There is a lot of buzz around at the moment about new advances in nanotechnology and the manipulation of the carbon molecule. Nobel prizes were awarded this year for the creation of a two dimensional element called Graphene and a complex carbon-based molecule called Palladium, putting the ubiquitous carbon molecule back in the spot-light.
Both elements promise to revolutionise the way we make things, from car bodies to information processing systems.
Carbon is the basic building block of life on earth, and it is the most abundant element in the human body after water. Carbon 12 is measured to date the age of fossils, while Carbon 14 is the big culprit in the global warming story.
Meanwhile, solar flare activity has been linked to the emission of an unknown element from the sun's core that is changing the way elements decompose, some scientists are suggesting carbon 12 is being decomposed into carbon 7 - a completely new element on earth. But the jury is out.
NASA warns that we are approaching a solar maxima, a period of large and frequent solar emissions, that they fear will disrupt telecommunications and the weather on earth over the next few years. This 'maxima' period follows the 'Maunder Minimum' - a period of extremely low solar activity evidenced by little solar flare activity, sun spots or coronal mass ejections. Now scientists are beginning to hypothesize about the effect of increased solar activity on carbon, and the glow on effect to human health, since carbon is one of the main elements making up our DNA.
There are a lot of assumptions being drawn about how carbon will change during the solar maxima period, and how human DNA will be effected. I don't want to jump to any conclusions here, only to mention that I recently read that leaps in human evolution and the development of technology have been linked to previous solar maxima periods.
One study proved that life on earth - over 3 billion years ago - was affected by solar radiation that accelerated evolution. The authors of this study believe they have proved that such a process may have been responsible for kick starting biological life on earth out of self-replicating carbon molecules in the ocean, and that its effects were prior to the formation of DNA and natural selection.
A lot to chew on!
I include the original articles on each of these topics below for your information.
Enjoy!
Photons and evolution: quantum mechanical processes modulate sexual differentiation.
Davis GE Jr, Lowell WE.
Psybernetics Inc. (Research Group), 28 Eastern Avenue, Augusta, ME 04330, USA. georgedavi@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper will show that the fractional difference in the human gender ratio (GR) between the GR(at death) for those born in solar cycle peak years (maxima) and the GR(at death) in those born in solar cycle non-peak years (minima), e.g., 0.023, divided by Pi, yields a reasonable approximation of the quantum mechanical constant, alpha, or the fine structure constant (FSC) approximately 0.007297... or approximately 1/137. This finding is based on a sample of approximately 50 million cases using common, readily available demographic data, e.g., state of birth, birth date, death date, and gender. Physicists Nair, Geim et al. had found precisely the same fractional difference, 0.023, in the absorption of white light (sunlight) by a single-atom thick layer of graphene, a carbon skeleton resembling chicken wire fencing. This absorption fraction, when divided by Pi, yielded the FSC and was the first time this constant could "so directly be assessed practically by the naked eye". As the GR is a reflection of sexual differentiation, this paper reveals that a quantum mechanical process, as manifested by the FSC, is playing a role in the primordial process of replication, a necessary requirement of life. Successful replication is the primary engine driving evolution, which at a biochemical level, is a quantum mechanical process dependent upon photonic energy from the Sun. We propose that a quantum-mechanical, photon-driven chemical evolution preceded natural selection in biology and the mechanisms of mitosis and meiosis are manifestations of this chemical evolution in ancient seas over 3 billion years ago. Evolutionary processes became extant first in self-replicating molecules forced to adapt to high energy photons, mostly likely in the ultraviolet spectrum. These events led to evolution by natural selection as complex mixing of genetic material within species creating the variety needed to match changing environments reflecting the same process initiated at the dawn of life. Both evolutionary mechanisms coexist and are interactive. The periodic energy of solar maxima is likely modulating the human genome from maternal integument to an embryo in utero with non-local mechanisms intrinsic to quantum mechanics.
August 23, 2010 | 11:50 am
Peter Sturrock, Stanford professor emeritus of applied physics. Photo by L.A. Cicero
This story is from the Aug. 23, 2010 issue of Stanford Report.
When researchers found an unusual linkage between solar flares and the inner life of radioactive elements on Earth, it touched off a scientific detective investigation that could end up protecting the lives of space-walking astronauts and maybe rewriting some of the assumptions of physics.
It’s a mystery that presented itself unexpectedly: The radioactive decay of some elements sitting quietly in laboratories on Earth seemed to be influenced by activities inside the sun, 93 million miles away.
Is this possible?
Researchers from Stanford and Purdue universities believe it is. But their explanation of how it happens opens the door to yet another mystery.
There is even an outside chance that this unexpected effect is brought about by a previously unknown particle emitted by the sun. “That would be truly remarkable,” said Peter Sturrock, Stanford professor emeritus of applied physics and an expert on the inner workings of the sun.
The story begins, in a sense, in classrooms around the world, where students are taught that the rate of decay of a specific radioactive material is a constant. This concept is relied upon, for example, when anthropologists use carbon-14 to date ancient artifacts and when doctors determine the proper dose of radioactivity to treat a cancer patient.
Random numbers
But that assumption was challenged in an unexpected way by a group of researchers from Purdue University who at the time were more interested in random numbers than nuclear decay. (Scientists use long strings of random numbers for a variety of calculations, but they are difficult to produce, since the process used to produce the numbers has an influence on the outcome.)
Ephraim Fischbach, a physics professor at Purdue, was looking into the rate of radioactive decay of several isotopes as a possible source of random numbers generated without any human input. (A lump of radioactive cesium-137, for example, may decay at a steady rate overall, but individual atoms within the lump will decay in an unpredictable, random pattern. Thus the timing of the random ticks of a Geiger counter placed near the cesium might be used to generate random numbers.)
As the researchers pored through published data on specific isotopes, they found disagreement in the measured decay rates – odd for supposed physical constants.
Checking data collected at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island and the Federal Physical and Technical Institute in Germany, they came across something even more surprising: long-term observation of the decay rate of silicon-32 and radium-226 seemed to show a small seasonal variation. The decay rate was ever so slightly faster in winter than in summer.
Was this fluctuation real, or was it merely a glitch in the equipment used to measure the decay, induced by the change of seasons, with the accompanying changes in temperature and humidity?
“Everyone thought it must be due to experimental mistakes, because we’re all brought up to believe that decay rates are constant,” Sturrock said.
The sun speaks
On Dec 13, 2006, the sun itself provided a crucial clue, when a solar flare sent a stream of particles and radiation toward Earth. Purdue nuclear engineer Jere Jenkins, while measuring the decay rate of manganese-54, a short-lived isotope used in medical diagnostics, noticed that the rate dropped slightly during the flare, a decrease that started about a day and a half before the flare.
If this apparent relationship between flares and decay rates proves true, it could lead to a method of predicting solar flares prior to their occurrence, which could help prevent damage to satellites and electric grids, as well as save the lives of astronauts in space.
The decay-rate aberrations that Jenkins noticed occurred during the middle of the night in Indiana – meaning that something produced by the sun had traveled all the way through the Earth to reach Jenkins’ detectors. What could the flare send forth that could have such an effect?
Jenkins and Fischbach guessed that the culprits in this bit of decay-rate mischief were probably solar neutrinos, the almost massless particles famous for flying at nearly the speed of light through the physical world – humans, rocks, oceans or planets – with virtually no interaction with anything.
Then, in a series of papers published in Astroparticle Physics, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research and Space Science Reviews, Jenkins, Fischbach and their colleagues showed that the observed variations in decay rates were highly unlikely to have come from environmental influences on the detection systems.
Reason for suspicion
Their findings strengthened the argument that the strange swings in decay rates were caused by neutrinos from the sun. The swings seemed to be in synch with the Earth’s elliptical orbit, with the decay rates oscillating as the Earth came closer to the sun (where it would be exposed to more neutrinos) and then moving away.
So there was good reason to suspect the sun, but could it be proved?
Enter Peter Sturrock, Stanford professor emeritus of applied physics and an expert on the inner workings of the sun. While on a visit to the National Solar Observatory in Arizona, Sturrock was handed copies of the scientific journal articles written by the Purdue researchers.
Sturrock knew from long experience that the intensity of the barrage of neutrinos the sun continuously sends racing toward Earth varies on a regular basis as the sun itself revolves and shows a different face, like a slower version of the revolving light on a police car. His advice to Purdue: Look for evidence that the changes in radioactive decay on Earth vary with the rotation of the sun. “That’s what I suggested. And that’s what we have done.”
A surprise
Going back to take another look at the decay data from the Brookhaven lab, the researchers found a recurring pattern of 33 days. It was a bit of a surprise, given that most solar observations show a pattern of about 28 days – the rotation rate of the surface of the sun.
The explanation? The core of the sun – where nuclear reactions produce neutrinos – apparently spins more slowly than the surface we see. “It may seem counter-intuitive, but it looks as if the core rotates more slowly than the rest of the sun,” Sturrock said.
All of the evidence points toward a conclusion that the sun is “communicating” with radioactive isotopes on Earth, said Fischbach.
But there’s one rather large question left unanswered. No one knows how neutrinos could interact with radioactive materials to change their rate of decay.
“It doesn’t make sense according to conventional ideas,” Fischbach said. Jenkins whimsically added, “What we’re suggesting is that something that doesn’t really interact with anything is changing something that can’t be changed.”
“It’s an effect that no one yet understands,” agreed Sturrock. “Theorists are starting to say, ‘What’s going on?’ But that’s what the evidence points to. It’s a challenge for the physicists and a challenge for the solar people too.”
If the mystery particle is not a neutrino, “It would have to be something we don’t know about, an unknown particle that is also emitted by the sun and has this effect, and that would be even more remarkable,” Sturrock said.
– by Dan Stober with contributions from Chantal Jolagh, a science-writing intern at the Stanford News Service.
Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 for Graphene -- 'Two-Dimensional' Material
ScienceDaily (Oct. 5, 2010) — The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both of the University of Manchester, "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene."
A thin flake of ordinary carbon, just one atom thick, lies behind this year's Nobel Prize in Physics. Geim and Novoselov have shown that carbon in such a flat form has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics.
Graphene is a form of carbon. As a material it is completely new -- not only the thinnest ever but also the strongest. As a conductor of electricity it performs as well as copper. As a conductor of heat it outperforms all other known materials. It is almost completely transparent, yet so dense that not even helium, the smallest gas atom, can pass through it. Carbon, the basis of all known life on earth, has surprised us once again.
Geim and Novoselov extracted the graphene from a piece of graphite such as is found in ordinary pencils. Using regular adhesive tape they managed to obtain a flake of carbon with a thickness of just one atom. This at a time when many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable.
However, with graphene, physicists can now study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties. Graphene makes experiments possible that give new twists to the phenomena in quantum physics. Also a vast variety of practical applications now appear possible including the creation of new materials and the manufacture of innovative electronics. Graphene transistors are predicted to be substantially faster than today's silicon transistors and result in more efficient computers.
Since it is practically transparent and a good conductor, graphene is suitable for producing transparent touch screens, light panels, and maybe even solar cells.
When mixed into plastics, graphene can turn them into conductors of electricity while making them more heat resistant and mechanically robust. This resilience can be utilised in new super strong materials, which are also thin, elastic and lightweight. In the future, satellites, airplanes, and cars could be manufactured out of the new composite materials.
This year's Laureates have been working together for a long time now. Konstantin Novoselov, 36, first worked with Andre Geim, 51, as a PhD-student in the Netherlands. He subsequently followed Geim to the United Kingdom. Both of them originally studied and began their careers as physicists in Russia. Now they are both professors at the University of Manchester.
2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Creating Complex Carbon-Based Molecules Using Palladium
ScienceDaily (Oct. 6, 2010) — The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2010 to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for developing new ways of linking carbon atoms together that has allowed scientists to make medicines and better electronics.
American citizen Richard F. Heck, 79, of the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, Japanese citizens Akira Suzuki, 80, of Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, and Ei-Ichi Negishi, 75, of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, will share the 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.5 million) award for their development of "palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic systems."
Carbon, the atom that is the backbone of molecules in living organisms, is usually very stable and it can be difficult in the laboratory chemically to synthesize large molecules containing carbon. In the Heck reaction, Negishi reaction and Suzuki reaction, carbon atoms meet on a palladium atom, which acts as a catalyst. The carbon atoms attach to the palladium atom and are thus positioned close enough to each other for chemical reactions to start. This allows chemists to synthesize large, complex carbon-containing molecules.
The Academy said it's a "precise and efficient" tool that is used by researchers worldwide, "as well as in the commercial production of for example pharmaceuticals and molecules used in the electronics industry."
Great art in a test tube
Organic chemistry has developed into an art form where scientists produce marvelous chemical creations in their test tubes. Humankind benefits from this in the form of medicines, ever-more precise electronics and advanced technological materials. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 awards one of the most sophisticated tools available to chemists today.
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for the development of palladium-catalyzed cross coupling. This chemical tool has vastly improved the possibilities for chemists to create sophisticated chemicals -- for example, carbon-based molecules as complex as those created by nature itself.
Carbon-based (organic) chemistry is the basis of life and is responsible for numerous fascinating natural phenomena: colour in flowers, snake poison and bacteria killing substances such as penicillin. Organic chemistry has allowed man to build on nature's chemistry; making use of carbon's ability to provide a stable skeleton for functional molecules. This has yielded new medicines and revolutionary materials such as plastics.
In order to create these complex chemicals, chemists need to be able to join carbon atoms together. However, carbon is stable and carbon atoms do not easily react with one another. The first methods used by chemists to bind carbon atoms together were therefore based upon various techniques for rendering carbon more reactive. Such methods worked when creating simple molecules, but when synthesizing more complex molecules chemists ended up with too many unwanted by-products in their test tubes.
Palladium-catalyzed cross coupling solved that problem and provided chemists with a more precise and efficient tool to work with. In the Heck reaction, Negishi reaction and Suzuki reaction, carbon atoms meet on a palladium atom, whereupon their proximity to one another kick-starts the chemical reaction.
Palladium-catalyzed cross coupling is used in research worldwide, as well as in the commercial production of for example pharmaceuticals and molecules used in the electronics industry.
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