today: Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking: A review | Singularities
...almost like Moore's Law and particle physics.
A new compact high-flux source of energetic neutrons has been built by physicists in Germany and the US. The new laser-based device has the potential to be cheaper and more convenient than the large neutron facilities currently used by physicists and other scientists. The inventors say the source could be housed in university laboratories and might also be used to identify illicit nuclear material.
Neutrons are a valuable tool for scientists in many fields, allowing them to probe the structure and dynamics of a range of materials. Today, the main drawback of neutron science is that intense beams of neutrons must be produced in either nuclear reactors or dedicated accelerator facilities – making a laser-based table-top source very attractive.
Physics World: Neutrons on a lab bench
I thought this was pretty freaking cool when I saw it!
Robert Glasper Experiment on the instrumentals/ King on the vocals
Been working on my character design chops a bit. What do yall think?
Got a few more here: Character Design portfolio
TEST DRIVE THE MOST POWERFUL POPULATION PLUGIN FOR 3DS MAX, MAYA AND CINEMA4DJanuary 30, 2013. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, the leader in Digital Nature technologies, today announced the immediate availability of the Carbon Scatter 2 trial version for Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya, and Maxon Cinema4D. Derived from e-on software's acclaimed EcoSystem™ technology, Carbon Scatter 2 is the easiest and most straightforward solution for creating complex and detailed populations using the native instancing technologies of the host application. "Carbon Scatter 2 is perfect, it has all the tools to build a complete scene quickly. I considered several other products prior to choosing Carbon Scatter, but Carbon Scatter gave me the best library of quickly renderable plants. I love this product!", said Roger Barnes. New features in Carbon Scatter 2 include:
Industry Recognition In less than a month, Carbon Scatter 2 has already received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from the industry: "Carbon Scatter 2 does what it says and it does it very well!" Darren Capner "I am very happy with Carbon Scatter 2. Absolutely amazing software!", M.J. van Soldt "Carbon Scatter 2 takes what seems to be a complex task, and makes it simple. The Carbon Botanica extension is a no-brainer, worth every cent!", Paul Crumrine "I really love Carbon Scatter and often use it for my productions. The new features like 360° population, the lean out feature on low density or the edge of population, or Eco-stacking are really nice additions, and the result looks natural." Christoph Schindelar "It's great to find the Vue EcoSystem™ technology inside the host application. I really feel "at-home".", Laurent Rodriguez ![]() Carbon Scatter 2 Trial Version The Carbon Scatter Trial Version will install in all supported applications on the end user’s system and will allow the rendering of EcoSystem™ populations in all supported renderers. The Trial Version is a fully functional version of Carbon Scatter 2, aside from the following limitations:
The Carbon Scatter 2 Trial Version cannot be used for commercial work. Once installed, the Trial Version will work for 30 days. Supported Renderers Rendering of the Carbon Scatter 2 scene elements is entirely done by the host application's renderer.
The Carbon Scatter 2 Trial version is available as a free download from www.carbonscatter.com/download. More information about Carbon Scatter can be found at www.carbonscatter.com. *Disclaimer: e-on software cannot guarantee the smooth operation of Carbon Scatter 2 with the plethora of commercial renderers compatible with Cinema4D. E-on software recommends that users download the Carbon Scatter 2 Trial Version to test with their preferred renderer before placing their order. About e-on software E-on software is the leading developer of solutions for the creation, animation, rendering and integration of natural 3D environments (Vue, Ozone and Carbon Scatter), as well as real-time immersive visualization tools for Architecture (LumenRT). Offering a wide array of Digital Nature products and applications, e-on software provides solutions adapted to every project and budget. E-on software products are used worldwide by the film, television, architecture, game, science, educational and entertainment industries. E-on software products were used in feature films such as as as "Hunger Games", "Hugo", "Tintin", "Super 8", "Thor", "Avatar", "Clash of the Titans", "Sucker Punch", "Despicable Me", "The Wolf Man", "2012", "Lovely Bones", "GI Joe – The Rise of the Cobra", "Land of the Lost", "Terminator 4, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Indiana Jones 4", "Monster Vs Aliens", "Australia", "The Spiderwick Chronicles", "KungFu Panda", "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" and TV series such as "Smallville", "Battlestar Gallactica", "Caprica", "Stargate Atlantis", "Stargate Continuum", and more. Read more on these stories in e-on software's Spotlights section: www.e-onsoftware.com/spotlight. E-on software was founded on the premise that powerful graphics tools should never get in the way of the designer's creativity. By investing significant resources into research and development, e-on software is able to deliver cutting-edge, user friendly technologies that produce stunning Digital Nature scenery. E-on software is based in Beaverton, Oregon with an European office in Paris, France. Visit their website at http://www.e-onsoftware.com. Follow us: Facebook: www.facebook.com/Lumenrt and www.facebook.com/eonsoftware Twitter: www.twitter.com/e_onsoftware LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/e-on-software Please note: If you find the color of the text hard to read, please click on "Printer-friendly" and black text will appear on a white background.
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"Over 54% of black men who express an initial interest in majoring in the natural sciences, engineering or economics switch to the humanities or social sciences compared to less than 8% of white men," the study authors write. As for women, "33% of white women switch out of the natural sciences, engineering and economics with 51% of black women switching." Students with "relatively weaker academic backgrounds [are] much less likely to persist in natural sciences, engineering and economics majors." This means that "the convergence of black/white grades is then a symptom of the lack of representation among blacks in the natural sciences, engineering and economics," the authors argue. The grade point averages of black students rise over their college careers, in other words, because a higher percentage of them move to less difficult and higher-graded majors.
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News one |
Science Career Blogs:
The Grio:
Don't Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close s/he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.
- Author unknown
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has demonstrated a novel chip-scale instrument made of carbon nanotubes that may simplify absolute measurements of laser power, especially the light signals transmitted by optical fibers in telecommunications networks.
NIST: 'Nanotubes on a Chip' May Simplify Optical Power Measurements
At 7 years old, Zora Ball has become the youngest person to create a mobile video game.
The app was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania's Bootstrap Expo last month, the Philadelphia Tribune reports.
Ball developed the game using programming language Bootstrap, which is usually taught to students between the ages of 12 and 16, to help them learn concepts of algebra via video game development.
According to Mashable, Ball also successfully reconfigured the app when asked to do so at the Expo, silencing anyone who may have thought that her older brother -- a STEM scholar of the year -- helped her program the game.
Staff at Harambee Institute of Science and Technology, where Ball attends first grade and an after-school program, anticipate she'll do great things.
"I am proud of all my students," Tariq Al-Nasir, who heads the STEMnasium Learning Academy, told the Courier. "Their dedication to this program is phenomenal, and they come to class every Saturday, including holiday breaks."
Last year, the Huffington Post wrote about Kelvin Doe, a 13-year-old from Sierra Leone who created batteries and generators using materials he picked up around the house. Three years later, he became the youngest person to be invited to MIT's
Courtesy: Essence
Ronald E. McNair was born October 21, 1950, in Lake City, South Carolina. Died January 28, 1986. Survived by wife Cheryl, & two children. Was 5th degree black belt Karate instructor & performing jazz saxophonist. Enjoyed running, boxing, football, playing cards, & cooking.
Ronald E. McNair graduated from Carver High School, Lake City, South Carolina, in 1967; received BS in Physics from North Carolina A&T State University in 1971 and Ph.D. in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976; received honorary doctorate of Laws from NC A&T State University in 1978, an honorary doctorate of Science from Morris College in 1980, & an honorary doctorate of science from the University of South Carolina in 1984.
SPECIAL HONORS:
Graduated magna cum laude from North Carolina A&T (‘71) - named Presidential Scholar (‘67-’71), Ford Foundation Fellow (‘71-’74), National Fellowship Fund Fellow (‘74-’75), NATO Fellow (‘75) - winner of Omega Psi Phi Scholar of Year Award (‘75), Los Angeles Public School System’s Service Commendation (‘79), Distinguished Alumni Award (‘79), National Society of Black Professional Engineers Distinguished National Scientist Award (‘79), Friend of Freedom Award (‘81), Who’s Who Among Black Americans (‘80), an AAU Karate Gold Medal (‘76), 5 Regional Blackbelt Karate Championships.
About: Ronald E. McNair, PhD
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National Robotics Challenge |
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education is a subject of much discussion in Washington. The National Research Council report, Research Universities and the Future of America, was the topic of two hearings in the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology in the last Congress and continues to generate discussion among policy makers. Scientific professional societies, including the American Physical Society, American Association of Physics Teachers both AIP Member Societies, and the American Chemical Society, have issued reports including those on the status of graduate education in their disciplines. These and other recent reports have generated momentum and an increased desire among decision makers to take action to improve US STEM education.
The National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education (CoSTEM), established by the America COMPETES Act of 2010, created an inventory in February 2012 of Federal STEM education activities and developed a 5-year strategic Federal STEM education plan. The purpose of CoSTEM is to coordinate Federal programs and activities relating to STEM education. This strategic plan will likely continue to be a resource to the Obama Administration as it continues to focus on STEM education issues.
The President issued a call to action in his 2011 State of the Union address to train 100,000 new STEM teachers over the next 10 years to improve access to and the quality of STEM education. This initiative began as a recommendation in a report, Prepare and Inspire, produced by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and has now become a collaborative movement, known as 100kin10, composed of over 100 partner organizations that have and will continue to commit to increasing the number of STEM teachers. Increasing the number of new teachers is a primary focus, however these organizations recognize the need to continue to support existing STEM teachers while increasing the number of new teachers.
American Institute of Physics: STEM Education: An Update and Overview of Policy Discussions
Hadiya: Arabic, “guide to righteousness; gift.”
The Hadiya Kingdom (r. 13th century-15th century) was an ancient kingdom once located in southwestern Ethiopia, south of the Abbay River and west of Shewa. It was ruled by the Hadiya people, who spoke the Cushitic Hadiyya language. The historical Hadiya area was situated between Kambaat, Gamo, and Waj, southwest of Shewa. By 1850, Hadiya is placed north-west of lakes Zway and Langano but still between these areas. (Wikipedia)

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Lecture from University of Oregon - "The Beginning of Time" |
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Metamaterials are synthetic substances with nanoscale structures that manipulate light. This ability to steer photons makes them the enabling technology behind invisibility cloaks and has generated intense interest from researchers.
The ability to guide light has more profound consequences, however. Various theoreticians have pointed out that there is a formal mathematical analogy between the way certain metamaterials bend light and the way spacetime does the same thing in general relativity. In fact, it ought to be possible to make metamaterials that mimic the behaviour of not only our own spacetime but also many others that cosmologist merely dream about.
Indeed, a couple of years ago we looked at a suggestion by Igor Smolyaninov at the University of Maryland in College Park that it ought to be possible to use metamaterials to create a multiverse in which different regions of the material corresponded to universes with different properties.
Today, Smolyaninov and a couple of buddies announce the extraordinary news that they have done exactly this. They’ve created a metamaterial containing many “universes” that are mathematically analogous to our own, albeit in the three dimensions rather than four.
The experiment is relatively straightforward. Metamaterials are usually hard to engineer because they are based on nanoscale structures. However, Smolyaninov and pals have instead exploited the self-assembling nature of cobalt nanoparticles suspended in kerosene.
Cobalt is ferromagnetic so the nanoparticles tend to become aligned in a magnetic field. In fact, if the density of nanoparticles is high enough, the field causes them to line up in columns. When this happens, the nanocolumns form a metamaterial which is mathematically equivalent to a 2+1 Minkowski spacetime.
So light passing through behaves as if this region has one dimension of time, aligned with the nanocolumns, and two dimensions of space, perpendicular to the nanocolumns.
That creates a single Minkowski universe. The trick that Smolyaninov and pals have pulled off is to create a multiverse containing many Minkowski spacetimes.
Wolfram Mathworld: Minkowski Space