The allure of freelancing draws many to its doors, but the excitement of working for yourself can quickly wane when faced with financial realities. Without the cushion of a steady paycheck, managing finances as a freelancer can be more art than science.

From fluctuating income to figuring out how to catch up on bills, this article aims to guide freelancers through the nuances of budgeting in the ever-evolving world of independent work.

Diversify Your Income Streams

While having one or two steady clients or sources of income might give you a sense of security, freelancing is unpredictable. So, learn to diversify!

Multiple Skills, Multiple Avenues

Think about complementary skills that you have, and how they can be monetized. For example, if you’re a writer, consider offering editing services as well. Graphic designers can also look into UI/UX design projects.

However, don’t spread yourself too thin by taking on more than you can handle or venturing into areas outside your expertise. Always ensure that you maintain a standard of quality in all the varied services you offer.

Passive Income

Passive income can be a boon to freelancers. This can give you a steady source of income even while you are on vacation. Start by identifying niches or topics in your field with high demand but limited resources.

For example, you can invest time in creating digital products. To reach wider audiences, use platforms like Udemy for courses, Shutterstock for stock photos, or Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing for eBooks.

Analyze and Adjust Monthly

Unlike a salaried job, your freelance income isn’t predictable. To stay on top of your income and expenses:

Review Expenses Monthly

At the end of each month, review your expenditures. Did you overspend on tools or subscriptions? Can you opt for a more cost-effective alternative? If you haven’t been using these for a while, by all means, cancel away!

Income Analysis

Were there pay periods where you earned more? Why? Maybe you took on more projects or increased your rates. Understanding this can guide your actions for the upcoming months.

Stay Updated with Tax Obligations

As a freelancer, you’re your own accountant. Regularly consult the IRS website or your country’s tax authority for updated guidelines related to self-employment.

Use financial tools or software like QuickBooks or FreshBooks, designed for digital nomads, to track your income and categorize expenses. This makes it easier to calculate potential deductions.

Regularly set aside money for taxes, typically 25-30% of your earnings, to avoid end-of-year surprises.

Save Before You Spend

It’s tempting to spend when you get a big paycheck. But remember, freelancing has its dry spells. To keep yourself in check, consider these tips:

50/30/20 Rule

A popular method is to allocate 50% of your income to necessities, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings. This might vary based on individual circumstances, but it’s a good starting point.

Automate Savings

You can leverage online banking platforms to set up automated transfers from your main checking account to a designated savings account. Utilize the scheduled transfer features to ensure a predetermined percentage of your income is seamlessly moved each payday, making saving an easy and consistent practice.

Professional Growth

Remember, as you grow in your field, your rates should reflect that growth. Here are two ways to help you build your freelance career.

Continuous Learning

Invest in courses, webinars, or workshops. This not only enhances your skills but also justifies raising your rates.

Ask for Testimonials

A happy client’s feedback can be your ticket to more and higher-paying gigs. Collect and display testimonials prominently.

Planning for an Enjoyable Workation

Don’t worry, being a freelancer is not always stressful. In fact, there are many perks to the job. For example, take the “workation,” where you continue to work while exploring new cities or countries in your free time.

Just imagine being able to work while enjoying a view of the serene beaches of Bali or while nestled in a café in Paris. However, if you’re constantly worried about your finances, your dream of having the much-desired work-life balance can quickly turn into a stress-filled ordeal.

Planning your workation before you leave home can help you make the most of your travel, while ensuring that your finances will carry you through. Here’s how you can make it happen for yourself:

Project Your Income

Begin by assessing the contracts and jobs you’ll have during your workation. Account for the estimated income and set realistic expectations. If there are gaps, perhaps it’s time to look for another gig before you travel.

Understand the Costs

Research your destination. Know the costs of travel, accommodations, co-working spaces, internet and cell service, food, and other essentials. Make a daily or weekly budget. Be sure to include day trips and outings in your budget.

Have an Emergency Fund

Always, always have a buffer. This will safeguard against unexpected expenses or a late-paying client. This emergency fund should ideally cover at least six to nine months of basic living expenses, including essentials like rent or mortgage, utility bills, groceries, transportation, insurance premiums, and minimum debt payments.

Final Thoughts

Freelancing offers the freedom to shape your professional journey, but this comes with a ton of responsibility — especially where finances are concerned.

By taking a proactive approach to budgeting, staying adaptable, and continuously growing as a professional, you can master the financial challenges of freelancing, turning them from hurdles into stepping stones toward a prosperous future.

Katie Pierce is a teacher-slash-writer who loves telling stories to an audience, whether it’s bored adults in front of a computer screen or a bunch of hyperactive 4-year-olds. Writing keeps her sane (most of the time) and allows her to enjoy some quiet time in the evening before she walks into a room of screaming kids (all of whom she loves dearly) the next morning.

The post Freelancer Finances: Mastering Budget Management for Independent Work appeared first on Shawn Radcliffe.

Every industry was affected when COVID-19 shook the world in 2020. In order to stay up and running, many companies transitioned to having employees work from home. Although remote work offers many benefits — for both companies and employees — it also comes with certain risks.

One of these is the increased threat to a company’s data and computer networks resulting from employees working remotely. Given that employees can perform their responsibilities in the comfort of their own homes — outside the company’s secure network — they’ve become a target for cybercriminals.

A company’s data can also be exposed accidentally through an employee’s negligence. In early 2020, remote workers were responsible for security breaches at 20% of organizations, according to a report by UK-based data protection company databasix.

So if you’re a remote worker, it’s crucial that you follow your company’s cybersecurity practices. This is just as true now as it was during the peak of the pandemic. With a few simple steps, you can reduce the chance of causing a data breach at your company, and potentially losing your job or facing other consequences.

Let’s take a closer look at the data security risks of remote work and how to reduce them.

Why Remote Workers Need to Follow Cybersecurity Practices

For Data Protection

One of the many reasons that employees should follow cybersecurity policies is that it helps ensure that the data you handle remain confidential and secure — this includes data relating to customers, the company, and even personal data.

Customer Data

Remote workers already know that they handle customers’ data. What they may not realize is the potential impact of letting sensitive customer information fall into the hands of a hacker.

The data you collect from your customers are highly valuable. Hackers can use customers’ addresses, phone numbers, emails, and especially their payment information in a number of ways. For example, they can sell that information to other companies, use it to make purchases, or even steal a person’s identity to manipulate other people.

In addition to direct harms to customers from a data breach, there’s also a risk to your company’s reputation. Even a single breach can harm the integrity of your company and cause it to lose the trust of its customers.

Company Data

When cyber threat actors find a way to enter your company’s network, prepare for the worst, because they may also be able to access something bigger than your customers’ data — the entire company network.

If they successfully access the company network, they will be able to exploit information about how your company operates, its finances, important files, and much more. This could severely damage the company.

Personal Data

Not following your company’s policies may also put your own data at risk. When you use your personal laptop for work, you expose your data to the same risks as your customers’ and company’s data.

If hackers successfully install malware on your device, they can spy on you and steal information from your device, such as website usernames and passwords, financial information, and much more.

To Avoid The Risks of Non-Compliance

Besides data protection, another reason you should follow your company’s remote security policies is to avoid risks that can turn your life upside down. What are these risks?

Losing Your Job

Considering how sensitive the data you’re handling is, not following cybersecurity policies can put your job at risk, especially if you’re working in the financial or other high-risk sector.

Paying Expensive Fines

As you may already know, a single data breach can be very expensive. Companies may end up paying customers whose data was compromised. They may also have to pay government fines for non-compliance with data regulations.

If you’re the reason why a data breach happened — for instance, sharing sensitive information intentionally with a hacker — the company may try to get you to pay the fines by filing a civil suit against you.

Cybersecurity Policies for Remote Workers

Now that we know the significance of cybersecurity for remote workers, let’s take a look at the best cybersecurity practices you should follow.

While companies perform risk assessments and other security measures, there are simple practices that you should always keep in mind. Here are a few:

• Use complex passwords and update them regularly
• Activate multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Always install available updates to your computer, smartphone, other devices, and computer programs
• Install antivirus software
• Use a secure network connection and avoid public wifi
• Use a VPN
• Beware of phishing and other cyber threats
• Always back up data

The Bottom Line

A successful cybersecurity strategy has to take into account the role that employees play in keeping data safe. This includes employees working from home, who are often the target of cybercriminals.

If you are a remote worker, you should learn how to mitigate the data risks associated with working remotely, and follow your company’s cybersecurity guidelines. That way, you can avoid the consequences that come with not following those policies.

Katie Pierce is a teacher-slash-writer who loves telling stories to an audience, whether it’s bored adults in front of a computer screen or a bunch of hyperactive 4-year-olds. Writing keeps her sane (most of the time) and allows her to enjoy some quiet time in the evening before she walks into a room of screaming kids (all of whom she loves dearly) the next morning.

Photo by Marek Levak

The post Staying Safe and Secure in the Digital World: Understanding the Significance of Cybersecurity for Remote Workers appeared first on Shawn Radcliffe.

The sun offers numerous benefits for your body. When exposed to sunlight, the skin makes vitamin D, which helps keep your bones, skin, and immune system healthy. In addition, sunlight can boost your mood and reduce stress to get you through the day. And getting some morning sunlight can help you sleep at night because it resets your body’s internal clock.

While sunlight offers many advantages, it also comes with risks, especially for your skin. Here’s a breakdown of these risks and how you can safely enjoy the sun this summer.

Effects of too much sun exposure

Sunlight contains ultraviolet (UV) rays that can damage your skin. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, fair or tan, UV rays can be harmful. These risks increase depending on the intensity of the UV rays and the length of sun exposure.

Let’s take a closer look at the adverse effects of having too much sun exposure:

• Sunburn: An inflammation of the skin caused by overexposure to the sun’s UV rays. It is characterized by red, painful, and sometimes blistered skin. Sunburns can range from mild to severe and can cause symptoms such as swelling, itching, peeling skin, and fever.
• Skin cancer: UV rays can damage the DNA in skin cells, which increases the risk of skin cancer.
• Early aging: If you spend too much time in the sun without protection, your skin ages faster, with signs such as wrinkles, age spots and broken capillaries. This is because UV rays damage the collagen and elastin fibers that are responsible for keeping your skin looking fresh. Damage to the DNA in the skin cells can also speed up the aging process.
• Eye Damage: UV radiation can affect the delicate tissues of the eyes. This can cause damage to the cornea, cataracts, and macular degeneration — all of which can affect your eyesight..
• Suppressed immune system: Too much sun exposure can suppress your immune system, which makes it harder for your body to fight off infections.
• Heat stroke: Too much time in the sun can dehydrate your body, leading to heat exhaustion and even heat stroke.

Summer skincare tips to protect your skin

With everything mentioned above, keeping your body hydrated while in the sun is a must. Drink water and eat healthy food. Beyond that, strengthen your skin’s defenses by following our summer skincare tips.

Always wear sunscreen

Wearing sunscreen is the most important way to protect your skin from sun damage. Sunscreen contains active ingredients that block UV rays from being absorbed by your skin. It can be in the form of a lotion, spray, or gel.

To help maximize the protection, keep these things in mind:

• Choose a sunscreen with a minimum sun protection factor (SPF) level of 30 or higher.
• Look for labels that say broad-spectrum. This indicates that the sunscreen can filter out UVA and UVB radiation that may cause skin damage.
• For maximum effectiveness, apply sunscreen to the skin at least 20–30 minutes before going outside.
• Make sure to apply sunscreen to all exposed areas of skin, including your face, neck, ears, arms, and legs.
• Reapply sunscreen every two hours, or more often if you’re swimming or sweating.
• Incorporate sunscreen into your skincare makeup routine.

Avoid peak sun

While it’s essential to get a little light from the sun every day, limit exposure to the sun’s rays when they are the strongest. Usually, the peak hours are between 10 am and 4 pm, so try scheduling your outdoor activities outside that period.

If you have to be outside during peak sunlight hours, find some shade to reduce the intensity of the UV rays hitting your skin. You can use an umbrella or sit under a tree or other shelter to avoid direct sunlight. This can reduce the risks that come with having too much sun exposure.

Choose your clothing wisely and wear protective accessories

Choosing the right clothing can also help you avoid harmful UV rays. If possible, wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants/skirts when the sun is up. That way, the sun won’t directly touch your skin.

If you want to wear more summery outfits, you can still protect yourself with your clothing choices. fFor better protection, wear clothes made from tightly woven fabric. Also, go for darker and more vivid colors, as they absorb more UV rays than light and pastel colors.

Also, wear protective accessories such as hats and sunglasses. They’ll make a great addition to your summer look while protecting your skin and eyes from the harmful effects of too much sunlight. For the hat, choose one with a wide brim to protect your face, ears, and neck. Meanwhile, it’s best to wear sunglasses that can block UVA and UVB rays.

The bottom line

Summer is a great time to go to the beach, enjoy walks, and do many more activities. However, too much exposure to sunlight can damage your skin and health. By keeping our skin care tips in mind, you can still enjoy the lovely summer season that you’ve been waiting for, and keep your skin healthy for years to come.

Katie Pierce is a teacher-slash-writer who loves telling stories to an audience, whether it’s bored adults in front of a computer screen or a bunch of hyperactive 4-year-olds. Writing keeps her sane (most of the time) and allows her to enjoy some quiet time in the evening before she walks into a room of screaming kids (all of whom she loves dearly) the next morning.

Image by AdoreBeautyNZ from Pixabay

The post Summer Skincare: How to Protect Your Skin from Sun Damage appeared first on Shawn Radcliffe.

Stress can manifest itself in different ways. There are the usual skin concerns, such as acne, that serve as a sign that you’re under a lot of pressure. You might also find yourself more easily irritated by small matters if you’re severely stressed. You might even feel run-down much of the time.

So between work deadlines and the many tasks on your to-do list, taking a break for self-care is a must. Otherwise, you might not be able to perform well in the many areas of your life.

While everyone has their own way of recharging, meditation has been shown to be an effective way to minimize anxiety and stressful thoughts.

Here’s a quick overview of meditation to help you boost your own self-care routine.

What is Meditation?

Put simply, meditation is a way to turn your attention toward specific thoughts in such a way that calms your mind.

In this fast-paced world, practicing an activity that helps you slow down and take time to breathe can be beneficial. Once you are comfortable meditating, it can offer much more than simply de-stressing.

You can actually get to know yourself better through meditation. It’s a chance to deep-dive into your innermost thoughts — a way to understand your perspective in a much clearer way. Such a newfound clarity can also change the way you go about your day-to-day activities.

Different Ways to Meditate

Meditation can be overwhelming at first, especially for those who may not be too familiar with this practice. A great part of it, though, is that you can make meditation as personal as you’d like. There are also many different types of meditation — you get to choose one that fits your personality and your goals.

Zen Meditation

This type of meditation has its roots in Buddhist psychology. It requires sitting in a crossed-leg position, while focusing the attention inwards. During the process, it’s also important to maintain a correct posture. In Zen meditation, a general awareness of one’s surroundings is also essential. The main objective of this type of meditation is to increase awareness of your own preconceived notions, as well as gain insights into yourself.

Mindfulness Meditation

In mindfulness meditation, you keep bringing your attention back to a simple object such as the breath, or an action such as walking or washing dishes. When your mind wanders, you come back to the object or action.

When practicing mindfulness meditation, it is important to turn off anything that may serve as a distraction. This includes any mobile devices, your laptop and the TV — anything that might shift your focus away from meditation. Eventually, you will be able to naturally focus without being distracted by thoughts of anxiety or worry.

Guided Meditation

In this type of meditation, you practice a specific visualization. Guided meditation is commonly used by those who are trying to achieve a specific outcome. If, for example, you’ve been worrying about a huge presentation at work, you can try to imagine the outcome. Visualize yourself doing well, specifically the way you’d feel in the moment.

Transcendental Meditation

This sort of meditation involves repeating a specific mantra, or phrase. As with the other types of meditation, any kind of distraction needs to be minimized. Try to set aside around 10-15 minutes in a comfortable area. The mantra you choose doesn’t have to be too long. As long as it inspires you, you may use it.

Other Self-Care Activities

If you think you’re not the type to meditate, there are still a lot of other self-care activities that can help with anxious thoughts or worries. These include:

• For women, worrying about menstruation leaks can be an added stress. Using period underwear can get rid of the extra worry.
• Eating a healthy meal can actually do wonders for your mental health. The same goes for exercising regularly and going outside for a walk.
• Drinking water — or a warm cup of tea — can also help you destress.
• Even something as simple as taking a shower or a bath can lift your mood, if just for a while.
• Mentally-stimulating activities can serve as good ways to take care of your mental health. You can try any of the hobbies you currently have. Maybe curling up and reading your favorite book would be a great way to take a break. Listening to music or an educational podcast can also help you rest.
• You could even take up journaling. There are also gratitude and reflection journals that allow you to become more mindful of your own thoughts and emotions on a regular basis.

Mindset Change

Ultimately, practicing regular self-care requires a change in your mindset, including committing to taking care of your mental health.

It’s also important to know your own limits, especially when it comes to feeling burned out or stressed. So before you reach the brink of exhaustion, take a moment to recharge.

After all, you deserve to be mentally healthy — without feeling guilty for trying to take care of yourself.

Katie Pierce is a teacher-slash-writer who loves telling stories to an audience, whether it’s bored adults in front of a computer screen or a bunch of hyperactive 4-year-olds. Writing keeps her sane (most of the time) and allows her to enjoy some quiet time in the evening before she walks into a room of screaming kids (all of whom she loves dearly) the next morning.

_____

Image by Diya Yoga from Pixabay

The post Self-Care Guide: No More Anxiety, More On Meditation appeared first on Shawn Radcliffe.

One of those people who spends a great deal of time pondering what it means to be conscious is Christof Koch, Ph.D., who runs the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, and is the author of The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread but Can’t Be Computed.

In the book, Koch tries to explain to a general audience the integrated information theory (IIT) of consciousness. This idea was developed by Dr. Giulio Tononi, a professor at the University of Wisconsin. It takes the approach of asking: what is conscious experience like?

But Koch is not just concerned with being able to define consciousness. He also wants to be able to make predictions about consciousness that can be tested. This is the hallmark of science — a testable hypothesis. Otherwise, you’re just sitting around pondering the universe, or in this case, consciousness.

According to IIT, consciousness have five properties: intrinsic, structured, informative, integrated and definite.

The first, “intrinsic,” means that consciousness is a private experience. “Consciousness exists intrinsically, for itself, without an observer,” writes Koch. It is the way our brains feel like from the inside. Because it is private, this awareness stops at the border of my own consciousness — you can’t observe my consciousness or even be sure that I feel anything.

In fact, IIT eliminates the the point of view of the outside observer entirely, including the neuroscientist who may be viewing your brain activity in a scanner. “For consciousness, there is no such observer,” writes Koch. “Everything must be specified in terms of differences that make a difference to the system itself,” with that system being your consciousness.

This “difference that makes a difference” is what separates how you experience bodily housekeeping functions (such as the secretion of enzymes into your digestive tract) from things like seeing another person’s face. One is part of your experience; the other occurs without your knowledge.

To put it another way, your consciousness is a system that exists for itself. In order for that to be possible, writes Koch, “it must have causal power over itself.” Basically, your system consists of interconnected sets of causes-and-effects, all leading your consciousness from its past to its present to its future.

Koch argues that “causal power is not some airy-fairy ethereal notion,” but it can be precisely measured for any physical system. IIT allows you to discuss consciousness without thinking about in which physical structure it resides. But by defining “causal power” mathematically, we can also examine physical systems to see if they could contain consciousness.

For example, take the human brain: circuits in the posterior cerebral cortex are tightly interconnected, which gives them high causal power. These kinds of connections are essential for consciousness. Other parts of the brain, such as the cerebellum, lack this causal power — so they can’t generate consciousness.

This approach can be extended beyond the human brain to answer questions like: do single cells have intrinsic experience? What about countries or corporations? Or computers? In fact, IIT has implications for a wide range of consciousness-related concepts that abound in popular culture.

One of these is the idea that computers will one day become conscious. Koch quickly dashes the hopes of all those who would see science fiction made real. Although artificial intelligence can be used to create computers that can mimic human behavior, even the most advanced systems — because of their linear circuitry — still lack the causal power of the human brain.

The only possibility for conscious computers would be to build them in a way that resembles the self-referential connections of neurons in living brains. “Androids, if their physical circuitry is anything like today’s CPUs, cannot dream of electric sheep,” Koch writes.

IIT also comes to bear on another staple of science fiction — or of romantic entanglement — the melding of two minds into one. If this type of merger were possible, it would probably occur at different levels of intensity. At some point, though, the merger would reach a tipping point.

“Your conscious experience of the world vanishes, as does mine,” Koch writes. “From your and my intrinsic perspective, we cease to exist. But our death coincides with the birth of a new amalgamated über-mind. It has a Whole extending across two brains and four cortical hemispheres.”

The post Consciousness Is a Private Experience, One Computers Can’t Have appeared first on Shawn Radcliffe.

”We could be living in a cyclic universe with bounces occurring every 100 billion years or so. It is even possible to imagine a cyclic universe with no beginning or end,” writes physicist Anna Ijjas, in New Scientist.

In the idea that Ijjas is pursuing, the universe doesn’t burst forth from a singularity. Instead, a previous universe slowly contracts to a small patch of space and then bounces, which causes it to expand in the same way that our current universe is expanding.

This idea was first put forward by Paul Steinhardt, who in the 1980s co-proposed that a rapid period of expansion — known as inflation — occurs just moments after the Big Bang.

In the cyclical model of the universe, there is a long period of ultra-slow contraction that occurs just before the bounce. This requires a special form of energy that slows down the contraction and “tends to smooth out any irregularities in the distribution of energy and in the fabric of space-time,” writes Ijjas.

Also, because quantum fluctuations are small in a slowly contracting universe, the bounce produces a less messy outcome. Ijjas writes that one of the limitations of inflation is that, due to quantum fluctuations, it should result in a universe with “an infinite number of patches with an infinite variety of different properties,” what’s known as an inflationary multiverse. But this isn’t what we see in today’s universe.

Ijjas suggests decaying dark energy as a possible source of the energy needed to slow the contraction of the universe. The energy would also stop the universe from shrinking so much that quantum gravity effects come into play. This would allow the universe after the bounce to have the same ”smooth distribution of energy and flat untwisted geometry of space-time” as our current universe.

This idea is currently just that — an idea. But Ijjas is working with Steinhardt and Frans Pretorius at Princeton University to model how a cyclical universe would evolve. They are looking for distinctive signatures of the contraction and bounce of the universe.

One prediction from their modeling is that ultra-slow contraction doesn’t produce primordial gravitational waves. So far this is true, although other research groups are designing experiments to look for these kinds of waves. If they find them, then “the idea of slow contraction must be wrong,” writes Ijjas.

But if the contraction-and-bouncing universe does withstand further scrutiny, what would a cyclical universe look like? Ijjas writes that there might be bounces every 100 billion years or so, each one creating a new universe.

Each period of ultra-slow contraction would reset the universe, erasing signs of the previous cycle and returning all the features of the universe to what they were, on average, before the cycle began.

“In other words,” write Ijjas, “if you had lived on a planet like Earth in the cycle before our own, you would observe roughly the same basic properties of the universe as we do.”

_____

“A man of that syntax, looking over his equations, finds that
he has calculated enough varieties of intensity
to say with authority
that the universe never began
and will never end,
but that it has gone, and is going now, and will go
through endless fluctuations of intensity.”
~ From “The Active Side of Infinity” by Carlos Castaneda

The post Are We Living in a Never-Ending Cyclical Universe? appeared first on Shawn Radcliffe.

In recent years, though, scientists have begun to illuminate some of these enigmas — such as capturing the first image of a black hole, showing that Stephen Hawking was right that black holes can evaporate, and suggesting that we may actually live inside a higher-dimensional black hole.

Now, physicists have shown that one of sci-fi’s most intriguing ideas about black holes may be closer to reality than we realized — that black holes could serve as a hyperspace portal to another part of the galaxy or to another galaxy altogether.

And the best part? If you choose the right kind of black hole and the perfect approach, you wouldn’t be stretched and squeezed by the infinitely dense singularity before being vaporized. Which, for any form of space travel, is always a good thing.

This new idea about black holes was developed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Georgia Gwinnett College, taking inspiration from the movie “Interstellar,” which was based on a book written by Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Kip Thorne. In the movie, Matthew McConaughey’s character survives a fall into a supermassive, rapidly rotating black hole.

To determine if this would be possible, the researchers built a computer model of what would happen to a large object — like a spacecraft — falling into a black hole such as Sagittarius A*, the large and rotating black hole at the center of our own galaxy.

Gaurav Khanna, professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, wrote about their findings on The Conversation. The researchers found that an object falling into this kind of black hole would not experience infinitely large effects when it passed through the black hole’s inner horizon singularity.

Normally, a rotating black hole causes increasing cycles of stretching and squeezing on an object falling into it. If this increased infinitely, it would eventually become too much for the object to withstand. But the researchers found that with a black hole as large as Sagittarius A*, the effects would be very small. Khanna writes that a person on board a spaceship falling into this kind of black hole would not detect these effects.

Their model was based on an isolated black hole — free from the disturbances of nearby stars and falling radiation. Most black holes, though, are surrounded by radiation, dust and gas. Future research could look at whether the model holds for a more realistic black hole.

Of course, the scientists have no way yet to test their model in the real world, which leaves many questions unanswered.

What would you find on the other side of the singularity? What if you ended up light years away from an inhabitable planet? What if the black hole journey was a one-way trip? For now, the answers to these questions lie in the imaginative minds of science fiction writers.

The post Black Holes: Hyperspace Gateway Across the Universe? appeared first on Shawn Radcliffe.

Thirty-one.

Percent, that is.

On a side note, this probably would have been much more exciting had it been 42, which is the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything,” from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Still, knowing that 31 percent of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe is matter is pretty exciting. The rest of the universe, by the way, is dark energy.

Lead author of the paper, Mohamed Abdullah, a graduate student in the UCR Department of Physics and Astronomy, said in a news release that if you spread all of the matter evenly throughout space, on average there would be the equivalent of six hydrogen atoms per cubic meter.

Which is not a lot.

But it’s actually less matter than what you think — or less “what you think of as matter” than what you think.

Eighty percent of matter is dark matter, said Abdullah. So the bulk of those six hydrogen atoms per cubic meter is a type of matter that is not clearly understood yet.

Their results were published in September in The Astrophysical Journal.

Researchers calculated that matter makes up about 31 percent of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe. Twenty percent of this matter consists of “baryonic” matter, which includes stars, galaxies, atoms, and life. The rest is made of dark matter, which is not fully understood. (UCR/Mohamed Abdullah)

Measuring matter in the universe

Abdullah said one way to measure the total amount of matter in the universe is to compare the number and mass of galaxy clusters per unit volume predicted by simulations to what is actually observed.

The galaxy clusters that we see today formed from matter that collapsed over the course of billions of years due to its own gravity. So the number of clusters today depends on the conditions present early on in the universe, in particular the total amount of matter.

More matter early on equals more galaxy clusters today.

The challenge in measuring the clusters, said Abdullah, is finding the “sweet spot” — not too high, not too low. This is not that easy, because much of the matter in the clusters is dark, so it’s not visible through telescopes.

To get around this, the researchers developed a tool which enabled them to use the orbits of galaxies in a cluster to measure the mass of the cluster. They applied this tool to observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and then compared their findings to estimates of the total amount of matter in the universe based on simulations.

Co-author Gillian Wilson, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCR, said their value for the total amount of matter in the universe fits well with the values found using other methods, such as baryon acoustic oscillations, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, gravitational lensing, or Type Ia supernovae.

When the researchers combined their measurement with the values determined using other techniques, they calculated that matter makes up 31.5±1.3 percent of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe.

So the next time someone at a party asks you what the Answer to the Ultimate Question is, smile and say: “Thirty-one, give or take one-point-three … percent.”

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The transition from summer into fall, though, is always challenging for me. My sleep gets disrupted. My skin dries out. And I have a harder time showing up on my yoga or exercise mat. And there’s always the urge to curl up on the floor with my cats and binge watch Star Trek or some other mentally unchallenging sci-fi TV show.

So when summer starts to wind down in early September, I make sure to wind down with it. This makes it easier to transition into fall, but it also helps me make the most of a season that can have wildly fluctuating weather from day to day, as well as less daylight to get outside in nature.

If this sounds like you, here are a few things that might help you make the transition into fall. If you have other fall rituals or routines, feel free to share them in the comments below.

Transition into fall with routines

I find navigating the summer-fall transition much easier if I stick with my routines — sleep, exercise, yoga, meditation, work, not-work. So when the weather turns cooler and the mornings darker, I commit to exercising at six o’clock in the morning, the same as during the summer.

This is not always easy, because going out into a cold garage — or to an even colder outside — to exercise is not always enticing. But I always feel better after working out, even if I have to force myself to get out of bed and step into the pre-dawn chill.

It’s the same with my other routines. In the fall, I try to go to bed at the same time each night, eat dinner at a regular time, work during my usual hours, and practice yoga and meditation each day. These are like cairns placed at regular intervals on a treeless mountain top, guiding me in my journey toward winter.

Surround yourself with warming spices

It’s hard to go anywhere in the fall without running into a pumpkin spice latte, muffin, donut, candle, etc. This may be the true sign of the transition into fall. While the over-marketing of pumpkin spice products is enough to cause sleepless nights all by itself, there’s some calming truth behind this madness.

Spices like allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg exemplify fall. And for good reason, says Sarah Kucera in her book, The Ayurvedic Self-Care Handbook: Holistic Healing Rituals for Every Day and Season. These spices pair well with in-season fall foods like potatoes and squash (including the esteemed pumpkin). They also create warmth in the body, calm the nervous system, and create a whole-body cozy feeling, she says.

So try adding these spices to your meals. And they are not just for sweet desserts like pumpkin pie. These spices go well with hearty stews and soups, as well as stir fries. And one of my favorites: spiced hot apple cider.

Embrace seasonal fall foods

If you have a backyard garden, shop at a local farmer’s market, or receive a food box from a local grower, your diet probably already makes the transition into fall — shifting to foods like nuts, seeds, fall and winter squash, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, and beets.

Many of these are root vegetables, which by their very nature are grounding. The rest are hearty, earthy, and nutrient dense, which can help you find stability as you move into the slower days of fall. So when the weather turns cold, incorporate these foods into soups, stews, and porridge for a body-warming and house-warming treat.

I grew up in New Hampshire, so many of the foods I associate with fall are the same ones you’ll find in television specials like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (or the more recent Sleepy Hollow) and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. However, which foods are seasonal for you depends on where you live. So embrace your own local fall cuisine.

Shift how you exercise in the fall

Having a regular exercise routine can help you transition smoothly from summer into fall. If you have trouble sleeping, exercising at the same time each day can also keep your body’s internal clock in sync. What time of day you exercise depends on what works for you. Some people find that exercising before bed helps them sleep more soundly, but for others, late-night exercise can be too activating.

One thing that Kucera recommends for exercise in the fall is that you focus more on strength training and endurance, rather than on intensity, intervals, or speed. So try doing three days a week of weightlifting or bodyweight resistance exercise. Or go for a longer, slower bike ride or run, rather than trying to top your summer peak speed.

Reflect on past year as you transition into fall

The new year doesn’t start until January, but before you make new resolutions, it’s helpful to reflect on the year that has just passed. Fall is a perfect time to do this, because the cooler weather and shorter days give you more time to rest and reflect.

“We can reflect back on the fruits of our year-long laboring,” writes Kucera, “the same way we harvest in the fall after a year of planting and growing.”

In her book, she suggests the following fall and winter meditation:

In a journal, write for 10 to 15 minutes about your accomplishments during the past year and how you will find closure for the things you’ve been working on in your personal and work lives.

 

Fall is a time for letting go, so ask yourself: What you will let go of? What are you making room for? What has to end in order to make space for something new?

 

Close your journal and sit quietly with your eyes closed. Feel the closure that comes with the end of the summer cycle and the start of the deepening fall cycle.

The transition into fall can be challenging for many people. As with most things, it’s important to find rituals that work for you, ones that help you make the transition more smoothly. So give these a try. Maybe you’ll find a new appreciation for autumn.

The post 5 Ways to Transition Smoothly Into Fall appeared first on Shawn Radcliffe.

Physics textbooks commonly describe the superposition collapse as due to the act of measuring, or observing, the particle. In the Schrödinger’s cat example, it is actually a particle inside the box that is in a superposition, not the cat itself. Opening the box causes the collapse. If the particle ends up in one state, it triggers the release of a poison that kills the cat; if in the other state, the poison remains contained and the cat is safe. Until the measurement happens, though, the particle is in both states and so is the cat.

Other mechanisms have also been suggested for the collapse of a superposition. One of these is the gravity hypothesis, which was proposed by Hungarian physicist Károlyházy Frigyes in the 1960s, and later on in the 1980s by another physicist from the same country, Lajos Diósi.

In essence, this hypothesis states that an object’s gravitational field resists being put in a superposition of different states, including ones related to positions in space. If you do manage to get the particle into a superposition, the particle’s gravitational field will attempt to do the same, but it won’t be able to remain that way for long due to the inherent tension. Eventually, this will cause the superposition to collapse.

One of the strengths of the gravity hypothesis is that it takes measurement out of the equation, which also means people don’t have to be present in order for the collapse to happen. It’s a physics-only solution to superposition. However, until recently, physicists haven’t been able to use experiments to determine whether the hypothesis had any basis in reality. Diósi and his colleague have finally run those experiments. They published their results this month in the journal Nature Physics.

Testing the quantum superposition collapse

Their experiment was based on the idea that if a quantum collapse occurs due to a particle’s gravitational field — without being triggered by human measurement — there will still be some signal of that collapse. For example, the particle might swerve randomly. This could heat up the system or cause the particle to emit a photon. If multiple particles collapse, the effect will be amplified.

To test this, the researchers used a germanium crystal as a detector. If a collapse of superpositions in the crystal caused photons to be released, it would show up as gamma ray or x-ray emissions coming from the nuclei. The researchers shielded the crystal with lead and placed it 1.4 kilometers beneath the surface of the earth. After two months, they detected 576 photons, which is close to what you would expect due to naturally occurring radioactivity.

This is far short of the 70,000 photons predicted by the version of the gravity hypothesis developed by Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose. Study co-author Cătălina Curceanu of National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Rome told Science news that this suggests that the gravitational force is not responsible for the superposition collapse.

The next step for this research is to create a superposition of massive particles, something being worked on by Ivette Fuentes, a physicist at the University of Southampton in the UK. This gets around having to wait for random naturally occurring superpositions to collapse. She and her team plan to create clouds of 100 million sodium atoms, reports Science news.

However, this is not the end of the gravity hypothesis. Science reports that Penrose is working on another model of this type of collapse, one that doesn’t involve the particle swerving after it collapses — and one that might not be detected by the germanium experiment. Other factors may also be involved in masking the signal of the collapse. For now, though, we’ll just have to live with the quantum weirdness that is spatial superposition.

The post Gravity May Not Cause Quantum Superposition Collapse appeared first on Shawn Radcliffe.