Announced This Day: Discovery of X-Rays

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In 1896, German scientist, Wilhelm Röntgen announced his discovery of x-rays. He sent copies of his manuscript and some of his x-ray photographs to several renowned physicists and friends, including Lord Kelvin in Glasgow and Henre Poincare in Paris. Four days later, on 5 Jan 1896, Die Presse published the news in a front-page article which described the discovery and suggested new methods of medical diagnoses might be made with this new kind of radiation. link

'X'-The Man With X-Ray Eyes

Seeing The Quantum World

RBCC #149 (1977) Art by Mike Zeck. Captain Action © DC Comics

The Quantum Information Science center at the U of Calgary has produced a four-minute animated intended to help people see how a quantum computer would work and its underlying science.

"The animation incorporates state-of-the-art techniques to show the science and the technology in the most accurate and exciting way possible while being true to the underlying principles of quantum computing," says Sanders.

"There is a history of simple visualization over the last century to convey quantum concepts," says Sanders. He notes that Erwin Schrödinger introduced his eponymous cat, which is left in a tragic state of being in a superposition of life and death, an illustration of the strangeness of quantum theory. And the uncertainty principle associated with Werner Heisenberg and his fictional gamma ray microscope, has found its way into common English parlance.

"The imagery of the early days of quantum mechanics played a crucial role in understanding and accepting quantum theory. Our work takes this imagery a quantum leap forward by using the state-of-the-art animation techniques to explain clearly and quickly the nature of quantum computing which is, by its very nature, counterintuitive." link

Watch the spin-up scene: the quantum information encoded on the electron spin transforms smoothly between zero and one poles—the quantum analogue of a NOT gate.

Watch more clips HERE.

Ref: Visualizing a silicon quantum computer. 2008. B.C. Sanders, et al. New J. Phys. 10 125005 (20pp).

Bees On Cocaine

JLA © DC Comics

Abstract: The role of cocaine as an addictive drug of abuse in human society is hard to reconcile with its ecological role as a natural insecticide and plant-protective compound, preventing herbivory of coca plants (Erythroxylum spp.). This paradox is often explained by proposing a fundamental difference in mammalian and invertebrate responses to cocaine, but here we show effects of cocaine on honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) that parallel human responses.

Forager honey bees perform symbolic dances to advertise the location and value of floral resources to their nest mates. Treatment with a low dose of cocaine increased the likelihood and rate of bees dancing after foraging but did not otherwise increase locomotor activity. This is consistent with cocaine causing forager bees to overestimate the value of the floral resources they collected. Further, cessation of chronic cocaine treatment caused a withdrawal-like response.

JLA © DC Comics

These similarities likely occur because in both insects and mammals the biogenic amine neuromodulator systems disrupted by cocaine perform similar roles as modulators of reward and motor systems.

Given these analogous responses to cocaine in insects and mammals, we propose an alternative solution to the paradox of cocaine reinforcement. Ecologically, cocaine is an effective plant defence compound via disruption of herbivore motor control but, because the neurochemical systems targeted by cocaine also modulate reward processing, the reinforcing properties of cocaine occur as a `side effect'.

Ref: Effects of cocaine on honey bee dance behaviour. 2008. Andrew B. Barron, et al. Journal of Experimental Biology 212: 163-168 (2009)

A Tale of Sword & Sorcery

© Walt Simonson

From Star*Reach #1 (1974) comes this tale by Ed Hick and Walt Simonson. The ending appears to have been lifted by Ralph Bakski for the ending of the film of his rip-off of Vaughn Bodé's "Cobalt 60", "Wizards". Looks like Ralph stole from the best!

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Read Simonson's, "The Hyborion Age", HERE.

Aquaman in The Ocean of 1,000,000 B.C.

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From Adventure Comics #253 (October 1958). Aquaman © DC Comics

Discovered This Day: Radium

“In 1898, Polish-French scientist Marie Sklodowska Curie discovered the radioactive element radium while experimenting with pitchblende, a common uranium ore. She had observed that this ore was more radioactive than refined uranium. This indicated that there must be another element, even more radioactive than uranium, mixed in with this ore.

During the years between 1899 and 1902, Marie Curie dissolved, filtered and repeatedly crystallized nearly three tons of pitchblende. The goal of that work was a refined sample of the element - the yield was about 0.1 gram. This was enough for spectroscopic examination, and to determine the exact atomic weight of radium. This discovery, along with the element polonium, earned her a second Nobel Prize in 1911.” From Today In Science History

Worldwide Adventures In Science

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From Adventure Comics #237 (June 1957) © DC Comics