Solars storms & the power grid

Sun Storm, an episode of the Curiosity series on Discovery TV premiered Sunday, December 30, 2012. The full episode should eventually be online, but it's worth catching it now if you can. The particle effects are nice, but no background info was available from producer Big Wave Productions.

In addition to introducing the science of the sun, the show discusses how "a massive solar super-storm could knock out the power grid for weeks or even many months, destroying the technology that powers our civilization, from communications to banking to our water supply." Food supplies could be effected quickly, and in a massive way too. It appears our definitions of security could use revamping, and our forces redeployed in part.

A society with this much talent should move away from Brittle Power (noted decades ago by Amory Lovins) to more resilient systems. Even established economists are slowly coming around; see for example Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2013 (noted by @resilienceSci). Here's Reinvent Fire: Change Energy Use Forever from Lovins' group RMI:




For more on solar storms, see the Sun Storm FAQ; also, Sun Storm host astronomer Phil Plait shares some background on Slate.com. The issue was part of the 2012 disaster meme, so you can also check out Solar storm passes without incident (a 'wake-up call') at the BBC, Solar Flare: What If Biggest Known Sun Storm Hit Today? at National Geopgraphic, and NASA or NOAA.

Here's another preview of Sun Storm:




More than 10,000 magnetic super tornadoes -- each as large as a continent on Earth -- are now thought to storm across the sun's surface at any moment, according to an international team reporting in Nature. Below is a visualization of a solar super tornadoes, and We Are Sitting Ducks for Solar Flares by Dr. Michio Kaku.

Where is my mind?

NPR is hosting a series called The Science Of Spirituality this week. While pixies (or cobalt blue goblins) are not mentioned, there are some interesting shows, including Are Spiritual Encounters All In Your Head?, Prayer May Reshape Your Brain ... And Your Reality, and Can Positive Thoughts Help Heal Another Person?

The latter audio reports on studies sponsored by the Bay Area's Institute of Noetic Sciences:

"...the researchers found that when one person focused his thoughts on his partner [not present], the partner's blood flow and perspiration dramatically changed within two seconds. ...So how do you explain this? No one really knows. But Radin and a few others think that a theory known as "quantum entanglement" may offer some clues.

Here's how it works. Once two particles have interacted, if you separate them, even by miles, they behave as if they're still connected. So far, this has only been demonstrated on the subatomic level. But Radin wonders: Could people in close relationships — couples, siblings, parent and child — also be "entangled"? Not just emotionally, and psychologically — but also physically."

This goes way beyond simple rhythm entrainment! There's also a summary posted on Huffington Post, and a trailer for a related movie The Living Matrix:

Our world may be a giant hologram

Our world may be a giant hologram -- according to an interesting article in New Scientist. Oddly the article makes no mention of physicist David Bohm or neuroscientist Karl Pribram, who made holographic theories famous off the ivory towers not that long ago.

Atmospheric homes of elves and sprites revealed

Atmospheric homes of elves and sprites revealed says NewScientist, and they have video so it must be true. Glories, unlike the one at the left, are also visible behind and below if the Sun's angle is right in the front.

There's more in books like Seeing the Light: Optics in Nature, Photography, Color, Vision, and Holography, Color and Light in Nature, and Rainbows, Halos and Glories.

Seeing the brain

Brain scanners "want not only to decode people's perceptions, but also high-level mental states: people's intentions, their plans," according to Brain Scanner Can Tell What You're Looking At in Wired. This sort of stuff could be useful in biofeedback or to improve Mind Mapping software, though according to armchair wags there are far more pressing basic human needs in energy, environmental remediation, and food.

Below is a report on MRIs; there's more video on a variety of topics at Science Friday.



Also in the "I see London, I see France" category is research into geomagnetic vision of birds (with a heads up display) and shrimp (humans have 3 cones, RGB, while mantis shrimps have 16 with 3 pigments in the ultra violet spectrum alone), as well as Fish Sounds and Mutualism.

Erotic images can turn you blind

Researchers have finally found evidence for what good Catholic boys have known all along – erotic images make you go blind. The effect is temporary and lasts just a moment, but the research has added to road-safety campaigners’ calls to ban sexy billboard-advertising near busy roads, in the hope of preventing accidents.

The new study by US psychologists found that people shown erotic or gory images frequently fail to process images they see immediately afterwards. And the researchers say some personality types appear to be affected more than others by the phenomenon, known as “emotion-induced blindness”.

http://www.newscientist.com