Sunday, May 20, 2007

Parallel Universe

Physicists are converging on a "theory of everything," probing the 11th dimension, developing computers for the next generation of robots, and speculating about civilizations millions of years ahead of ours, says Dr. Michio Kaku, author of the best-sellers Hyperspace and Visions and co-founder of String Field Theory, in this Interview by KurzweilAI.net Editor Amara D. Angelica.

What are the burning issues for you currently?

Well, several things. Professionally, I work on something called Superstring theory, or now called M-theory, and the goal is to find an equation, perhaps no more than one inch long, which will allow us to "read the mind of God," as Einstein used to say.

In other words, we want a single theory that gives us an elegant, beautiful representation of the forces that govern the Universe. Now, after two thousand years of investigation into the nature of matter, we physicists believe that there are four fundamental forces that govern the Universe.

Some physicists have speculated about the existence of a fifth force, which may be some kind of paranormal or psychic force, but so far we find no reproducible evidence of a fifth force.

Now, each time a force has been mastered, human history has undergone a significant change. In the 1600s, when Isaac Newton first unraveled the secret of gravity, he also created a mechanics. And from Newton's Laws and his mechanics, the foundation was laid for the steam engine, and eventually the Industrial Revolution.

So, in other words, in some sense, a byproduct of the mastery of the first force, gravity, helped to spur the creation of the Industrial Revolution, which in turn is perhaps one of the greatest revolutions in human history.

The second great force is the electromagnetic force; that is, the force of light, electricity, magnetism, the Internet, computers, transistors, lasers, microwaves, x-rays, etc.

And then in the 1860s, it was James Clerk Maxwell, the Scottish physicist at Cambridge University, who finally wrote down Maxwell's equations, which allow us to summarize the dynamics of light.

That helped to unleash the Electric Age, and the Information Age, which have changed all of human history. Now it's hard to believe, but Newton's equations and Einstein's equations are no more than about half an inch long.

Maxwell's equations are also about half an inch long. For example, Maxwell's equations say that the "four-dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric, second-rank tensor equals zero." That's Maxwell's equations, the equations for light. And in fact, at Berkeley, you can buy a T-shirt which says, "In the beginning, God said the four-dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric, second rank tensor equals zero, and there was Light, and it was good."

So, the mastery of the first two forces helped to unleash, respectively, the Industrial Revolution and the Information Revolution.
More at:http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0585.html
Posted by Ajay :: 12:18 PM :: 0 comments

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---------------oOo--------------- Your Breath Could Charge Your Gadegts

We're tired of waiting for wireless charging solutions to actually hit the market just as much as the next guy (or gal), but one inventive soul took that frustration out on a swank DIY project that elicits energy from simply breathing. We've seen the use of hot air in powering gadgets before, but this homegrown USB charger was assembled by simply using "parts scavenged from an old CD-ROM drive, a basic electronic circuit, and a few rubber bands." The chest-worn device was intended to output around one-watt for charging a cellphone, which could purportedly juice it up in just under three hours, but unfortunately for us all, this seemingly brilliant device only mustered about 50mW of energy.
More at:http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/17/breath-powered-usb-generator-does-charging-on-the-go/

Posted by Ajay :: 12:01 PM :: 0 comments

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---------------oOo--------------- Doctors Are Life Saver Or Sucker?

"Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US, Causing 250,000 Deaths Every Year
This week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is the best article I have ever seen written in the published literature documenting the tragedy of the traditional medical paradigm.

This information is a followup of the Institute of Medicine report which hit the papers in December of last year, but the data was hard to reference as it was not in peer-reviewed journal. Now it is published in JAMA which is the most widely circulated medical periodical in the world.

The author is Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and she describes how the US health care system may contribute to poor health.

ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:

12,000 — unnecessary surgery 8
7,000 — medication errors in hospitals 9
20,000 — other errors in hospitals 10
80,000 — infections in hospitals 10
106,000 — non-error, negative effects of drugs 2
These total to 250,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!!
What does the word iatrogenic mean?
More at:http://www.chattanoogahealth.com/Articles/2135/1/Doctors_May_Be_Third_Leading_Cause_of_Death.aspx

Posted by Ajay :: 11:56 AM :: 0 comments

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---------------oOo--------------- Pyramids Truth

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

"This is not my day job." So begins Michel Barsoum as he recounts his foray into the mysteries of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. As a well respected researcher in the field of ceramics, Barsoum never expected his career to take him down a path of history, archaeology, and "political" science, with materials research mixed in.

As a distinguished professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University, his daily routine consists mainly of teaching students about ceramics, or performing research on a new class of materials, the so-called MAX Phases, that he and his colleagues discovered in the 1990s. These modern ceramics are machinable, thermal-shock resistant, and are better conductors of heat and electricity than many metals-making them potential candidates for use in nuclear power plants, the automotive industry, jet engines, and a range of other high-demand systems.

Then Barsoum received an unexpected phone call from Michael Carrell, a friend of a retired colleague of Barsoum, who called to chat with the Egyptian-born Barsoum about how much he knew of the mysteries surrounding the building of the Great Pyramids of Giza, the only remaining of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The widely accepted theory-that the pyramids were crafted of carved-out giant limestone blocks that workers carried up ramps-had not only not been embraced by everyone, but as important had quite a number of holes.

Burst out laughing

According to the caller, the mysteries had actually been solved by Joseph Davidovits, Director of the Geopolymer Institute in St. Quentin, France, more than two decades ago. Davidovits claimed that the stones of the pyramids were actually made of a very early form of concrete created using a mixture of limestone, clay, lime, and water.

More at:http://www.livescience.com/history/070518_bts_barsoum_pyramids.html

Posted by Ajay :: 11:47 AM :: 0 comments

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