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Discussion of the Essence# programming language, and related issues and technologies. |
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From PhysOrg.com:
European researchers have created a CMOS (semiconductor) camera capable of filming individual photons one million times a second. The breakthrough will impact on all the most advanced areas of science and makes Europe the world leader in the technology.Full article
Stem cell researchers give old muscle new pep from PhysOrg.com
Old muscle got a shot of youthful vigor in a stem cell experiment by bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley, setting the path for research on new treatments for age-related degenerative conditions such as muscle atrophy or Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
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Moving molecules within molecules from PhysOrg.com
Experts in the field of nanoscience have discovered a way of controlling the motion and detecting the forces that move molecules within molecules.
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Physicist Claims First Real Demonstration of Cold Fusion from PhysOrg.com
To many people, cold fusion sounds too good to be true. The idea is that, by creating nuclear fusion at room temperature, researchers can generate a nearly unlimited source of power that uses water as fuel and produces almost zero waste. Essentially, cold fusion would make oil obsolete.
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Scientists discover exotic quantum state of matter from PhysOrg.com
A team of scientists from Princeton University has found that one of the most intriguing phenomena in condensed-matter physics -- known as the quantum Hall effect -- can occur in nature in a way that no one has ever before seen.
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Scientists Automate Molecular Evolution from PhysOrg.com
Under the control of a computer at The Scripps Research Institute, a population of billions of genes morphed through 500 cycles of forced adaptation to emerge as molecules that could grow faster and faster on a continually dwindling source of chemical fuel -- a feat that researchers describe as an example of "Darwinian evolution on a chip."
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Artificial photosynthesis moves a step closer from PhysOrg.com
Jülich scientists have made an important step on the long road to artificially mimicking photosynthesis. They were able to synthesise a stable inorganic metal oxide cluster, which enables the fast and effective oxidation of water to oxygen.
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Birth of an enzyme from PhysOrg.com
Mankind triumphed in a recent 'competition' against nature when scientists succeeded in creating a new type of enzyme for a reaction for which no naturally occurring enzyme has evolved. This achievement opens the door to the development of a variety of potential applications in medicine and industry.
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Physicists Bring Quantum Computing Closer to Reality from PhysOrg.com
Researchers at the U. S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Microsoft Station Q have made significant advancements in understanding a fundamental problem of quantum mechanics – one that is blocking efforts to develop practical quantum computers with processing speeds far superior to conventional computers. Their respective theoretical and experimental studies investigate how microscopic objects lose their quantum-mechanical properties through interactions with the environment.
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Tiny Brain-Like Transistor Controls Nanobots from PhysOrg.com
For years, researchers have been building tiny nanobots that could one day serve a variety of purposes. But, until now, nanobots couldn't work together.
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NIST 'Quantum Logic Clock' Rivals Mercury Ion as World's Most Accurate Clock from PhysOrg.com
An atomic clock that uses an aluminum atom to apply the logic of computers to the peculiarities of the quantum world now rivals the world's most accurate clock, based on a single mercury atom. Both clocks are at least 10 times more accurate than the current U.S. time standard.
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From Physorg.com:
In new work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lawrence and Carvalho describe a new class of statistical estimators and prove four theorems concerning their properties. Their work shows that these “centroid” estimators allow for better statistical predictions – and, as a result, better ways to extract information from the immense data sets used in computational biology, information technology, banking and finance, medicine and engineering.
Electron filmed for first time ever from PhysOrg.com
Now it is possible to see a movie of an electron. The movie shows how an electron rides on a light wave after just having been pulled away from an atom. This is the first time an electron has ever been filmed, and the results are presented in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters.
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Inventor Doesn't Dare Say 'Perpetual Motion Machine' from PhysOrg.com
Thane Heins knows the track record of inventors that claim to make breakthroughs in power generation methods, especially when they claim to defy the second law of thermodynamics. Every so often, a (usually untrained) scientist comes along with a machine that supposedly creates more energy than is put in. Every time, the ideas have been rebuked by real scientists.
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The New York Times has an article today (Big Brain Theory: Have Cosmologists Lost Theirs?) that discusses the philosophical issues arising from the latest theories of cosmology:
It could be the weirdest and most embarrassing prediction in the history of cosmology, if not science.
If true, it would mean that you yourself reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled cosmos. Your memories and the world you think you see around you are illusions.
'Kind and Gentle' Molecular Machine Could Operate at Near-Equilibrium from PhysOrg.com
Molecular machines – tiny machines made of molecules that do mechanical work – are usually thought to operate in a state of non-equilibrium. This makes sense, considering that macro-sized machines operate at non-equilibrium, requiring an additional force to move. On the other hand, equilibrium implies that forces cancel each other out, resulting in an unchanging system, often at rest.
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Fundamental discovery reveals how fat is stored in cells from PhysOrg.com
In discovering the genes responsible for storing fat in cells, scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have answered one of biology’s most fundamental questions. Their findings, which appear in the December 17 to 21 “Early Edition” online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to new strategies for treating obesity and the diseases associated with it.
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Could hydrogen sulfide hold the key to a long life? from PhysOrg.com
Hydrogen sulfide, or H2S, the chemical that gives rotten eggs their sulfurous stench – and the same compound that researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center successfully have used to put mice into a state of reversible metabolic hibernation – has now been shown to significantly increase life span and heat tolerance in the nematode worm, or C. elegans.
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Could May 10, 2807 B.C. be the date the Great Flood started? Bruce Masse, an environmental archaeologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has proposed the theory that the Great Flood was caused by a comet strike in the Indian Ocean on that date (see below for a translation of that date into all the calendar systems supported by Chronos.)
To learn more, browse over to the Discover Magazine article Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood?
-2806-04-17 BC [Gregorian]
-4649-02-09 BE [Bahai]
-3091-09-15 AM [Coptic]
-2815-09-15 ZB [Ethiopic]
0954-02-14 AM [Hebrew]
-2884-01-27 AS [Indian Civil]
-3533-07-12 AH [Islamic (Fatimid)]
-2807-05-10 BC [Julian]
-2053-05-10 AUC [Julian (Imperial)]
-3428-01-27 AP [Persian]
1430-04-27 SY [Solarian]
-2807-130 [Julian-ordinal date]
J.D. 696296 [Julian Day]
Scientists Create Quantum Cascade Laser Nanoantenna from PhysOrg.com
In a major feat of nanotechnology engineering researchers from Harvard University have demonstrated a laser with a wide-range of potential applications in chemistry, biology and medicine. Called a quantum cascade (QC) laser nanoantenna, the device is capable of resolving the chemical composition of samples, such as the interior of a cell, with unprecedented detail.
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