How Photon Echoes Can Be Used To Create A Quantum Memory Device

Photo: The experiment that generated the photon echo effect. (Credit: Image courtesy of Australian National University)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 14, 2009) — A new way of storing and ‘echoing’ pulses of light has been discovered by a team from The Australian National University, allowing bursts of laser to work as a flexible optical memory and potentially assist in extending the range of quantum information systems.

Technologies like quantum cryptography are being developed to send secure information coded onto light beams from one point to another. Yet at present these systems are unable to extend beyond a distance of 50 to 100 kilometres because, beyond that range, too much of the information is lost.

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It's Raining Less Than Scientists Thought

From Live Science:

Raindrops just broke their own speed record: they can drop faster than anyone thought possible.

Larger drops are speedier than smaller ones because they are heavier and so can more easily overcome air resistance. But there’s a limit to how fast a drop can go, a “terminal velocity” achieved when the downward force of gravity equals the upward drag of the air. Thus, whenever smaller drops are detected apparently beating larger ones in the race to the ground, atmospheric scientists interpret the observations as errors by recording instruments.

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Too Close For Comfort: The Astonishing Twisters Captured By Storm-Chasing Photographer

Up close: A tornado with large Liberty Bell shaped debris cloud swirls across a dirt road less than 500 feet in front of an unmarked Kansas State Trooper patrol car

From The Daily Mail:

Running towards a raging twister might seem insane to most people but for one artist, such perils are all in a day's work.

Storm chaser Jim Reed has narrowly escaped death twice in his pursuit of the perfect stormy shot.

His experiences have been brought together in the revised and expanded version of his award-winning photo book, 'Storm Chaser: A Photographer's Journey.'

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Five New Robots March Into Hall Of Fame

From New Scientist:

The ground-breaking machines have been selected to join 18 real and fictional robots already included in the collection – meet the new entrants and the pick of the previous selections.

The Robot Hall of Fame honours real and fictional robots that have marked or inspired technical breakthroughs in the field. An international jury of of researchers, writers and designers has been adding to the list since 2003.

This year, five new robots have been selected. Click through the images to see them all

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When Nano May Not Be Nano

From A Science Centric:

The same properties of nanoparticles that make them so appealing to manufacturers may also have negative effects on the environment and human health.

However, little is known which particles may be harmful. Part of the problem is determining exactly what a nanoparticle is.

A new analysis by an international team of researchers from the Centre for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology (CEINT), based at Duke University, argues for a new look at the way nanoparticles are selected when studying the potential impacts on human health and the environment. They have found that while many small particles are considered to be 'nano,' these materials often do not meet full definition of having special properties that make them different from conventional materials.

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Homing Pigeon Faster Than Internet? In S. Africa, The Answer's Yes.

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Frustrated by Africa's unreliable service, a business needing to send 4GB of data 50 miles put Winston the pigeon up against the Web – and Winston won.

This week, a South African call-center business, frustrated by persistently slow Internet speeds, decided to use a carrier pigeon named Winston to transfer 4 gigabytes of data between two of its offices, just 50 miles apart. At the same time, a computer geek pushed a button on his computer to send data the old-fashioned way, through the Internet.

Winston the pigeon won. It wasn't even close.

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Skeptic Reporter John Stossel Leaves ABC For Fox

From Watts Up With That?

I can understand how frustrating it must have been for Stossel at ABC, given that he’s on the other side of the global warming issue from the news department there, but moving to Fox will minimize the broader impact of what he has been saying about the subject of global warming.

It is worth a flashback though, to his report in 2007 on the issue.

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Why Your Nails Are Growing 25 Per Cent Faster Than Your Grandparents' Did

From The Daily Mail:

The speed of finger and toenail growth has surged by nearly a quarter over the past 70 years, a new study has revealed.

And the modern diet – rich in protein from readily available fish, meat, eggs and poultry – may be behind the spurt.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina compared results to a study of nail growth published by Oxford University in 1938 and another study from the Fifties.

The results revealed that big toenails now grow by more than 2mm a month, compared with 1.65mm in the Thirties.

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The Climate's Warm Future Is Now in the Arctic

CARIBOU CRISIS: Thanks to shifting seasons as a result of climate change, fewer caribou calves are surviving. Courtesy of Eric Post

From Scientific America:

A new survey reveals just how far and how fast global warming is altering the Arctic.

When the summer sea ice goes, the Arctic will lose the ivory gull, Pacific walrus, ringed seal, hooded seal, narwhal and polar bear—all animals that rely on the ice for foraging, reproduction or as refuge from predators. And the sea ice is going, faster and faster: In the past 30 years, minimum sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean has declined by 45,000 square kilometers annually*—an area twice the size of New Jersey is lost each year.

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Airborne Laser Ready For Flight Tests

The US military's missile-defence laser is taking to the air for its first full-power try-out (Image: Russ Underwood, Lockheed Martin)

From The New Scientist:

IT SHOULD be the moment of truth for the Airborne Laser (ABL). In the coming months, the multibillion-dollar laser built into a customised Boeing 747 will try to shoot a ballistic missile as it rises above the clouds.

Don't expect instant reports of success, though. Instead, if all goes to plan, we're likely to hear about a series of incremental improvements.

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Aging Muscles: 'Hard To Build, Easy To Lose'

New research may explain the ongoing loss of muscle in older people, whose arms and legs become thinner as they age. (Credit: iStockphoto/Özgür Donmaz)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2009) — Have you ever noticed that people have thinner arms and legs as they get older? As we age it becomes harder to keep our muscles healthy. They get smaller, which decreases strength and increases the likelihood of falls and fractures. New research is showing how this happens — and what to do about it.

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Ancient Chinese Remedy May Work for Flu

From Live Science:

Scientists at the Kaohsiung Medial University in Taiwan have discovered that the roots of a plant used in 1918 to fight the Spanish influenza pandemic produces natural antiviral compounds that kill the swine flu virus, H1N1.

Ferula asafetida is commonly known as Dung of the Devil because of its foul-smelling sap and grows primarily in Iran, Afghanistan and mainland China. In their tests of a group of chemical compounds contained in extracts from the plant, scientists Fang-Rong Chang and Yang-Chan Wu discovered that some of them where more potent in killing the H1N1 virus than a prescription antiviral drug.

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Why NASA Should Bomb the Moon to Find Water: Analysis

From Popular Mechanics:

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is now traveling to the moon at 5592 mph and will crash-land on Oct. 9 in order to gather data from the 6-mile-high impact cloud it will create. Today, as NASA announced the crater where LCROSS will land (Cabeus-A), the mission continues to drum up controversy. Is crash-landing on the moon really necessary for science? Will it be worth the damage done to the moon? To both these questions, PM answers a resounding, Yes. Here's why we're rooting for NASA's October mission to bombard the moon.

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Robotics Rodeo: A Week In Review

The Howe & Howe 'Ripsaw' MS1 (front) is ready for its demo during the Robotics Rodeo at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas on Sept. 3.

Robotic Rodeo Displays Future Help for Soldiers -- Army.com

WASHINGTON (American Forces Press Service) – Two seemingly different U.S. Army organizations gathered robotics experts, technologists, academecs, soldiers and companies from across the country in search of solutions to help save soldiers’ lives.

The 3rd Corps and U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, or TARDEC, based on Fort Hood, Texas, hosted the first Robotics Rodeo to showcase what’s new in the world of automation.

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More News On This Weeks Robotic Rodeo

Robotics Rodeo demos technology to save Soldiers' lives -- Army.mil
Robotic Rodeo Displays Future Help for Soldiers -- U.S. Department of Defense
Army's "Robotics Rodeo" Helps Find Next Generation of Unmanned Vehicles -- Daily Tech
Robots gear up for military duty in 'rodeo' -- Taiwan news
‘Robotics Rodeo' aims to save lives -- Houston Chronicle
Fort Hood shows off its robot army -- Temple Daily Telegram
Photos: Robots on the road to safer convoys -- CNET
Hood hosts ‘Robotics Rodeo’ -- ARMY Times
John Deere goes olive-drab at Robotics Rodeo -- CNET

UCSB Scientists Create Cancer-Stopping Nanoparticle-and-Laser Treatment

This Laser Cures Cancer, Brah: Gary Braun stands by the drug-activating laser courtesy of University of California, Santa Barbara

From Popular Science:

Nanotechnology, lasers, genetics, and cancer? If there was also something about space, this story might have been a PopSci full house. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), have figured out a way to deliver cancer-stopping RNA directly into the nucleus of a diseased cell. To get into the nucleus, the RNA is wrapped in special gold nanoshells which are then selectively opened by a laser.

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How Soldiers Will See In The Dark Without Night Vision Goggles

Image: Dreamstime/Brightqube

Forget the Goggles: Chlorophyll Eye Drops Give Night Vision -- Discover Magazine

What the dragonfish discovered through evolution, the U.S. military wants to apply to the battlefield.

Seeing in the dark could soon be as easy as popping a pill or squeezing some drops into your eyes, thanks to some new science, an unusual deep-sea fish, and a plant pigment.

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My Comment: If this becomes possible .... how war is conducted will certainly change.

Keeping Google Out Of libraries

From The BBC:

The proposed settlement between Google and US publishers must be resisted, argues Bill Thompson

Google is in the middle of a massive project to scan and digitise every book it can get its hands on, whether old or new, and if it gets its way then the US courts will soon endorse an agreement between the search engine giant and the US book industry that will allow it to do this without fear of prosecution for copyright infringement.

Authors and publishers will get some money in return, and we will all benefit from the improved access to digitised books that Google will provide.

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The Hugh Hefner Syndrome – How A Good-looking Partner Makes You More Attractive

Hugh Hefner with bunnies Holly Madison, left, and Bridget Marquardt Photo: AP

From The Telegraph:

Having an attractive mate on your arm makes you look more attractive in the eyes of the opposite sex, claim scientists in research that could explain the continuing appeal of Hugh Hefner.

However going out with a better looking friend of the same sex can have the opposite effect.

Researchers have found that we bask in the reflective glory of our more attractive partners because others assume we must have hidden talents away from our looks.

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Amazing Pictures: Space Shuttle Discovery Soars Through The Clouds Before Landing Safely (After A 2,000 Mile Diversion)

The space shuttle Discovery, lands on runway 22 at
Edwards Air Force Base near Rosamond, California.

From the Daily Mail:

The space shuttle Discovery landed safely in California early today after bad weather forced a switch of its touchdown site at the end of a two-week mission to the International Space Station.

NASA diverted the spaceship to Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert after waiting in vain for two days for rain and clouds to clear over the shuttle's home port in Florida, the originally scheduled landing location.

Under partly cloudy desert skies, the shuttle landed at 0053 GMT.

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White Dwarf "Close" To Exploding As Supernova

From Universe Today:

ESA’s XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray telescope has uncovered the first close-up of a white dwarf star that could explode into a type Ia supernova within a few million years. That's relatively soon in cosmic time frames, and although this white dwarf that is orbiting its companion star HD 49798, is far enough away to pose no danger to Earth, it is close enough to become an extraordinarily spectacular celestial sight. Calculations suggest that it will blaze initially with the intensity of the full Moon and be so bright that it will be seen in the daytime sky with the naked eye. But don't worry, it will be awhile!

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