Scientists See Solution to Critical Barrier to Fusion

Physicists have discovered a possible solution to a mystery that has long baffled researchers working to harness fusion. If confirmed by experiment, the finding could help scientists eliminate a major impediment to the development of fusion as a clean and abundant source of energy for producing electric power.

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Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
http://www.pppl.gov/

Tokamak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak

David A. Gates
http://www.pppl.gov/~dgates/Site/Dr._David_A._Gates.html

Plasma Science and Fusion Center @ MIT
http://www.psfc.mit.edu/

Ohmic heating (Joule heating)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_heating

Alcator C-Mod
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcator_C-Mod

DIII-D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIII-D_(fusion_reactor)

General Atomics
http://www.ga.com/index.php

Greenwald limit
http://fusionwiki.ciemat.es/fusionwiki/index.php/Greenwald_limit

Martin Greenwald
http://www.psfc.mit.edu/~g/

Culham Centre for Fusion Energy
http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/

Magnetic Islands in Plasmas
http://scitation.aip.org/pop/announcements/Fitzpatrickaps2008.pdf

Density Limits in Toroidal Plasmas
http://www.psfc.mit.edu/~g/papers/aps01.pdf

Planetary Resources

Planetary Resources, Inc. is a company that was founded in 2012 to expand Earth's resource base. As of April 20, 2012, only a list of major investors and advisors is known; a number of the project's backers are notable for their entrepreneurship and interest in space, exploration, and research. Some also have previous involvement in space research. It is speculated that Planetary Resources is "looking for ways to extract raw materials from non-Earth sources," as the means by which it would (as stated in its press release) "add trillions of dollars to the global GDP." There is speculation they are looking into mining asteroids, with one source reporting anonymous verification of that claim.

The company has scheduled an "announcement" for Tuesday, April 24th 2012 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. Tickets for this event were offered for sale to the general public, at a basic price of (U.S.) $25.00. 

There is an eponymous website, registered on February 22nd, 2012, by an entity calling itself Anderson Astronautics. At present, the publicly-accessible area of the site includes only a title-page. This has the company logo, a notice for the April 24 announcement, some basic contact information, and a "sign-up" form, for those who wish to be notified of new developments via email. Joining involves an email confirmation process, which gives access to a basic "user settings" page at the site. Changes to the website have been promised for the day of the announcement.

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Planetary Resources, Inc.
http://www.planetaryresources.com/

New material shares many of graphene’s unusual properties

Graphene, a single-atom-thick layer of carbon, has spawned much research into its unique electronic, optical and mechanical properties. Now, researchers at MIT have found another compound that shares many of graphene’s unusual characteristics — and in some cases has interesting complementary properties to this much-heralded material.

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Mildred Dresselhaus
http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/dresselhaus_mildred.html

Shuang Tang
http://web.mit.edu/nanoengineering/people/students.shtml

Graphene
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene

Bismuth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth

Antimony
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimony

Hinode and SOHO Paint an Asymmetrical Picture of the Sun

Approximately every 11 years the magnetic field on the sun reverses completely -- the north magnetic pole switches to south, and vice versa. It's as if a bar magnet slowly lost its magnetic field and regained it in the opposite direction, so the positive side becomes the negative side. But, of course, the sun is not a simple bar magnet and the causes of the switch, not to mention the complex tracery of moving magnetic fields throughout the eleven-year cycle, are not easy to map out.

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Hinode: Mission to the Sun
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hinode/index.html

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
http://soho.esac.esa.int/home.html

James Cameron on Earth's Deepest Spot: Desolate, Lunar-Like

The Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep—the deepest point on Earth—looks as bleak and barren as the moon, according to James Cameron, who successfully returned just hours ago from the first solo dive to the ocean abyss. 

At noon, local time Monday (10 p.m. ET Sunday), the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker's "vertical torpedo" sub broke the surface of the western Pacific, some 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Guam.

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Deepsea Challenge
http://deepseachallenge.com/

In the Family

"In the Family" centers on one of the notable performances I've seen — if, indeed, it is a performance. Perhaps Patrick Wang is exactly like that. Then he must be a very good man. He wrote, directed and stars in the film, but it's not a one-man show. It is about the meaning of "family." This is his first feature, and may signal the opening of an important career.

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TV as Thin as a Sheet of Paper? Printable Flexible Electronics Just Became Easier With Stable Electrodes

Imagine owning a television with the thickness and weight of a sheet of paper. It will be possible, someday, thanks to the growing industry of printed electronics. The process, which allows manufacturers to literally print or roll materials onto surfaces to produce an electronically functional device, is already used in organic solar cells and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) that form the displays of cellphones.

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Bernard Kippelen
http://www.ece.gatech.edu/about/personnel/bio.php?id=127

Georgia Institute of Technology
http://www.gatech.edu/

Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE)
http://www.cope.gatech.edu/

Animal: Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals

Animal

Empathy, cooperation, fairness and reciprocity -- caring about the well-being of others seems like a very human trait. But Frans de Waal shares some surprising videos of behavioral tests, on primates and other mammals, that show how many of these moral traits all of us share.

Distinct 'God Spot' in the Brain Does Not Exist, Study Shows

Scientists have speculated that the human brain features a "God spot," one distinct area of the brain responsible for spirituality. Now, University of Missouri researchers have completed research that indicates spirituality is a complex phenomenon, and multiple areas of the brain are responsible for the many aspects of spiritual experiences. Based on a previously published study that indicated spiritual transcendence is associated with decreased right parietal lobe functioning, MU researchers replicated their findings. In addition, the researchers determined that other aspects of spiritual functioning are related to increased activity in the frontal lobe.

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Brick Johnstone
http://shp.missouri.edu/profiles/johnstone-brick/index.php

University of Missouri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Missouri

Parietal lobe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parietal_lobe

Self-oriented
http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-oriented

Billy Corgan Q&A

Billy Corgan is a modern rock icon, having led The Smashing Pumpkins to phenomenal success in the '90s with classic albums including Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, until their dramatic split in 2000. After a stint leading new group Zwan, the prolific songwriter revived the Pumpkins in 2005 and continues to create new music with the band despite being the only founding member still in the line-up. Never one to follow convention - which has sometimes put him at odds with fans and the media - Corgan discusses his motivation for keeping The Smashing Pumpkins alive, how he feels about playing the band's old material, and their forthcoming album Oceania.

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Crestfallen.com Friday the 13th Interview with Billy Corgan

On Friday the 13th (April 2012), Crestfallen.com interviewed Billy Corgan over the phone. The interview lasted for well over an hour and covered the reissue process, an in-depth look at the Lucky 13 project, the upcoming release of Oceania, and much more.

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Zooey Deschanel iPhone 4S/Siri commercial (HD)

Artificial Photosynthesis Breakthrough: Fast Molecular Catalyzer

Researchers from the Department of Chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, have managed to construct a molecular catalyzer that can oxidize water to oxygen very rapidly. In fact, these KTH scientists are the first to reach speeds approximating those is nature's own photosynthesis. The research findings play a critical role for the future use of solar energy and other renewable energy sources.

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On the Border Between Matter and Anti-Matter: Nanoscientists Find Long-Sought Majorana Particle

Scientists at TU Delft's Kavli Institute and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM Foundation) have succeeded for the first time in detecting a Majorana particle. In the 1930s, the brilliant Italian physicist Ettore Majorana deduced from quantum theory the possibility of the existence of a very special particle, a particle that is its own anti-particle: the Majorana fermion. That 'Majorana' would be right on the border between matter and anti-matter.

Nanoscientist Leo Kouwenhoven already caused great excitement among scientists in February by presenting the preliminary results at a scientific congress. Today, the scientists have published their research in Science. The research was financed by the FOM Foundation and Microsoft.

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Majorrna fermion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majorana_fermion

Ettore Majorana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettore_Majorana

Dirac fermion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirac_fermion