Carbon nanotubes for coherent spintronic devices ∞

Carbon nanotubes bridge the molecular and crystalline quantum worlds, and their extraordinary electronic, mechanical and optical properties have attracted enormous attention from a broad scientific community. We review the basic principles of fabricating spin-electronic devices based on individual, electrically-gated carbon nanotubes, and present experimental efforts to understand their electronic and nuclear spin degrees of freedom, which in the future may enable quantum applications.

thoughts on space battles ∞

"But suppose we get out there, go terraform Mars, and the Martian colonists actually revolt. Or suppose we encounter hostile aliens. How would space combat actually go?"

'Time telescope' could boost fibre-optic communication - tech - 28 September 2009 - New Scientist ∞

"A time lens is essentially like an optical lens," says Foster. An optical lens can deflect a light beam into a much smaller area of space; a time lens deflects a section of a light beam into a smaller chunk of time."

Night Shade Books presents Ted Chiang's "Exhalation" ∞

"It has long been said that air (which others call argon) is the source of life. This is not in fact the case, and I engrave these words to describe how I came to understand the true source of life and, as a corollary, the means by which life will one day end."

Telegraphs Ran on Electric Air in Crazy 1859 Magnetic Storm ∞

On Sept. 2, 1859, at the telegraph office at No. 31 State Street in Boston at 9:30 a.m., the operators’ lines were overflowing with current, so they unplugged the batteries connected to their machines, and kept working using just the electricity coursing through the air.

George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946 ∞

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."

'Hidden Portal' Concept Described: First Tunable Electromagnetic Gateway ∞

"The gateway, which is now much closer to reality, uses transformation optics and an amplified scattering effect from an arrangement of ferrite materials called single-crystal yttrium-iron-garnet that force light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation in complicated directions to create a hidden portal."

Moon-Landing Conspiracy Theories ∞

A slideshow going over and debunking the most prominent/popular Moon Landing Hoax Conspiracy Theories. Some of them are pretty interesting.

Space Euphoria: Do Our Brains Change When We Travel in Outer Space? ∞

Hmm. I wonder.

A Calculus Analogy: Integrals as Multiplication | BetterExplained ∞

Newly Restored Video of Apollo 11 Moonwalk ∞

The original moonwalk!
Coincidentally, I recently met someone who does not believe that people have been on the moon. That disturbs me more than I would have thought possible.

Vampire Domestication: Taming Yesterday's Nightmares for a Better Tomorrow ∞

...I was looking for this. Don't ask why.

Kickstarter » Recently Backed Projects ∞

Interesting.

High-Speed Cameras Reveal the World Inside Time ∞

"Typically costing upward of $100,000, high-speed cameras are capable of shooting at amazingly high frame rates, stretching a single second into minutes of super slow-motion playback. In order to achieve this feat, each of these cameras draws its powers from a unique, highly advanced complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) — or, in simpler terms, an extremely beefed-up pixel sensor. The cameras were designed for military testing, scientific research and other industry applications."

Tiny, DIY Satellites Get NASA Boost ∞

"We’ve known that the DIY ethic is good for modding your Roomba or building a beer bong, but groups of college students have taken the movement to the next level: space.

Working on shoestring budgets and short timelines, duct tape and tape measures, CubeSat enthusiasts build 4-inch square satellites and then piggyback their dreams on bigger missions’ rockets. They do it dirty and cheap, but their results are competitive with their spendier counterparts.

The CubeSat strategy was pioneered at Stanford University in the Space and Systems Development Laboratory, now headed by Andrew Kalman, a consulting professor. In this Wired Science video, Kalman explains how CubeSats came to be, how they’re built, and why they’re important.

What was just a concept 10 years ago is now a thriving way of accessing space at very low cost."

United States Patent: 7508978 ∞

Detection of grooves in scanned images

Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps - by Kees Boeke ∞

Kees Boeke's Cosmic View is a classic on learning about the scale of things. It is similar to the Morrison's Powers of Ten, but aimed at a younger audience. Its legacy includes Charles Eames's film Powers of Ten, the resulting book by Philip and Phylis Morrison, and several similar books which followed. Unfortunately, the problems Kees hoped to address, including peoples' understanding being fragmented by scale, remain as pressing today as they were in 1957.

Using water to create nanoscale power cells - Ars Technica ∞

'Several years ago, scientists found that they could create an electric current by pushing water through a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)—the direction of the electric potential along the tube could even be flipped by changing the course of the water flow. Last year, Chinese scientists led by Lianfeng Sun managed to make hydroelectric power converters based on this phenomenon, which led them to suggest that "SWNTs can be exploited as unique, tunable molecular channels for water and might find potential application in nanoscale energy conversion."'

Building a Better Alien-Detection System | Wired Science from Wired.com ∞

"Critical to their system is the tendency of all living creatures to be made from groups of so-called homochiral molecules. Chirality refers to the "handedness" of molecules, which often contain the same constituent atoms arranged in mirror-image forms. The amino acids in all Earthly life are left-handed, while DNA and RNA are made from right-handed molecules. "

Space Tech in Science Fiction ∞

I notice that neither Harlan Ellison nor Samuel R. Delaney are on this list. Ellison I can kind of understand, but no Delaney? Hello, BABEL-17? Anyone? Hello? Is this thing on?