Optimizing nanoparticles for commercial applications

Apr. 26, 2013 ? Nanoparticles are used in many commercial products catalysts to cosmetics. A review published today in the Science and Technology of Advanced Materials by researchers in Sweden and Spain describes recent work on the 3 main nanoparticles used in photocatalytic, UV-blocking and sunscreens.

Nanoparticles are currently used in commercial products ranging from catalysts, polishing media and magnetic fluids to cosmetics and sunscreens. A new review by researchers in Sweden and Spain describes recent work to optimize the synthesis, dispersion and surface functionalization of titania, zinc oxide and ceria -- the three main nanoparticles used in photocatalytic, UV-blocking and sunscreen applications.

With the commercial success of self-cleaning glass in the window frames of high-rise buildings, there is growing interest in applying photocatalytic, self-cleaning titania coatings on building facades and other construction materials. These coatings not only can keep building surfaces clean but also reduce concentrations of harmful airborne pollutants. The antibacterial properties of photocatalytic coatings also offer a means of managing persistent bacteria, mainly in hospitals.

Transparent UV-absorbing or UV-blocking coatings currently have two main applications: as a UV-protecting lacquer for wooden surfaces, and as a UV-barrier coating deposited on the surface of polymer-based products or devices to slow down their deterioration.

Published in the journal, Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, this study describes the structural and chemical requirements as well as the various routes for producing transparent photocatalytic and nanoparticle-based UV-blocking coatings and sunscreens. The authors review the main methods for synthesizing titania, zinc oxide and ceria nanoparticles, with a focus on recent research on the generation of non-agglomerated powders. (Agglomeration is often the major cause of poor performance and limited transparency.) The authors also identify organic additives that are efficient dispersants and can improve the compatibility of inorganic nanoparticles with an organic matrix.

In addition to discussing the technical performance of nanoparticles, the authors address concerns related to distributing them in the environment. They conclude by describing future prospects for nanoparticles and identifying promising materials, such as multifunctional coatings and hybrid films.

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Journal Reference:

1. Bertrand Faure, German Salazar-Alvarez, Anwar Ahniyaz, Irune Villaluenga, Gemma Berriozabal, Yolanda R De Miguel, Lennart Bergstr?m. Dispersion and surface functionalization of oxide nanoparticles for transparent photocatalytic and UV-protecting coatings and sunscreens. Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, 2013; 14 (2): 023001 DOI: 10.1088/1468-6996/14/2/023001

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/5iewoNBStdY/130428144955.htm

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Samsung Galaxy Mega hits FCC again, this time with LTE

Better start working on those powerball exercises. If Samsung's Galaxy Mega was the thing you thought your life was missing, it's just landed at the FCC. Yeah, we know this isn't the first time, but this second go-round it's the LTE-sporting GT-i9205 model. The usual lab tests show little that we didn't know already -- unless you didn't know it had LTE Band 5, dual band WiFi, NFC or GSM 850 / 1900. As the 5.8-inch isn't 4G-enabled, this means we're looking at the bigger 6.3-inch version, but still no word on if, when or how a version might land on US shores. Still no harm in limbering up, though, is there?

Update: Upon further inspection, this variant only uses LTE band 5 (850MHz), which no US carrier currently uses. It's very unlikely this I9205 variant will hit the US.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: FCC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/28/samsung-galaxy-mega-lte-fcc/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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What if the entire world were gay, and everyone hated straight people? (video) (Americablog)

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Japan to allow airlines to resume 787 flights

(Ends first round) NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Selections in the first roundof the 2013 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday (picknumber, NFL team, player, position, college): 1-Kansas City, Eric Fisher, offensive tackle, Central Michigan 2-Jacksonville, Luke Joeckel, offensive tackle, Texas A&M 3-Miami (from Oakland), Dion Jordan, defensive tackle, Oregon 4-Philadelphia, Lane Johnson, offensive tackle, Oklahoma 5-Detroit, Ezekiel Ansah, defensive end, Brigham Young 6-Cleveland, Barkevious Mingo, linebacker, LSU 7-Arizona, Jonathan Cooper, guard, North Carolina 8-St. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-allow-airlines-resume-787-flights-075835088--finance.html

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First edition of a bookworm's genome

Friday, April 26, 2013

It has co-existed quietly with humans for centuries, slurping up the spillage in beer halls and gorging on the sour paste used to bind books. Now the tiny nematode Panagrellus redivivus (P.redivivus) has emerged from relative obscurity with the publication of its complete genetic code. Further study of this worm, which is often called the beer-mat worm or, simply, the microworm, is expected to shed new light on many aspects of animal biology, including the differences between male and female organisms and the unique adaptations of parasitic worms.

Using next-generation sequencing technologies, a research team led by Jagan Srinivasan, now an assistant professor of biology and biotechnology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), discovered just over 24,000 putative genes encoded in the worm's DNA?nearly the same number as in the human genome. The team also measured the amount and characteristics of RNA molecules transcribed from those genes to direct cellular processes?that collection of data is called the worm's transcriptome. The genome data published by Srinivasan and colleagues marks the first time a free-living nematode outside of the widely studied C. elegans immediate family has been sequenced.

The researchers detail their findings in the paper, "The Draft Genome and Transcriptome of Panagrellus redivivus Are Shaped by the Harsh Demands of a Free-Living Lifestyle," published in the April 2013 edition of the journal Genetics.

"Humans and nematodes share a common ancestor that lived in the oceans more than 600 million years ago," Srinivasan said. "Many of the basic biological processes have been conserved over the millennia and are similar in Panagrellus and humans. So we believe there is a lot to be learned from studying this organism."

Srinivasan led the P.redivivus sequencing project while working as a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Paul Sternberg, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and the Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Biology at Caltech. Adler Dillman, a graduate student at Caltech, worked closely with Srinivasan on the project and shares first-author status of the new study. Sternberg is the senior author.

Srinivasan joined the WPI faculty in the fall of 2012 and has established his own research program using the microworm and its scientifically more famous cousin, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), as model systems to study the neurobiological basis of social communication and how organisms react to environmental cues.

In recent years C. elegans has emerged as a star in the biomedical research world. In 1998 it became the first multicellular organism to have its genome sequenced. The experience gained from that work was fundamental to the successful completion of the Human Genome Project. Nobel prizes in 2002, 2006, and 2008 were awarded to researchers who made extraordinary discoveries studying C. elegans.

Like C. elegans, the microworm P. redivivus is a free-living nematode found in many environments around the world. An adult microworm is about 2 millimeters long and has approximately 1,000 cells. Despite its small size, the worm is a complex organism able to do all of the things animals must do to survive. It can move, eat, reproduce, and process cues from its environment that help it forage for food, seek out mates, or react to threats. Unlike C. elegans, however, P. redivivus is a gonochoristic species, meaning it has male and female individuals who must mate to reproduce. In contrast, C. elegans has evolved to be primarily a self-fertilizing hermaphrodite, producing both eggs and sperm in the same individual. (There are some male-only C. elegans worms, but they are rare in the wild.)

"Because we see true male and female individuals, Panagrellus will be a powerful model system for studying the differences between the sexes and the processes that the organism uses to find and interact with a mate," Srinivasan said.

Both P. redivivus and C. elegans are well suited for laboratory research, Srinivasan noted. The worms are easily cultured and have a short lifecycle, growing from embryo to adult in about four days. Adults live for approximately three weeks and can produce as many as 40 offspring each day. This lifecycle makes them ideal for genetic studies. Furthermore, the worms are transparent. Under a microscope researchers can look into a worm's body and see almost every cell in the living animal. They can see the cell nuclei, tag molecules with glowing fluorescent markers, and capture images of biological processes from the moment of fertilization to maturity.

As a free-living species, the microworm is considered to be an ancestor of other small worms that have evolved into parasites and colonize specific plants or animals (including humans) to survive. Studying the differences between the microworm and parasitic species will become another important area of research, Professor Sternberg noted. "Of course we want to know more about parasitic worms, given their impact on people and the environment," Sternberg said. "To know about parasites, however, you have to know about the free-living worms to place the bizarre features of parasites into context."

The current study identified the number, location, and composition of genes and RNA transcript in the microworm, and found significant and surprising differences between the P.redivivus genome and that of C. elegans even though the worms look nearly identical to the naked eye. For example, the early analysis of the microworm genome suggests that a large collection of genes have evolved as defenses against viruses and other pathogens the worms encounter in the environment?hence the "harsh demands" of their lifestyle as referenced in the paper's title.

"Studying how the genomes differ, and what processes are driven by those differences, should prove to be insightful," Srinivasan said. "Sequencing the genome and transcriptome is an important first step in what we believe will be a rich new field of study for fundamental biological processes that control development and behavior, not only in the worms, but also in humans."

###

Worcester Polytechnic Institute: http://www.wpi.edu

Thanks to Worcester Polytechnic Institute for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127963/First_edition_of_a_bookworm_s_genome

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How to Transact Business Online With a Paypal Account - Shvoong

Are you searching to transact online business? Then it is time for you to started using PayPal the industry service that provides the opportunity to pay anyone in numerous ways including with credit cards, debit cards, bank accounts, and buyer credit. Although you only pay individuals however you can take payments the identical way.

If you are a Affilite marketer PayPal can be a significant useful tool that allows someone to ply their trade online efficiently and effectively. PayPal is additionally very convenient. It is all done without revealing any financial information to anyone mixed up in transaction. That is definitely a great security system.

After you join PayPal you'll join one of several worldwide leaders in terms of online payments having a membership base of approximately 155 million around the globe. PayPal is additionally easily obtainable in overabundance 180 markets and 17 currencies. PayPal carries a great penetration on the subject of transacting business internationally online.

PayPal was established in 1998 and was later purchased by eBay. As i use PayPal it's so convenient as it allows me to transfer funds from my PayPal account to 2 or three different bank accounts. I even have a chequing account outside the state that we still utilize and that i can transfer funds back and forth. between that family savings another checking account and my PayPal account.

I oftentimes tried PayPal in different ways. There are 2 websites that pay me for creating articles plus they transfer the money to PayPal and that i consequently am able to transfer that money straight into among my checking accounts.
What's also great is the fact that PayPal is free to transfer funds between accounts. However there are transaction fees when business and premier accounts utilize service.

PayPal has a number of different services for merchants like the capacity to add a donate button with your website or blog. This provides you with your visitors or clients selecting setting up a donation for your requirements and you'll set the total amount they donate or else you let the client see how expensive is usually donated. You can also request a payment from anyone that comes with an email account despite the fact that they cannot use a PayPal account.

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There's also a charge card from PayPal through master card that allows you to earn points once you go shopping. This charge card is designed for members of PayPal only then there is no annual fee. Whether you order online or even in stores you earn points and rewards towards future purchases. If people gains possession of your charge plate and they make unauthorized transactions you're not liable.

There are many methods for transacting online business but PayPal has proved to be essentially the most convenient to me and also the easiest. Go to PayPal at this time and acquire everything setup.

Source: http://www.shvoong.com/internet-and-technologies/business-economy/2369655-transact-business-online-paypal-account/

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Chechnya: How a remote Russian republic became linked with terrorism

The main suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing are said to be two brothers from Chechnya, a mountainous and mainly Muslim republic in southern Russia that has been the scene of cyclical revolts and brutal crackdowns by Moscow's forces for the past 200 years. Though Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev have spent most of their lives outside of Chechnya, their postings on YouTube and the Russian-language VKontakte social media site illustrate a proud attachment to their ancestral homeland and offer many hints that both identified closely with Chechnya's defiant and fiercely independent mountain warrior traditions.

Where is Chechnya?

Chechnya is one of eight mainly Muslim ethnic republics that sprawl across the northern face of the Caucasus Mountains ? which contain some of Europe's highest peaks ? between the Black and Caspian Seas. The region is a patchwork of separate nationalities, speaking wildly different tongues, who have a history of intense animosity between each other that's eclipsed only by their historic tensions with Russia.

The approximately 1.2 million Chechens, whose republic occupies about 6,600 square miles in the center of the chain, are a fierce mountain people who speak Noxchi Mott, a language that's incomprehensible to most of their neighbors ? but which was one of the three languages, along with Russian and English, that the younger Tsarnaev claimed to speak fluently on his VKontakte page.

How did it become part of Russia?

The Caucasus region was conquered by Czarist Russia, whose armies took three decades to overcome the resistance of the guerrilla warriors. The long war, whose brutal and treacherous nature was brilliantly captured by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in his last novel, Hadji Murat, was finally won by Russian Gen. Mikhail Yermolov, who used scorched earth tactics, hostage taking, and deliberate bloody civilian massacres to crush the Chechen rebels.

Chechnya has erupted in revolt every time the Russian grip has weakened ever since, notably amid the chaos following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and after Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in 1941. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was so infuriated by Chechen disloyalty in World War II that he ordered the entire Chechen nation ? half a million people ? deported to Central Asia in 1944. An estimated 150,000 Chechens died on the bitter winter march.

The Chechens were allowed to return home after Mr. Stalin died, but they declared independence as the USSR crumbled in 1991. The Russian Army invaded in 1994, but withdrew in defeat after two years of futile war and an estimated 80,000 mostly civilian casualties.

After winning independence, however, the Chechens failed to build a viable state. Leading warlords such as Shamil Basayev and the Jordanian-born Khattab embraced Islamist ideology and sought to export their revolution to neighboring republics. Russia, now led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, invaded again in 1999.

How did Chechnya become linked with terrorism?

During Russia's second assault on Chechnya, most of the little republic's first wave of independence-seeking leaders, who had espoused secular nationalism, were either killed or defected to the Russian side. Militant Islamists, seeking to create a Caucasus-wide "caliphate," took over the movement and found tactical inspiration, as well as material support, from Middle Eastern Islamist terror networks like Al Qaeda. The Islamist insurrection has since spread to neighboring republics, especially Ingushetia and Dagestan.

Chechen-led terrorists have struck repeatedly in the Russian heartland, notably a mass hostage-taking at a downtown Moscow theater in 2002 that killed 130 people and a horrific school siege in Beslan, North Ossetia, that killed 330 people, half of them children. A double suicide bombing by "black widow" terrorists ? wives of rebels killed by Russian security forces ? left 40 people dead in a 2010 Moscow metro attack and another suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport the next year left 35 people dead.

What is Chechnya like today?

In 2009 the Kremlin declared victory in Chechnya, pulled its army out, and left the republic under control of a pro-Moscow strongman named Ramzan Kadyrov. Under Mr. Kadyrov, Chechnya has enjoyed a stunning economic rebirth, financed mainly by subsidies from Moscow.

But Russian human rights monitors allege the republic has become a legal black hole, where opponents of Kadyrov are rounded up by official death squads, and critical journalists sometimes turn up bullet-ridden and dead on the side of the road. In defiance of the Russian constitution, critics say, Kadyrov is also imposing sharia law in the republic, and meting out punishment to those who disobey.

Still, Kadyrov can rightly claim ? as he routinely does to visiting celebrities ? that Chechnya is practically the safest place in the turbulent northern Caucasus these days.

How will the alleged involvement of Chechens in the Boston bombings affect US-Russia relations?

Since the beginning of the second Chechen war, Mr. Putin has tried to convince US leaders that Russia's war in Chechnya is a chapter of the global war against terrorism, and that the US should stop criticizing Russia's brutal crackdown there and join forces with Moscow.

This argument has gained little traction in Washington, where the often horrific outcomes of Moscow's campaign to pacify Chechnya have made it difficult to see things Putin's way. Despite repeated rumors about Chechen involvement with anti-American terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and the Taliban, little solid evidence has ever turned up.

But the Chechen brothers who allegedly carried out the Boston Marathon bombing might prompt US leaders to rethink that approach.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chechnya-remote-russian-republic-became-linked-terrorism-161021744.html

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Virgin Media outlines Galaxy S 4 pricing, starts at ?31 per month with ?99 down

We've seen a few UK carriers show their cards ahead of the Galaxy S 4 launch this weekend, but MVNO Virgin Media has been slightly coy with details compared to bigger peers like EE and Vodafone. Better late than never, we suppose: the provider has outlined just how much we'll have to spend to get Samsung's flagship. Customers who have Virgin broadband or TV services can pay the same £31 per month as their EE counterparts, getting a lower £99 device cost and insurance in exchange for a more limited service that includes 200 minutes, 500 texts and 500MB of data. When mobile-only customers have to pay £5 more per month, though, we'd think carefully about signing up just for the sake of the GS 4. There are better deals afoot if you're not already a loyal Virgin customer.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: Virgin Media

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/UJ8DkWbf47Y/

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Is food truly addictive?

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Biological Psychiatry is proud to announce this week's publication of a special issue focusing on the question of food as an addiction.

Addiction is the continued or compulsive use of a substance, despite negative and/or harmful consequences. Over the years, addiction has come to be re-defined to include behaviors, as well as substances, and the term is now used to describe significant problems with alcohol, nicotine, drugs, gambling, internet use, and sex. The 'major' addictions, like alcoholism and drug abuse, stimulate significant amounts of research and are now largely well characterized, but others, like pathological gambling and internet addiction, are much less understood.

And then there is food. Food is a biological necessity, a distinction that makes it unlike any of the other substances or behaviors typically considered as addictive. It therefore also doesn't qualify when considering the typical conditions of abnormal dependence upon a substance ? tolerance and withdrawal.

At the same time, research has long found similarities between food intake and addiction. And just recently announced, the updated version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, commonly called the DSM, will now formally include binge eating disorder as a new diagnosis.

Neuroimaging work has revealed that the same regions of the brain process the reinforcing effects of food and the consumption of drugs of abuse. The overlap of these neural circuits, however, does not necessarily mean that food is, or can be, addictive.

This lack of clarity in the scientific literature prompted the publication of this cohesive look at the support for and against the application of the addiction model to food. This Biological Psychiatry issue was led by guest editors Drs. Dana Small and Ralph DiLeone, at the Yale School of Medicine. Their goal was to bring together original research findings, systematic reviews and opinions of key leaders in the field to objectively represent the state of the field and both sides of the debate.

"While it is attractive to use the addiction framework to 'jump start' and guide our understanding of how neural circuits of reward and self-control might contribute to understanding overeating and the obesity epidemic, the price of adopting an inappropriate framework would be high," note Small and DiLeone. "For example, an inappropriate adaptation might steer research towards evaluating variables that have been shown to be critical for addiction at the expense of those that are unique to obesity and perhaps key to understanding overeating."

Papers in this issue cover the common and divergent neurobiological mechanisms and characteristics of food and substances of abuse. One provides rationale for adopting the food addiction model, arguing that food addiction exists and that although food is less powerful than addictive drugs, this does not diminish the compulsive nature or lack of control associated with binge eating. In contrast, another paper argues that the concept of food addiction is problematic and its links to drug addiction are overstated.

These juxtaposed papers are followed by reviews outlining the differences and similarities in brain reward circuitry, covering obesity, addiction, impulsivity, and self-control. The role that dopamine, a neurotransmitter critically involved in pleasure and reward, plays in food is also summarized.

Others cover the theme of neural adaptations, where new papers detail research findings on the changes observed in the brain following reward-driven feeding, reward and habit responding, and the effects of a high-fat diet. Another series of papers examine risk factors and susceptibility, including stress levels and how weight is related to an individual's degree of reward responding.

Binge eating disorder, the newest diagnosis within the eating disorder category of mental illnesses, is not left out. In fact, Small and DiLeone explain that the papers presented here provide a strong consensus, suggesting that binge eating may represent a sub-type of obesity most closely related to drug addiction.

Experts also comment on future directions for additional research and policy implications, considering how the verdict to adopt or reject the addiction framework will influence the national debate of how to address issues of diet, nutrition and obesity prevention.

###

Elsevier: http://www.elsevier.com

Thanks to Elsevier for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127859/Is_food_truly_addictive_

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Israel charges Syria with lethal chemical weapons use

The Israeli military says its evidence shows that the Syrian regime used sarin gas during a March clash with rebels, reversing earlier reports that no such weapons had been used.

By Ariel Zirulnick,?Staff writer / April 23, 2013

A general view shows Khan al-Assal area near the northern city of Aleppo, near the site where forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad say was a chemical weapons attack in March.

George Ourfalian/Reuters

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? A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

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Middle East Editor

Ariel Zirulnick is the Monitor's Middle East editor, overseeing regional coverage both for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She is also a contributor to the international desk's terrorism and security blog.?

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A senior Israeli military intelligence analyst said today that the military has evidence that the Syrian regime used lethal chemical weapons in a much-scrutinized March attack ? the most decisive ruling on those events yet.?

The Associated Press notes that this is?the first time Israel has made such accusations?against the Syrian regime. Western officials seem to widely believe that chemical agents of some kind were used in a March 19 attack, but are at odds over what type.?

Amid the flurry of initial accusations ? regime and rebel forces each alleged that the other had used chemical weapons ? experts told The Christian Science Monitor there was no early evidence that lethal chemical weapons agents were used and that the attack bore signs of nothing more toxic than "a riot-control agent designed to cause irritation."

?In the end, all I can say with confidence is that whatever the conventional or non-conventional munition was, it was not a CW [Chemical Weapons] agent as defined by the CWC [Chemical Weapons Convention],? said Charles Blair, senior fellow for state and non-state threats at the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists, at the time.

But governments have continued to pursue the issue, amassing evidence to make a case that the Assad regime used such weapons, violating international law.

Last week Britain and France sent a confidential letter (subsequently leaked) to United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon asserting that they had proof that the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons in around Aleppo, Homs, and possibly Damascus, The New York Times reports.

Brigadier-General Itai Brun, who is head of military intelligence research for the Israeli Defense Forces,?said?Israeli evidence ? including photographs taken of the area after the attacks ? indicated sarin gas, a deadly agent that killed 13 in the Tokyo subway system in 1995, as well as a second agent, "a retardant of some kind," Israeli newspaper Haaretz notes.

"To the best of our professional understanding, the regime used lethal chemical weapons against the militants in a series of incidents over the past months, including the relatively famous incident of March 19," he said, according to AP. "Shrunken pupils, foaming at the mouth and other signs indicate, in our view, that lethal chemical weapons were used."

The Israeli assessment goes further than intelligence from other countries, including the US, which have resisted making conclusions about the type of chemical used in the March 19 attack near Damascus. In fact, some maintain that the agent may not have been lethal, according to Haaretz.

That camp includes experts interviewed by the Monitor and conclusions drawn from interviews with Syrian refugees and rebel fighters:

Syrian television showed crowded hospital scenes with dozens of people being treated for apparent respiratory problems. But the footage of the victims and the lack of pictures from the scene of the blast itself undermined the mutually-traded accusations of a chemical weapons attack.

?I am not convinced that the footage and pictures I have seen prove a CW attack,? wrote Jean Pascal Zanders, a senior research fellow at the Paris-based European Union Institute?for Security Studies, on the?Arms Control Law?blog. ?There are no images of the site of the attack; just of some affected people. These people do not show outward symptoms of a CW attack. Definitely not mustard; definitely not a nerve agent.?

The Monitor has heard similar unproven allegations from Syrian refugees and rebel fighters of a paralyzing agent being used near Qusayr, a rebel-held town five miles north of the border with Lebanon. During a nighttime battle in mid-January in Jusiyah, a village south of Qusayr on the border with Lebanon, rebel fighters were allegedly incapacitated by a smoke from a bomb they believe was dropped by a passing jet. Fighters who came to the assistance of their comrades said they found men lying ?paralyzed? on the ground, some choking and most unable to speak.?

The New York Times reports that the Israeli conclusion has "potentially broad-reaching implications" for the US role in Syria. President Barack Obama said last month in Israel that the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons would be a "game changer," but the US has appeared reluctant to delve deeper into the growing body of intelligence pointing to chemical weapons use.

If American officials have been more reluctant that their allies to come to firm conclusions, it may be because it would force Mr. Obama?s hand. In August, the president?told reporters?that any evidence that Mr. Assad was moving the weapons or making use of them could prompt the United States to act.

?That would change my calculus,? he said. ?That would change my equation.?

But when strong evidence emerged earlier this year that Mr. Assad?s forces were in fact moving their weapons -- at least from one depot to another -- the White House insisted that the action did not cross the line that Mr. Obama set. By ?move'? the weapons, a White House spokesman said, Mr. Obama meant transferring them to a terror group, like Hezbollah. He said there was no evidence of that.?

According to The New York Times, the US has plans for taking control of such weapons, but would rather neighboring countries take charge. "But if the weapons were actually used, as three American allies now contend, it would be far more difficult for Mr. Obama to argue that his 'red line' has not been crossed," the paper wrote.?

There is little pressure on Israel to intervene in Syria and it has little interest in taking sides in a war in a country with whom it has had a cold, but stable, relationship for 40 years. But Israel is concerned about where advanced weapons, including chemical ones, might end up amid the chaos ? specifically in the hands of Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, an Assad ally, or Islamist extremists fighting alongside the Syrian opposition.?

The Christian Science Monitor reported shortly after the March attack that there are at least four sites where chemical weapons are suspected of being manufactured, as well as 50 or more storage facilities. The regime is believed to have moved some of the weapons to more secure storage facilities in areas with strong regime control.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/XMmL-QCrM1w/Israel-charges-Syria-with-lethal-chemical-weapons-use

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Netflix to Charge $12 to Make Sharing Your Password a Better Experience

In today?s first-quarter earnings letter, Netflix announced a $12-a-month plan that doubles the current limit of two simultaneous video streams to four simultaneous feeds plan.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/lXoZnZ0BSkQ/

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Feisty German minister stands up to Merkel

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - The political wilderness in Germany is filled with once-powerful conservative party barons, overly confident men who dared to challenge Angela Merkel and lost.

But never before has the German chancellor had to contend with another woman, a popular member of her own cabinet, standing up to her in public in the way Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen did last week.

The 54-year-old von der Leyen forced Merkel to retreat on, of all things, women's rights in a riveting public showdown just five months before an election.

"It's like von der Leyen threw a stick of dynamite into the coalition," said Gero Neugebauer, political scientist at Berlin's Free University. "You have to go back to the 1970s to find a minister who stood up to a chancellor. She made Merkel look weak."

Political analysts, conservative party members and German voters are now watching to see if there will be any fallout.

Most believe that von der Leyen, who regularly polls among the most popular politicians in Germany, remains too important to Merkel and the party to dump, especially with the election looming. The showdown may burnish von der Leyen's image among some voters, even if it has infuriated conservatives in the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU).

Just one year ago, Merkel summarily fired her Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen after he bungled an important regional election. Over the past decade, she has found ways to neutralize other potential rivals, from former CDU parliamentary leader Friedrich Merz to state premiers Roland Koch, Guenther Oettinger and Christian Wulff.

Von der Leyen, a trained gynaecologist, has a history of pushing her party towards the political centre even if it means poaching ideas from the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD).

Her popularity stems from her engaging speaking style, down-to-earth manner and the determined way in which she's pushed her issues, notably a drive to create more childcare facilities in a country of stay-at-home mothers.

Still, her threat last week to break ranks and back an opposition bill to establish quotas for women on company boards was seen as an act of betrayal in some conservative circles.

MOTHER OF SEVEN

A mother of seven who was born in Brussels and lived in Britain and the United States, von der Leyen grew up surrounded by politics. Her father, Ernst Albrecht, was a CDU state premier for Lower Saxony from 1976 to 1990.

She is a rarity in German politics in that she came to the game late, when she was 42, following a career in medicine.

Von der Leyen speaks fluent English and French. She studied at the London School of Economics from 1977 to 1980, but used the pseudonym "Rose Ladson" due to concerns she might be targeted, as the daughter of a prominent politician, by left-wing guerrillas who were active in West Germany at the time.

She graduated from medical school in 1987 and worked as a physician until 1992. While raising her fast-growing family, she lived in California from 1992 to 1996 while her husband Heiko taught at Stanford University. She met him at a university choir in Goettingen.

Von der Leyen is resented by some for seeming too perfect. She was once hoisted out of a barrel on German entertainment TV by Hugh Jackman and kissed by George Clooney after handing him an award for promoting peace.

She is admired by others for her ability to juggle a demanding career and family, while skillfully representing Germany on her frequent trips abroad.

"Von der Leyen can go to Harvard or the Sorbonne and give big speeches in English and French," said Markus Kerber, managing director of the BDI industry association, who knows her well. "For me she represents a new generation of Germans who can communicate internationally."

In 2003 she was elected to the Lower Saxony state assembly and in 2005 Merkel picked her as her family minister.

AFTER MERKEL

Von der Leyen quickly made it clear she was not going to be a token mum in the cabinet - Merkel and then-Education Minister Annette Schavan had no children.

In a bid to counter Germany's low birth rate, she co-opted an SPD proposal to introduce paid parental leave for working parents, a move which angered party conservatives.

She has tried to change German attitudes towards children, clouded as they are by the Nazi campaign to encourage procreation.

"In the United States people would say 'Oh, seven children, you are so blessed," von der Leyen told Reuters in 2005. But in Germany the reaction was: "Seven children and a job - how are you going to manage that?"

How does she manage it?

Good planning is the key, she says. Unlike many other German politicians, she is rarely seen socializing in Berlin, preferring instead to spend weekends at home in Lower Saxony with her family.

She doesn't have a flat in the German capital, instead sleeping in a small ministry room with a bed and shower.

Many men have learned the hard way not to underestimate Merkel. The same may be said for von der Leyen, who stands just 1.61 meters tall (5 foot 3 inches).

In the recent standoff over female quotas, Merkel deputies, led by parliamentary floor leader Volker Kauder, managed to pressure von der Leyen to back down. But only after she and her fellow rebels extracted from the party a promise to include a quota in its election program.

"Von der Leyen showed in this debate that she is ready to fight for what she wants," one close ally of Merkel said. "But she also showed that she doesn't understand her party, that she isn't on the same page as the majority of her CDU colleagues."

Still, political scientist Hans Vorlaender of the Technical University in Dresden, says it would be wrong to count von der Leyen out.

"The CDU is a party that is above all interested in staying in power," he said. "If after Merkel is gone it turns out von der Leyen is seen as their best option to win power, she'll be their candidate."

(editing by Noah Barkin and Janet McBride)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/feisty-german-minister-stands-merkel-092352490.html

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93% Room 237

All Critics (105) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (99) | Rotten (7) | DVD (1)

There's enough real evidence supporting the theory that Kubrick was a genius, and that's pretty entertaining all by itself.

It's about the human need for stuff to make sense - especially overpowering emotional experiences - and the tendency for some people to take that sense-making to extremes.

The results can range from enlightening - Kubrick did like to mess with things - to embarrassing. But it's never dull. "Room 237" shines.

You don't have to buy any of the nutty theories in Room 237 to appreciate what director Rodney Ascher has accomplished.

It's nuts, in the best possible way.

Their imaginings are not far removed from the deconstuctionist gobbledygook that has hammerlocked academic film and literary scholarship. But here at least the gobbledygook is entertaining.

Kubrick fans will take 'Shining' to 'Room 237.'

The credibility of these theories ranges from faintly plausible to frankly ridiculous, but Ascher isn't interested in judging them; his movie is more about the joys of deconstruction and the special kind of obsession that movies can inspire.

Some of the interpretations seem more of a stretch than others but all are entertainingly presented by director Rodney Ascher. (The movie) serves as a testament to Stanley Kubrick's cinematic mastery.

As fascinating as it is frustrating

It is nice to see a doc that makes you smile instead of making you angry. Anyone who is a fan of Stanley Kubrick will eat this up.

Powered by a deep and abiding affection for both The Shining and Kubrick in general, Room 237 is an amuse-bouche of remix culture.

Room 237 is an extended riff of the "Paul is dead" variety. But, you know what? Sometimes a guy moving a table in the background is just a guy moving a table in the background.

A diverting excursion for lovers of Kubrick's films...even if, at over a hundred minutes, it does go on a bit long.

A fascinating doc that will get both film geeks and conspiracy theorists alike drooling, it all but guarantees you'll never watch The Shining quite the same way again.

Confounding, eye-opening, and often hilarious.

I suspect that Ascher's intention was to dynamize an academic exercise, but these constant, sundry inserts render the tone as corny and glib as a VH1 special.

No quotes approved yet for Room 237. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/room_237_2012/

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NBC's Michaels arrested for alleged DUI in Calif.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) ? NBC Sports announcer Al Michaels was arrested over the weekend in Southern California on suspicion of drunken driving, authorities said Sunday.

Michaels was pulled over at about 9:30 p.m. Friday after officers manning a DUI checkpoint witnessed him make an illegal U-turn, Santa Monica police Sgt. Richard Lewis said.

Michaels, the play-by-play man for "Sunday Night Football," was taken to the station, where he registered a blood alcohol level over the .08 percent legal limit, according to Lewis.

He was booked for suspicion of DUI and held for about five hours before being released on his own recognizance, Lewis said.

"We are aware of the situation and we've been in contact with Al," said Greg Hughes, a spokesman for NBC Sports. "We have no further comment at this time."

A call Sunday by The Associated Press to Michaels' agent was not immediately returned.

Michaels was ordered to appear in court June 26.

An Emmy Award winner and broadcaster on "Sunday Night Football," the 68-year-old Michaels spent nearly three decades at ABC Sports before moving to NBC in 2007.

Michaels worked NFL games and other sports for ABC, and called "Monday Night Football" for nearly 20 years. He also is known for his call of the U.S.-Soviet Union "Miracle on Ice" game at the 1980 Winter Olympics and the earthquake-interrupted Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.

Last year he received the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nbcs-michaels-arrested-alleged-dui-calif-173341270--spt.html

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Masdar Institute becomes affiliate of Joint Institute for Strategic ...

Initially, Masdar and JISEA will collaborate in three areas: water-energy nexus, clean energy policy with focus on the Middle East/North Africa region, and energy access in developing countries. The agreement also offers options for expanding the scope of collaboration at a later stage.

A trans-disciplinary global research group focused on the nexus of energy, environment, finance, and society, JISEA is headquartered at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). With five founding institutions rooted in research, JISEA provides capabilities in research and analysis that far outweigh those of a single organization.

"I am very excited about JISEA's affiliation with Masdar Institute," said Douglas Arent, JISEA executive director. "Masdar Institute offers excellent research capabilities and unique regional insights that complement the skills and knowledge of JISEA partners and allow us to offer increased value to our clients interested in energy access and sustainability, particularly in the Middle East/North Africa region."

Dr Fred Moavenzadeh said, "The affiliation agreement with the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis will broaden our reach in international collaboration that will naturally further our capabilities in sustainable research projects. JISEA engages in leading-edge, objective, high-impact research and analysis to guide global energy investment and policy decisions. Its focus on the nexus of energy, finance, and society, are similar to the issues being addressed by us. With the guidance of the UAE's leadership, we will continue to seek partnerships with global organizations to further our research in clean energy and sustainability."

Research forms the core area for Masdar Institute which focuses on three themes for scientific innovation - water, energy and environment; energy systems; and advanced materials. The research-based institution ion Abu Dhabi continues to excel in research success. For 2012, total publications by Masdar Institute so far include papers in 311 peer reviewed journals, 330 conference proceedings, two full books and 37 invention disclosures. One patent is already issued, while 20 active patent applications are pending.

Serving as a key pillar of innovation and human capital, Masdar Institute remains fundamental to Masdar's core objectives of developing Abu Dhabi's knowledge economy and finding solutions to humanity's toughest challenges such as climate change.

Established as an on-going collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Masdar Institute integrates theory and practice to incubate a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, working to develop the critical thinkers and leaders of tomorrow. With its world-class faculty and top-tier students, the Institute is committed to finding solutions to the challenges of clean energy and climate change through education and research.

JISEA is operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, on behalf of its founding partners. They include the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, University of Colorado-Boulder, Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/masdar-institute-affiliate-joint-institute-strategic-338598

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Campus police officer killed in 'active' shooting at MIT

Dominick Reuter / EPA

Massachusetts State Police, Cambridge Police and MIT Police search at the scene of the shooting of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Police Officer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 18, 2013.

By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer was killed Thursday night on campus near Building 32, police said.

Shots were registered at 10:48 p.m. ET, and the situation remained "active and extremely dangerous," according to MIT's emergency website.

NBC affiliate WHDH said a search for the gunman was underway.

The Building 32 area was cordoned off. The university warned students and staff to "stay clear of area until further notice."

Massachusetts State Police was assisting Cambridge and MIT police in the investigation.

"No arrest has been made and the search for a suspect or suspects is ongoing," read a statement from the Massachusetts State Police.

This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2ae5492f/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C180C178171730Ecampus0Epolice0Eofficer0Ekilled0Ein0Eactive0Eshooting0Eat0Emit0Dlite/story01.htm

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10 Reasons Why Your Business Shouldn't Start Blogging TribalCafe ...

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Source: http://www.tribalcafe.co.uk/10-reasons-why-your-business-shouldnt-blogging/

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Small in size, big on power: New microbatteries the most powerful yet

Apr. 16, 2013 ? Though they be but little, they are fierce. The most powerful batteries on the planet are only a few millimeters in size, yet they pack such a punch that a driver could use a cellphone powered by these batteries to jump-start a dead car battery -- and then recharge the phone in the blink of an eye.?

Developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the new microbatteries out-power even the best supercapacitors and could drive new applications in radio communications and compact electronics.

Led by William P. King, the Bliss Professor of mechanical science and engineering, the researchers published their results in the April 16 issue of Nature Communications.

"This is a whole new way to think about batteries," King said. "A battery can deliver far more power than anybody ever thought. In recent decades, electronics have gotten small. The thinking parts of computers have gotten small. And the battery has lagged far behind. This is a microtechnology that could change all of that. Now the power source is as high-performance as the rest of it."

With currently available power sources, users have had to choose between power and energy. For applications that need a lot of power, like broadcasting a radio signal over a long distance, capacitors can release energy very quickly but can only store a small amount. For applications that need a lot of energy, like playing a radio for a long time, fuel cells and batteries can hold a lot of energy but release it or recharge slowly.

"There's a sacrifice," said James Pikul, a graduate student and first author of the paper. "If you want high energy you can't get high power; if you want high power it's very difficult to get high energy. But for very interesting applications, especially modern applications, you really need both. That's what our batteries are starting to do. We're really pushing into an area in the energy storage design space that is not currently available with technologies today."

The new microbatteries offer both power and energy, and by tweaking the structure a bit, the researchers can tune them over a wide range on the power-versus-energy scale.

The batteries owe their high performance to their internal three-dimensional microstructure. Batteries have two key components: the anode (minus side) and cathode (plus side). Building on a novel fast-charging cathode design by materials science and engineering professor Paul Braun's group, King and Pikul developed a matching anode and then developed a new way to integrate the two components at the microscale to make a complete battery with superior performance.

With so much power, the batteries could enable sensors or radio signals that broadcast 30 times farther, or devices 30 times smaller. The batteries are rechargeable and can charge 1,000 times faster than competing technologies -- imagine juicing up a credit-card-thin phone in less than a second. In addition to consumer electronics, medical devices, lasers, sensors and other applications could see leaps forward in technology with such power sources available.

"Any kind of electronic device is limited by the size of the battery -- until now," King said. "Consider personal medical devices and implants, where the battery is an enormous brick, and it's connected to itty-bitty electronics and tiny wires. Now the battery is also tiny."

Now, the researchers are working on integrating their batteries with other electronics components, as well as manufacturability at low cost.

"Now we can think outside of the box," Pikul said. "It's a new enabling technology. It's not a progressive improvement over previous technologies; it breaks the normal paradigms of energy sources. It's allowing us to do different, new things."

The National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research supported this work. King also is affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology; the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory; the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory; and the department of electrical and computer engineering at the U. of I.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. James H. Pikul, Hui Gang Zhang, Jiung Cho, Paul V. Braun, William P. King. High-power lithium ion microbatteries from interdigitated three-dimensional bicontinuous nanoporous electrodes. Nature Communications, 2013; 4: 1732 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2747

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/electricity/~3/vR8b031rWT0/130416151929.htm

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T&T Finance Minister: Restructuring coming for debt-riddled CAL ...

(Trinidad Express) Bankruptcy is not an option for debt-riddled State-owned Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL), Finance Minister Larry Howai said yesterday.

Speaking to reporters following the annual general meeting of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA) at the Hyatt Regency (Trinidad) in Port of Spain yesterday, Howai said the company would now have to restructure its entire finance structure.

?We have to consider going forward when we restructure the overall balance sheet to facilitate the ability of CAL to meet payments and meet commitments out of existing cash flows. I can?t say if it will require cutting down on staff. We need to be careful that we do the restructuring in such a way that we can run the airline in a sustainable way. Everything will be up for review?including the board, not just the balance sheet,? Howai said.

CAL?s predecessor BWIA also suffered from severe debt issues and was dissolved in 2007, giving way to CAL as the new national airline.

A Sunday Express investigative report said the company faces a TT$1.4 billion debt.

?TT$1.4 billion in deficit is a significant amount of money when one looks at the time frame it was accumulated, so we need to take some drastic action. This is an urgent matter,? Minister in the Finance Ministry Vasant Bharath, said yesterday, also at the Hyatt. Bharath holds the portfolio of Corporation Sole within the Finance Ministry, and therefore also oversees operations of CAL.

Bharath will be acting for Howai for the rest of the week, while Howai is in Washington DC.

?CAL is operating in a very competitive industry worldwide on very small margins. What has happened (based on the report yesterday) is they are in a deficit position and there have been losses attributed to (the acquisition of) Air Jamaica. I?ve not had an opportunity to review anything since reading the report nor have I seen the 2012 audited statements, but I intend to speak with (CAL chairman Rabindra Moonan and CEO Robert Corbie) this week to get a clearer picture,? he said.

He said the company?s board intends to bring in international experts to advise on the best way forward.

?We must have a national airline. We believe that it is important for the diaspora and the tourism sector and we now have to make sure it is run profitably and efficiently,? he said.

He said the point will be to determine how to run the airline so it is not a drain on the Treasury.

?CAL has to understand what its unique selling points are,? he said.

Former CAL chairman Arthur Lok Jack said those selling points were simple: give service and remain profitable.

?If the agenda is focused to make profit and giving security to the country and main diaspora routes it can be profitable. I think CAL has to go back to basics and focus on its main routes and maximise them,? Lok Jack said yesterday at the Hyatt.

Lok Jack was chairman of CAL?s board from inception in 2007 until 2010, when he resigned after a change in government.

?(We left) the airline in a very healthy state: the positive balance sheet, no debt, no intention to take on debt. However the airline industry is very volatile and runs really on very heavy cash flows so it very easy to burn cash. We left them with dominant market shares in NY and Toronto, and sharing Miami with American Airlines. On that basis CAL could have made money. We were also developing Suriname and Guyana as a domestic market,? he said.

He said the Air Jamaica acquisition and the intent to purchase new aircraft from a French firm were good business plans, but how they were handled after the board he led demitted office was ?not properly done?.

Source: http://www.stabroeknews.com/2013/news/regional/04/16/tt-finance-minister-restructuring-coming-for-debt-riddled-cal/

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Photons run out of loopholes: Quantum world really is in conflict with our everyday experience

Apr. 15, 2013 ? A team led by the Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger has now carried out an experiment with photons in which they have closed an important loophole. The researchers have thus provided the most complete experimental proof that the quantum world is in conflict with our everyday experience.

The results of this study appear this week in the journal Nature (Advance Online Publication/AOP).

When we observe an object, we make a number of intuitive assumptions, among them that the unique properties of the object have been determined prior to the observation and that these properties are independent of the state of other, distant objects. In everyday life, these assumptions are fully justified, but things are different at the quantum level. In the past 30 years, a number of experiments have shown that the behaviour of quantum particles -- such as atoms, electrons or photons -- can be in conflict with our basic intuition. However, these experiments have never delivered definite answers. Each previous experiment has left open the possibility, at least in principle, that the observed particles 'exploited' a weakness of the experimental setup.

Quantum physics is an exquisitely precise tool for understanding the world around us at a very fundamental level. At the same time, it is a basis for modern technology: semiconductors (and therefore computers), lasers, MRI scanners, and numerous other devices are based on quantum-physical effects. However, even after more than a century of intensive research, fundamental aspects of quantum theory are not yet fully understood. On a regular basis, laboratories worldwide report results that seem at odds with our everyday intuition but that can be explained within the framework of quantum theory.

On the trail of the quantum entanglement mystery

The physicists in Vienna report not a new effect, but a deep investigation into one of the most fundamental phenomena of quantum physics, known as 'entanglement.' The effect of quantum entanglement is amazing: when measuring a quantum object that has an entangled partner, the state of the one particle depends on measurements performed on the partner. Quantum theory describes entanglement as independent of any physical separation between the particles. That is, entanglement should also be observed when the two particles are sufficiently far apart from each other that, even in principle, no information can be exchanged between them (the speed of communication is fundamentally limited by the speed of light). Testing such predictions regarding the correlations between entangled quantum particles is, however, a major experimental challenge.

Towards a definitive answer

The young academics in Anton Zeilinger's group including Marissa Giustina, Alexandra Mech, Rupert Ursin, Sven Ramelow and Bernhard Wittmann, in an international collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology/NIST (USA), the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (Germany), and the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics (Germany), have now achieved an important step towards delivering definitive experimental evidence that quantum particles can indeed do things that classical physics does not allow them to do. For their experiment, the team built one of the best sources for entangled photon pairs worldwide and employed highly efficient photon detectors designed by experts at NIST. These technological advances together with a suitable measurement protocol enabled the researchers to detect entangled photons with unprecedented efficiency. In a nutshell: "Our photons can no longer duck out of being measured," says Zeilinger.

This kind of tight monitoring is important as it closes an important loophole. In previous experiments on photons, there has always been the possibility that although the measured photons do violate the laws of classical physics, such non-classical behaviour would not have been observed if all photons involved in the experiment could have been measured. In the new experiment, this loophole is now closed. "Perhaps the greatest weakness of photons as a platform for quantum experiments is their vulnerability to loss -- but we have just demonstrated that this weakness need not be prohibitive," explains Marissa Giustina, lead author of the paper.

Now one last step

Although the new experiment makes photons the first quantum particles for which, in several separate experiments, every possible loophole has been closed, the grand finale is yet to come, namely, a single experiment in which the photons are deprived of all possibilities of displaying their counterintuitive behaviour through means of classical physics. Such an experiment would also be of fundamental significance for an important practical application: 'quantum cryptography,' which relies on quantum mechanical principles and is considered to be absolutely secure against eavesdropping. Eavesdropping is still theoretically possible, however, as long as there are loopholes. Only when all of these are closed is a completely secure exchange of messages possible.

An experiment without any loopholes, says Zeilinger, "is a big challenge, which attracts groups worldwide." These experiments are not limited to photons, but also involve atoms, electrons, and other systems that display quantum mechanical behaviour. The experiment of the Austrian physicists highlights the photons' potential. Thanks to these latest advances, the photon is running out of places to hide, and quantum physicists are closer than ever to conclusive experimental proof that quantum physics defies our intuition and everyday experience to the degree suggested by research of the past decades.

This work was completed in a collaboration including the following institutions: Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information -- Vienna / IQOQI Vienna (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information, Department of Physics (University of Vienna), Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, National Institute of Standards and Technology / NIST, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin.

This work was supported by: ERC (Advanced Grant), Austrian Science Fund (FWF), grant Q-ESSENCE, Marie Curie Research Training Network EMALI, and John Templeton Foundation. This work was also supported by NIST Quantum Information Science Initiative (QISI).

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Vienna.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Marissa Giustina, Alexandra Mech, Sven Ramelow, Bernhard Wittmann, Johannes Kofler, J?rn Beyer, Adriana Lita, Brice Calkins, Thomas Gerrits, Sae Woo Nam, Rupert Ursin, Anton Zeilinger. Bell violation using entangled photons without the fair-sampling assumption. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12012

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/physics/~3/LgsxwvJYvxg/130415124910.htm

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