A cutaway rendering of the ADMX detector. Image: ADMX collaboration
Topics: Dark Matter, Particle Physics, Theoretical Physics, Quantum Mechanics
Forty years ago, scientists theorized a new kind of low-mass particle that could solve one of the enduring mysteries of nature: what dark matter is made of. Now a new chapter in the search for that particle has begun.
This week, the Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX) unveiled a new result, published in Physical Review Letters, that places it in a category of one: It is the world’s first and only experiment to have achieved the necessary sensitivity to “hear” the telltale signs of dark matter axions. This technological breakthrough is the result of more than 30 years of research and development, with the latest piece of the puzzle coming in the form of a quantum-enabled device that allows ADMX to listen for axions more closely than any experiment ever built.
ADMX is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and located at the University of Washington. This new result, the first from the second-generation run of ADMX, sets limits on a small range of frequencies where axions may be hiding and sets the stage for a wider search in the coming years.
“This result signals the start of the true hunt for axions,” said Fermilab scientist Andrew Sonnenschein, the operations manager for ADMX. “If dark matter axions exist within the frequency band we will be probing for the next few years, then it’s only a matter of time before we find them.”
Posted by Frank Yeiger on April 18, 2018 at 7:30am
Greetings BSFS,
Just stopped by to give you guys an update on my graphic novel project, and also thank you for all the support. Even if it was a dollar, every bit counted. We reached our original goal and actually hit the mark for one of our stretch goals! I had a great time on the podcast, you guys are wild! lol.
This is a really exciting time for me. Literally, a dream coming true.
If you'd like to check out the project. Click the link below.
Afrofuturism is on the Radar once again, and this time we explore its relationship to Cyberpunk, a related Science Fiction genre.
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that features advanced science and technology in an urban, dystopian future. On one side you have powerful mega-corporations and private security forces, and on the other you have the dark and gritty underworld of illegal trade, gangs, drugs, and vice.
It emerged in the 80s and is considered to have been crystallised following the popularity of William Gibson’s Sci-Fi redefining Novel, ‘Neuromancer’, the precursor and inspiration for the ‘Matrix’ Trilogy.
Briefly, its about the Central Character’s outlaw Hacker experiences in a ‘Collective Virtual Reality Hallucination’ called the Matrix which is accessed by plugging the Brain into Cyberspace…The story is set in a Dystopian High Technology Earth Civilization controlled by big Corporations.
What also makes ‘Neuromancer’ unique is that at the time it was written the Internet was a far cry from where it is now, but that didnt stop Gibson from coining the term ‘Cyberspace’ even though he didnt own a Computer at the time he wrote his groundbreaking Novel which subsequently won numerous awards and has since acquired Cult status.
Neuromancer: Visionary…
Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism is the re-imagining of a future filled with arts, science and technology seen through a black lens. The term was conceived a quarter-century ago by white author Mark Dery in his essay “Black to the Future,” which looks at speculative fiction within the African diaspora. The essay rests on a series of interviews with Black content creators.
Dery laid out the questions driving the philosophy of Afrofuturism:
Can a community whose past has been deliberately rubbed out, and whose energies have subsequently been consumed by the search for legible traces of its history, imagine possible futures? Furthermore, isn’t the unreal estate of the future already owned by the technocrats, futurologists, streamliners, and set designers ― white to a man ― who have engineered our collective fantasies?
As stated in our last Afrofuturism entry, what makes Afrofuturism significantly different from standard science fiction is that it’s steeped in ancient African traditions and Black identity.
However, a narrative that simply features a Black character in a futuristic world is not enough. To be Afrofuturism, it must be rooted in and unapologetically celebrate the uniqueness and innovation of Black culture.
However, an Afrofuturist narrative does not have to occur within a fictional Dystopian setting…This is perhaps because Afrofuturism is aspirational in character as a means for Black Creators to exit the limiting real world Dystopia they experience everyday. From this perspective, Afrofuturism can be seen as an exercise in constructing Black Utopia.
Nevertheless, the aspirational quality of Afrofuturism does not in itself limit the use of fictional Dystopian settings in Afrofuturist narratives where this is appropriate for the story being told.
Cyberpunk Dystopia
In the case of Cyberpunk however, Fictional Dystopia appears to be an intrinsic element, and it is in this respect I would say Cyberpunk differs from Afrofuturism which is not necessarily limited to portraying Dystopia except where it fits the story.
For more on the evolution of Cyberpunk, check out the classic 90s BBC Documentary below made at a time the Cyberpunk wave was gathering momentum on the back of Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’…Lots of great Gibson interview footage.
Cyberpunk Documentary
You can also check out our Pinterest Page’s ‘Muthaland Funk’ Board celebrating Africa and Afrofuturism….One!
Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and philosophy of history that explores the developing intersection of African culture with technology. It combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentrism and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique the present-day dilemmas of black people and to interrogate and re-examine historical events.
The term was coined by early Technoculture Writer Mark Dery in his 1993 essay “Black to the Future”.
Seminal Afrofuturistic works include the novels of Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler; the canvases of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Angelbert Metoyer, and the photography of Renée Cox; the explicitly extraterrestrial mythoi of Parliament-Funkadelic, the Jonzun Crew, Warp 9, Deltron 3030, and Sun Ra; and the Marvel Comics superhero Black Panther.
AFROFUTURISM & BLAXPLOITATION
Afrofuturism can be distinguished from Blaxploitation, an ethnic subgenre of exploitation films emerging in the United States during the early 1970s. The films, portrayed famous but stereotypical Black characters like ‘Shaft’.
Although Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, the genre’s audience appeal soon broadened across racial and ethnic lines once Hollywood realized the potential profit of expanding the audiences of Blaxpoitation films across those racial lines.
Blaxploitation Icon: Shaft
The difference between Afrofuturism and Blaxploitation lies in the ability of Afrofuturist Protagonists to imagine a reality beyond their current experience, whereas characters like ‘Shaft’ almost ‘revel’ in the ghetto experience without feeling the need to question how they got there, and whether perhaps the ghetto is not their natural home and should think of leaving.
Such ‘fundamental’ questions are cast aside for purely visceral pleasures in Films like ‘Shaft’. Afrofuturists however, directly confront the Social structure by questioning the ‘appropriate’ place for Black people firstly in Art itself, and by necessary extension Society…It is the rejection of a preconceived notion of the ‘role’ a Black person is expected to play in Art, and ultimately Society itself.
Basquiat & Other Afrofuturist Artists
Jean-Michel Basquiat December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who during the late 1970s combined the hip hop, punk, street art movements with classical art.
You may remember the ‘Hip Hop Faculty’ entry we did on Graffiti and Basquiat last year. Since then, Basquiat’s ‘Untitled’ 1982 painting, depicting a skull, set a new record high for any U.S. artist at auction, selling for $110,500,000.
Famous Basquiat Works
The mantle has been carried by quite a few Artists from the Eclectic Sun Ra and Grace Jones, with Janelle Monae representing the movement in Pop Culture today. The success of Black Panther has further cemented the appeal of the Afrofuturist aesthetic.
Janelle Monae
Grace Jones: Slave To The Rhythm Full Album
Sun Ra
Conclusion
Afrofuturism represents a re-imagining of the Self beyond the limitations imposed by Society in both Art and ‘real’ life. In expressing themselves in ‘unexpected’ ways, Afrofuturists challenge the normalization of Black marginalisation within Society itself.
Check out more on Afrofuturism and our tribute to the Afrofuturist Movement in our Pinterest Board ‘Muthaland Funk’ below.
A documentary of the life and times of Basquiat can be viewed via our YouTube Channel’s ‘Music, Sports & Culture’ Playlist.
Simplifying the complex: some of the mathematical constructions at G4G13; Bjarne Jesperson’s “Knotted Cube” is second from right. (Courtesy: Robert P Crease)
When Roxana started to juggle balls with her feet it was proof, if any were needed, that G4G is the most disciplinarily diverse conference around.
G4G, or “Gathering for Gardner”, is a biennial event in honor of the recreational mathematician Martin Gardner (1914–2010). As a columnist for Scientific American, Gardner inspired generations of physicists, mathematicians, philosophers, puzzle-makers, logicians, magicians and others, including me. The 13th gathering this past weekend was called G4G13.
The conference began last Wednesday in the usual fashion: early-bird registrants flocked to the bar at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Atlanta to show their favourite mathematics, physics, logic and magic tricks. These are called “bar bets”, for their only practical purpose is to give you cool ways to try to win money off sceptical strangers. I saw some classics on Wednesday, such as the challenge to guess whether a red wine glass is taller than its circumference – as a stranger is likely to think – or shorter, as it almost always is. The events of the next four days shared the same spirit, combining learning about the world with a spirit of playfulness – linked wherever possible to the number 13.
Gardner’s special skill was to get people to enjoy maths by acquainting them with the pleasure of solving problems in areas that ranged from physics to card playing and magic. About 120 talks were given – almost all a mere six minutes long, and each delivered to the entire gathering. We learned about such things as mathematical knitting, hyperbolic tiling patterns, the physics of dice and tops, fine points of logic, and pseudoscience. One celebrity participant was the 2014 Fields medallist Manjul Bhargava. Another was Erno Rubik, the Hungarian inventor of the eponymous cube that in the 1980s became the bestselling toy of all time.
Greek: ὅπερ ἔδει δεῖξαι, "what was to be demonstrated," QED.
The March for Science in April 2017 was a unique demonstration of concern about the role of science and engineering in society and government. More than a million people in cities and towns around the world gathered in streets, made placards and banners, and heard speakers extoling the relevance and beauty of science—and also warning of diminished influence of science in policymaking. Some have dismissed the marchers as just another interest group advocating for more government funding for their work.
But the March, as I saw it and took part in it, represented something more: a significant change in how scientists see themselves and their work. This change had been slowly developing over recent decades and is now reaching a crescendo. Plans for another March for Science tomorrow indicate that the change among scientists is real, and that last year’s march was not simply a flash in the pan.
Scientists and friends of science are excited about recent progress in almost every scientific discipline. Whether it be observations of neutron star collisions, new findings on intergenerational epigenetic changes, macroscopic quantum entanglements, or human behavior, unprecedented scientific advances abound that will improve our future. Science marchers point to science as central to improving the human condition. At the same time, they are concerned about weakening public understanding and support of scientific research and the widespread neglect of scientific evidence. These concerns brought marchers to the streets in 2017 as much as pride in scientific accomplishments.
I participated in the March for Science in Poughkeepsie, NY last year. Alas, this year's conflicts tutoring SAT math tomorrow, an obligation I've taken on locally in Greensboro. I will miss this year, but be there "in spirit." I should be able to participate in Earth Day next Sunday.
“The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.” ~Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot
Stand with us on Earth Day, April 22, when we march in concert with thousands of people in Washington, DC, and hundreds of cities around the world to show we value science.
Science is first of all a method. It begins with the simplest yet most profound act we humans can make: asking a question. It requires the best of our intellect to follow the lead those questions lay out on the map. It requires our courage when that path reveals truths we would prefer not to face. It requires our minds to stretch beyond their native intuitions; to imagine a petite three-dimensional sphere whirling through space when the surface beneath our feet is flat and big enough to hold billions of our kind; to conceive of scales outside the reckoning of our senses, from the tininess of our sun in a gargantuan universe to the immensities of space inside an atom too small too see without expensive, highly developed technology.
Science expands our senses, our curiosity. We live every day in a world that yesterday was impossible magic.
Yet, when lies become mainstream public currency, when borders close to the free sharing of research, when people are told to stop asking questions or to avert their eyes from evidence, the pursuit of science itself becomes an endangered species.
Yes, scientists themselves are human. They are people of their day and culture. Any endeavor that requires humans to carry it out will produce failures and mistakes, even horrific ones. Yet the solution is not to slam the door, shut down controversy, or retreat from the challenge. What better remedy than the methods of science: to address the errors by asking better questions, seeking more knowledge, engaging more minds in order to bring a broader variety of backgrounds and perspectives into the quest?
Topics: Education, Diversity in Science, STEM, Women in Science
In their order of appearance:
Project #21, Burglar alarm (3D snap kit)
Project #11, Flying Saucer
Project #53, Flashing Laser Light with Sound
Project #548, Rechargeable Battery (solar panel)
The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering will participate in the USA Science and Engineering Festival as part of the North Carolina Science Festival. Our portion is called "Gateway to Science." I am a humble one of many great exhibits. I'll start 9:00 am at the Nano Energy table (my group), then take the evening shift from 1:00 - 5:00 pm at the electronic snap kits table I spent until 9:30 last night setting up, as well as I saw many other fellow students setting up their displays in the wee hours. Like anything, it's something you're at first "voluntold" to do, but take pride in your particular part coming off without a hitch. It's going to be a long, eventful day. I'll try to get some other photos posted when I get a break.
Warning signs: the greater blue-ringed octopus changes its appearance when threatened using techniques that have inspired an adaptive infrared reflector. (CC BY-SA 2.5/Jens Petersen)
A simple device with tuneable infrared reflectivity has been made by mimicking the adaptive properties of the skin of octopuses and related animals. Chengyi Xuat, Alon Gorodetsky and George Stiubianu of the University of California, Irvine created the device using a dielectric elastomer and say that it overcomes many of the limitations of previous adaptive infrared-reflecting systems.
Reflecting infrared radiation is important for many technologies, ranging from building insulation to spacecraft components. But most of the materials used to reflect radiation in the infrared region are static: they are unable to respond and adapt to changes in the environment. Some adaptable infrared-reflecting systems have been developed, but they tend to be complex and difficult to control, while also lacking spectral tunability and requiring high operating temperatures.
Inspired by the skin of cephalopods – squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish – Gorodetsky and colleagues have now developed an adaptable infrared-reflecting system that they say is easy to control, can respond rapidly and be used repeatedly. The system also has a tuneable spectral range and works at low temperatures.
Many cephalopods can rapidly change the colour and patterning of their skin. This is done for both camouflage and signalling, and is enabled by pigment cells with adjustable spectral properties that can response within hundreds of milliseconds. These yellow, red, and brown cells, known as adaptive chromatophores, are packed with pigment granules and can be expanded and contracted by radial muscles. As their size and shape changes so do the wavelengths of light that they absorb and reflect.
Topics: Economy, Existentialism, Space Travel, Politics
Well-heeled space tourists will have a new orbital destination four years from now, if one company's plans come to fruition.
That startup, called Orion Span, aims to loft its "Aurora Station" in late 2021 and begin accommodating guests in 2022.
"Affordable" is a relative term: A 12-day stay aboard Aurora Station will start at $9.5 million. Still, that's quite a bit less than orbital tourists have paid in the past. From 2001 through 2009, seven private citizens took a total of eight trips to the International Space Station (ISS), paying an estimated $20 million to $40 million each time. (These private missions were brokered by the Virginia-based company Space Adventures and employed Russian Soyuz spacecraft and rockets.)
"There's been innovation around the architecture to make it more modular and more simple to use and have more automation, so we don't have to have EVAs [extravehicular activities] or spacewalks," Bunger said of Aurora Station.
*****
Elysium or the Elysian Fields (Ancient Greek: Ἠλύσιον πεδίον, Ēlýsion pedíon) is a conception of the afterlife that developed over time and was maintained by some Greek religious and philosophical sects and cults. Initially separate from the realm of Hades, admission was reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes. Later, it expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic, where they would remain after death, to live a blessed and happy life, and indulging in whatever employment they had enjoyed in life. Source: Wikipedia
*****
In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds. Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, IMDB
"All science and engineering has a moral and philosophical component. It is imperative that as future scientists you pursue your research ethically, thinking also of your impact on society going forward." Quoted from the post "Freedom and Responsibility," October 30, 2017.
for sometime now I’ve wanted to complete this Black and white in color.
steven just began the color works. It was submitted as part of an Blackage Anthology Book
that fell through yeatrs ago. It now posted as an extra on line story on Stranger web page
at Ghettostone Publications site. Recently I have attempted to contact director and movie creator Mr. Fuqua
of Training Day fame to ask if they would please take a look. Stranger storyline has been featured in an independence film years ago, but I think the film success of Black Panther has inspired movie goers so why not try again.
Stranger is ageless and bright to America in the hula of a slave ship ( check Universe book O) from ghettostone, but
he is our Universes ultimate evil doer. Always hidden in the shadows The Stranger would be the last thing you see before your demise.
I enjoy writing for villians they are much easier to write that heroes because most people dont
beliveve in heroes any more and ask why would a super powered hero help anyone as opposed to
gettin paid or becoming famous. Villians from a Black perspective I thing should reflect history
and power so The Stranger brought to America in a slaveship morphs into a Werewolf and manipulates
youth into his evil service. He appears in all my stories so far except for RAMZEES.
Here a page from a quick down and dirty Blackage Anthology Book that never was, enjoy
The target chamber used to achieve laser fusion is shown in the foreground and the laser appears in the background. (Courtesy: Advanced Beam Laboratory/Colorado State University)
Topics: Green Tech, Nanotechnology, Nuclear Fusion
Smaller, cheaper neutron sources and new opportunities for simulating the extreme conditions at the center of stars are among the possible benefits of new research carried out by physicists in the US and Germany. The group directed rapid-fire pulses of intense blue light from a compact laser at arrays of nanostructures to generate a dense plasma yielding large numbers of neutrons created by nuclear fusion.
Scientists have built ever more energetic lasers in the quest to demonstrate nuclear fusion’s feasibility as an energy source. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California, for example, generates pulses with a whopping 1.8 MJ of energy, in order to compress tiny pellets of deuterium and tritium to the point where the nuclei fuse and emit copious numbers of neutrons. The aim is to achieve ignition, when the alpha particle released by the fusing nuclei provides the heat for a self-sustaining reaction – with the energy of the emitted neutrons ultimately being tapped to produce electricity. However, NIF is enormous – occupying the area of three football pitches – and, like other high-energy lasers, can only fire a handful of times a day.
Some researchers are instead working on less energetic but more rapid-fire lasers. These will never get anywhere close to ignition, but can still achieve exceptionally high intensities – thanks to the extreme brevity and hence power of their pulses. Such lasers can create plasmas with very high energy densities ideal for studying extreme astrophysical environments, for example. These devices could also potentially be used as compact sources of neutrons, which probe atomic structure in ways not possible with X-rays. Neutrons are usually produced at large accelerators or reactors and a compact source would be welcomed by scientists.
Allen Dulles, the fifth and longest-serving Director of Central Intelligence, took a personal interest in the construction of the Original Headquarters Building (OHB). He was the son of a Presbyterian minister and insisted that a Biblical quotation be fixed in stone in the OHB Lobby. The verse – "And Ye Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Make You Free" – John 8:32 – now stands as the Agency motto. At the dedication ceremony for OHB, Dulles included this quotation in his speech. Source: CIA.gov
Whatever your opinions of them, that is the motto of our preeminent spy agency, one of the 17 intelligence agencies along with what's left of our allies that has confirmed Russia interfered in the 2016 elections that our current president* exhaustively and nauseatingly labeled "fake news."
On August 19, 2016, I wrote a blog post titled: "These Truths..." It talked about self-evident, rational truths, such as evolution, the age of the universe; governance. Those were halcyon days, when we had a president and not a president*/embarrassment. When we (at least, as member of the non-bigoted, saner part of the electorate), were convinced our president had fidelity to his marriage, his country and its Constitution.
Excerpt from "These Truths":
This year's election is unique as one political party has nominated such a flimflam artist as its candidate, that has made no bones about his hostility to science: "climate change is a plot by the Chinese against American manufacturing." As the New York Daily News opined on his loose 2nd amendment comments: "this isn't funny anymore."
This is an assault on fact versus fantasy, science versus psychobabble; sanity versus insanity. Flimflam's persona non grata interviewed on Alex Jones - the KING of conspiracy provocateurs - as a casual search of YouTube on his rant compilations attests, many right wing pundits have, as he's complained - mainstreamed his views in the public sphere without crediting him, only nourishing a faux ecosystem around Mr. Flimflam. FF sometimes quotes him verbatim, which Jones says admirably is "surreal."
This president*/flimflam artist denies knowing of $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. Unlikely. His lawyer apparently gives it from his own home equity, supposedly not expecting to get repaid. The problem is, if the president* had paid him back, it wouldn't be an in-kind donation during an election, an FEC violation. And why ISN'T a "billionaire" writing a check for his own hush money payments? There is likely a prenuptial agreement he'd be in violation of if this proves out true, and that will cost flimflam what little money Putin lets him dip his toes in.
What it does mean: 1. A lawyer MUST inform his client of any contractual agreement s/he enters into on behalf of her/him. 2. By denying the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with an adult film star, he may have essentially nullified it. He also has one with a Playboy centerfold with which he supposedly had a long-term affair. Stormy's lawyer salivates at the prospect of questioning the president* and his lawyer under deposition. I relish when, as he did from his first spouse where he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to not self-incriminate ninety-seven times, he does so again - hilariously and maddeningly under oath.
What exactly is "truth" in this president*'s era? He has the all-time Olympic record for fabrications, fibbing; lying and obfuscations. His evangelical base seems unmoved by his past, his present dissembling and twitter ranting. They had conniption fits when President Clinton had a consensual relationship with an ADULT (albeit young) White House intern. A blue dress with spermatozoa was salacious; "grab 'em by the p----" on Access Hollywood deserving of a Mulligan. The rank hypocrisy of what amounts to an authoritarian political movement masking itself as a religious order self-imposed to tell everyone ELSE how to live is breathtaking. The word "EVILGELICALS" should become a thing in our modern lexicon; they should not recover, and the congregations in their immediate futures should be comprised of crickets.
If indeed, "the truth shall make you free"...an avalanche of lies from a president* backed by a faux religious order - evilgelicals - is a prelude to slavery.
Illustration of the device structure: stanene is on top of the lead-tellurium film and bismuth-tellurium substrate. α-tin has a similar crystal structure to diamond.
Almost a century after Heike Kamerlingh Onnes first discovered superconductivity, the factors that determine whether a system will be superconducting and at what temperature remain hard to pin down. However, advances in nanotechnology have given some good pointers where to look, as well as providing promising systems for exploiting superconductivity in real-world applications.
The fundamental requirement for superconductivity is the coupling of fermionic electrons into Cooper pairs. Theory paints a neat picture of how the resulting bosonic behaviour allows occupation of the same energy levels and leads to a host of exotic behaviour - zero electrical resistance and the expulsion of magnetic flux lines so that superconducting objects levitate on magnets, to name a few. Where the picture grows fuzzy is extrapolating from there what specific aspects a material system needs to become superconducting at a given temperature. While design principles to fabricate a room-temperature superconductor remain elusive, a lot has been learnt in the chase, bringing applications of superconductors in a range of sectors from imaging, testing and quantum cryptography ever closer.
2D materials
Among the material systems where unusual electronic behaviour akin to Cooper pairing might be likely is the interface between perovskite oxides – in particular, LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 – where there is a discontinuity in the polarity of the crystalline lattice. Following the initial discovery of a highly mobile “2D electron gas” at the interface in 2004, Jochen Mannhart and colleagues then identified superconducting properties at the interface in a layer limited to just 20 nm in 2007. The transition temperature was a chilly 200 millikelvin, and the exact origins of the effect were unclear, but oxide interfaces remain a hotbed for exploring electronic and spintronic behaviour.
Since then several 2D structures have revealed superconducting behaviour where it does not exist in the bulk, an example being “grey” tin. The form of tin usually considered most useful is “white” tin, which has a conventional metal crystallographic structure, and was among the first superconducting materials to attract study. However, at low temperatures white tin will gradually transform into grey tin, which has a diamond cubic structure and is sometimes described as “tin pest”. To their surprise, Qi-Kun Xue, Ding Zhang and colleagues at Tsinghua University in China found that when they reduced the dimensions of tin to 2D stanene of just 2-20 layers, they could observe superconducting properties in grey tin too. Going even thinner to monolayers resulted in insulating properties.
"What we found is that the grey tin can be scientifically quite interesting," Zhang told nanotechweb.org. As well as the fundamental science the discovery opens up, it also poses the opportunity to produce circuits from all one material, with superconducting wires of few layer stanene separated by insulating monolayers.
Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, History, Human Rights, Martin Luther King
I believe the little girl with Dr. Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King is Yolanda. She is deceased now along with her parents, but her niece namesake just spoke at the March For Our Lives, looking remarkably like her iconic grandfather. Despite all the reveals of Dr. King as a flawed philanderer as investigative journalists are apt to do, he was at the end of the day a husband, a man and a father. As he said on the previous day, "longevity has its place."His death came year-to-date of his denouncement of his nation's involvement in Vietnam, that would eventually claim the lives of almost 60,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen, affecting survivors with post traumatic stress disorder; drug abuse, alcoholism and suicide. Total deaths numbered in the millions. Had he lived, I'm sure he would have addressed these concerns as part of his vision of "The Beloved Community," which ostensibly included all of humanity.
They would still be crying as they tried to get through their daily routine. Getting me ready for kindergarten at Bethlehem Community Center. I had seen my mother cry on occasion - church, funerals - my father's eyes were red and his hands trembled as we drove from our home to school. They were both worried about my older sister - a youth active in the Civil Rights movement. They briefly didn't know here whereabouts. The worry hung over the home like a dark veil. I was too: like every march, every demonstration where it wasn't guaranteed she'd get out of it alive. It was a lot for someone new to the planet sometimes. She turned up, heartbroken. She and my mother hugged each other and cried, inconsolably.
This was a time of emotions - rough, raw and gut-wrenching. I was five years old. I didn't know what to feel until I arrived at Bethlehem.
I remember seeing this the night before from my father's lap:
But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
I didn't quite understand his eloquence. I asked my father. It was April 3, 1968. He honestly didn't know.
These broadcasts were probably what caused the walls of hope to come crashing around my family:
The preschool and kindergarten teachers at Bethlehem decided to explain our loss to us the next day, partly to process what had just happened themselves. We did all cry, finally - as if we had just lost a favorite uncle or grandfather. Barely on the planet, we were suddenly having to contemplate a loss as tears fell like rainwater in a storm. Dr. King would come on the black radio station WAAA in Winston-Salem, NC as they broadcast a program from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference "Martin Luther King Speaks." I remember hearing his distinguished voice; the pitch and pentameter of a preacher well-rehearsed and natural to him. I remember when it wasn't a recording of a deceased ancestor.
We went to nap early. It was all the energy has to do. We awoke to the blaring sounds of horns, the sight of confederate flags flown from pickup trucks and shotguns, celebratory of his death; the shouts of dark triumph from a sick cadre. That day, we played inside.
Dr. King was the victim of gun violence by a confirmed racist. Despite any theories about who actually performed the deed, what the motivations were, whether or not the government was involved: he was a victim of gun violence, a long line in this country, before breathless pronunciations of ArmaLite 15 rifles. As was Malcolm X. As was Medgar Evers. As were members of the Black Panther Party of self-defense. As would Robert Kennedy follow in the dark shadow of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. From Native American genocide, African kidnappings followed by: lynchings, castrations, body burning, burning crosses, voter intimidation, church bombings, the slaughter of innocents by the police or citizens empowered by fear and bigotry; the "othering" of an African American president by his pathologically lying grifter successor - the red stripes in the flag aren't just those of "Founding Fathers," and patriots (or, revamped psychopaths), but the blood of violence shed by this nation's victims. We were in "the promised land" for eight, short years! We were inexorably pushed by bigotry and birtherism to a nascent nostalgia for mythological white picket fences; economic isolationism, ethno-nationalism, social, sexual and cultural demarcations: "great again" for some, and not for "others." As a nation, we've been at war - externally with enemies and internally, with one another - more than we've ever been at, or encouraged peace.
After every shooting of innocents, we often in naval-gazing fashion say something to the effect of "we're BETTER than this!" In 50 years of violence I've witnessed since in wars, rumors of wars, gang violence, crack and meth addiction, the expansion of the wealth gap; an increase in productivity while wages remain stagnant at 1973 levels (Dr. King was in Memphis campaigning for wage increases for sanitation workers); healthcare debated as privilege or right and the current position we find ourselves in with a demagogue installed by an enemy state in possession of the nuclear codes, I'm not so sure we are any better than what's evidenced. Perhaps...not.
Physicists have identified a new state of matter whose structural order operates by rules more aligned with quantum mechanics than standard thermodynamic theory. In a classical material called artificial spin ice, which in certain phases appears disordered, the material is actually ordered, but in a "topological" form.
"Our research shows for the first time that classical systems such as artificial spin ice can be designed to demonstrate topological ordered phases, which previously have been found only in quantum conditions," said Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist Cristiano Nisoli, leader of the theoretical group that collaborated with an experimental group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, led by Peter Schiffer (now at Yale University).
Physicists generally classify the phases of matter as ordered, such as crystal, and disordered, such as gases, and they do so on the basis of the symmetry of such order, Nisoli said.
"The demonstration that these topological effects can be designed into an artificial spin ice system opens the door to a wide range of possible new studies," Schiffer said.
The Tower of the Moon and the Stars, an observatory built by Queen Sonduk, after she came to power in 632 CE. Credit: GABRIELLA BERNARDI
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, History, Diversity in Science, Women in Science
Will I ever know the truth about the stars?
I’m too young to engage in theories about our Universe.
I just know that I want to understand more. I want to know all
I can. Why should it be forbidden?
This sentence, found on a votive jar dedicated to her grandmother, had been written by a young girl, a Korean princess of the Silla Dynasty, when she was 15 years old. Her name was Sonduk, but it is also written as Sondok or Seondeok, and she was very interested in astronomy in an era where no education was granted to women. Nevertheless, she became a queen and could pursue her astronomical passion, at least in a certain sense. But let’s go in order.
She was born in 610 CE, and later became the first female monarch of Korea, ruling her country for 14 years. Jinpyeong, her father, was the king of Silla, a kingdom that was born as a city-state in 57 BCE and grew into a kingdom in about 350 CE. The king had no male heirs, so the choice fell on his daughter Sonduk.
This young princess had a brilliant mind, evident from a very young age. At seven, for example, a box of peony seeds arrived at the Court, from China. It had been sent with an accompanying painting that showed what the flowers looked like. Sonduk, looking at the picture, remarked that the flower was pretty, but it was a pity that it did not smell. When asked why, she answered: “If it did, there would be butterflies and bees around the flower in the painting.” Her observation about the peonies’ lack of smell proved correct – one illustration among many of her intelligence.
The first contact with astronomy and the study of the stars occurred through her tutor, the Chinese ambassador Lin Fang, who was also an astronomer. At the age of 15 she was introduced to Confucianism, which soon became an obstacle to her thirst for knowledge. The Confucian model, indeed, placed women in a subordinate position within the family, which meant that education in general, let alone astronomy, was not considered suitable. Sonduk, however, used to make observations every night and was mostly self-taught. A clash of wills was inevitable.
