Mysterious ‘Majorana Fermion’ Discovered —Could Revolutionize Understanding of Dark Matter & Future of Quantum Computing
April 17, 2012
“In 1938 one of the world’s greatet scientists withdrew all his money and disappeared during a boat trip from Palermo to Naples. Whether he killed himself, was murdered or lived on under a different identity is still not known. But no trace of The Italian physicist Ettore Majorana has ever been found.
Majorana was a brilliant theorist who in the 1930’s showed great insight into physics at a young age. He discovered a hitherto unknown solution to the equations from which quantum scientists deduce elementary particles: the Majorana fermion. Majorana deduced from quantum theory the possibility that there must be a special particle that would be right on the border between matter and antimatter.
Fast forward to February 2012, the mysterious Majorana fermion was detected in a nanowire, according to Dutch nanoscientist Leo Kouwenhoven. The discovery could confirm the theory that assumes that dark matter, which is thought to form about 73 percent of the Universe, is composed of Majorana fermions.
Kouwenhoven leaked preliminary results of his research at a scientific congress. On April 12, Kouwenhoven went public in Science Express, saying his team at at TU Delft’s Kavli Institute and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM Foundation) — and also financed by Microsoft — had created a nanoscale electronic device in which a pair of Majorana fermions magically (my word) “appear” at either end of a nanowire.”
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/04/long-sought-mystery-particle-discovered-could-revolutionize-understanding-of-dark-matter-future-of-q.html#more
About the Image : IC 443- Jellyfish Nebula ~ Supernova remnant
“IC 443 is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds. “
Image Credit : Rolf Geissinger
See the really hardcore people will tell you life begins at fertilization. Fertilization, when the sperm fertilizes the egg. Which is usually a few moments after the man says “Gee, honey, I was going to pull out but the phone rang and it startled me.” Fertilization! But even after the egg is fertilized, it’s still six or seven days before it reaches the uterus and pregnancy begins, and not every egg makes it that far. Eighty percent of a woman’s fertilized eggs are rinsed and flushed out of her body once a month during those delightful few days she has. They wind up on sanitary napkins, and yet they are fertilized eggs. So basically what these anti-abortion people are telling us is that any woman who’s had more than one period is a serial killer!
– George Carlin (via bulletinaweave) Via STFU, Conservatives
A fun visual representation of how unbelievably pointless and wasteful Florida’s drug testing law is. Not pictured: the fact that that $178 million dollars went to a company owned by the governor’s wife.
-Jess
Our present need for internet connectivity is so profound that secondary devices like the Nextep Computer are bound to happen. Developed to be worn as a bracelet, this computer concept is constructed out of a flexible OLED touchscreen. Earmarked for the year 2020, features like a holographic projector (for screen), pull-out extra keyboard panels and social networking compatibility, make the concept plausible. Ten years from now is not too far away, so how many of you think we’d be buying such gadgets?
A rare natural phenomenon turns one of Austria’s most beautiful hiking trails into a 10 meter-deep lake, for half the year.
Located at the foot of the Hochschwab Mountains, in Tragoess, Styria, Green Lake is one of the most bizarre natural phenomena in the world. During the cold winter months, this place is almost completely dry, and used as a country park where hikers love to come and spend some time away from urban chaos. But as soon as temperatures rise, the snow and ice covering the mountaintops begin to melt, and the water pours down, filling the basin below with crystal-clear water.
Water levels go from one-two meters at most, to over 10 meters, in the early summer. The waters of Green Lake are highest in June, when this extraordinary place is invaded by divers, curious to see what a mountain park looks like underwater. Fish swimming over wooden benches, a grass-covered bottom, trees, roads, and even bridges create a surreal setting that feels like it belongs on dry ground. That’s because for half of the year, that’s exactly where it’s at.
They are in late prototype stages of wearable glasses that look similar to thick-rimmed glasses that “normal people” wear. However, these provide a display with a heads up computer interface. There are a few buttons on the arms of the glasses, but otherwise, they could be mistaken for normal glasses. Additionally, we are not sure of the technology being employed here, but it is likely a transparent LCD or AMOLED display such as the one demonstrated below: In addition, we have heard that this device is not an “Android peripheral” as the NYT stated. According to our source, it communicates directly with the Cloud over IP. Although, the “Google Goggles” could use a phone’s Internet connection, through Wi-Fi or a low power Bluetooth 4.0. The use-case is augmented reality that would tie into Google’s location services. A user can walk around with information popping up and into display -Terminator-style- based on preferences, location and Google’s information. Therefore, these things likely connect to the Internet and have GPS. They also likely run a version of Android.
When you’re scientifically literate, the world looks different to you. It’s a particular way of questioning what you see and hear. When empowered by this state of mind, objective realities matter. These are the truths of the world that exist outside of whatever your belief system tells you.
One objective reality is that our government doesn’t work, not because we have dysfunctional politicians, but because we have dysfunctional voters. As a scientist and educator, my goal, then, is not to become President and lead a dysfunctional electorate, but to enlighten the electorate so they might choose the right leaders in the first place.
– If I Were President… - Neil deGrasse Tyson (via jtotheizzoe) Via cwl
The GOP’s definition of a failed presidency:
- Killed Osama Bin Laden
- Saved the American auto industry
- Had 16-straight months of economic growth
- Ended the Iraq war & started brining troops home from Afghanistan
- Repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
- Passed Affordable Healthcare Act
- Passed Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act for women
- Began regulating Wall St.
- Appointed 2 women, one of which is Latino, to the Supreme Court
- Passed Student loan reform
- Helped overthrow Gadaffi without a single US soldier dying
- Cut taxes for 95% of working families
But yeah, what a failure. Too bad we can’t bring back Bush… *sarcasm*
They’re only setting up an impossible standard for success for them…
The disturbing part is that liberals/progressives fall into this whole what-have-you-done-for-me-lately thing too. Like, yes, I realise he’s not the ideal, but the country isn’t even going to get back to normal in four years, and we all know it never was going to.
But… but… he still hasn’t closed a facility that has miles and miles of red tape and failed policies preventing its closing. Clearly he is a failure for not doing whatever he wants without caring about the consequences.
-Joe
Amazonian Mushroom Eats Indestructible Plastics
We use polyurethane to make just about everything—garden hoses, furniture, the entirety of my local 99-cent store. It’s easy to produce, durable, and dirt cheap. What it isn’t is recyclable—there isn’t a single natural process that breaks it down. That is until a newly-discovered Amazonian fungus takes a bite.
Pestalotiopsis microspora (not shown) is a resident of the Ecuadorian rainforest and was discovered by a group of student researchers led by molecular biochemistry professor Scott Strobel as part of Yale’s annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory. It’s the first fungus species to be able to survive exclusively on polyurethane and, more importantly, able to do so in anaerobic conditions—the same conditions found in the bottom of landfills. This makes the fungus a prime candidate for bioremediation projects that could finally provide an alternative to just burying the plastic and hoping for the best.
That’s really awesome.
HIV VACCINE
A vaccine that may prevent HIV has been given the green light by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials in humans, according to Canadian researchers.
The announcement was made on the campus of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont.
“We have gone through so many different challenges to come to this point,” said Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, a researcher and professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. “This is the first time that I feel very happy and comfortable to initiate this human clinical trial.”
There has been a lot of talk of 2012 being the end of the world, the only thing I think 2012 will bring are a ton of medical breakthroughs for man kind.
click through for more.
