NASA technology (11)

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Exploring the Quantum World
NASA – Researchers at JPL and Caltech have developed an instrument for exploring the cosmos and the quantum world.

This new type of amplifier boosts electrical signals and can be used for everything from studying stars, galaxies and black holes to exploring the quantum world and developing quantum computers. An amplifier is a device that increases the strength of a weak signal.

One of the key features of the new amplifier is that it incorporates superconductors–materials that allow an electric current to flow with zero resistance when lowered to certain temperatures. For their amplifier, the researchers are using titanium nitride and niobium titanium nitride, which have just the right properties to allow the pump signal to amplify the weak signal.

Although the amplifier has a host of potential applications, the reason the researchers built the device was to help them study the universe. The team built the instrument to boost microwave signals, but the new design can be used to build amplifiers that help astronomers observe in a wide range of wavelengths, from radio waves to X-rays. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Say Goodbye to the 9-to-5 Work Day

By Paul Shread – According to new research from Mozy, EMC’s online data protection unit, employees are checking email from home both before and after work. The average employee has put in 46 minutes of work before they’ve even arrived at the office, and by the time they’re done checking email for the day, 12 hours has passed.

In exchange, employees might come into work a little later, but 80% of them also think it’s acceptable to call them at home at night. more> http://tinyurl.com/73wqbhy

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• The death of 9-to-5: Here’s why you’re working all the time (thestar.com)
• Why Bosses No Longer Care If You’re Late for Work [STUDY] (mashable.com)
• Survey: The grim realities of your working hours (cbsnews.com)

Central bankers eyeing whether Libor needs scrapping

By Randall Palmer – Central bankers and regulators will hold talks in September on whether the troubled global Libor interest rate can be reformed or whether it is so damaged that the benchmark of borrowing costs should be scrapped.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and global financial regulator Mark Carney, who is also governor of the Bank of Canada, on Wednesday floated possible alternatives to the London interbank offered rate, which some bankers manipulated in the 2007-09 financial crisis.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to defend himself on Wednesday (July 18) against criticisms that regulators should have taken bigger steps to address concerns over Libor. more> http://tinyurl.com/ce4otth

Related articles

• Central bankers raise prospect of scrapping Libor if no fix possible (business.financialpost.com)
• U.K. Bankers Scrap Black-Tie Dinner as Libor Probe Intensifies – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Geithner Sent BOE’s King Libor Revamp Recommendations in 2008 (bloomberg.com)
• LIBOR Rigging: What the Regulators Saw (But Didn’t Shut Down) (business.time.com)
• This Is The Email That Timothy Geithner Sent To The Bank Of England About LIBOR Manipulation In 2008 (businessinsider.com)
• Central Bankers to Discuss Libor’s Future, Canada Says – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• The Perfect Storm – Libor Scandal (outsider-trading.com)
• Timothy Geithner pressed Mervyn King to reform Libor in 2008 (guardian.co.uk)
• Banks Stole Millions with LIBOR (drudge.com)
• Geithner: U.S. Acted ‘Early’ and ‘Forcefully’ on Libor Flaws (blogs.wsj.com)
• Libor Reported as Rigged in ’08 Proving 2012’s Revelation, John Detrixhe, BusinessWeek

“Loops of light” promising for optical detection of individual molecules

R&D Mag – KU Leuven researcher Ventsislav Valev and an international team of colleagues have developed a new method for manipulating light at the nanoscale in order to optically detect single molecules.

Nanotechnology researchers around the world are exploring ways to optically detect single molecules, but progress can be hindered by the fact that single molecules have extremely weak optical responses. Thus far, scientists have developed a way to use metal nanostructures to focus light into tiny spots called ‘hotspots’. The hotspots excite electrons on the surface of the nanostructure, causing them to oscillate coherently. When shone on a molecule, and with the help of these oscillating electrons, the focused light can increase a molecule’s optical signal to 100 billion times its normal strength. This signal can then be detected with an optical microscope. more> http://tinyurl.com/ctmpfj7

Related articles

• Fused molecules guide magnetic plasmons (physicsworld.com)
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Masculinity and the link with the banking crisis

Phys.org – An article, co-authored by Professor Knights and Maria Tullberg of Gothenberg University, on the role of masculinity in the ongoing financial crisis has been published in the July issue of Organisation journal.

“Perhaps what we need is an ethics that is based on developing a virtuous self where morality is not about gaining advantage or avoiding punishment but becomes an end in itself. Of course the cure of collective morality conflicts with Western ideologies that since Adam Smith support individual self-interest on the basis that it has a ‘hidden hand’ of collective benefit. If nothing else, the global financial crisis exposed that myth and we all are suffering the consequences.” more> http://tinyurl.com/6tpjq7h

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• Masculinity and the link with the banking crisis (phys.org)
• The Seven Signs of Authentic Masculinity (herculodge.typepad.com)
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