Updated: 2012-06-29 16:30:00
Back in 2006 Harry Potter was all the rage in the engineering world. That year a team at Duke University built the first rudimentary device for hiding objects, akin to the boy wizard’s invisibility cloak. But in technology as in the movies, Harry Potter is now old news. Over the past six years, scientists have moved beyond mere invisibility: If they could build cloaks for light waves, then why not design materials to conceal sound and even ocean waves?
A whole suite of invisibility cloaks are now under development, all building on the same basic principle as the first prototype. When we perceive an object, we are actually detecting the disturbances it creates as energy waves bounce off it. The Duke cloak, constructed from a synthetic structure called a metamaterial, prevented those disturbances by bending light waves around the object, allowing them to continue flowing like water in a stream around a rock (concept shown at right). Sure enough, that technology is not limited to light. In the latest designs it is being applied to mask all kinds of other waves, with the potential for zeroing out sound pollution and protecting cities from earthquakes. Meanwhile, scientists continue to pursue the original invisibility concept—work that is sparking a lot of interest in military surveillance circles...
Image: Invisibility cloaks are made of engineered materials that bend light and other waves around an object. Because no waves bounce back to the observer, the cloaked object (or person) becomes undetectable. Illustration by Trevor Johnston
Updated: 2012-06-27 12:15:00
Between freak Arctic melting, Japanese nuclear melting, and antibiotic resistance popping up everywhere, I can’t help but see the world as tiptoeing into pre-apocalypse. If there is some sort of crapstorm coming and I’m lucky enough to survive it, there’s one thing I know for sure: I’m going to need a really good hand-cleaner for the aftermath. When I come in from a hard day of zombie hunting, it won’t be just dirt that I’ll need to get out from under my fingernails.
Actually, I could use that doomsday soap now—or rather, we all could. That’s because most of the human race has no intention of patiently waiting for an unspecified apocalypse and has already gotten a head start on mass despoiling. So far the tides of toxic waste and exploded-oil-rig crude haven’t made it as far as my sleepy burb. But right now somebody somewhere is facing a mess that Softsoap won’t make a dent in.
Hold that last thought—soap is, in fact, exactly what some of the world’s smartest cleanup experts are now touting for the next big spill. You might suppose that scrubbing bubbles would be a poor choice of weapon against giant blobs of crude, especially compared with giant oil-corralling booms and high-tech oil-skimming robots. But soap has some important advantages...
Image: New-age soaps can respond to light, acidity, temperature, pressure, or magnetism—so they clean up just the right nasty atoms. Illustration by David Plunkert
Updated: 2012-06-27 11:52:13
Today’s physics news: Brian Cox to hand libel petition to Downing Street and evolution could generate new semiconducting structures Brian Cox to hand libel petition to Downing Street Brian Cox will demand a new public interest defence to the defamation bill as he heads a group of scientists presenting a 60,000-name petition to Downing Street [...]
Updated: 2012-06-26 10:26:40
Today’s physics news: UNESCO to set up UN science advisory board UNESCO to set up UN science advisory board Board will advise secretary-general on science issues. Nature
Updated: 2012-06-25 14:55:00
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Updated: 2012-06-25 10:35:00
Today’s physics news: Scientists developing device to ‘hack’ into brain of Stephen Hawking and more ‘Twisted light’ carries 2.5 terabits of data per second Researchers have clocked light beams made of “twisted” waves carrying 2.5 terabits of data – the capacity of more than 66 DVDs – per second BBC Scientists developing device to ‘hack’ [...]
Updated: 2012-06-24 02:58:15
Asymptotia Speaking of Time Metropolis II Time for Superstring Beans Published on June 23, 2012 in food and drink and Los Angeles 2 Comments Yeah , I’ve made this joke before but I am always impressed when these begin to show up at the market , and they’e been showing up the last few . weeks They’re very tasty , so I’m pleased to see and buy them but I do suspect that a tiny part of the reason I get them is that I get to write a blog post with Superstring Beans in the title once again see earlier posts on this here and here Click for a larger view , if you . wish Anyway , there it is . Some are going into a pan tonight for my evening meal cvj On this day on Asymptotia . Renewal : Beginning 2011 Angry Birds 2011 Gold and Green Harvest 2007 Morning Computations 2007 Some Related Asymptotia
Updated: 2012-06-22 15:30:00
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Updated: 2012-06-22 10:47:27
Today’s physics news: Solar-powered plane completes Moroccan desert flight, astronomers catch video of near-miss asteroid and more Solar-powered plane completes Moroccan desert flight A solar-powered plane early Friday completed a flight over the Moroccan desert to showcase renewable energy, as a key summit in Rio discussed “greening” the world economy. Telegraph Astronomers catch video of [...]
Updated: 2012-06-20 17:45:00
CD14 nbsp;A cell surface protein abundant in human milk, is present when the immune system learns to fight pathogens in the intestines. Nestlé researchers think the protein could turn out to help adult patients suffering from the immune responses that cause Crohn’s disease...
Updated: 2012-06-20 17:45:00
Perla Lewis-Truong’s due date was March 1. But the day after Thanksgiving, she was admitted to the hospital with severe preeclampsia, a disorder marked by a rapid rise in blood pressure that puts a mother’s health and pregnancy at risk. A week later doctors had to deliver her daughter by cesarean section, 13 weeks early. Baby Celia weighed only a pound and a half. After two months, she is four pounds and still nearly translucent but healthy, lying in a small heated pod in the Children’s Hospital of the University of California, Davis, in Sacramento. Celia was lucky to be born here, at a teaching hospital with an advanced neonatal intensive care unit. Premature babies face many potential problems, including necrotizing enterocolitis, in which intestinal walls deteriorate and bacteria invade. A quarter of infants with the disease die, and survivors may suffer neurological problems for years.
Mark Underwood, a neonatologist at U.C. Davis, is constantly seeking better treatments for his delicate patients. Contrary to traditional practice, his focus is not on drugs but on diet. Underwood believes that many cases of necrotizing enterocolitis could be prevented by giving preemies a special daily cocktail of probiotics (healthy bacteria) and prebiotics (the food those bacteria eat), all inspired by what might be considered the ultimate superfood: human milk.
“Milk is powerful as a preventer of disease and an enhancer of
performance,” says Bruce German, a food chemist at U.C. Davis. “By understanding how it does what it does, we can bring the principles, the mechanisms of action, and the benefits to everyone.” Human milk’s most important role could be preventing infant disease and boosting immunity by cultivating a balance of microbes in the gut and the rest of the body, a kind of internal ecosystem called the microbiome. In fact, many researchers now believe that mammalian lactation originally evolved as a protective, not a nutritional, adaptation...
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Image: iStockphoto
Updated: 2012-06-17 07:44:18
Just got out of 8 days in the Grand Canyon which was spectacular, Reliable rumors couldn’t wait, and they indicate that the experiments are seeing much the same thing as last year in this year’s new data: strong hints of … Continue reading →
Updated: 2012-06-15 16:30:00
Neuro sells psychoactive drinks to boost mood, concentration, memory, and sleep.Neuro
I dig a knife into a cardboard box, slit it open, and lift a plastic bottle of bright red fluid from inside. I set it down on my kitchen table, next to my coffee and eggs. The drink, called NeuroSonic, is labeled with a cartoon silhouette of a head, with a red circle where its brain should be. A jagged line—presumably the trace of an ekg—crosses the circle. And down at the very bottom of the bottle, it reads, “Mental performance in every bottle.”
My office is full of similar boxes: Dream Water (“Dream Responsibly”), Brain Toniq (“The clean and intelligent think drink”), iChill (“helps you relax, reduce stress, sleep better”), and Nawgan (“What to Drink When You Want to Think”). These products contain mixtures of neurotransmitters, hormones, and neuroactive amino acids, but you don’t need a prescription to buy them. I ordered mine on Amazon, and you can even find them in many convenience stores.
I unscrew the cap from one of them and take a gulp. NeuroSonic tastes like cherry and aluminum. I wait for my neurons to light up...
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Updated: 2012-06-12 16:55:00
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Updated: 2012-06-11 22:25:00
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Updated: 2012-06-08 17:35:18
This is an easier one than dark matter vs. modified gravity. As mentioned, I’m going to be on Science Friday today, and they asked me to contribute a guest blog post, which I’m cross-posting below. Old news, I’m sure, for longtime CV readers, but here you go. ——————– Probably the biggest single misconception I come [...]
Updated: 2012-06-08 01:38:57
I should be packing for my trip, but couldn’t resist one last blog posting, since I’ve recently a run across a lot of interesting Langlands-related material, including: A Symposium this fall at the Fields Institute, in honor of Ngo’s Fields … Continue reading →
Updated: 2012-06-07 19:34:23
It’s exactly a month until new LHC Higgs results are to be unveiled at ICHEP. The machine has been running well, and right about now should be the cut-off time after which new data will arrive too late for analysis … Continue reading →
Updated: 2012-06-07 01:30:00
Four and a half billion years ago, the place we now call the solar system was a vast cloud of gas and dust enshrouding a newborn star. Gradually those dust grains cohered and formed pebbles, which then collided and coalesced into boulders. Over the course of about 100 million years, most of the material in that nebulous cloud accreted into the existing eight planets—four rocky (including Earth) and four gaseous. Or at least that’s how astronomers thought the story went.
Last November astronomer David Nesvorny of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado added a new character to the tale...
Illustration by Elisabeth Roen Kelly
