Physics Week in Review: August 3, 2013

If this week?s link fest has a theme, it might just be teleportation. I wrote about The Trouble With Teleportation for Nautilus this week, a.k.a., why the pig lizard in Galaxy Quest met with an icky end.? The same issue featured a cool science fiction short story in, which one woman faces a tough choice when teleportation goes awry. Back in the real world, a new paper finds that human teleportation is far more impractical than we thought. Specifically, ?Physics students from the University of Leicester have calculated the time and energy required to beam a complete person from the Earth?s surface to a location in space. Their results were discouraging, to say the least.?

Another recurring theme: Time. Is there a ?timeless? zone in the universe? Sean Carroll took your light-speed questions. The short answer? No.? Related: Buzzfeed offers video proof That You Have Absolutely No Concept Of Time. Also: The Time Traveler?s Burden (Abstruse Goose on why time machines are great ? if you?re a white guy).

Then there is ?Time,? A 3,099-Panel xkcd Comic. Per Laughing Squid: ?The comic, set in the far future, tells the story of two people trying to save their village located in the evaporated basin of the Mediterranean Sea as it fills back up in one massive flood. The full comic can be viewed at Geekwagon.?? There is also some behind-the-scenes details of the comic?s creation at the xkcd blog. And a lovely profile of creator Randal Munroe at Wired.

Happy Birthday, Maria Mitchell: Brainpickings highlights the Pioneering Astronomer on Science and Life.? Oh, and Google gave Mitchell a Google doodle for her 195th birthday.

Cat-turning: the 19th-century scientific cat-dropping craze. No, really, this was totally a thing back then! Related: The Finch and the Pea had an intriguing Caturday science question: ?Are cats actually liquids, or amorphous solids?? Jen-Luc Piquant is going with amorphous solids.

An Intergalactic Travel Bureau in Midtown can book you a trip to Saturn?s largest moon, Titan ? in fantasy. In reality, it was guerilla outreach performance art, and the trip would cost you billions of dollars.

The Quantum Zeno Effect actually does stop the world? after a fashion.

Towards a global quantum network: Photoelectron trapping in double quantum dots.

Peter Trevelyan, detail from Tenuous, 2012. http://www.bartleyandcompanyart.co.nz/artist.php?artistID=3943

The Art of Science: Peter Trevelyan?s Delicate Geometry. New Zealand artist makes ??built drawings? ? fragile, airy sculptures made of fine graphite rods (the lead from mechanical pencils) held together with glue.?

In Pursuit of Quantum Biology: Q&A With Birgitta Whaley in Quanta.

Is physics truth, metaphor, or less? David Tong, Hilary Lawson, and Lev Vaidman debate.

What does mercury being liquid at room temperature have to do with Einstein?s theory of relativity?

Physicists discover theoretical possibility of large, hollow magnetic cage molecules.

Survival of the nicest: Why it does not pay to be mean. Chris Adami comments on a recent post in Technology Review on the emerging revolution in game theory (?The discovery of a winning strategy for Prisoner?s Dilemma is forcing game theorists to rethink their discipline. Their conclusion? Winning isn?t everything.?)? It?s based on a paper published last year by Freeman Dyson and William Press. :

Why Einstein Equals Musical Comedy Squared. Acclaimed science-theatre writer-performer John Hinton talks about what theatre has to offer science ahead of his new theoretical physics musical comedy, Albert Einstein: Relativitively Speaking, at the Edinburgh Festival.

Harnessing Physics in Grand Spaces to Make Music. ?[T]he Earth Harp, so named for its inaugural performance when it spanned a mountain valley, is not just a musical accomplishment but a great feat of engineering as well. In a phone interview last month, William Close, the inventor of the Earth Harp talked about what it takes to make beautiful music with a massive physics machine.?

Physics Buzz launches a grassroots experiment to see if all 56 designs of US state and territory quarters flip the same way. BECAUSE INQUIRING MINDS NEED TO KNOW!

Hints of New Physics Detected in the LHC? ?It appears that there?s a slight deviation from the ?norm,? hinting that the Standard Model ain?t all that.? Ah, but not so fast! Ethan Siegel has his doubts, and explains why Breaking the Standard Model is Really, Really Hard.

Structurally-Accurate Jupiter Cake Makes The Gas Giant Look Delicious.? You can make your own by following this handy tutorial.

Watch the debris from an exploded star expand before your eyes like a cosmic heartbeat. (h/t: Bad Astronomy/Slate)

New Archive Reveals How Scientists Finally Solved the Vexing ?Longitude Problem? During the 1700s.? Someone should totally write a book about that.

Why We Keep Playing the Lottery: Blind to the mathematical odds, we fall to the marketing gods.

Why Does This Man?s Head Appear Off His Body? Rhett Alain explains this optical illusion.

Perpetual Puddle Vortex: ?What looks like a puddle is actually a vortex constantly sucking fluid down a hole in the table.?

Scientists think they might have pinpointed where the infamous Russian meteorite of 2013 came from.

The Physics of Disaster: An Exploration of Train Derailments. How understanding the science behind trains can help identify the causes of accidents?and lead us to safer railways.

The world?s sharpest saw blade is made of carbon nanotube wire coated with a diamond glaze: cuts with no dust.

The physics of Spain: Even at the seaside, science is all around you, according to Stephen Curry, who found inspiration on his recent vacation for musings on waves and diffraction.

Getting into the spirit of the #sciconfessions hastag on twitter, the bloggers at Physics Focus spill their darkest secrets.

Borrego Stardance, Beautiful Night Sky Time-Lapses from a Small Desert Town in California called Borrego Springs. Per Laughing Squid: ?The film features the outdoor sculptures of artist Ricardo A. Breceda [and] was created by Gavin Heffernan of Sunchaser Pictures.?

Tools of the Cold-Atom Trade: Introduction.? This is the first in a new blog post series by Chad Orzel. So far he?s got posts on light scattering forces and slow atomic beams;? optical molasses;? and light shifts and optical dipole traps.

?Infinity? is a strange idea. But it?s crucial if you want to understand anything from philosophy to mathematics.

Helium: swollen stars, party balloons and squeaky voices. What is helium used for, apart from balloons? Quite a lot. So it?s kind of a big deal that there?s a pending shortage on the horizon.

How the ouija board really moves: why we can make movements and yet not realize that we?re making them.

Matt Strassler? has some good stuff to say about new results on twists and turns for neutrinos and for muons.

Did Newton get Newton?s rings wrong? ?Most people see them as evidence of wave nature of light. Newton, however, did not.? (Per the Time Lord, light is a wave but looks like particles when it?s measured/observed.)

May the Force Be Nerdy: Star Wars Made a Contribution to Real Science: New geological research got an assist from Tatooine.

Economist Paul Krugman caused a stir among physicists and mathematicians on Twitter this week with his rumination on why traffic seems to move faster in the other lane. Did he get the math wrong? It inspired at least one great analysis of this classic traffic problem.

Ducati animation what would happen if the Sun, Earth, and Moon all had the same mass, and there were only two months in a year. Credit: Robert Vanderbei

Five Animated Gifs of n-body Orbits. Robert Vanderbei of Princeton University has a minimizing code he uses to minimize the light coming into a telescope from stars ? ?to better see if there are more-softly lit planets traveling in their wakes? ? but it?s also useful for modeling the orbits of N-body systems.

A Beautiful Manuscript of Square Roots from the 1830?s.

Does dark matter affect the navigation of a spacecraft?

CERN artist-in-residence develops an ear for physics: Sound artist Bill Fontana taps into music of Large Hadron Collider.

The Ten Greatest Space Achievements Nobody Knows About.

Ooh! There was a Physics in Vogue photography exhibit! Unfortunately, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, was not amused by one shot featuring NASA scientists and launched an investigation to see if the photo had involved a misuse of government funds (it hadn?t). Killjoy.

Graphene physics helps physicists understand how hydrogen metallizes.

Kinematic analysis of light-induced jumping crystals.

A gravestone in Trinity Churchyard on Wall Street has a secret code to decipher.

The glasswinged butterfly?s claim to fame is that its wings are essentially completely transparent.

Huge Space Battle Rumbles Virtual Universe ? it happened in EVE Online.

Over at Wired, Sean Carroll and Dave Goldberg discuss why scientists should talk to public. Okay, I?m not crazy about the headline, which sets up a bit of a false dichotomy between ?cool? scientists and ?nerdy? scientists. We need both the loveable nerds on The Big Bang Theory plus colorful characters like Tony Stark, and everything in between, to help folks appreciate the diversity in science. But it?s a great conversation and well worth a read.

An Important Lesson from Blackjack and Baseball: You Gain More by Not Being Stupid Than You Do by Being Smart.

Slingatron-tastic: Could We Lob Stuff Into Space?? New space transport technology is fabulous, except that ?it would turn an astronaut into astronaut pudding.?

Astronaut describes terrifying spacesuit helmet water leak that cut short a spacewalk last week. Also: here?s more from PBS/Nova on what it?s like to nearly drown in space.

Of neutrino oscillations and coming full circle (Matthew Francis on the art of asking dumb questions).

Who First Wondered: Why is the Night Sky Dark?

Do We Expand With The Universe? Minute Physics has the answer!

The Science of Champagne, the Bubbling Wine Created By Accident.

Cenote Angelita: Underwater River Photographed by Anatoly Beloshchin: ?a sort of illusion due to halocline.?

Fun with liquid nitrogen at summer camp:? ?Don?t try Leidenfrost demonstrations at home.?

The Tale of Fermilab?s ?Elephant Doors.? A set of twin doors take on two very different purposes at Fermilab and Chicago?s Lincoln Park Zoo.

The mathematics of grade inflation. An Astonishing Act of Statistical Chutzpah in the Indiana Schools? Grade-Changing Scandal.

The irresistible rise of the Standard Model: ?In truth, our understanding of particle physics is at a crossroads.?

Explaining Quantum Computers (with a lovely british accent).

This is the first true image of the shadow universe?a map of the entire sky showing *only* dark matter.

Stephen Hawking tells how doctors offered to turn off life support in 1985. Physicist says his first wife refused to end his life when he became seriously ill and he recovered to complete A Brief History of Time.

Orange bubble clouds turn Michigan sky into a lava lamp (video).

WWII-Era Record Shows Albert Einstein Took Part in Program to Help Jews Escape the Nazis. He made a deposit to help finance the emigration of a Jewish person named Hugo Moos.

Finally, a bit of fun for your weekend viewing pleasure: Star Wars Parkour, A Video of Jedi Performing Free Running Stunts:

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/basic-science/~3/6dB65eHn9LU/post.cfm

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China orders nationwide government debt audit

BEIJING ? ?China's National Audit Office will conduct an audit of all government debt at the request of China's State Council or cabinet, it said in a statement on Sunday, underlining concern over rising debt levels in the world's second biggest economy.

The audit office, responsible for overseeing state finances, made the announcement in a one-sentence item on its website, but gave no details on the audit.

The official People's Daily newspaper said separately on its website, citing unidentified sources, that an urgent order for the audit was issued on Friday and work will start this week.

The audit could indicate increased official concern over the systemic risk from rising debt levels in China, especially debt of local governments, as top leaders slow economic growth in order to promote reform.

A local government buckling under the weight of its own debt is a troubling scenario for the leadership, and one that Deutsche Bank has said could potentially pose a systemic and macroeconomic risk to the country.

Standard Chartered, Fitch and Credit Suisse have estimated local government debt in China at the equivalent of anywhere between 15 percent and 36 percent of the country's output, or as much as $3 trillion based on World Bank GDP figures for 2012.

Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said earlier this month that the government did not know precisely how much debt local governments had built up.

The audit office warned in a June report that debt levels among local governments are rising and the financial burdens and risks are not being properly managed. It put total debt of a sample of 36 local governments at 3.85 trillion yuan ($628 billion) at the end of 2012.

China's budget law forbids local governments from taking on debt directly, but they have borrowed heavily through special-purpose vehicles, while many have also borrowed from companies in private arrangements at high cost, with the money often used in speculative real estate projects.

($1 = 6.1316 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Jonathan Standing; Editing by Michael Perry)

Source: http://feeds.foxbusiness.com/~r/foxbusiness/economy/~3/CW0aO8BADG8/

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Apple Needs To Buy TomTom ASAP

The growing value of mapping and location assets is clear as recently witnessed by Google's (GOOG) $1bn acquisition of Waze. Mapping and related location applications such as monitoring traffic flows is becoming increasingly significant to smartphone makers as a point of competitive differentiation. At the Nokia (NOK) Lumia 1020 presentation, CEO Stephen Elop's focused on the camera as its major point of differentiation. However after the camera it was the Lumia 1020's mapping technology with its augmented reality and ability to work off-line that was the feature most commented on. With mapping and location services growing as a major point of differentiation for smartphone makers, Apple (AAPL) is best advised to purchase the last remaining independent mapping company on the market, namely TomTom (TMOAY.PK). Apple already licenses its mapping and location services content from TomTom.

The map on a smartphone is becoming more than just a global positioning system (GPS). Additional features are being rolled out such as traffic flows, retail opportunities and augmented reality. The next step will be for retailers to be able to advertise directly to potential customers in their vicinity via the mapping technology on the smartphone. This could be powerful. For example a retailer could directly advertise in-store deals to a potential customer walking by.

Mapping and location services are the next growth areas in the smart phone arena. The growth is visible as can be seen with the 19% external sales growth in Q2 2013 delivered by Nokia's HERE mapping business. Google just launched its latest version of Google Maps to much fan fare in the press. Smartphone makers and ecosystems are starting to use their mapping and location services as a point of differentiation to consumers.

From supplier to competitor

As history in the tech space shows, a supplier can quite easily morph into a competitor. The biggest example of this is Samsung, a major supplier of memory to Apple. Samsung eventually became Apple' major competitor in the smartphone space. As a result of this transition from supplier to also being a competitor, Apple has worked hard to ensure memory supply from other players such as Micron's (MU) soon to be completed acquisition Elpida. This same dynamic was the reason that Apple dropped Google in 2012 as its supplier of maps and licensed the digital map library of TomTom instead. Google's Android operating system is the main competitor to Apple's iOS system.

Smartphone battleground

The software and hardware business is getting more integrated in the smart phone space. The software and apps each ecosystem offers is a growing point of differentiation. The fact that the lack of a few apps (namely Instagram, Pininterest, SnapChat) is the most common complaint about the Windows Phone ecosystem demonstrates the potential power of having ownership of these apps by the actual smartphone maker. Hence software and apps is growing as a battle ground for smart phone makers. Mapping and location services now sit squarely in the middle of that battleground.

It is interesting to note that Apple's mapping and location services have been historically seen as source of weakness vis a vis the Google maps experience. This can be partly explained by Apple's approach of amalgamating many different external service providers into its map function. It would be more efficient to bring them all in house and deliver a very high quality competitive product. This article from 2012 refers to some of the issues Apple had with its mapping and location services product as per the view of the consumer. Interestingly Apple announced two deals to bolster mapping, HopStop, and Locationary on July 19th, 2013. Apple is addressing its mapping business and looking to make acquisitions.

Strategic value of mapping

As mapping becomes more significant, the strategic value of owning the mapping content increases. A smartphone maker could find itself in trouble if all the available mapping assets were to be owned by its competitors. The price of licensing TomTom's maps are not such that it would be cost efficient in anyway to acquire the whole company. However it would be a major a competitive issue for Apple if TomTom fell into the wrong hands.

TomTom is the only major provider of mapping content either not owned or heavily tied into one of Apple's smartphone competitors. Nokia has its HERE mapping business and Google Maps through its Android ecosystem is very strongly aligned to several of Apple's competitors such as Samsung. That makes Apple vulnerable if TomTom were to fall into the hands of a competitor at a time Apple is evidently focusing on beefing up its mapping product.

TomTom

TomTom is the market leader in mapping & navigational services with maps that cover 112 countries and more than 3 billion people. The company also has hundreds of millions of probes globally contributing to its traffic service. Effectively TomTom is a software company with mapping, traffic and location services as its key products. It sells this content through a variety of channels to many consumer and corporate customers.

At TomTom's Q2 2013 results conference call, management stated that 38% of TomTom's revenue came from License Deals and Content. The remaining 62% came from hardware, namely Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) and the new growth area of GPS watches. Investors are bearish on TomTom due to the competition for PNDs from GPS services on smartphones. However the content and licensing side of the business is seeing growth driven by various customer groups.

The Automotive division sells services and content such as maps to car manufacturers world wide including the likes of GM, Audi, Ford, BMW & VW. The business solutions division helps corporate customers manage their commercial fleets through various different software programs.

The Licensing business unit leverages their content to deliver high quality digital maps to customers including other PND manufacturers, internet companies and importantly smart phone manufacturers. This is the division that licenses TomTom's all important mapping content to Apple, HTC, Blackberry, Mapquest amongst others. The list of TomTom's licensing partners is available here. At Q2 2013 results reported on July 25th, the stock was up 5% as the company outperformed with revenues declining by a better than expected 4% and the FY 2013 guidance of E900 - E950m revenues was maintained.

Ultimately TomTom is a content company with maps and traffic as its content which is then sold via various market routes. There is definitely significant value in their content as mapping and location services becomes one of the key differentiators for smart phone makers.

Apple needs to buy TomTom due to the strategic value there is in the company's maps. TomTom owns one of the world's three main mapping libraries at a time when mapping is moving to being a battleground product for smart phones. If a competitor were to buy TomTom, Apple would be left in a position where each of the three global map libraries would effectively be in the hands of one of its competitors namely Nokia, Google and whomever purchases TomTom.

The cost but most importantly the time to rebuild a global map would be extremely high, put Apple at a competitive disadvantage and feeling very vulnerable in the mean time. Note Nokia purchased Navteq which became Nokia's HERE mapping business for $8.1bn in 2007. The more recent comparison in Google's purchase of just the Waze app for over $1bn. Mapping assets are expensive to come by and take years to build.

Given TomTom has a market capitalisation of only $1.2bn with a Net Asset Value of $1.1bn, it is easy to foresee a strategic purchase by Apple in order to avoid the competitive nightmare of all three major mapping assets falling into the hands of Apple's competitors. The rationale for the acquisition of TomTom is driven solely by strategic and competitive reasons. This makes TomTom a great stock to own. The press is starting to pick up on this logic as witnessed by the May 17, 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal.

Apple integrated their software and hardware and produced amazing products. This is the overarching trend in the smartphone space. It begs the question if and when a hardware company like Nokia becomes the hardware division of Microsoft and when a software company like Tomtom become the mapping division of Apple. In the case of the latter, I think that time is soon. Buy TomTom.

Disclosure: I am long NOK. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1581572-apple-needs-to-buy-tomtom-asap?source=feed

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Polymer ribbons for better healing

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Researchers develop hydrogels for tissue regeneration that can be fine-tuned to fit any body part.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/oUW6C8X7ICM/130726074012.htm

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Instagram Users Say They Are Being Attacked By Delicious Smoothies (Updated With Instagram's Response)

Big security breach definitely happening on Instagram. This is the third hacked account I've seen including mine. pic.twitter.com/sWvoZBeVIo

? Graham Hancock (@grahamhancock) July 27, 2013

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/QvhghwX0vCw/instagram-users-say-they-are-being-attacked-by-deliciou-932061682

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Simyo launches iPhone 4 promotion

The Simyo discount brand of German mobile network E-Plus is offering the iPhone 4 for EUR 29.90 a month while stocks last. This includes EUR 19.90 for the All-Net-Flat tariff and EUR 10 per month for interest-finance for the iPhone over 24 months. Alternatively, customers can make a one-off payment of EUR 240.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TelecompaperMobileWireless/~3/UurDMS_2abw/simyo-launches-iphone-4-promotion--957532

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Bolt recovers to win 100 at Diamond meet in London

LONDON (AP) ? Usain Bolt returned to the site of his last Olympic triumph, recovering from a slow start to win the 100 meters Friday night in the Anniversary Games in his best time this season.

The world's fastest man failed to leave the blocks promptly, but powered through the field at the Diamond League meet. He finished in 9.85 seconds at the stadium where he won three gold medals last year in the London Games.

Bolt, who holds the world records in the 100 and 200, is looking to do even better at the world championships in Moscow next month.

"It (the start) was horrifying for me," he said. "I think it is just race rust and I just need to get a few races in. The rounds in the world championships will help that and get my legs freer and a bit lighter. Hopefully the coach will figure out what I need to do to get me more explosive out of the blocks, I guess.

"For the first time, I think, in a long while I was slightly nervous. Initially, I was excited to come out because I knew it was going to be a big crowd. But when I got out there and I saw that it was ram-packed and the energy was still like the Olympics, it was just wonderful, so I was slightly nervous but I loved the energy of the crowd. It was beautiful and I love competing here."

With track and field reeling from a slew of doping headlines involving stars such as Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell, Bolt wants the focus to return to a happier narrative.

"I try to assist the sport to do great things and to show the sport in a good light, and that is what I'm here for," the Jamaican said. "You guys are here to tell people that Usain Bolt is needed for the sport or whatever, but I am just here to do my best and to prove to the world that it is possible to run clean and train hard and be focused."

American Michael Rodgers was second in 9.98, and Jamaica's Nesta Carter was third. Kim Collins of Saint Kitts and Nevis faded to finish fourth after a fantastic start.

The standout performance of the night was by high jumper Bohdan Bondarenko, who threatened the 20-year world record held by Cuba's Javier Sotomayor.

Despite failing at his only attempt to clear 7 feet, 11 1/2 inches, Bondarenko asked for the bar to be raised to 8-1 1/4 as he took aim at Sotomayor's mark of 8-0 1/2.

The Ukrainian failed twice but still won the competition at 7-9 3/4.

In the 200, Warren Weir of Jamaica, who won bronze a year ago, edged compatriot Jason Young by 0.1 to win in 19.89. Wallace Spearmon of the United States was third in 20.18.

Nick Symmonds led a podium sweep for the United States in the 800 with a time of 1:43.67. Duane Solomon and Brandons Jones followed.

Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada comfortably won the 400 in 44.65, beating Tony McQuay and Jonathan Borlee.

Zusana Hejnova warmed up for the athletics world championships in Moscow next month by cruising to victory in the 400 hurdles. The Czech won in a world-leading time of 53.07.

Perri Shakes-Drayton of Britain led going into the home straight but was overtaken by the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist on the approach to the last hurdle.

Shakes-Drayton was second. Georganne Moline edged out fellow American Kori Carter to finish third.

Shannon Rowbury ran the fastest time of the year in the 3,000 to lead a podium sweep for the United States, finishing in 8:41.46. Gabriele Anderson was second, just ahead of Molly Huddle.

Britain won the 400 relay in the fastest time the country has run in 12 years. Ashleigh Nelson anchored a team of Annabelle Lewis, Anyika Onuora and Dina Asher-Smith that finished in 42.69. Their slick changeovers helped them beat the All-Stars team of Aileen Bailey, Tiffany Townsend, Jeneba Tarmoh and Mandy White. France was third.

Brenda Martinez of the U.S. surged to victory in the 800, pulling clear heading into the home straightaway to finish in 1:58.19. Elena Mirela Lavric of Romania and American teenager Ajee Wilson were next.

Mary Kuria of Kenya clocked 4:08.77 to win the 1,500, ahead of Ibtissam Lakhouad and Katie Mackey.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bolt-recovers-win-100-diamond-meet-london-212236113.html

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