Quantum Logic Gates

Although qubits have been made with trapped photons, atoms and ions, it is generally thought that it should be easier to build working devices with solid-state systems. Several teams have made significant progress with the superconducting approach to solid-state quantum computing. Now Steel and co-workers at Michigan, Michigan State, the Naval Research Laboratory and the University of California at San Diego have demonstrated the first all-optical quantum gate in a semiconductor quantum dot. Steel and co-workers grew a thin gallium arsenide layer 4.2 nm thick between two 25 nm aluminium gallium arsenide barriers to make a quantum dot. Electrons are trapped in the dot because the gallium arsenide layer has a smaller energy band-gap than the surrounding material. When excited by light, electrons from the valence band in the dot move to higher energy levels. The excited electron and the hole it leaves behind combine to form an exciton. The system has four states: a ground state containing two unexcited electrons; two states containing one exciton; and a state containing two excitons (see figure). The two single-exciton states can be distinguished from each other because the excitons have different polarizations.
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/7/8/5

Turn Off The Lights

A century and a quarter later, electric light turns night into day around the globe. In the first world atlas of artificial night-sky brightness, released in 2001 by the Italian astronomer Pierantonio Cinzano and based on high-resolution satellite data, the heavily developed urban corridors of Japan, Western Europe, and the United States blaze like amusement parks. We flood the heavens with so much artificial light that nearly two-thirds of the worlds people can no longer see the Milky Way. On a clear, dark night far from light-polluted skies, roughly 2,500 celestial points of light can be discerned by the naked eye. For people living in the suburbs of New York, that number dwindles to 250; residents of Manhattan are lucky to see 15. Moreover, as the stars fade from view, a growing body of research suggests that excessive exposure to artificial night light can alter basic biological rhythms in animals, change predator-prey relationships, and even trigger deadly hormonal imbalances in humans.
http://www.discover.com/July_03/featlights.html

Understanding Time

According to both ancient and present day physics, objects in motion have determined relative positions. Indeed, the physics of motion from Zeno to Newton and through to today take this assumption as given. Lynds says that the paradoxes arose because people assumed wrongly that objects in motion had determined positions at any instant in time, thus freezing the bodies motion static at that instant and enabling the impossible situation of the paradoxes to be derived. "Theres no such thing as an instant in time or present moment in nature. Its something entirely subjective that we project onto the world around us. That is, its the outcome of brain function and consciousness."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-07/icc-gwi072703.php

Dumb Intelligence, Dumber Strategy

The main problem with the doctrine is that it demands absolutes. Bush is notorious for reflecting a simple black-and-white worldview in his speeches and public pronouncements. The world contains good guys and bad guys, us and them. The bad guys might be states or they might be non-state actors, but they all have one thing in common: they threaten our interests and mean us harm. They must therefore be dealt with mercilessly before they have the chance to strike. Yet if there is one thing we have learned from the Iraq conflict, it is that intelligence is rarely black and white. Instead it expresses shades of grey, percentages and probability over which careful judgements must be made. Very often, intelligence will prove nothing, and smoking guns are a rather rare phenomena. But to convince a sceptical media and voters that a pre-emptive strike is justified, the case must be proved - and it must be done in advance, before any evidence can actually be gathered.
http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/00000006DEAB.htm

New Battlestar Series Sucks

The original 1970s series debuted on the heels of Star Wars, but lasted only one season. Despite adding up to only 24 hours of show time and a disastrous 80s remake, its fan base exploded when the original went into international syndication. Decades of reruns spawned fans diverse in age, geography and demographics -- but largely united in reaction to the forthcoming miniseries.
They hate it.
"Its a travesty," said Shawn ODonnell, co-host of the Battlestar Galactica Fan Club. The 30-something California resident became a fan in 1979, then contacted original series star Richard Hatch (Capt. Apollo) two decades later to ask for the actors virtual blessing on the clubs newly created website.
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,59906,00.html

Dracucell

A device that produces electricity from blood could be used to turn people into "human batteries". Researchers in Japan are developing a method of drawing power from blood glucose, mimicking the way the body generates energy from food. Theoretically, it could allow a person to pump out 100 watts - enough to illuminate a light bulb. But that would entail converting all the food eaten by the individual into electricity. In practice, less power would be generated since food is needed by the body.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/03/1059849278131.html

Canada To Join 2007 Mars Mission

NASA announced today that the Scout Mission"Phoenix," that includes a sophisticated instrumentation package developed bya team of Canadian scientists and engineers, has been selected to go to Marsin 2007. The focus of the Canadian team will be on studies of the Martianatmosphere using laser radar (lidar) technology. Researchers from YorkUniversity, headed by Dr. Allan Carswell, Professor Emeritus at York andChairman of Optech Incorporated, will lead the Canadian scientificinvestigations in collaboration with scientists from several other Canadianuniversities.
http://www.newswire.ca/releases/August2003/04/c7798.html