voice of progress

Stimulating a charged atomic particle (i.e. an ion) to take a quantum walk

Qubit: Just like a bit is the basic unit of computer information a quantum bit or qubit is a basic unit of quantum information i.e. a qubit is a quantum analogue of the classical bit. A classical computer has a memory made up of bits, whereas a quantum computer maintains a sequence of qubits. Each bit in a classical computer represents either a one or a zero where as a single qubit can represent a one, a zero, or any quantum superposition of these. For example any two-level quantum system can form a qubit, and there are two ways to form a qubit using the electronic states of an ion: 1) Two ground state hyperfine levels (these are called “hyperfine qubits”) 2) A ground state level and an excited level (these are called the “optical qubits”).

For more information on qubits please refer to the post: Programmable quantum information processor using two qubits of information.

Ion traps: Ions, or charged atomic particles, can be confined and suspended in free space using electromagnetic fields. Qubits are stored in stable electronic states of each ion, and quantum information can be processed and transferred through the collective quantized motion of the ions in the trap (interacting through the Coulomb force). An ion trap is based on the idea that since a charged particle cannot be confined in three dimensional space using static electric fields, an electric field oscillating at radio frequency (RF) is applied instead, forming a potential with the shape of a saddle spinning at the RF frequency. The ions, interacting with this oscillating potential over time, end up trapped in the middle of the saddle potential.

Source: http://www.quantiki.org/wiki/index.php/Ion_traps

Stimulating a charged atomic particle (i.e. an ion) to take a quantum walk

A team of physicists from the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information have been able to stimulate a charged atomic particle (i.e. an ion), which is a two-level quantum system, to perform a quantum walk. The ion was trapped in an electromagnetic ion trap.

In order to make one understand what a quantum walk is, the physicists use the analogy of a random walk.

Random walk: When a hiker comes to a junction s/he has to decide which way to take. All of these decisions, eventually, lead the hiker to the intended destination. When the hiker forgot the map, s/he has to make a decision randomly and gets to the destination with more or less detours. In science this is called a random walk. Examples of random walk are random motion of water molecules – a phenomenon known as Brownian motion and the Galton board where in balls are dropped from the top and they repeatedly bounce either left or right in a random way as they hit pins stuck in the board.

The Innsbruck scientists have now transferred this principle of random walk to quantum systems and stimulated an ion to take a quantum walk. Christian Roos from the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) says, “We trap a single atom in an electromagnetic ion trap and cool it to prepare it in the ground state. We then create a quantum mechanical superposition of two inner states and send the atom on a walk.”

Roos explains, “Depending on the internal state, we shift the ion to the right or to the left. Thereby, the motional and internal state of the ion are entangled.” After each step the experimental physicists modify the superposition of the inner states by a laser pulse and again shift the ion to the left or right. The physicists can repeat this randomly controlled process up to 23 times, while collecting data about how quantum walks work. By using a second ion, the scientists extend the experiment, giving the walking ion the additional possibility to stay instead of moving to the right or left.

The statistic analysis of these numerous steps confirms that quantum walks differ from classical (random) walks. While, for example, the balls of a Galton board move away from the starting point statistically very slowly, quantum particles spread much faster on their walk.

These experiments, which have also been realized in a similar way in Bonn, Munich and Erlangen with atoms, ions and photons, can be applied to studying natural phenomena. For example, researchers suspect that the energy transport in plants works more efficiently because of quantum walks than would be the case with classical walks. In addition, a regime of quantum walk is of importance for developing a quantum computer model, which could solve ubiquitous problems. For example, applying quantum walks in such a model would help in finding ‘search quantum algorithms’ that outperform their classical counterparts as different directions could be chosen simultaneously.

The team of physicists was headed by Christian Roos and Rainer Blatt.

Source: http://iqoqi.at/news&newsid=126

March 11, 2010

Poetry of Sri Chinmoy – 13

Poetry

CLARION CALL

My eternal children sweet,

Hearken to my clarion call:

No fall there is, no fall,

Just quit, ignorance, quit.

March 11, 2010

Papaya’s anticancer effect against a broad range of lab-grown tumors

Medical Sciences

Dr. Nam Dang of University of Florida and his colleagues in Japan have documented papaya’s dramatic anticancer effect against a broad range of lab-grown tumors, including cancers of the cervix, breast, liver, lung and pancreas. The researchers used an extract made from dried papaya leaves, and the anticancer effects were stronger when cells received larger doses of the tea.

Dang and his colleagues also documented for the first time that papaya leaf extract boosts the production of key signaling molecules called Th1-type cytokines that are very essential for the regulation of the immune system.

Researchers exposed 10 different types of cancer cell cultures to four strengths of papaya leaf extract and measured the effect after 24 hours. Papaya slowed the growth of tumors in all the cultures. The researchers also found that one of the mechanisms employed by the papaya extract, to check the growth of cancer cells, is inducing cell death.

The papaya extract did not have any toxic effects on normal cells. According to Dr. Dang the success of the papaya extract in acting on cancer without toxicity is consistent with reports from indigenous populations in Australia and his native Vietnam. Dr. Dang said, “Based on what I have seen and heard in a clinical setting, nobody who takes this extract experiences demonstrable toxicity; it seems like you could take it for a long time — as long as it is effective.”

Now along with Hendrik Luesch, a fellow UF Shands Cancer Center member, Dr. Dang wants to identify the specific compounds in the papaya extract active against the cancer cell lines.

Source: http://news.ufl.edu/2010/03/09/papaya-2/

March 10, 2010

Geraniums could help control devastating Japanese beetle

Agriculture

Popillia japonica Newman: The Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica Newman, is a widespread and destructive pest of turf, landscape, and ornamental plants in the United States. It is also a pest of several fruit, garden, and field crops, and has a total host range of more than 300 plant species. Adult Japanese beetles feed on foliage, flowers, and fruits. Leaves are typically skeletonized or left with only tough network of veins. The larvae, commonly known as white grubs, primarily feed on roots of grasses often destroying turf in lawns, parks, and golf courses. Currently the Japanese beetle is the most widespread pest of turf grass and costs the turf and ornamental industry approximately $450 million each year in management alone. Outside of its native Japan, Popillia japonica is found in China, Russia, Portugal, Canada and the USA.

Source: http://www.entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/beetles/Japanese_beetle.htm

Using Geraniums to control Japanese beetle

It has been observed that within 30 minutes of consuming geranium petals, the Popillia japonica Newman beetle rolls over on its back, its legs and antennae slowly twitch, and it remains paralyzed for several hours. The beetles typically recover within 24 hours when paralyzed under laboratory conditions, but they often succumb to death under field conditions after predators spot and devour the beetles while they are helpless.

Entomologist Chris Ranger at the agency’s Application Technology Research Unit in Wooster, Ohio, is working on developing a way to use geraniums to control the beetles.

March 10, 2010

Thermopower waves

Physics

Carbon Nanotubes: These are cylindrical nanostructures that consist of rolled up sheets of carbon hexagons. Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers (approximately 1/50,000th of the width of a human hair), while they can be up to several millimeters in length. Nanotubes are categorized as single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs). Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) can be considered to be formed by the rolling of a single layer of graphite (called a graphene layer) into a seamless cylinder. A multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) can similarly be considered to be a coaxial assembly of cylinders of SWCNTs, one within another; the separation between tubes is about equal to that between the layers in natural graphite.

Thermopower waves

A team of scientists at MIT have discovered a previously unknown phenomenon that can cause powerful waves of energy to shoot through carbon nanotubes. This phenomenon is described as thermopower waves. These thermal waves are moving pulses of heat traveling along a carbon nanotube that can drive electrons along, creating an electrical current. This discovery was based on a prediction by Michael Strano, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering. Strano was the first to predict that thermal waves could be guided by a nanotube or nanowire and that this wave of heat could push an electrical current along that wire. Strano is one of the lead researchers of the team.

In their experiment a carbon nanotube was coated with a layer of a reactive fuel that can produce heat by decomposing. This fuel was then ignited at one end of the nanotube using either a laser beam or a high-voltage spark. The result was a fast-moving thermal wave traveling along the length of the carbon nanotube like a flame speeding along the length of a lit fuse. Heat from the fuel goes into the nanotube, where it travels thousands of times faster than in the fuel itself. As the heat feeds back to the fuel coating, a thermal wave is created that is guided along the nanotube. With a temperature of 3,000 kelvins, this ring of heat speeds along the tube 10,000 times faster than the normal spread of this chemical reaction. The heating produced by that combustion, it turns out, also pushes electrons along the tube, creating a substantial electrical current.

According to Strano the thermal wave, appears to be entraining the electrical charge carriers (either electrons or electron holes) just as an ocean wave can pick up and carry a collection of debris along the surface. He says this important property is responsible for the high power produced by the system.

The researchers claim the system now puts out energy, in proportion to its weight, about 100 times greater than an equivalent weight of lithium-ion battery. Strano says the amount of power released, is much greater than that predicted by thermoelectric calculations. While many semiconductor materials can produce an electric potential when heated, through the Seebeck effect, that effect is very weak in carbon. “There’s something else happening here,” he says. “We call it electron entrainment, since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity.”

The researchers also plan to pursue another aspect of their theory: that by using different kinds of reactive materials for the coating, the wave front could oscillate, thus producing an alternating current.

Ray Baughman, director of the Nanotech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas, who was not involved in this work, calls the research “stellar.”

The work, Baughman says, “started with a seminal initial idea, which some might find crazy, and provided exciting experimental results, the discovery of new phenomena, deep theoretical understanding, and prospects for applications.” Because it uncovered a previously unknown phenomenon, he says, it could open up “an exciting new area of investigation.”

Wonjoon Choi, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering is another one of the lead researchers of the team.

Source: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/thermopower-waves-0308.html

March 9, 2010

ATTACHMENT AND DETACHMENT

Talks by Sri Chinmoy

(This talk was given by Sri Chinmoy at University of Dublin; Dublin, Ireland on 1 December 1970)

Attachment and detachment. Detachment and attachment. From the body we get the message of attachment. From the soul we get the message of detachment. The body is limited; hence the body wants to bind us and limit us. It wants to bind and limit our outer capacity and our inner potentiality. The soul, in its potentiality and capacity, is limitless and endless. Therefore, the soul wants to free us from the meshes of ignorance and liberate us from bondage-night.

What is attachment? Attachment is the dance of our outer pleasure. What is detachment? Detachment is the song of our inner joy. Attachment ends in the prison-cell of frustration and destruction. Detachment fulfils itself in the palace of Divinity and Immortality.

I am a fool if I consciously live in the physical. I am a greater fool if I constantly admire and adore my physical body. I am the greatest fool if I live only to satisfy the needs of my physical existence.

I am a wise person if I know that there is something called the soul. I am a wiser person if I care to see and feel my soul. I am the wisest person if I live in my soul and for my soul constantly and soulfully, unreservedly and unconditionally.

When we are attached to the body, we in no time become impulsive. When we are attached to the vital, we very soon become explosive. When we are attached to the physical mind, we ultimately become destructive.

But when we are in the body, detached, we consciously feel our aspiring consciousness. When we are in the vital, detached, we expand and widen our aspiring consciousness. When we are in the mind, detached, we fulfil supremely our unlimited consciousness here on earth.

Many people, unfortunately, mistakenly feel that attachment and devotedness are one and the same thing. But attachment means that we are in the finite and attached to the finite. Devotedness means that we devote ourselves to the Infinite and are liberated by the Infinite.

Here in Ireland, nearly a hundred years ago, a young aspirant named Margaret Noble left for India to become a famous disciple of Swami Vivekenanda. This great Yogi had come to the West in 1893 to participate in the “Parliament of Religions” at the great World’s Fair in Chicago. His spiritual stature was immediately recognised, and he became famous overnight.

When he went to England from the United States, Margaret Noble attended his talks and became his dearest disciple. He called her Nivedita, “one who is totally dedicated to the Supreme Cause.”

Indian people are all admiration for what Nivedita did for India. She helped Indian women in infinite measure. She helped to awaken their slumbering consciousness so that they could envision themselves as divine instruments and grow into the perfect embodiments of aspiration, dedication and illumination for their Mother India. We Indians are filled with divine pride when we utter the name of Nivedita.

Her father was a clergyman, a great seeker and lover of God. On his deathbed, he said to his wife, “Do not stand in Margaret’s way. If she wants to go to India, let her go.” Margaret’s mother had been very upset by her daughter’s desire to leave Ireland for distant India, but at her husband’s last request, she did help Margaret and inspired her. Nivedita went to India and became India’s veritable pride. Hers was the heart that knew no despair. Just before she passed behind the curtain of eternity, she uttered under her breath, “The frail boat is sinking, but I shall yet see the sunrise.”

I wish to offer my humble talk to the hallowed memory of Sister Nivedita, Margaret Noble of Ireland.

Detachment is misunderstood. We feel that if someone is detached, he is indifferent. Spiritual seekers also make the same mistake in thinking that when we want to be detached from someone, we must show him utter indifference, to the point of total neglect. This is not true. When we are indifferent to someone, we do nothing for him. We have nothing to do with his joy or sorrow, his achievement or failure. But when we are truly detached, we work for him devotedly and selflessly and offer the results of our actions at the Feet of the Lord Supreme, our Inner Pilot.

It does not matter if the result is success or failure. If we are not at all attached to the results, we get an immediate expansion of consciousness. If we do not care for the fruit of our action, the Supreme rewards us in the Supreme’s own Way.

Lord Krishna said, “Thou hast the right to act, but not to the fruits of action.” The Upanishads declare, “Action cleaves not to a man.”

If we work devotedly and selflessly, action does not bind us. There will be no difficulty in working for God’s sake if we work without caring about the result. This is true detachment; this is spiritual detachment. When we can renounce the unlit, unaspiring action, we can enter into the divine action which is our real life; and in this there is always perfection and fulfilment.

When we pay all attention to the material world and neglect the inner world, we starve the soul in us. The soul has to be brought to the fore. If we think we can get infinite wealth from the material world, then we are totally mistaken.

Yagnayvalkya, the great Indian sage, had a wife whose name was Maitreyi. Yagnayvalkya wanted to spend the evening of his life in meditation and contemplation, so he decided to give away his earthly possessions. He asked Maitreyi if she wanted his riches. She asked, “Will your riches give me immortal life? Of what use to me are the things that cannot make me immortal?”

We need the material world, undoubtedly, but we cannot give all our energy to it. We feed our body three times a day. Unfortunately, we do not have time to feed our soul even once a day. We, the seekers of the infinite Truth, feed the body so that we can become the perfect instrument of the soul.

The soul has Divinity, Eternity, Immortality. The soul wants to offer its world to the body. If the body becomes receptive, it will receive all that the soul has to offer. The body itself will echo and re-echo in the life of aspiration and dedication. It will march along as the most humble servitor of the soul. Its existence will be the existence of glory and divinity, divine service and supreme fulfilment.

We fulfil the Supreme on earth. He treasures us in His Heart’s Heaven.

March 9, 2010

Evidence of the most massive antinucleus

Physics

Antiparticle: In particle physics, every particle has a corresponding antiparticle. A particle and its antiparticle have identical mass and spin but have opposite values for all other non-zero quantum number labels. These labels are electric charge, color charge, flavor, electron number, muon number, tau number, and baryon number.

Every fermion (lepton and quarks) carries some charge – like quantum number labels, and each has a distinct antiparticle partner with opposite values for those labels. For example, the antiparticle of an electron is a positron — it has exactly the same mass as an electron but positive electric charge. (The positron is the only antiparticle with its own name. In all other cases, the name of the antiparticle is anti- in front of the name of the particle, such as proton and anti-proton.)

Charged bosons always have an antiparticle partner of opposite charge and equal mass. For charge zero mesons with different types of quark and antiquark, there is an antiparticle partner of that reverses the role of quark and antiquark.

For charge zero mesons with the same type of quark and antiquark, and for the charge zero force carriers (photon and Z), the particle and the antiparticle are identical. The antiparticle of a photon is a photon, likewise the antiparticle of a phi meson (s quark and anti-s quark) is a phi meson.

Gluons are force carriers with zero electric charge, but each type of gluon has a color charge. Thus each gluon has a corresponding antiparticle with a related color charge.

Matter and Antimatter: Any particle built from quarks, (charges +2/3 and -1/3), negatively charged leptons and left handed neutrinos is called matter. Any particle built from antiquarks (charges of -2/3 or +1/3), positively charged leptons and right-handed neutrinos is called antimatter.

Source: http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/antiquarks.html

Strangeness is a property of particles, expressed as a quantum number, for describing decay of particles in strong and electromagnetic reactions, which occur in a short period of time. The strangeness of a particle depends on the the number of strange quarks and the number of strange antiquarks the particle has. Nuclei containing one or more strange quarks are called hypernuclei. For all ordinary matter, with no strange quarks, the strangeness value is zero.

Evidence of the most massive antinucleus

An international team of scientists studying high-energy collisions of gold ions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has published evidence of the most massive antinucleus discovered to date. The new antinucleus, discovered at RHIC’s STAR detector, is a negatively charged state of antimatter containing an antiproton, an antineutron, and an anti-Lambda particle. It is also the first antinucleus containing an anti-strange quark.

The STAR team has found that the rate at which their heaviest antinucleus is produced is consistent with expectations based on a statistical collection of antiquarks from the soup of quarks and antiquarks generated in RHIC collisions. Extrapolating from this result, the experimenters believe they should be able to discover even heavier antinuclei in upcoming collider running periods. Theoretical physicist Stoecker and his team have predicted that strange nuclei around double the mass of the newly discovered state should be particularly stable.

Theoretical physicist Horst Stoecker, Vice President of the Helmholtz Association of German National Laboratories says, “This experimental discovery may have unprecedented consequences for our view of the world. This antimatter pushes open the door to new dimensions in the nuclear chart — an idea that just a few years ago, would have been viewed as impossible.”

Consequences of this discovery

This study of the new antihypernucleus (antinucleus containing an anti-strange quark) also yields a valuable sample of normal hypernuclei, and has implications for the understanding of the structure of collapsed stars. Jinhui Chen, one of the lead authors, a postdoctoral researcher at Kent State University and currently a staff scientist at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, says, “The strangeness value could be non-zero in the core of collapsed stars. So the present measurements at RHIC will help us distinguish between models that describe these exotic states of matter.”

The findings also pave the way towards exploring violations of fundamental symmetries between matter and antimatter i.e. the predominance of matter over antimatter. According to Brookhaven physicist, Zhangbu Xu, another one of the lead authors, “A solution will require measurements of subtle deviations from perfect symmetry between matter and antimatter, and there are good prospects for future antimatter measurements at RHIC to address this key issue.”

Source: http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=1075

March 5, 2010

Silver nanoparticles prove to be toxic

Bio-Chemistry

Harmful effects of silver nanoparticles: Please refer to the post Reducing the toxicity of silver.

Study done by researchers at Purdue

According to a study done at Purdue University, nanosilver suspended in solution proved toxic and even lethal to fathead minnows (a species of temperate freshwater fish).

The researchers observed the effects first when the silver nanoparticles were sonicated in the solution and later when the nanoparticles were allowed to settle. (Sonication is the act of applying sound (usually ultrasound) energy to agitate particles in a sample. It is commonly used in nanotechnology for evenly dispersing nanoparticles in liquids.)

According to Maria Sepúlveda, an assistant professor of forestry and natural resources, when nanosilver was sonicated, its toxicity increased tenfold.

In their study Sepúlveda and doctoral student Geoff Laban exposed fathead minnows to nanosilver at several stages of their development, from embryo to the point where they swim up from the bottom of their habitats to eat for the first time. Even without sonication, nanosilver caused malformations that included head hemorrhages and edema, and ultimately proved lethal. Using electron microscopy, Sepúlveda was able to detect nanosilver particles measuring 30 nanometers or less inside the minnow embryos.

Sepúlveda said, “These nanosilver particles are so small they are able to cross the egg membranes and move into the fish embryos in less than a day. They had a potentially high dose of silver in them.”

Sepúlveda now plans to develop tests to understand the effect different nanoparticles have on fish and other organisms. She also wants to develop testing to determine nanosilver concentrations in the environment. Sepúlveda said, “How are we going to know the risk unless we know the concentration of these particles?”.

According to another member of the research team, Ron Turco, professor of agronomy, it’s unclear how nanosilver exposure might affect human health. He said, “The use of nanosilver could provide a number of sanitary benefits if used properly. However, the indiscriminate inclusion of nanosilver into products to simply allow them to say they are antimicrobial is creating a cautionary issue. Nanosilver is being considered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for environmental exposure profiling, much like a pesticide.” Turco also indicated there has been little work done to estimate the current level of nanosilver being released into the environment.

Source: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2010/100301SepulvedaNanosilver.html

March 3, 2010

Poetry of Sri Chinmoy – 12

Poetry

MY LIFE ALTERNATES WITH GOD

My day alternates with night.

My fear alternates with strength.

My doubt alternates with certainty.

My love alternates with hatred.

My defeat alternates with victory.

I alternate with God.

My soul alternates with God the Dream.

My heart alternates with God the Lover.

My life alternates with God the Player.

March 3, 2010

ASPIRATION AND DEDICATION

Talks by Sri Chinmoy

(This talk was given by Sri Chinmoy at University of Iceland; Reykjavík, Iceland on 21 July 1974)

In our spiritual life two things are of paramount importance: aspiration and dedication. They are like complementary souls; each adds to the other. Aspiration is our heart’s ascent; dedication is our heart’s descent. Aspiration is our life’s beauty; dedication is our life’s plenitude. When we aspire, we try to see man in God; when we dedicate ourselves, we try to see God in man. Aspiration tells us where God is; dedication tells us who God is. Where is God? God is inside the heartbeat of our acceptance-light. Who is God? God is none other than ourselves in our Transcendental Height.

There was a time when we walked along the desire-road. At the end of our journey’s close we discovered that our destination was nothing but frustration. Frustration then persuaded us to meet with its most intimate friend, destruction. Together we sang with frustration; together we danced with destruction.

But now we are walking along the road of aspiration. This road is endless and the seeker’s journey is eternal. On this road life is progress, life is God- preparation, life is God-manifestation, life is God-satisfaction. On this road we sing with Eternity’s Silence and we dance with Infinity’s Sound.

There was a time when we dedicated ourselves to someone or to something with the hope of world-appreciation, world-admiration and world-adoration. But when we discovered that world-appreciation, world-admiration and world- adoration fell short of our expectation, we tried to console ourselves with a new hope. This hope was for world-recognition. We thought that if the world recognised us, this was enough. But world-recognition was also not to our satisfaction. At this point, our self-styled knowledge-light revolted against God’s lack of Compassion. We despised the height of the world’s ingratitude.

But now we are sincere, dedicated seekers. We feel that world-recognition is absolutely unnecessary, not to speak of world-appreciation, world-admiration and world-adoration. At this point, we have discovered something most significant: world-appreciation, world-admiration and world-adoration are like devouring animals. They can devour us at any moment on our way to God-realisation unless we are well protected by God’s adamantine Will and unconditional Compassion.

In the spiritual life quite often we are disappointed. Why? Because every day our aspiration is not intense, because every day our dedication is not genuine. How can we have intense aspiration and genuine dedication in our daily multifarious activities? We can have these unparalleled, divine qualities if every day we offer our soulful gratitude to the Inner Pilot. Gratitude is the only prayer that is immediately answered by our Inner Pilot.

We are seekers, but there are millions and millions of unaspiring people on earth. They may ask us what they consider a difficult question. They may ask us how we live on earth amidst countless sufferings, excruciating pangs and world-ignorance. We immediately tell them that our aspiration has the answer. We tell them that aspiration not only has the answer but also is the answer. They ask us how we can love people who are full of ignorance, full of imperfections and full of animal propensities. We immediately tell them that our dedication has the answer. We tell them that dedication not only has the answer but also is the answer. We employ our aspiration, our heart’s cry, to help us propel the Dream- Boat of God. We employ our dedication to be of service to God with the hope that the Reality-Shore will come closer to us.

Our life of aspiration and dedication is the payment of our personal debt to our Mother Earth. Our life of vision and satisfaction is the payment of our personal debt to our Father Heaven. Our life of perfection and transcendence is the payment of our personal debt to our Supreme Lord.

When we do not aspire we notice that human life is full of rules and regulations. When we do aspire we feel that there are no rules and regulations; we are flowing with the river of freedom and entering into the Perfection-Sea. When we realise the highest Truth we come to realise that there is only one rule and that rule is: God comes first. Then we go one step further and see that the sole rule is: God for God’s sake, and not for our personal satisfaction. It is our unconditional surrender to God’s Will that can make us really happy and fulfilled. Aspiration and dedication have three most intimate friends to help them reach their destined goal. These friends are concentration, meditation and contemplation. Time will not permit me to speak on them at length, but I wish to demonstrate for a few seconds what concentration, meditation and contemplation are.

First let us try to concentrate. When we concentrate, we focus all our attention on a particular subject or object. Our concentration is like a divine arrow entering into the object. It pierces the veil of ignorance. I shall be concentrating on my heart. You can also concentrate on your heart or on anything or anyone you want to. [Sri Chinmoy demonstrated concentration for a few moments, in silence.]

Now I shall meditate. When we meditate, we do not focus on a particular thing; we merge into something vast, endless, infinite. I shall meditate on the sky. You can also meditate on the sky or on something else if you like. [Sri Chinmoy then demonstrated meditation.]

Now I shall contemplate. When we contemplate, the seeker in us becomes the divine Lover, who is inseparably one with the Supreme Beloved. [Sri Chinmoy then demonstrated contemplation.]

Dear seekers, exactly a month ago I left New York for Europe. I have visited quite a few European countries and I have given talks at several well-known universities. Today marks the end of my lecture tour or, rather, the end of my dedicated service here.

I am a spiritual farmer. God, out of His infinite Bounty, has entrusted me with the task of ploughing the spiritual land. This is my first visit to your beautiful island. I have been here for about four hours. During these four hours, I have felt the Indian consciousness here in Iceland. India’s natural beauty I have observed here; India’s inner peace I have felt here. My presence here makes me feel that my life of aspiration and your life of aspiration in the inner world have built a bridge between spiritual India and spiritual Iceland. Your genuine enthusiasm and cry for God have impressed my heart deeply. My Indian heart offers its soulful gratitude to your hearts of aspiration, for it is you who have given me the opportunity to be of dedicated service to you today. Nothing gives me greater joy than to be of dedicated service to the Supreme inside aspiring human beings.

March 1, 2010

How proteins in a cell extract and use the energy from ATP

Medical Sciences

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP): Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is considered by biologists to be the energy currency of life. It is the high-energy molecule that stores the energy we need. It is present in the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm of every cell, and essentially all the physiological mechanisms that require energy for operation obtain it directly from the stored ATP. It is a nucleotide. (Nucleotides are molecules that, when joined together, make up the structural units of RNA and DNA.) Each cell in the human body contains about a billion ATP molecules, and the power derived from the breakdown of them is used to deliver substances to their cellular homes, build needed complex molecules and even make muscles contract.

In the structure of ATP the part that is really critical is the phosphorous part – the triphosphate. The removal of one of these phosphate groups from the end, so that there are just two phosphate groups (i.e. converting ATP to ADP), liberates about 7.3 kilocalories per mole = 30.6 kJ/mol. This is about the same as the energy in a single peanut. Thus this conversion of ATP to ADP is an extremely crucial reaction for the supplying of energy for life processes. As food in the cells is gradually oxidized, the released energy is used to re-form the ATP from ADP so that the cell always maintains a supply of ATP.

Source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Biology/atp.html

Kinesins are a class of motor proteins that move along microtubule cables (cellular roadways) powered by the hydrolysis of ATP and convert chemical energy into mechanical work. The active movement of kinesins supports several cellular functions including mitosis, meiosis and transport of cargo such as axonal transport.

How proteins in a cell extract and use the energy from ATP

Researchers from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center shed light on how proteins in a cell extract and use the energy from ATP.

The team chose to investigate kinesins that break down ATP. They narrowed their study to the human kinesin Eg5, which is essential for cell division. Associate professor Sunyoung Kim, who led the research work says, “We picked kinesins because they’re the simplest known motor proteins. Usually, proteins that break down ATP are very large and have a lot of moving parts for mechanical work. The simpler and the smaller the system is, the more likely you can capture information about it in detail.”

According to one of the researchers, assistant professor David Worthylake, to get a clear picture of how the kinesin and ATP interact, the team used X-ray crystallography to develop a three-dimensional structure that would detail all the bonds and atomic contacts.

Their strategy was to trap the protein in the middle of the energy-releasing chain of events by coaxing it to hold onto a chemical mimic of ATP, in which the final phosphate cannot be removed as usual, and examining the “jammed” protein up close. This according to another one of the researchers, Courtney Parke, a graduate student, was a challenge. She says successfully trapping an ATP mimic is quite difficult.

Further complicating matters, purified kinesin proteins typically are found bound to product of ATP breakdown, adenosine diphosphate, or ADP. So instead of inserting the mimic of ATP into this purified kinesin protein with ADP already bound to it, the researchers first pulled the ADP out and then asked the Eg5 kinesin to bind the ATP mimic.

The surprising result was that the protein uses a string of water molecules to harness the energy of the reaction.

Another researcher, assistant professor Edward Wojcik, notes “Conventional wisdom pointed toward the reactive agent that starts the ATP breakdown process as being something in the protein, such as an amino acid.” To the surprise of the researchers it wasn’t an amino acid at all: It was a second water molecule that pulled the proton off the first water molecule.

Kim explains, “Each of these water molecules is attached to different part of the protein. And, normally, they hold tightly to each other as well, keeping two very distant parts of the protein connected by a molecular bridge. Our data show, when the second water molecule takes the proton from the first one, the proton is transferred across this bridge. This causes the two different parts of the protein that the bridge holds together to unfurl, and you have motion in the protein.” That internal motion propels the nanomachine along its assigned roadway, allowing it to do its assigned duties. Wojcik says, “For such a relatively simple molecule, water still has some tricks to teach us, and I am still amazed that we found it to play such a pivotal role in the motor protein machinery.”

The team hopes that, with a clearer understanding of how these biological machines work, scientists will better understand how and why things are moved around inside cells, allowing them to figure out how to turn things on and off at will with novel drugs to help combat diseases.

“We believe many, if not all, proteins that use the energy from ATP breakdown may work the same way,” Kim says.

March 1, 2010

Reducing the toxicity of silver

Chemistry

Silver is known as one of the oldest antimicrobial agents (i.e. substances that kill or inhibit the growth of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, or protozoans).

Many mechanisms relating to the antimicrobial property of silver have been put forward. It has been demonstrated that silver ions react in micro-organisms with the thiol groups of proteins. There is also evidence to show that silver ions damage DNA by inhibiting its replication. Silver’s ability to form extremely sparingly soluble salts is also considered one of its impact mechanisms. When the chloride ions precipitate as silver chloride from the cytoplasm of cells, cell respiration is inhibited. The antibacterial efficiency of silver nanoparticles is also well-known, especially against Gram-negative bacteria such as E.coli. The silver nanoparticles work by releasing silver ions and by penetrating cells.

Harmful effects of silver nanoparticles

Silver, silver ions and silver nanoparticles have generally been considered to be quite harmless to people. However, the most recent research has demonstrated that nanoparticles also penetrate mammalian cells and damage the genotype. There is even evidence to suggest that silver nanoparticles may actively find their way into cells through endocytosis. Inside the cell, hydrogen peroxide formed in cell respiration oxidises silver nanoparticles and releases silver ions from them, consequently increasing the toxicity. Thus, it can even be assumed that silver nanoparticles are cyto- or genotoxic. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that silver nanoparticles penetrate the skin via pores and glands. If the skin is damaged, this facilitates the penetration of silver particles through the skin.

Reducing the toxicity of silver

According to chemists at the University of Helsinki it is important that coatings containing silver nanoparticles do not release nanoparticles. The effect of the coating should only be based on silver ions dissolving from them. Consequently, nanoparticles should be as well bound to the coating (i.e. products with added silver or silver nanoparticles) as possible, enabling a reduction in the possible exposure to silver nanoparticles.

Keeping this in mind the Finnish researchers have managed to manufacture new polymer-stabilised silver nanoparticles. By binding the silver nanoparticles to polymers these researchers are confident that silver nanoparticles will be prevented from penetrating mammalian cells thus reducing the toxicity of silver.

In order to manufacture polymer-stabilised silver nanoparticles the researchers used a reactive thiol end group. It is known that thiol groups bind effectively with silver, which enables the effective colloidal stabilisation of silver nanoparticles and binding to polymers. The polymer is in itself a soft, rubber-like acrylate, which contains a water-soluble block that enables silver ions to be released from the otherwise hydrophobic coating. The idea is that these silver nanoparticles could be used as a coating or its component.

Source: University of Helsinki

February 24, 2010

Current Climate Mitigation Efforts not adequate

Environment

Radiative forcing is a measure of the influence a factor (say, a change in greenhouse gas concentrations) has in altering the balance of incoming and outgoing energy in the Earth-atmosphere system and is an index of the importance of the factor as a potential climate change mechanism.

A Very Inconvenient Truth

In their article ‘A Very Inconvenient Truth’ Charles H. Greene, D. James Baker and Daniel H. Miller discuss the reasons why the evaluation of the risks of climate change due to human activities by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is prone to underestimating the threats of global climate change.

According to Charles et al., the IPCC process is based on consensus building and the final reports are intended to inform rather than shape policy. Because of the conservative nature of this consensus-building process these reports can lead scientists and policymakers to underestimate the structural uncertainties and risks associated with several important but poorly understood threats to the Earth system.

The IPCC process tends to formalize the approaches employed by both climate and socio-economic modelers so that the discussions of scientists and policymakers frequently become fixated on certain numerical values. A fixation on numerical values, especially ones arrived at without a clear explanation of the uncertainties involved, can lead to policy discussions that overlook important aspects of risk. For example, in the attempts to regulate emissions to achieve a particular global green house gas (GHG) stabilization level, there is still considerable uncertainty about how to include a number of nonlinear processes in models that are important in determining climate sensitivity. In addition, even when one is satisfied with projections of the average global temperature increase, there remains considerable uncertainty in assessing the vulnerabilities of various natural and human systems to that increase. Without a better understanding of these vulnerabilities, it is difficult to assess potential climate threats quantitatively, especially those most relevant to risk management.

Current Climate Mitigation Efforts not adequate

In their article Charles et al., also point out that, based on the scientific findings listed below, scientists are of the opinion that climate mitigation efforts that focus only on reducing GHG emissions may be placing society on the hazardous path of having to adapt to dangerous climate change that mitigation efforts fail to prevent:

1) Warming in the pipeline: Warming in the pipeline corresponds to the growing gap between the observed value of average global temperature and the expected equilibrium value once various feedback mechanisms are taken into account. Based on this concept the scientists have arrived at the conclusion that, even if GHG emissions were to drop precipitously and concentrations were to stabilize at today’s levels (in fact GHG emissions have been increasing more rapidly during recent years), there will be an average global temperature increase of 2.4°C by the end of the century, a warming in excess of the European Union’s threshold for dangerous climate change which is 2.0°C.

2) Because there are physical limits on the rate at which new, low-carbon energy technologies can be deployed, even assuming that the proper financial incentives are adopted, emissions are unlikely to be reduced substantially for several decades. Therefore, we can anticipate that GHG concentrations will continue to rise for at least the first half of the twenty-first century before eventually stabilizing. Because of CO2’s long residence time in the atmosphere, the overall GHG concentration in the absence of anthropogenic sequestration efforts will stabilize for the next thousand years at a level that is approximately 40% of its peak enhancement over the pre-industrial period.

3) Researchers also conclude that the climate warming induced by elevated GHG concentrations is largely irreversible. Once atmospheric temperature reaches equilibrium at a certain peak-overall GHG concentration, it will not drop markedly for the next thousand years even as GHG concentrations decline. This irreversibility comes about because the atmosphere’s loss of heat to the ocean is even more gradual than its loss of CO2. The thermal inertia of the ocean, which is delaying the rate of climate warming today, will delay the rate of climate cooling in the future.

4) According to scientists the climate system is less resilient to GHG radiative forcing than was previously thought. Greater climate sensitivity to GHG radiative forcing makes the system less resistant to warming, while the ocean’s thermal inertia makes that warming essentially irreversible for the next thousand years.

Proposed Solution

If society is to avoid dangerous climate change, then the policy debate must transition from discussions of mitigation strategies focused almost exclusively on reducing GHG emissions to discussions of mixed strategies that include combinations of reducing GHG emissions and employing geoengineering approaches that extract CO2 from the atmosphere and/or reduce the level of incoming solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface.

Charles H. Greene is Director, Ocean Resources and Ecosystems Program, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University.

D. James Baker is Director, Global Carbon Measurement Program, The William J. Clinton Foundation.

Daniel H. Miller is Managing Director, The Roda Group, Berkeley, CA, USA

Source: http://www.tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/23_1/23-1_greene.pdf

February 23, 2010

MY PASSPORT

Talks by Sri Chinmoy

(This talk was given by Sri Chinmoy at University of Heidelberg; Heidelberg, Germany on 4 April 1989)

What do I need? I need a lifelong passport to humanity’s heart-country. Before I get this passport, I must accomplish quite a few things in my life of aspiration and dedication.

I must acquire a heart full of faith-blossoms and aspiration-flames. I must acquire a doubt-banished mind and a confusion-illumined mind. I must acquire a vital that is always a stranger to restlessness and aggression. I must have a vital that is surcharged with energy and dynamism. I must acquire a body that is divinely strong—as strong as a fort. I must have a body that is supremely pure— as pure as the heart of a temple.

I must say good-bye to my centuries of insecurity. I must say good-bye to my centuries of self-importance and pride. I must say good-bye to my centuries of ignorance-multiplication-game.

Every day, without fail, I must learn a new surrender-prayer that will reach the Forgiveness-Feet of my Lord Supreme. Every day, without fail, I must learn a new gratitude-meditation that will fly into the Heart of my Lord Beloved Supreme. Every day, without fail, I must learn to love my Lord Supreme and manifest Him unconditionally in His own Way.

In my heart-garden I must sow the seeds of patience, compassion and forgiveness slowly, steadily, cheerfully and unerringly. In my heart-garden I must most devotedly and faithfully grow the plant of universal oneness. In my heart-garden I must grow into a world-nourishing and world-fulfilling tree. This is the tree that aspires to reach the highest heights. This is the tree that offers cheerfully what it has within. This is the tree that becomes inseparably one with earth’s excruciating pangs as well as Heaven’s infinite Delight.

Lo and behold, I am now the holder of a lifelong passport to humanity’s heart-country.

February 23, 2010

The Philippines triples it’s rice yields

Agriculture

International Rice Research Institute:

In the 1950s Los Baños in the Philippines was selected as the most advantageous location for an agricultural research program to expand food production in Asia. Accordingly the International Rice Research Institute, IRRI, was established in Los Baños, Philippines, in 1960. Since 1960 IRRI has helped Filipino farmers increase their rice production and the health of their rice farms by developing new technologies and varieties that have resulted in a steady increase in rice yields. IRRI is a nonprofit organization and some of the organisations that fund IRRI include the Asian Development Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, universities, and the European Commission. Following are some of IRRI’s contributions:

New rice varieties: In the Philippines, over 76 rice varieties are attributed to IRRI. In 2009, three new rice varieties (developed by IRRI) designed to help Filipino farmers grow more rice in difficult conditions were officially recommended for approval for commercial cultivation in the Philippines. One variety is flood-tolerant, one is drought-tolerant, and one is salt-tolerant.

Smarter fertilizer use: IRRI research has delivered to Filipino rice farmers a customized web-based tool called ‘Nutrient Manager’ (www.irri.org/nmrice) to help them manage their fertilizers more wisely to save money and improve rice production. ‘Nutrient Manager’ helps farmers identify how much and which fertilizers they should use, and when to apply them, to optimize their rice yield.

Sharing seed: IRRI houses the International Rice Genebank where over 109,000 different types of rice are maintained to conserve genetic diversity and ensure it is available to help improve rice crops into the future. Where possible, IRRI provides small quantities of rice from the International Rice Genebank to any individual or organization anywhere in the world free of charge. IRRI manages the collection under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture that facilitates access to genetic diversity while ensuring appropriate sharing of the benefits that arise from their use.

The Philippines triples it’s rice yields

According to researchers at IRRI, in the last fifty years, the Philippines has more than tripled its rice yield, while the world average rice yield has increased only about 2.3 times. It has raised its rice yields from 1.16 tons per hectare in 1960 to 3.59 tons per hectare in 2009. Rice yields in the Philippines are also higher than those in Thailand, the world’s biggest exporter of rice, where yields over the last few years have been around 3 tons per hectare.

Dr. William Padolina, deputy director general for operations at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said, “The Philippines has enthusiastically taken up rice science technologies that have helped farmers dramatically increase their yields. Filipino farmers have adopted more than 75 IRRI-bred high-yielding rice varieties since 1960, have greatly improved their fertilizer and pest management strategies, and are implementing water-saving technologies.”

Dr Padolina also said, “This year, IRRI is celebrating its 50th anniversary. During our 50 years we have established some important and productive partnerships with institutions such as the Philippine Rice Research Institute and the University of the Philippines, Los Baños that share our goal to help alleviate poverty through improved rice production.”

Dr. Padolina acknowledges that the Philippines could improve its rice yields even more and said, “The Philippines will continue to support rice research as a way of ensuring food security for Filipinos, to help lift local rice farmers and consumers out of poverty, and in turn improve the entire economy of the country.”

Source: http://beta.irri.org/news/index.php/press-releases/the-philippines-triples-it-s-rice-yields.html

February 19, 2010

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