researchers have designed a new kind of adaptive material with tunable transparency and wettability features - imagine a tent that blocks light on a dry and sunny day, and becomes transparent and water - repellent on a dim, rainy day. or highly precise, self - adjusting contact lenses that also clean themselves. the new material was inspired by natural dynamic, self - restoring systems, such as the liquid film that coats your eyes - tears. individual tears join up to form a dynamic liquid film with an obviously significant optical function that maintains clarity, while keeping the eye moist, protecting it against dust and bacteria, and helping to transport away any wastes – doing all of this and more in literally the blink of an eye. animal and dairy scientists presenting at the lactation biology symposium in phoenix, arizona have discovered that drinking milk at an early age can help mammals throughout their lives. the presentations focused on epigenetics, or how gene expression changes based on factors like environment or diet. epigenetic changes modify when or how certain traits are expressed. but understanding exactly how milk affects the body is a complicated story of hormones, antibodies and proteins, as well as other cells and compounds researchers have not yet identified. health plans that offer low premiums and high deductibles believe that patients with deductibles of $ 1, 000 or more for individual coverage ( or twice that for family coverage ) will shop around for the best price to get their health care. a model based on global population data spanning the years from 1900 to 2010 has caused a research team to predict the opposite of what doomsday prophets of the 1960s and beyond insisted would happen - the number of people on earth will stabilize around the middle of the century and perhaps even start to decline. the results coincide with the united nation ' s downward estimates, which claim that by 2100 earth ' s population will be 6. 2 billion, if low fertility and birth rate continues on its current path, below the 7 billion we are at now. nasa ' s hubble space telescope has found the farthest supernova so far. supernova uds10wil, nicknamed sn wilson after american president woodrow wilson, exploded more than 10 billion years ago. sn uds10wil is a type ia supernovae. these beacons can be used as a yardstick for measuring cosmic distances. one of the debates surrounding type ia supernovae is the nature of the fuse that ignites them. this latest discovery adds credence to one of two competing theories of how


beacons can be used as a yardstick for measuring cosmic distances. one of the debates surrounding type ia supernovae is the nature of the fuse that ignites them. this latest discovery adds credence to one of two competing theories of how they explode. although preliminary, the evidence so far favors the explosive merger of two burned out stars ; small, dim, and dense stars known as white dwarfs, the final state for stars like our sun. if objects from space kindled life on earth, how did it happen? the terrestrial or extra - terrestrial case for important ingredients that led to the building blocks of life is a hot debate. a new paper says that adenosine triphosphate, similar to what is now found in all living cells and vital for generating the energy that makes something alive, could have been created when meteorites containing phosphorus minerals landed in hot, acidic pools of liquids around volcanoes, which were likely to have been common across the early earth. building on work done by dominic ffytche et al in 2000, which delineates more than a dozen types of hallucinations, particularly in relation to people with charles bonnet syndrome ( a condition that causes patients with visual loss to have complex visual hallucinations ), a new paper in brain outlines case studies of hallucinations of musical notation, and commented on the neural basis of such hallucinations. while ffytche believes that hallucinations of musical notation are rarer than some other types of visual hallucination, professor oliver sacks m. d. details eight examples of people who have reported experiencing hallucinations of musical notation, including : bodily fluids contain lots of information about the health of people, that is why medical doctors routinely have blood and urine analyzed. but bodily fluids can do more than mark infectious diseases or cancer and organ failure, researchers at eth zurich and at the university hospital zurich have shown they can take advantage of modern high - resolution analytical methods to provide real - time information on the chemical composition of exhaled breath. yes, your breath has an identifiable individual chemical pattern. call it a a ' breathprint '? the first published results from the alpha magnetic spectrometer ( ams ) physics experiment on the international space station were announced today and though the result is the most precise measurement to date of the ratio of positrons to electrons in cosmic rays, we still have not caught our first glimpse into dark matter. the ams experiment, constructed at universities around the world and assembled at the european organization for nuclear research ( cern ),


- category : showcase may 2009 showcase : tilbe goksun ( advisor : kathy hirsh - pasek ) 4th year phd student, department of psychology, temple university relational terms ( e. g., verbs and prepositions ) are the cornerstone of language development, bringing together two distinct fields : linguistic theory and infants ’ event processing. to learn relational terms, infants initially perceive and conceptualize spatial components within events such as path and manner, and then uncover how their ambient language packages these spatial constructs. we propose that infants trade spaces as the language - general nonlinguistic constructs are gradually refined and tuned to the requirements of the particular native language ( goksun, hirsh - pasek, & golinkoff, in press ). previous research suggests that preverbal infants from different language environments possess a general set of spatial and event components ( e. g., containment, support, degree of fit, path, manner, source, goal ) that form bases for learning relational terms. our studies offer a new area of research, exploring infants ’ processing of figures and grounds in dynamic events. the figure in an event can follow any path or move from any source. the ground is a stationary setting with respect to a figure ’ s movement. for example, in the sentence “ john is walking across the street, ” john is the figure and the street is the ground. importantly, languages encode figure and ground relations differently. japanese ground - path verbs such as wataru “ go across ” or koeru “ go over ”, incorporate constraints on the physical geometry of the ground along with the direction of motion. for example, wataru “ go across ” implies that there is both a starting point and a goal and the ground should be a flat extended surface. the typical grounds for wataru “ go across ” are railroad, road, or bridge. in contrast, when the ground does not contain a barrier between two sides ( e. g., a tennis court, grassy field ) the verb tooru “ go through, ” rather than wataru “ go across ” is used ( see figure 1 ). figure 1. the grounds at the top panel ( railroad track, street, road, and bridge ) are encoded by the verb wataru “ to cross ” and grounds at the bottom panel ( tennis court and grass ) are not typically coded by the verb wataru “ to cross, ” but encoded by the verb tooru “ go through ” in japanese. in a series of studies, we examined how


that would fit a context such as kdrv a224 / b271, where kant equates [ den begriff eines triangels ] konstruieren ( to construct / construe the concept of a triangle ) with to give [ the concept ] an object, i. e. to give it what he elsewhere calls a reference [ beziehung ] to objects, and hence a significance [ bedeutung ] ( a1456 / b185 ), or, taking bedeutung more broadly : to give it an imagined significance [ eingebildete bedeutung ] ( a84 / b117 ), as opposed to a mere logical significance ( a147 / b186 ). to construe, that is, interpret, is to give significance. unfortunately, this appears not to be an accepted sense of the german verb ( and moreover, according to the oed, is only a late and derivative sense of the english one ). moreover, we have to take into account another use of konstruieren in the exact same passage ( from the proof of the first postulate ). kant also talks there about the synthesis wodurch wir in der einbildungskraft einen triangle konstruieren ( a224 / b271 ). whatever that means, it doesnt mean by which we construe ( = interpret ) a triangle in the imagination. many would take it, instead, to mean something like : by which we construct ( = build up ) a triangle out of imaginary pieces, using an imaginary compass and an imaginary ruler, on a piece of imaginary paper. but that in itself makes little sense. moreover, to the extent that it does make sense, it leads straight back to descartess argument that we cant do any such imaginary drawing in the case of a chiliagon ( a point of which kant is well aware : see a140 / b17980 ). finally, such an understanding of konstruieren wouldnt work at all in the first example, where kant talks of constructing the concept of a triangle. a concept presumably cant be drawn on any paper, no matter how imaginary. so my new thought is this : that both of these ways of talking are short for : einen begriff mit einem gegenstand konstruieren, to construe a concept with an object ( on the model of : to constru


: that both of these ways of talking are short for : einen begriff mit einem gegenstand konstruieren, to construe a concept with an object ( on the model of : to construe a verb with an object ). if we can construe a concept with an object ( via a schema ), then we know that it is at least the concept of an ens imaginarium ( not, like the concept diangle, that of a nihil negativum [ a291 / b348 ] ; and not, of course, of an ens rationis or nihil privativum, either ). what hes saying in the proof of the first postulate ( i. e., the proof that what agrees with the formal conditions of experience ( according to intuitions and concepts ) is possible [ a218 / b265 ] ) is that to promote a concept from the concept of an ens imaginarium ( which, although not impossible, is still a kind of nothing ) to the concept of a possible being, we need to connect the procedure of the imagination in the schema of that concept to the synthesis of the imagination in perception. so the object of the concept triangle would remain always only a product of the imagination if it were not that the very same [ eben dieselbe ] imaging synthesis by which we construe a triangle [ with its concept ] in the imagination is wholly the same as [ mit einerlei ] that which we exercise in the apprehension of an appearance, in order to make from it an empirical concept. ( again, a224 / b271 ) the concept triangle passes this test, but the concepts of pure time and pure space as such, die zwar etwas sind, als formen anzuschauen, aber selbst keine gegenstande sind, die angeschaut werden [ a291 / b347 ], do not. the synthesis by which the pure imagination produces time and space as pure images of the categories is not the same as any synthesis of the empirical imagination in perception ( but is rather a condition of possibility of all such empirical synthesis ). hence the concepts of time and space are concepts of entia imaginaria. 1 however, im not sure yet if this will work in other places or whether kant anywhere actually uses the locution to construe a


philosophy of self | | this article needs additional citations for verification. ( march 2009 ) | the philosophy of self defines the essential qualities that make one person distinct from all others. there have been numerous approaches to defining these qualities. the self is the idea of a unified being which is the source of consciousness. moreover, this self is the agent responsible for the thoughts and actions of an individual to which they are ascribed. it is a substance, which therefore endures through time ; thus, the thoughts and actions at different moments may pertain to the same self. as the notion of subject, the self had been harshly criticized by nietzsche at the end of the 19th century, on behalf of what gilles deleuze would call a " becoming - other ". definitions of the self most philosophical definitions of self — per descartes, locke, hume, and william james are expressed in the first person. a third person definition does not refer to specific mental qualia but instead strives for objectivity and operationalism. to another person, the self of one individual is exhibited in the conduct and discourse of that individual. therefore, the intentions of another individual can only be inferred from something that emanates from that individual. the particular characteristics of the self determine its identity. concepts of self self in eastern traditions in spirituality, and especially nondual, mystical and eastern meditative traditions, the human being is often conceived as being in the illusion of individual existence, and separateness from other aspects of creation. this " sense of doership " or sense of individual existence is that part which believes it is the human being, and believes it must fight for itself in the world, is ultimately unaware and unconscious of its own true nature. the ego is often associated with mind and the sense of time, which compulsively thinks in order to be assured of its future existence, rather than simply knowing its own self and the present. the spiritual goal of many traditions involves the dissolving of the ego, allowing self - knowledge of one ' s own true nature to become experienced and enacted in the world. this is variously known as enlightenment, nirvana, presence, and the " here and now ". | this section requires expansion. ( january 2007 ) | [ self knowledge ] for socrates, the goal of philosophy was to " know thyself " [ maxim ] lao tzu, in his tao te ching, says " knowing others is wisdom. knowing the self is enlightenment. mastering others requires force. mastering the self requires strength. " adi


themselves suspended in the air, isolated from all sensations, which includes no sensory contact with even their own bodies. he argues that, in this scenario, one would still have self - consciousness. he thus concludes that the idea of the self is not logically dependent on any physical thing, and that the soul should not be seen in relative terms, but as a primary given, a substance. this argument was later refined and simplified by rene descartes in epistemic terms when he stated : " i can abstract from the supposition of all external things, but not from the supposition of my own consciousness. " bundle theory of self david hume pointed out that we tend to think that we are the same person we were five years ago. though we have changed in many respects, the same person appears present as was present then. we might start thinking about which features can be changed without changing the underlying self. hume, however, denies that there is a distinction between the various features of a person and the mysterious self that supposedly bears those features. when we start introspecting, " we are never intimately conscious of anything but a particular perception ; man is a bundle or collection of different perceptions which succeed one another with an inconceivable rapidity and are in perpetual flux and movement ". it is plain, that in the course of our thinking, and in the constant revolution of our ideas, our imagination runs easily from one idea to any other that resembles it, and that this quality alone is to the fancy a sufficient bond and association. it is likewise evident that as the senses, in changing their objects, are necessitated to change them regularly, and take them as they lie contiguous to each other, the imagination must by long custom acquire the same method of thinking, and run along the parts of space and time in conceiving its objects. " on hume ' s view, these perceptions do not belong to anything. rather, hume compares the soul to a commonwealth, which retains its identity not by virtue of some enduring core substance, but by being composed of many different, related, and yet constantly changing elements. the question of personal identity then becomes a matter of characterizing the loose cohesion of one ' s personal experience. ( note that in the appendix to the treatise, hume said mysteriously that he was dissatisfied with his account of the self, yet he never returned to the issue. ) hume ’ s position is very similar to indian buddhists ’ conception of the self. the paradox of the ship of theseus can be


: long falls 5 hours ago i am doing a paper on the physics in valve ' s portal and got interested in the " long fall boots " that prevent any damage no matter how far you fall. i... is energy convertible to matter? 6 hours ago can we convert energy to matter? rotating electron as a dipole is this right? 9 hours ago an electron as shown by the stern gerlach experiment behaves like a dipole ( albeit only in one of two states ). i have been trying to figure out how... dipole term in multipole expansion 13 hours ago hi. i ' m having some difficult in understanding something about the dipole term in a multipole expansion. griffiths writes the expansion as a sum of... bubbles in a pre - boiling / boiling pot of water 14 hours ago how is it that bubbles form on the bottom of a surface of a pot of boiling water? i think that there is probably an elementary answer to this... assumptions of griffith ' s fracture theory may 21, 2013 any experts on griffith ' s fracture theory? i am studying the subject and i am having hard time finding out if the theory is valid for all possible... - more from physics forums - classical physics more news stories researchers at usc have found that a class of pharmaceuticals can both prevent and treat alzheimer ' s disease in mice. alzheimer ' s disease & dementia 12 hours ago | 5 / 5 ( 6 ) | 0 | researchers have pinpointed a catalytic trigger for the onset of alzheimer ' s disease – when the fundamental structure of a protein molecule changes to cause a chain reaction that leads to the death of neurons... alzheimer ' s disease & dementia may 20, 2013 | 5 / 5 ( 4 ) | 0 | a new study looking at sleep - disordered breathing ( sdb ) and markers for alzheimer ' s disease ( ad ) risk in cerebrospinal fluid ( csf ) and neuroimaging adds to the growing body of research linking the two. alzheimer ' s disease & dementia may 19, 2013 | 5 / 5 ( 3 ) | 0 | the devastating effect of alzheimer ' s disease on bilingual people has been thrown into focus in canada, where the sudden loss of a second language can leave sufferers feeling like strangers in their own country. alzheimer ' s disease & dementia may 19, 2013 | not rated yet | 0 ( medical xpress ) — working with lab mice models of multiple sclerosis ( ms ), uc davis scientists have detected a novel


violently shaking a box of breakfast cereal does not make the particles act exactly like molecules in an ideal gas, but there are similarities. according to the 23 october prl there is a simple mathematical expression for the distribution of particle velocities in a shaken box of steel beads which – like the formula for gas molecules – depends only on the average speed of the particles and not on the density or details of the shaking. to model problems such as grain motion in silos, soil shifting in earthquakes, and dry foods mixing in processing plants, physicists studying granular materials want equations as simple and comprehensive as those for gases and fluid motion. the new results suggest that such a theory may be possible. the century - old kinetic theory of gases assumes the gas molecules are in equilibrium with their surroundings – they exchange energy with the outside world each time a molecule collides with a wall. but the particles in a granular material are not in equilibrium ; they constantly soak up energy from the shaking source because they heat up a bit with each interparticle collision, explains narayanan menon of the university of massachusetts at amherst. it ’ s not obvious that a kinetic - type theory for granular materials is even possible for such a nonequilibrium system, menon says. in search of some “ universal ” behavior, menon and colleague florence rouyer used a high - speed video camera to measure the velocities of 1. 6 - mm - diameter steel beads confined between two vertical, clear plastic plates separated by 1. 7 mm and sealed around the edges. their mechanical shaker vibrated the cell vertically with accelerations up to 58 times that of gravity and speeds up to 1. 8 m / s. above a shaking speed of 1 m / s menon says the particles “ forget the influence of the boundaries ” that pump in energy from above and below. under these conditions, rouyer and menon found a simple, bell - shaped distribution for the probability of each horizontal velocity, although not the classic gaussian curve from kinetic theory. instead their distribution is broader, with more particles having higher velocities. but the distribution ’ s shape was unchanged by variations in the frequency and amplitude of the shaking and the density of the particles. even a circular cell gave the same distribution as a square one. and just as with an ideal gas, the distribution ’ s width depended only upon the average speed of a particle – the granular equivalent of the temperature in a gas. although others have measured non - gaussian velocity distributions for


examples of analysis sections an example from a law field report about a courtroom observation click here to see the description section of this law field report. | the legal processes i observed in the district court hearing reflect to a certain extent australian social values. their purpose is to attempt to maintain an efficient court system and create justice before the law. processes such as rules of evidence which ensure only the most applicable evidence is heard have been developed over many years, thus demonstrating an influence of past and future cases. similarly, the doctrine of precedent ensures that similar cases have similar results. procedural grounds for objections protect witnesses from harassment and potential confusion. therefore, all of these legal processes create an environment in which changing social values will bring about complementary changes in court decisions. | | the meaning and theoretical significance of the observations described are explored footnote 1 : adapted from woodward - kron, r., thomson, e. & meek, j. ( 2000 ) a text based guide to academic writing. cd - rom. dept. of modern languages, university of wollongong. an example from an education field report about a classroom practicum experience | as i help the students i am conscious of the scaffolding vygotsky described taking place. i observed other people such as teachers and parents scaffolding with their children. it was, therefore, interesting to realise that i was doing the same as i walked around the classroom helping the children with their tasks. scaffolding helps the children to reach their zone of proximal development which in turn helps them to achieve more complex tasks. i have found my practical experience in the classroom has been full of examples supporting the theories of piaget and vygotsky and to a lesser extent erikson. it is also good to see that these theories actually have real world application to child development. | exploring the significance of practical experience and observations from a theoretical perspective reflection about what the field experience has meant for theoretical understanding this is the analysis section from a history field report about historical monuments. click here to see the description section of this history field report. the bulli coal mining company had 331 employees : this represented approximately 20 % of the population of bulli. given the small size of the bulli community, the population was calculated at 1352 persons in the 1891 census ( mitchell & sherington, 1984 : 42 ), and its dependence on the bulli coal mining company, the impact of a disaster of this magnitude was enormous. henry parkes and his government realising the hardship being experienced by the community, particularly the


towards the image ; this would be the reflected ray that ultimately travels to your eye. for a secondary image, this reflected ray is associated with an incident ray that had reflected off the other face of the mirror. the law of reflection can be used to determine the direction it was traveling as it was incident upon this face of the mirror. repeat this process to determine the point of reflections on each face, tracing the path of light back to its origin - the object itself. a completed ray diagram for a secondary image on a 60 - degree mirror system is shown below. flickr physics photo when the two mirrors are aligned at a 0 - degree angle with each other ( i. e., a parallel mirror system ), there are an infinite number of images. each image is the result of an image of an image, or an image of an image of an image or an image of an image of.... the diagram below shows the multiple images for a parallel mirror system. images i1 and i2 are primary images. image i1 is the image resulting from the reflection of the object o across mirror m1 and image i2 is the image resulting from the reflection of the object o across mirror m2. image i3 is an image of image i1, found by reflecting image i1 across mirror m2. image i4 is an image of image i2 ; found by reflecting image i2 across mirror m1. this process could continue indefinitely, producing images of images for an infinite number of images. multiple mirror systems are merely the extension of what we have already learned about plane mirrors. the locating of images is an extension of the principle that the image distance to the mirror is the same as the object distance to the mirror. drawing ray diagrams for multiple mirror systems is an extension of the line of sight and law of reflection principles. flickr physics photo 1. rose inhatt stands between a set of parallel plane mirrors ( m1 and m2 ) as shown in the diagram below. there is a flower on rose ' s hat that is located a distance of 0. 4 m from m1 and a distance of 1. 0 m from m2. since the mirrors are parallel, rose will see an infinite number of images of the flower as she looks in mirror m2. these images stretch towards infinity. some of the images are closer to the mirror than others. determine the distance between mirror m2 and the... a.... nearest image _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ b.... second nearest image _ _


feb. 7, 2013 although scientists have been aware that magnetism and electricity are two sides of the same proverbial coin for almost 150 years, researchers are still trying to find new ways to use a material ' s electric behavior to influence its magnetic behavior, or vice versa. thanks to new research by an international team of researchers led by the u. s. department of energy ' s argonne national laboratory, physicists have developed new methods for controlling magnetic order in a particular class of materials known as " magnetoelectrics. " magnetoelectrics get their name from the fact that their magnetic and electric properties are coupled to each other. because this physical link potentially allows control of their magnetic behavior with an electrical signal or vice versa, scientists have taken a special interest in magnetoelectric materials. " electricity and magnetism are intrinsically coupled - - they ' re the same entity, " said philip ryan, a physicist at argonne ' s advanced photon source. " our research is designed to accentuate the coupling between the electric and magnetic parameters by subtly altering the structure of the material. " the argonne - led team focused on the compound eutio3 ( europium - titanium oxide ), which has a simple atomic structure that suited it especially well to the experiment. the titanium atom sits in the middle of a cage constructed of the europium and oxygen atoms. by first compressing the cage through growing a thin film of eutio3 on a similar crystal with a smaller lattice and then applying a voltage, the titanium shifts slightly, electrically polarizing the system, and more importantly, changing the magnetic order of the material. " the europium and the titanium combine to control the two properties, " ryan said. " the position of the titanium influences the electric behavior, while the europium generates the magnetic nature. there ' s a shared responsibility for the system ' s coupling behavior. " this new approach to cross - coupling magnetoelectricity could prove a key step toward the development of next - generation memory storage, improved magnetic field sensors, and many other applications long dreamed about. unfortunately, scientists still have a ways to go to translating these findings into commercial devices. potential magnetic and electric memories each have a distinct appeal to researchers. electric memories - - like the kind used into today ' s electronics - - allow computers to write data fast and very efficiently. magnetic memories are less energy efficient, but are extraordinarily robust. " the more we learn about magnetoele


. electric memories - - like the kind used into today ' s electronics - - allow computers to write data fast and very efficiently. magnetic memories are less energy efficient, but are extraordinarily robust. " the more we learn about magnetoelectrics, the more we open up this space that gives us the best of both worlds, " ryan said. because the electric and magnetic parameters in these particular materials are so strongly linked, engineers might also be able to use them in the future to create non - binary memories. " instead of having just a ' 0 ' or a ' 1, ' you could have a broader range of different values, " ryan said. " a lot of people are looking into what that kind of logic would look like. " other social bookmarking and sharing tools : - p. j. ryan, j - w kim, t. birol, p. thompson, j - h. lee, x. ke, p. s. normile, e. karapetrova, p. schiffer, s. d. brown, c. j. fennie, d. g. schlom. reversible control of magnetic interactions by electric field in a single - phase material. nature communications, 2013 ; 4 : 1334 doi : 10. 1038 / ncomms2329 note : if no author is given, the source is cited instead.


in recent weeks, some of the most powerful solar flares ever witnessed have sent electrically charged gas shooting toward the earth in so - called coronal mass ejections. but even without such impressive displays, the sun provides a wealth of energy to our planet. unfortunately, efforts to mass produce solar cells to harness energy from sol have stalled at efficiencies of around 30 percent in the laboratory and less than 20 percent in commercial cells. a novel crystal described in a paper set to be published in the journal physical review letters may change that, however. scientists report that the semiconductor material could form the basis of solar cells with nearly 50 percent efficiency. in a standard photovoltaic cell, the sun ' s rays are converted into electricity when electrons within the material are knocked loose. to accomplish this the incoming light must have a specific energy, known as the band gap. incident light with less energy will not be absorbed, while the portion of more energetic radiation above the band gap will be lost. in an attempt to alleviate this problem, kin yu of lawrence berkeley national laboratory and colleagues investigated the properties of a new semiconductor material comprising an alloy of zinc, manganese and tellurium. the researchers added oxygen impurities to the crystal, which resulted in a crystal having three band gaps instead of the customary one. " these three absorption edges span much of the solar spectrum, " they write, " thus these alloys are good candidates for the multi - band semiconductors envisioned for high efficiency photovoltaic devices. " the scientists further theorize that the efficiency could be increased to as much as 56 percent by changing the ratio of the atoms or replacing manganese with magnesium.


although the nucleus of an atom is far too small for us to see, here ' s one way of thinking about an atomic nucleus : as a cluster of tightly packed " balls ". the red " balls " represent protons ; the blue " balls " represent neutrons. the cloud of electrons that " orbit " an atom ' s nucleus and define the " size " of an atom is roughly 100, 000 times as large as that atom ' s nucleus! click on image for full size original artwork by windows to the universe staff ( randy russell ). a neutron is a sub - atomic ( meaning it is smaller than an atom ) particle. the nucleus of an atom is made up of neutrons and protons. neutrons and protons are almost exactly the same size ( a neutron has about 1 / 10th of one percent more mass ). a neutron does not have an electrical charge, unlike protons ( which have a charge of + 1 ) and electrons ( which have a charge of - 1 ). neutrons are much larger than electrons ; the mass of a neutron is about 1, 839 times that of an electron! the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom determines what type of element the atom is. the number of protons is called the element ' s " atomic number ". for example, hydrogen has an atomic number of one, since all hydrogen atoms have one proton in their nucleus. carbon has 6 protons, so its atomic number is 6 ; oxygen has 8 protons, so its atomic number is 8. uranium has 92 protons, so its atomic number is 92! if we count the number of protons plus neutrons, we get an atom ' s atomic mass. most elements come in different versions, called " isotopes ", with different numbers of neutrons. for example, the most common form of carbon is carbon - 12 ( 12c ) ; that isotope of carbon has 6 protons and 6 neutrons, and thus an atomic mass of twelve. another isotope of carbon, carbon - 14 ( 14c ), has 6 protons and 8 neutrons, hence and atomic mass of fourteen. 14c is radioactive and is used to determine how old things are in a technique called " carbon dating ". neutrons can exist outside of an atoms nucleus. there is a type of particle radiation called neutron radiation. neutrons are made up of even smaller particles called quarks. a neutron is made up of two down quarks and one up quark. particles, like neutron


an atoms nucleus. there is a type of particle radiation called neutron radiation. neutrons are made up of even smaller particles called quarks. a neutron is made up of two down quarks and one up quark. particles, like neutrons, made of three quarks are called baryons. shop windows to the universe science store! our online store includes issues of nesta ' s quarterly journal, the earth scientist, full of classroom activities on different topics in earth and space science, ranging from seismology, rocks and minerals, and earth system science you might also be interested in : an element ( also called a " chemical element " ) is a substance made up entirely of atoms having the same atomic number ; that is, all of the atoms have the same number of protons. hydrogen, helium, oxygen,... more the nucleus of an atom has protons and neutrons in it. each element ( like carbon or oxygen or gold ) has a different number of protons in its atoms. scientists have a special name for the number of protons... more oxygen ( o2 ) is a kind of gas. a lot of the air you breathe is oxygen. that ' s a good thing, since we need oxygen to stay alive! about 4 / 5ths of the air in earth ' s atmosphere is nitrogen ( n2 ). almost all... more one way scientists measure the size of something is by its mass. scientists can even measure very, very tiny things like atoms. one measure of the size of an atom is its " atomic mass ". almost all of the... more isotopes are different " versions " of an element. all atoms of an element have the same number of protons. for example, all hydrogen atoms have one proton, all carbon atoms have 6 protons, and all uranium... more one main type of radiation, particle radiation, is the result of subatomic particles hurtling at tremendous speeds. protons, cosmic rays, and alpha and beta particles are some of the most common types... more chemistry is the study of matter, energy, and their interactions. chemists study the composition of substances, their properties, and how they react with each other under varying circumstances. indeed,... more


this will be short but sweet. in the spirit of @ j. r answer - ( in particular the block section ) - the information content of any " word " is most certainly less than that in an equivalent random amount of characters in that word ( if one is writing ) or syllables ( if one is speaking. ) as anyone who reads @ j. r. block passage will agree, predictability is assured - providing we are on the same rational basis. nothing more is required - anyone with any questions : look up information theory. a definite answer as requested. ok so it seems i need to do all the work : entropy is defined in the context of a probabilistic model. independent fair coin flips > have an entropy of 1 bit per flip. a source that always generates a long string of b ' s has > an entropy of 0, since the next character will always be a ' b '. the entropy rate of a data source means the average number of bits per symbol needed to encode it. shannon ' s experiments with human predictors show an information rate of between 0. 6 and 1. 3 bits per character, depending on the experimental setup ; the ppm compression algorithm can achieve a compression ratio of 1. 5 bits per character in english text. from the preceding example, note the following points : the amount of entropy is not always an integer number of bits. many data bits may not convey information. for example, data structures often store information redundantly, or have identical sections regardless of the information in the data structure. shannon ' s definition of entropy, when applied to an information source, can determine the minimum channel capacity required to reliably transmit the source as encoded binary digits ( see caveat below in italics ). the formula can be derived by calculating the mathematical expectation of the amount of information contained in a digit from the information source. see also shannon - hartley theorem. shannon ' s entropy measures the information contained in a message as opposed to the portion of the message that is determined ( or predictable ). examples of the latter include redundancy in language structure or statistical properties relating to the occurrence frequencies of letter or word pairs, triplets etc. see markov chain. < right out of wikipedia : http : / / en. wikipedia. org / wiki / entropy _ ( information _ theory ) and seeing as the random generation of an alphabetical character - in english in particular - requires 4. 7 bits of information ( anyone? anyone? ) we simply see that there is no possible way for


and most problematical in our lives. — harry g. frankfurt personhood is the status of being a person. defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law, and is closely tied to legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. according to law, only a natural person or legal personality has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and legal liability. personhood continues to be a topic of international debate, and has been questioned during the abolition of slavery and the fight for women ' s rights, in debates about abortion, fetal rights and reproductive rights, and in animal rights advocacy. various debates have focused on questions about the personhood of different classes of entities. historically, the personhood of animals, women, and slaves has been a catalyst of social upheaval. in most societies today, living adult humans are usually considered persons, but depending on the context, theory or definition, the category of " person " may be taken to include such non - human entities as animals, artificial intelligences, or extraterrestrial life, as well as legal entities such as corporations, sovereign states and other polities, or estates in probate. the category may exclude some human entities in prenatal development, and those with extreme mental impairment. personal identity personal identity is the unique identity of persons through time. that is to say, the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time can be said to be the same person, persisting through time. in the modern philosophy of mind, this concept of personal identity is sometimes referred to as the diachronic problem of personal identity. the synchronic problem is grounded in the question of what features or traits characterize a given person at one time. identity is an issue for both continental philosophy and analytic philosophy. a key question in continental philosophy is in what sense we can maintain the modern conception of identity, while realizing many of our prior assumptions about the world are incorrect. proposed solutions to the problem of personal identity include continuity of the physical body, continuity of an immaterial mind or soul, continuity of consciousness or memory, the bundle theory of self, continuity of personality after the death of the physical body, and proposals that there are actually no persons or selves which persist over time at all. see also - animal rights - beginning of human personhood - capitis deminutio - corporate personhood - great ape personhood - juridical person - juristic person - immanuel kant - legal fiction - personhood


chemistry, a branch of physical science, is the study of the composition, properties and behavior of matter. chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds. chemistry is also concerned with the interactions between atoms ( or groups of atoms ) and various forms of energy ( e. g. photochemical reactions, changes in phases of matter, separation of mixtures, properties of polymers, etc. ). 17th century - it is the study of the chemists to liberate that unsensual truth from its fetters in things of sense, for through it the heavenly powers are persued with subtle understanding.... knowledge is the sure and undoubted resolution by experiment of all opinions concerning the truth.... experiment is manifest demonstration of the truth, and resolution the putting away of doubt. we cannot be resolved of any doubt save by experiment, and therefore is no better way to make it than on ourselves. let us therefore verify what we have said above concerning the truth, beginning with ourselves. we have said that piety consists in knowledge of ourselves, and hence it is said that we make philosophical knowledge begin from this also. but no man can know himself unless he know what and not who he is, on whom he depends and whose he is ( for by the law of truth no one belongs to himself, and to what end he was made. with this knowledge piety begins, which is concerned with two things, namely, with the creator and the creature that is made like unto him. for it is impossible for the creature to know himself of himself, unless he first know his creator.... no one can better know the creator, than the workman is known by his work. - gerhard dorn 1659 c. theatrum chemicum volume 1 phil. med. 18th century - we must trust to nothing but facts : these are presented to us by nature, and cannot deceive. we ought, in every instance, to submit our reasoning to the test of experiment, and never to search for truth but by the natural road of experiment and observation. - antoine lavoisier ( 1790 ) elements of chemistry, pp. xiii - xxxvii 19th century - god does not justify man on the ground of human learning ; attainments in chemistry, anatomy, geology, botany, astronomy, or skill in sculpture and painting, — these do not prepare a man to die. - albert barnes ( 1895 ) dictionary of burning words of brilliant


man on the ground of human learning ; attainments in chemistry, anatomy, geology, botany, astronomy, or skill in sculpture and painting, — these do not prepare a man to die. - albert barnes ( 1895 ) dictionary of burning words of brilliant writers. p. 114. - men are not allowed to think freely about chemistry and biology : why should they be allowed to think freely about political philosophy? - auguste comte ( 1798 – 1857 ) as quoted in a dictionary of scientific quotations ( 1991 ) by alan lindsay mackay - one of the most striking characteristics of this new modification of oxygen is its peculiar odor, and hence schonbein calls it ozone, from a greek verb signifying to smell. it frequently happens that a great discovery supplies the wanting links between a number of obscure facts, and thus adds quite as much to our knowledge by its indirect bearings as by the positive additions it makes to the general stock. so it has been with the discovery of ozone. every one who has used an electrical machine must have noticed the peculiar smell which follows the electrical discharge. this was formerly supposed to be the odor of the electrical fluid itself ; but as soon as ozone was discovered, the odor was recognized at once as belonging to this new agent, and it was soon ascertained that electricity is one of the most efficient means of modifying the oxygen of the air. - josiah parsons cooke ( 1880 ). religion and chemistry. charles scribner ’ s sons, new york. p. 116. - if a possible — nay, reasonable — variation in only one of the forces conditioning the human race, that of gravitation, could so modify our outward form, appearance, and proportions as to make us to all intents and purposes a different race of beings ; if mere differences of size can cause some of the most simple facts in chemistry and physics to take so widely different a guise ; if beings microscopically small and prodigiously large would simply as such be subject to the hallucinations i have pointed out, and to others i might enlarge upon, is it not possible that we, in turn, though occupying, as it seems to us, the golden mean, may also by the mere virtue of our size and weight fall into misinterpretations of phenomena from which we should escape were we or the globe we inhabit either larger or smaller, heavier or lighter? may not our boasted knowledge be simply conditioned by accidental environments, and thus be liable to a large element of subjectivity hitherto unsuspected


cited in : coper, h., herken, h., 1963. dtsch. med. wochenschr. 88, 2025 – 2036. 20th century - space is big. really big. you just won ' t believe how vastly, hugely, mind - bogglingly big it is. i mean, you may think it ' s a long way down the road to the chemist ' s, but that ' s just peanuts to space. - the nature of the chemical bond is the problem at the heart of all chemistry. - bryce crawford in new chemistry ( 1957 ) by the editors of scientific american, p. 65 - we must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. the work was one of pure science. and this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. it must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity. - marie curie ( 1921 ) lecture at vassar college, poughkeepsie, new york ( 14 may 1921 ) - within a certain kind of environment, an activity may be checked so that the only meaning which accrues is of its direct and tangible isolated outcome. one may cook, or hammer, or walk, and the resulting consequences may not take the mind any farther than the consequences of cooking, hammering, and walking in the literal — or physical — sense. but nevertheless the consequences of the act remain far - reaching. to walk involves a displacement and reaction of the resisting earth, whose thrill is felt wherever there is matter. it involves the structure of the limbs and the nervous system ; the principles of mechanics. to cook is to utilize heat and moisture to change the chemical relations of food materials ; it has a bearing upon the assimilation of food and the growth of the body. the utmost that the most learned men of science know in physics, chemistry, physiology is not enough to make all these consequences and connections perceptible. the task of education, once more, is to see to it that such activities are performed in such ways and under such conditions as render these conditions as perceptible as possible. - the underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws leads to equations much too


perceptible as possible. - the underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws leads to equations much too complicated to be soluble. it therefore becomes desirable that approximate practical methods of applying quantum mechanics should be developed, which can lead to an explanation of the main features of complex atomic systems without too much computation. - modern warfare, we discovered, was to a far greater extent than ever before a conflict of chemists and manufacturers. manpower, it is true, was indispensable, and generalship will always, whatever the conditions, have a vital part to play. but troops, however brave and well led, were powerless under modern conditions unless equipped with adequate and up - to - date artillery ( with masses of explosive shell ), machine - guns, aircraft and other supplies. against enemy machine - gun posts and wire entanglements the most gallant and best - led men could only throw away their precious lives in successive waves of heroic martyrdom. their costly sacrifice could avail nothing for the winning of victory. - david lloyd george ( 1938 ) war memoirs - the alchemical tradition assumes that every physical art or science is a body of knowledge which exists only because it is ensouled by invisible powers and processes. physical chemistry, as it is practiced in the modern world, is concerned principally with pharmaceutical or industrial research projects. it is confined within the boundaries of an all - pervading materialism, which binds labor to the advancement of physical objectives. - manly palmer hall ( 1988 ) meditation symbols in eastern & western mysticism - somehow, the practice of astronomy, physics, chemistry or biology normally fails to evoke the controversies over fundamentals that today seem endemic among, say, psychologists or sociologists. attempting to discover the source of that difference led me to recognize the role in scientific research of what i have since called “ paradigms. ” these i take to be universally recognized scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions for a community of practitioners. - thomas samuel kuhn ( 1962 ) the structure of scientific revolutions. p. 48 - for me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden mount sinai. like moses, from that cloud i expected my law, the principle of order in me, around me, and in the world. i was fed up with books, which i still


we leave a chemistry professor out on a rock in the sun long enough the forces of nature will convert him into simple compounds of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, and small amounts of other minerals. it ' s a one - way reaction. no matter what kind of chemistry professor we use and no matter what process we use we can ' t turn these compounds back into a chemistry professor. chemistry professors are unstable mixtures of predominantly unstable compounds which, in the exclusive presence of the sun ' s heat, decay irreversibly into simpler organic and inorganic compounds. that ' s a scientific fact. the question is : then why does nature reverse this process? what on earth causes the inorganic compounds to go the other way? it isn ' t the sun ' s energy. we just saw what the sun ' s energy did. it has to be something else. what is it? - robert m. pirsig ( 1991 ) lila - it has never been in my power to study anything, — mathematics, ethics, metaphysics, gravitation, thermodynamics, optics, chemistry, comparative anatomy, astronomy, psychology, phonetics, economics, the history of science, whist, men and women, wine, metrology, except as a study of semeiotic. - the recognition of certain basic impossibilities has laid the foundations of some major principles of physics and chemistry ; similarly, recognition of the impossibility of understanding living things in terms of physics and chemistry, far from setting limits to our understanding of life, will guide it in the right direction. and even if the demonstration of this impossibility should prove of no great advantage in the pursuit of discovery, such a demonstration would help to draw a truer image of life and man than that given us by the present basic concepts of biology. - michael polanyi ( 1968 ) life ' s irreducible structure - i must confess it was very unexpected and i am very startled at my metamorphosis into a chemist. - chemistry has been termed by the physicist as the messy part of physics, but that is no reason why the physicists should be permitted to make a mess of chemistry when they invade it. - frederick soddy as quoted in american journal of physics, volume 14. american association of physics teachers, american institute of physics. 1946. p. 248. - professor meitner stated that nuclear fission could be attributed to chemistry. i have to make a slight correction. chemistry merely isolated the individual substances,


, volume 14. american association of physics teachers, american institute of physics. 1946. p. 248. - professor meitner stated that nuclear fission could be attributed to chemistry. i have to make a slight correction. chemistry merely isolated the individual substances, but did not precisely identify them. it took professor hahn ' s method to do this. this was his achievement. - fritz strassmann in an interview with the german television, ard, march 8, 1959. - i have described at some length the application of positive rays to chemical analysis ; one of the main reasons for writing this book was the hope that it might induce others, and especially chemists, to try this method of analysis. i feel sure that there are many problems in chemistry, which could be solved with far greater ease by this than any other method. the method is surprisingly sensitive — more so than even that of spectrum analysis, requires an infinitesimal amount of material, and does not require this to be specially purified ; the technique is not difficult if appliances for producing high vacua are available. - j. j. thomson ( 1913 ) rays of positive electricity - i recognize nothing that is not material. in physics, chemistry and biology i see only mechanics. the universe is nothing but an infinite and complex mechanism. its complexity is so great that it borders on randomness, giving the illusion of free will. - konstantin eduardovich tsiolkovsky ( 1931 ) monism of the universe - the philosophy of bergson, which is a spiritualist restoration, essentially mystical, medieval, quixotesque, has been called a demi - mondaine philosophy. leave out the demi ; call it mondaine, mundane. mundane — yes, a philosophy for the world and not for philosophers, just as chemistry ought to be not for chemists alone. the world desires illusion ( mundus vult decipi ) — either the illusion antecedent to reason, which is poetry, or the illusion subsequent to reason, which is religion. and machiavelli has said that whosoever wishes to delude will always find someone willing to be deluded. blessed are they who are easily befooled! - miguel de unamuno ( 1913 ) the tragic sense of life - like literature, philosophy is not distinguished from other subjects by a specific approach to a subject - matter independent of it. chemistry deals with chemicals, biology with life and astronomy with very large, very distant objects. philosophy can boast no such definite subject - matter.


acquired in graduate school : i am passionate about the periodic table ( and selenium, titanium and osmium are absolutely thrilling ), and i am passionate about catalysis. what the ocean was to the child, the periodic table is to the chemist ; new catalytic reactivity is, of course, my personal coelacanth. - k. barry sharpless, nobel lecture, 2001 - the most essential example of the theory of self - organisation in chemistry is the theory of non - linear, non - equilibrium thermodynamics of chemical reactions presented by prigogine and his co - workers. - rein vihalemm ( 2001 ) " chemistry as an interesting subject for the philosophy of science ". p. 195 - whether two molecules are ( dis ) similar is in the eye of the beholder. scientists look to fool the receptor - but you really want to fool the patent office. - s. stanley young ( 2008 ), assistant director of bioinformatics, national institute of statistical sciences. appearing in : lipp, elizabeth ( 2008 - 08 - 01 ). " novel approaches to lead optimization ". genetic engineering & biotechnology news ( mary ann liebert ) : pp. 20, 22. retrieved on 2008 - 09 - 28.


measurement advance could speed innovation in solar devices a new versatile measurement system devised by researchers at the national institute of standards and technology ( nist ) accurately and quickly measures the electric power output of solar energy devices, capabilities useful to researchers and manufacturers working to develop and make next - generation solar energy cells. innovative devices that convert sunlight to electric power more efficiently and cost effectively than the current generation of solar cell technology are the objects of a global pursuit — means to reducing fossil - fuel consumption and to securing pole position in the competition for fast - growing international markets for clean energy sources. as reported in the journal applied optics, the nist team has combined 32 leds — each generating light from different segments of the solar spectrum — and other off - the - shelf equipment with their custom - made technologies to build a system that measures the wavelength - dependent quantum efficiency of solar devices over a relatively large area. anticipated advantages over current approaches — most of which use incandescent lamps or xenon arc and other types of discharge lamps — are greater speed and ease of operation, more uniform illumination, and a service life that is about 10 times longer. the new nist system for measuring spectral response easily accommodates two unique but complementary methods for determining how much electric current a solar, or photovoltaic ( pv ), device generates when hit by a standard amount of sunlight. both methods are straightforward, and they use the same hardware setup. with either method, the automated system produces measurements more rapidly than current instruments used to simulate solar radiation and characterize how efficiently a device converts light energy to electric energy. one method, which activates the led lights sequentially, is less subject to interference than the other technique, and yields a spectral response measurement in about 6 minutes. with the other method, all 32 leds are activated simultaneously, but each generates pulses of light at a different rate. the solar response of a pv device over the entire led - blended spectrum can be determined in about 4 seconds. though more susceptible to interference, the faster method has potential for in - line manufacturing tests for ensuring quality, the researchers write. the new system represents a major stride toward a technical goal set by a group of solar energy experts convened by nist in late 2010. " to accelerate all types of pv development and lower costs through more accurate assessment of performance, " these experts set the goal to achieve spectral response measurements in fewer than 10 minutes. while the new system beats the time requirement, the nist team must push their technology further to match related targets that are part of the


. classification can be performed using filters. a filter contains a number of conditions which if matched, make the filter match. a qdisc may, with the help of a classifier, decide that some packets need to go out earlier than others. this process is called scheduling, and is performed for example by the pfifo _ fast qdisc mentioned earlier. scheduling is also called ' reordering ', but this is confusing. the process of delaying packets before they go out to make traffic confirm to a configured maximum rate. shaping is performed on egress. colloquially, dropping packets to slow traffic down is also often called shaping. delaying or dropping packets in order to make traffic stay below a configured bandwidth. in linux, policing can only drop a packet and not delay it - there is no ' ingress queue '. a work - conserving qdisc always delivers a packet if one is available. in other words, it never delays a packet if the network adaptor is ready to send one ( in the case of an egress qdisc ). some queues, like for example the token bucket filter, may need to hold on to a packet for a certain time in order to limit the bandwidth. this means that they sometimes refuse to pass a packet, even though they have one available. now that we have our terminology straight, let ' s see where all these things are. userspace programs ^ | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + | y | | - - - - - - - > ip stack | | | | | | | y | | | y | | ^ | | | | / - - - - - - - - - - > forwarding - > | | ^ / | | | | / y | | | | | | ^ y / - qdisc1 - \ | | | egress / - - qdisc2 - - \ | - - - > - > ingress classifier - - - qdisc3 - - - - | - > | qdisc \ _ _ qdisc4 _ _ / | | \ - qdiscn _ / | | | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


3. 1 systematic errors systematic errors are uncertainties in the bias of the data. a simple example is the zeroing of an instrument such as a voltmeter. if the voltmeter is not correctly zeroed before use, then all values measured by the voltmeter will be biased, i. e., offset by some constant amount or factor. however, even if the utmost care is taken in setting the instrument to zero, one can only say that it has been zeroed to within some value. this value may be small, but it sets a limit on the degree of certainty in the measurements and thus to the conclusions that can be drawn. an important point to be clear about is that a systematic error implies that all measurements in a set of data taken with the same instrument are shifted in the same direction by the same amount - in unison. this is in sharp contrast to random errors where each individual measurement fluctuates independently of the others. systematic errors, therefore, are usually most important when groups of data points taken under the same conditions are being considered. unfortunately, there is no consistent method by which systematic errors may be treated or analyzed. each experiment must generally be considered individually and it is often very difficult just to identify the possible sources let alone estimate the magnitude of the error. our discussion in the remainder of this chapter, therefore, will not be concerned with this topic.


- physik ( 2 ) ( remove ) - clustering in heavy ion collisions : why it could happen and how to observe it? ( 2008 ) - we argue that clustering in heavy ion collisions could be the missing element in resolving the socalled hbt puzzle, and briefly discuss the different physical situations where clustering could be present. we then propose a method by which clustering in heavy ion collisions could be detectedin a model - independent way. - nanolesions induced by heavy ions in human tissues : experimental and theoretical studies ( 2012 ) - the biological effects of energetic heavy ions are attracting increasing interest for their applications in cancer therapy and protection against space radiation. the cascade of events leading to cell death or late effects starts from stochastic energy deposition on the nanometer scale and the corresponding lesions in biological molecules, primarily dna. we have developed experimental techniques to visualize dna nanolesions induced by heavy ions. nanolesions appear in cells as “ streaks ” which can be visualized by using different dna repair markers. we have studied the kinetics of repair of these “ streaks ” also with respect to the chromatin conformation. initial steps in the modeling of the energy deposition patterns at the micrometer and nanometer scale were made with mchit and trax models, respectively.