Majorana particles

Majorana fermions.

Dutch researchers discovered the predicted Majorana particles (quasiparticles that are their own antiparticles). Computer technology based on quantum bits (qubits, 0 AND 1 at the same time) i.s.o. bits (0 or 1) will result in very fast computers, which in turn will speed up development of e.g. medicins. 

Fermions vs. Bosons: 

"Particles and quasiparticles come in two basic types, fermions and bosons, depending on the type of spin they have. The elementary particles of matter (electrons, quarks and neutrinos) are fermions, while photons and other force carriers are bosons. Particles are paired with antiparticles—antimatter electrons are positrons, etc.—but photons are their own antiparticles. To annihilate, particles and antiparticles must have opposite charge, so Majorana fermions, which are their own antiparticles, need to be electrically-neutral. At present, no fermion is known to be its own antiparticle, although neutrinos may have this property (we don't yet know)." 

majorana-fermions-in-a-nanowire

arXiv

The Physics arXiv blog.

 http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/

My most favourite blog is by far that from the Technology Review: "The Physics arXiv blog". Some very interesting topics below: 

• Mathematical Model Computes Snow Flake Shapes for the First Time

• Self Portrait of Young Leonardo da Vinci

• How Neutrino Beams Could Reveal Cavities Inside Earth

• Electron Holography Produces First Image of a Single Protein

• Physicists Predict The Existence of Time Crystals

Holography of a Protein Molecule

Time Crystals

Snow Flakes

Leonardo

Images are from Technology review.
 

SnapIt

SnapIt.

The screen capture software SnapIt captures anything you see on your PC screen. It is a convenient tool for graphic designers, bloggers who capture and crop images for their posts, for tech writers who need to describe menus and interfaces of applications, web designers and those who work with graphics every day. It captures and auto saves images with one click.

Researchers 'recreated' a Stradivarius for the first time by making use of hi-tech tools such as X-Ray images, CT scanning and computer-aided carvin.

Unfortunately, we can't make use of these hi-tech tools. The only tool we have is making screenshots. Cropping these screenshots after being captured with PrtScrn is often a hassle. The handy tool SnapIt is a covenient solution to tackle these problems.

* Supports hotkeys, auto-saving, clipboard
* Automatically copies screenshots to the clipboard
* Tracks capture history, auto-saves captured images
* Saves files in BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG and TIFF formats

* Auto-names captured images

SnapIt, a convenient tool for us bloggers

 <a href="http://www.digeus.com/products/snapit/snapit_screen_capture_3_5.html">Screen Capture Software</a>

SpiderSilkMusic

Spider Silk and Music.

Comparing the structure-function relationships in spider silk and a musical composition. Ontology Logs (ologs) connects spider silk and music.

MIT researchers claim that there is a deep relation between the lightweight strength in spider silk and the sonic structure of a melody in a music composition. This may be beneficial for the development of materials with repeating patterns. Spider silk has a repeating structure at nano level. The step-by-step comparison begins with the primary building blocks: an amino acid and a sound wave, and moves up to the level of a beta sheet nanocomposite (the secondary structure of a protein consists of repeated hierarchical patterns of protein assemblages) and a musical riff (a repeated pattern of notes or chords). 

i)   nanotech-now.com
ii)  crazyengineers.com 

iii) web.mit.edu

PLoS ONE: Protein 3D Structure Computed from Evolutionary Sequence Variation

Here is another interesting example (olog) of structure-function relationships: the prediction of the protein 3D structure from the aminoacid sequence (including a GPCR membrane protein). The blinded inferences are de novo, i.e., they do not use homology modeling or sequence-similar fragments from known structures. The co-evolution signals provide sufficient information to determine accurate 3D protein structure to 2.7–4.8 Å Cα-RMSD error relative to the observed structure, over at least two-thirds of the protein (method called EVfold, details at http://EVfold.org/). This discovery provides insight into essential interactions constraining protein evolution and will facilitate a comprehensive survey of the universe of protein structures, new strategies in protein and drug design, and the identification of functional genetic variants in normal and disease genomes.

DWDD Recordings

DWDD Recordings - Melkweg Amsterdam 2011.

Ruben Block (Triggerfinger)

Playlist

DWDD recordings

YouTube
2CD

 

Line-up part I: Video Part I & recordings part I

Waylon, Miss Montreal, Frank Boeijen, Dazzled Kid, Fay Lovsky, Blaudzun, Stefan Schill, Saskia en Serge, Wouter Hamel, Ruben Block, Roosbeef, Hans Vandenburg, Lenny Kuhr, Bertolf, Hans de Booij, Anneke van Giersbergen, Jack Poels. 

Line-up part II: Video Part II

Bennie Jolink, Marike Jager, Anita Meijer, Jan Dulles & Jaap Kwakman, Elle Bandita, Krystl, Ben Cramer, Sabrina Starke, Torre Florim, Jacqueline Govaert, Jan Smit, Ellen ten Damme, Thé Lau, Janne Schra, Mathilde Santing, Felix Maginn, Stevie Ann, Alain Clark.