Jacques de Vaucanson (Feb. 24, 1709 - Nov. 21, 1782) was the French inventor of 'automata' - robot devices of later significance for modern industry. In 1737-38, he produced a transverse flute player, a pipe and tabor player, and a mechanical duck, which was especially noteworthy, not only imitating the motions of a live duck, but also the motions of drinking, eating, and "digesting." link
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Light and Matter United
Albert Einstein and just about every other physicist insisted that light travels 186,000 miles a second in free space, and that it can't be speeded-up or slowed down. But in 1998, Lene Hau, for the first time in history, slowed light to 38 miles an hour, about the speed of rush-hour traffic.
From an article by William Cromie:
Two years later, she brought light to a complete halt in a cloud of ultracold atoms. Next, she restarted the stalled light without changing any of its characteristics, and sent it on its way.
Now her team has made a light pulse disappear from one cold cloud then retrieved it from another cloud nearby. In the process, light was converted into matter then back into light. For the first time in history, this gives science a way to control light with matter and vice versa.
That's how light moves darkly from one cloud to another in Hau's laboratory. This invisible wave of matter keeps going unless it's stopped in the second cloud with another laser beam, after which it can be revived as light again.
From an article by William Cromie:
Two years later, she brought light to a complete halt in a cloud of ultracold atoms. Next, she restarted the stalled light without changing any of its characteristics, and sent it on its way.
Now her team has made a light pulse disappear from one cold cloud then retrieved it from another cloud nearby. In the process, light was converted into matter then back into light. For the first time in history, this gives science a way to control light with matter and vice versa.
Forever People © DC Comics
A weird thing happens to the light as it enters the cold atomic cloud, called a Bose-Einstein condensate. Atoms at room temperature move in a random, chaotic way. But when chilled in a vacuum to about 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, under certain conditions millions of atoms lock together and behave as a single mass. When a laser beam enters such a condensate, the light leaves an imprint on a portion of the atoms. That imprint moves like a wave through the cloud and exits at a speed of about 700 feet per hour. This wave of matter will keep going and enter another nearby ultracold condensate. That's how light moves darkly from one cloud to another in Hau's laboratory. This invisible wave of matter keeps going unless it's stopped in the second cloud with another laser beam, after which it can be revived as light again.
Coherent control of optical information with matter wave dynamics. Naomi S. Ginsberg, Sean R. Garner, Lene Vestergaard Hau. Nature 445:623-626, 2007.PLEASE STAND BY!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
The Hyborian Age: Chapter Five
CLICK ON EACH TO ENLARGE AND READ
Script by Roy Thomas; Art © Walt Simonson;
The Hyborian Age and Conan © their current copyright holders.
Read:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Friday, February 16, 2007
Opened This Day: Tutankhamen's Tomb
On this day in 1923, archaeologist Howard Carter opened the sealed doorway to the sepulchral chamber of King Tutankhamen's tomb in Thebes, Egypt. A group of invited visitors and officials was present, including Lord Carnarvon, the aristocratic Englishman who had funded the excavation. link
Art by Roy G. Krenkel. Creepy is © and™ Warren Publishing Company.
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.
The Mummy gets Funky in The Mad Monster Party:
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Bats Prey On Nocturnally Migrating Songbirds
It was previuosly believed that nocturnally migrating songbirds could stop their anti-predator vigilance at night. A new study shows that the giant noctule bat, Nyctalus lasiopterus, exploits [eats] the billions of Eurasian songbirds when the birds' flight routes converge around the Mediterranean basin, such as the Iberian Peninsula.
They showed that the bats ate only insects in summer, included some songbirds' flesh in their diet during spring, and depended a great deal on passerines during autumn. Moreover, a higher fraction of songbirds' flesh in autumn than in spring was attributed to the more massive passerine migration in autumn, because both parents and offspring migrate then towards their wintering grounds in Africa.
The Noctural Predator In Action:
Bats Conquest of a Formidable Foraging Niche: The Myriads of Nocturnally Migrating Songbirds. 2007. Citation: A.G. P.-Lisseanu et al. PLoS ONE 2(2): e205.
They showed that the bats ate only insects in summer, included some songbirds' flesh in their diet during spring, and depended a great deal on passerines during autumn. Moreover, a higher fraction of songbirds' flesh in autumn than in spring was attributed to the more massive passerine migration in autumn, because both parents and offspring migrate then towards their wintering grounds in Africa.
Nyctalus lasiopterus. Credit: Ana Popa-Lisseanu
The ability of giant noctules to prey on the wing upon nocturnally migrating passerines appears unique not only among bats but also within the whole animal kingdom. The unique ecological niche of the giant noctule may in turn explain some of its peculiar natural history traits. First, the species occurs almost exclusively in some restricted parts of the Mediterranean where major streams of migrating birds congregate. Second, it is among the largest Palaeartic bats and even belongs to the heaviest aerial-hunting bats of the world, a prerequisite for subduing prey items as large as passerines. Link: press releaseThe Noctural Predator In Action:
Bats Conquest of a Formidable Foraging Niche: The Myriads of Nocturnally Migrating Songbirds. 2007. Citation: A.G. P.-Lisseanu et al. PLoS ONE 2(2): e205.
Monday, February 12, 2007
How To Ingite A Cosmic Lighthouse
Researchers have been able to show that all supernovae of a certain type explode with the same mass and the same energy - the brightness depends only on how much nickel the supernova contains. This knowledge has allowed the researchers to calibrate the brightness of supernovae with greater precision. This means that in the future, they will use the brightness of a supernova that they are observing through their telescopes to determine more accurately how far away from the Earth the cosmic lighthouse is emitting its rays.
The arrow points to the supernova 2002bo, the explosion of a white dwarf in the galaxy NGC 3190 in the Leo constellation--60 million light years away from earth.Image: Benetti et al., MNRAS 384:261-278 (2004)
All supernovae have low-velocity cores of stable iron-group elements. Outside this core, nickel-56 dominates the supernova ejecta. The outer extent of the iron-group material depends on the amount of nickel-56 and coincides with the inner extent of silicon, the principal product of incomplete burning. The outer extent of the bulk of silicon is similar in all supernovae, having an expansion velocity of 11,000 kilometers per second and corresponding to a mass of slightly over one solar mass. This indicates that all the supernovae considered here burned similar masses and suggests that their progenitors had the same mass. link
A Common Explosion Mechanism for Type Ia Supernovae. 2007. P.A. Mazzali et al. Science.
Hey, Where's Capt. Kirk!?
The arrow points to the supernova 2002bo, the explosion of a white dwarf in the galaxy NGC 3190 in the Leo constellation--60 million light years away from earth.Image: Benetti et al., MNRAS 384:261-278 (2004)
All supernovae have low-velocity cores of stable iron-group elements. Outside this core, nickel-56 dominates the supernova ejecta. The outer extent of the iron-group material depends on the amount of nickel-56 and coincides with the inner extent of silicon, the principal product of incomplete burning. The outer extent of the bulk of silicon is similar in all supernovae, having an expansion velocity of 11,000 kilometers per second and corresponding to a mass of slightly over one solar mass. This indicates that all the supernovae considered here burned similar masses and suggests that their progenitors had the same mass. link
A Common Explosion Mechanism for Type Ia Supernovae. 2007. P.A. Mazzali et al. Science.
Hey, Where's Capt. Kirk!?
Friday, February 9, 2007
Chilean Army Reveals UFO Data
More than 1,000 enthusiasts and experts gathered in Viña del Mar for the Tenth International Ufology Conference, organized by the Chile’s Ufology Investigation Group (Aion). The highlight of the meeting was a display of photographs taken by members of Chile’s Armed Forces.
The military photographs and videos were revealed late Tuesday evening. They included a photograph of a spherical metallic object captured flying over Antarctica and a video of Navy ships being pursued by a luminous object in 2000.
Also presented at the conference was a report by Rodrigo Bravo, Captain of the Army’s Fifth Division, who talked to a rapt audience about his thesis, entitled “Observations of unidentified aerial phenomena identified by the Civil Air Force.” While Bravo’s talk was not technically representative of the institution’s position on UFOs, he had been authorized to give it by his commander-in-chief.
“Captain Bravo gave his talk from the point of view of the importance of UFOs as a phenomenon,” said Fuenzalida. “He talked about encounters such as that of three helicopters near La Unión, when a UFO was spotted parked on the ground, and what happened in 2000, when five people were pursued by a luminous object that did not show up on radar screens.”
Fuenzalida denied the existence of “secret investigations” being carried out by the Armed Forces about extraterrestrial activity. link via the Fortean Times
S.H.A.D.O. battles the U.F.O’.s!
But here’s the real reason we watched Gerry Anderson’s “U.F.O.”
Little known fact is that Lt. Ellis was Nick Drake’s sister.
The military photographs and videos were revealed late Tuesday evening. They included a photograph of a spherical metallic object captured flying over Antarctica and a video of Navy ships being pursued by a luminous object in 2000.
Also presented at the conference was a report by Rodrigo Bravo, Captain of the Army’s Fifth Division, who talked to a rapt audience about his thesis, entitled “Observations of unidentified aerial phenomena identified by the Civil Air Force.” While Bravo’s talk was not technically representative of the institution’s position on UFOs, he had been authorized to give it by his commander-in-chief.
“Captain Bravo gave his talk from the point of view of the importance of UFOs as a phenomenon,” said Fuenzalida. “He talked about encounters such as that of three helicopters near La Unión, when a UFO was spotted parked on the ground, and what happened in 2000, when five people were pursued by a luminous object that did not show up on radar screens.”
Fuenzalida denied the existence of “secret investigations” being carried out by the Armed Forces about extraterrestrial activity. link via the Fortean Times
S.H.A.D.O. battles the U.F.O’.s!
But here’s the real reason we watched Gerry Anderson’s “U.F.O.”
Little known fact is that Lt. Ellis was Nick Drake’s sister.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
Watch the trailer….Now!
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
The Hyborian Age: Chapter Four
CLICK TO ENLARGE AND READ
Script by Roy Thomas; Art © Walt Simonson;
The Hyborian Age and Conan © their current copyright holders.
Read:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Brain-Munchingly Good Valentines!
Both Kipling West (above) and Tom Bagley from over at the 7 Deadly Sinners blog have art in the Zombie Valentines show at Calgary’s Carbon Media Design. Go check it out now!
Seeing 10th Dimensional Space
Peering backward in time to an instant after the big bang, physicists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have devised an approach that may help unlock the hidden shapes of alternate dimensions of the universe.A new study demonstrates that the shapes of extra dimensions can be "seen" by deciphering their influence on cosmic energy released by the violent birth of the universe 13 billion years ago. The method provides evidence that physicists can use experimental data to discern the nature of these elusive dimensions -
the existence of which is a critical but as yet unproven element of string theory, the leading contender for a unified "theory of everything."Don't worry if you can't picture a 10-dimensional world. Our minds are accustomed to only three spatial dimensions and lack a frame of reference for the other six. Though scientists use computers to visualize what these six-dimensional geometries could look like, no one really knows for sure what shape they take.
To learn how to read telltale signs of the six-dimensional geometry from the cosmic map, they worked backward. Starting with two different types of mathematically simple geometries, called warped throats, they calculated the predicted energy map that would be seen in the universe described by each shape. When they compared the two maps, they found small but significant differences between them. link
Friday, February 2, 2007
Vaughn Bode's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Part 8
All art © the estate of Vaughn Bodé
Back in the 60’s Vaughn Bodé illustrated a number of classics that had been rewritten for “reading challenged” kids. The books were published by Frank E. Richards and sold exclusively to schools.
Because these books are almost impossible to find at reasonable prices I’ve been posting all the illos from the best book of the bunch, “Jules Verne’s ’20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” in eight installments. This is the last of them.
Read: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8
Secret of Ball Lightning Discovered
Brazilian scientists may have solved a shocking scientific mystery by creating ball lightning in the lab.
Art © Steve Ditko; Spidy & Electro © Marvel Comics
People have reported seeing ball lightning in nature for hundreds of years, but there is no scientific consensus as to what causes the phenomenon. Now scientists have created orbs of electricity about the size of golf balls that mimic natural ball lightning. The fluffy-looking spheres spin, throw off sparks, and vibrate.The balls have been reported to melt glass windows, burn objects, and even kill people—notably the 18th-century electricity researcher Georg Richmann. A few years ago it was proposed that when lightning strikes a surface, like the Earth's silica-rich soil, a vapor is formed. This silicon vapor may condense into particles that combine with oxygen in the air to slowly burn with the chemical energy of oxidation. Pavão and Paiva have spent two years testing the theory with a simple experiment.
Most of the artificial orbs lasted two to five seconds, but at least one has survived as long as eight seconds—approximating natural ball lightning and far exceeding previous efforts to create the phenomenon in the lab.
“Now we are producing balls [of lightning] as a result of silicon combustion. I believe that with our results, ball lightning is losing its status [as a] mystery." Link: National Geographic News.
Here’s the experiements in action:
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Demon Machine Finally Invented
David Leigh at Edinburgh University has managed to make a molecular machine inspired by "Maxwell's demon" — a thought experiment that defies the second law of thermodynamics.
Leigh's molecular machine can, he says, drive a chemical system away from equilibrium. According to the second law of thermodynamics — that a system tends towards equilibrium — this shouldn't happen.
Fortunately, Leigh's device doesn't completely blow away the laws of physics: he needs to add energy to the system by shining light on it to make it work. The added energy explains how the system can move away from equilibrium.
James Clerk Maxwell came up with his thought experiment in 1867. In it, a demon guards a door between two rooms filled with gas. Using its sprightly demonic powers, the creature could open the door when he spotted a particularly fast-moving molecule coming his way. The molecule could then pass into a room, which would become progressively hotter. Likewise, the demon could allow particularly slow-moving molecules to pass out of the warmer room and into the cooler one. By doing so, he creates a growing temperature difference, and therefore, potential energy in the system, without having expended any energy to do it (assuming our magic demon doesn't eat).
In the real world, researchers have made little devices that might be used to make a demon-like machine. One of these is a ring-shaped molecule, which is slotted onto a tiny molecular axle. The ring can move along the axle between two different sites, A and B. If left to its own devices, the normal, random movement of molecules will shunt the ring back and forth. When there are many devices, at any given time, half of them should have a ring at one site, and half at the other.
Leigh's system uses these devices, but with a twist. The middle of his axle can change shape so that it blocks the ring from moving back and forth, but only when the ring is at position A, and only when light is shone on it. If a light is shone on a number of such machines, the rings at position A will get stuck. And as time goes on, many of the rings at position B will shunt over and also get stuck at position A. From Nature.com News
Leigh's molecular machine can, he says, drive a chemical system away from equilibrium. According to the second law of thermodynamics — that a system tends towards equilibrium — this shouldn't happen.
The Demon created by jack Kirby but © DC Comics
Fortunately, Leigh's device doesn't completely blow away the laws of physics: he needs to add energy to the system by shining light on it to make it work. The added energy explains how the system can move away from equilibrium.
James Clerk Maxwell came up with his thought experiment in 1867. In it, a demon guards a door between two rooms filled with gas. Using its sprightly demonic powers, the creature could open the door when he spotted a particularly fast-moving molecule coming his way. The molecule could then pass into a room, which would become progressively hotter. Likewise, the demon could allow particularly slow-moving molecules to pass out of the warmer room and into the cooler one. By doing so, he creates a growing temperature difference, and therefore, potential energy in the system, without having expended any energy to do it (assuming our magic demon doesn't eat).
In the real world, researchers have made little devices that might be used to make a demon-like machine. One of these is a ring-shaped molecule, which is slotted onto a tiny molecular axle. The ring can move along the axle between two different sites, A and B. If left to its own devices, the normal, random movement of molecules will shunt the ring back and forth. When there are many devices, at any given time, half of them should have a ring at one site, and half at the other.
Leigh's system uses these devices, but with a twist. The middle of his axle can change shape so that it blocks the ring from moving back and forth, but only when the ring is at position A, and only when light is shone on it. If a light is shone on a number of such machines, the rings at position A will get stuck. And as time goes on, many of the rings at position B will shunt over and also get stuck at position A. From Nature.com News
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Where To Find Life On Mars
Art © estate of Reed Crandell
"It just isn’t plausible that dormant life is still surviving in the near-subsurface of Mars – within the first couple of metres below the surface – in the face of the ionizing radiation field. Finding life on Mars depends on liquid water surfacing on Mars, but the last time liquid water was widespread on Mars was billions of years ago. Even the hardiest cells we know of could not possibly survive the cosmic radiation levels near the surface of Mars for that long."
The best places to look for living cells on Mars would be within the ice at Elysium because the frozen sea is relatively recent – it is believed to have surfaced in the last five million years – and so has been exposed to radiation for a relatively short amount of time. link
Modelling the surface and subsurface Martian radiation environment: Implications for astrobiology. 2007. L. R. Dartnell et al. GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS: 34
Happy National Gorilla Suit Day!
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Welcome to the New Atomic Surgery Site
Art © Estate of Rick Griffin
Thanks for visiting the new site--please update your links!
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Born This Day: Lewis Carrol
The looking glass
Lewis Carroll (Jan. 27, 1832 – Jan. 14, 1898) was the pen name of(Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), an English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist, who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel.After graduating from Christ Church College, Oxford in 1854, Dodgson remained there, lecturing on mathematics and writing treatises until 1881. As a mathematician, Dodgson was conservative. He was the author of a fair number of mathematics books, e.g "A Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry" (1860). As a logician, he was more interested in logic as a game than as an instrument for testing reason. link
The Cheshire Cat
Advice From A Caterpiller
The Walrus And The Carpenter All art © Dean Motter (1975)
I stumbled across this tucked into the upper shelf of a now long-gone book store before Motter had started to make his mark in the comic book field.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Air Force Unveils New Ray Gun
Mars Attacks! © Current Copyright Holder
Beauty Blaze & Polar Man © DC Comics
The system uses electromagnetic millimeter waves, which can penetrate only 1/64th of an inch of skin, just enough to cause discomfort. By comparison, microwaves used in the common kitchen appliance penetrate several inches of flesh. Link from Live Science
Stan Ridgeway's "Ring of Fire":
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