Scribal Terror

Buckyballs store near-metallic hydrogen

EurekAlert reports:

Hydrogen could be a clean, abundant energy source, but it's difficult to store in bulk. In new research, materials scientists at Rice University have made the surprising discovery that tiny carbon capsules called buckyballs are so strong they can hold volumes of hydrogen nearly as dense as those at the center of Jupiter.

The research appears on the March 2008 cover of the American Chemical Society's journal Nano Letters.

"Based on our calculations, it appears that some buckyballs are capable of holding volumes of hydrogen so dense as to be almost metallic," said lead researcher Boris Yakobson, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Rice. "It appears they can hold about 8 percent of their weight in hydrogen at room temperature, which is considerably better than the federal target of 6 percent."

The Department of Energy has devoted more than $1 billion to developing technologies for hydrogen-powered automobiles, including technologies to cost-effectively store hydrogen for use in cars. Hydrogen is the lightest element in the universe, and it is very difficult to store in bulk. For hydrogen cars to be competitive with gasoline-powered cars, they need a comparable range and a reasonably compact fuel system. It's estimated that a hydrogen-powered car with a suitable range will require a storage system with densities greater than those found in pure, liquid hydrogen.

Model by Michael Ströck

Three cheers for subvocalization

According to a February 26 press release by Texas Instruments:

Ambient Corporation today gave the first live demonstration of how its new technology, the Audeo, will enable voiceless communication either face-to-face or via phone. The Audeo, based on ultra-low power MSP430 microcontroller (MCU) technology from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN - News), will offer life-changing options for people who have lost the ability to move or speak due to neurological disorders, Lou Gehrig's Disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy or Parkinson's. To see a video of this technology in action, please visit www.ti.com/tidc08multimedia.

"The Audeo can enable voiceless communication that is virtually as easy as just thinking about it," said Michael Callahan, CEO and co-founder of Ambient Corporation. "Historically, every time it becomes easier for people to communicate, people become more connected and the interactions enrich people's lives. It is our hope that the Audeo will allow many more profound ideas to change the world through communication." 

The Audeo is a wireless sensor worn on the neck to capture neurological activity that the brain sends to the vocal cords, and then digitizes this activity using analog and digital technology to turn it into speech.

This is not a mind-reading device. It interprets a process called subvocalization, which occurs in the throat, not the brain (although, of course, the signals come from the brain). Here is a 2004 press release from NASA explaining the

NASA scientists have begun to computerize human, silent reading using nerve signals in the throat that control speech.

In preliminary experiments, NASA scientists found that small, button-sized sensors, stuck under the chin and on either side of the "Adam's apple," could gather nerve signals, and send them to a processor and then to a computer program that translates them into words. Eventually, such "subvocal speech" systems could be used in spacesuits, in noisy places like airport towers to capture air-traffic controller commands, or even in traditional voice-recognition programs to increase accuracy, according to NASA scientists.

"What is analyzed is silent, or subauditory, speech, such as when a person silently reads or talks to himself," said Chuck Jorgensen, a scientist whose team is developing silent, subvocal speech recognition at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "Biological signals arise when reading or speaking to oneself with or without actual lip or facial movement," Jorgensen explained.

"A person using the subvocal system thinks of phrases and talks to himself so quietly, it cannot be heard, but the tongue and vocal chords do receive speech signals from the brain," Jorgensen said.

This is what you do when you "hear" your own speech in your head. Most people subvocalize when they read, but some do it more consciously and carefully than others. As an English teacher, I've found that meticulous subvocalization leads to much better comprehension of complex reading materials and helps writers fine-tune their ability to gauge potential reader response. This is why I dislike speed reading -- it saves reading time by trying to eliminate subvocalization and relying entirely on sight-based word recognition instead.

Hat tip to Geeks Are Sexy which has a fascinating video.

Finding Nirvana

Geeks Are Sexy reports:

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment.

Here's the video of Bolte Taylor's presentation. It's long, so click when you have the time to view it.

She calls the moments of complete loss of left hemisphere function "Nirvana," and it's certainly very similar to the experiences of mystics in many traditions throughout history and across the globe. The purposeful "turning off" of the self-conscious self is a central feature of Hinduism and Buddhism. For instance,

In Mahayana, nirvana is an emphasis on the unified nature of the world. Nirvana is conceived as a human experience of oneness with unconditioned consciousness (the absolute). Which gives insight into the unity of the world (samsara), body, mind and soul. It is a state of transcending conditioned consciousness.

Similarly, St. John of the Cross believed that "the soul must empty itself of self in order to be filled with God, that it must be purified of the last traces of earthly dross before it is fit to become united with God."  Christian mysticism in general involves

a spiritual transformation of the egoic self, the following of a path designed to produce more fully realized human persons, "created in the Image and Likeness of God" and as such, living in harmonious communion with God, the Church, the rest of humanity, and all creation, including oneself. For Christians, this human potential is realized most perfectly in Jesus and is manifested in others through their association with Him, whether conscious, as in the case of Christian mystics, or unconscious, with regard to persons who follow other traditions . . . . The Eastern Christian  tradition speaks of this transformation in terms of theosis or divinization, perhaps best summed up by an ancient aphorism usually attributed to Athanasius of Alexandia: "God became human so that man might become God."

To learn about the tradition of mysticism in Christianity, one cannot do better than to read  Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism, available in full here. This book has had a profoundly life-changing influence on  my own spiritual development.

The terminology and the details of interpretation differ across cultures -- as must be the case when dealing with something that can only be defined by all as ineffable -- but the effect is much the same. Experiences such as this are achieved by "turning off" left hemisphere consciousness and sensing the same kind of blending of self with otherness -- often through focused meditation or sensory deprivation -- that Taylor experienced during her stroke.

The Hindu principle of Moksha is also illuminating:

Moksha is seen as a final release from one's worldly conception of self, the loosening of the shackle of experiential duality and a realization of one's own fundamental nature which is true being, pure consciousness and bliss (satcitananda) an experience which is ineffable and beyond sensation. According to the branch of Hinduism known as advaita vedanta, at liberation the individual soul or atman is realised to be one with the Ground of all being* – the Source of all phenomenal existence known as Brahman. The self-as-individual is realised to have never existed. In other (dvaita) traditions it is held that the identification between the liberated human being and God is not total but there is always some distinction between the two. In Vaishnavism, one of the largest branch of Hinduism, Moksha involves forsaking everything material and establishing one's existence as a purely devoted servant of Vishnu (Bhagavan or God; also known by many other names such as Krishna, Rama, Narayana, etc.). Hindu scripture  like the Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayana, and so on especially emphasize this personal, devotional conception of Moksha, which is achieved through the practice of Bhakti Yoga. On the other hand, works of the non-dualistic Hindu school, Advaita Vedanta or Brahmavada whose doctrinal position is derived from the Upanishads, say that the Self or Super-Soul is formless, beyond being and non-being, beyond any sense of tangibility and comprehension. These two Hindu concepts of Moksha - personal and impersonal - are seen differently depending on one's beliefs.

*See also Paul Tillich, Teilhard de Chardin, etc.

Photo: Mahaparinirvana Temple in Kusinara, Uttar Pradesh, India; shows the death of the Buddha and transition to parinirvana or "final nirvana."

Homopolar motor

NTTAWWT

The first trillionth of a second

Science Blogging reports:

This week, NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) showed off three key findings contained in five years of data:

(1)New evidence that a sea of cosmic neutrinos permeates the universe

(2) Clear evidence the first stars took more than a half-billion years to create a cosmic fog

(3)Tight new constraints on the burst of expansion in the universe's first trillionth of a second

I plan to keep an eye on number 3. Some very interesting articles are sure to follow this blockbuster:

A third major finding arising from the new WMAP data places tight constraints on the astonishing burst of growth in the first trillionth of a second of the universe, called “inflation”, when ripples in the very fabric of space may have been created. Some versions of the inflation theory now are eliminated. Others have picked up new support.

"The new WMAP data rule out many mainstream ideas that seek to describe the growth burst in the early universe," said WMAP principal investigator, Charles Bennett, of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. "It is astonishing that bold predictions of events in the first moments of the universe now can be confronted with solid measurements."

Jazzed

Scientific Blogging reports:

Scientists funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) have found that, when jazz musicians are engaged in the highly creative and spontaneous activity known as improvisation, a large region of the brain involved in monitoring one’s performance is shut down, while a small region involved in organizing self-initiated thoughts and behaviors is highly activated.

The researchers propose that this and several related patterns are likely to be key indicators of a brain that is engaged in highly creative thought. . . .

The researchers found that much of the change between improvisation and memorization occurred in the prefrontal cortex, the region of the frontal lobe of the brain that helps us think and problem-solve and that provides a sense of self. Interestingly, the large portion responsible for monitoring one’s performance (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) shuts down completely during improvisation, while the much smaller, centrally located region at the foremost part of the brain (medial prefrontal cortex) increases in activity. The medial prefrontal cortex is involved in self-initiated thoughts and behaviors, and is very active when a person describes an event that has happened to him or makes up a story. The researchers explain that, just as over-thinking a jump shot can cause a basketball player to fall out of the zone and perform poorly, the suppression of inhibitory, self-monitoring brain mechanisms helps to promote the free flow of novel ideas and impulses. While this brain pattern is unusual, it resembles the pattern seen in people when they are dreaming.

Via Collision Detection

The mystery of smell

A New Yorker article asks why it is that "one molecule

 

         

 

smells of spearmint, while its mirror image

 

         

smells of caraway." You won't find the answer, but it's interesting stuff nonetheless.

Rob says:

Because the molecular geometry reacts differently with different receptors due to its isomer form.

See, I paid attention in biochem.

How the flu stays warm in winter

It makes itself a little "rubbery" coat, as the BBC reports

Stinky animal gases studied in C-U -- WHERE ELSE?

Discovery News reports that University of Illinois researchers have been researching "stinky animal gas" right here in Champaign-Urbana -- the Stinky Animal Gas Capital of the Western World:

Like flatulence that never dissipates, gaseous ammonia and other odorous gases resulting from animal manure can attach to dust particles, leaving behind matter that is both unpleasant and unhealthy for humans, according to new research that evaluated the levels of dust stink. . . .

Co-author Jongmin Lee explained that an attraction-producing force, known in physics as the Van der Waals force, causes gas molecules to bond with those of the dust. The resulting bond is weaker than most chemical bonds, but it's enough keep the gas stuck to the dust.

"The reverse of adsorption, desorption, is the transfer of gas from dust particles to the surrounding air, and the principles are the same as for adsorption," Lee, a researcher in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, explained to Discovery News.

He added that heat can permit the gases to volatize and separate from the dust.

Lee and colleague Yuanhui Zhang therefore created a closed cylinder device that both introduced heat and then allowed for the measurement of the released gas from dust that was scraped off of barns, pipelines and exhaust fans from animal structures located in Illinois. They focused on ammonia, one of the smelliest gases produced by animals. . . .

Aside from the stink problem, the gassy particles may pose human health risks.

"Particles smaller than 10 micrometers can penetrate into the large upper branches just below the throat where they are caught and removed by coughing and spitting or by swallowing," said Lee. "Also, particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers can get down into the deepest portions of human lungs and can cause respiratory disease.

And believe me, what we don't know about animal stench is not worth knowing. I wish I could share with you the distinctive odor of the "South Farms," but -- fortunately for you -- I can't upload a stench.

Cats and longevity

Cats -- not dogs -- could make you live longer:

Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Stroke Research Center . . .  found that over a 20-year period, those who had never owned a cat had a 40 percent greater risk of death due to heart attack and a 30 percent higher risk of death due to any sort of cardiovascular disease than previous or current cat owners. Researchers found no such protective effects for dog owners.

Thanks, Craig