Quasicrystal: Prof. Dan Shechtman

A quasiperiodic crystal, or, in short, quasicrystal, is a structure that is ordered but not periodic. A quasicrystalline pattern can continuously fill all available space, but it lacks translational symmetry. While crystals, according to the classical crystallographic restriction theorem, can possess only two, three, four, and six-fold rotational symmetries, the Bragg diffraction pattern of quasicrystals shows sharp peaks with other symmetry orders, for instance five-fold.

Aperiodic tilings were discovered by mathematicians in the early 1960s, and, some twenty years later, they were found to apply to the study of quasicrystals. The discovery of these aperiodic forms in nature has produced a paradigm shift in the fields of crystallography. Quasicrystals had been investigated and observed earlier,^[2] but, until the 1980s, they were disregarded in favor of the prevailing views about the atomic structure of matter.

Roughly, an ordering is non-periodic if it lacks translational symmetry, which means that a shifted copy will never match exactly with its original. The more precise mathematical definition is that there is never translational symmetry in more than n – 1 linearly independent directions, where n is the dimension of the space filled; i.e. the three-dimensional tiling displayed in a quasicrystal may have translational symmetry in two dimensions. The ability to diffract comes from the existence of an indefinitely large number of elements with a regular spacing, a property loosely described as long-range order. Experimentally, the aperiodicity is revealed in the unusual symmetry of the diffraction pattern, that is, symmetry of orders other than two, three, four, or six. The first experimental observation of what came to be known as quasicrystals was made by Dan Shechtman and coworkers in 1982 and it was reported in print two years later.^[3] Shechtman received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011 for his findings.^[4].

In 2009, following a decade long search, a group of scientists from University of Florence in Italy reported the existence of a natural quasicrystals in mineral samples from the Koryak mountains in Russia's far east, named icosahedrite.^[5][6] It was further claimed by scientists from Princeton University that icosahedrite is extra-terrestrial in origin, possibly delivered to Earth by a CV3 carbonaceous chondrite asteroid.^[7]

240 E₈ polytope vertices using 5D orthographic_projection to 2D using 5-cube (Penteract) Petrie_polygon basis_vectors overlaid on electron diffraction pattern of an Icosahedron Zn-Mg-Ho Quasicrystal.

• E8_(mathematics) and Quasicrystals

The Lived Past and the Anticipated Future.

the autobiographical self has prompted extended memory, reasoning, imagination, creativity and language. And out of that came the instruments of culture --religions, justice,trade, the arts, science, technology. And it is within that culture that we really can get -- and this is the novelty --something that is not entirely set by our biology. It is developed in the cultures. It developed in collectives of human beings. And this is, of course, the culturewhere we have developed something that I like to call socio-cultural regulation.

***

Plato prove that justice does not depend upon a chance, convention or upon external force. It is the right condition of the human soul by the very nature of man when seen in the fullness of his environment. It is in this way that Plato condemned the position taken by Glaucon that justice is something which is external. According to Plato, it is internal as it resides in the human soul. "It is now regarded as an inward grace and its understanding is shown to involve a study of the inner man." It is, therefore, natural and no artificial. It is therefore, not born of fear of the weak but of the longing of the human soul to do a duty according to its nature.

Plato's Concept Of Justice: An Analysis  Bold was added by me for emphasis.

***

 See Also:

•  What is Good Governance

ATLAS discovers its first new particle

String theory isn't just another quantum field theory, another particular finite list of elementary particles with some interactions. It's an intellectually and literally multi-dimensional reservoir of wisdom that has taught us many things of completely new kinds that we couldn't foresee. The Reference Frame: LHC: is a new particle?: LHC: is χb(3P) a new particle?

When you hold a particular point of view about nature it is important in my mind to know where the search is going and what this means overall. How we look at reality and how we look at nature.

The spectrum of the _b states: the leftmost peak is the _b(1P), the middle one the _b(2P), and the rightmost the new _b(3P). The upper plot shows the spectrum for decays involving unconverted photons, while th lower plot shows the spectra for decays involving converted photons. In the lower plot, the upper (red) curve shows the spectrum for _b decays to (1S), while the lower (brown) curve shows the spectrum for decays to (2S). (Only the _b(3P) peak appears distinctly in the lower spectrum because it is the only _b state with decays involving enough energy to be detected in this study.) See: Atlas News

Also See: LHC heads into new year with first particle discovery

I understand how my own life can be changed from experiencing an anomaly in the everyday world? It is not proof enough. All scientists know this.

Is it better then for those who visit to know that such a thing in a condense matter view can can govern the matter states? This is part of recognizing the geometrical structure that Plato sought to establish as an underlying reality to nature? While it does not all define the matter states so successful we could attribute the universe to a soccer ball? No. For those of you who need more proof seek to find the subject of allotrope or polytopes here and you will understand what I mean.
 
How it can have such an impact, and to search, where our sciences have gone. I hope one day it offers up an answer. I suspect that the research in science experimentally will most likely lead the way.  I believe we will discover something quite dramatic in the coming years that seems now very unlikely.

The lure to write my experience as a truth and to offer it up as a question, is on my mind. I believe we are much closely attached to the depth of reality then we currently know. I can only write it up as fiction then.

This is part of the idea I have about the move into the cosmos as part of our education as civilians of a new cultural thematic that we will make our home out in the stars as a result of this.

Clearly I speak of the elemental nature and gravity, and this too is a pursuit in today's science that is underway. So while I speak in advance of such things, clearly it must be highlighted that this has not been accomplished yet either.

Of course there are theories out there and using them provide for a better perspective about our cosmos and the birth of it. In theory then, there is much that makes sense. In theory, it has to be experimentally proven. In theory, we construct the parameters?

If you have a particle that travels a distance and you use a calorimeter instrument to measure it's identity, then can you not seek to find a representative of calorimeter design that would suit the "time differences of something that would amount to a faster then light"....other then recognize existing mediums as a sure sign of Cerenkov?

You use the space station then? If you follow the history of high energy particles from space this left you with no alternative but to leave the domain of earth to establish some insight into the applicability of the AMS program and particle research? Dark matter research?

Google Books Library Project

What's the goal of this project?

The Library Project's aim is simple: make it easier for people to find relevant books – specifically, books they wouldn't find any other way such as those that are out of print – while carefully respecting authors' and publishers' copyrights. Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers. See: Google Books

I was asked by my daughter about one of these devices whether I preferred the new device or the paper books. I would have to say I do favor the paperback but also look for advantages as to provide access to information as detrimental to providing society with the tools necessary. Receiving a gift certificate for 50 dollars to one of the books stores I might add this for a electronic purchase.

What brought this subject up was the update on the new electronic devices out there that allow you to read and download books for reading. Over the years being an advocate of sorts for the electronic development of our cultures I could see where such devices would allow extraordinary freedom to carry's a lot of books in one location. So there has to be lots said about not being in in the mood for reading one book while being attentive to others for research material. Sort of like closing in on a cold case file or something like that may have been missed supportive by research material.

So under the auspice of attaining a library of sorts was appealing to me and I thought advantages to society that cold not travel distances to the libraries yet have access from the rural locations.

***

The Google Books Library Project is an effort by Google to scan and make searchable the collections of several major research libraries.^[1] The project, along with Google's Partner Program, comprise Google Books (formerly Google Book Search). Along with bibliographic information, snippets of text from a book are often viewable. If a book is out of copyright and in the public domain, the book is fully available to read or to download.^[2]

1 Participants 1.1 Initial Project Partners 1.1.1 Harvard University 1.1.2 New York Public Library 1.1.3 Stanford University 1.1.4 University of Michigan 1.1.5 University of Oxford 1.2 Additional Project Partners 1.2.1 Bavarian State Library 1.2.2 Columbia University 1.2.3 Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) 1.2.4 Complutense University of Madrid 1.2.5 Cornell University 1.2.6 Ghent University Library 1.2.7 Keio University 1.2.8 National Library of Catalonia 1.2.9 Princeton University 1.2.10 University of California 1.2.11 University Library of Lausanne 1.2.12 University of Mysore 1.2.13 University of Texas at Austin 1.2.14 University of Virginia 1.2.15 University of Wisconsin–Madison 2 See also 3 Notes 4 References 5 External links

 Participants

The Google Books Library Project continues to evolve;^[3] however, only some of the institutional partners are listed on the web page currently maintained by Google:^[4]

 Initial Project Partners

The number of academic libraries participating in the digitization and uploading of books from their collections has grown beyond the original five: Harvard, Michigan, Stanford, Oxford, and the New York Public Library.

 Harvard University

Harvard University (and Harvard University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[5] The Harvard University Library (HUL) today is best understood as a coordinated system of more than 80 libraries with shared holdings. The University Library is also a department of the University's central administration through which the libraries collaborate in the areas of digital acquisitions and collections, information technology, high-density storage, and preservation.^[6]
The Harvard University Library and Google are building on a successful pilot conducted by Harvard and Google throughout 2005. The project will increase Internet access to the holdings of the Harvard University Library, which includes more than 15.8 million volumes. While physical access to Harvard's library materials generally is restricted to current Harvard students, faculty, and researchers, or to scholars who can come to Cambridge, the Harvard-Google Project has been designed to enable both members of the Harvard community and users everywhere to discover works in the Harvard collection.

"The new century presents important new opportunities for libraries, including Harvard's, and for those individuals who use them. The collaboration between major research libraries and Google will create an important public good of benefit to students, teachers, scholars, and readers everywhere. The project harnesses the power of the Internet to allow users to identify books of interest with a precision and at a speed previously unimaginable. The user will then be guided to find books in local libraries or to purchase them from publishers and book vendors. And, for books in the public domain, there will be even broader access."^[4]

"The Harvard-Google Project links the search power of the Internet to the depth of knowledge in Harvard's world-renowned libraries. Harvard has been collecting books for nearly four centuries. Among our out-of-copyright books are countless unique copies, unusual editions, and neglected or forgotten works. Our efforts with Google will bring about the broad dissemination of the knowledge contained in those books and, with it, significant information about the world views that those books represent .... By working with Google, Harvard is furthering an essential aspect of the University Library's mission, which is to serve scholars around the world."

-- Sidney Verba, the former Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and former Director of the University Library.^[5]

 New York Public Library

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is an institutional participant in the project.^[7]
In this pilot program, NYPL is working with Google to offer a collection of its public domain books, which will be scanned in their entirety and made available for free to the public online. Users will be able to search and browse the full text of these works. When the scanning process is complete, the books may be accessed from both The New York Public Library's website and from the Google search engine. ^[7]

"The New York Public Library Research Libraries were struck by the convergence of Google's mission with their own. We see the digitization project as a transformational moment in the access to information and wanted not only to learn from it but also to influence it. Our response at present is a conservative one, with a limited number of volumes in excellent condition, in selected languages and in the public domain. With appropriate evaluation of this limited participation, we look forward to a more expansive collaboration in the future."

-– David Ferriero, Andrew W. Mellon Director and Chief Executive of the Research Libraries, The New York Public Library.^[4]

 Stanford University

Stanford University (and Stanford University Libraries/SULAIR) is an institutional participant in the project.^[8]

"Stanford has been digitizing texts for years now to make them more accessible and searchable, but with books, as opposed to journals, such efforts have been severely limited in scope for both technical and financial reasons. The Google arrangement catapults our effective digital output from the boutique scale to the truly industrial. Through this program and others like it, Stanford intends to promote learning and stimulate innovation."

-– Michael A. Keller, University Librarian.^[4]

 University of Michigan

Notice about the project

The University of Michigan (and the University of Michigan Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[9]

"The project with Google is core to our mission as a great public university to advance knowledge — on campus and beyond. By joining this partnership that makes our library holdings searchable through Google, UM serves as an agent in an initiative that radically increases the availability of information to the public. The University of Michigan embraces this project as a means to make information available as broadly and conveniently as possible. Moreover, the UM Library embarked on this ground-breaking partnership for a number of very compelling reasons:

• "We believe that, beyond providing basic access to library collections, this activity is critically transformative, enabling the University Library to build on and re-conceive vital library services for the new millennium.
• "This work will create new ways for users to search and access library content, opening up our collections to our own users and to users throughout the world.
• "Although we have engaged in large-scale, preservation-based conversion of materials in the Library's collection for several years, and have been a leader in digital preservation efforts among research libraries, we know that only through partnerships of this sort can conversion of this scale be achieved. Our program is strong, and we have been able to digitize approximately 5,000 volumes/year; nevertheless, at this rate, it would take us more than a thousand years to digitize our entire collection."

-– John P. Wilkin, Associate University Librarian.^[4]

University of Oxford

University of Oxford is an institutional participant in this project.^[10] Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and its historic Bodleian Library is the oldest university library.

"The Bodleian Library's mission, from its founding in 1602, has been based on Sir Thomas Bodley's vision of a library serving the worldwide 'Republic of Letters', with the Library's collections open to all who have need to use them. To this day over 60% of readers who use and work in the Bodleian Library have no direct affiliation with the University of Oxford . The Google Library Project in Oxford testifies to our ongoing commitment to enable and facilitate access to our content for the scholarly community and beyond. The initiative will carry forward Sir Thomas Bodley's vision and the ethos of the Bodleian Library into the digital age, allowing readers from around the world to access the Library's collections over the World Wide Web."

-– Ronald Milne, former Director of Oxford University Library & Bodleian Librarian.^[4]

 Additional Project Partners

Other institutional partners have joined the Project in the years since the partnership was first announced.

 Bavarian State Library

The Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek or BSB) is an institutional participant in the project.^[11]

"With today's announcement we are opening our library to the world and bringing the true purpose of libraries — the discovery of books and knowledge — a decisive step further in into the digital era. This is an exciting effort to help readers around the world discover and access Germany's rich literary tradition online — whenever and wherever they want."

— Dr. Rolf Griebel, Director General of the Bavarian State Library.^[4]

 Columbia University

Columbia University (and Columbia University Library System) is an institutional participant in the project.^[4]

"Our participation in the Google Book Search Library Project will add significantly to the extensive digital resources the Libraries already deliver," said James Neal, Columbia's vice president for information services and university librarian. "It will enable the Libraries to make available more significant portions of its extraordinary archival and special collections to scholars and researchers worldwide in ways that will ultimately change the nature of scholarship."

— James G. Neal, University Librarian and Vice-President for Information Services at Columbia University.^[4]

 Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC)

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) is an institutional participant in the project.^[12] The CIC developed in the late 1950s from a cautious exploration of the ways in which 11 major universities — two private and nine state-supported — might pool their resources for the common good. Today the CIC is an active participant in the Google Books Library Project, which becomes something of a logical extension of the initial working relationships forged a half century ago amongst Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago.

• The CIC is a consortium of 12 research universities:
  • Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
  • Michigan State University
  • Northwestern University
  • Ohio State University
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • Purdue University
  • University of Chicago
  • University of Illinois
  • University of Iowa
  • University of Michigan
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Wisconsin–Madison

The CIC is guided by the Provosts of the member universities; and the CIC Digital Library Initiatives Overview Committee monitors the digitization and dissemination of books in the CIC collections.^[13]

"This partnership with Google is one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of the CIC, and sets the stage for a remarkable transformation of library services and information access. We're opening up these resources as both a common good shared among the universities, as well as a public good available more broadly. "

— Barbara McFadden Allen, Director of the CIC.^[4]

 Complutense University of Madrid

The Complutense University of Madrid (Universidad Complutense) is an institutional participant in the project.^[14]

"Out-of-copyright books previously only available to people with access to the University Complutense of Madrid's Library, or the money to travel, will now be accessible to everyone with an Internet connection, wherever they live. We are quite literally opening our library to the world. The opportunities for education are phenomenal and we are delighted to be working with Google on this project."

— Carlos Berzosa, Chancellor.^[4]

 Cornell University

Cornell University (and Cornell University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[15]

"Research libraries today are integral partners in the academic enterprise through their support of research, teaching and learning. They also serve a public good by enhancing access to the works of the world's best minds. As a major research library, Cornell University Library is pleased to join its peer institutions in this partnership with Google. The outcome of this relationship is a significant reduction in the time and effort associated with providing scholarly full-text resources online."

— Ann R. Kenney, Interim Cornell University Librarian.^[4]

 Ghent University Library

Ghent University (and Boekentoren/Ghent University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[16]

'We are thrilled to open our books and our library to the world through this project. This is an exciting effort to help readers — no matter where they are — discover and access part of Belgium and Europe's rich literary tradition and culture. In addition, we are about to start a multi-year project to renovate our library building, and while our library's doors will be closed, its books will remain open to students and academics through Google Book Search."

— Sylvia Van Peteghem, Chief Librarian, Ghent University Library.^[4]

 Keio University

Keio University (and Keio Media Centers (Libraries)) is an institutional participant in the project.^[17]

"The Google project allows us to make our collections visible worldwide, so that our books will contribute to research and education on a global scale. Our university was founded in 1858 by Yukichi Fukuzawa, who was well known for his commitment to bringing information and media forward in modern Japan. This makes Keio ideally suited to be the first Japanese library to participate in Google Book Search."

— Professor S. Sugiyama, Director, Keio University Library.^[4]

National Library of Catalonia

The National Library of Catalonia (Biblioteca de Catalunya) is an institutional participant in the project.^[18]

"It once was the case that only those who could visit our library were able to 'visit' our books. Now, anyone interested in the vast number of titles our library houses will be able to find and access them online–or perhaps just discover them by chance via a simple search of the Google Book Search index. This is a tremendous step forward for enabling readers all around the world to discover and access the rich history of Catalonian, Castilian, and Latin American literature."

-- Dolors Lamarca, Director of the National Library of Barcelona.^[4]

 Princeton University

Princeton University (and Princeton University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[19]

"Generations of Princeton librarians have devoted themselves to building a remarkable collection of books in thousands of subjects and dozens of languages. Having the portion of that collection not covered by copyright available online will make it easier for Princeton students and faculty to do research, and joining the Google partnership allows us to share our collection with researchers worldwide, a step very much in keeping with the University's unofficial motto of Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations."

— Karin Trainer, Princeton University Librarian.^[4]

 University of California

The University of California is an institutional participant in the project.^[20]

"By unlocking the wealth of information maintained within our libraries and exposing it to the latest that search technologies have to offer, the University of California is continuing its work to harness technology and our library collections in support of research, learning, patient care, and cultural engagement. In this new world, people will make connections between information and ideas that were hitherto inaccessible, driving the pace of innovation in all areas of life – academic, economic, and civic – and enhancing the use of the world's great libraries.

"With digital copies of our library holdings, we will also provide a safeguard for the countless thousands of authors, publishers, and readers who would be devastated by catastrophic loss occasioned, for example, by natural disaster. Anyone who doubts the impact that such disaster can have on our cultural memory need look no further than the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on our sister libraries in the Gulf States.

"As an institution that has built these vast collections as a public good and in the public trust, joining the Google library partnership was the right thing to do."

— Daniel Greenstein, Associate Vice Provost for Scholarly Information and University Librarian.^[4]

University Library of Lausanne

The University of Lausanne (and the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne) is an institutional participant in the project.^[21]

"Out of copyright books previously only available to people with access to Lausanne's university library, will now be accessible to everyone with an Internet connection, wherever they live. We are quite literally opening our library to the world. The opportunities for education are phenomenal and we are delighted to be working with Google on this project".

— Hubert A. Villard, Director of the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne.^[4]

 University of Mysore

The University of Mysore (and the Mysore University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[22]

 University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin (and the University of Texas Libraries) is an institutional participant in this project.^[23]

"University libraries in our society are entrusted with the critical mission of collecting and providing access to information spanning the entire range of human knowledge. Our libraries are also responsible for effectively preserving this knowledge and ensuring access to it over vast periods of time. At the University of Texas at Austin, we hold a deep commitment to each of these objectives and believe that participating in this venture will help ensure our ability to meet those commitments far into the future."

— Fred Heath, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries.^[4]

 University of Virginia

The University of Virginia (and the University of Virginia Library) is an institutional participant in this project.^[24]

"The U.Va. Library was a pioneer in digitizing public domain materials. We started with printed texts in 1992, and faculty and students quickly discovered that long-forgotten and out-of-print texts could reach new audiences and spark new scholarship. We have often talked about libraries without walls, but now we are even closer to realizing that vision, thanks to this partnership."

— Karin Wittenborg, University Librarian, University of Virginia.^[4]

 University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison (and the University of Wisconsin Digital Collection) is an institutional participant in this project.^[25]

"The combined library collections of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society Library comprise one of the largest collections of documents and historical materials in the United States. Through this landmark partnership with Google, Wisconsin is taking a leading role in preserving public domain works for future generations and making the Library's resources widely available for education and research. This effort truly exemplifies the vision of The Wisconsin Idea—the notion that the boundaries of the university are limitless. The Wisconsin libraries have been following in this tradition. The Google digitization efforts will enable the libraries to expand access to public domain materials that have heretofore only been accessible in the libraries. Much of this material is rare and one-of-a-kind, providing a rich, open source of information for educational, research and general public use."

— Edward Van Gemert, Interim Director, UW–Madison Libraries.^[4]

 See also

• HathiTrust
• Google Book Search Settlement

 Notes

1. ^ Stein, Linda L. et al. (2009). Literary Research and the American Realism and Naturalism Period: Strategies and Sources, p. 261.
2. ^ Google Books Library Project – An enhanced card catalog of the world's books
3. ^ O'Sullivan, Joseph and Adam Smith. "All booked up," Googleblog. December 14, 2004.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u} Google Library Partners
5. ^ ^{a b} Harvard + Google
6. ^ HUL summary/overview
7. ^ ^{a b} New York Public Library + Google
8. ^ Stanford + Google
9. ^ Michigan + Google
10. ^ Oxford + Google
11. ^ Bavaria + Google (in English); Staatsbibliothek + Google (in German)
12. ^ CIC + Google
13. ^ CIC overview
14. ^ Madrid + Google (in English); Complutense Universidad + Google (in Spanish)
15. ^ Cornell + Google
16. ^ Ghent/Gent + Google
17. ^ Keio + Google (in English); Keio + Google (in Japanese)
18. ^ Biblioteca de Catalunya (BNC) + Google (in Spanish)
19. ^ Princeton + Google
20. ^ California + Google
21. ^ Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire/BCU + Google (in French)
22. ^ Mysore + Google
23. ^ Texas + Google
24. ^ Virginia + Google
25. ^ Wisconsin + Google

 References

• Lester, June and Wallace C. Koehler. (2007). Fundamentals of Information Studies: Understanding Information and Its Environment. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers. 13-ISBN 978-1-555-70594-7/10-ISBN 1-555-70594-4; OCLC 122526045
• Miller, Michael. (2007). Googlepedia: the Ultimate Google Resource. Indianapolis, Indiana: Que. 13-ISBN 978-0-789-73639-0/10-ISBN 0-789-73639-X; OCLC 224762694
• Stein, Linda L, and Peter J. Lehu. (2009). Literary Research and the American Realism and Naturalism Period: Strategies and Sources. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. 13-ISBN 978-0-810-86141-1/10-ISBN 0-810-86141-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-810-86242-5/10-ISBN 0-810-86242-5; OCLC 233798804

 External links

• Google Books website
• Google Library Partners
• Digital Library Federation
• The European Library

Grail: Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory

GRAIL Spacecraft Logo

NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecraft logo is emblazoned on the first stage of a United Launch Alliance Delta II launch vehicle, now secured in the gantry at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 17B.

Image credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Mission Overview

The GRAIL mission will place two spacecraft into the same orbit around the Moon. As they fly over areas of greater and lesser gravity, caused both by visible features such as mountains and craters and by masses hidden beneath the lunar surface, they will move slightly toward and away from each other. An instrument aboard each spacecraft will measure the changes in their relative velocity very precisely, and scientists will translate this information into a high-resolution map of the Moon's gravitational field. 


This gravity-measuring technique is essentially the same as that of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE), which has been mapping Earth's gravity since 2002. See: Grail: Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory

See Also: Time-Variable Gravity Measurements





Mean Gravity Field

Who of us could forget what the earth looks like after it has been mapped.

 On planet Earth, we tend to think of the gravitational effect as being the same no matter where we are on the planet. We certainly don't see variations anywhere near as dramatic as those between the Earth and the Moon. But the truth is, the Earth's topography is highly variable with mountains, valleys, plains, and deep ocean trenches. As a consequence of this variable topography, the density of Earth's surface varies. These fluctuations in density cause slight variations in the gravity field, which, remarkably, GRACE can detect from space.

Our views in terms of the gravity field becomes part and parcel of our assessment as we venture out into space. So why not the Moon.

Image Credit: NASA/Goddard

Early assessment of Clementine along with LCROSS paints a interesting feature of our Moon as we look to understand the matter constituent makeup of the moon,  along with what it's gravity field.

Here at Dialogos of Eide I am concerned about this relationship. Such mapping not only becomes useful in the determination of the gravity field but it also heightens the understanding of relating to the elemental.

Future moon missions will need to understand the elemental makeup (while quantum gravity and relativity have not been joined experimentally) in order to use the elements to assist the colony in providing the tools necessary for it's survival there. With a Treaty established,  such claims to the moon become a societal move beyond earth's domain and truly moves us to civilization that will habitat the stars.

Part of this move into the cosmos will be the need to understand "something spiritual about ourselves and while ethereal in it's assessment this relationship to gravity."  It is also necessary to go "even deeper" to understand our ability to manipulate the force of gravity as a product of the mechanism of the Higg's field as we move through our own psychological underpinnings with the way in which we choose to live. (I know we have yet to proof this connection).

I give some inkling with the four links below. This is my assessment of the relationship toward "my gravity"  as I choose to live in the world of reality.

• Colour of Gravity 4 
• Colour of Gravity 3
• Colour of Gravity 2
• Colour of Gravity 1

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year 2012 and All the Best in the New Year

Andrea Rossi's 'E-cat' nuclear reactor

Andrea Rossi's 'E-cat' nuclear reactor: a video FAQ

Now I am a layman with a keen interest in how our society can benefit from research and development.  Can you save me from being fooled? Can you save society from being fooled? 

As a scientist please demonstrate your opinion as to the viability of such generation across the blogosphere and weigh in. I know some of you are well equipped to answer whether such things in inventiveness can be ascertain  regarding the jump to profitability by product development before all the science has been been supportive of such claims as to kilowatt production.

Imagine the cost reduction in products that could not only heat your homes, but as well as reduce your cost as to air conditioners and saving energy for the grid?

One Megawatt Heat Plant for Sale"We gave the exclusive commercial license to Ampenergo, and only they can sell our  plants." - Andrea Rossi (November 14, 2011) [Story] 

***

The Physics of Why the E-Cat's Cold Fusion Claims Collapse
By Ethan Siegel

With other companies now trying to capitalize off of this speculative, unverified and highly dubious claim, it's time for the eCat's proponents to provide the provable, testable, reproducible science that can answer these straightforward physics objections. Independent verification is the cornerstone of all scientific investigation and experiment, it's how we weed out all sorts of errors from miscalibration to contamination, and how we protect ourselves from unscrupulous swindles. Given everything that we know, as others also demonstrate (thanks, Steven B. Krivit), it's time to set aside the mirage of Nickel +Hydrogen fusion and get back to work finding real solutions to our energy and environmental problems.

See Also:

• nickel+hydrogen=energy
• E-Cat World
•  New Energy Times 
• The Roller Coaster Ride of the Andrea Rossi E-Cat 

Update:

Thanks to scientists for following up. It is much appreciated

• Cold fusion colloquium at CERN"
• Overview of Theoretical and Experimental Progress in Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR)

Further Update to May 2013

• Is Cold Fusion For Real ?!
• Tommaso Dorigo impressed by a cold fusion paper
• Forbes’ Mark Gibbs on the E-Cat 3rd Party Tests

Update July12


More On Rossi's E-Cat: Ericsson And Pomp Rebut "Independent" Test

Computational Science

Discussion from UC-HiPACC on Vimeo.  Also See: Bolshoi Simulation: WMAP Explorer

 As Richard Feynman put it:^[13]

"It always bothers me that, according to the laws as we understand them today, it takes a computing machine an infinite number of logical operations to figure out what goes on in no matter how tiny a region of space, and no matter how tiny a region of time. How can all that be going on in that tiny space? Why should it take an infinite amount of logic to figure out what one tiny piece of space/time is going to do? So I have often made the hypotheses that ultimately physics will not require a mathematical statement, that in the end the machinery will be revealed, and the laws will turn out to be simple, like the chequer board with all its apparent complexities".

Computational science (or scientific computing) is the field of study concerned with constructing mathematical models and quantitative analysis techniques and using computers to analyze and solve scientific problems.^[1] In practical use, it is typically the application of computer simulation and other forms of computation to problems in various scientific disciplines.

The field is distinct from computer science (the study of computation, computers and information processing). It is also different from theory and experiment which are the traditional forms of science and engineering. The scientific computing approach is to gain understanding, mainly through the analysis of mathematical models implemented on computers.

Scientists and engineers develop computer programs, application software, that model systems being studied and run these programs with various sets of input parameters. Typically, these models require massive amounts of calculations (usually floating-point) and are often executed on supercomputers or distributed computing platforms.

Numerical analysis is an important underpinning for techniques used in computational science.

Contents     Applications of computational science   1.1 Numerical simulations 1.2 Model fitting and data analysis 1.3 Computational optimization 2 Methods and algorithms 3 Education 4 Related fields 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

  

Applications of computational science

Problem domains for computational science/scientific computing include:

  

Numerical simulations

Numerical simulations have different objectives depending on the nature of the task being simulated:

• Reconstruct and understand known events (e.g., earthquake, tsunamis and other natural disasters).
• Predict future or unobserved situations (e.g., weather, sub-atomic particle behaviour).

 Model fitting and data analysis

• Appropriately tune models or solve equations to reflect observations, subject to model constraints (e.g. oil exploration geophysics, computational linguistics).

• Use graph theory to model networks, especially those connecting individuals, organizations, and websites.

 

Computational optimization

Main article: Mathematical optimization

• Optimize known scenarios (e.g., technical and manufacturing processes, front-end engineering).

  

Methods and algorithms

Algorithms and mathematical methods used in computational science are varied. Commonly applied methods include:

• Numerical analysis
• Application of Taylor series as convergent and asymptotic series
• Computing derivatives by Automatic differentiation (AD)
• Computing derivatives by finite differences
• Graph theoretic suites
• High order difference approximations via Taylor series and Richardson extrapolation
• Methods of integration on a uniform mesh: rectangle rule (also called midpoint rule), trapezoid rule, Simpson's rule
• Runge Kutta method for solving ordinary differential equations
• Monte Carlo methods
• Molecular dynamics
• Numerical linear algebra
• Computing the LU factors by Gaussian elimination
• Cholesky factorizations
• Discrete Fourier transform and applications.
• Newton's method
• Time stepping methods for dynamical systems

Programming languages commonly used for the more mathematical aspects of scientific computing applications include R (programming language), MATLAB, Mathematica,^[2] SciLab, GNU Octave, COMSOL Multiphysics, Python (programming language) with SciPy, and PDL.^{[citation needed]} The more computationally intensive aspects of scientific computing will often utilize some variation of C or Fortran and optimized algebra libraries such as BLAS or LAPACK.

Computational science application programs often model real-world changing conditions, such as weather, air flow around a plane, automobile body distortions in a crash, the motion of stars in a galaxy, an explosive device, etc. Such programs might create a 'logical mesh' in computer memory where each item corresponds to an area in space and contains information about that space relevant to the model. For example in weather models, each item might be a square kilometer; with land elevation, current wind direction, humidity, temperature, pressure, etc. The program would calculate the likely next state based on the current state, in simulated time steps, solving equations that describe how the system operates; and then repeat the process to calculate the next state.

The term computational scientist is used to describe someone skilled in scientific computing. This person is usually a scientist, an engineer or an applied mathematician who applies high-performance computers in different ways to advance the state-of-the-art in their respective applied disciplines in physics, chemistry or engineering. Scientific computing has increasingly also impacted on other areas including economics, biology and medicine.

Computational science is now commonly considered a third mode of science, complementing and adding to experimentation/observation and theory.^[3] The essence of computational science is numerical algorithm^[4] and/or computational mathematics.^[5] In fact, substantial effort in computational sciences has been devoted to the development of algorithms, the efficient implementation in programming languages, and validation of computational results. A collection of problems and solutions in computational science can be found in Steeb, Hardy, Hardy and Stoop, 2004.^[6]

 Education

Scientific computation is most often studied through an applied mathematics or computer science program, or within a standard mathematics, sciences, or engineering program. At some institutions a specialization in scientific computation can be earned as a "minor" within another program (which may be at varying levels). However, there are increasingly many bachelor's and master's programs in computational science. Some schools also offer the Ph.D. in computational science, computational engineering, computational science and engineering, or scientific computation.

There are also programs in areas such as computational physics, computational chemistry, etc.

 Related fields

• Bioinformatics
• Cheminformatics
• Chemometrics
• Computational biology
• Computational chemistry
• Computational economics
• Computational electromagnetics
• Computational engineering
• Computational finance
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Computational forensics
• Computational geophysics
• Computational linguistics
• Computational mathematics
• Computational mechanics
• Computational neuroscience
• Computational particle physics
• Computational physics
• Computational statistics
• Computer algebra
• Environmental simulation
• Financial modeling
• Geographic information system (GIS)
• High performance computing
• Machine learning
• Network analysis
• Neuroinformatics
• Numerical linear algebra
• Numerical weather prediction
• Pattern recognition

  

See also

• Comparison of computer algebra systems
• List of molecular modeling software
• List of numerical analysis software
• List of statistical packages
• Simulated reality

 

 References

1. ^ National Center for Computational Science
2. ^ Mathematica 6 Scientific Computing World, May 2007
3. ^ Siam.org
4. ^ Nonweiler T. R., 1986. Computational Mathematics: An Introduction to Numerical Approximation, John Wiley and Sons
5. ^ Yang X. S., 2008. Introduction to Computational Mathematics, World Scientific Publishing
6. ^ Steeb W.-H., Hardy Y., Hardy A. and Stoop R., 2004. Problems and Solutions in Scientific Computing with C++ and Java Simulations, World Scientific Publishing. ISBN 981-256-112-9

 

External links

• The National Center for Computational Science at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Policy Reports on Computational Science
• Educational Materials for Undergraduate Computational Studies
• Computational Science at the National Laboratories