physicshead

Schrodinger's cat is alive

2011-12-19T09:37:00.002+02:00

Electricity, magnetism, space, and time

2011-12-15T14:46:00.000+02:00

The magnetic force is weird. You're all familiar with bar magnets, which have a north and south pole. Opposite poles attract and like poles repel. But even though bar magnets are very familiar to us, they're relatively complicated, so we'll start with a more basic example.

Two wires. Wires conduct electric current, meaning that the negatively charged electrons move to the left or the right.* The positively charged atomic nuclei remain stationary. If the two wires have current going in the same direction, then they attract. If they go in opposite directions, then they repel.

*I am making a simplification, since this is not true for all materials that the wire could be made of. For reasons that I won't get into, some materials conduct electricity by things other than electrons.

Bar magnets are sort of like circular currents. If you have a north and south pole together, these currents are going in the same direction, and they attract each other. If you have a north and a north pole together, these currents are going in opposite directions, and they repel.

But let's return to the wires, because they're simpler. The reason the wires attract is specifically because the electrons attract. One way we know this is the electrons tend to gather towards each other at the closer edges of the wire (this is called the Hall Effect). The electrons drag the rest of the wire with them, thus causing the wires to attract.

The reason why the electrons attract and the atomic nuclei don't is because that's just how the magnetic force works. The magnetic force is proportional to the speed of the particle. The electrons are moving, so they attract each other. The atomic nuclei are not moving, so they don't attract each other.

But hold on! Doesn't the speed of a particle depend on which way you look at it? What if you put these wires on a moving truck, won't all the electrons and nuclei be moving faster than before? For that matter, what if you put these wires on a moving Earth, doesn't that affect the speed? Why is it that we can use motors and generators (which both require magnetic fields) without worrying about the earth's motion?

This question was the motivation for Special Relativity Theory. You may have heard about Einstein's Theory of Relativity as something that radically alters our notions of space and time. But that wasn't really the point of the theory. The point was to explain something about magnetic fields. The radical view of space and time was just an added bonus.

Einstein's Special Relativity is sort of like an expansion of rotations. If you rotate your head 90 degrees, and look around you, several things change. Ceilings become walls and walls become floors. Right-left becomes up-down, and up-down becomes left-right. Everything that was pointing in one direction (like gravity, which originally pointed down) is now pointing in a different direction. But physics behaves the same way, just rotated.

The same is true if you're moving at constant velocity. If I'm on a moving truck, things that were previously stationary are now zipping behind us. If the air was previously still, it now becomes wind at our faces. But physics behaves the same way, it's just that directions have changed. In this case, we don't call it a rotation, we call it a boost.

According to Special Relativity, a boost does not just affect the motion of objects. It also affects the electric and magnetic fields. Just as right-left became up-down, and up-down became left-right when we rotated, electric fields can become magnetic fields and magnetic fields can become electric fields. It's not quite like rotation (the math is harder), but the idea is the same. A boost causes electric and magnetic fields to mix into each other.

And of course, it's not just electric and magnetic fields that mix into each other, it's space and time too. But at everyday speeds this is difficult to observe, because they're such small boosts. It's like rotating your head a fraction of a degree. What was once horizontal is still mostly horizontal (but with a slight vertical component). Similarly, at everyday speeds, what was once a distance is still mostly a distance (but with a small time component).

The mixing of electric and magnetic fields is deeply intertwined with the mixing of space and time. But this is very difficult to demonstrate without getting into the mathematics of boosting. There is one example where it is easy to demonstrate, and that is the example I started with. Two wires.

In a real wire, the electrons are not really moving at the same speed. But let's simplify and imagine that they are. And then let's boost to a perspective where the electrons are not moving at all.

After we've boosted, it is no longer the case that the electrons are moving left while the atomic nuclei are stationary. Now it is the electrons that are stationary while the atomic nuclei are moving right.

Since the magnetic force is proportional to speed, it can no longer affect the motionless electrons. But this is easy to explain in terms of Relativity: what was once magnetic fields have now changed into electric fields. The electric force causes the electrons in each wire to attract. The same electric force also cause the atomic nuclei to repel, but that's okay! The atomic nuclei have some speed, and are thus attracted by the magnetic force. The magnetic force and electric force on the nuclei cancel out.

So we really have the same picture as before. The electrons attract (but now due to the electric force, not the magnetic force), and they drag the entire wire along with them.

Now I will connect this to time and space.

If you look at my diagram, you'll notice I did something sneaky. After the boost, there are more nuclei than there are electrons. This is due to the mixing of time and space. Previously, the protons had some spacing, some distance between them. But as time and space mix, some of the distance changes into a time component, and the distance becomes shorter. It's called Lorentz contraction. When we boost from a frame where nuclei are stationary to a frame where they are moving, they become closer together.

Similarly, when we boost from a frame where electrons are moving to a frame where they are stationary, they become further apart. It's backwards Lorentz contraction.

The end result is that each wire now has a positive charge because the nuclei are more dense than the electrons. Electrons are attracted to positive charge by the electric force!

And so, there are two methods of solving the problem. The first method is to mix the electric and magnetic fields through the mathematics of boosting. The second method is to mix space and time, and then look at the resulting electric and magnetic forces. Both of these methods are equivalent.

Hold on! I know you have some questions.

Does that mean that the magnetic force isn't real? No. I'm not sure that it's meaningful to talk about whether these things are "real" or not. What it does tell you is that the electric force, magnetic force, and Special Relativity are all connected. Physics wouldn't make sense if you only had two out of the three.

What happened to the missing electrons? The number of electrons does not change when we boost, so they must have gone somewhere. The reason it seems they disappeared is because I only drew part of the wires. For a wire to conduct electricity, you need to have the wire in a loop to complete the circuit. The electrons will gather in the parts of the loop where they were going the opposite direction. There, they will be doubly Lorentz contracted.

What about two electrons by themselves moving alongside each other? In the wire example, electric and magnetic fields don't change over time. In the two electron example, they do change over time. This significantly complicates the way things work. But suffice it to say that the faster the electrons move, the stronger the electric force repelling them. The magnetic force between the electrons is counteracted by this stronger electric force.

Aren't the electrons all moving at different speeds? Yes. But it works out the same. It makes the math a lot more complicated. The entire premise of this post is to simplify to an example where I don't have to show that. If you would like to see it, you should be studying physics academically, not from blogs.

Is Lorentz contraction really that big? No. I exaggerated it so you can see it clearly. In a typical wire, the electrons are moving with an average velocity of 10^-5 meters per second, which corresponds to a Lorentz contraction of 1 part in 10²⁷. If it seems impressive that such a small Lorentz contraction can create a measurable force, that's because it is.

http://skepticsplay.blogspot.com/2011/03/electricity-magnetism-space-and-time.html

Multi-purpose photonic chip paves the way to programmable quantum processors

2011-12-12T19:02:00.001+02:00

The fundamental resource that drives a quantum computer is entanglement—the connection between two distant particles which Einstein famously called 'spooky action at a distance'. The Bristol researchers have, for the first time, shown that this remarkable phenomenon can be generated, manipulated and measured entirely on a tiny silica chip. They have also used the same chip to measure mixture—an often unwanted effect from the environment, but a phenomenon which can now be controlled and used to characterize quantum circuits, as well as being of fundamental interest to physicists.

"In order to build a quantum computer, we not only need to be able to control complex phenomena such as entanglement and mixture, but we need to be able to do this on a chip, so that we can scalably and practically duplicate many such miniature circuits—in much the same way as the modern computers we have today," says Professor Jeremy O'Brien, Director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics. "Our device enables this and we believe it is a major step forward towards optical quantum computing."

The chip, which performs several experiments that would each ordinarily be carried out on an optical bench the size of a large dining table, is 70 mm by 3 mm. It consists of a network of tiny channels which guide, manipulate and interact single photons—particles of light. Using eight reconfigurable electrodes embedded in the circuit, photon pairs can be manipulated and entangled, producing any possible entangled state of two photons or any mixed state of one photon.

"It isn't ideal if your quantum computer can only perform a single specific task", explains Peter Shadbolt, lead author of the study, which is published in the journal Nature Photonics. "We would prefer to have a reconfigurable device which can perform a broad variety of tasks, much like our desktop PCs today—this reconfigurable ability is what we have now demonstrated. This device is approximately ten times more complex than previous experiments using this technology. It's exciting because we can perform many different experiments in a very straightforward way, using a single reconfigurable chip."

The researchers, who have been developing quantum photonic chips for the past six years, are now working on scaling up the complexity of this device, and see this technology as the building block for the quantum computers of the future.

Dr Terry Rudolph from Imperial College in London, UK, believes this work is a significant advance. He said: "Being able to generate, manipulate and measure entanglement on a chip is an awesome achievement. Not only is it a key step towards the many quantum technologies— such as optical quantum computing—which are going to revolutionize our lives, it gives us much more opportunity to explore and play with some of the very weird quantum phenomena we still struggle to wrap our minds around. They have made it so easy to dial up in seconds an experiment that used to take us months, that I'm wondering if even I can run my own experiment now!"

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-multi-purpose-photonic-chip-paves-programmable.html

Mammalian tissue regeneration

2010-03-16T09:15:00.000+02:00

1 gene lost = 1 limb regained? Scientists demonstrate mammalian regeneration through single gene deletion
http://www.physorg.com/news187879295.html]http://www.physorg.com/news187879295.html

A quest that began over a decade ago with a chance observation has reached a milestone: the identification of a gene that may regulate regeneration in mammals. The absence of this single gene, called p21, confers a healing potential in mice long thought to have been lost through evolution and reserved for creatures like flatworms, sponges, and some species of salamander. In a report published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from The Wistar Institute demonstrate that mice that lack the p21 gene gain the ability to regenerate lost or damaged tissue.

[..]

"In normal cells, p21 acts like a brake to block cell cycle progression in the event of DNA damage, preventing the cells from dividing and potentially becoming cancerous," Heber-Katz said. "In these mice without p21, we do see the expected increase in DNA damage, but surprisingly no increase in cancer has been reported."

In fact, the researchers saw an increase in apoptosis in MRL mice - also known as programmed cell death - the cell's self-destruct mechanism that is often switched on when DNA has been damaged. According to Heber-Katz, this is exactly the sort of behavior seen in naturally regenerative creatures.

"Superatoms" Mimic Elements: Research Reveals New Perspective of Periodic Table

2010-01-03T08:54:00.000+02:00

28 December 2009 — Transforming lead into gold is an impossible feat, but a similar type of "alchemy" is not only possible, but cost-effective too. Three Penn State researchers have shown that certain combinations of elemental atoms have electronic signatures that mimic the electronic signatures of other elements. According to the team's leader A. Welford Castleman Jr., Eberly Distinguished Chair in Science and Evan Pugh Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Physics, "the findings could lead to much cheaper materials for widespread applications such as new sources of energy, methods of pollution abatement, and catalysts on which industrial nations depend heavily for chemical processing."

The researchers also showed that the atoms that have been identified so far in these mimicry events can be predicted simply by looking at the periodic table. The team used advanced experimentation and theory to quantify these new and unexpected findings. "We're getting a whole new perspective of the periodic table," said Castleman. The team's findings will be published in the 28 December 2009 early on-line issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

http://www.science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2009-news/Castleman12-2009.htm

50 Things we know now that we didn't know this time last year

2010-01-03T08:49:00.002+02:00

Here's a list of stuff we culled from 2009 that may have come as a surprise:

1. Domestic pigs can quickly learn how mirrors work and use them to find food.

2. Grumpy people think more clearly because negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking.

3. High cholesterol levels in midlife are associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia later in life.

4. Analysis of Greenland ice samples shows Europe froze solid in less than 12 months 12,800 years ago, partly due to a slowdown of the Gulf Stream. Once triggered, the cold persisted for 1,300 years.

5. One mutated gene is the reason humans have language, and chimpanzees, our closest relative, do not.

6. Obesity in teenage girls may increase their risk of later developing multiple sclerosis.

7. A fossil skeleton of an Aardonyx celestae dinosaur discovered in South Africa appears to be the missing link between the earliest dinosaurs that walked on two legs and the large plant-eating sauropods that walked on all four.

8. Women who have undergone successful breast cancer treatment are more likely to experience a recurrence if they have dense breast tissue.

9. Babies pick up their parents' accents from the womb, and infants are born crying in their native dialect. Researchers found that French newborns cry in a rising French accent, and German babies cry with a characteristic falling inflection.

10. Surfing the Internet may help delay dementia because it creates stimulation that exercises portions of the brain.

11. The oldest known silken spider webs, dating back 140 million years, were discovered in Sussex, England, preserved in amber. The webs were spun by spiders closely related to modern-day orb-web garden spiders.

12. Scientists have discovered how to scan brain activity and convert what people are seeing or remembering into crude video images.

13. Pumpkin skin contains a substance that inhibits growth of microbes that cause yeast infections.

14. Hormones that signal whether whales are pregnant, lactating or in the mood to mate have been extracted from whales' lung mucus, captured by dangling nylon stockings from a pole over their blowholes as they surface to breathe. (This method could allow scientists to study whales without having to slaughter them.)

15. The higher a patient's body-mass index, the less respect he or she gets from doctors.

16. The blue morpho butterfly, which lives in Central and South America, has tiny ears on its wings and can distinguish between high- and low-pitch sounds. The butterfly may use its ears to listen for nearby predatory birds.

17. The ochre starfish or sea star pumps itself up with cold seawater to lower its body temperature when exposed to the sun at low tide. It is equivalent to a human drinking 1.8 gallons of water before heading into the midday sun, scientists say.

18. The eyes of the mantis shrimp possess a feature that could make DVDs and CDs perform better. By emulating this structure, which displays color wavelengths at all ranges, developers could create a new category of optical devices.

19. The calmest place on Earth is on top of an icy plateau in Antarctica known as Ridge A, several hundred miles from the South Pole. It is so still that stars do not twinkle in the sky because there is no turbulence in the atmosphere to distort the light.

20. The thrill of driving a sports car makes the body produce more testosterone. The findings suggest a biological explanation for why some men buy a sports car when struck by a "midlife crisis."

21. Remains discovered in China of a flying reptile named Darwinopterus could be a missing link between short-tailed pterodactyls and their huge, long-tailed descendants.

22. Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping arachnid from Central America, is the first known vegetarian spider. It eats nectar-filled leaf tips rather than other animals.

23. A massive, nearly invisible ring of ice and dust particles surrounds Saturn. The ring's entire volume can hold 1 billion Earths.

24. A new chemical compound that mimics the body's ability t o fight bacteria could be added to cleaning detergents to prevent bacterial infections in hospitals.

25. Seven new glow-in-the-dark mushroom species have been discovered, increasing the number of known luminescent fungi species from 64 to 71. The fungi, discovered in Belize, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico, glow constantly, emitting a bright, yellowish-green light.

26. Hormones in oral contraceptives might suppress a woman's interest in masculine men and make boyish males more attractive to her.

27. Women who revealed about 40 percent of their skin attracted twice as many men as those who covered up. Any more than 40 percent and the signal changes from allure to one indicating general availability and future infidelity.

28. Communities of 850 species of previously undiscovered insects, small crustaceans, spiders, worms and other creatures were found living in underground water, caves and micro-caverns across Australia.

29. The human body emits a glow that is 1,000 times less than what our eyes can detect.

30. If you're trying to attract a partner, an athletic body helps, but a good-looking face is more important.

31. Cockroaches hold their breath for five to seven minutes at a time through a respiratory system that delivers oxygen directly to cells from air-filled tubes. One reason they hold their breath may be to prevent their bodies from getting too much oxygen, which could be toxic to them.

32. Earth was bombarded in 2008 with high levels of solar energy at a time when the sun was in an unusually quiet phase and sunspots had virtually disappeared.

33. Scientists have discovered female eggs in the genitalia of a third of all American male smallmouth bass and a fifth of their largemouth cousins. Female bass occasionally show signs of male testes in their reproductive organs.

34. Nearly all animals emit the same stench when they die, and have done so for more than 400 million years.

35. Previously unknown molecules called hydroxyl radicals are produced by nature and are believed to act as cleaning agents that scrub away toxic air pollution in Earth's atmosphere.

36. A new species of giant rat was discovered in a remote rainforest in Papua New Guinea. At 32.2 inches from nose to tail and 3.3 pounds, it's thought to be one of the largest rats ever found.

37. Differences in body odors produced by people who are more prone to insect bites show they have lower levels of fruity-smelling compounds in their sweat than those who are resistant to mosquitoes.

38. A chemical component in broccoli can protect the lining of arteries from blockage that leads to angina, heart attack and stroke.

39. The length, curl and texture of a dog's fur are controlled by only three genes.

40. The speed of U.S Internet broadband lags far behind other industrial nations, including Japan, Finland, South Korea, France and Canada.

41. Polar bear skulls have shrunk 2 percent to 9 percent since the early 20th century. It's the result, scientists theorize, of stress from pollution and melting habitat.

42. A mysterious disease that killed off more than a third of American honeybees in 2007-08 may have been caused in part by a virus.

43. A group of deep sea worms dubbed "green bombers" are capable of casting off appendages that glow a brilliant green once detached from their bodies. The tactic is believed to be used by the worms to confuse attackers.

44. A flesh-eating pitcher plant that grows more than 4 feet long can swallow and devour rats that are lured into its slipperlike mouth to drown or die of exhaustion before being slowly dissolved by digestive enzymes.

45. An orchid on the Chinese island of Hainan gets hornets to spread its pollen by producing an aroma identical to that made by bees under attack. The hornets feed on bee larvae, so when they get a whiff of the alarm pheromone, they head to the orchids figuring bees are inside.

46. More than 350 new animal species were discovered in the eastern Himalayas, including the world's smallest deer and a flying frog.

47. The spleen is a reservoir for huge numbers of immune cells called monocyte. In the event of a serious health crisis, such as a heart attack, wound or infection, the spleen will disgorge them bloodstream to help defend the body.

48. The Amazon River is about 11 million years old and took its present shape about 2.4 million years ago.

49. A close relationship with a caregiver can give Alzheimer's patients an edge in retaining brain function over time.

50. Watermelon is more efficient at rehydrating our bodies than drinking water. It contains 92 percent water and essential rehydration salts.

Source: http://www.att.net/s/editorial.dll?eetype=Article&eeid=7020757&render=y&Table=&ch=ne&

Levitating frog

2010-01-02T09:29:00.000+02:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1vyB-O5i6E

Richard Feynman explains Fire

2010-01-02T09:23:00.000+02:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1pIYI5JQLE

Richard Feynman explains Mirrors

2010-01-02T09:22:00.000+02:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tuxLY94LXw

Ginkgo Flunks Test as a Brain Booster

2009-12-30T11:53:00.001+02:00

Study: Ginkgo Flunks Test as a Brain Booster
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009

For years, practitioners of alternative medicine have been touting the benefits of ginkgo, especially for maintaining brain health, but a new study finds that the centuries-old nostrum does little to slow the cognitive decline of aging.
Researchers at six universities across the U.S., led by Dr. Steven DeKosky at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, report that elderly people taking ginkgo supplements showed no notable differences in scores on brain-function tests from people taking placebo pills.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1950454,00.html

North Magnetic Pole Moving East Due to Core Flux

2009-12-28T11:08:00.000+02:00

Earth's north magnetic pole is racing toward Russia at almost 40 miles (64 kilometers) a year due to magnetic changes in the planet's core, new research says. The core is too deep for scientists to directly detect its magnetic field. But researchers can infer the field's movements by tracking how Earth's magnetic field has been changing at the surface and in space.

Now, newly analyzed data suggest that there's a region of rapidly changing magnetism on the core's surface, possibly being created by a mysterious "plume" of magnetism arising from deeper in the core.

And it's this region that could be pulling the magnetic pole away from its long-time location in northern Canada, said Arnaud Chulliat, a geophysicist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091224-north-pole-magnetic-russia-earth-core.html

Relativity + Electrostatics = Magnetism

2009-06-09T23:57:00.001+03:00

Original article can be read at: Relativity + Electrostatics = Magnetism

There is another dramatic success of Special Relativity that is virtually unknown among laymen. Special Relativity is what causes magnetism.

First, what is the electrostatic force, and what is the magnetic force?

The electrostatic force is what causes opposite charges to attract, and like charges to repel. Electrons, negatively charged, tend to stick to protons, positively charged. Two protons would repel each other, as would two electrons. On a macroscopic scale, the electrostatic force is what causes static electricity, in which an object accumulates an excess or shortage of electrons. It also causes lightning, which is basically static electricity on an even larger scale.

The magnetic force acts upon moving charges. If I've got an electric current, where the electrons are moving forward in a wire, the current creates a magnetic field. If I place two of these wires next to each other with the currents going in the same direction, they will attract. If the currents go in opposite directions, the wires repel. What we call magnets are materials with permanent circular currents on an atomic scale. The north pole of a magnet has currents going counter-clockwise, and the south pole has currents going clockwise. The north and south poles attract because when they are placed together, the currents go in the same direction.

The magnetic and electric forces interact and effect each other, but it is not clear why. Why should currents in the same direction attract? The wires, after all, have no net charge. There are just as many electrons as protons in each wire. So it can't be that the electric force is somehow sneaking in, disguised, right?

There is, in fact, a paradox associated with magnetism. Magnetic forces only act upon moving charges. But if we consider a moving particle's reference frame, the particle always has zero speed relative to itself. Therefore, from the particle's reference frame, it cannot be affected by magnetic forces. These forces shouldn't be disappearing just because our reference frame is different!

Let's consider a specific case: two wires with current going in the same direction. Wires, along with most everyday objects, consist of equal numbers of protons and electrons. If a wire has electric current going through it, that means that the protons are remaining still while the electrons are moving in one direction along the wire. The electrons, in fact, are moving at a large range of speeds, but for simplicity's sake I will assume that they are all moving at one constant speed.

Let's consider the wires with Relativity in mind. Of course, from the protons' motionless frame of reference, the wire is electrically neutral. But what happens if we consider the frame of reference of a moving electron? From the electron's point of view, the other wire contains a bunch of motionless electrons and a bunch of backwards-moving protons. Since the electrons and protons are moving relative to each other, we must take into account Lorentz contraction. If you don't recall, Lorentz contraction makes all distances in the direction of motion smaller. Lorentz contraction causes the protons to be closer together, more densely packed. As a result, the other wire has an overall positive charge, creating an electrostatic force. The electron will be attracted by this force.

So from my point of view, standing still, the wires attract because of magnetic forces. From the electron's point of view, they attract because electric forces. Both of us are correct, much in the same way that we would both be correct in thinking the other's clock ticks slower than our own. The resolution to the paradox is that electrostatic and magnetic forces transform into each other as we change reference frames. It turns out that magnetism is necessary for Special Relativity and electrostatics to make any sense together.

What's interesting about this is that it occurs at extremely low velocities. I did a bit of math, and I found that if we have 10 amps (a quantity of current) going through a copper wire of diameter 1mm, then the average velocity of electrons is ~~9.4*10^-5~~ [edit: corrected math] 3.3*10^-5 meters per second. That doesn't even begin to approach the speed of light (3*10⁸ meters per second). And yet, if you place two of these wires next to each other, there will actually be a measurable magnetic force. Not a significant force (about the weight of a paperclip per foot of wire), but not negligible either. We rely on this force for electric motors, generators, and countless other applications.

Usually, when you learn Special Relativity, teachers are quick to say that it is entirely ignorable at everyday speeds. But it turns out that even at microscopic speeds, Relativity does no less than power the modern age.

Beetle Genitals

2009-03-02T11:03:00.000+02:00

You want to put WHAT in my what??!?

Smallest Font

2009-01-31T16:38:00.001+02:00

Stanford researchers have reclaimed bragging rights for creating the world's smallest writing, a distinction the university first gained in 1985 and lost in 1990.

How small is the writing? The letters in the words are assembled from subatomic sized bits as small as 0.3 nanometers, or roughly one third of a billionth of a meter.

The researchers encoded the letters "S" and "U" (as in Stanford University) within the interference patterns formed by quantum electron waves on the surface of a sliver of copper. The wave patterns even project a tiny hologram of the data, which can be viewed with a powerful microscope.

http://www.sciencecodex.com/stanford_writes_in_worlds_smallest_letters

Energy Scale - Orders of Magnitude

2009-01-31T16:34:00.001+02:00

Relativity in Chemistry: The Color of Gold

2009-01-31T16:33:00.001+02:00

A reader asks:

Why is gold yellow?

Metals exhibit their characteristic shininess as the delocalised electron sea in the metallic bonds are able to absorb and re-emit photons over a wide range of frequencies. Thus the reflectance spectra of most metals appears fairly flat and they appear silver in colour.

A few metals, such as copper and gold, have a reflectance spectrum where the red end (400--700nm) dominates. Why is this so?

I first thought that it may be something to do with the single unpaired electron in the outermost valence shell, but Silver also displays this but has a flatter reflectance curve.

Can anybody shed some light (groan) on this?

Chemists often consider the first sub-shell of a given angular momentum to be anomalous. The 3d, filled in copper, is less shielded by the s and p subshells than you might otherwise expect. Silver, with a filled 4d behaves more like you think it should. Now when you get to gold (5d) relativistic effects become important. Compared to non-relativistic results the s and p subshells are more contracted (the so-called relativistic stabilization) while d and f are destabilized and more diffuse. So gold also behaves somewhat differently. If you were to do a solid state calculation on gold without including relativistic effects you would predict it to be silvery. Including relativistic effects you get reasonably good agreement with reality.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/gold_color.html

Pekka Pyykko's Relativistic theory of atoms and molecules gives a nice overview of this and many other phenomena, as well as a huge bibliography of papers dealing with relativistic effects in chemistry. Oh, that mercury is a liquid is another one.

Hard Work

2008-12-15T04:15:00.000+02:00

In the 1990's, psychologist K. Anders Ericsson conducted an experiment with the Berlin Academy of Music. He divided the school's violinists into three groups: the elite, the good, and those that were unlikely to ever play professionally.

All of the kids had started playing when they were 5 years old, but what divided them, aside from ability, was simply how many hours each had spent practicing. The really good ones had totaled 10,000 hours of practice, while the good ones had only managed to squeak away on the catgut for 8,000 hours or so.

The underachievers? Just 4,000 hours of practice.

The most surprising thing was that they really couldn't find any "naturals." Nor could they find any grinders, people who just worked harder than everybody else but just didn't have the talent to become elite.

The thing that distinguished one from another was simply hard work, nothing else.

But the weird thing is that 10,000 hours — roughly the amount of practice a truly committed devotee could accrue over 10 year — keeps popping up in different fields. Whether you're a writer, a concert pianist, a basketball player, computer programmer, or chess master, true greatness seems to pivot on that magic number.

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=2682770

Strongest Material Ever Tested

2008-07-18T20:04:00.001+03:00

Graphene, praised for its electrical properties, has been proven the strongest known material.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/21098/?a=f

Rich

2008-07-05T23:11:00.002+03:00

"It's the rich who hire everyone else. As countless African dictators have discovered, the quickest way to destroy your economy is to crack down on your rich people."

Feynman on knowledge

2008-07-05T23:11:00.001+03:00

"I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong."

Peter Schiff On Squawk Box

2008-07-05T18:38:00.000+03:00

Artificial DNA Made Exclusively of Nonnatural C-Nucleosides with Four Types of Nonnatural Bases

2008-07-04T11:31:00.000+03:00

Artificial DNA Made Exclusively of Nonnatural C-Nucleosides with Four Types of Nonnatural Bases

Abstract:

We describe a new class of DNA-like oligomers made exclusively of nonnatural, stable C-nucleosides. The nucleosides comprise four types of nonnatural bases attached to a deoxyribose through an acetylene bond with the β-configuration. The artificial DNA forms right-handed duplexes and triplexes with the complementary artificial DNA. The hybridization occurs spontaneously and sequence-selectively, and the resulting duplexes have thermal stabilities very close to those of natural duplexes. The artificial DNA might be applied to a future extracellular genetic system with information storage and amplifiable abilities.

http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/jacsat/2008/130/i27/html/ja801058h.html

The puppy born without front legs

2008-07-02T12:07:00.000+03:00

This tiny puppy may have been born without front legs but there's no way that is holding her back.

Hope, the appropriately named two-legged Maltese puppy gets around by using a specially-designed device which features wheels from a model aeroplane.

The energetic pup uses her hind legs to boost her body forward onto her chest and operate the wheeled prosthetic limbs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1028681/Pictured-The-puppy-born-legs-whos-using-model-aeroplane-wheels-around.html

Intelligence linked to atheism

2008-07-02T12:04:00.001+03:00

PEOPLE with high IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.

A leading psychology professor at Ulster University said many more "intellectually elite" people in the UK, especially univeristy academics, identified themselves as atheists than the national average.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23860215-5001028,00.html

New oral angiogenesis inhibitor offers potential nontoxic therapy for a wide range of cancers

2008-07-02T12:03:00.002+03:00

Nanotechnology transforms an old, accidentally-discovered drug derived from mold

http://www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom/Site1339/mainpageS1339P1sublevel440.html

Ethereal Sauce

2008-06-29T09:22:00.001+03:00

I think that it's pretty clear that it's neither "intelligence" nor "evolution" that produced us. "Intelligence" just leads to a question of infinite regress -- what created the intelligent designer's intelligence? It doesn't really explain the arise of complexity. Thus, it lacks explanatory power and isn't worth much as a scientific theory.

If "evolution" produced humanity, then how is the Fermi paradox to be explained -- why haven't we seen extraterrestrial life? That's a pretty significant scientific barrier to evolution.

No, I think that the Ethereal Sauce explanation is really the only reasonable answer. Ethereal Sauce would be an unintelligent substance that we can't detect -- but when it comes into contact with matter, sometimes complexity arises -- intelligence, for instance. Sure, we can't detect it except in a few past works, but the same is true of an Intelligent Designer -- we've the same amount of evidence for either. Unlike the infinite regress problem of an Intelligent Designer, Ethereal Sauce isn't intelligent, so it resolves the question of where complexity comes from.

Now, I want to make it clear that Ethereal Sauce is a theory -- we're talking merely about a substance with some unknown set of properties, and nobody should really take issue with such a theory. One thing that it is most certainly not is a religion. Sure, one particular interpretation of Ethereal Sauce might be marinara sauce, perhaps composing part of the Divine Essence of a giant, primarily-pasta-composed Creator, but that's merely one interpretation of this perfectly legitimate scientific theory.

Granted, it's not actually testable or falsifiable, and some scientists might take issue with that, but in this respect, it is no different from Intelligent Design -- and it does enjoy more explanatory power.

I personally applaud this new Lousiana law. For too long, the perfectly legitimate Ethereal Sauce explanation has gone underrepresented, suffering from an environment with far too little academic freedom. Lousiana, however, encourages objectively viewing and questioning theories, and opening the floor to all ideas. I would encourage anyone with potential refinements to this theory to forward them to the Lousiania state Board of Education.

Perhaps a few dozen signatures from scientific or philosophic names who feel that this is at least as legitimate a theory as an Intelligent Designer theory would help...

TOLFA

2008-06-25T18:11:00.001+03:00

Welcome! TOLFA offers what everyone values most: FREEDOM.

http://www.tolfa.us/

Apollo Relic Reveals its Secrets

2008-06-20T18:44:00.000+03:00

June 20, 2008: Imagine landing on the Moon, climbing down the ladder of your spacecraft, and looking around the harsh lunar landscape—to see another, older spacecraft standing only 200 yards away.

That's exactly what happened in November 1969, when astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean stepped out of the Apollo 12 lunar module. There, within walking distance on the edge of a small crater, stood Surveyor 3, an unmanned U.S. spacecraft that had landed in April 1967.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/20jun_apollorelic.htm

Unbelieveable!! Whole gecko rapidly eaten by ants!

2008-06-19T11:45:00.001+03:00

RNAi Discovered

2008-06-19T11:20:00.000+03:00

Like Humans, Other Apes Plan Ahead

2008-06-18T14:36:00.000+03:00

Chimps and orangutans plan for the future just like us.

They are capable of exercising self-control to postpone gratification and to imagine future events via "mental time travel," according to new research from Lunds University Cognitive Science in Sweden.

The skill of future planning was commonly thought to be exclusive to humans, although some studies of apes and crows have challenged this idea, say researchers Mathias and Helena Osvath. Now, for the first time, there is "conclusive evidence of advanced planning capacities in non-human species," they say.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080617/sc_livescience/likehumansotherapesplanahead;_ylt=ApwbVAOkY3MK27dP0rbZ57EPLBIF

6 iconoclastic discoveries about the brain

2008-06-11T13:14:00.001+03:00

Neuroscience, like all other branches of science, is fraught with dogmatic ideas about its subject matter. A number of principles have emerged, principles that have been regarded as fundamental to our understanding of brain function.

Below are 6 long-held dogmas about the brain. Each one is followed by a brief description of research which shows that it is either untrue, or is an oversimplification.

Dogma 1: The adult human brain is not plastic.
Dogma 2: The adult human brain cannot regenerate.
Dogma 3: Neurons are the functional elements of the nervous system.
Dogma 4: Neurotransmitters are released from the nerve terminal.
Dogma 5: Neurons are binary switches.
Dogma 6: Neurons communicate with each other by propagating action potentials.

http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2008/06/6_iconoclastic_discoveries_about_the_brain.php

Why Nazism Was Socialism and Why Socialism Is Totalitarian

2008-06-08T01:21:00.000+03:00

I need to anticipate a possible misunderstanding concerning my thesis that socialism is totalitarian by its nature. This concerns the allegedly socialist countries run by Social Democrats, such as Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries, which are clearly not totalitarian dictatorships.

In such cases, it is necessary to realize that along with these countries not being totalitarian, they are also not socialist. Their governing parties may espouse socialism as their philosophy and their ultimate goal, but socialism is not what they have implemented as their economic system. Their actual economic system is that of a hampered market economy, as Mises termed it. While more hampered than our own in important respects, their economic system is essentially similar to our own, in that the characteristic driving force of production and economic activity is not government decree but the initiative of private owners motivated by the prospect of private profit.

The reason that Social Democrats do not establish socialism when they come to power, is that they are unwilling to do what would be required. The establishment of socialism as an economic system requires a massive act of theft — the means of production must be seized from their owners and turned over to the state. Such seizure is virtually certain to provoke substantial resistance on the part of the owners, resistance which can be overcome only by use of massive force.

The Communists were and are willing to apply such force, as evidenced in Soviet Russia. Their character is that of armed robbers prepared to commit murder if that is what is necessary to carry out their robbery. The character of the Social Democrats in contrast is more like that of pickpockets, who may talk of pulling the big job someday, but who in fact are unwilling to do the killing that would be required, and so give up at the slightest sign of serious resistance.

http://mises.org/story/1937

One Lesson

2008-06-08T01:20:00.000+03:00

While every group has certain economic interests identical with those of all groups, every group has also, as we shall see, interests antagonistic to those of all other groups. While certain public policies would in the long run benefit everybody, other policies would benefit one group only at the expense of all other groups. The group that would benefit by such policies, having such a direct interest in them, will argue for them plausibly and persistently. It will hire the best buyable minds to devote their whole time to presenting its case. And it will finally either convince the general public that its case is sound, or so befuddle it that clear thinking on the subject becomes next to impossible.

In addition to these endless pleadings of self-interest, there is a second main factor that spawns new economic fallacies every day. This is the persistent tendency of men to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups. It is the fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences.

http://mises.org/story/3000

how to lose weight without losing bone

2008-06-08T01:19:00.000+03:00

A higher-protein diet that emphasizes lean meats and low-fat dairy foods as sources of protein and calcium can mean weight loss without bone loss--and the evidence is in bone scans taken throughout a new University of Illinois study.

The research, which compared the results of a high-protein, dairy-intensive diet with a conventional weight-loss diet based on the food-guide pyramid, was published in this month's Journal of Nutrition.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/uoia-uoi060508.php

The amazing intelligence of crows

2008-05-29T14:39:00.000+03:00

Monopoly Price

2008-05-28T10:32:00.001+03:00

Consumer demand is the variable amount of some homogeneous stock that consumers would be willing and able to purchase at various prices. The important point to be made here is that in a free market such "demand" determinations by consumers are completely voluntary on their part, and all price-output combinations on that hypothetical function faithfully reflect that choice and relate those "wishes" to the producers. Consequently, consumers are at all times in complete control of (fully sovereign over) their own property at any given price-output combination,

It appears completely arbitrary to argue that only "low" prices, or "lower" prices induced by "supply increases," or only the "elastic" portions of a consumer's demand function are compatible with consumer sovereignty. Why are not consumers fully "sovereign" throughout the entire price-output range of their own demand function? After all it is they who determine, in certain instances, that they will trade greater volumes of dollars for fewer units of some good. Indeed, to prevent them from engaging in such exchanges would more accurately infringe upon their "sovereignty." If and when consumers become dissatisfied with such combinations, they are perfectly free to change the "elasticity" of their own demand to combinations that they do prefer.

If the above analysis is correct, it follows that resource owners or producers that voluntarily "restrict" their supplies to obtain higher prices (not "force" them up as Professor Kirzner asserts)[39] have committed no socially harmful act. Restricted supplies and higher prices relative to what? All suppliers in free markets restrict their supplies in the sense that they only supply as much of a good or resource as they determine will maximize their monetary or psychic income. But, importantly, this is precisely what the "monopolist" does. If his action is "harmful," then so is the economic activity of all other suppliers in the market.

Alternatively, it cannot be argued that what distinguishes "monopoly" supply from "competitive" supply is the consequently higher prices. In the first place we have already argued that the new price-output combination is perfectly compatible with expressed consumer demand and, therefore, with consumer sovereignty. Secondly, prices are always "high" relative to lower prices that could exist, but do not. Indeed, any price at all is "high," "frustrates" consumers, and reduces their ultimate utility from consumption. But surely the ability to charge a lower price than the prevailing market price, or no price at all, can hardly be a correct criterion for judging whether a supply is competitive or monopolistic. Indeed, since producers are also sovereign under free-market conditions, we must conclude that any supply is competitive and any price is "compatible" with consumer sovereignty and consumer satisfaction.

http://mises.org/story/1800

Rothbard's Monopoly Theory

2008-05-28T10:23:00.000+03:00

Professor Rothbard's analysis of monopoly, monopoly price, and the welfare implications of such economic conditions differs radically from that of both Mises and Kirzner. Indeed, in his discussion of monopoly, Rothbard is sharply critical not only of the neoclassical monopoly theories, but also implicitly critical (and occasionally explicitly critical) of views held by his fellow Austrian theorists as well.[23]

As far as Rothbard is concerned, there are three possible definitions of monopoly: one, the single seller of any given good; two, a grant of special privilege by the state, reserving a certain area of production to one particular individual or group; and three, "a person who has achieved a monopoly price."[24]

Although Rothbard admits that the first definition (single seller) is a coherent and even a "legitimate" one, he rejects it as impractical because it is too broad and all-inclusive. The impractical nature of this definition can be illustrated, Rothbard argues, by noting that any difference (differentiation) in any two goods or resources and, more importantly, any consumer-perceived difference in any two commodities or resources will make them unique (specific) goods and thus, by definition, "monopoly." Hence, "the single seller of any given good" could always reduce to the notion that everyone is a monopolist since each person in a market system is presumed to have exclusive ownership of his own (unique) property. But a definition that makes everything monopoly and everyone a monopolist is barren, "confusing," and "absurd" according to Rothbard.[25]

Rothbard clearly prefers the second definition of monopoly—i.e., a grant of privilege from the state restricting competitive production or sale. This is a monopoly since entry into the privileged activity is prohibited by the state; logically, no such monopoly could ever exist in a free market. This definition will be adopted as the "proper" one should the final alternative definition prove nonsensical or illegitimate.[26]

Rothbard's criticism of the theory of "monopoly price" (as well as his criticism of the theory of "competitive price") is certainly a controversial contribution to the literature on monopoly. For here he argues that in a free market there is simply no way of conceptually distinguishing "monopoly price" from a free-market competitive price.

On the free market there is no way of distinguishing a "monopoly price" or a "subcompetitive price" or of establishing any changes as movements from one to the other. No criteria can be found for making such distinctions. The concept of monopoly price as distinguished from competitive price is therefore untenable. We can speak only of the free market price.[27]

It has been common, of course, to speak of monopoly price as that price accomplished when output is restricted under conditions of inelastic demand, thus increasing the net income of the supplier. Even Mises, it will be recalled, employed the term in this manner and drew some fairly dismal welfare implications from the "restriction."

Rothbard argues, however, that there is no objective way to determine that such a price is a monopoly price or that such a "restriction" is antisocial. All we can know, according to Rothbard, is that all firms attempt to produce a stock of goods that maximizes their net income given their estimation of demand. They attempt to price (other things being equal) such that the range of demand above the asking price is elastic. If they discover that they can increase their monetary income by producing less—or even destroying existing stock—in the next selling period, then they do so.

Rothbard maintains that to speak of the initial price as the "competitive" price, and the second-period price as the "monopoly" price makes no objective sense. How, he asks, is it to be objectively determined that the first price is really the "competitive" price? Could it, in fact have been a "subcompetitive" price? Indeed, the entire discussion is absurd for Rothbard since there are no independent criteria that would allow either determination. All that can be known for sure, he argues, is that the prices both before and after the supply change are free-market prices.

Rothbard also argues that "monopoly" prices cannot be inferred by comparing such prices to prices charged for similar factors. So long as the factors are not perfectly identical in the eyes of buyers, the differences in price (or profits) are simply free-market determinations of value for different goods. And any talk of monopoly price or monopoly "gain" when two different factors or goods are being compared is analytically incorrect.[28]

Finally, the welfare implications concerning alleged monopoly prices would not follow even if such prices could exist. Since the inelasticity of demand for Rothbard is "purely the result of voluntary demands" of the consumers, and since the exchange (at the higher prices) is completely "voluntary" anyway, there is no way to conclude that consumers or their "welfare" have been injured.[29] Thus, for Rothbard there is no social "problem" associated with monopoly in a free market. Monopoly prices cannot be defined logically, let alone established in a free market.

http://mises.org/story/1800

Privatisation

2008-05-28T08:39:00.000+03:00

I find no reason why the state shouldn't be allowed to sell off something to a private person for the sake of expediency. It's not a perfect solution but it works. Homesteading, in my opinion, for certain things simply cannot work efficiently. It's a fine process for something that was never owned (and yes, a lot of people will argue the state never owns anything anyway) but I don't ever see it as a real solution to privatizing state owned operations. It isn't efficient and it will cause problems.

I think the best route to take in privatizing anything is for the state to set up a public company with temporary officers and then sell stock in it on the stock exchange until 100% of the company is owned. The money raised from the sale of the stock should be used for the capital expenditures and expenses of the new company. The new stock holders could then elect new Board members who would then appoint new officers for the company. Of course we have now just gone from a public (state owned) monopoly to a private one but that isn't a big issue really. As long as the state is no longer regulating that industry and giving special privileges to the newly formed company free market competitors will emerge to offer better more efficient service.

No, it is not a perfect and pure anarcho-capitalist way of getting the job done (such as using the homesteading theory) but then again no one ever said the world is perfect and pure. The goal is to get the state out of the way so the market can start functioning as quickly as possible. By going the route of simply establishing a public company which anyone can buy into we can quickly and efficiently remove the state. Competition will quickly emerge and a real free market will soon exist.

Monopoly

2008-05-27T23:34:00.001+03:00

As Walter Williams likes to say, "I hold a monopoly on the affections of Mrs. Williams. She holds a monopoly on mine." If we use that definition of monopoly, we're forced to admit that there's nothing wrong, in general, with monopolies. If we insist that monopolies are bad, then we need a different definition.

Rothbard argues that we should define monopoly in terms of the power to exclude competition forcibly, partly due to the above consideration, but mainly because the economic consequences of monopoly really belong to that phenomenon particularly. For example, I can't demand and price I want for oil, even if I have the world's only oil well, unless I can also prevent people from using biodiesel, coal, coal, nuclear and other alternative energy sources.

Today people will pay $7/gallon if they must for gas, but they won't pay $1,000,000/gallon. They'll walk, stay home or go by steamboat first. If gas does hit $50/gallon, say, it will primarily be the government's fault for stifling alternatives with overregulation.

An analogy for the genome

2008-05-27T13:32:00.001+03:00

Imagine a small walled town. Within it there is a diversified population of people performing different tasks. There is a butcher and a baker and an undertaker, guards at the gate and a refuse collector. The people in the town are good at their tasks but they are quite stupid so anything novel is a real problem for them. Fortunately there is a library in the town, a library which contains instructions for dealing with unusual situations.

Whenever one of the residents runs into a problem they can't handle they send a runner to the library to find out what to do. There is a catch; there is no librarian and the runners aren't very smart either. There is a solution; the books in the library have tokens stamped on them. The runners carry tokens; they search the library until they find a book that matches their token; they then make a copy of the book. The books are very short and they aren't filled with text; instead they contain blueprints of tools

Once runner finds a book he takes it the town blacksmith. (There isn't any point in taking the books to the town residents; they can't read.) The town blacksmith isn't very bright either, but he can follow a blueprint. Once he has made a tool he hands it off to another runner who wanders about the town until he finds someone who wants the tool.

The whole system is a little bit more complicated than that but it is all organized around the principle that the residents are good at their tasks but that they are very stupid.

Now it happens from time to time that some towns fail - the crops fail in the surrounding countryside or a plague sweeps through - and that other towns prosper. The towns that prosper have a problem; the population becomes too great to hold within the walls. They have a solution; they divide the town up into two towns with separate walls and separate communities. This is a special situation and a very complicated task. In the library are a set of books devoted just to the instructions for how to divide the town into two towns. One of the things that happens, and this is important, is that each town gets a copy of the library. Now it happens to be the case that the copyists, although they are very careful, sometimes make mistakes. This makes for a problem; if there is an error in a book in the library then there will be a problem when that book is called upon. Fortunately, and this is critical, there is a lot of slop in the system. Just because the people in the town are doing things one way doesn't mean that they can't do it some other way that is slightly different; it may be better or it may be worse but it is different. The key is that the library doesn't tell people what to do; it only supplies blueprints for tools that people need. The people do the work; if the tools are slightly different then they do things in a different way. Sometimes an altered blueprint is useless; some towns die because one little piece of information about one little task is gone. Most of the time, however, things go on as they always have, only in a slightly different way. Over time these differences accumulate. The way of life centuries ago is quite different from that of today.

Sometimes an altered tool may be an enabler. That is, its use by one worker allows several workers to collaborate in a way that they hadn't previously collaborated. The tool doesn't tell the workers how to collaborate; it just makes collaboration possible. If collaboration is a good thing (it may not be - the workers do not know) then the town will prosper and better versions of the tools needed for the collaboration will come into vogue.

http://home.tiac.net/~cri/2002/analogy.html

Suffering at the Hands of the EU Antitrust Police

2008-05-27T13:13:00.001+03:00

As consumers, we evaluate and respond to changes in the offer of the products we want to buy. Often a producer changes the offer to obtain a higher profit. When he does so, he submits his action to the judgment of the consumer, who will reward or punish according to a subjective valuation. However, when the change in the offer is mandated by public authorities and comes in the form of a restriction, we as consumers are denied the opportunity to judge that offer. If we wanted to reward it, not only has the authority chosen for us, but in addition, our benefit has been diminished — that is, we are worse off.

http://mises.org/story/2440

Anti-trust, Anti-truth

2008-05-27T12:59:00.001+03:00

In 1969 IBM, the Microsoft of the day, had a 65 percent market share in the computer market and was sued by the government for allegedly monopolizing the industry. IBM was mired in a court battle for thirteen years before the government finally gave up on the case. In the meantime, the company was eclipsed by Intel and other competitors while Microsoft had just produced, in 1981, its first copy of MS-DOS.

The government's assault on IBM undoubtedly weakened the company and weakened the level of competition in the industry as well. This has happened time and again as a result of Quixotic antitrust prosecutions.

In 1962 the government forced the Schwinn Bicycle Company to divorce itself from its network of dealers; foreign competition eventually drove Schwinn into bankruptcy.

General Motors was never prosecuted, but because of the company's fear of antitrust it was official company policy from 1937 until 1956 to never let its market share top 45 percent, for any reason. This fear of antitrust prosecution contributed to the industry's dramatic losses in market share to the Japanese and German automakers during the 1970s and '80s.

RCA was prohibited by antitrust regulators from charging royalties to American licensees, so the company licensed its products to Japanese companies. The entire Japanese electronics industry is based on this.

Antitrust regulation killed Pan American World Airways by forbidding it from acquiring domestic routes. Lacking "feeder" traffic for its international flights, the company went bankrupt.

Most Americans have never heard of any of these facts because they have been fed the Official History of antitrust, which is that free markets are a source of monopoly power which must restrained by enlightened antitrust regulators.

The truth is that monopoly is impossible in a free market; government is the true source of monopoly; and antitrust itself has never done anything but render American industry less competitive while inflicting great harm on consumers. The standard account of antitrust regulation being in "the public interest" is truly Orwellian.

http://mises.org/story/436

The Truth About the "Robber Barons"

2008-05-27T12:51:00.001+03:00

Free-market capitalism is a network of free and voluntary exchanges in which producers work, produce, and exchange their products for the products of others through prices voluntarily arrived at. State capitalism consists of one or more groups making use of the coercive apparatus of the government… for themselves by expropriating the production of others by force and violence.

— Murray N. Rothbard, The Logic of Action (1997)

As common as it is to speak of "robber barons," most who use that term are confused about the role of capitalism in the American economy and fail to make an important distinction — the distinction between what might be called a market entrepreneur and a political entrepreneur. A pure market entrepreneur, or capitalist, succeeds financially by selling a newer, better, or less expensive product on the free market without any government subsidies, direct or indirect. The key to his success as a capitalist is his ability to please the consumer, for in a capitalist society the consumer ultimately calls the economic shots. By contrast, a political entrepreneur succeeds primarily by influencing government to subsidize his business or industry, or to enact legislation or regulation that harms his competitors.

http://mises.org/story/2317

The Myth of the Just Price

2008-05-27T12:47:00.001+03:00

The concept of the just price is the basis of a great deal of erroneous economic thought that permeates our supposedly free market, capitalistic society. Laws regarding usury, loan sharking, price gouging, ticket scalping, dumping, profiteering, equal pay, price discrimination, predatory pricing and lending, product bundling, and antitrust — these are all prime examples of this fallacious way of thinking. Opinions expressed on these practices, and things like pay for supermodels, executives, actors, and athletes, as well as nebulous concepts of fairness, are likewise predicated on just price theory — regardless of whether the opinionist has any concept of basic economics or has ever even heard of just price theory. Regulations establishing price ceilings, price floors, a minimum wage, a living wage, a family wage, rent control, government subsidies, price supports, and in many cases tariffs, also result from the pursuit of the just price.

The term just price is customarily disguised with a euphemism. So, just like SCHIP, Medicare, and Medicaid are never called socialized medicine, and just like refundable tax credits are never referred to as income transfer programs, attempts to establish a just price are usually cloaked in terms of market failure remedies or consumer protection laws. The mention of just price theory either invokes a blank stare, or, in the case of those familiar with the term, the dismissal of the notion as a discredited medieval religious doctrine.

http://www.rothbard.org/story/2918

Predatory?

2008-05-27T12:18:00.000+03:00

The fantasy is this: the big guy lowers prices to undercut the competition and then comes roaring back with high prices once he has the market monopolized. This is a nice fantasy and it might make a nice board game, but it has nothing to do with the real world.

http://mises.org/story/226

Microsoft & Coercion

2008-05-27T12:14:00.001+03:00

During the press conference on May 19, 1998, announcing the broad range anti-trust action of the Department of Justice against Microsoft, there was just one piece of evidence cited against the company that pointed to some effort to subvert consumer choice. In an internal memo Microsoft employed the phrase "make the customer" use one of the company's products. The official from the Justice Department pounced upon this like cats pounce on a mice, barely restraining himself from yelling out loud "Gotcha."

It looks like Microsoft is not vulnerable to any other charge. It hasn't got a restrictive monopoly in any of its products or services--the market is wide open for anyone to enter who can match or top Microsoft's economic performance and indeed there are four or five competing operating systems out there, only not too many of us make use of them. The fact that only a few can compete--in what Professor Richard McKenzie of UC Irvine calls "a commercially viable way"--is indicative that Microsoft isn't acting like the only sort of monopolist that threatens the market, one that can shut out competitors who would do more for customers for less money.

The company does dominate--or rather "has prevailed more than any other in"--the market, but that is not what monopoly is about.

http://mises.org/story/162

Bacteria Thrive in Inner Elbow; No Harm Done

2008-05-25T14:39:00.001+03:00

Bacterial cells outnumber human cells by 10 to 1, meaning that if cells could vote, people would be a minority in their own body.

Despite the vast changes that people have made to their diet through cooking and agriculture, their gut bacteria “don’t dramatically depart in composition from those of other omnivorous primates,” Dr. Gordon said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/science/23gene.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Real-World 'Iron Man' Suit Foreshadows Future of Artificial Intelligence

2008-05-21T00:21:00.001+03:00

Cyberdyne Incorporated is building a real life Iron Man suit named HAL. No, this isn't the ultimate in crossover fan-fiction - it's an actual factual product. You might expect to wait ten years for such technology, but Cyberdyne Inc. is aiming to start production in October. Yes, THIS October. Start saving.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/05/real-world-iron.html

Flying Fish

2008-05-20T23:03:00.000+03:00

It is claimed to be one of the longest recorded flights of this acrobatic animal.
The fish was completely airborne for 45 seconds. This beats one previous, impressive report from an American researcher in the 1920s of 42 seconds.
The animal is seen travelling parallel to a ferry, which itself is motoring at about 30km/hour (20mph).
The fish was able to continue flying by occasionally beating the surface of the water with its tail fin. The footage was shot by an NHK crew as it travelled to Yakushima Island.
According to Junji Yonezawa, at the Center for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on Outlying Islands, the animal's flight-time of 45 seconds must be close to its physical limit, as brachial respiration is impossible while moving through the air.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7410421.stm?

Why ET will phone using neutrinos not photons

2008-05-20T15:14:00.001+03:00

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence assumes that ET will be communicating using photons. But despite decades of listening out, we’ve heard nothing.

But today, John Learned from the University of Hawaii and pals say forget photons. We should be looking for evidence of ET using neutrinos.

The reason is that any civilisation advanced enough to colonise the galaxy would need a reliable way to communicate over intragalactic distances and photons simply don’t pass muster. There is a huge amount of noise in the electromagnetic spectrum, photons are easily scattered and would almost certainly be absorbed if they had to travel from one side of the galaxy to the other.

By contrast, the neutrino spectrum is relatively noise free and neutrinos intereact so weakly with matter that a signal could travel unhindered from one side of the galaxy to the other.

They propose testing the idea by generating a neutrino signal using a particle acclerator to genreate Z nought particles which decay into neutrinos of a relatively easily detectable energy. They would encode information in the time structure of the beam, like Morse code.

What’s more, Learned and co say that the kind of neutrino signals that ET might be expected to beam should be detectable by the generation of neutrino detectors now under construction.

http://arxivblog.com/?p=426

Artificial cell created from scratch

2008-05-19T03:51:00.001+03:00

A team of Penn State researchers has developed a simple artificial cell with which to investigate the organization and function of two of the most basic cell components: the cell membrane and the cytoplasm--the gelatinous fluid that surrounds the structures in living cells. The work could lead to the creation of new drugs that take advantage of properties of cell organization to prevent the development of diseases.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/05/artificial-cell-created-from-scratch.html

Amazing Flying Helicopter - Defying The Laws Of Physics

2008-05-14T09:46:00.001+03:00

Richard Dawkins - Evolution: What is "Natural"?

2008-05-12T01:09:00.001+03:00

Rats feel peer pressure too

2008-05-11T17:58:00.000+03:00

It's not just humans who succumb to peer pressure - rats do too. Brown rats have a tendency to disregard personal experiences and copy the behaviour of their peers. What's more, the urge to conform appears to be so strong that they will choose to eat food they know to be unpalatable when interacting with other rats that have done the same.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/mg19826554.500-rats-feel-peer-pressure-too.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Molecular Visualisations of DNA

2008-05-11T17:51:00.001+03:00

Capitalism quotes

2008-05-11T13:47:00.001+03:00

Does Money Taint Everything?

"Give back to the community" is a phrase used to implore people who have been successful in business to donate their time, talent, and treasure to some cause besides their business. There is no arguing with the injunction to serve others, but there is a problem with the phrase "give back." It implies that people with money have taken something from others. But presuming that the businessperson has been successful through enterprise, their wealth comes not from taking but from cooperating with willing buyers.
"There is a problem with the phrase 'give back.' It implies that people with money have taken something from others."

Let's see how this works: When you need milk in a hurry, you dash to the convenience store and pick up a carton. You put it on the counter and the clerk says what you owe. At that moment, there is a calculation made. The clerk determines that he (or the person who employs him) values $2.50 more than the milk. You, on the other hand, determined that you value the milk more than the $2.50 you have been ask to pay for it. You exchange, and voila — you are both better off as a result.

You have done a service to the convenience store, and the convenience store has done a service for you. The store is richer in money, and you are richer in goods. What do the two parties to the exchange owe each other afterwards? Nothing. What does justice demand? That they keep the bargain, and nothing else. The milk can't sour. The check can't bounce. Nothing else is required or asked.

http://mises.org/story/2962

The free market:

The market, which is nothing more than individuals acting purposively to achieve desired ends, has delivered solutions to the problems of human existence that have raised civilization to the heights we now enjoy. Few seem to appreciate the creative nature of free markets.

http://mises.org/story/1239

Regulating Evolution: How Gene Switches Make Life

2008-05-08T00:26:00.000+03:00

Switches within DNA that govern when and where genes are turned on enable genomes to generate the great diversity of animal forms from very similar sets of genes.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=regulating-evolution&sc=rss

Prior to the Cambrian Explosion, life on land was unknown and life in the sea was made up of soft-bodied multicellular creatures that strained food from the seawater around them or fed on mats of bacteria on the ocean floor. Though these animals virtually disappeared at the beginning of the Cambrian, the ancestors of the new modern phyla that replaced them haven't been found.

Marshall reviewed other theories explaining the explosion and said that though each of them has merit - an increase in atmospheric oxygen, for example, would be needed to fuel more active lifestyles - each also falls short in some way.

As Marshall pondered alternatives, he began to think that it was possible that the creatures in the pre-Cambrian seas during the Ediacaran Period didn't entirely disappear. Though they were very different from what followed, they may have been genetically complex enough to hold the genetic seeds of the explosion.

Marshall cited recent findings from genetic studies that indicate even creatures as diverse as flies and fish share many of the same genes. They differ, he said, more in how the genes are used - whether they're switched on or off - than in the genes' presence or absence.

"It's not new genes that create new morphological innovation, but rather the way they're wired together," Marshall said. "[Different-looking creatures] are not apples and oranges."

If the precursors to the creatures that arose during the Cambrian Period were swimming in the Ediacaran seas, something had to spark the dramatic change.
http://www.geneticarchaeology.com/Research/Animal_interaction_behind_Cambrian_Explosion.asp

A Sixth Sense for a Wired World

2008-05-05T23:49:00.000+03:00

What if, seconds before your laptop began stalling, you could feel the hard drive spin up under the load? Or you could tell if an electrical cord was live before you touched it? For the few people who have rare earth magnets implanted in their fingers, these are among the reported effects -- a finger that feels electromagnetic fields along with the normal sense of touch.

It's been described as a buzzing sensation, a tingling, an oscillation, movement, pure stimulation and, in the case of body-modification expert Shannon Larrett's encounter with a too-powerful antitheft gateway at a retail store, "Like sticking your hand in an ultrasonic cleaner."

Source:
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mods/news/2006/06/71087

Related to:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp_pr.html
http://feelspace.cogsci.uos.de/en/technology_01.html

Amazing Physics

2008-05-04T22:50:00.001+03:00

Amazing Liquid

2008-05-04T22:48:00.000+03:00

Synchronisation

2008-05-04T22:46:00.001+03:00

The man who grew a finger

2008-05-01T23:24:00.000+03:00

In every town in every part of this sprawling country you can find a faceless sprawling strip mall in which to do the shopping.

Rarely though would you expect to find a medical miracle working behind the counter of the mall's hobby shop.

That however is what Lee Spievak considers himself to be.

"I put my finger in," Mr Spievak says, pointing towards the propeller of a model airplane, "and that's when I sliced my finger off."

It took the end right off, down to the bone, about half an inch.

"We don't know where the piece went."

The photos of his severed finger tip are pretty graphic. You can understand why doctors said he'd lost it for good.

Today though, you wouldn't know it. Mr Spievak, who is 69 years old, shows off his finger, and it's all there, tissue, nerves, nail, skin, even his finger print.

'Pixie dust'

How? Well that's the truly remarkable part. It wasn't a transplant. Mr Spievak re-grew his finger tip. He used a powder - or pixie dust as he sometimes refers to it while telling his story.

Mr Speivak's brother Alan - who was working in the field of regenerative medicine - sent him the powder.

For ten days Mr Spievak put a little on his finger.

"The second time I put it on I already could see growth. Each day it was up further. Finally it closed up and was a finger.

"It took about four weeks before it was sealed."

Now he says he has "complete feeling, complete movement."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7354458.stm

Mises Rules

2008-05-01T21:12:00.001+03:00

Von Mises had plenty of enemies. His work dismissed Nazi ideas as nonsense, described socialism as incapable of rational calculation and faulted the dominant German historical school as fostering little more than clerks of the state.

He correctly predicted the stock market crash of 1929, the dangers of Adolf Hitler's rise in the 1930s, the inevitability of an American victory over Nazism and the economic collapse of the Soviet Union.

[..]

Von Mises' embrace of Austrian economics, as it came to be called, harmed his career. The university jobs went to socialists and statists.

While many free-market advocates became depressed about the trend toward socialism, von Mises wouldn't give in to pessimism.

He adopted a motto from Virgil: "Do not yield to the bad, but always oppose it with courage."

[..]

He discovered that the politicians "were completely ignorant in economic matters. Most of them had no conception of the consequences of the measures they took," von Mises wrote in "Notes and Recollections."

He advised the legislators to eliminate budget deficits and resist inflationary policies.

Meantime, he continued his work as a scholar without a university. Of socialists, he wrote, "They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office."

Amid communism's rise in the Soviet Union, von Mises remained skeptical. He "was one of the few people that predicted that the Soviet Union would fail," Formaini said.

Others considered that view absurd — until the communist state collapsed in 1991. "Score one for Mises," said Formaini.

One day von Mises was offered a position at Creditanstalt, a bank in Vienna. He said no.

"When I asked him the reason for his refusal, he told me a great crash would be coming," Margit wrote.

In October 1929, the stock market crashed. A year and a half later, Creditanstalt went bankrupt. Von Mises had been right

[..]

Hanke, a former president of Toronto Trust Argentina, which was the No. 1 performing emerging market fund in 1995, told IBD that von Mises and his followers are relevant to Wall Street.

"Their work is vital to understanding money and banking in general and commodities," he said.

Formaini said von Mises' Austrian business cycle theory remains "the best single explanatory theory I have encountered for the modern business cycle."

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=21&issue=20080430

Scientists Create First Memristor: Missing Fourth Electronic Circuit Element

2008-05-01T20:05:00.002+03:00

Researchers at HP Labs have built the first working prototypes of an important new electronic component that may lead to instant-on PCs as well as analog computers that process information the way the human brain does.

The new component is called a memristor, or memory resistor. Up until today, the circuit element had only been described in a series of mathematical equations written by Leon Chua, who in 1971 was an engineering student studying non-linear circuits. Chua knew the circuit element should exist -- he even accurately outlined its properties and how it would work. Unfortunately, neither he nor the rest of the engineering community could come up with a physical manifestation that matched his mathematical expression.

Leon himself noted the similarity between his own predictions of the properties for a memristor and what was then known about synapses in the brain. One of his suggestions was that you could perhaps do some type of neuronal computing using memristors.

"Building an analog computer in which you don't use 1s and 0s and instead use essentially all shades of gray in between is one of the things we're already working on," says Williams. These computers could do the types of things that digital computers aren't very good at –- like making decisions, determining that one thing is larger than another, or even learning.

While a lot of researchers are currently trying to write a computer code that simulates brain function on a standard machine, they have to use huge machines with enormous processing power to simulate only tiny portions of the brain.

Williams and his team say they can now take a different approach: "Instead of writing a computer program to simulate a brain or simulate some brain function, we're actually looking to build some hardware based upon memristors that emulates brain-like functions," says Williams.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/scientists-prov.html

Sun and cancer

2008-04-21T15:32:00.001+02:00

Get some sun, get adequate amounts of Vitamin D. Your odds of getting most deadly types of internal cancers are now reduced. Your odds of getting seldom-fatal skin cancer go up.

Stay inside, cover up... you'll be deficient in Vitamin D like a lot of Canadians (and Americans). Your odds of getting serious, fuck-me-I'm-dying internal cancers is increased.

Johnny Lee’s (Wii Remote Hacker) at TED

2008-04-16T12:01:00.000+02:00

Johnny Lee, whose amazing Wii Remote hacks - which turn the $40 device into a digital whiteboard, multi-touch display, and 3-D viewer - have been a massive hit on YouTube, was invited to speak at the TED conference. Watch and be amazed by what a brilliant mind can do with a child’s toy.

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/04/12/johnny-lees-wii-remote-hacker-at-ted/

The Brain and Free Will

2008-04-16T11:48:00.001+02:00

Brain Scanner Predicts Your Future Moves
By scanning the brains of test subjects as they pressed one button or another – though not a computer mouse – researchers pinpointed a signal that divulged the decision about seven seconds before people ever realized their choice. The discovery has implications for mind-reading, and the nature of free will. "Our decisions are predetermined unconsciously a long time before our consciousness kicks in," says John-Dylan Haynes, a neuro-scientist at the BCCN.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/dn13658-brain-scanner-predicts-your-future-moves.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Free will? Not as much as you think
You're going to press that button, right? You know you're going to press it and then . . . you make a conscious decision and you press it, right?
Maybe not, say German researchers in a new study published in the April 13 online edition of Nature Neuroscience.
Using sophisticated brain imaging techniques, the researchers found that they can predict people's simple decisions up to 10 seconds before they're conscious of making such a choice.
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2008/04/14/free_will_not_as_much_as_you_think/

Brain Decides Faster Than You Think
Study: Decisions Are Made Up To 10 Seconds Faster Than People Realize
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/14/health/webmd/main4014145.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4014145

The Birth of a Brain Cell: Scientists Witness Neurogenesis

2008-04-06T12:40:00.002+02:00

New method allows researchers to pinpoint young nerve cells in the living human brain.

For the first time, researchers have developed a way to view stem cells in the brains of living animals, including humans—a finding that allows scientists to follow the process neurogenesis (the birth of neurons). The discovery comes just months after scientists confirmed that such cells are generated in adult as well as developing brains.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-birth-of-a-brain-cell-witnessing-neurogenesis

Scientists find host of antibiotic-eating germs

2008-04-06T12:40:00.001+02:00

CHICAGO, Apr. 3, 2008 (Reuters) — Several strains of bacteria in the soil can make a meal of the world's most potent antibiotics, researchers said on Thursday, in a startling finding that illustrates the extent to which these germ-fighting drugs are losing the war against superbugs.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/n03434274-bacteria-antibiotics/

Is DNA Repair a Substitute for Sex? (4/5/2008)

2008-04-06T12:39:00.000+02:00

Birds and bees may do it, but the microscopic animals called bdelloid rotifers seem to get along just fine without sex, thank you. What's more, they have done so over millions of years of evolution, resulting in at least 370 species. These hardy creatures somehow escape the usual drawback of asexuality - extinction - and the MBL's David Mark Welch, Matthew Meselson, and their colleagues are finding out how.

http://www.geneticarchaeology.com/Research/Is_DNA_Repair_a_Substitute_for_Sex.asp

Christopher deCharms: Looking inside the brain in real time

2008-03-27T10:35:00.000+02:00

http://atheistmedia.blogspot.com/2008/03/christopher-decharms-looking-inside.html

ABB FlexPicker Robots

2008-03-27T10:29:00.001+02:00

After seeing the ABB Flexpicker in action, I have no doubt that one day, human workers will be pretty much useless in factories. This robot is apparently the fastest in the world, its arm going from 0 to 280 mph in barely 1 second.

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/03/26/worlds-fastest-industrial-robot-makes-human-workers-useless/

Explore the Human Body with an Online, 3-D Interactive Tool

2008-03-25T13:51:00.000+02:00

The Visible Body offers an educational experience, and the chance to poke a spleen

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-03/explore-human-body-online-3-d-interactive-tool

Silicon compound superconducts at room temperature

2008-03-23T11:19:00.001+02:00

Max Plank Institute and University of Saskatchewan researchers have fabricated a room-temperature superconducting material that does not require cooling.

The new silicon-hydrogen compound is super-compressed, potentially allowing it to be used without super-cooling the material, as is necessary for conventional superconductors.

Researchers have speculated for years that hydrogen under enough pressure would superconduct at room temperature, but have been unable to achieve the necessary compression. The Canadian and German researchers' success came from adding hydrogen to a compound with silicon that reduced the amount of compression needed to achieve superconductivity.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=/news/news_single.html?id%3D8234
http://sparkingtech.com/tech-sci-news/scientists-develop-superconducting-material-that-doesnt-need-cooling/

NeuroSky - Powered By Your Mind

2008-03-21T20:46:00.000+02:00

NeuroSky Inc. has developed a non-invasive, dry, bio-sensor family of products that capture the electrical waves generated by neurological activity and eye movements and translate mental state information into digital signals for simple Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). Our wearable technology unlocks worlds of new applications in consumer electronics, health, wellness, safety, education, training, market research and a host of many more.

http://www.neurosky.biz/menu/main/technology/product_summary/

Heisenberg Uncertainity Principle

2008-03-20T11:41:00.000+02:00

World's Strongest MRI

2008-03-20T11:39:00.001+02:00

The world's most powerful medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine is the 9.4 Tesla, positioned at the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC). Following over three years of trials, the 9.4 Tesla has successfully completed the necessary safety trials. The powerful MRI will soon provide physicians with a real-time view of biological processes in the human brain at an unprecedented level of detail.

http://www.tfot.info/pod/1133/worlds-strongest-mri.html

Forget prostheses, teeth can grow

2008-03-14T13:38:00.000+02:00

In Ukraine, a new revolutionary method of growing teeth.

The idea - Alexander Baranovich, genetics scientist Poltava Centre cryopreserved embryo transplantation, cell and tissue fetoplatsentarnyh.

He is working on creating a unique technique, by which toothless people can update your jaw without a prosthesis. At the scene deposited in the tooth gum is made on the basis of a liquid injection of stem cells fell children's milk teeth. Being a jaw bone tissue, cells multiply, and 3-4 months for a new tooth grows.

http://quazimd.com/md/?q=node/263

Nerve-tapping neckband allows 'telepathic' chat

2008-03-14T13:36:00.000+02:00

A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals to the vocal cords has been used to make a "voiceless" phone call.

With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. The signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed to a computer that converts them into words.

The technology, made by Ambient Corporation, previously had been used to let people control wheelchairs using their thoughts.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=/news/news_single.html?id%3D8178

HIV Breakthrough: Protein That Fights Immunodeficiency Identified

2008-03-13T16:54:00.000+02:00

ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2008) — A Canada-U.S. research team has solved a major genetic mystery: How a protein in some people's DNA guards them against killer immune diseases such as HIV. In an advance online edition of Nature Medicine, the scientists explain how the protein, FOX03a, shields against viral attacks and how the discovery will help in the development of a HIV vaccine.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303093559.htm

The Claim: Identical Twins Have Identical DNA

2008-03-12T19:52:00.000+02:00

It is a basic tenet of human biology, taught in grade schools everywhere: Identical twins come from the same fertilized egg and, thus, share identical genetic profiles.

But according to new research, though identical twins share very similar genes, identical they are not. The discovery opens a new understanding of why two people who hail from the same embryo can differ in phenotype, as biologists refer to a person’s physical manifestation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/health/11real.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1205324110-ZzdmcBK0/8lWvFiTCGO5cg

Lawmakers consider outlawing 'next marijuana'

2008-03-12T19:49:00.000+02:00

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - On Web sites touting the mind-blowing powers of salvia divinorum, come-ons to buy the hallucinogenic herb are accompanied by warnings: "Time is running out! ... stock up while you still can."

That's because salvia is being targeted by lawmakers concerned that the inexpensive and easy-to-obtain plant could become the next marijuana. Eight states have already placed restrictions on salvia, and 16 others, including Florida, are considering a ban or have previously.

[..]

"Parents, I would say, are pretty clueless," said Jonathan Appel, an assistant professor of psychology and criminal justice at Tiffin University in Ohio who has studied the emergence of the substance. "It's much more powerful than marijuana."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23573004/?GT1=43001

Culinary Shocker: Cooking Can Preserve, Boost Nutrient Content Of Vegetables

2008-03-11T18:59:00.000+02:00

ScienceDaily (Dec. 30, 2007) — In a finding that defies conventional culinary wisdom, researchers in Italy report that cooking vegetables can preserve or even boost their nutritional value in comparison to their raw counterparts, depending on the cooking method used.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071224125524.htm

Ericsson predicts swift end for Wi-Fi hotspots

2008-03-11T16:21:00.002+02:00

The rapid growth of mobile broadband is set to make Wi-Fi hotspots irrelevant, according to an Ericsson executive.

"Hotspots at places like Starbucks are becoming the telephone boxes of the broadband era," claimed Ericsson's chief marketing officer Johan Bergendahl, speaking to delegates at the European Computer Audit, Control and Security Conference in Stockholm.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/176220/ericsson-predicts-swift-end-for-wifi-hotspots.html

Scientists Can Now Reads Visual Activity

2008-03-11T16:21:00.000+02:00

Using brain scans and computer models, researchers at UC Berkeley report they have found a way to "read" visual activity in the brain. The process relies on functional MRI to scan the brain for activity information related to the viewing of a chosen set of images. A computer database of brain activity-image links is then created, so that future viewings can be deduced based solely on an analysis of fresh FMRI patterns.

http://www.tfot.info/headline/1178/scientists-can-now-reads-visual-activity.html

Three-Parent Embryo Created in a Lab

2008-03-11T16:19:00.000+02:00

Scientists at the Newcastle University in the U.K. have successfully implanted embryo nucleuses, containing DNA from a mother and a father, into donor eggs. Although the nucleuses of the donor eggs had been removed, they still contained healthy mitochondria, which replaced the damaged mitochondria of the original eggs. The Newcastle research team hopes this technique may help eradicate a whole class of hereditary diseases, including some forms of epilepsy, which are passed on from mothers to their children through maternal mutated mitochondria.

http://www.tfot.info/news/1127/three-parent-embryo-created-in-a-lab.html

Feynman - Philosophy is bullshit

2008-03-11T09:31:00.001+02:00

"My son is taking a course in philosophy, and last night we were looking at something by Spinoza and there was the most childish reasoning! There were all these attributes, and Substances, and all this meaningless chewing around, and we started to laugh. Now how could we do that? Here's this great Dutch philosopher, and we're laughing at him. It's because there's no excuse for it! In the same period there was Newton, there was Harvey studying the circulation of the blood, there were people with methods of analysis by which progress was being made! You can take every one of Spinoza's propositions, and take the contrary propositions, and look at the world and you can't tell which is right."

Richard P. Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

Enzymes Built from Scratch

2008-03-10T13:00:00.001+02:00

In a major step forward for computational protein design, scientists have built from scratch a handful of enzymes that successfully catalyze a specific chemical reaction. These proteins have no naturally occurring counterparts, and the reaction--which breaks down a man-made chemical--has no natural catalyst.

"It makes it clear that we can compute a structure that will catalyze a reaction where there was none before," says Frances Arnold, professor of chemical engineering and biochemistry at Caltech, who was not involved in the research. Arnold calls new enzymes the "holy grail" of computational protein design. Designing any protein from scratch is a tall order; engineering a protein that can carry out a given function requires far more sophistication.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20389/

Nickel Titanium (Nitinol)

2008-02-28T11:14:00.000+02:00

Nickel titanium (NiTi) is a shape memory alloy also commonly referred to by its trade name, Nitinol (Nickel Titanium Naval Ordnance Laboratory). Above its transformation temperature, Nitinol is superelastic, able to withstand a large amount of deformation when a load is applied and return to its original shape when the load is removed. Below its transformation temperature, it displays the shape memory effect. When it is deformed it will remain in that shape until heated above its transformation temperature, at which time it will return to its original shape. William Buehler discovered this along with Frederick Wang during research at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. (wikipedia)

http://sciencehack.com/videos/view/Y7jjqXh7bB4

Cancer and the bacterial connection

2008-02-17T03:24:00.000+02:00

Germs may actually help our bodies fight tumors -- which means an infection-free lifestyle comes at a price.

IN the 1890s, a New York surgeon named William Coley tested a radical cancer treatment. He took a hypodermic needle teeming with bacteria and plunged it into the flesh of patients.

After suffering through weeks of chills and fevers, many showed significant regression of their tumors, but even Coley himself could not explain the phenomenon.

His experiments were sparked by the observation that certain cancer patients improved after contracting infections. One patient experienced regression in a tumor in her arm after developing Saint Anthony's fire, a streptococcus skin infection.

Doctors at the time considered Coley's bacterial mixtures to be more black magic than medicine, and with the advent of radiation therapy, the well-meaning doctor was soon consigned to the annals of quackery.

But today, some scientists think Coley had it right: Germs can teach our bodies how to fight back against tumors. Dr. John Timmerman, a cancer immunotherapy expert at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, says this revolution has produced "the most exciting sets of compounds in cancer immunology."

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-lab18feb18,1,162154.story

Liberty and Property

2008-02-17T03:21:00.001+02:00

What vitiates entirely the socialists' economic critique of capitalism is their failure to grasp the sovereignty of the consumers in the market economy. They see only hierarchical organization of the various enterprises and plans, and are at a loss to realize that the profit system forces business to serve the consumers. In their dealings with their employers, the unions proceed as if only malice and greed were to prevent what they call management from paying higher wage rates. Their shortsightedness does not see anything beyond the doors of the factory. They and their henchmen talk about the concentration of economic power, and do not realize that economic power is ultimately vested in the hands of the buying public of which the employees themselves form the immense majority. Their inability to comprehend things as they are is reflected in such inappropriate metaphors as industrial kingdom and dukedoms. They are too dull to see the difference between a sovereign king or duke who could be dispossessed only by a more powerful conqueror and a "chocolate king" who forfeits his "kingdom" as soon as the customers prefer to patronize another supplier. This distortion is at the bottom of all socialist plans. If any of the socialist chiefs had tried to earn his living by selling hot dogs, he would have learned something about the sovereignty of the customers. But they were professional revolutionaries and their only job was to kindle civil war. Lenin's ideal was to build a nation's production effort according to the model of the post office, an outfit that does not depend on the consumers, because its deficits are covered by compulsory collection of taxes. "The whole of society," he said, was to "become one office and one factory."[2] He did not see that the very character of the office and the factory is entirely changed when it is alone in the world and no longer grants to people the opportunity to choose among the products and services of various enterprises. Because his blindness made it impossible for him to see the role the market and the consumers play under capitalism, he could not see the difference between freedom and slavery. Because in his eyes the workers were only workers and not also customers, he believed they were already slaves under capitalism, and that one did not change their status when nationalizing all plants and shops. Socialism substitutes the sovereignty of a dictator, or committee of dictators, for the sovereignty of the consumers. Along with the economic sovereignty of the citizens disappears also their political sovereignty.

http://www.mises.org/libprop/lpsec3.asp

Thou Art Godshatter

2008-02-15T12:18:00.000+02:00

The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle depicts an intelligent species that stayed biological a little too long, slowly becoming truly enslaved by evolution, gradually turning into true fitness maximizers obsessed with outreproducing each other. But thankfully that's not what happened. Not here on Earth. At least not yet.

So humans love the taste of sugar and fat, and we love our sons and daughters. We seek social status, and sex. We sing and dance and play. We learn for the love of learning.

A thousand delicious tastes, matched to ancient reinforcers that once correlated with reproductive fitness - now sought whether or not they enhance reproduction. Sex with birth control, chocolate, the music of long-dead Bach on a CD.

And when we finally learn about evolution, we think to ourselves: "Obsess all day about inclusive genetic fitness? Where's the fun in that?"

The blind idiot god's single monomaniacal goal splintered into a thousand shards of desire. And this is well, I think, though I'm a human who says so. Or else what would we do with the future? What would we do with the billion galaxies in the night sky? Fill them with maximally efficient replicators? Should our descendants deliberately obsess about maximizing their inclusive genetic fitness, regarding all else only as a means to that end?

Being a thousand shards of desire isn't always fun, but at least it's not boring. Somewhere along the line, we evolved tastes for novelty, complexity, elegance, and challenge - tastes that judge the blind idiot god's monomaniacal focus, and find it aesthetically unsatisfying.

And yes, we got those very same tastes from the blind idiot's godshatter. So what?

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/11/thou-art-godsha.html

100 billion new computers the size of a grain of sand

2008-02-14T19:28:00.002+02:00

RFID technology will be used in billions of things in our world - and these tiny chips will also be fused to brain tissue. 10 billion RFID computer chips were used by Wal-Mart alone last year. Impact of RFID on retailing, manufacturing, wholesale, distribution. Security and privacy. Multimedia conference lecture, keynote presentation by Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon. You can watch the entire presentation on Google Video (one hour keynote conference lecture on future trends)

Future of genetic engineering - by Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon

2008-02-14T19:27:00.002+02:00

Gene therapy, genetic engineering, gene swops. Lastest research. Animal and human science of genes. How genes are reprogrammed. How scientists use genes to cure disease or create new plants and animals. Transgenic pigs. New genes in health and medicine to cure disease. Comment by Dr Patrick Dixon, physician, Futurist, author of The Genetic Revolution and Futurewise

The man who unboiled an egg

2008-02-14T10:29:00.001+02:00

He can measure the pressure inside a chip and has worked out how to produce 24 litres of mayonnaise from a single egg. Hervé This, France's most famous chemist - and inspiration to Heston Blumenthal - gives Ian Phillips the strangest cooking tips he's ever heard

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/futureoffood/story/0,,1969723,00.html

New torch that shines nine miles!

2008-02-14T10:27:00.001+02:00

Let there be light declared inventor Ralf Ottow. And there was – serious light!

For he created the world's brightest torch with a remarkable reach of 14.5km or nine miles.

His torch, the Maxablaster, has the power of 52million candles, leaving even the most powerful of lighthouses in the shade.

It is said to be as close to a real-life Star Wars lightsaber as yet produced by man.

The Dutch optics engineer, crammed 54 batteries into his home-made monster and was forced to fit special UV filter glass so the light does not frazzle the skin of bystanders.

He stripped out the innards of a powerful commercial flashlight and put in a mercury arc bulb.

The special bulb creates an ultra-hot plasma between two closely spaced electrodes inside a gas-filled central chamber.

That results in a dazzling beam but also creates more skin-burning ultraviolet light.

Mr Ottow, warned: 'It's not a torch you'd walk your dog with, because it would probably cook your dog.'

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=98480&in_page_id=34

Demonstration of the Navy Electromagnetic Rail Gun prototype

2008-02-14T10:05:00.000+02:00

The US Navy's Electromagnetic Rail Gun that is under development at NSWC Dahlgren in Virginia. This is a prototype to demonstrate the technology of the rail gun for use on the future DDG-1000 class of Navy ships.

Thaks Sciencehack

Tissue Engineering in Mainstream Media

2008-02-08T20:39:00.001+02:00

With the recent advances in stem-cell derivation research -- such as the use of genetically "reprogrammed" cells to create fetal stem-cells from adult cells -- it's important to recognize that there has been significant advancement in the field of tissue engineering, the "next step" from simply 'harvesting' stem-cells. The below video, however, represents something else altogether: the beginning of comprehension of this research by the common man.

http://www.functionalisminaction.com/2008/02/tissue-engineering-in-mainstream-media.html

New Electronics Promise Wireless at Warp Speed

2008-02-08T20:05:00.001+02:00

Wireless networking technology will one day deliver high-definition video content and other large data files via the airwaves far faster than that information can be now be delivered over wired systems. But it will take major advances in the electronics that drive computer and radio-frequency systems to create such a high-powered wireless highway.
[..]
Conventional semiconductors are built using silicon-based substrates (the material upon which semiconductor devices are fabricated), but metal-insulator electronics can be made atop less pricey glass, metal or plastic substrates. Phiar's approach is to place two metal layers on either side of a double layer of insulation. When voltage is applied, electrons tunnel through the insulator layers with the help of a "quantum well" that forms between the two insulators.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=metal-insulator-electronics-wireless