Magnetricity discovered

There’s an interesting article up at the BBC news site today.  Scientists have discovered a magnetic counterpart electricity.  At this early stage, the only viable applications researchers can see for this new discovery is for magnetic information storage, but how knows what can come of this?

Researchers have discovered a magnetic equivalent to electricity: single magnetic charges that can behave and interact like electrical ones.

The work is the first to make use of the magnetic monopoles that exist in special crystals known as spin ice.

Writing in Nature journal, a team showed that monopoles gather to form a “magnetic current” like electricity.

The phenomenon, dubbed “magnetricity”, could be used in magnetic storage or in computing.

Into the Looking Glass

Okay, so here at Troubling Trifles I’ve decided to begin a new Category called, “The Looking Glass.”

One may ask, Why the Looking Glass? The answer is simple. Because it seems we’re tumbling down the rabbit hole and suddenly reality isn’t what it used to be.

It seems that on a daily basis we’re being bathed in excerpts of new grotesqueries and outrages of the strange and usual kind. Some of these reports should belong in a science fiction/fantasy novel rather than in reality.

Here is just one example:

Researchers believe boosting the amount of a naturally forming enzyme in the body could prevent cells dying and so lead to extended, healthier, lifespans..

The protein telomerase helps maintain the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes which act like the ends of shoelaces and stop them unravelling.

As we age, and our cells divide, these caps become frayed and shorter and eventually are so damaged that the cell dies. Scientists believe boosting our natural levels of telomerase could rejuvenate them.

A team at the Spanish National Cancer Centre in Madrid tested the theory on mice and found that those genetically engineered to produce 10 times the normal levels of telomerase lived 50 per cent longer than normal.

Maria Blasco, who led the research, told the New Scientist said that the enzyme was capable of turning “a normal, mortal cell into an immortal cell”.

This article was published just last month in the UK’s Telegraph.

It reminds me of a scripture that said that in the last days men will be searching for death and can’t find it. How horrible…

Are you ready for a VR world?

According to Christian Lowe over at Defense Tech, we are well advanced into the age of virtual reality and hallographic imaging. Has anyone given thought to what might happen should humanity go en masse into full neuro interface?

On November 3rd, Dr. John Parmentola, Director of Research and Laboratory Management with the Army’s science and technology office, told a group military bloggers:

“Quantum ghost imaging,” for example, is as complicated as it sounds. Basically it’s a phenomenon of physics that allows images to be rendered through the pairing of photons that do not reflect or bounce off an object, but off of other photons that did, thereby creating a sort of “ghost” image of it. This technology would enable the Army to generate images of personnel and equipment through clouds and smoke.

“It’s like having a tracing tool … that goes over the image and that’s connected to another one on a piece of paper that exactly imitates what it is that you are tracing with the other pen,” Parmentola said. “It takes advantage of a remarkable property of quantum mechanics to try and do this.”

You can read the rest here.