Via Science News (Feb 23, 2012) -
Even as physicists in Europe close in on their most-wanted quarry — a particle known as the Higgs boson — scientists in Illinois are helping narrow the hunt. New measurements of a different particle, one called the W boson, confirm the Higgs is in the mass range that most physicists had thought.
Theory suggests that the Higgs particle must exist in order to imbue many other particles with mass. Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, have shown that the Higgs’ own mass must be less than 127 billion electron volts. (Though it sounds like a unit of electricity, the electron volt is particle physicists’ fundamental unit of mass. A proton’s mass is about 1 billion electron volts.)
The new W boson findings confirm that the Higgs must be less than 145 billion electron volts. At the bottom end scientists have long known the Higgs, if it exists, must be at least 114 billion electron volts.
Narrowing the Higgs mass range with different methods helps scientists cross-check and thus have more confidence in their results. The W boson comes into play because it, the Higgs, and a third particle called the top quark are all interrelated. Determine the mass of any two of those, and you can calculate the mass of the third.
The new measurement is the most precise ever of the W boson mass: 80,387 million electron volts, according to scientists with the CDF collaboration at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., who announced the findings February 23 at a lab seminar.
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
NASA: NPP's 'Blue Marble'
http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/sciencecollection.html
A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.
The high-resolution version can be found here.
A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.
The high-resolution version can be found here.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Body Language vs Micro-Expressions
Via Psychology Today's SpyCatcher Blog -
Thoughtful questions often prompt thoughtful analysis and recently a series of questions from a reader regarding "micro-expressions" had such an effect on me. His questions made me stop and think about how the public perceives "micro expressions" and their significance in our overall understanding of body language, and more importantly, their relevance in detecting deception.
By now most people have heard of "micro-expressions" as a result of the show Lie to Me, or because the term has been popularized by the media. In fact, I routinely run into people who say they have taken courses on "micro-expressions" and have been "certified" or who want to become experts on "micro-expressions." (It reminds me of when students first wanted to be "criminal profilers" and then they wanted to be "CSI agents," just like on TV, now I guess it is "micro-expression experts") That's fine I say, but what about the rest of the body? And that is when I hear silence. After all, the rest of the body is transmitting information about thoughts, desires, fears, emotions, and intentions with far more regularity. If someone ventilates their shirt or hides their thumbs while being asked questions, you should know what that means beyond it's hot and they don't know what to do with their hands (it means: issues, discomfort, insecurities) because there may be no "micro-expressions" to help you at all.
[...]
Recommendation
After studying nonverbals for over 40 years, I think it is wiser to understand what all of the body communicates, not just the face, or just "micro-expressions." Especially knowing that the feet are more accurate than the face in revealing sentiments and intentions and that all of our body is constantly transmitting vital information (Navarro 2008).
f you truly want to learn about body language and nonverbal communications and go beyond the tripe usually served on television, give yourself a treat and read Desmond Morris' trilogy on nonverbals (Manwatching, Bodywatching, Peoplewatching). Morris looks at humans with the critical eye of a scientist discovering a new species and explains why we do the things we do. He is an authority without equal when it comes to nonverbal communications and as a zoologist and anthropologist, will open your eyes as no other author or expert can, with perhaps the exception of Charles Darwin, who started it all one day while watching orangutans in the London zoo.
Thoughtful questions often prompt thoughtful analysis and recently a series of questions from a reader regarding "micro-expressions" had such an effect on me. His questions made me stop and think about how the public perceives "micro expressions" and their significance in our overall understanding of body language, and more importantly, their relevance in detecting deception.
By now most people have heard of "micro-expressions" as a result of the show Lie to Me, or because the term has been popularized by the media. In fact, I routinely run into people who say they have taken courses on "micro-expressions" and have been "certified" or who want to become experts on "micro-expressions." (It reminds me of when students first wanted to be "criminal profilers" and then they wanted to be "CSI agents," just like on TV, now I guess it is "micro-expression experts") That's fine I say, but what about the rest of the body? And that is when I hear silence. After all, the rest of the body is transmitting information about thoughts, desires, fears, emotions, and intentions with far more regularity. If someone ventilates their shirt or hides their thumbs while being asked questions, you should know what that means beyond it's hot and they don't know what to do with their hands (it means: issues, discomfort, insecurities) because there may be no "micro-expressions" to help you at all.
[...]
Recommendation
After studying nonverbals for over 40 years, I think it is wiser to understand what all of the body communicates, not just the face, or just "micro-expressions." Especially knowing that the feet are more accurate than the face in revealing sentiments and intentions and that all of our body is constantly transmitting vital information (Navarro 2008).
f you truly want to learn about body language and nonverbal communications and go beyond the tripe usually served on television, give yourself a treat and read Desmond Morris' trilogy on nonverbals (Manwatching, Bodywatching, Peoplewatching). Morris looks at humans with the critical eye of a scientist discovering a new species and explains why we do the things we do. He is an authority without equal when it comes to nonverbal communications and as a zoologist and anthropologist, will open your eyes as no other author or expert can, with perhaps the exception of Charles Darwin, who started it all one day while watching orangutans in the London zoo.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Higgs Boson: ‘Tantalizing Hints’ but No Direct Proof in Particle Search
Via New York Times -
Two teams of scientists sifting debris from high-energy proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, said Tuesday that they had recorded “tantalizing hints” — but only hints — of a long-sought subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, whose existence is a key to explaining why there is mass in the universe. It is likely to be another year, however, before they have enough data to say whether the elusive particle really exists, the scientists said.
The putative particle weighs in at about 125 billion electron volts, about 125 times heavier than a proton and 500,000 times heavier than an electron, according to one team of 3,000 physicists, known as Atlas, for the name of their particle detector. The other equally large team, known as C.M.S. — for their detector, the Compact Muon Solenoid — found bumps in their data corresponding to a mass of about 126 billion electron volts.
If the particle does exist at all, it must lie within the range of 115 to 127 billion electron volts, according to the combined measurements. “We cannot conclude anything at this stage,” said Fabiola Gianotti, the Atlas spokeswoman, adding, “Given the outstanding performance of the L.H.C. this year, we will not need to wait long for enough data and can look forward to resolving this puzzle in 2012.”
Over the last 20 years, suspicious bumps that might have been the Higgs have come and gone, and scientists cautioned that the same thing could happen again, but the fact that two rival teams using two different mammoth particle detectors had recorded similar results was considered to be good news. Physicists expect to have enough data to make the final call by the summer.
The Atlas result has a chance of less than one part in 5,000 of being due to a lucky background noise, which is impressive but far short of the standard for a “discovery,” which requires one in 3.5 million odds of being a random fluctuation. Showing off one striking bump in the data, Ms. Gianotti said, “If we are just being lucky, it will take a lot of data to kill it.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CERN Press Release
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/pressreleases/Releases2011/PR25.11E.html
Two teams of scientists sifting debris from high-energy proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, said Tuesday that they had recorded “tantalizing hints” — but only hints — of a long-sought subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, whose existence is a key to explaining why there is mass in the universe. It is likely to be another year, however, before they have enough data to say whether the elusive particle really exists, the scientists said.
The putative particle weighs in at about 125 billion electron volts, about 125 times heavier than a proton and 500,000 times heavier than an electron, according to one team of 3,000 physicists, known as Atlas, for the name of their particle detector. The other equally large team, known as C.M.S. — for their detector, the Compact Muon Solenoid — found bumps in their data corresponding to a mass of about 126 billion electron volts.
If the particle does exist at all, it must lie within the range of 115 to 127 billion electron volts, according to the combined measurements. “We cannot conclude anything at this stage,” said Fabiola Gianotti, the Atlas spokeswoman, adding, “Given the outstanding performance of the L.H.C. this year, we will not need to wait long for enough data and can look forward to resolving this puzzle in 2012.”
Over the last 20 years, suspicious bumps that might have been the Higgs have come and gone, and scientists cautioned that the same thing could happen again, but the fact that two rival teams using two different mammoth particle detectors had recorded similar results was considered to be good news. Physicists expect to have enough data to make the final call by the summer.
The Atlas result has a chance of less than one part in 5,000 of being due to a lucky background noise, which is impressive but far short of the standard for a “discovery,” which requires one in 3.5 million odds of being a random fluctuation. Showing off one striking bump in the data, Ms. Gianotti said, “If we are just being lucky, it will take a lot of data to kill it.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CERN Press Release
http://press.web.cern.ch/press/pressreleases/Releases2011/PR25.11E.html
The main conclusion is that the Standard Model Higgs boson, if it exists, is most likely to have a mass constrained to the range 116-130 GeV by the ATLAS experiment, and 115-127 GeV by CMS. Tantalising hints have been seen by both experiments in this mass region, but these are not yet strong enough to claim a discovery.
Higgs bosons, if they exist, are very short lived and can decay in many different ways. Discovery relies on observing the particles they decay into rather than the Higgs itself. Both ATLAS and CMS have analysed several decay channels, and the experiments see small excesses in the low mass region that has not yet been excluded.
Taken individually, none of these excesses is any more statistically significant than rolling a die and coming up with two sixes in a row. What is interesting is that there are multiple independent measurements pointing to the region of 124 to 126 GeV. It's far too early to say whether ATLAS and CMS have discovered the Higgs boson, but these updated results are generating a lot of interest in the particle physics community.
Monday, December 12, 2011
A Never Before Seen Optical Trick Creates Ultra-Secure Cash
Via Fast Company (Technology) -
If all goes as planned, the world's supply of cash will soon be secured with a nano-scale optical defense that is as secure as it is visually impressive. Using arrays of holes no bigger than a virus, scientists at Toronto-based Nanotech Security have created an atoms-thick display that can be read by humans or machines and that shines with the brightness of a typical LED despite using nothing but reflected light.
The technology was inspired by the Blue Morpho butterfly, whose brilliant blue coloration comes not from pigment but the way that tiny holes in its scales reflect light. But the tech, called Nano-Optic Technology for Enhanced Security (NOtES), is different from the Morpho butterfly's wings, and pretty much all other bio-inspired reflective optical technologies, in that it is both extraordinarily thin and functions even in dim light.
NOtES exploits an obscure area of physics to accomplish its bright and sharp display, known as plasmonics. Light waves interact with the array of nano-scale holes on a NOtES display--which are typically 100-200 nanometers in diameter--in a way that creates what are called "surface plasmons." In the words of the company, this means light "[collects] on the films surface and creates higher than expected optical outputs by creating an electromagnetic field, called surface plasmonic resonance."
If all goes as planned, the world's supply of cash will soon be secured with a nano-scale optical defense that is as secure as it is visually impressive. Using arrays of holes no bigger than a virus, scientists at Toronto-based Nanotech Security have created an atoms-thick display that can be read by humans or machines and that shines with the brightness of a typical LED despite using nothing but reflected light.
The technology was inspired by the Blue Morpho butterfly, whose brilliant blue coloration comes not from pigment but the way that tiny holes in its scales reflect light. But the tech, called Nano-Optic Technology for Enhanced Security (NOtES), is different from the Morpho butterfly's wings, and pretty much all other bio-inspired reflective optical technologies, in that it is both extraordinarily thin and functions even in dim light.
NOtES exploits an obscure area of physics to accomplish its bright and sharp display, known as plasmonics. Light waves interact with the array of nano-scale holes on a NOtES display--which are typically 100-200 nanometers in diameter--in a way that creates what are called "surface plasmons." In the words of the company, this means light "[collects] on the films surface and creates higher than expected optical outputs by creating an electromagnetic field, called surface plasmonic resonance."
Saturday, November 26, 2011
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Launched with New Curiosity Rover
Via MSNBC -
NASA has launched its next Mars rover, kicking off a long-awaited mission to investigate whether the Red Planet could ever have hosted microbial life. The car-size Curiosity rover blasted off atop its Atlas 5 rocket at 10:02 a.m. ET Saturday, streaking into a cloudy sky above Cape Canaveral Air Force Station here. The huge robot's next stop is Mars, though the 354-million-mile (570-million-kilometer) journey will take eight and a half months.
Joy Crisp a deputy project scientist for the rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., called the liftoff "spectacular." "This feels great," she said as she watched the rocket lift off from Cape Canaveral.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Homepage
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html
Video: MSL Launch
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=18895&media_id=122049781
Video: MSL Separation & Heading Toward Mars
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=18895&media_id=122049781
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can even follow the Mars Curiosity Rover on Twitter - @MarsCuriosity
NASA has launched its next Mars rover, kicking off a long-awaited mission to investigate whether the Red Planet could ever have hosted microbial life. The car-size Curiosity rover blasted off atop its Atlas 5 rocket at 10:02 a.m. ET Saturday, streaking into a cloudy sky above Cape Canaveral Air Force Station here. The huge robot's next stop is Mars, though the 354-million-mile (570-million-kilometer) journey will take eight and a half months.
Joy Crisp a deputy project scientist for the rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., called the liftoff "spectacular." "This feels great," she said as she watched the rocket lift off from Cape Canaveral.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Homepage
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html
Signal Acquired: Mars Science Laboratory Makes First Contact--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:00:43 AM EST
A signal from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, including the new Curiosity rover, has been received by officials on the ground. The spacecraft is flying free and headed for Mars after separation from the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that started it on its journey to the Red Planet. Liftoff was on time at 10:02 a.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Video: MSL Launch
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=18895&media_id=122049781
Video: MSL Separation & Heading Toward Mars
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=18895&media_id=122049781
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can even follow the Mars Curiosity Rover on Twitter - @MarsCuriosity
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Google Funded Project Confirms Vast Potential for Geothermal Energy
Via Forbes -
When people talk about alternative energy, they typically discuss the potential of wind and solar projects. Don’t get me wrong – there’s a vast potential in those technologies. But often left out of the discussion is the vast potential for geothermal energy – using the natural heat under the Earth’s surface to produce electricity. Harnessing that energy is one of the cleanest, sustainable ways to produce electricity, and it also has the benefit of being more space efficient than, say, a wind farm.
Of course, like any natural resource, the question becomes – where best to build geothermal plants? To answer that question, researchers at Southern Methodist University, funded by Google.org, compiled data from over 35,000 sites to build a complete picture of geothermal potential in the United States. Their findings? There is a vast potential for geothermal energy that can be tapped with technology existing today. You can check out the mapping for yourself on Google Earth by going here and downloading the info.
How much energy? you ask. Well, the researchers based their estimates on what current technology is able to extract – not any hypothetical future advances. Even so, it turns out that there is three million megawatts of potential geothermal energy below the surface of the United States. That’s ten times the energy of every coal plant in the United States online today.
That’s an enormous potential for much cleaner energy than what we use today.
When people talk about alternative energy, they typically discuss the potential of wind and solar projects. Don’t get me wrong – there’s a vast potential in those technologies. But often left out of the discussion is the vast potential for geothermal energy – using the natural heat under the Earth’s surface to produce electricity. Harnessing that energy is one of the cleanest, sustainable ways to produce electricity, and it also has the benefit of being more space efficient than, say, a wind farm.
Of course, like any natural resource, the question becomes – where best to build geothermal plants? To answer that question, researchers at Southern Methodist University, funded by Google.org, compiled data from over 35,000 sites to build a complete picture of geothermal potential in the United States. Their findings? There is a vast potential for geothermal energy that can be tapped with technology existing today. You can check out the mapping for yourself on Google Earth by going here and downloading the info.
How much energy? you ask. Well, the researchers based their estimates on what current technology is able to extract – not any hypothetical future advances. Even so, it turns out that there is three million megawatts of potential geothermal energy below the surface of the United States. That’s ten times the energy of every coal plant in the United States online today.
That’s an enormous potential for much cleaner energy than what we use today.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Speedy Neutrino Mystery Likely Solved, Relativity Safe After All
Via Dvice.com (Syfy Network) -
Those weird faster-than-light neutrinos that CERN thought they saw last month may have just gotten slowed down to a speed that'll keep them from completely destroying physics as we know it. In an ironic twist, the very theory that these neutrinos would have disproved may explain exactly what happened.
Back in September, physicists ran an experiment where they sent bunches of neutrinos from Switzerland to Italy and measured how long the particles took to make the trip. Over 15,000 experiments, the neutrinos consistently arrived about 60 nanoseconds early, which means 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Einstein's special theory of relativity says this should be impossible: nothing can travel faster than light.
The fact that the experiment gave the same result so many times suggested that one of two things was true: either the neutrinos really were speeding past light itself and heralding a new era of physics, or there was some fundamental flaw with the experiment, which was much more likely. It's now looking as though the faster-than-light result was a fundamental flaw, and appropriately enough, it's a flaw that actually helps to reinforce relativity rather than question it.
------------------------------------------------------------
Faster-than-Light Neutrino Puzzle Claimed Solved by Special Relativity
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27260/
Those weird faster-than-light neutrinos that CERN thought they saw last month may have just gotten slowed down to a speed that'll keep them from completely destroying physics as we know it. In an ironic twist, the very theory that these neutrinos would have disproved may explain exactly what happened.
Back in September, physicists ran an experiment where they sent bunches of neutrinos from Switzerland to Italy and measured how long the particles took to make the trip. Over 15,000 experiments, the neutrinos consistently arrived about 60 nanoseconds early, which means 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Einstein's special theory of relativity says this should be impossible: nothing can travel faster than light.
The fact that the experiment gave the same result so many times suggested that one of two things was true: either the neutrinos really were speeding past light itself and heralding a new era of physics, or there was some fundamental flaw with the experiment, which was much more likely. It's now looking as though the faster-than-light result was a fundamental flaw, and appropriately enough, it's a flaw that actually helps to reinforce relativity rather than question it.
------------------------------------------------------------
Faster-than-Light Neutrino Puzzle Claimed Solved by Special Relativity
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27260/
Friday, October 14, 2011
Austin's Power: The Texas Capital Is A Model For Clean Power Adoption
Via Fast Company -
How do you get people to use renewable energy when it’s more expensive than fossil-fueled power?
For answers to that question, you might want to look at places with high adoption rates for renewables. Austin, for instance.
This month, Texas’s capital became the largest municipality in the country to use only renewable energy. That's 100% of all of its energy. All the city’s public buildings, including its airport and water treatment plants, are now powered using wind from West Texas. In the last nine years, Austin Energy, the city’s publicly-owned utility, has produced more renewable energy than any in the country. And, the city is well on the way to sourcing 35% of all energy from renewables by 2020.
And yet Austin's consumers sometimes pay 15 to 25% more for electricity under the utility’s Greenchoice program than other customers. And the city government has paid $9 million a year extra to make the switch (from a total of bill of about $28 million). How come they’re willing to pay such a premium?
Well, not everyone has been that willing. Some voters and businesses have decried the move, saying it adds to living costs at a time when people can't afford expensive choices.
But Ed Clark, a spokesperson for Austin Energy, points to a long history of green activity, and the city’s high number of tech companies as supportive. “Austin has a tremendous emphasis on quality of life. There is not a single significant polluting industry in this entire community,” he says.
-------------------------------------------------------
Read more of the story @ Fast Compnay
How do you get people to use renewable energy when it’s more expensive than fossil-fueled power?
For answers to that question, you might want to look at places with high adoption rates for renewables. Austin, for instance.
This month, Texas’s capital became the largest municipality in the country to use only renewable energy. That's 100% of all of its energy. All the city’s public buildings, including its airport and water treatment plants, are now powered using wind from West Texas. In the last nine years, Austin Energy, the city’s publicly-owned utility, has produced more renewable energy than any in the country. And, the city is well on the way to sourcing 35% of all energy from renewables by 2020.
And yet Austin's consumers sometimes pay 15 to 25% more for electricity under the utility’s Greenchoice program than other customers. And the city government has paid $9 million a year extra to make the switch (from a total of bill of about $28 million). How come they’re willing to pay such a premium?
Well, not everyone has been that willing. Some voters and businesses have decried the move, saying it adds to living costs at a time when people can't afford expensive choices.
But Ed Clark, a spokesperson for Austin Energy, points to a long history of green activity, and the city’s high number of tech companies as supportive. “Austin has a tremendous emphasis on quality of life. There is not a single significant polluting industry in this entire community,” he says.
-------------------------------------------------------
Read more of the story @ Fast Compnay
Sunday, September 18, 2011
NRO's Newly Declassified GAMBIT and HEXAGON Programs
Via MSNBC -
Twenty-five years after their top-secret, Cold War-era missions ended, two clandestine American satellite programs were declassified Saturday, with the agency unveiling three of the United States' most closely guarded assets: the KH-7 GAMBIT, the KH-8 GAMBIT 3 and the KH-9 HEXAGON spy satellites.
The vintage National Reconnaissance Office (nro.gov) satellites were displayed to the public Saturday in a one-day-only exhibit here at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, VA. The three spacecraft are the centerpiece of the NRO's invitation-only 50th Anniversary Gala celebration held at the center later that evening.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NRO: GAMBIT and HEXAGON Programs
http://www.nro.gov/foia/declass/GAMBHEX.html
NRO: Declassified GAMBIT and HEXAGON Videos
http://www.nro.gov/foia/declass/GAMBHEX%20Videos.html
NRO: HEXAGON (KH-9) Fact Sheet
http://www.nro.gov/history/csnr/gambhex/Hex_fact_sheet.pdf
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After a late night on Friday and mid-morning breakfast with friends, I quickly made it over to Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, Va at about 2:30pm. Luckily, the tent containing the KH-9 HEXAGON was still open and accessible in the parking lot.
The "HEXAGON - Sentinel of Liberty" video (link above) was playing in one corner of the tent on a big LCD TV. People seemed to get a kick out of the redacted photos and at least one cut which had redacted sound - most likely protecting the still classified program name of a re-entry vehicle. A good overview of the KH-9 HEXAGON satellite (and the various contractors used) is shown starting at 19:35 and the redacted program name (re-entry vehicle) is at 22:50. The HEXAGON's mapping camera is discussed at 30:30, where William P. Durbin states that the camera produced "coverage of high-mapping quality" of ~98% of the Eurasian land mass, 75% to 80% of Africa, and large southern portions of South America during the lifetime of the system.
Since I was rushing, I did not have time to run home and grab my nice camera, so I had to use my phone....
Twenty-five years after their top-secret, Cold War-era missions ended, two clandestine American satellite programs were declassified Saturday, with the agency unveiling three of the United States' most closely guarded assets: the KH-7 GAMBIT, the KH-8 GAMBIT 3 and the KH-9 HEXAGON spy satellites.
The vintage National Reconnaissance Office (nro.gov) satellites were displayed to the public Saturday in a one-day-only exhibit here at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, VA. The three spacecraft are the centerpiece of the NRO's invitation-only 50th Anniversary Gala celebration held at the center later that evening.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NRO: GAMBIT and HEXAGON Programs
http://www.nro.gov/foia/declass/GAMBHEX.html
NRO: Declassified GAMBIT and HEXAGON Videos
http://www.nro.gov/foia/declass/GAMBHEX%20Videos.html
NRO: HEXAGON (KH-9) Fact Sheet
http://www.nro.gov/history/csnr/gambhex/Hex_fact_sheet.pdf
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After a late night on Friday and mid-morning breakfast with friends, I quickly made it over to Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, Va at about 2:30pm. Luckily, the tent containing the KH-9 HEXAGON was still open and accessible in the parking lot.
The "HEXAGON - Sentinel of Liberty" video (link above) was playing in one corner of the tent on a big LCD TV. People seemed to get a kick out of the redacted photos and at least one cut which had redacted sound - most likely protecting the still classified program name of a re-entry vehicle. A good overview of the KH-9 HEXAGON satellite (and the various contractors used) is shown starting at 19:35 and the redacted program name (re-entry vehicle) is at 22:50. The HEXAGON's mapping camera is discussed at 30:30, where William P. Durbin states that the camera produced "coverage of high-mapping quality" of ~98% of the Eurasian land mass, 75% to 80% of Africa, and large southern portions of South America during the lifetime of the system.
Since I was rushing, I did not have time to run home and grab my nice camera, so I had to use my phone....
Monday, September 12, 2011
A New and Improved Moore's Law
Via MIT Technology Review -
Researchers have, for the first time, shown that the energy efficiency of computers doubles roughly every 18 months.
The conclusion, backed up by six decades of data, mirrors Moore's law, the observation from Intel founder Gordon Moore that computer processing power doubles about every 18 months. But the power-consumption trend might have even greater relevance than Moore's law as battery-powered devices—phones, tablets, and sensors—proliferate.
"The idea is that at a fixed computing load, the amount of battery you need will fall by a factor of two every year and a half," says Jonathan Koomey, consulting professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and lead author of the study. More mobile computing and sensing applications become possible, Koomey says, as energy efficiency continues its steady improvement.
The research, conducted in collaboration with Intel and Microsoft, examined peak power consumption of electronic computing devices since the construction of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) in 1956. The first general purpose computer, the ENIAC was used to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. Army, and it could perform a few hundred calculations per second. It used vacuum tubes rather than transistors, took up 1,800 square feet, and consumed 150 kilowatts of power.
Even before the advent of discrete transistors, Koomey says, energy efficiency doubled every 18 months. "This is a fundamental characteristic of information technology that uses electrons for switching," he says. "It's not just a function of the components on a chip."
[...]
In July, Koomey released a report that showed, among other findings, that the electricity used in data centers worldwide increased by about 56 percent from 2005 to 2010—a much lower rate than the doubling that was observed from 2000 to 2005.
While better energy efficiency played a part in this change, the total electricity used in data centers was less than the forecast for 2010 in part because fewer new servers were installed than expected due to technologies such as virtualization, which allowed existing systems to run more programs simultaneously. Koomey notes that data center computers rarely run at peak power. Most computers are, in fact, "terribly underutilized," he says.
[...]
"Everyone's familiar with Moore's law and the remarkable improvements in the power of computers, and that's obviously important," says Erik Brynjolfsson, professor of the Sloan School of Management at MIT. But people are paying more attention to the battery life of their electronics as well as how fast they can run. "I think that's more and more the dimension that matters to consumers," Brynjolfsson says. "And in a sense, 'Koomey's law,' this trend of power consumption, is beginning to eclipse Moore's law for what matters to consumers in a lot of applications."
To Koomey, the most interesting aspect of the trend is thinking about the possibilities for computing. The theoretical limits are still so far away, he says. In 1985, the physicist Richard Feynman analyzed the electricity needs for computers and estimated that efficiency could theoretically improve by a factor of 100 billion before it hit a limit, excluding new technologies such as quantum computing. Since then, efficiency improvements have been about 40,000. "There's so far to go," says Koomey. "It's only limited by our cleverness, not the physics."
Researchers have, for the first time, shown that the energy efficiency of computers doubles roughly every 18 months.
The conclusion, backed up by six decades of data, mirrors Moore's law, the observation from Intel founder Gordon Moore that computer processing power doubles about every 18 months. But the power-consumption trend might have even greater relevance than Moore's law as battery-powered devices—phones, tablets, and sensors—proliferate.
"The idea is that at a fixed computing load, the amount of battery you need will fall by a factor of two every year and a half," says Jonathan Koomey, consulting professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and lead author of the study. More mobile computing and sensing applications become possible, Koomey says, as energy efficiency continues its steady improvement.
The research, conducted in collaboration with Intel and Microsoft, examined peak power consumption of electronic computing devices since the construction of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) in 1956. The first general purpose computer, the ENIAC was used to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. Army, and it could perform a few hundred calculations per second. It used vacuum tubes rather than transistors, took up 1,800 square feet, and consumed 150 kilowatts of power.
Even before the advent of discrete transistors, Koomey says, energy efficiency doubled every 18 months. "This is a fundamental characteristic of information technology that uses electrons for switching," he says. "It's not just a function of the components on a chip."
[...]
In July, Koomey released a report that showed, among other findings, that the electricity used in data centers worldwide increased by about 56 percent from 2005 to 2010—a much lower rate than the doubling that was observed from 2000 to 2005.
While better energy efficiency played a part in this change, the total electricity used in data centers was less than the forecast for 2010 in part because fewer new servers were installed than expected due to technologies such as virtualization, which allowed existing systems to run more programs simultaneously. Koomey notes that data center computers rarely run at peak power. Most computers are, in fact, "terribly underutilized," he says.
[...]
"Everyone's familiar with Moore's law and the remarkable improvements in the power of computers, and that's obviously important," says Erik Brynjolfsson, professor of the Sloan School of Management at MIT. But people are paying more attention to the battery life of their electronics as well as how fast they can run. "I think that's more and more the dimension that matters to consumers," Brynjolfsson says. "And in a sense, 'Koomey's law,' this trend of power consumption, is beginning to eclipse Moore's law for what matters to consumers in a lot of applications."
To Koomey, the most interesting aspect of the trend is thinking about the possibilities for computing. The theoretical limits are still so far away, he says. In 1985, the physicist Richard Feynman analyzed the electricity needs for computers and estimated that efficiency could theoretically improve by a factor of 100 billion before it hit a limit, excluding new technologies such as quantum computing. Since then, efficiency improvements have been about 40,000. "There's so far to go," says Koomey. "It's only limited by our cleverness, not the physics."
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Mars Rover Discovery Elates NASA
Via New York Times -
It has been driving on and off for more than seven years, but now it has reached its new destination. Opportunity, a small exploratory rover that landed on Mars in 2004, has trundled to a crater called Endeavour.
And the first rock it looked at has already opened a new chapter in the study of Mars, NASA scientists said Thursday. On a telephone news conference, mission scientists giddily described that rock: full of zinc and bromine, elements that, at least for rocks on Earth, would be suggestive of geology formed with heat and water.
“This rock doesn’t look like anything else we’ve seen before” on Mars, said Steven W. Squyres, a professor of astronomy at Cornell and principal investigator of the rover mission.
The rim of Endeavour — a 14-mile-wide depression that was carved out by an impact long ago — consists of rocks from an earlier geological era that the impact lifted up from below. If the aging rover holds up, it could spend years examining the new terrain, giving NASA scientists ample grist for discovery.
Scientists are most interested in a close-up look at clay deposits that have been detected from orbit by another craft — NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — but that Opportunity has yet to find. Clay forms in the presence of liquid water, and the deposits suggest a warmer, wetter period in Mars’s past that may have offered friendlier conditions for life.
“This is a brand new mission, brand new landing site for all intents and purposes, geologically,” Dr. Squyres said. “A whole new set of puzzles for us to go off and solve.”
Opportunity and a twin rover, Spirit, arrived on Mars in January 2004, landing on different sides of the planet with the goal of exploring the surface for signs of past water. Spirit got its wheels stuck in a sand trap in May 2009 and could not get its solar panels pointed toward the sun; unable to generate enough electricity, it stopped communicating in March 2010 and is not expected to be heard from again.
But Opportunity, about the size of a golf cart, continues rolling on. It has now driven 20 miles. It had been designed to travel about two-thirds of a mile.
[...]
Opportunity is no longer in pristine condition, however. It is now usually driven backward to even out the wear on the gears. One of the joints on the robotic arm is stuck. Care is taken to minimize the movement of the camera to avoid wearing out the motor.
“All in all, we have a very senior rover that’s showing her age,” said John Callas, the project manager. “She has some arthritis and other issues, but in general, she’s in good health.”
Both Spirit and Opportunity have discovered evidence of liquid water, albeit water that is highly acidic, like sulfuric acid, that made parts of ancient Mars potentially habitable, at least intermittently.
[...]
The two rovers were not designed to look for signs of life, past or present. Even NASA’s next Mars mission, which involves an S.U.V.-size rover named Curiosity that is scheduled for launching later this year, does not carry any life-detection experiments. But it will be able to identify some of the molecular building blocks for life.
It has been driving on and off for more than seven years, but now it has reached its new destination. Opportunity, a small exploratory rover that landed on Mars in 2004, has trundled to a crater called Endeavour.
And the first rock it looked at has already opened a new chapter in the study of Mars, NASA scientists said Thursday. On a telephone news conference, mission scientists giddily described that rock: full of zinc and bromine, elements that, at least for rocks on Earth, would be suggestive of geology formed with heat and water.
“This rock doesn’t look like anything else we’ve seen before” on Mars, said Steven W. Squyres, a professor of astronomy at Cornell and principal investigator of the rover mission.
The rim of Endeavour — a 14-mile-wide depression that was carved out by an impact long ago — consists of rocks from an earlier geological era that the impact lifted up from below. If the aging rover holds up, it could spend years examining the new terrain, giving NASA scientists ample grist for discovery.
Scientists are most interested in a close-up look at clay deposits that have been detected from orbit by another craft — NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — but that Opportunity has yet to find. Clay forms in the presence of liquid water, and the deposits suggest a warmer, wetter period in Mars’s past that may have offered friendlier conditions for life.
“This is a brand new mission, brand new landing site for all intents and purposes, geologically,” Dr. Squyres said. “A whole new set of puzzles for us to go off and solve.”
Opportunity and a twin rover, Spirit, arrived on Mars in January 2004, landing on different sides of the planet with the goal of exploring the surface for signs of past water. Spirit got its wheels stuck in a sand trap in May 2009 and could not get its solar panels pointed toward the sun; unable to generate enough electricity, it stopped communicating in March 2010 and is not expected to be heard from again.
But Opportunity, about the size of a golf cart, continues rolling on. It has now driven 20 miles. It had been designed to travel about two-thirds of a mile.
[...]
Opportunity is no longer in pristine condition, however. It is now usually driven backward to even out the wear on the gears. One of the joints on the robotic arm is stuck. Care is taken to minimize the movement of the camera to avoid wearing out the motor.
“All in all, we have a very senior rover that’s showing her age,” said John Callas, the project manager. “She has some arthritis and other issues, but in general, she’s in good health.”
Both Spirit and Opportunity have discovered evidence of liquid water, albeit water that is highly acidic, like sulfuric acid, that made parts of ancient Mars potentially habitable, at least intermittently.
[...]
The two rovers were not designed to look for signs of life, past or present. Even NASA’s next Mars mission, which involves an S.U.V.-size rover named Curiosity that is scheduled for launching later this year, does not carry any life-detection experiments. But it will be able to identify some of the molecular building blocks for life.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
IBM's New Chips Compute More Like We Do
Via MIT Technology Review -
A microchip with about as much brain power as a garden worm might not seem very impressive, compared with the blindingly fast chips in modern personal computers. But a new microchip made by researchers at IBM represents a landmark. Unlike an ordinary chip, it mimics the functioning of a biological brain—a feat that could open new possibilities in computation.
[...]
The IBM researchers have built and tested two demonstration chips that store and process information in a way that mimics a natural nervous system. The company says these early chips could be the building blocks for something much more ambitious: a computer the size of a shoebox that has about half the complexity of a human brain and consumes just one kilowatt of power. This is being developed with $21 million in funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, in collaboration with several universities.
The company's researchers and their academic collaborators will present two papers next month at the Custom Integrated Circuits conference in San Jose, California, showing that the chip designs have very low power requirements and work with neural-circuit-mimicking software. In one experiment, a "neural core," as the new chips are called, learns to play Pong; in another, it learns to navigate a car on a simple race track; and in another it learns to recognize images.
[...]
So far the IBM team has demonstrated only very basic software on these chips, but they have laid the foundation for running more complex software on simpler computers than has been possible in the past. In 2009, Modha's group ran simulations of a neural network as complex as a cat's brain on a supercomputer. "They cut their teeth on massive simulations," says Michael Arbib, director of the USC Brain Project. "Now they've come up with chips that may make it easier to [run cognitive computing software]—but they haven't proven this yet," he says.
Modha's group started by modeling a system of mouse-like complexity, then worked up to a rat, a cat, and finally a monkey. Each time they had to switch to a more powerful supercomputer. And they were unable to run the simulations in real time, because of the separation between memory and processor that the new chip designs are intended to overcome. The new hardware should run this software faster, using less energy, and in a smaller space. "Our eventual goal is a human-scale cognitive-computing system," Modha says.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 1 = Run complex simulations with best-of-breed hardware
Step 2 = Learn lessons from completed simulations > knowledge
Step 3 = Identify hardware limitations & methods to improve process > knowledge
Step 3 = Design & implement knowledge / identified improvements into new hardware
Step 4 = Run [more] complex simulations with [newly designed] best-of-breed hardware
Step 5 = Goto Step 2
A microchip with about as much brain power as a garden worm might not seem very impressive, compared with the blindingly fast chips in modern personal computers. But a new microchip made by researchers at IBM represents a landmark. Unlike an ordinary chip, it mimics the functioning of a biological brain—a feat that could open new possibilities in computation.
[...]
The IBM researchers have built and tested two demonstration chips that store and process information in a way that mimics a natural nervous system. The company says these early chips could be the building blocks for something much more ambitious: a computer the size of a shoebox that has about half the complexity of a human brain and consumes just one kilowatt of power. This is being developed with $21 million in funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, in collaboration with several universities.
The company's researchers and their academic collaborators will present two papers next month at the Custom Integrated Circuits conference in San Jose, California, showing that the chip designs have very low power requirements and work with neural-circuit-mimicking software. In one experiment, a "neural core," as the new chips are called, learns to play Pong; in another, it learns to navigate a car on a simple race track; and in another it learns to recognize images.
[...]
So far the IBM team has demonstrated only very basic software on these chips, but they have laid the foundation for running more complex software on simpler computers than has been possible in the past. In 2009, Modha's group ran simulations of a neural network as complex as a cat's brain on a supercomputer. "They cut their teeth on massive simulations," says Michael Arbib, director of the USC Brain Project. "Now they've come up with chips that may make it easier to [run cognitive computing software]—but they haven't proven this yet," he says.
Modha's group started by modeling a system of mouse-like complexity, then worked up to a rat, a cat, and finally a monkey. Each time they had to switch to a more powerful supercomputer. And they were unable to run the simulations in real time, because of the separation between memory and processor that the new chip designs are intended to overcome. The new hardware should run this software faster, using less energy, and in a smaller space. "Our eventual goal is a human-scale cognitive-computing system," Modha says.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 1 = Run complex simulations with best-of-breed hardware
Step 2 = Learn lessons from completed simulations > knowledge
Step 3 = Identify hardware limitations & methods to improve process > knowledge
Step 3 = Design & implement knowledge / identified improvements into new hardware
Step 4 = Run [more] complex simulations with [newly designed] best-of-breed hardware
Step 5 = Goto Step 2
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
TWR: Advanced Reactor Gets Closer to Reality
Via MIT Technology Review -
Terrapower, a startup funded in part by Nathan Myhrvold and Bill Gates, is moving closer to building a new type of nuclear reactor called a traveling wave reactor that runs on an abundant form of uranium. The company sees it as a possible alternative to fusion reactors, which are also valued for their potential to produce power from a nearly inexhaustible source of fuel.
Work on Terrapower's reactor design began in 2006. Since then, the company has changed its original design to make the reactor look more like a conventional one. The changes would make the reactor easier to engineer and build. The company has also calculated precise dimensions and performance parameters for the reactor. Terrapower expects to begin construction of a 100-megawatt demonstration plant in 2016 and start it up in 2020. It's working with a consortium of national labs, universities, and corporations to overcome the primary technical challenge of the new reactor: developing new materials that can withstand use in the reactor core for decades at a time. It has yet to secure a site for an experimental plant—or the funding to build it.
The reactor is designed to be safer than conventional nuclear reactors because it doesn't require electricity to run cooling systems to prevent a meltdown. But the new reactor doesn't solve what is probably the biggest problem facing nuclear power today: the high cost of building them. John Gilleland, Terrapower's CEO, says the company expects the reactors to cost about as much to build as conventional ones, "but the jury is still not in on that."
Conventional reactors generate heat and electricity as a result of the fission of a rare form of uranium—uranium 235. In a traveling wave reactor, a small amount of uranium 235 is used to start up the reactor. The neutrons the reactor produces then convert the far more abundant uranium 238 into plutonium 239, a fissile material that can generate the heat needed for nuclear power. Uranium 238 is readily available in part because it's a waste product of the enrichment processes used to make conventional nuclear fuel. It may also be affordable in the future to extract uranium 238 from seawater if demand for nuclear fuel is high. Terrapower says there's enough of this fuel to supply the world with power for a million years, even if everyone were to use as much power as people in the United States do.
[...]
One challenge with this design is ensuring that the steel cladding that contains the fuel in the fuel rods can survive exposure to decades of radiation. Current materials aren't good enough: for one thing, they start to swell, which would close off the spaces between the fuel rods through which coolant is supposed to flow. To last 40 years, the materials need to be made two to three times more durable, Terrapower says.
[...]
Terrapower has also developed designs for a passive cooling system. Like many other advanced reactor designs, Terrapower's uses molten sodium metal as the coolant. Sodium takes much longer to boil than water, which gives plant operators more time to respond to accidents. It would also be possible to use natural convection in the event of a power outage—coolant wouldn't have to be continuously pumped into the reactor, as was the case at Fukushima. One danger of using sodium, however, is that it reacts violently when it's exposed to air or water.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_wave_reactor
Terrapower, a startup funded in part by Nathan Myhrvold and Bill Gates, is moving closer to building a new type of nuclear reactor called a traveling wave reactor that runs on an abundant form of uranium. The company sees it as a possible alternative to fusion reactors, which are also valued for their potential to produce power from a nearly inexhaustible source of fuel.
Work on Terrapower's reactor design began in 2006. Since then, the company has changed its original design to make the reactor look more like a conventional one. The changes would make the reactor easier to engineer and build. The company has also calculated precise dimensions and performance parameters for the reactor. Terrapower expects to begin construction of a 100-megawatt demonstration plant in 2016 and start it up in 2020. It's working with a consortium of national labs, universities, and corporations to overcome the primary technical challenge of the new reactor: developing new materials that can withstand use in the reactor core for decades at a time. It has yet to secure a site for an experimental plant—or the funding to build it.
The reactor is designed to be safer than conventional nuclear reactors because it doesn't require electricity to run cooling systems to prevent a meltdown. But the new reactor doesn't solve what is probably the biggest problem facing nuclear power today: the high cost of building them. John Gilleland, Terrapower's CEO, says the company expects the reactors to cost about as much to build as conventional ones, "but the jury is still not in on that."
Conventional reactors generate heat and electricity as a result of the fission of a rare form of uranium—uranium 235. In a traveling wave reactor, a small amount of uranium 235 is used to start up the reactor. The neutrons the reactor produces then convert the far more abundant uranium 238 into plutonium 239, a fissile material that can generate the heat needed for nuclear power. Uranium 238 is readily available in part because it's a waste product of the enrichment processes used to make conventional nuclear fuel. It may also be affordable in the future to extract uranium 238 from seawater if demand for nuclear fuel is high. Terrapower says there's enough of this fuel to supply the world with power for a million years, even if everyone were to use as much power as people in the United States do.
[...]
One challenge with this design is ensuring that the steel cladding that contains the fuel in the fuel rods can survive exposure to decades of radiation. Current materials aren't good enough: for one thing, they start to swell, which would close off the spaces between the fuel rods through which coolant is supposed to flow. To last 40 years, the materials need to be made two to three times more durable, Terrapower says.
[...]
Terrapower has also developed designs for a passive cooling system. Like many other advanced reactor designs, Terrapower's uses molten sodium metal as the coolant. Sodium takes much longer to boil than water, which gives plant operators more time to respond to accidents. It would also be possible to use natural convection in the event of a power outage—coolant wouldn't have to be continuously pumped into the reactor, as was the case at Fukushima. One danger of using sodium, however, is that it reacts violently when it's exposed to air or water.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_wave_reactor
TWRs differ from other kinds of fast-neutron and breeder reactors in their ability to, once started, reach a state whereafter they can achieve very high fuel utilization while using no enriched uranium and no reprocessing, instead burning fuel made from depleted uranium, natural uranium, thorium, spent fuel removed from light water reactors, or some combination of these materials.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Internet's Memory Effects Quantified in Computer Study
Via BBC (Science and Environment) -
Computers and the internet are changing the nature of our memory, research in the journal Science suggests.
Psychology experiments showed that people presented with difficult questions began to think of computers.
When participants knew that facts would be available on a computer later, they had poor recall of answers but enhanced recall of where they were stored.
The researchers say the internet acts as a "transactive memory" that we depend upon to remember for us.
Lead author Betsy Sparrow of Columbia University said that transactive memory "is an idea that there are external memory sources - really storage places that exist in other people".
"There are people who are experts in certain things and we allow them to be, [to] make them responsible for certain kinds of information," she explained to BBC News.
Co-author of the paper Daniel Wegner, now at Harvard University, first proposed the transactive memory concept in a book chapter titled Cognitive Interdependence in Close Relationships, finding that long-term couples relied on each other to act as one another's memory banks.
"I really think the internet has become a form of this transactive memory, and I wanted to test it," said Dr Sparrow.
[...]
"This suggests that for the things we can find online, we tend keep it online as far as memory is concerned - we keep it externally stored," Dr Sparrow said.
She explained that the propensity of participants to remember the location of the information, rather than the information itself, is a sign that people are not becoming less able to remember things, but simply organising vast amounts of available information in a more accessible way.
"I don't think Google is making us stupid - we're just changing the way that we're remembering things... If you can find stuff online even while you're walking down the street these days, then the skill to have, the thing to remember, is where to go to find the information. It's just like it would be with people - the skill to have is to remember who to go see about [particular topics]."
Computers and the internet are changing the nature of our memory, research in the journal Science suggests.
Psychology experiments showed that people presented with difficult questions began to think of computers.
When participants knew that facts would be available on a computer later, they had poor recall of answers but enhanced recall of where they were stored.
The researchers say the internet acts as a "transactive memory" that we depend upon to remember for us.
Lead author Betsy Sparrow of Columbia University said that transactive memory "is an idea that there are external memory sources - really storage places that exist in other people".
"There are people who are experts in certain things and we allow them to be, [to] make them responsible for certain kinds of information," she explained to BBC News.
Co-author of the paper Daniel Wegner, now at Harvard University, first proposed the transactive memory concept in a book chapter titled Cognitive Interdependence in Close Relationships, finding that long-term couples relied on each other to act as one another's memory banks.
"I really think the internet has become a form of this transactive memory, and I wanted to test it," said Dr Sparrow.
[...]
"This suggests that for the things we can find online, we tend keep it online as far as memory is concerned - we keep it externally stored," Dr Sparrow said.
She explained that the propensity of participants to remember the location of the information, rather than the information itself, is a sign that people are not becoming less able to remember things, but simply organising vast amounts of available information in a more accessible way.
"I don't think Google is making us stupid - we're just changing the way that we're remembering things... If you can find stuff online even while you're walking down the street these days, then the skill to have, the thing to remember, is where to go to find the information. It's just like it would be with people - the skill to have is to remember who to go see about [particular topics]."
Saturday, July 9, 2011
STS-135: The Last Shuttle Mission
This image of space shuttle Atlantis was taken shortly after the rotating service structure was rolled back at Launch Pad 39A, Thursday, July 7, 2011.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NASA's last-ever Space Shuttle mission is now being carried live on Soma.fm's Mission Control - Live Space Shuttle STS-135 mission audio mixed with ambient & space music.
And be sure to check out NASA TV for live video coverage.
For even more geekness, users of Google Earth can track the shuttle in obit in real-time!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
NASA Says Goodbye to Spirit Mars Rover
Via discovermagazine.com (Bad Astronomy Blog) -
After nearly a year of trying to reestablish communications with the Spirit Mars rover, NASA has decided to suspend efforts. For all intent and purpose, Spirit is dead.
The rover sent its last message in March of 2010, and it was hoped that as Martian summer dawned at Spirit’s location, the solar cells might absorb enough energy to reawaken the plucky explorer. However, repeated attempts over several months have yielded no joy. And now, just months away from the launch of the much more ambitious "Curiosity" Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) — a golfcart-sized rover with better range and instrumentation than any previous mission — communications satellites and Mars orbiters NASA uses to work with Spirit need to be transitioned to MSL.
This makes me sad, of course: Spirit was an amazing machine. But I have to admit, that sadness is offset by the incredible accomplishments of the rover. Designed to last for three months, Spirit kept on roving for over six years. Imagine having a car, a computer, that lasted for 25 times the warranty!
Or living to be 1500 years old. How much could you accomplish in that time?
Spirit’s made good use of its lifespan.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sad to see Spirit go, but its twin, Opportunity, continues active exploration of Mars - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/mission/status.html
R.I.P Spirit, Long Live Opportunity!
After nearly a year of trying to reestablish communications with the Spirit Mars rover, NASA has decided to suspend efforts. For all intent and purpose, Spirit is dead.
The rover sent its last message in March of 2010, and it was hoped that as Martian summer dawned at Spirit’s location, the solar cells might absorb enough energy to reawaken the plucky explorer. However, repeated attempts over several months have yielded no joy. And now, just months away from the launch of the much more ambitious "Curiosity" Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) — a golfcart-sized rover with better range and instrumentation than any previous mission — communications satellites and Mars orbiters NASA uses to work with Spirit need to be transitioned to MSL.
This makes me sad, of course: Spirit was an amazing machine. But I have to admit, that sadness is offset by the incredible accomplishments of the rover. Designed to last for three months, Spirit kept on roving for over six years. Imagine having a car, a computer, that lasted for 25 times the warranty!
Or living to be 1500 years old. How much could you accomplish in that time?
Spirit’s made good use of its lifespan.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sad to see Spirit go, but its twin, Opportunity, continues active exploration of Mars - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/mission/status.html
R.I.P Spirit, Long Live Opportunity!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Multiverse = Many Worlds, Say Physicists
Via The Physics arXiv Blog (MIT Technology Review) -
The many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is the idea that all possible alternate histories of the universe actually exist. At every point in time, the universe splits into a multitude of existences in which every possible outcome of each quantum process actually happens.
So in this universe you are sitting in front of your computer reading this story, in another you are reading a different story, in yet another you are about to be run over by a truck. In many, you don't exist at all.
This implies that there are an infinite number of universes, or at least a very large number of them.
That's weird but it is a small price to pay, say quantum physicists, for the sanity the many worlds interpretation brings to the otherwise crazy notion of quantum mechanics. The reason many physicists love the many worlds idea is that it explains away all the strange paradoxes of quantum mechanics.
[...]
Let's put the many world interpretation aside for a moment and look at another strange idea in modern physics. This is the idea that our universe was born along with a large, possibly infinite, number of other universes. So our cosmos is just one tiny corner of a much larger multiverse.
Today, Leonard Susskind at Stanford University in Palo Alto and Raphael Bousso at the University of California, Berkeley, put forward the idea that the multiverse and the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics are formally equivalent.
But there is a caveat. The equivalence only holds if both quantum mechanics and the multiverse take special forms.
[...]
At one time, such an idea would have been heresy. But in theory, it could be done if an observer could perform an infinite number of experiments and observe the outcome of them all.
But that's impossible, right? Nobody can do an infinite number of experiments. Relativity places an important practical limit on this because some experiments would fall outside the causal horizon of others. And that would mean that they couldn't all be observed.
But Susskind and Bousso say there is a special formulation of the universe in which this is possible. This is known as the supersymmetric multiverse with vanishing cosmological constant.
If the universe takes this form, then it is possible to carry out an infinite number of experiments within the causal horizon of each other.
Now here's the key point: this is exactly what happens in the many worlds interpretation. At each instant in time, an infinite (or very large) number of experiments take place within the causal horizon of each other. As observers, we are capable of seeing the outcome of any of these experiments but we actually follow only one.
Bousso and Susskind argue that since the many worlds interpretation is possible only in their supersymmetric multiverse, they must be equivalent. "We argue that the global multiverse is a representation of the many-worlds in a single geometry," they say.
They call this new idea the multiverse interpretation of quantum mechanics.
[...]
But what this idea lacks is a testable prediction that would help physicists distinguish it experimentally from other theories of the universe. And without this crucial element, the multiverse interpretation of quantum mechanics is little more than philosophy.
That may not worry too many physicists, since few of the other interpretations of quantum mechanics have testable predictions either (that's why they're called interpretations).
Still, what this new approach does have is a satisfying simplicity-- it's neat and elegant that the many worlds and the multiverse are equivalent. William of Ockham would certainly be pleased and no doubt, many modern physicists will be too.
The many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is the idea that all possible alternate histories of the universe actually exist. At every point in time, the universe splits into a multitude of existences in which every possible outcome of each quantum process actually happens.
So in this universe you are sitting in front of your computer reading this story, in another you are reading a different story, in yet another you are about to be run over by a truck. In many, you don't exist at all.
This implies that there are an infinite number of universes, or at least a very large number of them.
That's weird but it is a small price to pay, say quantum physicists, for the sanity the many worlds interpretation brings to the otherwise crazy notion of quantum mechanics. The reason many physicists love the many worlds idea is that it explains away all the strange paradoxes of quantum mechanics.
[...]
Let's put the many world interpretation aside for a moment and look at another strange idea in modern physics. This is the idea that our universe was born along with a large, possibly infinite, number of other universes. So our cosmos is just one tiny corner of a much larger multiverse.
Today, Leonard Susskind at Stanford University in Palo Alto and Raphael Bousso at the University of California, Berkeley, put forward the idea that the multiverse and the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics are formally equivalent.
But there is a caveat. The equivalence only holds if both quantum mechanics and the multiverse take special forms.
[...]
At one time, such an idea would have been heresy. But in theory, it could be done if an observer could perform an infinite number of experiments and observe the outcome of them all.
But that's impossible, right? Nobody can do an infinite number of experiments. Relativity places an important practical limit on this because some experiments would fall outside the causal horizon of others. And that would mean that they couldn't all be observed.
But Susskind and Bousso say there is a special formulation of the universe in which this is possible. This is known as the supersymmetric multiverse with vanishing cosmological constant.
If the universe takes this form, then it is possible to carry out an infinite number of experiments within the causal horizon of each other.
Now here's the key point: this is exactly what happens in the many worlds interpretation. At each instant in time, an infinite (or very large) number of experiments take place within the causal horizon of each other. As observers, we are capable of seeing the outcome of any of these experiments but we actually follow only one.
Bousso and Susskind argue that since the many worlds interpretation is possible only in their supersymmetric multiverse, they must be equivalent. "We argue that the global multiverse is a representation of the many-worlds in a single geometry," they say.
They call this new idea the multiverse interpretation of quantum mechanics.
[...]
But what this idea lacks is a testable prediction that would help physicists distinguish it experimentally from other theories of the universe. And without this crucial element, the multiverse interpretation of quantum mechanics is little more than philosophy.
That may not worry too many physicists, since few of the other interpretations of quantum mechanics have testable predictions either (that's why they're called interpretations).
Still, what this new approach does have is a satisfying simplicity-- it's neat and elegant that the many worlds and the multiverse are equivalent. William of Ockham would certainly be pleased and no doubt, many modern physicists will be too.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Intel's FINFET Transistors Increase Speed by Building Upward
Via NYTimes.com -
Intel plans to announce Wednesday that by building a key portion of a microprocessor’s transistor above the chip’s surface, it has found a way to make smaller, faster and lower-power computer chips.
Intel intends to break with the basic design of the so-called planar transistor that has remained a constant in the chip industry since 1959 when Robert Noyce, Intel’s co-founder, and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments independently invented the first integrated circuits.
Since the advent of the microchip, the transistor, which is the electronic switch that is the basic building block of the information age, has been manufactured in just two dimensions.
But now, when the space between the billions of the tiny electronic switches on the flat surface of a computer chip is measured in the width of just dozens of atoms, designers are increasingly turning to the third dimension to find more room.
The company has already begun making its microprocessors using this new 3-D transistor design called a FINFET (for fin field-effect transistor), which is based around a remarkably small pillar, or fin, of silicon that rises above the surface of the chip. Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., plans to enter general production based on the new technology some time later this year.
Although the company will not give technical details about its new process in its Wednesday announcement, it said that it expected to be able to make chips that run as much as 37 percent faster in low-voltage applications and it would be able to cut power consumption as much as 50 percent.
Intel plans to announce Wednesday that by building a key portion of a microprocessor’s transistor above the chip’s surface, it has found a way to make smaller, faster and lower-power computer chips.
Intel intends to break with the basic design of the so-called planar transistor that has remained a constant in the chip industry since 1959 when Robert Noyce, Intel’s co-founder, and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments independently invented the first integrated circuits.
Since the advent of the microchip, the transistor, which is the electronic switch that is the basic building block of the information age, has been manufactured in just two dimensions.
But now, when the space between the billions of the tiny electronic switches on the flat surface of a computer chip is measured in the width of just dozens of atoms, designers are increasingly turning to the third dimension to find more room.
The company has already begun making its microprocessors using this new 3-D transistor design called a FINFET (for fin field-effect transistor), which is based around a remarkably small pillar, or fin, of silicon that rises above the surface of the chip. Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., plans to enter general production based on the new technology some time later this year.
Although the company will not give technical details about its new process in its Wednesday announcement, it said that it expected to be able to make chips that run as much as 37 percent faster in low-voltage applications and it would be able to cut power consumption as much as 50 percent.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Easter Science: The Chemistry of the Creme Egg
Via theatlantic.com -
I have always wanted to see creme eggs subjected to a variety of chemical procedures -- subjected to a vacuum, frozen in liquid nitrogen, dipped in potassium chlorate -- and so have the scientists at the University of Nottingham, as you can see in this video. It's excellent Easter fun.
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