Black Holes

Photo Courtesy Chandra Harvard.
Chandra Sees Remarkable Eclipse of Black Hole
This was revealed during a series of observations of NGC 1365

Electrons!

An international team of researchers working with Ferenc Krausz has now caught the electrons in the act of tunnelling through the binding potential of the atom nucleus under the influence of laser light. The physicists used the new tools provided by attosecond metrology. "For the first time, our findings confirmed in real time observation the theoretical predictions of quantum mechanics," says Ferenc Krausz, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and head of the team of scientists. ( article's in Science Daily)

A quantum brain? Quantum consciousness?

The most difficult problem… concerning the use of the language arises in quantum theory. Here we have at first no simple guide for correlating the mathematical symbols with concepts of ordinary language: and the only thing we know from the start is the fact that our common concepts cannot be applied o the structure of the atoms. (Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy, 1963)

"Our brains follow the same basic laws of the whole universe. These laws are quantum mechanical. In our brain dance electrons and photons - the particles of light responsible for communication between electrons. The dance of electrons with light makes up our minds and provides the stability of our 85-percent water-filled brains. Thus it is that mind will not be found in any physical pattern of our brain material, but instead in quantum wave functions" (WOLF 1984, p. 134).



"quantum mechanics is the mechanics of the human spirit" (WOLF 1984, p.267/268).

Neuroethics

Neuroethics n. The moral principles and standards governing the scanning, treatment, and enhancement of the brain


... Even in their current state, brain scans may be able to reveal, without our consent, hidden things about who we are and what we think and feel. ... Before such scans are used, neuroethicists warn, we must understand what they can and cannot do.
—Francine Russo, "Who Should Read Your Mind?," Time, January 29, 2007

Plastic challenge to silicon microchip

Plastic challenge to silicon microchip
By Peter Marsh in London



The plastic semiconductors are made using a process similar to ink-jet printing, which is widespread in the packaging industry for producing labels.

Building Brains in Silicon

SCIENTIST'S TEAM AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY :- We have two synergistic goals: We wish to understand how brains work; this will enable us to replace damaged neural tissue. And we want to build computers that work like brains; this will enable us to increase computational power a million fold.-

Superstrings(?)

A proposed orbiting observatory called the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, being developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, could provide the first measurements of very low frequency gravitational waves, perhaps the first such measurements at any frequency, cosmologist Craig Hogan said. In addition to the expected wave sources, such as binary stars and black holes, these signals also might include the first direct evidence of cosmic superstrings.