Nuclear-Fusion.org

SIB332 Sensor Interface Board for Hamamatsu S8550 32 Element APD Array

2011-01-07T05:43:00.000-06:00

Vertilon Corporation
66 Tadmuck Road
Westford
MA
01886-3135
United States

Tel: 978-692-7070

The SIB332 sensor interface board provides the electrical and mechanical connectivity between a Hamamatsu S8550 4 x 8 element APD array and a Vertilon PhotoniQ multi-channel data acquisition system.

The SIB332 sensor interface board provides the electrical and mechanical connectivity between a Hamamatsu S8550 series 4 x 8 element APD array and a Vertilon PhotoniQ multi-channel DAQ system. The S8550 mounts directly to the SIB332 where electrical connections to the 32 APD anodes are routed to a micro-coaxial cable assembly that connects the APD outputs to the PhotoniQ. The negative high voltage bias to the APD array is made through a separate dedicated connector that connects to the high voltage output from the PhotoniQ. Also available on the SIB332 are two outputs that are used in conjunction with the APD array’s common cathode current signal — an amplified version of the signal and a pulse discriminator trigger output.

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Thermally Conductive Epoxy Delivers Heat Resistance & Electrical Insulation

2011-01-07T05:39:00.000-06:00

Master Bond Inc.
154 Hobart St
Hackensack
NJ
07601
United States

Tel: 201-343-8983
Fax: 201-343-2132

Master Bond has developed a thermally conductive epoxy system that is specially designed to help mitigate the issues associated with tightly packed components and miniaturized electronic circuits.

With a thermal conductivity over 22 BTU•in/ft2•hr•ºF and serviceability from -60 to 400°F, Master Bond EP21ANHT delivers outstanding performance in the most demanding microelectronic applications. The cured adhesive is also a superior electrical insulator, further expanding its usefulness.

This two component adhesive, sealant, and coating has a convenient 1 to 1 mix ratio by weight or volume and offers room temperature and faster elevated temperature cures. EP21ANHT has a low coefficient of thermal expansion of 18-20 in/in x 10-6/ºC, a dielectric strength of >400 volts/mil, and a tensile shear strength greater than 1,000 psi. It resists a wide range of chemicals and adheres well to a variety of substrates.

Cryogenically Serviceable Epoxy Meets NASA Low-Outgassing Specifications Sep 13, 2010Thermally Resistant Epoxy Features Glass Transition Temperature Exceeding 220ºC Jul 9, 2010UV Curable Adhesive/Sealant Meets NASA Low Outgassing Requirements Jul 8, 2010Epoxy Meets NASA Low Outgassing Specifications and is Cryogenically Serviceable Nov 12, 2010Ultra-Fast Curing, Thermally Stable Epoxy Meets NASA Low Outgassing Requirements Oct 1, 2010Flexibilized Epoxy Combines High Strength and Toughness with Chemical Resistance Sep 9, 2010Thermally Conductive, Low Viscosity Epoxy Features Cryogenic Serviceability Sep 8, 2010Reinforced Epoxy Adhesive Improves Structural Bonding Jan 18, 2010Non Yellowing Permanent/ Temporary Adhesive Cures Rapidly Jan 14, 2010

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Italy approves SuperB particle collider

2011-01-07T05:34:00.000-06:00

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Jan 6, 2011

The Italian government has given final approval for building a new €500m collider that will investigate the small but significant differences between matter and antimatter. The SuperB facility will smash electrons and positrons together to produce particle/antiparticle pairs of B-mesons, D-mesons and tau-leptons. Measuring the subtle differences in how these particles and their antiparticles decay could help shed light on the mystery of why there is so much more matter than antimatter in the universe.

The SuperB facility will be built by Italy's national institute for nuclear and particle-physics research (INFN). It will consist of a 2 km circumference ring with two accelerators – one for electrons and the other for positrons. Collisions will occur within a large detector that will track the decay products and measure their energy.

The facility is expected to produce B-mesons at a rate 50–100 times greater than existing and previous "B factories" such as BaBar in the US and Belle in Japan. Marcello Giorgi from the INFN's lab in Pisa, who is director of the SuperB project board, says that the experiment could begin taking data by 2016.

SuperB will also produce synchrotron radiation, which will be used in a wide range of experiments in condensed-matter physics, chemistry, biology and materials science. The synchrotron facility will have six beamlines – three extracting light from the electron beam and three from the positron beam. Although this is a small number of beamlines compared with other synchrotron facilities, Giorgi told physicsworld.com that "the brilliance of the light will be greater than any existing synchrotron".

The SuperB synchrotron, plans for which were finalized in February 2010, will be run by the Italian Institute of Technology (ITT). Once particle-physics experiments are finished at SuperB, the facility will eventually be devoted solely to synchrotron-radiation research. However, Giorgi, stresses that particle physics is the priority and he does not expect the matter/antimatter studies to be adversely affected by the synchrotron research.

Although the funding announcement has been delayed by a year – due in part to the global financial crisis – Giorgi expects work to begin on the facility later this year. Commissioning of the accelerator is scheduled for late 2015 and the first data should emerge in 2016. Physicists should be able to keep to this tight schedule because many of the accelerator components will be reused from the defunct PEP-II electron–positron collider at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the US, which hosted the BaBar experiment until 2008.

Despite this tight schedule, the INFN has still not decided where to build the facility. The leading candidate is INFN's Frascati lab just outside Rome. Frascati is already home to the DAFNE electron–positron collider, which is used to study CP violation in K-mesons. Although the INFN site is not large enough to hold the entire ring, it could be shared with the adjoining Frascati campus of Italy's national energy research lab ENEA. According to Giorgi, the INFN is in the final stages of negotiating this plan, which includes building tunnels under a main road.

If the Frascati plan falls through, the alternative site is Rome's University of Tor Vergata, which is about 2.4 km from the Frascati lab. According to Giorgi, a site will be chosen by the end of January.

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Ultra Fast Camera Enhances Understanding of High Explosive Detonation...

2011-01-07T05:29:00.000-06:00

Specialised Imaging Ltd.
Unit 1 Silk Mill Industrial Estate
Tring
Herts
HP23 5EF
United Kingdom

Tel: +44-1442-827728

Specialised Imaging has released a new application note that describes how its SIM8 ultra fast camera offers the capability to capture and diagnose the process of detonation of high explosive driven liner.

Application note 14 describes how a SIM8 Ultra Fast Camera running at 1 million frames per second (1360 x 1040 pixels per frame) with 500ns exposures and front lighting was used to record the detonation of high explosive driven liner using a EBW detonator. Initial timing for the detonator and camera were generated using timing from digital delay generators. Additional synchronization of precise delays to start of frames and flashes were achieved using internal camera timing generators with nanosecond accuracy.

Imaging Phenomena On The Picosecond Timescale Oct 7, 2010High Speed Imaging News & Events Sep 8, 2010Developments in Ultra High-Speed Imaging Camera Technology Jul 21, 2010Ultra Fast Framing Cameras for Scientific Research Jul 20, 2010Compact, High Performance Ballistic Range Camera Jun 18, 2010Accurate Modelling Ensures Precise Projectile Tracking May 26, 2010Specialised Imaging Ltd Announces New Website May 6, 2010High-Speed Imaging Applications Bibliography Mar 23, 2010Specialised Imaging Ltd Announces US Office... Feb 2, 2010

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Startupsadviser.com

2011-01-07T05:25:00.000-06:00

Startupsadviser.com is a leading strategic consulting firm specializing in meeting the business development, marketing and sales needs of emerging and start-up technology organizations.

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Professional Guide to Infrared Gas Detection

2011-01-07T05:22:00.000-06:00

FLIR Advanced Thermal Solutions (ATS) has announced a new revised version of its popular publication - 'Gas Detection - the Professional Guide'.

Infrared cameras have revolutionised maintenance in many industries, proving to be the most superior technology for finding hidden mechanical and electrical faults as well as locating invisible gas leaks. Not only do industrial gas leaks potentially harm the environment and be pinpoints of potential danger but they can also cost companies substantial amounts of money.

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Chell Instruments Ltd

2011-01-07T05:17:00.000-06:00

Chell Instruments Ltd
Folgate House
Folgate Road
North Walsham
Norfolk
NR28 0AJ
United Kingdom

Tel: 01692 500555
Fax: 01692 500088

Specialising in the fabrication and intrumentating of medium and UHV vacuum systems for over 30 years, Chell also manufacture miniature K-Cells and needle valves. Our UKAS calibration lab. has the lowest uncertainties for vacuum in the UK.

Chell's convenient & fast UKAS Calibration Service:-

Chell’s BS/EN/ISO/IEC 17025 accredited Calibration Laboratory provides a comprehensive service for Vacuum, Pressure and Gas Flow measuring, controlling and generating instrumentation
Our calibration standards have been developed to provide a service having some of the lowest uncertainties in their fields, providing our customers with the greatest confidence in their “bought-in” uncertainties.
Requirements for reduced operational uncertainties in industries such as pharmaceuticals, power generation and aerospace are best achieved by using the Chell Calibration Laboratory for periodic calibration of your Standards.
Chell also offers a UKAS accredited on-site gas flow calibration service with similarly low uncertainties, allowing in-situ calibration of line or production flowmeters with the minimum of disturbance to workflow.
Flow Rate – gas: Flows from 0.001 to 3600 litre/min with traceability to National standards in the EU.
Typical instruments calibrated are:-
Thermal Mass Flow Meters
Variable area meters (Rotameters)
Coriolis flow meters
Turbine flow meters
Orifice plate / venturi flow meters
Piston provers / bubble-meters

Vacuum: This is amongst the most difficult pressure measurements to undertake.
Chell is accredited to perform vacuum calibrations down to 1.3x10-4 Pa (1x10-6 Torr), employing a range of fundamental and Transfer Standards.
Typical gauges calibrated are:-
Pirani & thermocouple gauges
Capacitance Manometers
Cold Cathode & Ion gauges
Vacuum transducers & transmitters
Vacuum switches
Spinning rotor gauges

Gas Pressure – Absolute: Chell currently has the lowest commercially available uncertainties for barometric region pressure calibration in Europe, achieved through the use of our accredited Schwien mercury manometers.

We are able to both generate and measure pneumatic pressures over the barometric range with a measurement uncertainty of ±0.0020% + 0.25 Pa.
Typical sensors calibrated are:-
Resonant and quartz bourdon type transducers
Vibrating element transducers
Precision pressure generators & transfer standards
Air Data Test Sets
Pitot Static Test Sets
Pressure Scanners, both high & medium density
High accuracy capacitance manometers
Precision aneroid barometers
Standard test gauges
Digital pressure indicators, calibrators & controllers
Gas Pressure – Gauge: We are able to both generate and measure pneumatic gauge pressures over the range 0 kPa to 7MPa with the lowest measurement uncertainties available outside National Standards.

Our gauge pressure facility uses standards having three fundamentally different principles which provides us with excellent cross-comparison opportunities to reduce our uncertainties yet further.
Typical gauge devices calibrated are:-
Pressure transducers & transmitters
Micro-manometers
Inclined manometers
Capacitance manometers
Gauge pressure switches
Gas Pressure – True Differential: Chell are, we believe, the only calibration laboratory in the World to have two accredited Schwien Merco-Master manometers working side-by-side. This facility affords us the ability to both measure and generate differential pressures over the range +/- 190 kPa with uncertainties well below 30ppm.
These safety critical instruments are routinely calibrated:-
Airspeed indicators
Altimeters
Rate of Climb (or Vertical Speed) Indicators
Ps channels of Air Data Test Sets and Pitot Static Testers

… .. as well as differential pressure transducers, transmitters and dp cells
(Link to Cal page: www.chell.co.uk/lab/callab.htm)
For more information on Chell's calibration services, please contact Jamie Shanahan or Paul Marks.

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Piezo Motors and Microdispensers for Medical Design & Biotech

2011-01-07T05:12:00.000-06:00

Piezo & Motion Control Specialist PI has published a brochure on advanced motion control solutions for medical design

Piezo Mechanics Catalog: Piezo Motors, Piezo Systems, Piezo Actuators Nov 5, 2010New Website on Piezo Technology, Piezo Components and Piezo Actuators Aug 5, 2010Miniature 6-Axis Robot / Parallel Kinematics Hexapod for Precision Alignment Apr 1, 2010Paper on Imaging Resolution Enhancement / Pixel-Sub-Stepping / with Piezo Apr 1, 2010New Piezo Controllers feature fast USB interface with 24-Bit Resolution Apr 1, 2010PI News: 2009 Nanopositioning & Piezo Technology Book: Tools for Physicists Apr 1, 2010Non Magnetic Low Profile, High Speed Piezomotor Rotary Stage @ Photonics West Feb 17, 2010New Controller for Optical Path Control, Beam Steering & Image Stabilization Feb 17, 2010Super Resolution Microscopy Stage / PI nano™ P-545 Piezo Stage & Controller Feb 17, 2010

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SuperPower Inc.

2011-01-07T05:07:00.000-06:00

SuperPower Inc.
450 Duane Ave
Schenectady
NY
12304
United States

Tel: 518.346.1414
Fax: 518.346.6080

SuperPower Inc. develops & manufactures long lengths of high-performance second-generation high temperature superconductor wire in application-specific configurations. Offering design, fabrication, and testing of 2G HTS coils & engineering services.

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Versatile Camera for Furnace, Boiler and Electrical Inspections

2011-01-07T05:04:00.000-06:00

The FLIR GF309 is a new infrared camera from FLIR Advanced Thermal Solutions (ATS) specially designed for high temperature inspection of industrial furnaces, heaters and boilers.

Custom-built to see through flames, the GF309 also features a detachable heat shield designed to reflect heat away from the camera and camera operator, providing increased protection. The camera is equipped with a special mid wave "flame filter" that is specifically engineered for high temperature operation (up to 1500°).

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Physicists find new clue in coronal heating mystery

2011-01-07T04:59:00.000-06:00

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Jan 6, 2011

The latest research from a team of international astronomers could help to explain the long-standing mystery of why the Sun's outer atmosphere – or corona – is so much hotter than its surroundings.

The corona, the vast gossamer atmosphere of plasma visible from Earth during a total solar eclipse, can notch up temperatures in excess of one million degrees Kelvin (MK). Several rival explanations have jostled to account for why the corona is unexpectedly over 200 times hotter than the visible surface, or photosphere, of the Sun. However, in recent years one theory has charged from the back of the pack to become a frontrunner in the race to solve the mystery: spicules – or fountain-like jets of plasma. These emanate from the chromosphere, a relatively thin layer separating the photosphere and corona.

Previously, the spicule theory was largely discredited due to an absence of correlating phenomena in the corona itself. Then, in 2007, researchers led by Bart De Pontieu at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in California, US, found a new breed of spicule, which they dubbed "Type II"; Type II spicules are shorter-lived but faster moving than their Type I cousins. In his latest research, published in Science, De Pontieu and colleagues now believe they have found evidence implicating Type II spicules in the heating of the corona.

"Spicules play a significant role in coronal heating, which doesn't fit any of the current theories. This also suggests that there is significant heating going on in the first few thousands of kilometres [of the corona], which is very different from what people have assumed before," De Pontieu told physicsworld.com. When the spicule jets occur on the solar disc they leave a tell-tale signature in the spectral lines observed in the chromosphere: fast-occurring blue-shifts, known as rapid blue-shift events (RBEs). De Pontieu used data from the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), aboard the Sun-orbiting Hinode spacecraft, to build up a catalogue of RBEs, which he then compared to coronal data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

We haven't completely solved the problem, but we've certainly added a significant new wrinkle to it Scott McIntosh, NCAR

"The high temporal and spatial resolution of this generation of solar observatories allowed us to discover that spicule events in the chromosphere are correlated to brightenings in the corona," De Pontieu explained. The team found that the vast majority of the spicule plasma is only heated to between 0.02–0.1 MK and sinks back down into the chromosphere. However, the key finding is that a small but significant portion of the plasma is heated beyond 1 MK and uplifted into the corona. The researchers found this process to be ubiquitous across the Sun.

However, the search for a definitive answer to the coronal heating mystery isn't over. "We haven't completely solved the problem, but we've certainly added a significant new wrinkle to it," second author Scott McIntosh, at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado, explained.

Lucie Green of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London, who was not involved in the research, agrees: "My hunch is that the solution to the [coronal heating] problem is a mix of answers, a combination of different mechanisms. We shouldn't be looking for just one 'golden' answer," she said. "However, this research is something new and it will definitely sit alongside the other explanations," she added.

Whatever mechanism, or mix of mechanisms, is responsible for the soaring temperatures of the corona, finding an answer is important. "Heating causes the corona to expand outwards, forming the solar wind. This is ultimately what drives lots of processes throughout the solar system, so it would be great to better understand how that heat is being put into the solar atmosphere," said Green.

In order to pinpoint the exact role of spicules in coronal heating and to understand what drives and heats them in the first place, De Pontieu hopes to exploit an upcoming NASA mission. "Fundamentally we need new instrumentation. The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), is due to launch in December 2012 and it is really focused on the physics of the region between the solar surface and corona," De Pontieu explained. "That would really help us to follow up this research," he added.

The research is described in Science.

Colin Stuart is a science writer and astronomer based in London

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Photomultipliers and associated operating and signal processing hardware

2011-01-07T04:56:00.000-06:00

ET Enterprises Ltd
45 Riverside Way
Uxbridge
Middlesex
UB8 2YF
United Kingdom

Tel: 01895200880
Fax: 01895270973

The photomultiplier is a very sensitive light detector providing a current output proportional to light intensity. Main benefits are large detection area, high gain and single photon capability.

The photomultiplier detects light at the photocathode (k) which emits electrons by the photoelectric effect. These photoelectrons are electrostatically accelerated and focused onto the first dynode (d1) of an electron multiplier. On impact each electron liberates a number of secondary electrons which are in turn, electrostatically accelerated and focused onto the next dynode (d2). The process is repeated at each subsequent dynode and the secondary electrons from the last dynode are collected at the anode (a). The ratio of secondary to primary electrons emitted at each dynode depends on the energy of the incident electrons and is controlled by the inter-electrode potentials. By using a variable high voltage supply, the amplitude of photomultiplier output can cover a wide dynamic range.

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Gravcore

2011-01-07T04:53:00.000-06:00

R & D for Inverse Square Energy. We are building a machine to mechanically combine RCF and MMF in an attempt to electrically export the unified sum.

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The Capital Spillway Trust

2011-01-07T04:49:00.000-06:00

Concept created in 1994 while in direct correspondence with Mr. Eddie George, Governor The Bank of England in a debate about how to capitalise new inventions. Now presented to the UK government at the suggestion of Mervyn King, present Governor BoE.

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SIB1256 Sensor Interface Board for SensL SPMArray4

2011-01-07T04:45:00.001-06:00

Vertilon Corporation
66 Tadmuck Road
Westford
MA
01886-3135
United States

Tel: 978-692-7070

The SIB1256 sensor interface board allows up to four SensL SPMArray4 silicon photomultiplier arrays (SiPM) to easily interface to a Vertilon PhotoniQ multichannel data acquisition system.

The SIB1256 allows up to four SensL SPMArray4 SiPM devices to interface to a Vertilon PhotoniQ multichannel data acquisition system. The devices are inserted into the board where their anode signals are routed to cable assemblies that connect the 64 device outputs to the PhotoniQ. Bias to SiPM arrays is provided by four on-board adjustable high voltage bias supplies that include a voltage trimming function for gain matching between the arrays. A special current-sense output from each bias supply is summed together to represent the total AC charge signal measured by all four SiPM arrays. This signal is fed into a user-programmable leading edge discriminator that generates a trigger signal when an event exceeding a preset energy threshold is detected on any of the SPMArray4 devices.

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SPIE Security+Defence 2011

2011-01-06T10:36:00.000-06:00

The optics and photonics conferences in SPIE Security+Defence cross the divide between fundamental optical science and the application of the underpinning technologies in advanced defence and security systems. This is a unique symposium that will offer many opportunities to network with colleagues from a variety of disciplines in academia, industry, and government from all over the World, while addressing the new challenges that continue to emerge: network-enabled capability/network-centric warfare evolve; asymmetric warfare: military operations in the urban theatre; and peace-keeping.
SPIE Security and Defence will consider how the fundamental and emerging technology base is likely to be exploited in the future will be changing:
+ Unmanned/Unattended Sensors and Sensor Networks
+ Electro-Optical and Infrared Systems: Technology and Applications
+ Electro-Optical Remote Sensing
+ Technologies for Optical Countermeasures
+ Military Applications in Hyperspectral Imaging and High Spatial Resolution Sensing
+ Advanced Free-Space Optical Communication Techniques and Applications
+ Photonic Components and Architectures in Defence Systems
+ Millimetre Wave and Terahertz Sensors and Technology
+ Optical Materials in Defence Systems Technology
+ Optics and Photonics for Counterterrorism and Crime Fighting
+ Optically Based Biological and Chemical Detection for Defence
+ Quantum Information Security
With a European focus, this event attracts more than 400 attendees in the security and defense sector, and is collocated with the SPIE Europe Remote Sensing meeting, allowing you to also take advantage of the cross section of 600 attendees working in a technical area rich in solutions for the security and defence community. Explore new opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and potential new partners in industry, academia, and government from around the world.
Co-located Symposium – SPIE Remote Sensing
Two great meetings in one great location! Your registration fee gains you access to all the conferences in both Security+Defence 2011 and Remote Sensing 2011.

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The Scholar and the Caliph

2011-01-06T10:32:00.000-06:00

N.B. This is a fictionalized account – see author's note below

In the hush just before fajr, before the devout gather to greet the sunrise with prayers towards Mecca, the Scholar emerges from a fitful sleep and confronts the darkness. He remembers, as consciousness returns, that he is a prisoner in his own home. There is nothing to alleviate the mind-numbing sameness of days, no friendly voice or warm touch to keep the suffocating isolation at bay – not even the musty comfort of his books. Truly, I am cursed among men.

This is not how he envisioned his future as an ambitious young man back in Basra. There, he devoured the works of Aristotle and dreamed of scientific pursuits. "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyrs," the Koran says, and he believed it. So he followed the throngs of Basran fortune-seekers to Cairo, home to the Dar al-'llm ("House of Knowledge"), and found lodgings near the Azhar Mosque. He taught in the mosque's school, and worked as a scribe in the Dar al-'llm, copying Arabic translations of Euclid, Ptolemy and his beloved Aristotle, being careful not to smudge the pages with ink-stained fingers. All the knowledge in the world was at his fingertips. Yet the wisdom of the Ancients could not help him to foresee the ill fortune about to befall him.

One day he received a summons from Cairo's reigning Caliph, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah – a tremendous honour for a humble scribe. The Scholar felt small and insignificant as he passed through the palace gates into a large courtyard ringed by stone archways; twin minarets cast their shadows over a reflecting pool. He was even more cowed by the majesty of the blue-domed throne room – its stucco walls dotted with bright mosaic tiles. Even the Caliph seemed dwarfed by the setting, despite his robes of state and jewelled turban.

The Caliph was most eager to find a man who could solve a perplexing problem, he explained, and the Scholar came highly recommended. Every year, the flooding of the Nile served as a harbinger for the end of summer, and an omen for that year's harvest. Too much flooding, and the crops would be destroyed; too little, and drought and famine would ravage the land. His people were utterly dependent on the fickle whims of the great river for their survival. Man's ingenuity had already produced watermills to grind grain, and water-raising machines. If men could control water in this way, could they not also build a dam to control the flooding and bend the Nile to the Caliph's will?

The Scholar was flattered by the Caliph's attentions, and tempted by the promise of riches and fame should he succeed. Silencing the doubt in his mind, he told al-Hakim "It can be done." And the Caliph appointed him head engineer of the project. But when the Scholar arrived at the proposed site, a cold dread ran through him, despite the dry heat of the desert: the sheer scale of the river and valley were beyond imagination. How could anything control such a force of nature? With a sick feeling he drew up detailed plans for the dam's construction, made measurements, devised various schemes and tested inventions. But the scale of the engineering needed was beyond even the vast resources of the Caliph. In the end, he realized that it could not be done. He had failed.

The prospect of facing the Caliph with this news filled the Scholar with dread. People whispered that al-Hakim had once disembowelled a horseman in his service with a spear just outside the gates of the mosque. An abusive grocer turned muhtasib had his tongue and hands cut off before being summarily executed, and a corrupt judge was beheaded and burned for illegally seizing 20,000 dinars from a young man's inheritance. Even minor infractions were met with arrests, stiff fines or beatings, if not death. Yet al-Hakim was not without compassion: once, after brutally beheading a man, he relented a few days later and ordered the body to be exhumed for proper burial and funeral rites.

The Scholar had heard the stories, and he feared the worst.

As he made his way back to his lodgings along the narrow winding streets of Cairo, he had a heavy heart, anxiety building with every step. He passed a beggar, noting the torn garments, tangled hair smeared with faeces, the jerky motions and staccato outbursts – all the hallmarks of a confused mind. He paused to drink from a public fountain and caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the water. He looked very much like that lunatic beggar: bedraggled, smelly, with unkempt hair and an unruly beard from his months camped out in the field, haunted eyes set deep in a face drawn taut with worry.

And then the Scholar had an epiphany. Would not the Caliph show mercy to a madman?

His fellow scribes at the Dar al-'llm thought it might just work when he told them of his plan, and they agreed to help. He locked himself in his home and resisted the urge to bathe, while they spread rumours that his mind had snapped under the strain of trying to tame the mighty Nile. The gossip soon reached the Caliph, and he summoned the Scholar to gauge for himself the mental state of his engineer.

Heart pounding, the Scholar shambled into the throne room, doing his best to mimic the beggar's behaviour – rocking and muttering to himself, even pulling out tufts of hair in only half-feigned agitation. His friends swore that he had been in this state for weeks, and they feared he would not recover. If the Caliph's physicians who examined him suspected the pretence, they did not betray him. They told al-Hakim his engineer had, indeed, gone mad, and recommended confining the stricken Scholar to his home.

Mercurial he may have been, but the Caliph was no fool. "I see," he murmured when his physicians gave their verdict. Eyes narrowed, hands clasped behind his back, he slowly circled the Scholar, coldly assessing the man with the supposed broken mind cringing on the ground before him. He wrinkled his nose at the stench.

"Very well," he said at last. "He shall be placed under house arrest until further notice. But his worldly goods shall be forfeited."

"Yes, yes, of course, a small price to pay." The Scholar's friends kissed the hem of the Caliph's robes in relief, bowing repeatedly as they backed towards the door with the newly diagnosed lunatic between them.

"Wait." Al-Hakim held up a hand, and guards promptly blocked their exit. "Confiscate his books, too." He smiled slyly. "After all, what use does a madman have for reading?"

And so the Scholar escaped with his life, but not his freedom – a forgotten man leading a solitary life. No books, no visitors – no distractions to fill the hours. Al-Hakim chose the punishment well; it could drive a sane man mad. Each day, the Scholar counts the hours until night, when he can lose himself in slumber. He always awakens too soon.

Now, many moons later, as the merchants noisily make their way to the marketplace to set up their wares, he watches the first light of dawn stream through the bedchamber door and finds himself wondering how that light can reach him in the darkness. If only I had my books. The Scholar sighs, itching to feel the crisp pages between his fingers. He ponders what he recalls from the Ancients. Aristotle wrote of mysterious "forms" travelling from objects into the eye, while Euclid and Ptolemy proclaimed that the eye emits rays of light that strike and illuminate surrounding objects.

Yet when lying alone in his darkened room, no light shines forth from the Scholar's eyes to illuminate the bare walls before him. He sees nothing until sunrise. There is a window high above the archway to his bedchamber, on the eastern wall. The sunlight streams through the window and reflects off the western wall directly across from the archway, sending that reflected light back through the opening to provide faint illumination in his bedchamber. As the morning light grows stronger, so does the light reflecting into his bedchamber.

Is it possible that the Ancients were mistaken? This is an audacious thought – who is he to question Aristotle? But then he conceives an alternative explanation. Perhaps light radiates in many different straight lines, from every point of a luminous object, travelling in every direction at once. We only "see" objects that reflect those rays of light that enter the eye.

The Scholar decides to put his theory to the test. He lacks his books, but he has lamps and candles; screens and wooden blocks; tubes and makeshift rulers, and a sheet of thin copper. He has paper and ink. And not even al-Hakim has the power to take away his senses, or his mind. I can still be a Scholar.

First, he gazes through a tube at objects in the room, using a ruler to measure the line of sight. He can only "see" an object when it stands directly in front of the tube's opening. Then he covers part of the opening. Now, he can only see that part of the object that is opposite the uncovered part of the tube.

His excitement mounting, the Scholar next punches a large round hole in a sheet of copper and inserts a tube that is open at one end and closed at the other, save for a pinhole the width of a needle. He holds a candle flame to the open end and places an urn in front of the pinhole at the other. Only a little light from the flame travels through the pinhole to the urn; the copper sheet blocks the rest. Then he moves the candle, and the light cast upon the urn looks different. When just the tip of the flame is in front of the pinhole, only a little light falls on the urn; when the centre of the flame is in front of the pinhole, more light falls on the urn. But there is always some light that reaches the urn; it must radiate from each point of the fire.

There is no mysterious "form" that all objects emit, nor do our eyes emit rays of light so we can see. Instead, there are sources of primary light – the Sun or a candle's flame – and this light is reflected from other objects (secondary light) and passes into our eyes so that we can perceive them. So Aristotle was wrong about light and vision. So were Euclid and Ptolemy. And if such great minds could be wrong about this, they might be wrong about other supposed "truths" as well!

Never again will the Scholar blindly accept assertions made by the Ancients, however revered; he vows to test and question everything. I will make myself the enemy of all I have read, attack the old ideas from every angle and dismantle all that do not pass my tests until only the truth remains.

Now the Scholar's days and nights are filled with activity. He studies how curved mirrors and glass bend and warp the light. He places lamps at different points around his bedchamber, all facing a single pinhole in the wall, and observes how the light from each lamp appears as a distinct spot on the far wall in the darkened room next door. He screens one lamp, then another, and notes how just the spot from the screened lamp disappears from the wall next door when he does so.

The outside world fades as he works with increasingly feverish intensity, oblivious to the sounds of city life echoing in the streets beyond his stone walls. Days turn into weeks, then months, then years, as he painstakingly records the details of all he discovers. There are seven volumes by the time he is done – a unified theory of light and vision that cites not a single ancient authority. He calls his manuscript Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics).

A decade has passed. One morning the Scholar hears a knock on his door. No-one knocks at his door – the guards leave food, water and other necessities, but have never interacted with him. He opens the door to al-Hakim's vizier, a servant by his side. The three men stand in awkward silence, the servant shifting nervously from one foot to the other, eyes fixed resolutely on the ground. The vizier clears his throat.

"Our Caliph is missing," he says. Lately, he explained, al-Hakim had taken to riding out into the al-Muqattam hills at night to fast and meditate. "Alas – this time, he has not returned."

Only his bloodstained robes and donkey had been found. There are whispers of foul play, of assassins hired by al-Hakim's half-sister, Sitt al-Mulk, so that she can rule as regent until the Caliph's young son comes of age. But there is no proof of such a plot, and little choice but to declare al-Hakim dead.

The vizier studies the Scholar for a moment, then pulls a scroll from his robes. "This is a decree by the court physicians that the curse of madness is no longer upon you. Your house arrest is lifted. You are free to go."

He snaps his fingers and turns to leave with his servant, pausing at the door to glance back at the Scholar. "May Allah smile upon you," the vizier murmurs. And he is gone.

The Scholar stands trembling in the cool shadows. Could it be true? He takes a shuffling step towards the door, then another. No guard tries to stop him. In the bright bustle of dhuhr, as the Sun reaches its zenith and the devout kneel for their noontime prayers, he emerges from his prison, blinking in the sudden glare, as if awakening from an unpleasant dream. He tilts his head back, raises his palms, and embraces the light.

This is a work of fiction – a fanciful re-imagining of a 10-year period in the life of the medieval Muslim polymath Ibn al-Haytham (AD 965–1040) considered by many historians to be the father of modern optics. Living at the height of the golden age of Arabic science, al-Haytham developed an early version of the scientific method 200 years before scholars in Western Europe, and is most celebrated for the seven-volume Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics). The first three books deal with visual perception and psychology, while the remaining volumes focus on physical optics. It is frequently ranked alongside Newton's Principia as one of the most influential books in physics.

Very little is known about al-Haytham, other than what is contained in his written works – those that survived the pillaging of the Crusades in the 11th century and the sacking of Baghdad in the mid-13th century, which effectively ended the golden age. This story is inspired by historical accounts, but I have taken some liberties for the sake of the narrative. For instance, accounts differ as to whether al-Haytham was placed under house arrest or imprisoned in an asylum; I have opted for the former.

It is likely that al-Haytham did fail to build a dam to regulate the flooding of the Nile, at a site near the modern Aswan Dam, and feigned madness to escape execution by the Caliph al-Hakim of the Fatimid dynasty. He wrote the Book of Optics during this period, although details of the exact conditions under which he worked are lacking. There really was a House of Knowledge, and visitors to Cairo can still visit the Azhur Mosque where he taught. Al-Haytham went on to make contributions to astronomy, mathematics, engineering, medicine and physics. The year 2011 marks the millennial celebration of the Book of Optics.

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CasaXPS software training for XPS/ESCA

2011-01-06T10:27:00.000-06:00

The course will include an overview of the features in CasaXPS, converting data in different file formats (such as from Kratos, Physical Electronics, and Thermo Fisher Scientific [formerly VG]) into the ISO standard format, different display modes, different peak identification and labeling methods, different background subtraction methods (linear, Shirley, Tougaard,…), peak areas, sensitivity factors and their linked databases, quantitative analysis using default transitions and user-selected transitions, adding peaks, curve fitting, selection of lineshapes and backgrounds, curve fitting using reference spectra, combining curve fit data into quantitative analysis tables, correcting energy scale for sample charging, propagating processed data to other data, depth profile data, least squares fitting, annotation relative to peaks or to the display box, spectrum zoom, inserting additional spectra within a window, copying spectra into reports, changing aspect ratios, changing fonts, changing line colors, batch processing, customizing CasaXPS, creating and saving versions with special databases, and its use in data processing with other techniques such as AES and SIMS.

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3D magnetic domains imaged for the first time

2011-01-06T10:22:00.000-06:00

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Jan 5, 2011

Physicists in Europe are the first to obtain 3D images of magnetic domains – regions within a material in which all the magnetic moments point in the same direction. While 2D magnetic domains on surfaces can be imaged using several different techniques, 3D images have eluded scientists since such magnetic domains were first proposed over 100 years ago. As well as providing better insight into how domains form and evolve, the technique could also help to improve hard disks – which store data in magnetic domains.

Below a critical temperature the magnetic moments in a ferromagnetic material such as iron tend to point in the same direction as their neighbours. In the absence of an applied magnetic field, however, all the moments in an iron sample will not always point in the same direction. Instead microscopic regions – called domains – can form whereby all the moments of one domain will point in one direction, while all the moments of a neighbouring domain may point in a different direction.

While physicists have been able to study the effect of domains on the magnetic properties of materials, they had not been able to make 3D images of domains deep within the bulk of a material. Instead they had to settle on destructive techniques such as imaging domains near the surface of the sample and then shaving off a thin layer and repeating the measurement.

But now Ingo Manke and Nikolay Kardjilov of the Helmholtz Centre Berlin and colleagues in Germany, Switzerland and the UK have created the first 3D images using a new technique called Talbot-Lau neutron tomography. They did this by firing a coherent beam of low-energy neutrons at a sample of an iron-silicon alloy. A small number of the neutrons are deflected slightly when they cross a boundary between two domains. This deflection occurs because the index of refraction of the material changes abruptly at the boundary. A diffraction grating with a detector behind it is scanned across the beam of deflected neutrons to determine the angle of deflection.

This measurement is repeated many times as the sample is rotated through 360°. The data are then fed into a computer program developed by the team, which produces a 3D image of the domains. The images have a spatial resolution of about 35 µm, which Manke and Kardjilov say could be improved to about 1 µm by using a neutron detector with a better spatial resolution and a higher neutron flux.

Bruce Gaulin of McMaster University in Canada told physicsworld.com, "I am very impressed with the quality of the 3D visualization of the magnetic domains and the quantitative analysis that this quality of data enables." Gaulin, who was not involved in the research, added that the work represents "a significant advance and I would expect it to allow much more detailed understanding of domain structures in materials of practical interest".

As well as improving their experimental set-up, the team is also developing better ways to interpret the data. The team also plans to use the technique to put magnetic-domain theories to the test and to make measurements in strong magnetic fields.

The work is describe in Nature Communications DOI:10.1038/ncomms1125.

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Chaos, Complexity and Transport (CCT11)

2011-01-06T10:17:00.000-06:00

The main goal of the CCT11 conference is to discuss shared phenomena in nonlinear dynamics related to chaos, transport and complexity. A strong emphasis will be put on the interdisciplinary character of the conference. In the spirit of its interdisciplinary character, CCT11 will contain theoretical, numerical and experimental contributions (as lectures, oral communications and posters). The committees will encourage the interactions between experimentalists and theoreticians in the same fields but also cross-disciplinary contributions.

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Model 24C Cryogenic Temperature Controller

2011-01-06T10:14:00.000-06:00

The Model 24C is a four-input, four control loop cryogenic temperature controller designed for general purpose laboratory and industrial use.

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Highlights of the Model 24C:

*Four multipurpose input channels support Diode, Platinum RTD and most cryogenic NTC resistive temperature sensors. Thermocouple inputs are optional.

*Operation from 250mK to over 1500K with an appropriate sensor. Constant-Voltage, AC excitation of resistive sensors minimizes errors and extends their useful temperature range.

*Four control loops: Loop #1: 50-Watt, three range, Loop #2: 10-Watt, Loops #3 and #4: non-powered.

*Large, bright and highly configurable display.

*Synchronous input filter improves control accuracy and stability in cryocooler based systems.

*Two dry-contact relay outputs.

*Data logging to internal Non-Volatile memory.

*Fail-safe cryostat protection features protect user equipment from damage.
Table mode control automatically switches the loop input sensor to allow smooth, continuous control over a wide range of temperature.

*Remote interfaces include 100/10 Ethernet and RS-232. IEEE-488.2 (GPIB) and USB are optional.

*Remote command language is IEEE SCPI compliant.

*National Instruments, Inc. LabVIEW™ drivers are available for all interfaces.

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SPIE Remote Sensing 2011

2011-01-06T10:06:00.000-06:00

Remote sensing is a fast-growing technology using highly sophisticated sensors on satellites and other elevated platforms as well as on the ground, together with adapted signal and image processing, to deliver many practical applications hardly to be conceived of a few decades ago. The SPIE Remote Sensing Symposium has become the largest and most prestigious annual international meeting on this subject in Europe with more than 600 attendees and each year sees comprehensive coverage of scientific topics, applications, sensors, systems, and satellite platforms and more than 25 countries are represented.
+ Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology
+ Remote Sensing of the Ocean, Sea Ice, Coastal Waters, and Large Water Regions
+ Sensors, Systems, and Next-generation Satellites
+ Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere
+ Optics in Atmospheric Propagation and Adaptive Systems
+ Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring, GIS Applications, and Geology
+ Lidar Technologies, Techniques, and Measurements for Atmospheric Remote Sensing
+ Addressing Natural Disasters and Sustainable Resources Using Satellite Data
+ High-Performance Computing in Applied Remote Sensing
+ Special Joint Session on Airborne Remote Sensing
Co-located with the SPIE European Symposium on Defence & Security, this event will provide an excellent opportunity to explore new opportunities to collaborate with new partners from other related fields of activity.
Co-located Symposium – SPIE Security+Defence
Two great meetings in one great location! Your registration fee gains you access to all the conferences in both Remote Sensing 2011 and Security+Defence 2011.

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Pyramid metrologists

2011-01-06T10:03:00.000-06:00

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Jan 5, 2011

Robert P Crease finds echoes of modern anti-reform movements in a bizarre 19th-century anti-metric effort that sought to base a measurement system on Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza

The only surviving member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Great Pyramid of Giza has captivated the imaginations of visitors for thousands of years. Alexander the Great visited it, as did Napoleon. In the late 19th century, however, the Great Pyramid took on a new role as a prop in an anti-metric movement. In doing so, this ancient Egyptian edifice became possibly the most bizarre example ever of an object proposed as a metrological standard.

Truth be told, the pyramid's solidity and permanence are properties one desires in a standard. Among the early "pyramid metrologists" was John Taylor, a partner in a London publishing firm, who (despite never having seen the Pyramid) believed its dimensions encoded secret knowledge, including the magnitudes of ancient units. In Taylor's view, the pyramid's mathematical relationships were simply too sophisticated for the ancient Egyptians to have devised – he claimed, for example, that the ratio of two sides of its base to its height is p, which is an irrational number that was unknown when the pyramid was built.

Taylor therefore asserted that the pyramid's architect must have been an Israelite obeying divine instructions. In the pyramid's dimensions, we can find God's own units of length, such as the "sacred cubit" (about 25 inches), and weight and capacity (from the coffer in the King's Chamber). The pyramid, in other words, revealed the true sizes of things both ancient and modern. For Taylor, the ancient, sacred, natural measurement system was superior to the modern, artificial, metric system – a point he voiced in his 1864 book The Battle of the Standards.

Taylor's book in turn inspired Charles Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer Royal of Scotland and an amateur Egyptologist. Smyth became convinced that "the Great Pyramid, besides its tombic use, might have been originally invented and designed to be appropriate for no less than a primitive Metrological Monument". Smyth wrote a 664-page book, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, that included other numerological claims.

The fundamental pyramid unit was not the cubit but its 25th part – the "pyramid inch" – which Smyth said was exactly 1/500,000,000th of the Earth's axis of rotation. It, rather than the metre, was the genuine natural standard. Smyth said that pyramid measurements were "true cosmical relations in their original units", and that the pyramid was "a Bible in stone, a monument of science and religion never to be divorced".

Smyth scorned the metric system, its inventors and its champions. For him, Anglo-Saxon peoples had wisely hewed to the pyramid-inch measure, from which the imperial inch differed only by a negligible fraction. "Simultaneously with the elevation of the metrical system in Paris," he thundered, "the French nation did for themselves formally abolish Christianity, burn the Bible, declare God to be a non-existence, a mere invention of the priests, and institute a worship of humanity, or of themselves."

In late 1864 Smyth set off for Egypt to investigate first-hand the metrological wonders encoded in the pyramid's dimensions: the distance of the Earth to the Sun; the length of the year; and the diameter and density of the Earth. He even found a temperature scale, with a zero point that was the freezing point of water and its 50 degree mark as the temperature of the King's Chamber.

When Smyth returned, his Royal Society colleagues were unimpressed and demolished his numerology, finding errors in his work that included the fact that the famous ratio of twice one side to height was not p but the more mundane ratio 22/7. (Martin Gardiner, that great exposer of pseudoscience, analyses Smyth's errors in his book Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science.) As the controversy heated up, so did Smyth's confidence, to the point where he began making absurd comparisons: himself to Kepler, and opponents to the know-nothings who ridiculed him. In a fit of rage following a tangle with James Clerk Maxwell, Smyth resigned from the Royal Society in 1874.

A few years later, however, Smyth found enthusiastic followers in the US among its extreme anti-metric movement: members of the International Institute for Preserving and Perfecting Weights and Measures. This campaign exhibited the classic signs of US anti-reform movements then and now: rabid rhetoric, fabrication of "facts", reimagining history, conspiracy theories and appeals to preserve the purity of race, nature and nation. The enemy was the "other": subversives, socialists, foreigners, atheism and artifice. The good guys were patriots, capitalists, Christians and adherents to God, country and nature.

US anti-reformists often trace their cause back to divine commandments and they love wacky props. The anti-metricists adopted the Great Pyramid as theirs, interpreting it as the same as the one in the Great Seal of the United States, which appears on the reverse of every dollar bill. The literary organ of the movement was the International Standard, whose issues contained numerological studies of the Great Pyramid, rants against the metric system, poems and even anti-metric songs.

Smyth wrote frequently for the Standard, and tried to enlist the movement's members in projects such as sending him back to Egypt for further measurements, and having the pyramid declared an international metrological park to protect it from war: "neutral ground under the guardianship of all English-speaking people, or of all Christian nations". Were he and the institute members drawn together more by the anti-metric cause or the pyramidology? This is unclear and does not matter; the two interests fed each other. At last Smyth found in them a receptive audience, at least for as long as the organization lasted, until 1888. When he died in 1900, Smyth's tombstone was formed from a stone pyramid topped by a cross.

The history of metrology contains numerous efforts to tether units to artefacts, natural phenomena and physical constants, but this is one of the few attempts to secure units by divine revelation. The Great Pyramid episode is fascinating in the way that it exhibits the passions that tend to crystallize around the quest for metrological finality.

Robert P Crease is chairman of the Department of Philosophy, Stony Brook University, and historian at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, US

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The Scholar and the Caliph

2011-01-06T09:59:00.000-06:00

N.B. This is a fictionalized account – see author's note below

The Scholar had heard the stories, and he feared the worst.

And then the Scholar had an epiphany. Would not the Caliph show mercy to a madman?

"Very well," he said at last. "He shall be placed under house arrest until further notice. But his worldly goods shall be forfeited."

"Wait." Al-Hakim held up a hand, and guards promptly blocked their exit. "Confiscate his books, too." He smiled slyly. "After all, what use does a madman have for reading?"

"Our Caliph is missing," he says. Lately, he explained, al-Hakim had taken to riding out into the al-Muqattam hills at night to fast and meditate. "Alas – this time, he has not returned."

He snaps his fingers and turns to leave with his servant, pausing at the door to glance back at the Scholar. "May Allah smile upon you," the vizier murmurs. And he is gone.

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Invisibility cloaks shield the large and visible

2011-01-03T08:59:00.000-06:00

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Jan 1, 2011

Two independent groups of physicists have built invisibility cloaks that can shield large objects lying on a plane. These "carpet cloaks" are far closer to the intuitive idea of an invisibility cloak than devices previously built, they argue, because they hide objects that can be seen with the naked eye and do so at visible wavelengths. The cloaks are also relatively cheap and easy to make, being constructed from the natural material calcite.

Carpet cloaks were proposed in 2008 by John Pendry of Imperial College, London as a way of extending the operating range of invisibility cloaks, which were mostly limited to microwave wavelengths. These devices are placed over an object sitting on a reflective plane and alter the path of light bouncing off the object in such a way that the light appears to have bounced straight off the plane.

However, all visible-light carpet cloaks built so far were demonstrated under a microscope, hiding objects no larger than 100 wavelengths across (about 50 µm). In addition, these cloaks were difficult to make, since they consisted of complex, artificially engineered materials. And they were not portable because the cloak, object and surrounding medium all tended to be made from a single structure.

The latest devices follow on from the work of Yu Luo of Zhejiang University in China and colleagues who realized last year that carpet cloaks can be built from homogeneous – rather than more complex inhomogeneous – materials, as long as those materials are anisotropic. Both devices in fact are built from the naturally occurring crystalline material calcite, the refractive index of which depends on the relative orientation of an incoming light wave’s polarization axis and the calcite’s optical axis.

George Barbastathis and co-workers at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) in Singapore made their cloak by gluing together two pieces of calcite with differently oriented optical axes. These orientations were fixed such that light waves with a given polarization that bounce off a wedge-shaped object placed underneath the cloak emerge travelling in the same direction and at the same height that they would have done had they bounced straight off the mirror beneath the object. The wedge, having a base length, width and height of 38 mm, 10 mm and 2 mm respectively, can easily be seen with the naked eye.

The team used a technique known as transformation optics to design their cloak. They calculated the optical parameters that were needed to transform the space between a small and a large triangle, such that light passing through this space would do so as if it were passing through all of the larger triangle, thereby effectively rendering the smaller triangle – the wedge – invisible. Having calculated these parameters the researchers were able to construct their cloak using conventional lens fabrication, with the cross section of the cloak being equal to the space between the two triangles, minus the top of the larger triangle.

The researchers then tested the cloak by directing a polarized laser beam so that the beam passed through a stencil, and then part of the emerging beam entered the cloak and bounced off the wedge while the remainder of the beam bounced directly off a reflective surface beneath the wedge. By detecting the different parts of the beam with a CCD camera they were able to show that the cloak worked. The team optimized the cloak so that it worked best at green wavelengths, which is where the eye is most sensitive, but showed that, some aberration aside, it also worked at red and blue wavelengths (arXiv:1012.2238).

Both the device and the experiment used to test it bear a striking resemblance to those of the second group, which includes John Pendry. This team published its research at arXiv:1012.2783 but is unable to discuss its work while the paper is being reviewed for acceptance in a scientific journal.

Pendry’s group tested its device in air, while Barbastathis and team immersed their cloak and wedge in a tank of colourless laser oil. They did this in order to simulate the environment in which the device would be used – in the sea around Singapore. Light tends to have a particular polarization in water and so the device can be tuned to that polarization. According to SMART’s Baile Zhang, the cloak could be used by engineers to hide cables along the seabed or to help biologists image the behaviour of fish and other sea creatures unobtrusively.

Tomas Tyc of Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, who was not a member of either group, thinks that the papers "describe important achievements in the area of experimental cloaking." But he maintains that a carpet cloak is quite different to a fully fledged Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak. He points out that a carpet cloak only really works when viewing an object – be it a rucksack or a sword on someone's back, for example – side on. Otherwise the object will appear flat but still be visible.

Zhang acknowledges this. Making free-standing cloaks, he says, "is the direction we need to move in". But doing so, he adds, will be very difficult since it will require the fabrication of materials with "extreme parameters".

Edwin Cartlidge is a science writer based in Rome

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Large Fluctuations in Non-Equilibrium Systems

2010-12-28T10:07:00.000-06:00

While the exploration of many-body systems far from equilibrium has achieved important recent progress, many profound physical properties of non-equilibrium systems are still far from being understood. This seminar brings together three communities working on closely connected advanced topics relating to collective behaviour in many-body systems: large fluctuations far from equilibrium, slow relaxation in non-equilibrium processes and extreme events in stochastic many-body systems, especially in systems of higher complexity. The envisaged interaction between these fields of research is expected to lead to progress through cross-fertilisation and to open up new directions of research.

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Look ahead to 2011

2010-12-28T10:03:00.000-06:00

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Dec 22, 2010

Astronomers have had, quite simply, a fabulous last 12 months. Not only did NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory take off in May to study the Sun – sending a wealth of images and data back to Earth – but the WISE sky surveyor successfully sent back its first data studying the universe in the infrared. Meanwhile, researchers in Japan had good reason to celebrate after the Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa mission successfully brought small specks from an asteroid back to Earth for the first time. Two other existing missions also produced fabulous stuff: the Planck satellite, launched by the European Space Agency in May 2009, provided its first all-sky map, while ESA's Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer, which launched in March 2009, made its first gravity map of Earth.

This astronomy bonanza shows no sign of abating in 2011 with the launch of a whole host of new probes. Mars continues to be a popular destination with the Russian Space Agency launching its delightfully named Phobos Grunt mission in November, to bring back to Earth a piece of rock from Phobos – one of Mars's moons. In the same month, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory is also set to begin its journey to the red planet to perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars and study the planet's habitability.

Also due to launch next year is NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter, which is expected to take off in August in a quest to study the planet's composition as well as its gravitational and magnetic fields. NASA will also launch the Earth-observing Glory satellite in November to study the planet's atmosphere in the visible and infrared.

Elsewhere in our solar system, astronomers are eagerly anticipating the arrival in March of NASA's Messenger craft, which is set to start orbiting around Mercury after a six and a half year journey. The craft has already completed three fly-bys, each lasting a few hours, taking images of the planet's surface as it passes by. The craft will enter orbit around the planet to study the planet's composition, its geological history and magnetic field for a year in much closer detail. Messenger instrument scientist Louise Proctor will be writing about the mission in the February issue of Physics World magazine.

Looking beyond our own neighbourhood, the Kepler mission, launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-like planets elsewhere in the cosmos, will also continue to deliver results – hunting down yet more exoplanets on top of the 350 or so the mission has already discovered. Many will be waiting for details of the 400 additional planets Kepler announced it had discovered this year but has yet to release details of. Could 2011 be the year when astronomers announce the discovery of a whole host of Earth-sized exoplanets?

Next year should also mark the final flight of the US Space Shuttle to the International Space Station. The final shuttle launch was previously intended for late 2010 but launch delays bumped the flight of Endeavour back to June. Endeavour will be no ordinary mission in another aspect too: it will be carrying the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer – a cosmic-ray detector that will be able to distinguish between a vast number of different types of cosmic-ray particle including high-energy positrons, which could be produced by collisions of dark-matter particles in the Milky Way. First results from the AMS are expected by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the US Congress will decide early in 2011 whether to fund a further shuttle launch in November, which will then mark the final shuttle flight.

Back down on Earth, the Dark Energy Survey telescope, led by the particle-physics centre Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, is expected to come online in October. It will be the world's largest camera for studying dark energy – the mysterious substance that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. The telescope has already been built and astronomers will begin moving it to Chile next year where it will use its 570 megapixel camera to survey 300 million galaxies in the southern sky to measure the speed of those galaxies.

Of course, astronomers will not be the only ones looking forward to 2011, with a whole host of anniversaries in various other disciplines on the horizon. In particular, 2011 has been designated the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) by the United Nations and endorsed by UNESCO – its body responsible for education, science and culture. The IYC marks the 100th anniversary of Marie Curie's Nobel Prize for Chemistry, which was awarded in 1911 for her "discovery of the elements radium and polonium".

Under the central theme of "chemistry – our life, our future", the IYC2011 will kick off on 27–28 January at UNESO headquarters in Paris with the opening ceremony including talks by 2009 Nobel-prize winner Ada Yonath as well as Rajendra Pachauri, director of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As it happens, 2011 also marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the International Association of Chemical Societies as well as the 100th anniversary of the Solvay Conferences, which were attended in their day by leading figures in science. Next year also marks 100 years since Ernest Rutherford proposed his model of the atom. Look out for the Rutherford Centennial Conference on Nuclear Physics, which will be held at the University of Manchester on in August 2011.

The other huge anniversary in 2011 is the centenary of the discovery of superconductivity – the phenomenon where the electrical resistance of a materials drops to exactly zero – by experimental physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. Whilst working at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, Onnes conducted an electrical analysis of pure metals such as mercury, tin and lead at very low temperatures and discovered the resistance of mercury went to zero at 4.2 K. Onnes won the Nobel Prize for Physics for this work in 1913.

Next year also sees the 25th anniversary of the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in compounds containing barium, lanthanum, copper and oxygen, which has a superconducting temperature above 40 K. These materials, an explanation for which continues to confound condensed-matter physicists, were discovered in 1986 by IBM researchers Karl Müller and Johannes Bednorz, who were quickly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1987. Be sure to not miss the superconductivity special issue of Physics World in April.

As ever, physicists would not be physicists without a good moan about funding, and budgetary constraints in many countries are sure to disappoint physicists next year. In the UK there was alarm earlier in the year that research councils' budgets would be slashed in the efforts to reduce the country's deficit. When the details were released in December many physicists were relieved that cuts to the Science and Technology Facilities Council – the main funding council for UK physics – were much less than feared. However, the UK government has cut the large facilities capital fund by 40%, which provides cash for large projects such as particle accelerators and university lab space. It will not be known for some years to come how much these cuts will have affected UK physics.

Researchers in the US are also concerned that their science budget could be cut now that Republicans have secured a majority in the House of Representatives. Some Republicans have issued a pledge promising to return government spending to the levels of 2008 and if that is applied to science, cuts are sure to happen. More will be known soon regarding the 2011 budget and physicists will be keeping an eye out in February when Barack Obama is due to announce the administration's budget request for 2012.

One lab that will especially have a vested interest in that request is Fermilab, which will then know if the administration has opted to fund the Tevatron proton–antiprotron collider for another three years so that it can hunt down the Higgs boson. The Tevatron is due to stop operations by the end of 2011 and turn to constructing experiments in muon and neutrino science. However, many neutrino scientists will be furious if the Tevatron is granted extra funding of around $35m a year to continue running until 2014 because it would lead to a delay in the NOvA experiment.

Back in Europe, bosses at CERN will be tucking into their Christmas dinners chuffed that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN managed to successfully collide protons at 7 TeV as well as completing the first runs with lead ions. But first in their in-tray in the New Year will be to decide whether to continue running the LHC until the end of 2012. Currently the collider is due to close at the end of 2011 to start a year-long maintenance run, but the LHC has been pouring out new results, particularly with the recent run of colliding lead ions together. With the hunt for the Higgs boson hotting up and Fermilab possibly extending for another three years, physicists at CERN will be hoping that any extension will allow them to hone in on it next year.

Another mega facility crawling into life after years of planning is the huge National Ignition Facility in the US, which focuses the energy of 192 laser beams onto a tiny target filled with hydrogen fuel. After successfully completing tests this year, NIF will prepare to use deuterium-tritium fusion fuel by early spring next year. If this test is a success it will be a step closer to achieving "first ignition" – the moment at which the device will produce more energy from fusion than is required to start the reactions – possibly by the end of the year.

Roll on 2011!

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Metamaterials'2011

2010-12-28T09:58:00.000-06:00

Metamaterials '2011: The Fifth International Congress on Advanced Electromagnetic Materials in Microwaves and Optics edit

Barcelona, Spain, 10-15 October 2011

Metamaterials 2011 will be hosted by the Centre CIMITEC of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

This congress series was initiated by the European Network of Excellence Metamorphose and is organized by the Virtual Institute for Artificial Electromagnetic Materials and Metamaterials (Metamorphose VI).

This series of events brings together and continues the traditions of the highly successful series of International Conferences on Complex Media and Metamaterials (Bianisotropics) and Rome International Workshops on Metamaterials and Special Materials for Electromagnetic Applications and Telecommunications. International Conferences on Complex Media and Metamaterials had eleven editions, with the names “Chiral”, “Bi-isotropics”, or “Bianisotropics”, reflecting the developments in the field of artificial electromagnetic materials.

The Congress will address a wide area of research in artificial electromagnetic materials and surfaces and their applications from RF to optical frequencies. The conference topics encompassing theory, design, applications, fabrication and measurements include but are not limited to:

* Physics of complex electromagnetic materials
* Micro- and nano-fabrication of metamaterials
* Experimental techniques for characterization of metamaterials
* Analytical and numerical modelling of metamaterials
* Homogenization of metamaterials and effective medium models
* Three-dimensional metamaterials
* Planar metamaterial structures, meta-surfaces and meta-sheets
* Metamaterials for nanoelectronics and nanoantennas
* Carbon nanotubes and graphene in metamaterials
* Tunable, reconfigurable and nonlinear metamaterials
* Absorption-free metamaterials
* Chiral and bianisotropic composites
* Metamaterials with extreme parameters
* Quantum metamaterials
* Plasmonic metamaterials
* Extraordinary transmission
* EBG structures, photonic crystals, and their applications
* RF and microwave metamaterials: design, properties, and applications
* Millimeter wave/THz metamaterials and applications
* Optical metamaterials and applications
* Acoustic metamaterials and applications
* Antenna and absorber applications of metamaterials
* Metamaterials as sensors
* Medical applications of metamaterials
* Superlenses, hyperlenses, other near-field imaging devices
* Transformational electromagnetics and optics
* Advances in cloaking
* Educational aspects of metamaterials

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The New Generation in Strongly Correlated Electron Systems 2011

2010-12-28T09:53:00.000-06:00

We are happy to announce that the abstract submission for the 2011 edition of the conference “The New Generation in Strongly Correlated Electron Systems” is open. You can check out the conference details in this website: http://ngsces2011.cesga.es. The conference is addressed to scientists in an early stage of their careers, from graduate students to postdocs and young assistant professors. The aim of the conference is to bring together emergent researchers in the field of strongly correlated electrons and promote collaborations between them in a friendly atmosphere. We have tried to assemble the conference around four main topics: high Tc superconductivity, including cuprates and pnictides; topological insulators and topological order; graphene, and oxide heterostructures. Despite of this, contributions in other topics in the field are more than welcome.

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Developments and Prospects in Quantum Impurity Physics

2010-12-28T09:50:00.000-06:00

Systems that can be described in terms of a finite, strongly interacting quantum mechanical system coupled to a weakly interacting extended one, where the former has a discrete spectrum, while the latter is characterized by a continuum of energy levels occur in many different areas of physics. These systems are commonly called quantum impurity systems. Quite generally, the dichotomy between localized and extended states in these systems gives rise to a variety of possible behaviors and to highly non-trivial fixed points and rich universal physics.
This international workshop will bring together researchers from a broad range of areas to which quantum impurity physics is essential. It will cover the recent achievements and aims at generating a cross-fertilization among the various fields. The workshop is preceded by an Advanced School that will be open to PhD students and young postdocs. During the school week, leading experts will give introductory lectures to various theoretical and experimental aspects pertinent to quantum impurity physics. ICAM travel awards are available for eligible candidates. For further information, or to apply, please refer to http://www.pks.mpg.de/~qimp11

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Our favourite pictures of 2010

2010-12-28T09:45:00.000-06:00

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Dec 22, 2010

These are 15 of our favourite images from 2010 presented in no particular order. Some are funny, some instructive and others are just plain beautiful. We hope you enjoy looking at them

No, that's not a Frisbee balancing on a stalagmite – it's an electron microscope image of the first all-optical transistor on a silicon chip. (Courtesy: EPFL.)

It could be a Hermes scarf, but it's a photograph of topological defects created when a particle is placed in a liquid crystal. (Courtesy: Oleg Lavrentovich, Israel Lazo and Oleg Pishnyak.)

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been sweeping around the Moon for over a year and has delivered many spectacular pictures – including this one of the far side of the Moon. (Courtesy: NASA.)

This one made us laugh. On the left is an artist's impression of a four-legged molecular motor, which walks much like a horse (right). (Courtesy: Ludwig Bartels.)

Why does Leonardo's famous portrait of Mona Lisa have such natural grace? The answer could come from this X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy study at the Louvre. (Courtesy: Walter Philippe.)

This is our best view yet of "the face of God", taken by ESA's Planck space mission. What will this all-sky survey of the cosmic microwave background reveal about the origin of the universe? (Courtesy: ESA.)

Making a model of the Matterhorn just 25 nm tall must rank among the oddest of follies. But that's just what Armin Knoll and colleagues at IBM in Switzerland and the US did using their new scanning probe lithography technique. (Courtesy: IBM Research, Zurich.)

Fantastic flares and eerie light from streams of electrons are just some of the stunning scenes of the Sun captured in high resolution by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which was launched in February. (Courtesy: NASA.)

Magnetohydrodynamics may be a mouthful, but it does create stunning computer visualizations. These were made by Akira Kageyama and colleagues at the Earth Simulator supercomputer in Japan and show how molten iron could flow deep within our planet's interior to generate the Earth's magnetic field.

This scanning tunnelling microscope image is the first ever fractal pattern spotted in a quantum system. It was taken by Ali Yazdani and team at Princeton University in the US, who say that the fractal emerges when the doped gallium arsenide sample makes the transition from metal to insulator. (Courtesy: Yazdani Group, Princeton University.)

This year's Nobel Prize for Physics went to Andre Geim (left) and Kostya Novoselov of the University of Manchester. We loved this serene shot of the two graphene gurus sitting outside on a lovely autumn day – the calm before the storm of fame struck. (Courtesy: University of Manchester.)

Oops! There goes the neighbourhood. This amazing 60 m "sinkhole" suddenly appeared this year in Guatemala City. Geophysicists say that such collapses can occur when liquids flow into an underground cavity causing it to corrode into a network of chambers that can no longer support the overlying rock and soil. (Courtesy: Guatemalan Government.)

Do these concentric circles offer a glimpse of before the Big Bang? Roger Penrose and Vahe Gurzadyn came to this conclusion after studying images of the cosmic microwave background radiation. However, other physicists are not convinced. (Courtesy: Penrose and Gurzadyn.)

The oceans are full of tiny organisms like this alga. Their constant swimming plays an important, yet poorly understood, role in the transport of heat and nutrients. The colours and contours show how water flows past the moving alga. (Courtesy: K Drescher and colleagues, University of Cambridge.)

Remember that scene in Star Wars when a hologram of Princess Leia pops out of R2D2? Now, Nasser Peyghambarian and colleagues at the University of Arizona and Nitto Denko Technical Corporation have taken an important step towards creating such an animation. This is their version of an F-4 Phantom Jet. (Courtesy: gargaszphotos.com/University of Arizona.)

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TOWARDS ELECTRICITY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A CARBON NEUTRAL EUROPE

2010-12-28T09:42:00.000-06:00

Upgrading, extending and connecting Europe's transmission systems is essential to meet Europe's security of power supply, emissions reduction and renewable energy targets. Infrastructure investments and pan-European network rules are also fundamental to achieve a seamless and efficient European electricity market with competitive end-user prices

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Funding the frontiers of materials science

2010-12-28T09:38:00.000-06:00

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Dec 22, 2010

When it comes to funding dollars, the National Science Foundation's Division of Materials Research (DMR) is one of America's most important backers of materials science.

Next year, this government agency will allocate close to $320 million on a wide-ranging programme of advanced materials research and technology innovation.

In this exclusive physicsworld.com video interview, Ian Robertson, the DMR's incoming director, talks about growth areas – nanoelectronics, photovoltaics and data-enabled science among others – and what the agency is doing to encourage high-risk, high-payoff interdisciplinary research.

As for the "next big thing", Robertson doesn't have a crystal ball, but he does predict a pivotal role for computational materials science and simulation in areas like synthesis, processing and the modelling of next-generation materials.

"My feeling is that it is not going to impact one area of materials science, but the entire field," says Robertson, who is also a Donald B Willett professor of engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

This interview forms part of a series filmed at the Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting in Boston. See also "Living in a material world".

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Hot topics in Modern Cosmology : Spontaneous Workshop V

2010-12-28T09:34:00.001-06:00

Spontaneous Workshop (SW) brings together specialists on recent insights in Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology. The aim is to stimulate debates on common topics in views of providing us with innovating ideas.

The workshop’s organization is based on an optimal number of concise presentations and enough space for discussions on emergent problems in order to favor interactions among participants.

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MEGA Industries, LLC to Attend PAC’11

2010-12-24T12:42:00.001-06:00

Mega to Exhibit at High Energy Physics Event The event will take place in NYC from March 28 - April 1, 2011. Visit Mega at booth 303.

GORHAM, Maine (December 20, 2010) – Mega Industries, LLC, a world leader in high power RF equipment manufacturing, is continuing their support of high energy physics by exhibiting at the 2011 Particle Accelerator Conference (PAC’11). Mega is also sponsoring a coffee break and will be looking forward to meeting you there!

This conference series is of particular significance to Accelerator Scientists, Engineers, and Students interested in all aspects of particle accelerator technology and as such represents a core group supported by Mega’s product line.

Mega CEO, Peter Matthews, said “The organizations attending have been a key element in the past success of our company.” He continued, “Mega continues to support these programs and deliver the high quality devices that make their scientific endeavors possible.”

Mega plans to take part in many areas, including the release of information gathered over the previous year at their Industrial Forum display booth. Mega VP of Engineering, Henry Downs, said “We will continue our efforts to be a leader in this industry and intend to unveil a number of new and exciting products that will be of interest to the scientists and students in attendance.”

Mega Industries, LLC (www.megaind.com) is a privately held Maine company that has celebrated its 21st year in business in 2010. Mega manufactures Coax, Waveguide, Flexible waveguide and their associated components. These allow Scientists and Engineers to create high power RF Systems for research, manufacturing and FM Broadcast systems. Mega operates from a 30,000 square foot facility that was specifically designed to accommodate the manufacturing requirements for these specialized devices.

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Semiconductor memory stores spins

2010-12-20T09:34:00.000-06:00

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Dec 19, 2010

Physicists in the US and the UK have found a way to store and read data in nuclear spins using electronic pulses. The breakthrough could help in the development of spintronic systems that process information using spins – and could also find applications in quantum computation.

Spintronics is an emerging area of solid-state physics that attempts to use the spin as well as the charge of electrons to process data more efficiently. But a problem with electron spins is that they have a fairly short lifetime, which in practice would lead to corrupt data. For this reason scientists have been looking for new and better ways to store and retrieve information from spin systems.

One place to store spin-based information is in nitrogen-vacancy defects of a diamond crystal, and in recent years this has shown some promise. But the trouble with using diamond is that it is not compatible with conventional silicon-based electronics – a must if spintronic devices are ever to be integrated into computers.

Now, Dane McCamey of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and colleagues from Florida State University, Tallahassee, and University College London have found a way to store, and read, spins in a widely used semiconductor: phosphorous doped silicon (SiP). Their work marks the first time anyone has taken an electrical readout of data held in atomic nuclei.

Researchers have previously tried to map spin information (whether a spin is pointing up or down) onto nuclei and then read it, but had little success. The answer from McCamey's group is to polarize all the conduction electrons in the SiP so that they are all in the same spin state. The do this by cooling the material to a few degrees above absolute zero and applying a strong magnetic field of some 8.5 T. They can then send in electromagnetic pulses near terahertz frequencies (1012 Hz) to write an up or down spin onto electrons orbiting the phosphorus atoms, before sending in radio waves to transfer those spins to the nuclei.

The team found the nuclei could store the spins for about 300,000 times longer than the typical electron spin lifetime. To read the spin information, the researchers simply did the reverse process: send in radio waves to transfer the spins from the nuclei back to the electrons, and then send in a final, near-terahertz pulse, which exhibited a greater current for an up-spin than a down-spin.

"Whether the scheme develops into further applications in spin quantum computation or spin electronics would depend a lot on whether this technique is flexible and relatively easy to use by the community," said Sankar Das Sarma, a condensed-matter theorist at the University of Maryland. "It's too soon to tell. What I can say is that I am quite impressed by the clever electrical read out technique used by the authors here, and I hope that this has a future in spintronics."

According to John Morton, a materials scientist at Oxford University, the difficulty of developing the researchers' scheme into applications might depend on what the application is. The low temperatures and high magnetic fields wouldn't fare well with conventional computers, for which spintronics is destined. However, low temperatures might be less of a problem for quantum computers – that is, computers that exploit quantum physics to perform certain calculations much faster than computers in use today.

"Because a quantum computer is able to solve problems that a classical computer cannot in any reasonable amount of time, it doesn’t matter that you need to work at five Kelvin," Morton said. "It doesn't matter if you have a short lifetime and you need to keep running error-correcting algorithms – because you will be able to solve something that can't be done elsewhere."

McCamey told physicsworld.com that his group is now planning to scale down the number of nuclei used, so that they can isolate just a single nucleus to function as a memory element.

The research is published in Science 330 1652.

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Top 10 books for 2010

2010-12-20T09:30:00.000-06:00

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Dec 20, 2010

Physics World reviewed more than 60 popular-physics books in 2010. That's more than most people will read in a lifetime, and, without wanting to sound immodest, we think it's also enough to lend weight to our opinion of the year's best. Reviews editor Margaret Harris picks her top 10 for 2010

10. The Tunguska Mystery by Vladimir Rubtsov (Springer)
Some obscure, little-publicized books deserve to remain so. This isn't one of them. True, the book's subject matter – a massive explosion that flattened 2100 km2 of Siberian forest over a century ago – is admittedly a little arcane, but in weaving together history, science and personal narrative, Vladimir Rubtsov makes a compelling case for why the Tunguska event deserves more attention beyond the borders of the old Soviet Union.

9. Coming Climate Crisis? Consider the Past, Beware the Big Fix by Claire L Parkinson (Rowman & Littlefield)
I seldom disagree with Physics World's reviewers, but in this case, I did. Reviewer Alan Robock objected to the fact that, although Claire Parkinson is not a climate sceptic herself, and her book discusses many flaws in sceptics' arguments, she nevertheless treats those arguments seriously. Having read my share of ranting discussion-board posts, I admit that Robock had a point when he wrote that "when 'sceptical' scientists misrepresent the science on purpose...they should be condemned – not have their specious arguments accepted uncritically". However, I also think that insults are unlikely to change minds, and that too many books about climate change (on both sides) are "preaching to the choir". If we want a better-quality debate, Parkinson's approach seems closer to the mark.

8. How It Ends by Chris Impey (W W Norton)
Rather than looking back to the Big Bang and trying to describe how life, the universe and everything began, Chris Impey chose to tackle the just-as-intriguing question of what happens when it ends. Impey defines "it" as everything from life on Earth (human and otherwise) to the solar system, the galaxy and the universe itself. According to our reviewer, Cormac O'Raifeartaigh, the result is a varied and surprisingly cheerful proof that "every good story needs an ending".

7. Lake Views: This World and the Universe by Steven Weinberg (Harvard University Press)
A new book of essays from Steven Weinberg is always welcome, and our reviewer, John Ellis, was fulsome in his praise of this one. The subject matter in these essays ranges from science and philosophy to defence policy and religion. According to Ellis, each essay "dissects one of these subjects with the same logic, clarity and single-mindedness that his colleagues appreciate in Weinberg's research papers". If more of us could view such subjects with Weinberg's cool rationality, Ellis adds, "our world and our public discourse would be the better for it".

6. The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It by Scott Patterson (Crown Business)
After observing that he has "always been surprised that scientists in academia are not more curious about the lives of their former peers working in the 'real world'", Physics World reviewer Steve Hsu went on to recommend that anyone willing to buck the trend should read this pacy description of the "increasingly mathematical and technological world of high finance, and the many physicists, mathematicians and engineers who inhabit it". Just don't get too jealous of their high-flying lifestyles.

5. Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson (Faber and Faber)
We at Physics World have always argued that people with a physics background can turn their hands to a wide variety of careers. As it turns out, the financial physicists who feature in our number 6 book can claim an illustrious predecessor: at the age of 53, no less a physicist than Isaac Newton traded academic life at Cambridge for the chance to "wade hip deep into London's underworld" as warden of the Royal Mint. Thomas Levenson's account of this part of Isaac Newton's career makes for compelling reading, and offers fresh insights into one of physics' best-known figures.

4. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (One World Publications/ W W Norton)
Ever wanted to become an astronaut? Ever considered that boldly going where few have gone before will require sacrificing a lot of privacy, accepting a lot of hazards, and spending months in a space capsule that reeks of your fellow astronauts' farts? Roach's eye-opening account of the smelly, uncomfortable and just plain weird side of space exploration is equal parts fascinating and hilarious. Yet even when she's asking a Russian cosmonaut about space-borne sex substitutes, her respect for the human beings willing to take the gross with the glorious is evident. As she writes in the introduction, "Space doesn't just encompass the sublime and the ridiculous. It erases the line between."

3, 2, 1...
In 2009 picking the year's top book was easy: Graham Farmelo's biography of Paul Dirac, The Strangest Man, stood head-and-shoulders above the rest, and won a Costa "Best Biography" gong to prove it. The competition for 2010 was tighter, with a cluster of books vying for the honour, and it was hard to decide between them. So with that caveat, here come the top three...

3. Massive: The Hunt for the God Particle by Ian Sample (Virgin Books/Basic Books)
A lot of ink has been spilled about the Higgs boson in the past few years, and the fact that we haven't discovered the damn thing yet doesn't seem to stem the tide one bit. But if you read just one popular-science book about the ubiquitous/elusive particle this year, let it be this one. (If you read two, pick up Gian Francesco Giudice's The Zeptospace Odyssey as well – it fell just outside this list.) According to our reviewer Andy Parker, Ian Sample's account "could be the screenplay" for a Hollywood film about Higgs-hunting. Yet Sample is also careful with the science, giving credit to physicists other than Peter Higgs and avoiding the lazy assumption that particle physics begins and ends with the boson that bears his name. So if you want to explain to a non-scientist what all the fuss is about, says Parker, "buy them this book, and get a copy for yourself".

2. How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel (One World Publications/Scribner)
Richard Feynman once said that if you cannot explain something to a first-year undergraduate, you haven't really understood it. The author of our number two book, Chad Orzel, pushes Feynman's principle to its logical conclusion – and beyond – by attempting to explain quantum physics to Emmy, his dog. It's a cute idea, and it works for several reasons. One is that Orzel's explanations are unusually clear and concrete, and they incorporate graphs, diagrams and simple equations in a way that aids understanding, rather than hindering it. Another reason is that he draws many of his examples not from quantum mechanics' 1920s "golden age", but from modern experiments performed by living scientists. This is astonishingly (and sadly) uncommon for a quantum-physics book aimed at a popular audience. And finally, there's Emmy. A talking dog will not be every reader's cup of tea, but Emmy's naïve-yet-revealing questions do allow Orzel to correct misconceptions and try out different explanations without appearing to talk down to the reader. Give the dog (and her owner) a biscuit, and give this book a try.

1. The Edge of Physics: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Cosmology by Anil Ananthaswamy (Duckworth/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
With big unanswered questions about dark matter and dark energy dominating current research, these are exciting times for cosmology. Yet writers who want to communicate that excitement have a problem: once they've stated the mind-blowing fact that 96% of the universe's mass is a near-complete mystery to us, what do they do for an encore? Ananthaswamy's ingenious solution was to focus on cosmology's practical side, by taking a continent-hopping tour of experiments that aim to detect cosmological mysteries like neutrinos and dark matter. The result is a book that hovers between popular physics and travelogue, as Ananthaswamy, a consultant editor of New Scientist, writes with equal eloquence about the ethereal science of neutrinos and the (literally) cold practicalities of studying them in places like Antarctica and Siberia. He's got a good eye for detail, too, speckling his account with the sort of anecdotes – like finding 18th-century lead for dark-matter detector shields or retrieving a string of photomultiplier tubes from the bottom of the world's deepest lake – that bring research to life. It's a fine story, told in an innovative and exciting way – and it's our book of the year for 2010.

Happy holiday reading!

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Physics World reveals its top 10 breakthroughs for 2010

2010-12-20T09:26:00.001-06:00

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Dec 20, 2010

It was a tough decision, given all the fantastic physics done in 2010. But we have decided to award the Physics World 2010 Breakthrough of the Year to two international teams of physicists at CERN, who have created new ways of controlling antiatoms of hydrogen.

The ALPHA collaboration announced its findings in late November, which involved trapping 38 antihydrogen atoms (an antielectron orbiting an antiproton) for about 170 ms. This is long enough to measure their spectroscopic properties in detail, which the team hopes to do in 2011.

Just weeks later, the ASACUSA group at CERN announced that it had made a major breakthrough towards creating a beam of antihydrogen that is suitable for spectroscopic studies. Our congratulations to both teams.

We have also awarded nine runners-up mentions (see below) – with second place going to the first direct detection of the spectrum of an exoplanet and third place to the observation of quantum behaviour in an object big enough to be seen with the naked eye.

The antihydrogen breakthroughs scooped our first prize because it ought now be possible to carry out the first detailed studies of the energy levels in antihydrogen. Any slight differences in the levels compared to ordinary hydrogen could shed light on one of the biggest mysteries in physics – why there is so much more matter than antimatter in the universe.

The ALPHA group is represented by Jeffrey Hangst of Aarhus University in Denmark, who told physicsworld.com that the holy grail of antihydrogen studies is measuring the energy of the 1 s to 2 s atomic transitions. This transition in the far-ultraviolet has been measured in hydrogen to an accuracy of two parts in 1014, and making similar measurements on antihydrogen could reveal a violation of charge-parity-time reversal (CPT) symmetry. The discovery of such a violation could also help physicists understand why there is much more matter than antimatter in the universe.

One challenge facing the ALPHA team is accumulating enough antihydrogen to make accurate measurements – however, Hangst said that the team has already trapped "a lot" more than the 38 reported in November. Hangst says that the most difficult part of the five-year ALPHA project has been "learning how to make antihydrogen cold enough to trap", because it is extremely difficult to make spectroscopic studies on beams.

In December, however, the ASACUSA team announced its ability to create a focused beam of antihydrogen that the researchers believe is suitable for making spectroscopic measurements at microwave energies. This should allow them to look at the hyperfine structure of antihydrogen energy levels and compare them to hydrogen – which could provide evidence of CPT violation.

ASACUSA team leader Yasunori Yamazaki of the RIKEN laboratory in Japan told physicsworld.com that its next step is to make their "antihydrogen beam from a strong non-uniform magnetic field region where it is produced and into a microwave cavity for analyses in a magnetic-field-free region to realize high-precision spectroscopy". He adds that the physicists are "an inch away" from extracting the beam and "several inches away" from making spectroscopic measurements. "I hope we can start to work on the spectroscopy next year after the confirmation of an antihydrogen beam," he says.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of both projects is that there is no definitive theoretical prediction of how (or indeed if) CPT-violation will occur in the hydrogen-antihydrogen system. The antihydrogen experiments will begin again at CERN in May, so look forward to exciting results – and perhaps a few surprises from both groups.

Second place in our list of top breakthroughs for 2010 goes to a team of astronomers in Canada and Germany who have made the first direct measurement of the atmospheric spectrum of a planet outside our solar system. Markus Janson of the University of Toronto and colleagues used the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) to study the atmosphere of the exoplanet HR 8799, which is 130 light-years from Earth. Although this particular exoplanet shows no signs of life, the ability to make such measurements is an important step forward in the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

In what is an important step towards testing Schrödinger's cat paradox, physicists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have bagged third place in our top 10 by observing true quantum behaviour in a macroscopic object big enough to be seen with the naked eye. Andrew Cleland and crew reduced the amplitude of the vibrations in a resonator by cooling it down to below 0.1 K. They were then able to create a superposition state of the resonator where they simultaneously had an excitation in the resonator and no excitation in the resonator. "This is analogous to Schrödinger's cat being dead and alive at the same time," says Cleland. This is the first time this feat has been achieved and it could shed light on the mysterious boundaries between the classical and quantum worlds.

Fourth place on our list is a last-minute entry and goes to two independent teams of physicists who have just published preprints claiming to have built the first invisibility cloaks that can hide large objects from visible light. Now George Barbastathis and colleagues at the Massachussets Institute of Technology and the University of Singapore report the cloaking of 2D millimeter-sized objects. Meanwhile Shuang Zhang and team at the University of Birmingham, Imperial College and the Technical University of Denmark have managed to cloak millimeter-sized 3D objects from prying eyes. Unlike most other cloaks that use artificial metamaterials, both cloaks use natural calcite crystals.

Two independent groups of physicists have been jointly awarded fifth place after they unveiled the first phonon "lasers". These emit coherent sound waves in much the same way as lasers emit coherent light waves. One team was led by Tony Kent at the University of Nottingham in the UK and the other by Ivan Grudinin at Caltech. One of the devices emits sound at about 400 GHz while the other operates in the megahertz range. As sound penetrates most materials, the lasers could be used to obtain 3D images of tiny nanostructures.

Many physicists believed it could not be done, but now a team in Germany has created a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) from photons, earning them the sixth slot. BECs are formed when identical bosons – particles with integer spin – are cooled until all particles are in the same quantum state. Although photons are the most common boson of them all, they are easily created or destroyed when they interact with other matter – making it very difficult to cool photons to form a condensate. But that did not deter Martin Weitz and colleagues at the University of Bonn, who got round this problem by continuously pumping the BEC with a laser to make up for lost photons. Beyond the pure chutzpah of making the BEC, the breakthrough could actually help boost the performance of solar cells.

Seventh place in our league table goes to physicists in the US who have shown us the human face of relativity. James Chin-Wen Chou and colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) used two of the world's most accurate optical clocks to show that time speeds up in a clock that is hoisted a mere 33 cm above the other. They also saw time slow down in a clock moving less than about 35 km/h relative to its twin. While there's nothing groundbreaking about the physics – Einstein's theories of relatively are on very solid ground – it's reassuring that its effects can be seen at human distances and speeds.

Anyone who uses physics to realize a scene from Star Wars deserves a place in our top 10, which is why Nasser Peyghambarian and collegues at the University of Arizona and Nitto Denko Technical Corporation come in at number eight. In 1977 audiences were wowed by the special effects in that cinematic classic, which included a hologram of Princess Leia making a distress call to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Now, Peyghambarian and team have taken a big step towards making such real-time, dynamic holograms a reality by inventing a photorefractive polymer screen that reacts very quickly to laser light.

Physicists have been making measurements of protons for more than 90 years so you would have thought its size would be settled. But this year an international team led by Randolf Pohl at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics discovered that the proton is about 4% smaller than previously thought – bagging ninth place in our list. The surprising result was obtained by studying "muonic" hydrogen in which the electron is replaced by a much heavier muon. The finding could mean that physicists need to rethink how they apply the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) – or even that the theory itself needs a major overhaul.

We couldn't have a top 10 list that does not include the significant breakthroughs in accelerator technology at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In March, LHC physicists achieved the first 7 TeV proton–proton collisions ever achieved in a particle accelerator. And what's more, in November the LHC moved seamlessly into the business of colliding lead ions in a successful bid to recreate the conditions of just after the Big Bang. Both runs generated copious amounts of data that will keep physicists busy until the accelerator starts up again next year.

View the original article here

EU fusion funding proposal fails

2010-12-19T19:32:00.001-06:00

EU fusion funding proposal fails
UPI.com
16 (UPI) -- The European Parliament has rejected a last-ditch plan to rescue financing for a nuclear fusion reactor project, officials say. ...
See all stories on this topic »

Nuclear fusion rockets and commuter airplanes for the masses
Next Big Future
Suburban Air Vehicles (SAVs) that get well over 200 mpg, cruise at over 120 mph (193 kph), emit less than 60 dBA from 125 feet (38 meters), ...
See all stories on this topic »

Next Big Future

Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament
BBC News
By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News A plan to rescue European financing of the Iter nuclear fusion reactor project has been rejected at the final ...
See all stories on this topic »

Blogs

33 new results for "nuclear fusion"

Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament | The ...
By admin
A plan to rescue European financing of the Iter nuclear fusion reactor project has been rejected at the final hurdle. Member states had wanted to reallocate.
The Nuclear N-Former: Breaking... - http://www.nuclearcounterfeit.com/

Edublawg: Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament
By Thunderspot
Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament. Posted by Thunderspot on Thursday, December 16, 2010. A plan to accomplishment European costs of the Iter nuclear admixture reactor activity has been alone at the final hurdle. ...
Edublawg - http://www.edublawg.com/

The Universe Series: The Sun, Our Nearest Star.
The power source of the Sun is a nuclear fusion reaction where hydrogen atoms fuse together at the huge temperatures to form helium. Essentially what happens is that in the process of forming hydrogen from helium there is small loss of ...
Suite101: Solar System Astronomy... - http://www.suite101.com/solar-system-astronomy

EU fusion funding proposal fails
By Ethiopian Review DB
The European Parliament has rejected a last-ditch plan to rescue financing for a nuclear fusion reactor project, officials say. EU member states had wanted to reallocate $1.8 billion from the existing Brussels budget to cover a ...
Ethiopian Review - http://www.ethiopianreview.com/news/201002/

Did Monster 'Dark Stars' Spawn the Supermassive Black Holes of a ...
By Casey Kazan Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff
In the first phase of steller evolution in the universe may have been powered by dark matter heating rather than the current popular theory of nuclear fusion. The power source was the annihilation of WIMPS (Weakly ...
The Daily Galaxy - Great Discoveries... - http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/

ArticlesZones.com – Article Directory – Star lifting – China car ...
By viedy
As a star's mass is reduced by star lifting its rate of nuclear fusion will decrease, reducing the amount of energy available to the star lifting process but also reducing the gravity that needs to be overcome. ...
ArticlesZones.com - Article Directory - http://www.articleszones.com/

If Travel Has An Easy Button Movolo Is It
By Phil Butler
Nuclear Fusion Simple. Movolo is friendly in its simplicity, and very useful operationally and in practicality. What is the so called hook? The development's “door to door” concept for one thing. To understand any startup's value, ...
Everything PR - http://www.pamil-visions.net/

Star Crafts | Easy Arts and Crafts for Kids
By Jane
In the center, the force of gravity is so strong that the temperatures are high enough for the atoms to “fuse” together, causingnuclear fusion. This energy slowly leaks out of the star , and by the time it gets to the surface most of ...
Easy Arts and Crafts for Kids - http://www.artsandcraftskids.net/

Baby Hitlers for all! (Another Special Guest Blogger post) « If By Yes
By IfByYes
I envy that man with the combined envy-power of all the stars in the universe, if there were a way to convert nuclear fusiondirectly into envy. “nova scotia scrooge like christmas”. Why is a Nova Scotia Scrooge different than a normal ...
If By Yes - http://ifbyyes.wordpress.com/

My Predictions for 2011
By DEMCAD
Major breakthrough in nuclear fusion or advanced solar energy. Major Female Artist has a Breakout Year (singer and song-writer) Los Angeles Lakers will be champs, again! The world will not end on December 21, 2012 ...
DEMCAD's Corner - http://demcad.blogspot.com/

Solar Power Battery - The Solution For Our Energy Needs
In the sun's core, the nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium molecules generates renewable, non-polluting energy in the form of light-giving photons - sunshine. Heat or electricity converted from sunshine is known as solar power. ...
Latest Articles on EzineMark.com - http://ezinemark.com/

Richard Wolf | Healthcare, Lab & Life Science
By admin
The technology is being developed or already exists; wind and wave power, hydrogen fuel and nuclear fusion. What can never be reversed if we let it happen is the loss of the diversity of life on our small, green and blue planet. ...
Healthcare, Lab & Life Science - http://www.infectedcranium.com/

Sunbathing can be good for you, say health charities - Newspointer ...
16. 18:20 A plan to rescue European financing of the Iter nuclear fusion reactor project has been thrown into uncertainty. A woman with no fear could help traumatised soldiers [Telegraph.co.uk] Dec. 16. 17:33 Mother-of-three, ...
Newspointer.co.uk - http://www.newspointer.co.uk/

music scholarships: European Master Scholarships In Nuclear Fusion ...
By home scholarship
The aim of the European Master in Nuclear Fusion Science and Engineering Physics (FUSION-EP) programme is to provide a high-level, multinational, research- oriented education in fusion-related engineering physics, in close relation to ...
music scholarships - http://musicscholarships.blogspot.com/

BBC News – Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament ...
By lflj
BBC News – Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament · Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence · Problem-solving ants inspire next generation of algorithms | KurzweilAI · Astronomers Find Evidence Of Other Universes In Cosmic ...
Infinity Explorations - http://infinityexplorations.wordpress.com/

News whack: Three hurtee-hurtee in garage gas blast | LINGsCARS ...
By Ling
A plan to rescue European financing of Iter nuclear fusion reactor project has been thrown into uncertainty. You give me happy happy luck luck. - news replorted 17:20. Ministers reject call by Tory peer to ban face masks at protests in ...
LINGsCARS.com - Blog - http://www.lingscars.com/blog/

The ultimate vote loser
By Jonathan
The natural world is instead, powered by molecular nuclear fusion. This converts water into helium and oxygen with a lot of surplus heat. It does not do toxic nuclear fission. Man should not either, as it is toxic death. ...
Jon's Text - http://jonsthings.blogspot.com/

Fusion finance plan is rejected | Finance Chronicle
Posted in News, Other - Business & Finance, Personal Finance, Renting & Real Estate No Comments. A plan to rescue European financing of the Iter nuclear fusion reactor project has been thrown into uncertainty. See the rest here: ...
Finance Chronicle - http://www.financechronicle.co.uk/

how is solar power used to make electricity? | Make Solar Power
By admin
Solar energy? The sun (in nuclear fusion) produce energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. It can be used/transformed into potential-chemical energy.
Make Solar Power - http://www.make-solar-powers.com/

[WATCH]: Steven Cowley: Fusion is energy's future
By videomarketing
www.ted.com Physicist Steven Cowley is certain that nuclear fusion is the only truly sustainable solution to the fuel crisis. He explains why fusion will work — and details the projects that he and many others have devoted their lives ...
work at home - http://workathome.wealthyaffiliatetips.org/

Homiecaller News » Blog Archive » Fusion finance plan is rejected
By admin
Posted by admin under Finance | No Comments. A plan to rescue European financing of the Iter nuclear fusion reactor project has been thrown into uncertainty. Read the original here: Fusion finance plan is rejected ...
Homiecaller News - http://homiecaller.com/

Forgotten/Unknown Guitar Heroes - TalkRational
By Bootsy
Hopefully a few people will find something they like, and explore a bit. Post some yurself! BONUS FOR GUITAR GEEKS!Nuclear fusion of Irish folk and American hillbilly. Just mind boggling! ...
TalkRational - http://talkrational.org/

HolstÂ The Planets ElgarÂ EnigmaÂ Â VariationsÂ BoultÂ Â Â Â Â ...
Military authorities have continued to focus on the indomitable force in the application of nuclear fusion and secret research and development sectors of their governments. Mechanoids emerged as the main successor to nuclear technology. ...
Rapidshare Downloads - http://rapidsharedownloadz.com/

Fullscreen Bossfight: What the hell are you talking about? That ...
By Spiracy
Well except for the fact that it's being worn by Dr Otto Octavius moments before his life altering experiment with nuclear fusionthat resulted in having mechanical tentacles fused to his spinal column (Notice I ...
Fullscreen Bossfight - http://fsbossfight.blogspot.com/

Dan Hooper « WE BLEED INK – the online hovel of poet miggy angel
By webleedink
At each stage of a star's evolution, there is a balance – or in some cases an imbalance – between the stars own gravity, which compresses it, & the force created through nuclear fusion or other processes, which pushes the star outward ...
WE BLEED INK - the online hovel... - http://webleedink.wordpress.com/

Enameled cast iron cookware - more than a pretty face
By nop01
Hardly a kitchen that is not adamant on nuclear fusion pots host assignment. acceptable from a bucket that was a job candidate acceptable evident for almost one hundred years ago by casting adamant to Woks and French and Dutch ovens, ...
Le Creuset Oven Reviews - http://le-creuset-set-cookware.blogspot.com/

Debate: Does the world need nuclear energy? | Countries with ...
By admin
What about nuclear fusion? ratje67 Says: December 17th, 2010 at 10:14 am. That the russians build a nuclear plant on a barge….does not make me feel safe. d53njac Says: December 17th, 2010 at 10:18 am ...
Countries with Nuclear Weapons - http://countrieswithnuclearweapons.com/

Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Et tu, Corky?
By Norm Farrell
Nuclear fusion rockets and commuter airplanes for the masses - Nuclear fusion rockets and spaceplanes would enable 1. Lower cost travel into space 2. Easy around the solar system in dramatically reduced trip times Mat... 12 minutes ago ...
Northern Insights / Perceptivity - http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/

Hubble's Universe: A Flash Of Brilliance | lamper blog
By admin
The hydrogen piles up until it spontaneously explodes by nuclear fusion – like a … Published by admin, on December 16th, 2010 at 4:32 pm. Filled under: Uncategorized. Tags: Brilliance, Flash, Hubble's, Universe | 25 Comments | ...
lamper blog - http://lamper.org.ru/

What is Homemade Solar Energy? – the Truth! | WIND & SOLAR POWER ...
The sun makes energy in its inner core in a process called nuclear fusion. Only a small part of the solar energy that the sun radiates into space ever reaches the earth, but that is more than enough to supply all our energy needs. ...
WIND & SOLAR POWER MONEY SAVING... - http://windsolarpower.com.au/

More 'incentives' for energy companies? | robertcrozier.net
By robert
I read that they have cancelled this year's budget for ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), the nuclear fusion plant on the west coast of France. I have written before that I believe the EU should be a platform for ...
robertcrozier.net - http://www.robertcrozier.net/

Black Friday Resonance Phenomena in Electron-Atom Collisions ...
By Sale
cyber monday, Depending on the energy of the collision, the scattering of electrons by atoms or atomic ions is the fundamental process in plasma physics, in laser cavities, nuclear fusion reactions, quantum chemistry, astrophysics and ...
Black Friday Chemistry Physics - http://cheapchemistryphysics.cz.cc/

Matt Gerrard's Wordslaw - Rants, Links, Music, Movies and Food ...
By Matt Gerrard
The doors to the next room open, and the floor to the video room is heated with nuclear fusion plasma, causing those who still can to run to the next room, and those who can't to rapidly dissolve into smoking shriekypiles. ...
Matt Gerrard's Wordslaw - Rants,... - http://mattgerrardswordslaw.blogspot.com/

Web

12 new results for "nuclear fusion"

Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament
Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics discussion.
www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t...

Answers.com - Why are claims that nuclear fusion occurs at room ...
Physics question: Why are claims that nuclear fusion occurs at room temperature unrealistic? Can you answer this question?
wiki.answers.com/.../Why_are_claims_that_nuclear_fusion_oc...

Learn more about nuclear fusion reactor project | e! Science News
Science news articles about 'nuclear fusion reactor project' ... A plan to rescue European financing of the Iter nuclear fusionreactor project has been ...
esciencenews.com/dictionary/nuclear.fusion.reactor.project

Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament - UK Wired News
News, Science/Nature, Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU ParliamentNuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament. A plan to rescue European ...
www.wirednews.us/.../116251-Nuclear-fusion-finance-plan-rej...

BBC News - Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament
BBC News - Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament http://www.bbc. co.uk/news/science-environment-12007965.
tweetmeme.com/.../bbc-news-nuclear-fusion-finance-plan-reje...

Nuclear fission and fusion
Nuclear fusion. = nuclei combining into larger ones, releasing energy. Thermonuclear fusion: occurs naturally inside stars. Hydrogen nuclei combine to form ...
www.southalabama.edu/.../ph104lec38fissionfusionHO.pdf

YouTube - Nuclear Fusion News Report (Director's Cut)
The full, uncut, uncensored version of our nuclear fusion based new's broadcast!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7sSm_J0pr0

Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament - UNU-MERIT ...
A plan to rescue European financing of the ITER nuclear fusion reactor project has been rejected at the final hurdle. The facility, which is already under ...
www.merit.unu.edu/i&tweekly/html.php?nid=4101

Ph D Thesis On Nuclear Deformation In Fusion ebook download in PDF ...
Solar models tell that the sun shines by nuclear fusion reactions at its core. . .. of nuclear fusion reaction depends on composition of atoms, . ...
khup.com/.../ph-d-thesis-on-nuclear-deformation-in-fusion.ht...

Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament (BBC ...
Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament (BBC) ... A plan to rescue European financing of the Iter nuclear fusion reactor project has been ...
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?...

Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament - Go Green ...
A plan to rescue European financing of the Iter nuclear fusion reactor project has been rejected at the final hurdle.
www.sustainlane.com/.../W7C79XL4FVXAMDYSPHFYJBKK...

Nuclear Fusion, Touhoumon Emerald Location Hinadex -INCOMPLETE-
Touhoumon Emerald Location Hinadex -INCOMPLETE- Welcome to T.E. Hinadex - INCOMPLETE-. This is for all of you players of Touhoumon Emerald who need help.
bloodbreeder.tumblr.com/emerald_touhoudex

EU denies funding for fusion reactor

2010-12-19T19:31:00.001-06:00

EU denies funding for fusion reactor
UPI.com
17 (UPI) -- A plan to save financing for a multinational nuclear fusion reactor project has been rejected at the last minute. ...
See all stories on this topic »

French MEPs fight over ITER budget delays
Europolitics.info
ITER brings together seven international partners (EU, US, China, Japan, India Russia and South Korea) to demonstrate the potential of nuclear fusion as an ...
See all stories on this topic »

Blogs

20 new results for "nuclear fusion"

NuPhoria: MAT ZO- NUCLEAR FUSION
By NuPhoria
MAT ZO- NUCLEAR FUSION. Genre : Trance · Mat Zo- Nuclear Fusion (Original Mix) · Mat Zo- Nuclear Fusion (Rex Mundi Remix) · Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz ...
NuPhoria - http://nu-phoria.blogspot.com/

Navy Reports Evidence of Cold Fusion
By Grant Lawrence
Cold fusion is nuclear fusion of atoms at conditions close to room temperature, in contrast to the conditions of well-understood fusion reactions such as those inside stars and high energy experiments. Interest in the field increased ...
Grant Lawrence--Bodhi Thunder - http://grantlawrence.blogspot.com/

EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR APPLIED MATHEMATICS - EUROSAM: The EURO-SIAM ...
By BISC
Understanding the subtle and difficult-to-predict boundary between stability and instability is important not only in the study of planetary dynamics but also in other endeavors, like designing a nuclear fusion reactor. ...
EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR APPLIED... - http://www.eurosam.org/

Jason Lisle: über-Clown or über-Genius?
By Copernicus
A little oversight here by Lisle (amazing since he's supposed to have done some research on solar granulation) in terms of the Coulomb barrier in respect of nuclear energy and nuclear fusion which provides the energy for the Sun to ...
Brane Space - http://brane-space.blogspot.com/

EA WorldView - Home - A Lesson for Climate Change: History ...
By Scott Lucas
Even if a truly clean and harmless form of energy such as nuclear fusion could now be found, one wonders if this would be such a good thing for us, given what we have done to the planet with the extraordinary powers that fossil fuels ...
EA WorldView - http://www.enduringamerica.com/

YEAR IN REVIEW 2010: MOST HATED MOVIES | Jennifer Aniston Photos
By admin
... suicide, a revenge tale, way too much information about nuclear fusion and a sappy redemption arc for one of the great villains of cinema, Gordon Gekko. Also , Shia LaBeouf is no Charlie Sheen — Hell, he's not even an Emilio Estevez. ...
Jennifer Aniston Photos - http://jenniferanistonphotos.net/

aimnat.net • electronic music everywhere • | Radioshows, DJ Sets ...
By Aimnat
Mat Zo - Nuclear Fusion | Anjunabeats 10. Jason van Wyk - Moments (Van Dresen Remix) | First State Music [Dropbox] 11. Michael Angelo - Flashback 11. ( Abstract Vision & Elite Electronic Remix) | Enhanced Recordings ...
aimnat.net • electronic music... - http://www.aimnat.net/

Kesha Rogers Announces Candidacy for 2012 Election: We Have ...
... to engineer and terraform the biosphere, fully domesticate the periodic table with technologies of nuclear fusion, and explore and colonize our solar system. This will provide a real sense of mission and purpose for our youth, ...
LaRouchePAC - http://www.larouchepac.com/

Climate Change and ID
By Skeptic Flyer
Or that the sun is powered by nuclear fusion. It is. Or... Well you get the point. This is a case of deliberate amd manufactured false balance in the media that I have previously written about. The only controversy over climate change ...
Skeptic Flyer - http://skepticflyer.blogspot.com/

Richard Durand – In Search Of Sunrise Radio 014 (17-12-2010)
By Colbee
Mat Zo – Nuclear Fusion [Anjunabeats] 10. Jason van Wyk – Moments (Van Dresen Remix) [First State Music] [Dropbox Demo] 11. Michael Angelo – Flashback ( Abstract Vision & Elite Electronic Remix) [Enhanced] 12. Robbie Rivera feat. ...
Playlists.hu - http://www.playlists.hu/

Nuclear bomb preparation and advise to shelter in place
By noreply@blogger.com (bw)
Nuclear fusion rockets and commuter airplanes for ... Autopiloted Suburban Air Vehicles for point to poi... Plasma-Jet driven Magneto-Inertial Fusion (PJMIF) · Economist predicts 2019 for China to pass the USA . ...
Next Big Future - http://nextbigfuture.com/

EU denies funding for fusion reactor | Global Energy Times
By Staff Writer
Brussels (UPI) Dec 17, 2010 A plan to save financing for a multinational nuclear fusion reactor project has been rejected at the last minute. The European.
Global Energy Times - http://www.globalenergytimes.com/

Kitsho's Blog » Blog Archive » Wax Museum
By 14kitshoh
His “E=mc2″ led to Nuclear Fusion, although he was unhappy about it. He was great genius for Space, matter, energy, light and life. He shared many theories such as Special and General Relativity(very complex), The Brownian movement and ...
Kitsho's Blog - http://avoca37.org/14kitshoh/

22 Degree Moon Halo – The Natural Navigator
By admin
A plan to rescue European financing of the Iter nuclear fusion reactor project has been thrown into uncertainty. […] Moon's mighty ridge stirs debate December 16, 2010. Scientists develop a new theory to explain the Solar System's most ...
The Natural Navigator - http://www.naturalnavigator.com/

{FRESH} North Korea Threatens New Strike (Nuclear) | Just Piper
By justpiper (online)
UPDATE FOX Videos: Defiant North Korea Reveals Covert Uranium Nuclear Facility · North Korea claims its scientists have succeeded in elusive nuclear fusion reaction · MASSIVE U.S. and S. Korea perform military exercises while N. Korea ...
Just Piper - http://justpiper.com/

Techno World ....: 10 Strange Things About The Universe
By ♥♪§ V€nĸι™ ♥♪..
Quantum tunneling is involved in many physical processes, such as radioactive decay and the nuclear fusion that takes place in the Sun. It is also used in certain electrical components, and it has even been shown to occur in enzymes in ...
Techno World .... - http://espikes09.blogspot.com/

China cracks down on fake Toyota and Canon goods. | The Nuclear N ...
By admin
... Manilla to explore nuclear energy · Closing the world's first commercial nuclear power station · Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament · Turkey's first nuclear power plant to cost 20 bln USD: report ...
The Nuclear N-Former: Breaking... - http://www.nuclearcounterfeit.com/

Best E Learning Education: Internet Better way in all E Learning ...
By Stuart Walker
For example, in the past, when there is a school research project, students had to turn lots of books, to understand Computer Training Courses, about nuclear fusion, calculus and other things. Today, all can be found in a few seconds is ...
Best E Learning Education - http://bigbigbrain.blogspot.com/

What's going on today.. Fri 17th Dec 2010 23:00:02 GMT | Vipereye
By vipereye
A plan to rescue European financing of the Iter nuclear fusion reactor project has been thrown into uncertainty. Elsewhere conjoined twin turtles, Santa's – lots of them and the most amazing way to switch on some Christmas tree lights. ...
Vipereye - http://www.vipereye.com/

industrial gases companies:Nuclear Fusion and Plasma Physics ...
By admin
Compare the prices of industrial gases companies - Nuclear Fusion and Plasma Physics: Proceedings of the International Summer School.Lowest Price Guarantee and Get The Best Deals Here.
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Web

11 new results for "nuclear fusion"

Nuclear fusion | Facebook
Welcome to the Facebook Community Page about Nuclear fusion, a collection of shared knowledge concerning Nuclear fusion.
www.facebook.com/pages/Nuclear.../106130546085273?sk...

Thermo Nuclear Fusion Reactor - SEAS Newsletter
Thermo Nuclear Fusion Reactor. Dec 8th, 2010 | By riceds | Category: Research. Inside of the Thermo Nuclear Reactor. School of Engineering and Applied ...
seasnews.eas.muohio.edu/2010/.../thermo-nuclear-fusion-react...

Nuclear fusion finance plan rejected by EU Parliament ...
The steel vessel will eventually weigh some 5000 tonnes A plan to rescue European.
auto54128917.blog.co.uk/.../nuclear-fusion-finance-plan-rejec...

Nuclear fusion rockets and commuter airplanes for the masses ...
Physics - Nuclear fusion rockets and spaceplanes would enable 1. Lower cost travel into space 2. Easy around the solar system in dramatically reduced trip ...
newsodrome.com/.../nuclear-fusion-rockets-and-commuter-air...

Nuclear Fusion Nuclear Fission pdf | Download Free Nuclear Fusion ...
Nuclear Fusion Nuclear Fission : Download Nuclear Fusion Nuclear Fission Pdf, Ebooks,torrent link of Nuclear FusionNuclear Fission at lexiology.com.
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Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear Fusion News and analysis on nuclear power, nuclear engineering, nuclear weapons and more. Searchable news in 44 languages from WN Network.
archive.wn.com/2010/12/17/1400/nuclearfusion/

No EU deal to fund nuclear fusion project
No EU deal to fund nuclear fusion project-Are you looking for No EU deal to fund nuclear fusion project? Get details of No EU deal to fund nuclear fusion ...
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plasma = nuclear fusion = colapse nebula - heat light to ...
plasma reactor = nuclear fusion = colapse nebula - heat light to electricity via photovoltanic cells = - basicly very simple = get gas into plasma - a.....
videos.wittysparks.com/id/3208916437

IOPscience::.. Nuclear Fusion, Volume 51, Number 1, January 2011
IOPscience is a unique platform for IOP-hosted journal content providing site- wide electronic access to more than 130 years of leading scientific research, ...
iopscience.iop.org/0029-5515/51/1

EU denies funding for fusion reactor
Observers hope that nuclear fusion can one day produce CO2-free base-load power on a large-scale. Nuclear fusioninvolves heating gases to temperatures ...
www.energy-daily.com/.../EU_denies_funding_for_fusion_re...

1/8 Rin Kagamine Nuclear Fusion PVC - Vocaloid - Statues / PVC ...
Name: 1/8 Rin Kagamine Nuclear Fusion PVC, Series: Vocaloid, Manufacturer: Max Factory, Product Code: stavcl014, Category: Statues / PVC.
www.animesekai.com/.../18-rin-kagamine-nuclear-fusion-pvc/

City explores alternative energy

2010-12-19T19:30:00.001-06:00

City explores alternative energy
Sioux Falls Argus Leader
Two alternative energy companies pitched their wind and solar products at a meeting called Thursday by City Councilman Kenny Anderson in City Hall. ...
See all stories on this topic »

Solar Eclipse
American Thinker
Over the last twelve months, one popular global alternative energy index fund has declined in price from $25 to $20.50. Over the past two years, ...
See all stories on this topic »

Investigating Alternative Energy Options
Processor.com
Most enterprises have at least thought about using alternative energy for their data center power needs at some point, whether it is for environmental ...
See all stories on this topic »

Crowder prepares to seek bids for first phase of energy center
Joplin Globe
Crowder College will soon start seeking bids for the first phase of a planned alternative energy center, while the college's Board of Trustees has ...
See all stories on this topic »

SOCAR intends to commission ecological park in spring 2011
Trend News Agency
Karimov said that about 40 percent of the park's needs in electricity will be provided through alternative energy sources. The four wind turbines were ...
See all stories on this topic »

Wind Energy: The Promise of City Turbines
EcoWorld.com
Opponents of wind power keep a store of questions on hand about the method's relevancy as an alternative energy source. Won't it disrupt migratory bird ...
See all stories on this topic »

Cooperation in energy sector
Daily Times
... underlined the need to step up cooperation between Pakistan and China in the energy sector - oil, gas, coal, alternative energy and conventional power. ...
See all stories on this topic »

Government energy-saving measures register success
Taiwan Today
Wind turbines in the Penghu Islands are one of the government's initiatives in developing alternative energy. (CNA) By Audrey Wang The government's ...
See all stories on this topic »

Site near Newberry Springs designated prime solar energy zone
Desert Dispatch
... was identified Thursday as one of 24 prime “solar energy zones” in a draft of a plan designed to speed the development ofalternative energy projects. ...
See all stories on this topic »

Brazil Expands its Wind Energy Segment
AZoCleantech
... committed to provide more than 400 MW of clean wind energy to Brazil's Rio Grande do Norte and Bahia States in the 2010Alternative Energy Auctions. ...
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Study: Iowa Power Fund creates 400 jobs per year
BusinessWeek
Although the fund was focused on alternative energy projects, about $21 million has been spent for projects such as flood relief. ...
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Rutgers students present solar energy report on Milford
Hunterdon County Democrat - NJ.com
Twelve students from the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy studied potential alternative energy sources for Milford this semester as part of a ...
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Hunterdon County Democrat - NJ.com

Strong Guidance Fails to Move the Needle on First Solar Price Targets
Seeking Alpha
But when all is said and done they failed to move the needle much on the alternative energy company, with most analysts using the data to support their ...
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Energy Quest, Inc. to Build Modular Bioenergy Power Plant
Marketwire (press release)
HENDERSON, NV--(Marketwire - December 16, 2010) - Energy Quest, Inc. ("EQI") ( OTCBB : EQST), an emerging leader inalternative energy and the development ...
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4G Group CEO looks to invest in energy companies
Dallas Business Journal
It's also part of the reason Griffin and a few business partners decided to start 4G Group, a merchant bank with a special interest in alternative energy ...
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Dallas Business Journal

Cummins gives $25000 to career center classes
Toledo Blade
... presented a $25000 grant Thursday to Millstream Career & Technology Center that will enable students to continue pursuing alternative energy projects. ...
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Abound Solar closes on $400mn loan guarantee, $110mn in financing
Power-Gen Worldwide
... previously have invested in the company, participated in the equity round, along with new investors BP Alternative EnergyVentures and West Hill Cos. ...
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Turkey Hill wind turbine proposal has support and opposition
Hingham Journal
“Thisisn't about being for or against alternative energy. This is about whether it is proper for a conservation trustee to develop a for-profit utility ...
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Visit the City of Boise's Greenhouse business incubator on Friday
IdahoStatesman.com
By Cynthia Sewell - cmsewell@idahostatesman.com The Greenhouse, a business incubator focused on supporting and advancing alternative energy and sustainable ...
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Guest Post: 2011 Is the Year of the IPO
Greentech Media (blog)
This will significantly spark demand for alternative energy, renewable energy and for energy conservation. And as global competitiveness for scarce energy ...
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Greentech Media (blog)

LETTER: Pro-turbine letter was condescending and misleading
Wicked Local Marion
9 Letter to the Editor, Norman Hills, a member of the Marion Alternative Energy Committee, condescendingly states that comments made by those of us who ...
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Speculative Upcoming Short Squeeze On ENER
Wall Street Grand (blog)
Alternative energy could once again come back into play if oil wants to trade much higher in the near future. However, this sector is currently under a lot ...
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Bishop McHugh students investigate wind power
Shore News Today
Grades six, seven and eight have developed projects based on six forms of alternative energy: wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, oil, and hydroelectric. ...
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Guest Post: Roof Shingles Meet Solar Panels
Consumer Energy Report
Solar energy is quickly becoming the superstar of the alternative energy industry. The first consumer-grade solar shingle, expected to be released early ...
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Consumer Energy Report

The Senate Plays Santa for America's Most Wealthy
Examiner.com
Boxer attributes her support to provisions that will extend breaks for alternative energy sources. Feinstein says that while she doesn't like the bill, ...
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Soaring prices and restricted deliveries could leave thousands of homes ...
Daily Mail
... serious indeed' for the estimated 660000 homes, many in remote and rural areas, that rely on oil and, in some cases, have no alternative energy supply. ...
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Daily Mail

Dear Prime Minister
Shetland News
The Carbon Trust was established in 2001 with the laudable remit to reduce our carbon footprint by innovation and developalternative energy solutions to ...
See all stories on this topic »

New 1.2 Solar Photovoltaic system commissioned today
Fijivillage
Regional Environment Officer US Embassy, Dr Norman Bart said this will also support Pacific Islands creativity in finding alternative energy sources.
See all stories on this topic »

Fijivillage

Blogs

14 new results for "alternative energy"

Eagle-based nuclear developer Alternative Energy Holdings, Inc ...
Alternative Energy Holdings “has never had any revenue or product,” the agency says.
IdahoStatesman.com News Updates - http://www.idahostatesman.com/2009/03/04/686456/alaska-man-starts-craigslist-alternative.html

Alternative Energy Resources Are Major Home Improvements
Within areas where smog tends to be elevated, studies have proven individuals are more sick. Whenever this scenario is combined with increasing expenses and decreased property values, stressful living situations are sure to happen.
Latest Articles on EzineMark.com - http://ezinemark.com/

Alternative Energy: The Many Functions of the Sun
Sunlight: Energy alternatives come from several sources. Article summarizes how solar power is indirectly used to create clean energy without harming Earth.
Suite101: Environmentalism Articles - http://www.suite101.com/environmentalism

Alternative Energy Tanzania - Solar Cell Power
By admin
zanzibar Alternative Energy Tanzania: Wave Power to Replace Gas in Zanzibar? Zanzibar is considering the possibility of turning Indian Ocean currents and waves into electric power to make the utmost of its geological position as an ...
How Solar Cell Power Works, Create... - http://solarcellpower.net/

What is Alternative Energy
By Anders Eriksson
One of these alternative energy resources is wind power. Wind turbines continue to be developed that are progressively more energy efficient and less costly. ? Wind farms? have been springing up in many nations, and they have even become ...
The Sources DOT org - http://www.thesources.org/

Lastest Alternative Energy News | Green Energy and You
By admin
New Energy Advances Commercial-Use Power Production Model of SolarWindow™ Following Validation by Independent Expert ... COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS.
Green Energy and You - http://www.greenenergyandyou.net/articles/

300 ton transformers, heaviest yet, head by rail to west Canada ...
By admin
The Port of Duluth's location lets it work with key marine and railway companies involved in transportation logistics for renewable energy companies across.
Alternative Energy Newswire - http://www.alternativeenergynewswire.com/

Creating A Limited Liability Firm | Alternative Energy News
By sectrix.articles
A limited liability company (LLC) is a company formation model available to the people of the United States amongst other states. This framework of company.
Alternative Energy News - http://alternativeenergynews.org/

Alternative Renewable Energy | Two Kinds Of Renewable Energy DIY Kits
By admin
There are presently two kinds of alternative energy sources that have aroused the interest of people: solar and wind power. Enterprising companies and individuals taking advantage of the technology accumulated over the decades on these ...
Go Green, Save Earth - http://www.public88.com/gogreen/

Establishing An Alternative Energy Via Solar Panels :ATAEDU Articles
By Marie
Establishing An Alternative Energy Via Solar Panels. Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 3:19 pm. There exist numerous fine motives why a lot of householders go for residence solar panels. Power of solar performs effectively in ...
ATAEDU Articles - http://www.ataedu.org/

How Solar Energy Works, Create your own Solar Energy House ...
By admin
Alternative Energy China: Asia's Largest Wind Farm. December 17th, 2010 admin Leave a comment Go to comments. vestas2 Alternative Energy China: Asias Largest Wind Farm. A private company plans to build Asia's biggest wind farm in the...
How Solar Energy Works, Create... - http://solarenergyhouse.net/

Alternative Energy Institute Site News » Blog Archive » New White ...
By admin
Alternative Energy Institute Site News is proudly powered by WordPress. Contact Us. West Texas A&M University Palo Duro Research Facility . Number 5 Hospital Dr . WT Box 60248 . Canyon, Texas 79016 . 806-651-2295 aeimail@mail.wtamu.edu ...
Alternative Energy Institute Site News - http://www.windenergy.org/news/sitenews/

The Pickens Plan | Alternative Energy Advantages
By admin
“Only On The Web”: Katie Couric speaks with energy investor T. Boone Pickens Jr. about his plan to decrease US dependence on foreign oil through the development of alternative energy sources. Share and Enjoy: ...
Alternative Energy Advantages - http://alternative-energy-advantages.com/

Last? Res New Organic Matter | The Green Alternative Energy Stuff
pr? Presidential commission calls? caution on synthetic biology? is field? of Mergent? biology SYNTHETIC? is tr? s promise for producing new m? medicines,
The Green Alternative Energy Stuff - http://www.thegreenenergystuff.com/

Web

8 new results for "alternative energy"

Types of Alternative Energy Sources | eHow.com
Types of Alternative Energy Sources. With the diminishing availability of fossil fuels and the existing and potential damage to the environment, ...
www.ehow.com/list_7628170_types-alternative-energy-source...

Alternative Energy | HeadCount | Register to Vote!
Issue Updates, Sustainability and Climate Change | Tags: alternative energy, Bible, Cancun, Climate, obama, oil spill, Radiohead, thom yorke | ...
www.headcount.org/tag/alternative-energy/

Carbon Tax in SA under Discussion - Alternative Energy Africa
What we need is alternative energy sources and not increased costs," Cornelis van der ... As Alternative Energy Africa has said many times, the answer to ...
ae-africa.com/read_article.php?NID=2621&PHPSESSID...

Hot Alternative Energy News Stories | AltEnergyMag
Stewart Filmscreen has years of experience and stands ready to provide Fresnel thermal solar concentrators in the excitingalternative energy market place. ...
www.altenergymag.com/stories/2010/12/nascar-to.../304

Todays Alternative Energy Corporation Announces Ticker Symbol ...
FAIRFIELD, CT--(Marketwire - 12/09/10) - Todays Alternative Energy Corporation ( OTC.BB:TAEC - News), a worldwide direct marketer and distributor of ...
biz.yahoo.com/iw/101209/0697596.html?.v=1

Alternative Energy Sources
The world has seen the discoveries of some extremely amazing sources of energy. From the ancient men who discovered the different ways to use fire, ...
www.articlesbase.com/.../alternative-energy-sources-3847167...

Eagle-based nuclear developer Alternative Energy Holdings, Inc ...
Alternative Energy Holdings has never had any revenue or product, the agency says. Most Popular. 1. Tired of BBQ chips? Here comes haggis ...
www.upi.com/Top_News/Local/.../22-c3728edb4e

sauna rocket stove progress (Permaculture Forums: alternative energy)
Permaculture Forums | permaculture | alternative energy forum | Topic: sauna rocket stove progress. Pages: 1 [2]. Author. sauna rocket stove progress ...
www.permies.com/...forums/.../sauna-rocket-stove-progress

Renewable-energy grant program gets renewed for a year

2010-12-19T19:29:00.001-06:00

Renewable-energy grant program gets renewed for a year
Los Angeles Times
The program covers up to 30% of the cost of alternative-energy projects. By Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times A popular federal incentive program that has ...
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Solar panels shine light on alternative energy lessons at Mount Zion ...
Herald & Review
The school's science books have had little information on alternative energy, although it's something students should be learning about, Thacker said. ...
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Alternative Energy: Solarfun Launches 2nd North American Office
Trading Markets (press release)
December 17, 2010 (FinancialWire) (Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=ftrdnwswnd for all of today's featured news.) -- Solarfun Power Holdings Co., ...
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Lancaster, Cal. ballpark going solar
USA Today
Based in Lancaster, Cal. a city gunning to become known as the Alternative Energy Capital of the World, the JetHawks broke ground this week on a solar panel ...
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Vantage looking to supply training for wind farm workers
Times Bulletin
"We are designing some specialty training for wind turbine repair and alternative energy careers." Horizon Wind Energy originally contacted Vantage about ...
See all stories on this topic »

Alternative to the Yucca Mountain nuke plan needed
Sun-Sentinel
With fuel prices rising, partly due to heating needs this winter, the calls for alternative energy sources and plans are sure to get louder once again. ...
See all stories on this topic »

Urban Green Energy Brings "New Light" to San Francisco
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
The company that is changing the face of alternative energy is now shining a spotlight on street lights around the globe. Urban Green Energy, the leading ...
See all stories on this topic »

Alt-energy breathes easier with passage of tax bill
Pacific Business News
... breathing easier following the passage of a federal tax bill that contains a one-year extension of federal tax grants foralternative energy projects. ...
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4 Bold Energy Predictions for 2011
Motley Fool
A generally tepid turnout for other alternative energy businesses, including wind and geothermal. Many of the above themes are interrelated. ...
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Study of Iowa Power Fund released amid calls for cutting program
Radio Iowa
Through September of this year, the Power Fund invested around $38 million in 31 projects designed to develop Iowa's sources of alternative energy, ...
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NDR Energy Group Signs Agreement for $36 Million in Capital Funding With ...
Trading Markets (press release)
NDR Energy Group is an energy marketing and services company that markets natural gas and alternative energy to major utilities and corporate clients ...
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Why Sweden?
Stockholm News
Mr Azad is a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Alternative Energy at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. The news of suicide bombing on Saturday ...
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Two PR/Communications Firms Form Strategic Alliance
RoadracingWorld.com
Both DRIVEN and Ride and Drive have a strong automotive focus, but they also have many clients in the powersports andalternative energy industries as well. ...
See all stories on this topic »

First US-made Think electric cars delivered to Indiana fleet
BrighterEnergy.org
... the state vehicle fleet, said: “We saw this specific green initiative as an opportunity to test alternative energy vehicles in real-life situations. ...
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BrighterEnergy.org

Union Township Installs Wind Turbines, Provides Research for CMU
9&10 News
With Central Michigan University right next door, this alternative energy project is a win-win situation. The CMU students get a hands-on learning ...
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Riga planners, residents hear more on ordinance
Adrian Daily Telegram
“We had a collaborative goal to preserve farm land and establish a manageable alternative energy land use policy.” Wind turbines were set along property ...
See all stories on this topic »

Renewable energy is major Lebanese government priority - Rahhal
Daily Star - Lebanon
The minister's remarks came at a day-long business forum on alternative energy production in the Movenpick Hotel. Vice-governor of the Central Bank Mohammad ...
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Daily Star - Lebanon

VA Beach City Council postpones vote on progressive energy report
Examiner.com
Unluckily, however, Virginia Beach's City Council also delayed voting on the alternative energy task force's report a few days ago until early 2011 at the ...
See all stories on this topic »

Cali Dons Emissions Cap (and Trade)
Portfolio.com (blog)
... California voters resoundingly voted for measures to boost alternative energy use in the biggest state, and now regulators are charging ahead with rules ...
See all stories on this topic »

AFE gifts lift education, spirits
Andover Townsman
... science and math teachers Laura Stella and Cheryl Marfleet, who received $,1000 to support their "Creating Currents"alternative energy curriculum. ...
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Naughty or nice?
Journal and Courier
But the Sierra Club and the Hoosier Environmental Council are appealing the permit and urging the university to adoptalternative energy sources. ...
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Solar savings on the farm
WNYT
It is partially financed with government grants and loans available to encourage alternative energy. Beatrice figures she'll break even on her cost after ...
See all stories on this topic »

My 5 top wishes for business community
Tampabay.com
It was a progressive, outside-the-box deal, exactly the kind this state needs in order to gain traction for alternative energyoptions. By June of 2010, ...
See all stories on this topic »

Porsche to showcase Hybrid at Autosport international show
girlracer
... Atlanta in America and at Zuhai in China, gathering further data about the performance and durability of its alternative energy resource with every lap. ...
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Hands and Hearts
Scouting Magazine
The device springs from an idea that Aaron LeMieux, founder of Tremont Electric, an alternative energycompany, has been working on for several years. ...
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Scouting Magazine

US embassy cables: Cuba uses climate change summit to turn on Obama
The Guardian
... conference a group of British experts visited Cuba and had "serious" discussions with Cuban officials about exploring options for alternative energy. ...
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State names Dedham a 'green community'
Boston Globe
The communities had to meet five standards, including approving a more stringent “stretch” building code, and zoning rules that encourage alternative energy ...
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Salazar announces plan to set up Solar Energy Zones on Colorado public lands
The Colorado Independent
... the past two years as part of an Obama administration plan to identify areas on public lands that are appropriate for alternative energy development. ...
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The Colorado Independent

Why 2011 Will Be a Strong Year for Energy and Infrastructure
Investment U
In the alternative energy space, I expect solar and wind power to continue to make inroads as green energy sources. But only in countries that are actively ...
See all stories on this topic »

US Geothermal: gathering steam after partnership with Enbridge
Proactive Investors USA & Canada
These reasons alone make geothermal energy a strong contender as the best alternative energy choice. But to top it off, it is a cheap and abundant source of ...
See all stories on this topic »

Proactive Investors USA & Canada

Blogs

16 new results for "alternative energy"

Alternative Energy- Let's go green | Laundry Services
Man has long struggled with options of how he can make the environment sustainable to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising those of.
Laundry Services - http://www.halllc.com/

Ontario to Add Two New Alternative Energy Projects to Green ...
By Solar Academy International
Canadian Solar Solutions, Inc. (Canadian Solar Solutions), has signed an agreement with Sky Power, Ltd. (Sky Power), to add 18.5 MW of solar capacity to.
CleanTechies Blog - CleanTechies.com - http://blog.cleantechies.com/

Alternative Energy Kazakhstan: Wind Power - Solar Cell Power
By admin
The move is part of Kazakhstan's efforts to develop alternative energy as it aims to alleviate dependence on oil and gas revenues. Wind power, solar energy, hydropower and biomass are part of this diversification program. ...
How Solar Cell Power Works, Create... - http://solarcellpower.net/

Alternative Energy Investing Tips | Currency Trading Exchange Guide
By admin
Article by Bernz Jayma P. Investing in alternative energies, or "green energy" may seem like the.
Currency Trading Exchange Guide - http://currencytradingexchangeguide.com/

Alternative Energy Residential Home Designs | Alternative Energy ...
By admin
To use Alternative energy. Save the planet, Environment, reduce carbon gases, green house effect, free electricity, save money, no power bill, living the alternative life style with renewable energy basically comes down to ...
Alternative Energy Alaska - http://www.alternativeenergyalaska.com/

Solar Electricity – The Chance To Have The Sustainable Way Of Life ...
By Guest Author
For sure, we are in need of certain changes to save our planet from contamination. One of the methods to solve this situation may be the incorporation of.
Alternative Energy News - http://alternativeenergynews.org/

Business Law Prof Blog: SEC Case Makes Alternative Energy Look ...
By buslawblogger
SEC Case Makes Alternative Energy Look Like 1990s Internet Start-Ups. The SEC yesterday announced charges against Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. (AEHI), alleging the the company raised millions of dollars from investors "while ...
Business Law Prof Blog - http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/business_law/

Mole's Progressive Democrat: ARIZONA FOCUS: Blogs, Food Co-ops ...
By mole333
Alternative energy and YOUR energy bill: YOU can be part of the solution for America by signing up to purchase your energy through a Green Power Provider. My wife and I have been doing this in NYC for years. All our energy usage is ...
Mole's Progressive Democrat - http://moleprogressive.blogspot.com/

NC Media Watch: Prop 23 Update: Alternative energy is a bad investment
By Russ Steele
Russ Steele Jeffrey Folks writing at the American Thinker in the Solar Eclipse, reports that the prospects of solar and wind companies have been declining. Over the past two years the alternative energy index has produced zero return.
NC Media Watch - http://ncwatch.typepad.com/media/

Advantages and disadvantages Of Alternative Energy Sources | B ...
By Admin
Hydroelectric alternative energy solutions are generally another great selection because the waters is definitely streaming derived from one of destination for a our next. Tidal energy doubles since the activity of the tides can make ...
B Inspired Mama - http://www.binspiredmama.com/

Climate Change: The Next Generation: Alternative Energy Revolution ...
By Tenney Naumer
Alternative Energy Revolution by xkcd. Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be ...
Climate Change: The Next Generation - http://climatechangepsychology.blogspot.com/

Alternative Energy Sources and Availability | Earthe4Energy.com
One alternative energy source that has seen an increase over fossil fuels in the past decade is wind energy. Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy. The primary method of harnessing this type of energy ...
Earthe4Energy.com - http://earthe4energy.com/blog/

Alternative Energy Sources [VHS] : Eco Products - Ekon's posterous
search for informative stuff on. Alternative Energy Sources. Now, I came across a very excellent information that talks over Eco Energy Sources from a new perspective. Today's fun post is titled Alternative Energy Sources [VHS] . ...
Ekon's posterous - http://ekon.posterous.com/

Advanced Solar Power Demo | Alternative Energy Advantages
By admin
Advanced Solar Power Demo. www.myspace.com/miguelchang 400 Watts @ 12 Volts with 350+ Amp hour battery storage capacit.
Alternative Energy Advantages - http://alternative-energy-advantages.com/

Chinese wind power company seems to understand American political ...
By Guest Contributor
by Michael Giberson. American University's Investigative Journalism Workshop has published reports detailing the extensive political connections in the United States developed by Chinese wind power company A-Power Energy (APWR) in its ...
Alternative Energy Stocks - http://www.altenergystocks.com/

If a CFL Breaks, Here Is What To Do | Green Living | Green ...
By greenwise
green news, alternative energy, going green saving money, green living, green lifestyle, saving energy. Living Green and Saving Energy. News and Tips to Help You Live a Greener Lifestyle. Blog About Green Newsfeed Products EBooks Green ...
Green Living | Green Lifestyle... - http://livinggreenandsavingenergy.com/

Web

4 new results for "alternative energy"

Ontario to Add Two New Alternative Energy Projects to Green ...
Canadian Solar Solutions, Inc. (Canadian Solar Solutions), has signed an agreement with Sky Power, Ltd. (Sky Power), to add 18.5 MW of solar capacity to ...
www.examiner.com/.../ontario-to-add-two-new-alternative-ene...

Wanderland: California will be poised to own the domestic ...
“California will be poised to own the domestic alternative energy industries. I' m glad at least one US state will do it, or our only other place to shop ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/.../california-cap-and-trade-_n_797...

International Journal of Alternative Energy 2011
ACTA Press, a scientific publishing company publishes numerous technical publications, technical journals and research papers for international conferences ...
www.actapress.com/Content_of_Journal.aspx?JournalID=126

deenminded's favorite alternative energy websites - StumbleUpon
deenminded/alternative energy. deenminded. Last seen: 7 hours ago. Deenminded is a man from Kurdistan, Iraq. Assalaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh ...
www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/.../tag/alternative-energy/

Chevy Volt Not a Wise Gamble for GM

2010-12-19T19:28:00.001-06:00

Alternative Energy

U.S. Geothermal Gathering Steam After Forming Partnership With Enbridge by Proactive Investor
Chevy Volt Not a Wise Gamble for GM by Rick Newman
Dr. Chu Points to Nuclear Option in ETFs by Jeff Miller
Tesla Racing Ahead by Barry Bazzell

Canadian Solar: Q3 Changes the Trend

2010-12-19T19:27:00.001-06:00

Alternative Energy

Canadian Solar: Q3 Changes the Trend by Michael Lofing
Strong Guidance Fails to Move the Needle on First Solar Price Targets by Alacra Pulse Check Blog
Wind Power Progress Slowed by China Rare Earth Element Shortage by Tom Konrad
Q3 U.S. Solar Market Insight: Commercial PV Installations Up, System Prices Fall by Greentech Media

An invisibility cloak hides objects in visible light

2010-12-19T19:26:00.001-06:00

An invisibility cloak hides objects in visible light

For the first time, invisibility rugs can hide large objects. So it goes, the impossible history of invisibility cloaks. Read the full story

U.S. Navy's electromagnetic railgun shatters records; five times speed of sound

The U.S. Office of Naval Research demonstrated a world record-breaking 33-megajoule shot by its new electromagnetic railgun. Read the full story

U.S. government drafts fast track solar energy policy

The U.S. Dept. of the Interior has drafted new environmental policy which aims to fast track future solar energy development projects. Read the full story

With augmented reality, Word Lens translates in real time

A new iPhone app called Word Lens can translate street signs and restaurant menus in real time, on the go, using augmented reality. Read the full story

FDA highlights drug cocktails on the menu

US regulators issued draft guidelines for companies who want to combine two or more drugs into one therapy. Read the full story

Citibank opens high-tech 'smart bank' of the future

Citibank's new, high-tech Hong Kong "smart banking" branch is packed with LED screens, displays embedded in the walls and wireless Internet. Read the full story

The unmanned submarine that will survey Antarctica--from below

The Sub-Ice Rover will provide a literal new perspective on climate change, from beneath a half-mile of Antarctic ice. Read the full story

Google Body Browser is like Google Earth for the body

Peer into the insides of the human body with Google Body Browser. Read the full story

How the Iraq War made the US military greener

The cooling costs of running multiple computers to handle different classifications of data motivated the US military to seek a solution. Read the full story

IBM, Telvent to relieve traffic congestion in small cities

IBM and Telvent will bring advanced traffic prediction and mobility technology to small cities. Read the full story

U.S. Army finds energy independence in their tents

The military is recruiting solar-power tents to help energize the war effort. Could their large-scale deployment cut down on fuel supply hazards? Read the full story

Hybrid, electric vehicles to become louder for pedestrian safety

The House approved a bill that would make electric and hybrid cars louder in the name of pedestrian safety. Read the full story