This processor could prove to be a major breakthrough for a future quantum computer, that could very well be the ‘evolutionary leap’ in the computers’ life thus resulting the possible solve of problems that are untouchable today. The discovery was presented in the latest edition of Nature Physics and this marks the first time anybody has moved beyond asking a single task from a quantum computer.

“This is the first time anyone has demonstrated a programmable quantum processor for more than one qubit,” says NIST postdoctoral researcher David Hanneke, first author of the paper. “It’s a step toward the big goal of doing calculations with lots and lots of qubits. The idea is you’d have lots of these processors, and you’d link them together.”

The processor basically stores binary information in just two beryllium ions held in an electromagnetic ‘trap’, and then handled with ultraviolet lasers. With these in hand, the NIST team managed to perform 160 different processing routines using just the two qubits. Although practically there is an infinite number of programs you can perform with the two qubits, the 160 are pretty much totally relevant, and they prove that the processor is “universal”, Hanneke says.

Of course there will be many more qubits and logic operations to solve bigger problems, but when you come to think about it, all this was done with just two atoms, basically; and the operations they performed were no easy task. Each program consisted of 31 logic operations, 15 of which were varied during programming.

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Yeah, that’s a lion trying to open a car door with it’s teeth; picture taken in Johannesburg, South Africa via The Telegraph

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Despite the fact that it’s the 2nd most common mineral in the Earth’s continental crust, quartz is a true wonder of nature. Composed of the two most common elements in our planet’s crust (oxygen and silicone), quartz fascinated both scientists and common people since ancient times. At a molecular level, it forms extremely complicated (and variable) crystals, so going into more details there would require a considerable amount of detail - entire books have been written on that sole subject.

Quartz in itself is colorless and transparent (or translucent), but more often than not, it has some impurities. It’s these impurities that make it even more beautiful to look at. In this post, I’ll be ignoring the more practical uses of this amazing mineral and focus on aesthetics of its natural varieties (I’ll comeback with the practical uses in a post a few days from now, but just so you get an idea, quartz is absolutely crucial to the computer industry).

Amethyst

Perhaps the most striking representative of the quartz ‘family’, amethyst has been known and admired since the dawn of civilization - there are references to ancient Greeks and Romans that believed it prevented you from getting drunk and intoxicated (they even made drinking vessels of it). Also, if you placed one in the middle of your crop, it would protect it from pests and locusts.

There is still some debate surrounding its chemistry; it has the SiO₂ composition (as every quartz variety), but the impurities that give it it’s violet color are still a topic of discussion. The most plausible possibilities are ferric iron and an interplay of iron and aluminum.

Color can range from a light pinkish to a deep purple, and there is quite a lot of it around, especially in Brazil, where the biggest mines are (it’s also relatively abundant in South Korea and Austria).

Chalcedony

Most types of quartz have macroscopic crystals, but this is where chalcedony is different. It’s a cryptocrystalline form (crystals are barely visible even with a microscope) generally referred to as microcrystalline quartz in geology; because it alone has numerous varieties, gem dealers refer to each one by its name. If you plan on getting one, be careful however: numerous sellers just dye the rock, and for the inexperienced eye that can be hard to tell, because it can have a wide range of colors. Chalcedony also often psuedomorphs after organic materials, resulting in petrified wood (in Arizona, a whole forest has been petrified in this way), coral, etc. Types of chalcedony:

Agate

Carnelian

Heliotrope (bloodstone)

Citrine

Citrine is the yellow variety of quartz (citrus means lemon in latin), and can be formed by two different mechanisms: the feric variety, with iron or iron oxide absorbs radiation (from ultraviolet to blue), and the second mechanism is still unclear, but it’s known that it’s caused by aluminum, lithium or hydrogen inclusions.

Smoky quartz

It’s easy to guess why the smoky quartz was given this name; the color ranges from brown to black, giving the vague impression that there’s smoke inside the mineral. It can be obtained either naturally or artificially.

It also has two varieties, morion and cairngorm.

Rose quartz

Rose quartz varies color from light pink to rose red, usually due to titanium or iron (but manganese can also be present). It’s rarely used as a gem, because in the vast majority of the cases, it has a lot of impurities, which is why it’s mostly used to carve animals, hearts, etc.

However, when clear, it’s quite lovely.

You have to bear in mind that this is merely a visual separation of the types of quartz and I’ll ask you to excuse me for not using geological criteria that are more relevant; my goal was to show how unbelievably variate a single mineral can be, and raise interest for this matter. If I succeeded (or not) or you want to add something, please tell me.

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My first impression when I first heard of it was quite severe; but thinking about it better, it does seem to make sense. I mean, digging a grave would be extremely hard and impractical, while finding enough fuel or wood for cremation would be practically impossible. Also, the spiritual meaning is not hard to understand, when you think outside the western ideology. The deceased is providing food for a part of nature, which is a proof of generosity, one of the most important things in Buddhism.

The Tibetan name for this ceremony is jhator, which literally means “giving alms to the birds”.

“Sky burial and open cremation may initially appear grotesque for Westerners, especially if they have not reflected on their own burial practice of embalming. For Tibetan Buddhists, sky burial and cremation are templates of instructional teaching on the impermanence of life.” (unknown)

It appeared grotesque for the Chinese government too, who prohibited it from 1950 to 1980, and non-Tibetans are allowed to witness this ceremony, though filming or even taking pictures is considered highly offensive. The full procedure is quite expensive, and for those who can’t afford it, simply placing the deceased on a high rock is the favorite option.

The ceremony takes place in light spirit, as the rogyapas (monks) who perform the ceremony talk to each other as when doing any other physical labor. There are different ways to do this; basically beating the body and bones together to a pulp is not uncommon, while some witnesses reported breaking the bones and cartilages with sledge hammers.

The vulture in this ceremony is nicknamed the “Eurasian Griffon”, and even with its big appetite, it can’t eat all that it’s being offered, because in some places there are even a few sky burials per day.

I had some quite interesting talks regarding this ceremony, so please share your opinion on this, it’d be great to see what you guys think about it.

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The study proved that people who were experiencing bad moods were more critical and paid more attention to the surrounding environment than happier people, who were more likely to believe everything that they were told.

“Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation, and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world,” Forgas wrote. “Our research suggests that sadness … promotes information processing strategies best suited to dealing with more demanding situations.”

To conduct this study, the team actually conducted several experiments that began by inducing happier or unhappier moods to the subjects, by recalling a past event or by watching movies. In one of the experiments, they were asked to analyze the truth (or lack of it) behind urban myths and rumors; the result was that those in sadder moods were less likely to believe what they were told and showed an increase of analytic ability.

The sadder people were also less likely to make rash decisions or those based on racial or religious beliefs and made fewer mistakes when recalling a past event.

“Positive mood is not universally desirable: people in negative mood are less prone to judgmental errors, are more resistant to eyewitness distortions and are better at producing high-quality, effective persuasive messages,” Forgas wrote.

It’s been known for quite a while now that a good mood can increase work capacity, concentration and creativity, but not so much effort has been put into understanding what happens to you when you are feeling unhappy.

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Jellyfish captured in China

Each of these aquatic giants can grow up to 2 meters in diameter and easily weigh over 200 kgs. They seem to be more and more of a problem, especially around Japan, and swarms of them are actually not an uncommon sight.

“Jellies have likely swum and swarmed in our seas for over 600 million years,” says “jellyologist” Monty Graham of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. “When conditions are right, jelly swarms can form quickly. They appear to do this for sexual reproduction.”

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“No one has ever had access to this kind of light before,” said LCLS Director Jo Stöhr. “The realization of the LCLS isn’t only a huge achievement for SLAC, but an achievement for the global science community. It will allow us to study the atomic world in ways never before possible.”

Early experiments are already showing some promise, providing insight on fundaments of atoms and molecules, underlying their properties. The short term goal is to create stop action frames for molecules in motion. By putting together many of these images to create a film, scientists will create for the first time a film with actual molecules in motion, being able to see chemical molecules bond and break, as well as actually see how atoms interact at a quantum level.

“It’s hard to overstate how successful these first experiments have been,” said AMO Instrument Scientist John Bozek. “We look forward to even better things to come.”

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In 2005, a huge 35 mile rift broke the Ethiopian desert apart and immediately led to geological claims that a new ocean was appearing there because two parts of the African continent were being pulled apart. However, the claims were quickly dismissed as being too controversial. However, a new study published in the latest issue of Geophysical Research Letters comes to back that idea up as the birth of at least a sea there seems inevitable.

It has to be understood that we are talking in geological time here. The extremely active volcanic areas around the rift along the edges of the tectonic plate may suddenly break apart in large ‘pieces’ instead of slowly dividing little by little as initially predicted. This could prove really dangerous to the local population according toCindy Ebinger, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester and co-author of the study.

“This work is a breakthrough in our understanding of continental rifting leading to the creation of new ocean basins,” says Ken Macdonald, professor emeritus in the Department of Earth Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and who is not affiliated with the research. “For the first time they demonstrate that activity on one rift segment can trigger a major episode of magma injection and associated deformation on a neighboring segment. Careful study of the 2005 mega-dike intrusion and its aftermath will continue to provide extraordinary opportunities for learning about continental rifts and mid-ocean ridges.”

“The whole point of this study is to learn whether what is happening in Ethiopia is like what is happening at the bottom of the ocean where it’s almost impossible for us to go,” says Ebinger. “We knew that if we could establish that, then Ethiopia would essentially be a unique and superb ocean-ridge laboratory for us. Because of the unprecedented cross-border collaboration behind this research, we now know that the answer is yes, it is analogous.”

“We know that seafloor ridges are created by a similar intrusion of magma into a rift, but we never knew that a huge length of the ridge could break open at once like this,” says Ebinger. “Seafloor ridges are made up of sections, each of which can be hundreds of miles long. Because of this study, we now know that each one of those segments can tear open in a just a few days.”

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No longer are we living the days when the corporations (even the big ones) can survive merely on the strict rigid way of thinking they’ve embraced for so long. Today, a satisfied client can draw 10 more, while an unsatisfied one can take away thousands. Social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube (and more) along with the blogosphere have exponentially increased the speed at which information is transmitted, and they’ve also magnified it hundreds of times (or even more).

“These new social media tools let people organize extremely quickly around any issue or event that inspires them,” said co-author Kane, an assistant professor of information systems at BC. “Within hours, these virtual communities can grow to hundreds of thousands, potentially reaching millions more in short order. Companies and organizations caught unprepared can find themselves in a media firestorm, just ask companies like Domino’s Pizza, Amazon.com, Comcast, and many others have.”

“Whether or not managers, leaders, or politicians even know the difference between Wikipedia, Facebook, or Twitter, they need to begin learning how to monitor and respond quickly to trends in these social media communities,” Kane said. “Doing so, they may not only prevent the spread of damaging information, but they may also find valuable partners in their organization’s mission. Companies like Dell, Starbucks and Kaiser-Permanente have moved beyond purely reactive strategies to proactively reach out to customers as an important resource for customer service, marketing, and new product development.”

Now, this scientific research has only pinpointed what good marketers have been knowing and applying for years now. The way society interacts has changed, and it affects all our lives, even if we don’t use social media. Whether we like it or not, this is a different era; but the good thing is, more power is brought to the people.

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A Snapshot of the Jewel Box cluster with the ESO VLT

Star clusters are among the pretties things you can see, when it comes to astrophysical observations. Recently, ESO provided some amazing pictures of one of the most beautiful nestles ever to be seen, located deep in the constellation of Crux.

Wide Field Image of the Jewel Box

The cluster is named Kappa Crucis Cluster and has been nicknamed ‘the jewel box’ (by Herschel, in 1830), for reasons easy to understand - it’s bright enough to be seen even with the naked eye.

Such open clusters can have from a few to thousands of stars that are loosely bound together by their own combined gravity. They’re really important for studies, because they were formed from the same cloud of gas (which means they have pretty much the same age and chemistry).

A Hubble gem: the Jewel Box

The FORS1 instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope means we can look at this cluster in a whole different way, at extreme image quality.

Despite the chemical and age resemblance, stars in the cluster are extremely varied; there are pale blue supergiant stars, a solitary ruby-red supergiant and numerous brightly colored stars, as well as some that are more faint.

Digitized Sky Survey 2 Image of NGC 4755

The huge variety in colors results from the mass difference: there are stars that are smaller than half of the Sun, while some are 20 times bigger than our star

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