Invisiblity Cloak?

"Cloaking Breakthrough

New materials are on the U.S. Department of Defense’s radar.

By Duncan Graham-Rowe

Blue cloaking "metamaterial" is able to bend light around an object (orange circle), ensuring it casts no shadow or reflection. (Credit: D. Schurig, Duke University.)

Ever since H. G. Wells published The Invisible Man more than a century ago, the prospect of invisibility -- or cloaking -- has been a mainstay of science fiction. But now physicists say they have finally figured out how to make objects invisible, and what’s more, they are just months away from putting this theory into practice.

The trick is to find a way to guide light and other types of electromagnetic radiation around an object so that it casts no shadow and produces no reflection. Normally, this kind of manipulation would be a tall order, says John Pendry of Imperial College London, England. But, he adds, the recent development of a new class of materials called "metamaterials" makes it tantalizingly feasible.

Metamaterials are engineered materials whose properties are determined by their physical structure rather than their chemistry, says Pendry. Such properties include the ability to bend light, he says."

This is from:
Technology Review: Emerging Technologies and their Impact

(via invisibility Technology Review MIT - Google Search)

Warp Drive?

Warp Drive? Perhaps!

Well, who knew. At least some thought experiments are pointing to the far future possibility of faster than light travel without violating the infamous FTL rule!

Sorry there have not been may posts lately. I developed this for my own use in cataloging interesting sites, but some starting reading it so...

Leave comments if you want it to continue. If not....Doom!

Picture on the left is of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, home of theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre, one of the contributors to this thought experiment. Dr. Alcubierre also appeared on "How William Shatner Changed The World", a recent History Channel special hosted by, who else, William Shantner!

Technology Review: Emerging Technologies and their Impact

Technology Review: Emerging Technologies and their Impact

The Pentagon is after you! We are all doomed! The Total Information Awareness Project Lives on!

The Impact of Emerging Technologies: Clean Diesel from Coal - Technology Review

The Impact of Emerging Technologies: Clean Diesel from Coal - Technology Review

Is this something that will work, or is it just something like the old amazing breakthroughs on the covers of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science from the 1950's and early 1960's that never went anywhere? Hopefully, it will. You may wish to read the March 9, 2006 MIT Technology Review item entitled Cheap Hydrogen Fuel that describes a new GE process that would eventually lead to hydrogen production at $3/kilogram vs. the present cost of $8/kg. This might make the hydrogen economy possible. GE did not improve the efficiency of the process of electrolysis, but attacked the capital costs.

Another recent development in the area is described below in my March 30, 2006 post entitled World's First Biogas Plant to Recover Hydrogen and Methane Quickly from Kitchen Waste.

Schrodinger's Cat

The Interactive Schrodinger's Cat

Ever want to know what Schrodinger really meant? Click Here!

The Impact of Emerging Technologies: Making Quantum Practical - Technology Review

The Impact of Emerging Technologies: Making Quantum Practical - Technology Review



Making the Quantum useful! Mixing quantum signals with classical digital signals over the same fiber optic line. Quantum signaling can expand capacity to BIG! It can also be used in computing and in encryption.

Meow!

Dimming of the Sun!

NOVA | Dimming the Sun | PBS


"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

We think we know about global warming and contend that mankind bears a significant responsibility for it. That may be so, but note that the sunlight reaching the earth may be diminishing. Is global warming Gaia's defense mechanism?

In any event, we should conserve and live lightly on the earth for the sake of conserving and living lightly. Use less fossil fuels and live closer to the earth, but we should not think that we know the answers to global warming!

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: Home

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: Home

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is settling into it's orbit maneuvers and testing its cameras as it goes. Click above or the latest. The picture here is the first color image of Mars from the HiRISE camera (enhanced infrared). The HiRISE camera is described in an earlier developers statement:

" The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) will fly on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission, planned for launch in August of 2005. HiRISE will investigate deposits and landforms resulting from geologic and climatic processes and assist in the evaluation of candidate landing sites.

By combining very high resolution and signal-to-noise ratio with a large swath width, it is possible to image on a variety of scales down to 1 meter, a scale currently afforded only in glimpses by landers. HiRISE will offer such views over any selected region of Mars, providing a bridge between orbital remote sensing and landed missions. Stereo image pairs will be acquired over the highest-priority locations with a vertical precision of better than 25 cm per pixel.

User-friendly web tools will be available to both the science community and the public to view/analyze HiRISE images and to submit observation requests. Processed images will be released soon after acquisition to allow everyone to share in the scientific discovery process."

New Scientist Breaking News - World's first brain prosthesis revealed

New Scientist Breaking News - World's first brain prosthesis revealed

Artificial hippocampus undergoing tests. The future is arriving very fast!

Mind Hacks: Dalai Lama to lecture on neuroscience amidst protests

Mind Hacks: Dalai Lama to lecture on neuroscience amidst protests

Interesting site regarding the Dalai Lama's plans to lecture on meditation and neuroscience at a 2005 scientific conference. You might note elsewhere in this blog my comments on the Dali Lama's interest in neuroscience. See the book Destructive Emotions.

In a previous conference with neuroscientists and psychologists, the point was made that western neurophyschology deals mainly with destructive emotions and almost none with happiness and good emotions. Very interesting. Note that the attached site has a discussion section regarding the propriety of the Dalai Lama's appearing.

ScienceDaily: Newly Found Species Fills Evolutionary Gap Between Fish And Land Animals

ScienceDaily: Newly Found Species Fills Evolutionary Gap Between Fish And Land Animals

How could you not like a story on the "missing link"! This is about a fish with crocodile head, flattened body, and the beginnings of shoulders and wrists. This should not be mistaken with the famous missing link early in the last century, the infamous "Piltdown Man", a fraud not noted until years after its discovery in England.

Special Reports: Data Security and Privacy

Special Reports: Data Security and Privacy

Interesting information from MIT's Technology Review magazine/website. It is a compilation of recent security articles.

ScienceDaily: World's First Dedicated Optical SETI Telescope Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence To Begin

ScienceDaily: World's First Dedicated Optical SETI Telescope Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence To Begin

After years of listening for radio waves, The Planetary Society has dedicated an optical telescope dedicated and designed for searching the skies for light signals from other civilizations. Radio is so old anyway! On another note, you may recall those stories of aliens listening in to I Love Lucy television broadcasts from 40 light years away. Well, if so, they would have to have a huge antenna array the size of Connecticut...or bigger. I actually forgot how bit, but Connecticut sounded good!

ScienceDaily: Researchers create order by using disorder

ScienceDaily: Researchers create order by using disorder

Obviously, the researchers never saw my desk. The only order to come from that mess is a "ham on rye".

But seriously, folks, does this not violate the second lay of thermodynamics? Well, no, I suppose not as Wikipedia says, in part: "the 'Second Law of Thermodynamics' states that the total entropy of any isolated thermodynamic system tends to increase over time, approaching a maximum value; and so, by implication, the entropy of the universe as a whole (i.e. the system and its surroundings) tends to increase. We will consider the meaning of the 'second law' further in a subsequent section."

This is an often misunderstood principle that I often misunderstand. It applies to heat in a closed system. Therefore, not to this order from disorder situation...or am I too simplistic?

Have a great spring!

The oldest explosion in the universe (March 2006) - News - PhysicsWeb

The oldest explosion in the universe (March 2006) - News - PhysicsWeb

Who says there is no time travel? To to this PhysicsWeb site to read about an explosion detected from a time when the universe was in diapers! It also appeared in my constellation, Pisces!

NASA - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

NASA - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

March 30, 2006 - the MRO is beginning to shrink its orbit to establish the best orbit for its work. This will take six months. This NASA site gives the latest news, photos, animations and diagrams.

Obituaries: Stanislaw Lem- International Herald Tribune

Obituary: Stanislaw Lem,- International Herald Tribune

One of the world's top Sci-Fi authors died Monday in Krakow, Poland. He did most of his work living under the Communist government of Poland. Solaris was his best known work, turned into a movie first by Andrei Tarkovsky of the Soviet Union, then by Steven Soderbergh of the U.S. He was cerebral, sometimes dark and sardonic and always good, often funny. He will be missed.

The photo is from a SF website with quotes from Pan (Mr.) Lem, see http://www.testermanscifi.org/LemQuotesPart1.html

World First Biogas Plant to Recover Hydrogen and Methane Quickly from Kitchen Waste

World's First Biogas Plant to Recover Hydrogen and Methane Quickly from Kitchen Waste

Huzzah, when does it enter the energy stream? Even if hydrogen can be made cheaply, the distribution infrastructure is not there yet. Also, there is the Hindenberg effect. People worry about massive explosions caused by hydrogen. Evidence abounds that the dope used to glue the fabric onto the skeleton of the Hindenburg was made out of the same substance that is now used as rocket fuel. Most of the flames from the doomed craft was caused by this rocket fuel and the material making up the craft.

Santa Fe Institute

Research

Santa Fe Institute

"The Santa Fe Institute is devoted to creating a new kind of scientific research community, one emphasizing multidisciplinary collaboration in pursuit of understanding the common themes that arise in natural, artificial, and social systems. This unique scientific enterprise attempts to uncover the mechanisms that underlie the deep simplicity present in our complex world."

I've mentioned this institute before, it is very interesting - real science with a different approach. Also see the book:

"Fire in the Mind", by George Johnson and featuring the Santa Fe Institute. It opens with a journey through Pueblo Kivas, Catholic Pentitents, Evangelical Christian communities and Los Alamos. "Are there really laws governing the universe? Or is the order we see imposed by the prisms of our nervous systems, a mere artifact of the way evolution wired the brain? Do the patterns found by science hold some claim to universal truth, or would a visitor from another galaxy find them as quaint and culturally determined, as built on faith, as the world's religions?" This is from a review of the book.

Winter 2006 Bulletin (download .pdf)

I Ching

Darkness mocks all masks.

0-0-1-1-0

is a blank canvas. It asks frightening, but joyful, questions.
is a long walk at night. All pillows are patient.
is a running dream. You will wake tired, but relieved.
is the night barking of a dog. He knocks at each window.
is travel at dawn. The birds sing good-bye.
is an empty vase. Do you have a more welcomed chore?

I sometimes write an article for a local computer magazine. The perennial question of all who seek to write, “Oh what to write this time”. Well, I went to: http://artwells.com/oracula/modules.php?op=modload&name=Newwings&file=index&req=DisplayHex&hexagram=ooiiio, an I Ching site claiming to use modern language. Know that I have only a glancing familiarity with this method of divination, but I do find it fascinating. It is an ancient Chinese art that is very adaptable to the computer, using, as you see, only ones and zeros. Wikpedia defines I Ching as: “The I Ching is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. It describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy which is at the heart of Chinese cultural beliefs. The philosophy centers on the ideas of the dynamic balance of opposites, the evolution of events as a process, and acceptance of the inevitability of change (see Philosophy, below). In Western cultures, the I Ching is regarded by some as simply a system of divination; many believe it expresses the wisdom and philosophy of ancient China.”

Why the I Ching in a computer magazine? Well, for god’s sake, look at those 1’s and 0’s! There are those who claim a more modern connection of the I Ching; connections to quantum physics and chaos theory for a start. There are a number of science fiction books in which the I Ching plays a role. The latest is ____________ . In this story, writer aboard a cruise ship through the “Bermuda Triangle” gets regular warnings of problems on board via I Ching readings slipped under his cabin door. There is also the Phillip K. Dick alternate future novel, ___________________ in which the Japanese occupiers of the West Coast after WWII consult the I Ching for advice on a regular basis.

Ideas from anyone out there?

Do trees share blame for global warming? | csmonitor.com

Do trees share blame for global warming? | csmonitor.com

Just when we thought we had the answers. Remember, nations signatory to the Kyoto treaty have to plant trees to scrub out CO2 that they pump into the atmosphere over their limit. Of course, our late president Ronald Reagan was blasted as a fool for saying "Trees cause pollution". We must not judge so quickly!

Also, a slight increase in temperature in the rain forests is spurring the growth of a fungus that is killing off the frogs. Warming makes nights warming and days slightly cooler because of an increase in cloud cover. Go to NPR Talk of the Nation for a link to the audio of this story.

Security Watch: Theft of trust - CNET reviews

Security Watch: Theft of trust - CNET reviews

As someone who recently learned that a large medical provider insurance information on a laptop left in an employee's car was stolen, I have some interest in the subject of security and identify theft. I also heard the radio consumer reporter, Clark Howard, report on the methods for identity security in the marketplace. He said that many object to fingerprint, retina scans and full facial scans because of the "creep factor". That may be, but unless one live in a small town, don't travel and don't use the internet, one must be careful. I may well hook up the fingerprint ID attachment to my computer again. It is sitting in a drawer.

According to the c/net reporter (see linked article), we still need to take care online even with updated firewalls, spam filters, anti-virus and spyware detectors.

Doom!

Liftport Group Home

Liftport Group Home
The Space Elevator Companies web page. Is this going to be the cheap way into orbit? Or will rocket launches come astronomically down in price?

For an early vision of the space elevator, see the excerpt from Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise, by Arthur C. Clarke. This book was published by Ballantine in 1978. One should pay attention to Sir Arthur as it was he who came up with the concept of satellites in geosynchronous orbit in the technical magazine Wireless World”. This published his landmark technical paper "Extra-terrestrial Relays" that first developed this concept. See http://www.clarkefoundation.org/acc/biography.php

You might also wish to check out the Yahoo Space Elevator discussion group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/space-elevator/

Quoted Below from Yahoo Groups:

Description

The Space Elevator

It is expected that should a space elevator be completed the structure will drastically reduce the cost of reaching space, finally making large scale projects such as SPS and asteroid mining a distinct possibility. Even so, there are a number of challenges that must be overcome. Join us to discuss everything related to the space elevator.

A few of the many topics that will need to be considered are the base tower, space station, and counter weight. How will the cable be constructed and what materials will be used? What would be the optimal propulsion system and how will the elevators themselves work? And, of course, there are still many other issues that need to be considered.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Technology Review: Emerging Technologies and their Impact

Technology Review: Emerging Technologies and their Impact,

HOW THE NET ENABLES TERROR!

This is an article from MIT's Technology Review regarding terrorists websites and how the Net helps enable terror. The article goes on to suggest ways that the online industry can help.

I do recall that when China forced down a U.S. reconnaissance plane and held the crew briefly, hackers from the U.S. went to war and began attacking Chinese government websites. Of course, Chinese hackers did the same to our websites. I believe that the evidence pointed to just plain hacker geeks in the U.S and P.L.A (People's Liberation Army) professionals on the Chinese side. Our hackers did quite well!

For the Australian military's approach, see the paper written by Squadron Leader Nigel Thompson, Officer in Charge, Information Assurance Centre, Royal Australian Air Force. You may find a PDF version of a paper he wrote on terrorism and the 'net. For the U.S. Army's approach, see Mindjack. Finally, for the Army's official site, see the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command.

"Let's be careful out there!"

Artwells Oracula : Indicating Nothing

I Ching

I was trying to find subject matter for a sometimes monthly column I write for CompterChips Magazine and found this by Googling "modern I Ching". Try it! The I Ching, the ancient Chinese divination tool using 0 1 is a natural fit for computer geeks! Click on the I Ching above to go to an interesting Do-It-Yourself I Ching site.

Chaos Forever! Or is it KAOS??