#anomalous perturbation

[ylespar]

“The basic concept surrounding the PMIR [Psi Mediated Instrumental Response] was that human beings utilize psi to accomplish something (the instrumental response) that fulfills certain needs in which the individual consciously or subconsciously possesses. Such concepts lead to arguments suggesting that psi may be far more common in daily life than is immediately apparent, but that psi does accomplish its goals in a subtle elegant manner void of conscious awareness. Further arguments then direct us towards the question ‘if psi is a staple in our subconscious daily life, can psi be directed to be a staple in our conscious daily life to any extent?’”

— Theresa M. Kelly [Ref.]

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Astronomers discover more dark comets

The first dark comet—a celestial object that looks like an asteroid but moves through space like a comet—was reported less than two years ago. Soon after, another six were found. In a new paper, researchers announce the discovery of seven more, doubling the number of known dark comets, and find that they fall into two distinct populations: larger ones that reside in the outer solar system and smaller ones in the inner solar system, with various other traits that set them apart.

The findings were published on Monday, Dec. 9, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists got their first inkling that dark comets exist when they noted in a March 2016 study that the trajectory of "asteroid" 2003 RM had moved ever so slightly from its expected orbit. That deviation couldn't be explained by the typical accelerations of asteroids, like the small acceleration known as the Yarkovsky effect.

"When you see that kind of perturbation on a celestial object, it usually means it's a comet, with volatile material outgassing from its surface giving it a little thrust," said study co-author Davide Farnocchia of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "But try as we might, we couldn't find any signs of a comet's tail. It looked like any other asteroid—just a pinpoint of light. So, for a short while, we had this one weird celestial object that we couldn't fully figure out."

Weird celestial objects

Farnocchia and the astronomical community didn't have to wait long for another piece of the puzzle. The next year, in 2017, a NASA-sponsored telescope discovered history's first documented celestial object that originated outside our solar system. Not only did 1I/2017 U1 ('Oumuamua) appear as a single point of light, like an asteroid, its trajectory changed as if it were outgassing volatile material from its surface, like a comet.

"'Oumuamua was surprising in several ways," said Farnocchia. "The fact that the first object we discovered from interstellar space exhibited similar behaviors to 2003 RM made 2003 RM even more intriguing."

By 2023, researchers had identified seven solar system objects that looked like asteroids but acted like comets. That was enough for the astronomical community to bestow upon them their own celestial object category: "dark comets." Now, with the finding of seven more of these objects, researchers could start on a new set of questions.

"We had a big enough number of dark comets that we could begin asking if there was anything that would differentiate them," said Darryl Seligman, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Physics at Michigan State University, East Lansing, and lead author of the new paper. "By analyzing the reflectivity," or albedo, "and the orbits, we found that our solar system contains two different types of dark comets."

Two kinds of dark comets

The study's authors found that one kind, which they call outer dark comets, have similar characteristics to Jupiter-family comets: They have highly eccentric (or elliptical) orbits and are on the larger side (hundreds of meters or more across).

The second group, inner dark comets, reside in the inner solar system (which includes Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), travel in nearly circular orbits, and are on the smaller side (tens of meters or less).

Like so many astronomical discoveries, Seligman and Farnocchia's research not only expands on our knowledge of dark comets, but it also raises several additional questions: Where did dark comets originate? What causes their anomalous acceleration? Could they contain ice?

"Dark comets are a new potential source for having delivered the materials to Earth that were necessary for the development of life," said Seligman. "The more we can learn about them, the better we can understand their role in our planet's origin."

IMAGE: This artist’s concept shows interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) after its discovery in 2017. While itself not a dark comet, ‘Oumuamua’s motion through the solar system has helped researchers better understand the nature of the 14 dark comets discovered so far. Credit: European Southern Observatory / M. Kornmesser

[observer-on-duty]

The afternoon was going on as planned. With take out in hand, Nancy sits at their home office and reads through the emails that the Bureau has sent her. He read through them quickly, answering almost robotically to the business emails. One caught her attention. This one was not of the Bureau, but of a private residence. The topic line was empty, but there were some photos included.

The email stated:

Hello.

My name is Robert and I have been trying to contact the Bureau for a while. Please listen, I had a possible case for you. This home had been in the family for close to 500 years, but there have always been strange things happening. I have diary entries stating the various strange happenings, plus some security footage of the strange occurrences. I'm not sure what is going on, but it's been labeled as demonic natured for centuries, especially after some counts of physical altercations. After some digging, that I am not proud of having to do, I have discovered that these happenings are similar to the locations that the Bureau works on. Please look through these photos, videos, and documents, and please send them to the Bureau to finally block this place off and keep the public safe from this place. (12 files attached)

"Huh," she starts, rereading the email. "Well, I guess it's time to see if these attachments are authentic. I swear, if these things are photoshopped or ai."

Carefully, he inspects the attached images. "If this is photoshopped, it's damn good. Nothing looks off nor out of place, so it can't be ai." They seem very... Perturbed by some of the images.

"This Robert fellow seems to know what he's about on this." She concedes, attaching the email and images to one of his own and sending it further into the Bureau for more investigation for authenticity.

"Just what we need." He takes a bite of their food. "Another Anomalous place to investigate. And this one seems older than any of the other ones we investigated."

He sighs. "I'm not paid enough for this."

[tryst-art-archive]

The Train Ride

            Stepping upon the train, a man can hardly be expected to look behind him and spot the strange fellow wearing a suit and fedora whose very presence seems anomalous to the otherwise unremarkable, drab day despite his being, to the eye, nothing truly extraordinary. Indeed, the student neglected to note this very man, and so he did not notice that the fellow in the fedora followed his every move, taking care to sit two places behind the student once they had boarded the train. It was not until the sensation of being watched began to prick the back of the student’s neck that it occurred to him that, perhaps, something was amiss and, perhaps, he ought to investigate what. But what could possibly be incorrect in such an utterly average day? Though the sky was overcast, the promise of sunshine skulked about the clouds, and the notion of a bright day cheered the student, allowing him to dismiss this hair-on-end sensation.

            Even so, the feeling of being watched only increased as the train ride progressed until the student could no longer occupy himself with his pretty notions of the future and was forced, rather, to regard the present somewhat more. “Who on earth is watching me?” he wondered, and he attempted to turn his head somewhat that he might perceive, from the corner of his eye, who it was that regarded him all while without appearing to be looking for whomever it was. Despite his efforts, he was unable to ascertain the location of the culprit. Two men sat behind him, one with a newspaper that could hide his searching eyes and one man whose face was obscured by a hat. The student found the latter to be a chilling presence for no reason he could specify – the man certainly appeared sturdy and strong but he was by no means a giant, imposing figure or a dark mystery full of shadow and menace whose only discernible features were ones suggesting a life of battle and strife. On the contrary, the man appeared to be a simple laborer whose body had been shaped and hardened by his work but who was, for all intents and purposes, an average fellow of no remarkable character.

            Despite this, many of the train’s passengers seemed to shy away from the man in the hat as if he were a known criminal. Many of the women on the train glanced at him quickly and looked away, urging their children to view the sights outside the train’s windows rather than peer at the imposing yet less-than-noteworthy figure of the man in the fedora.

            The student felt a chill run down his spine and, perturbed, turned his gaze resolutely ahead. A great fear of the man in the fedora welled up in him, though he could hardly name the reason for his dread. Unexpectedly, he recalled something his father had once said when in an especially somber mood. The phrase had been “All men must one day be held accountable for their past actions.”

Disturbed by this sudden remembrance, the student frantically considered all that he had done in recent memory but could discern nothing particularly damning and thus began to feel more at ease. In this way, he forcibly pushed all thoughts of the man in the fedora and his steady gaze from his mind (though, indeed, doubt and fear nibbled at the base of his skull) and focused instead on the view rushing by him outside the window. However, the view confounded him, being somehow different than that which he was accustomed to seeing during his commute to his university. The landscape appeared warped with trees that stood at incorrect angles and fields that undulated like snakes. The water that the train passed appeared to be an ill-gotten, sulfuric color that steamed, and the buildings were oddly skewed as though Salvador Dali had been at them. The student blinked, rubbed his eyes, and stared hard at the sights outside the windows, and, for a moment, they appeared to clarify into something approaching normalcy, but almost as soon as he was reassured that all was as it ought to be, they transformed back into something ungodly. Disconcerted, the student turned from the window and peered about the train car to see if any of the other passengers had noticed the change. He was startled to find that each and every person on the train was utterly calm and composed, almost as if they had met the eye of Medusa.

            As he looked about himself, the student’s eyes fell again upon the man in the fedora who, alone of those in the train car, seemed to be awake and aware. Further, the entirety of his attention was focused upon the student who, in meeting the man in the fedora’s eye, blushed and turned away, looking instead at his hands which fidgeted in his lap. It was then that the man in the fedora chose to rise, standing slowly, with no sound. The student’s entire being became focused upon the steady rise of the man in the fedora who proceeded to walk down the aisle between the seats toward where the student sat. Once there, he turned toward the student and, calling him by name, asked him, “Do you have any regrets?” The student stared at him in shock and stuttered, “E-excuse me?” only to hear the man in the fedora repeat himself.

            Now that he could see him closer, it was clear that the man in the fedora was, in fact, fairly advanced in age with a work-hardened body and a long, wrinkled, weathered face. Had it not been for the way in which he stared down his nose at the student, one may have been tempted to call him a kindly-looking old gentleman. As it was, the sight of the man’s withered mouth made fear pulse through the student’s veins.

            The student said, “I don’t know what you mean, sir.” The man in the fedora again repeated himself but now with an unmistakable menace in his voice. The student merely shook his head, his throat parched, his voice lost. The man in the fedora then told him, “You have sinned greatly, my son, and you must, therefore, repent or be punished. Do not use your idealism as an excuse, as a chance to hide away the facts. Face up to what you have done! Repent now or accept your fate!”

            The student’s entire body shook, and he was suddenly wracked by waves of nausea such that he wished only to spill the contents of his stomach upon this unearthly man’s immaculate shoes. He stared at the shine they gave off, seeing himself reflected there, and imagined himself to be little more than a bug. Even as he thought it, he could feel himself shrinking, down, down to the size of a cockroach. The seats became insurmountable plateaus, his own baggage a weight all too capable of crushing him, his clothes a dreadful sheet that smothered and frightened him. Most fearful of all was the man in the fedora who reared up as if a god, booming in a voice like thunder with his index finger aimed at the student who cowered beneath its undeniable intention.

            “Will you not repent?” boomed the man in the fedora. “Will you not save your pitiful husk of a soul? You, who have sinned not only in your body but in your mind, in your heart, will you not accept this final offer of goodwill bestowed upon you?” “I do not know what you mean!” the student squeaked. “I do not understand, I cannot find your meaning!” The man in the fedora shook his great, husk of a head. “Then there is no hope for you, who cannot even recognize his own sins. Fly, then, demon spawn, fly to the place of your birth to make good on your sin for eternity. Forget all happiness and abandon all hope, for today is the day that you atone for you misdeeds. Your presence is death to all near you, your continued existence a black mark that draws devils to your loved ones. At this very moment, your beloved father lies dying upon his sick bed while you fly away to your university of ignorance to further your own joy, leaving the man who sired you to his demise. And have you treated your mother, your siblings, your friends any better? No, certainly not. Thus, remove yourself from this paltry scene, and cast thyself away to the fires that await you even now.” And with this, the man in the fedora turned away from the student, pointing to the door at the end of the train car which now slid open with the sound of scraping metal. “Go now,” the man in the fedora said. “Go now to your fate.”

            Immediately, the student leapt to his feet and pushed past the man in the fedora, crying “No more! No more! Torment me no more!” Tears in his eyes and bile in his throat, the student ran to the end of the car, passing through the open door which slammed shut behind him and, pausing only to take in the unearthly scenery of the outside world, threw himself from the train, landing upon the rails as a broken heap with the words “I never meant you any harm!” drying on his lips.

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 25, 2023

Effect of fasting on short‐term visual plasticity in adult humans. Animali, S., Steinwurzel, C., Dardano, A., Sancho‐Bornez, V., Del Prato, S., Morrone, M. C., … Binda, P. (2023). European Journal of Neuroscience, 57(1), 148–162.

The effects of base rate neglect on sequential belief updating and real-world beliefs. Ashinoff, B. K., Buck, J., Woodford, M., & Horga, G. (2022). PLOS Computational Biology, 18(12), e1010796.

When alternative hypotheses shape your beliefs: Context effects in probability judgments. Cai, X., & Pleskac, T. J. (2023). Cognition, 231, 105306.

Learning shapes cortical dynamics to enhance integration of relevant sensory input. Chadwick, A., Khan, A. G., Poort, J., Blot, A., Hofer, S. B., Mrsic-Flogel, T. D., & Sahani, M. (2023). Neuron, 111(1), 106-120.e10.

Population coding strategies in human tactile afferents. Corniani, G., Casal, M. A., Panzeri, S., & Saal, H. P. (2022). PLOS Computational Biology, 18(12), e1010763.

Synaptic gradients transform object location to action. Dombrovski, M., Peek, M. Y., Park, J.-Y., Vaccari, A., Sumathipala, M., Morrow, C., … Card, G. M. (2023). Nature, 613(7944), 534–542.

Are you paying attention to me? The effect of social presence on spatial attention to gaze and arrows. Ha, J., & Hayward, D. A. (2023). Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 85, 41–51.

Different symmetries, different mechanisms. Jennings, B. J., Tseng, T.-W. J., Ouhnana, M., & Kingdom, F. A. A. (2023). Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 85, 166–173.

Open-ended movements structure sensorimotor information in early human development. Kanazawa, H., Yamada, Y., Tanaka, K., Kawai, M., Niwa, F., Iwanaga, K., & Kuniyoshi, Y. (2023). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(1), e2209953120.

Removal of reinforcement improves instrumental performance in humans by decreasing a general action bias rather than unmasking learnt associations. Kurtenbach, H., Ort, E., Froböse, M. I., & Jocham, G. (2022). PLOS Computational Biology, 18(12), e1010201.

Stability and learning in excitatory synapses by nonlinear inhibitory plasticity. Miehl, C., & Gjorgjieva, J. (2022). PLOS Computational Biology, 18(12), e1010682.

Efficient coding theory of dynamic attentional modulation. Młynarski, W., & Tkačik, G. (2022). PLOS Biology, 20(12), e3001889.

Uncertainty alters the balance between incremental learning and episodic memory. Nicholas, J., Daw, N. D., & Shohamy, D. (2022). eLife, 11, e81679.

Mesoscopic description of hippocampal replay and metastability in spiking neural networks with short-term plasticity. Pietras, B., Schmutz, V., & Schwalger, T. (2022). PLOS Computational Biology, 18(12), e1010809.

Nonlinear cortical encoding of color predicts enhanced McCollough effects in anomalous trichromats. Robinson, A. E., Bosten, J. M., & MacLeod, D. I. A. (2023). Vision Research, 203, 108153.

Disinhibition of the orbitofrontal cortex biases decision-making in obesity. Seabrook, L. T., Naef, L., Baimel, C., Judge, A. K., Kenney, T., Ellis, M., … Borgland, S. L. (2023). Nature Neuroscience, 26, 92–106.

Minimum perturbation theory of deep perceptual learning. Shan, H., & Sompolinsky, H. (2022). Physical Review E, 106(6), 064406.

A unified theory for the computational and mechanistic origins of grid cells. Sorscher, B., Mel, G. C., Ocko, S. A., Giocomo, L. M., & Ganguli, S. (2023). Neuron, 111(1), 121-137.e13.

Integrated neural dynamics of sensorimotor decisions and actions. Thura, D., Cabana, J.-F., Feghaly, A., & Cisek, P. (2022). PLOS Biology, 20(12), e3001861.

Humans trade off search costs and accuracy in a combined visual search and perceptual task. Wagner, I., Henare, D., Tünnermann, J., Schubö, A., & Schütz, A. C. (2023). Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 85, 23–40.

[zara24smit]

Urgent Appeal: Engaging Biden, Xi Jinping, and Putin for Immediate Action Amid Looming Planetary Catastrophe Part 1

ABOUT THE ISSUE OF CLIMATE CATASTROPHE PROGRESSION

I continue to introduce you, dear readers, in text format to the speech of esteemed Egon Cholakian in his landmark video address 

“'Urgent Appeal: Engaging Biden, Xi Jinping, and Putin for Immediate Action Amid Looming Planetary Catastrophe”.

So: “My name is Egon Cholakian. In view of the exceedingly alarming situation – the unprecedented progression of destructive climate catastrophes on our planet – I urgently wish to appeal to the three global leaders upon whom,  in my estimation, the future of all humanity depends. I address myself to the President of the United States of America, Mr. Joe Biden; the Chairman of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Xi Jinping; and the President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Vladimir Putin.

I address you, the three prominent leaders of our time, publicly and openly, for your voices are pivotal to shaping the current global agenda. If YOU can hear and comprehend the magnitude of the climate peril confronting humankind today, the entire international community will become aware of this problem, thereby affording us a chance to overcome this impending catastrophe. This is genuinely a critical and momentous juncture in our history. The fate of every inhabitant of Earth now hinges on your political will.

I am compelled to make this urgent statement in my role as a representative of the world of science, as a multidisciplinary scholar reflecting top-tiered academic and laboratory affiliations, who likewise enjoyed  intimate working relationships with four US presidents. For many years I concerned myself with the impact of climate change upon national security.

ABOUT THE ISSUE OF CLIMATE CATASTROPHE PROGRESSION

Distinguished leaders of the world, Mr.  Biden, Mr. Xi Jinping, and Mr. Putin, today I implore you to urgently redirect your utmost attention to the deadly climate threat that our planet and all humankind are now confronting at this very moment. Let me be very clear: I am not referring to greenhouse gasses and CO2 emissions. I am addressing a far more severe factor causing anomalous changes in all layers of the Earth. This factor remains inadequately explored and necessitates immediate exhaustive investigation by the scientific community.

Let me elucidate the key aspects of the issue to foster a deeper understanding. The cause behind the escalating climate changes today is an external cosmic impact destabilizing the Earth's core. This is exacerbated by the ocean's loss of thermal conductivity function, leading to its inability to cool the magma. Consequently, endogenous energy accumulates within the Earth's depths. 

Take a look at two critical parameters. The first chart shows trends in the amount of heat stored in the world’s oceans. And the second chart shows annual divergence of global ocean surface temperature.  In both cases there is a definite upward trend visible in the data. 

These disruptions in the balance of the planet's operation result in a rapid increase in both the number and intensity of extreme atmospheric events, including hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, and anomalous precipitation, leading to floods. This perturbation also extends to geodynamic catastrophes such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.”

## TO BE CONTINUED…

Please support this important information with likes, shares, comments, and applause!

[toughtzzinmyhed]

Crossroads by John Michaelson

Arriving at a crossroads, unfamiliar and alone,

Perturbed, anxious, bewildered and bemused.

An unexpected destination, a long way from home,

A lost soul with no meaning, astray and confused.

Legs feel heavy as rock, heart’s cold as stone,

Ego is lost, forgotten, battered and bruised.

Looking back to the past, when time was on loan,

Memories of a former self, scattered and diffused.

Nothing feels real any more, everything is strange,

There’s no personality, to perceive this surreal place.

But someone new exists, in this anomalous exchange,

A conscious observer, possessing no body or face.

Aware of its presence and yearning for change,

Needing a new path and purpose to embrace.

Its juxtaposition to this star crossed interchange,

Leaves it no option, but to move forward in space.

Where to from here, knowing there is no way back,

Only to advance on this unknown road towards fate.

There are no rules or regulations on this unbeaten track,

Of which its opening is marked, by a cast iron gate.

Most can’t get past this point, so return to the pack,

Back to mindless conflict, division, anguish and hate.

Ignoring the unequivocal truth, they try to change tack,

Only to submit to the realisation, they’ve left it too late.

But this conscious observer arrived here from intention,

Borne from its overwhelming desire to roam free.

Sick of the world it escaped, rife with egotistical infection,

Where it was treated like an outcast, forcing it to flee.

Escaping was its only choice, to start its reinvention,

So it can return one day, to open eyes that couldn’t see.

Tired and exhausted of trying to change old convention,

The only traveller left who is trusted with the key.

~John Michaelson

[jcmarchi]

Electrons become fractions of themselves in graphene, study finds

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/electrons-become-fractions-of-themselves-in-graphene-study-finds/

Electrons become fractions of themselves in graphene, study finds

The electron is the basic unit of electricity, as it carries a single negative charge. This is what we’re taught in high school physics, and it is overwhelmingly the case in most materials in nature.

But in very special states of matter, electrons can splinter into fractions of their whole. This phenomenon, known as “fractional charge,” is exceedingly rare, and if it can be corralled and controlled, the exotic electronic state could help to build resilient, fault-tolerant quantum computers.

To date, this effect, known to physicists as the “fractional quantum Hall effect,” has been observed a handful of times, and mostly under very high, carefully maintained magnetic fields. Only recently have scientists seen the effect in a material that did not require such powerful magnetic manipulation.

Now, MIT physicists have observed the elusive fractional charge effect, this time in a simpler material: five layers of graphene — an atom-thin layer of carbon that stems from graphite and common pencil lead. They report their results today in Nature.

They found that when five sheets of graphene are stacked like steps on a staircase, the resulting structure inherently provides just the right conditions for electrons to pass through as fractions of their total charge, with no need for any external magnetic field.

The results are the first evidence of the “fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect” (the term “anomalous” refers to the absence of a magnetic field) in crystalline graphene, a material that physicists did not expect to exhibit this effect.

“This five-layer graphene is a material system where many good surprises happen,” says study author Long Ju, assistant professor of physics at MIT. “Fractional charge is just so exotic, and now we can realize this effect with a much simpler system and without a magnetic field. That in itself is important for fundamental physics. And it could enable the possibility for a type of quantum computing that is more robust against perturbation.”

Ju’s MIT co-authors are lead author Zhengguang Lu, Tonghang Han, Yuxuan Yao, Aidan Reddy, Jixiang Yang, Junseok Seo, and Liang Fu, along with Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan.

A bizarre state

The fractional quantum Hall effect is an example of the weird phenomena that can arise when particles shift from behaving as individual units to acting together as a whole. This collective “correlated” behavior emerges in special states, for instance when electrons are slowed from their normally frenetic pace to a crawl that enables the particles to sense each other and interact. These interactions can produce rare electronic states, such as the seemingly unorthodox splitting of an electron’s charge.

In 1982, scientists discovered the fractional quantum Hall effect in heterostructures of gallium arsenide, where a gas of electrons confined in a two-dimensional plane is placed under high magnetic fields. The discovery later won the group a Nobel Prize in Physics.

“[The discovery] was a very big deal, because these unit charges interacting in a way to give something like fractional charge was very, very bizarre,” Ju says. “At the time, there were no theory predictions, and the experiments surprised everyone.”

Those researchers achieved their groundbreaking results using magnetic fields to slow down the material’s electrons enough for them to interact. The fields they worked with were about 10 times stronger than what typically powers an MRI machine.

In August 2023, scientists at the University of Washington reported the first evidence of fractional charge without a magnetic field. They observed this “anomalous” version of the effect, in a twisted semiconductor called molybdenum ditelluride. The group prepared the material in a specific configuration, which theorists predicted would give the material an inherent magnetic field, enough to encourage electrons to fractionalize without any external magnetic control.

The “no magnets” result opened a promising route to topological quantum computing — a more secure form of quantum computing, in which the added ingredient of topology (a property that remains unchanged in the face of weak deformation or disturbance) gives a qubit added protection when carrying out a computation. This computation scheme is based on a combination of fractional quantum Hall effect and a superconductor. It used to be almost impossible to realize: One needs a strong magnetic field to get fractional charge, while the same magnetic field will usually kill the superconductor. In this case the fractional charges would serve as a qubit (the basic unit of a quantum computer).

Making steps

That same month, Ju and his team happened to also observe signs of anomalous fractional charge in graphene — a material for which there had been no predictions for exhibiting such an effect.

Ju’s group has been exploring electronic behavior in graphene, which by itself has exhibited exceptional properties. Most recently, Ju’s group has looked into pentalayer graphene — a structure of five graphene sheets, each stacked slightly off from the other, like steps on a staircase. Such pentalayer graphene structure is embedded in graphite and can be obtained by exfoliation using Scotch tape. When placed in a refrigerator at ultracold temperatures, the structure’s electrons slow to a crawl and interact in ways they normally wouldn’t when whizzing around at higher temperatures.

In their new work, the researchers did some calculations and found that electrons might interact with each other even more strongly if the pentalayer structure were aligned with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) — a material that has a similar atomic structure to that of graphene, but with slightly different dimensions. In combination, the two materials should produce a moiré superlattice — an intricate, scaffold-like atomic structure that could slow electrons down in ways that mimic a magnetic field.

“We did these calculations, then thought, let’s go for it,” says Ju, who happened to install a new dilution refrigerator in his MIT lab last summer, which the team planned to use to cool materials down to ultralow temperatures, to study exotic electronic behavior.

The researchers fabricated two samples of the hybrid graphene structure by first exfoliating graphene layers from a block of graphite, then using optical tools to identify five-layered flakes in the steplike configuration. They then stamped the graphene flake onto an hBN flake and placed a second hBN flake over the graphene structure. Finally, they attached electrodes to the structure and placed it in the refrigerator, set to near absolute zero.

As they applied a current to the material and measured the voltage output, they started to see signatures of fractional charge, where the voltage equals the current multiplied by a fractional number and some fundamental physics constants.

“The day we saw it, we didn’t recognize it at first,” says first author Lu. “Then we started to shout as we realized, this was really big. It was a completely surprising moment.”

“This was probably the first serious samples we put in the new fridge,” adds co-first author Han. “Once we calmed down, we looked in detail to make sure that what we were seeing was real.”

With further analysis, the team confirmed that the graphene structure indeed exhibited the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect. It is the first time the effect has been seen in graphene.

“Graphene can also be a superconductor,” Ju says. “So, you could have two totally different effects in the same material, right next to each other. If you use graphene to talk to graphene, it avoids a lot of unwanted effects when bridging graphene with other materials.”

For now, the group is continuing to explore multilayer graphene for other rare electronic states.

“We are diving in to explore many fundamental physics ideas and applications,” he says. “We know there will be more to come.”

This research is supported in part by the Sloan Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

[monogatcri]

━━ ˟ ⊰🍁ONE NEVER TRULY FORGETS THE first time blood stains their hands -- or maybe that's Niwa's own hopes for the remorse it brings. Barely aged fourteen, he'd seen the villagers scurrying about the area in panic and, by the extension of hand clasping tightly to shoulder, he knew that his time had come to prove himself as a lord of the people. The principle of being held to higher power meant he couldn't abandon them in their time of need, whether he'd been a tender age or an elderly man: this was his home and his to defend.

        The grounds were moistened by the rain, slippery on uneven feet. All his training and he still fumbled about, nervously holding his sword in shaky palms ; the concept had been in his mind for years that the day would arrive, but the sensation kept his mouth slammed shut, hoping -- no, praying that none would notice him or engage ; selfish was his request and the archons weren't so forgiving, shoving him forward as the surface of soil gave way beneath him, staining his garments in thickened layer of mud and splash alerting men to his position.

        Mildly stated, the next moments were as blurred as what had followed recent: the gurgling of blood, the screams of the survivors, the voices approaching around... There was fanfare half a lifetime ago (at least in his age rather than the true date), shoulders pushed and cheers resounding, though he felt no jubilation from the snuffed life. Prematurely were they removed from their lives and, despite what it meant, it still caused his stomach to recoil. Unfortunate was the truth that time made these deaths easier when they were not of kin -- strangers that attacked were meant to die but...the law here held to a different standard about death, didn't it?

        He doesn't reply to Ren at first, head leaned back as strands of brunet locks danced over his irises, shining sun above glimmering so peacefully and noises of the forest still cheerily singing in his ears, seemingly mocking their situation. Using this time wisely, he chooses not to lament the follies of human life desiring to hope atmosphere would match mood, opting instead to breathe in gulps of oxygen much like he would water at this moment (gods, he could use something to push back his thirst).

        Mind battered from war torn memories recovers, lungs follow to relinquish the grip it had upon his focus, it manages to piece together coherent thoughts, yet still there lingers more questions than answers. Why would they want him and not Ren? Would it make more sense to go for the one with an acclaimed name in this territory? Between the two of them, it appeared they held differing opinions on what they might desire. ❝ Me? ❞

        Had they grown privy to the knowledge of his anomalous existence? If so, that begged the question of who might have spoken or overheard their conversations ; the scholars were an intelligent breed, riddled with complexities that the bladesmith had naively overlooked when he dreamed of becoming one of them... Now? It all felt appropriate to want to rescind a majority of his respect for them if this was how some of them conducted themselves ; what kind of example were they upholding if they performed these actions in private? Did the school allow their nefarious deeds unchecked or was this beneath the nose of the superiors?

        Scholars were meant to study -- were they intending to study him?

        Perturbed expression melts through the mask of calm worn, coupled with a figment of disgust that followed. Revolting a concept, like he was some specimen in a jar or an experiment to watch thoroughly -- this caused him to pause, shaking head furiously. They'd killed a man ; Ren had killed a man, though he supposed that his own blade might have sliced at skin and potentially led to the demise if he missed a chance to parry blow thrust at him.

        ❝ Do...people know who I am? ❞ Instinctively does hand raise to press against the red streak, hiding it from view. In his time spent within Sumeru, his assumption had been that they were pretty much incognito compared to the others ; he'd heard rumors fluttering about the mysterious person, but his assumption was that any new face that wasn't academic that wandered their halls would elicit people mumbling -- mostly out of spite for an intrusive vermin to their studies. He was under Nahida's protection...so was it possible that they waited for him to leave to strike for their reasons?

        What did any of it matter? Right now, they were subject to the distant commotion of a deceased man ; if they weren't able to find cover and return to the city to clear their names, then...wouldn't that ruin the chance for Ren to live peacefully in Sumeru? He'd be damned if he let that happen over some...foolish research project. Fatui related mishap or aggressive backlash for some mysterious reason didn't change where it'd led them both. ❝ None of that matters... A man died, Ren ; won't that hurt you? ❞

the  wanderer  is  oft  EXPRESSIVE  to  a  fault.  his  eyes  are  large  windows  to  an  ambiguous  soul,  his  countenance  (  arranged  with  a  gentleness  that  hardly  suits  this  current  incarnation  )  is  prone  to  displays  of  RAW  EMOTION  —  and  it  is  true,  that  what  he  feels,  he  feels  with  poignance  that  runs  deeper  than  most.  honestly,  the  only  heart  his  creator  saw  fit  to  give  him  was  etched  upon  his  sleeve,  intentionally  or  otherwise.  yet  it  is  also  for  that  very  reason  ren  has  taken  careful  measures  to  COMPENSATE  for  that  inbuilt  expressiveness.  his  features,  hidden  carefully  behind  that  ornate  kasa.  his  voice,  oft  tempered  to  an  ambiguous  tone  of  melodic  derision.  his  body  language  is  meticulously  controlled  —  a  whetstone  to  sharpen  that  unpleasant  tongue.

in  short,  though  he  is  painfully,  viscerally  expressive,  that  doesn't  make  it  any  less  difficult  to  discern  what  ren  is  thinking.  he  is  a  shadow;  silent,  with  intentions  impossible  to  discern.  when  he  drifts  along  at  niwa's  side,  he  is  largely  unremarkable  —  if  not  for  the  fleeting  INTEREST  his  choice  of  attire  draws.  perhaps  it  is  for  that  reason  their  assailants  decided  to  target  the  bladesmith.  perhaps  there  is  another  reason  entirely  —  foul  play,  a  deliberate trap,  the  machinations  of  some  twisted  academic  wishing  to  dissect  the  dead  who  still  walks.  in  the  moment,  ren  doesn't  spare  the  time  to  carefully  consider  a  MOTIVE.  he  only  sees  what  is  before  his  very  eyes,  and  reacts  with  the  same  kind  of  brutal  split-second  efficiency  that  kept  him  from  being  torn  to  shreds  in  the  abyss.

after  all ...  a  threat  on  niwa  is  akin  to  a  threat  on  HIMSELF.  no  —  to  wish  niwa  ill  is  an  even  greater  sin.  he  has  already  perished  once,  and  ren  will  not  allow  his  life  to  be  stolen  again.

he  barely  comprehends  what  he's  done.  a  flick  of  the  wrist,  a  crunch,  then  screaming.  all  the  while,  the  wanderer  remains  IMPOSSIBLE  to  read  —  standing  idly  in  place,  casual  as  he  was  mere  moments  prior.  it's  at  times  like  these  when  he  often  FORGETS  just  how  fragile  humans  are,  and  how  deep  his  own  pool  of  strength  (  of  potential  for  violence  )  stretches  in  comparison.  anemo  is  still  a  relatively  new  element  for  him  to  control,  and  though  he  maintains  a  façade  of  MASTERY,  there  are  times  where  it  escapes  him.  although,  in  this  case,  he  thinks  that  is  merely  an  excuse  —  that  he  would  lash  out  with  the  intent  to  kill  regardless.  he  certainly  doesn't  feel  any  remorse;  in  this  case,  he  is  a  wild  cat,  sinking  vicious  claws  into  the  hawk  as  it  swoops  down  to  snatch  the  unsuspecting  rabbit.  that,  too,  is  the  circle  of  life. 

there  are  fingers  clamped  around  his  wrist,  and  the  world  (  which  seemed  to  be  moving  in  slow  motion  )  suddenly  explodes  into  stimuli.  ren  is  aware  that  he's  running  —  that  niwa  is  pulling  him  along,  and  some  small  part  of  him  APPLAUDS  the  human  for  his  quick  thinking.  the  rest  is  focused  on  the  scene  they're  leaving  behind.  he  looks  over  his  shoulder,  narrowing  eyes  at  the  commotion.  his  free  hand  comes  to  rest  atop  his  kasa  —  lest  it  fly  off  his  head  during  their  escape.

❝  ugh,  great.  ❞      are  the  first  words  to  slip  out  of  his  mouth  when  they  finally  (  finally  )  stop.  he  can  keep  running  near-indefinitely  —  but  niwa  is  not  so  FORTUNATE.      ❝  now  i'm  the  bad  guy.  ❞      it  may  be  callous,  but  he  cares  as  much  as  one  would  for  a  COCKROACH  crushed  beneath  their  shoe.

gaze  flicks  briefly  to  his  companion.  lips  part  —  then  close  just  as  quickly,  offering  a  faint  hum.      ❝  i  don't  know  what  they  WANTED.  ❞      though  there's  a  touch  of  insincerity.  something  telling  about  the  troubled  furrow  of  his  brow.      ❝  if  i  had  to  hazard�� a  guess ...  ❞      the  wanderer  begins  —  and  every  word  seems  to  DRAG,  as  though  infused  with  the  reluctance  he  feels.      ❝  maybe  they  were  after  you? not to kill, but for ... other reasons.  ❞      they  better  not  be.  that  would  be  very  unfortunate  —  for  their  sake.

[barbiebatarangs]

SELFISH - DRABBLE

“He died for you - you should be grateful.” The words roll off Bruce’s tongue so easily you want to punch the cowl off his stupid emotionless face.

His body lay limp in the coffin, skin ghostly and eyes shut, eyelashes thick as ever and large build fitted into a suit. Jason wouldn’t have wanted to be buried in a suit. He hated them, hated what they stood for, and hated the events he was forced to wear them for.

The week had started so so lovely, hands intertwined and lips pushed together, moving in sync in slow languid motions. You had felt peace.

To be at peace was an anomalous thing, it left you both relaxed and agitated; an unusual blend of sensations for one to be feeling concurrently. Despite these discordant emotions you still strive to be at peace, to be disencumbered of whatever trepidations plague your senses, and infect your sanity. But peace isn't invariably a good thing, no it can be more detrimental than the perturbations themselves. Peace puts you into a false sense of security, promising you all the phenomena in which it cannot provide. It leaves you wanting more, craving its fabricated safety more than anything else in the world. That is why it's more perilous than any other thing, it takes away your guard and leaves you vulnerable. Vulnerable to the world's clandestine atrocities, the veiled monsters that don't just reside in your closet, but among you. You both were at peace, and that could’ve been why things went so badly.

You turn to the crowd, hands shaking and the piece of paper getting ripped as you fidget with it.

“Jason Todd was selfish in many ways. Up until the very end. He did something for only him, for I didn’t want him to die for me. I wanted him to live for me.”

[ylespar]

"The term psychokinesis (PK) covers a wide spectrum of putative psi phenomena, ranging from metal bending, poltergeists, and table levitations, to distant infuence on human physiology, animal activity, or plant growth. Psychokinesis also refers to situations where statistical deviations from chance in probabilistic systems, such as tumbling dice or coin-tosses, are observed to correlate with participants’ wish or intention for a particular outcome. PK studies on probabilistic systems were carried out in various laboratories during the 1940s and 1950s, typically employing mechanical devices with tumbling dice or coin tosses. In the early 1970s hardware random number generators (RNGs) began to replace mechanical systems and quickly became widespread in parapsychology, frst as self-standing units and later in computer controlled confgurations. Compared to the earlier mechanical systems, RNGs greatly simplifed the testing process and thus attracted a wide range of researchers who began exploring a spectrum of hypotheses and variables potentially associated with PK. Effects reported in association with RNGs are generally qualifed as micro-psychokinetic, suggesting a distinction between large-scale or directly perceptible PK and extremely subtle effects that can be inferred only through statistical methods. It is unclear whether the term should apply to all probabilistic systems, even when clearly macroscopic; nor is it certain whether the distinction between macro- and micro-PK points to fundamental differences or merely operational ones."

Varvoglis, M., & Bancel, P. A. (2016). Micro-psychokinesis: Exceptional or universal? Journal of Parapsychology, 80(1), 37–44.

[batfamilysays]

LAST KISS FIRST LOVE

synopsis for upcoming story of reader x jason todd

To be at peace was an anomalous thing, it left you both relaxed and agitated; an unusual blend of sensations for one to be feeling concurrently. Yet somehow, despite these discordant emotions, you still strive to be at peace, to be disencumbered of whatever trepidations plague your senses and infect your sanity. 

But peace isn't invariably a good thing, no it can be more detrimental than the perturbations themselves. Peace puts you into a false sense of security, promising you all the phenomena in which it cannot provide. It leaves you wanting more, craving its fabricated safety more than anything else in the world. That is why it's more perilous than any other thing, it takes away your guard and leaves you vulnerable. Vulnerable to the world's clandestine atrocities, the veiled monsters that don't just reside in your closet, but among you. 

Life for you has never been easy. Every morning you wake up with a narration of your day, and every day that narration comes true - no matter how hard you try to change it. 

But when you wake up one morning with a synopsis of your day somethings different. Instead of page day 6935 it’s titled epilogue and the ending includes her death. 

But with superheroes running rampant in Gotham there’s got to be a way to save your own life. Or at least make the most of the end of it.

inspiration !!!

TAGLIST

@pretendthisusernameisgoodd @dickgraysonhasanicebutt @multiverseofwonders @emmaleilani96 @mcgonagalls-witches @pleasestophoney @kurosstuff @liltleaderofthelameones @water248 @blackrippedskinnybeans @evalynanne

[mythicallore]

Creature Feature: The Enfield Horror

the “Enfield Horror” (Illinois, USA) is one of the absolute strangest creatures ever to be chronicled in cryptozoological lore.

The bizarre string of events that would eventually stir the small Illinois town of Enfield into a frenzy of fear, began on the chilly night of April 25, 1973, when a young boy named Greg Garrett claimed to have been attacked by a truly bizarre beast while playing in his backyard.

The child described the being as having no less than three legs, grayish, slimy skin, short claws and reddish eyes. The creature apparently “stamped” on the boys feet with its own three — apparently clawed — foot-like appendages, tearing his tennis shoes to shreds. Greg, crying hysterically, wasted no time scurrying away from the fiend and back into the relative safety of his parent’s house.

Although young Greg’s encounter was technically the first on record, the one that brought this creature to notoriety came just a half hour later when the Garret’s neighbor, one Henry McDaniel and his family, had their own face-to-face encounter with this unbelievable entity.

At about 9:30 in the evening, the McDaniels returned home to find two of their children, Henry Jr. and Lil, in a terrified stupor. The children claimed that a “thing” had tried to break into the house through the door and a window mounted air conditioner, while their parents were gone. It was then that they all heard a “scratching” sound at the front door.

Assuming that it was some sort of stray animal, a skeptical Henry McDaniel cavalierly approached the door and yanked it open. What he saw before him would have shook even the most courageous man to the core.

There, standing on his stoop, was the same red-eyed monstrosity that had terrified his own children and assailed the Garret child less than an hour before. McDaniel backed away from the entity in horror, slammed the door, stumbled to nearby closet and retrieved a flashlight and his .22 pistol.

While his horrified family waited, Henry returned to the door and — with the conviction of a man dead set on defending his family and home — threw it back open, revealing that his first vision of this unbelievable beast had not been an hallucination. Later, McDaniel described the creature to the police:

“It had three legs on it, a short body, two little short arms coming out of its breast area and two pink eyes as big as flashlights. It stood four and a half feet tall and was grayish-colored… it was trying to get into the house!”

McDaniel’s opened fire of the creature, hitting it immediately, but instead of falling to the ground wounded or dead, the horrible thing merely “hissed like a wildcat” at the frightened homeowner. Henry, who had fired four shots at the thing, assured anyone who asked that he had not missed his quarry:

“When I fired that first shot, I know I hit it.”

Then, as unbelievable as it may seem, McDaniel claimed that the zoological oddity then tore off into the night, covering an area of approximately 50-feet in a series of just three astonishing leaps, before disappearing into the brush along the L&N railroad embankment in front of his house.

McDaniel’s promptly called the local authorities, but when Illinois state troopers who responded to the call arrived at the scene, the only evidence of the encounter that remained were a series of scratches in the siding of the McDaniel’s home and dog-like prints in the yard. What made the prints so unusual was the fact that they had six toe pads and, even more intriguingly, that they represented a three footed “animal,” with one track being slightly smaller than the others.

If McDaniel believed that his encounters with the unknown were a thing of the past, he would soon realize that he was sadly mistaken, when, on the eve of May 6, he was startled awake in the dead of the night by the howling of some neighborhood dogs. McDaniel’s pulled himself out of bed, once again claimed his firearm, and — with what must have been great trepidation — opened his front door.

This time his encounter with this creature would not be so intimate. He claims he watched the thing at some distance, languidly negotiating the trestles of the railroad tracks near his home:

“I saw something moving out on the railroad track and there it stood. I didn’t shoot at it or anything. It started on down the railroad track. It wasn’t in a hurry or anything.”

As is always the case with astounding events such as this, it wasn’t long before the press got wind of the weirdness and came out in full force, but it wasn’t until McDaniel’s second report that the media frenzy truly kicked into overdrive.

White County Sheriff, Roy Poshard Jr., was so perturbed by this sudden influx of press and curiosity seekers (not to mention the alarm that was settling in on the locals) he threatened to incarcerate McDaniel if he didn’t stop inciting panic by spreading his wildly terrifying tale.

To make matters worse, well armed posses of amateur “monster” hunters began patrolling the area near the L&N railroad track sightings. It was on one such expedition that five young men allegedly had a run in with a creature identical to the one that Garret and McDaniel encountered — with the notable addition being that they described the thing as being “hairy.”

Enfield Railroad

The men discovered the beast hiding in the underbrush and proceeded to open fire on it, but (much like in the McDaniel case) their bullets were unable to cause mortal injury and the monster bolted off at a speed that the eyewitnesses surmised was greatly in excess of any that a human being could achieve.

The final eyewitness to this improbable creature was Rick Rainbow, the news director of radio station WWKI in Kokomo, Indiana. He and three other unnamed individuals claimed to have seen a gray, stooping, 5-foot tall entity lurking outside an abandoned house not far from the Garret and McDaniel’s homes.

Although they did not have nearly as close (or for that matter as harrowing) an encounter as the previous sets of witnesses, Rainbow and his crew did manage to do one thing the others had not — tape record the monster’s disturbing scream.

It was then that noted cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman, arrived on the scene to investigate the eyewitnesses claims as well as the sound recording. Coleman also heard the haunting cry of the creature while searching an area where eyewitnesses claimed to have seen the thing:

“I traveled to Enfield, interviewed the witnesses, looked at the siding of the house the Enfield Monster had damaged, heard some strange screeching banshee-like sounds, and walked away bewildered.”

In the July, 1974 edition of Fate Magazine, Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark featured the Enfield Horror in an article entitled: “Swamp Slobs Invade Illinois.” Coleman even chronicled discussing this intriguing case with famed paranormal investigator as well as bestselling “The Mothman Prophecies” author John A. Keel, in his book: “Mothman and Other Curious Encounters”

“This reminds me of my exchange with Keel… in 1973, when we were discussing the new reports out of Illinois, from Enfield. On April 25, 1973, Mr. and Mrs. Henry McDaniel returned to their home and Henry had an encounter with a thing that looked like it had three legs, two pink eyes as big as flashlights, and short arms on a four-and-a-half-feet tall and grayish-colored body, along the L&N rail-road tracks, in front of his house.”

Years later, Coleman would contrast his Enfield investigation with another he conducted regarding a legendary creature that many assume was also from alien origin – a melon headed monster known as the dover demon:

“(The Enfield Horror) was my case investigation. It was much different than the Dover Demon, however, and was more like a combo phantom kangaroo, Devil Monkey, and Swamp Ape situation.”

Other investigators have suggested that the monster was associated with a spate of UFO sightings that allegedly plagued the region during the same period, and those with a more supernatural bent have asserted that this beast — with its tendencies to be aggressive toward humans and try to break into their homes — has all of the earmarks of a classic “demon” attack.

This would not be the first time that it has been suggested that there is an apparent E.T./occult connection. While the phenomenon are not directly related, the primary witness in the North Port Devil case, Michael Rowley, also claims that the creatures that have been skulking around the house he shares with his son in the west Florida community of North Port, are of both extra-terrestrial and demonic origin — making them, in effect, aliens from hell.

Enfield Poltergeist

It should also be noted that between the years of 1941 and 1942, in the sleepy village of Mt. Vernon (less than 40 miles away from Enfield) there was a similar spate of encounters involving an anomalous “leaping” beast that terrorized the local populace and was reputedly responsible for numerous animal deaths in the region. Eyewitnesses claimed that theMt. Vernon Monster was vaguely baboon-like (hence the Devil Monkey analogy) and able to leap 20 to 40-feet in a single bound.

Is it possible that the Enfield Horror, whatever it may be, is working on 30 year cycle? While there are no reputable accounts of the creature coming from the 21st century, one cannot entirely count out the possibility that the thing is a long slumbering anatomical oddity that rears its head every so often to feed on animals and terrify locals. Or, stranger yet, an E.T. that only stops by for a bite every so often when it’s in this neck of the galaxy!

Whatever this creature is or is not, it has not been reported in almost 40 years. That, however, does not mean that it’s not still lurking in the shadows of some old train yard, waiting to return to scratch on another door in the wee hours of the night.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The magic theatre of High Weirdness

In Hermann Hesse's novel Steppenwolf we visit a mysterious and strange magic theatre, where some pretty weird things happen. Meant for madmen and madwomen only, the price of admission is nothing less than one's mind. In High Weirdness, you are invited to enter another kind of magic theatre. It is a place of magic and madness, heaven and hell, beauty and terror. Luckily, the price of the ticket is not your sanity, but just the price of the book, High Weirdness, the latest literary exploration by Erik Davis.

Erik Davis, PhD

A long-time Boing Boing pal, Erik Davis is an intellectual of the highest caliber: a persuasive and provocative essayist, an erudite and unconventional scholar of religions, a charismatic and engaging speaker, an adventurous-minded tripster and all-around experienced explorer of the edges of our reality. Davis is one of the most admired and refined interpreters of all matters mystical, psychedelic and occult. His decades' long travels in hyper-reality—roaming seamlessly from musical festivals to Burning Man to academia—make him a uniquely qualified cyber-anthropologist, a keen observer of our contemporary and turbulent cross-cultural mazes of techno-mystical realms, fringe subcultures, neo-shamanic practices, pop mythologies, conspiracy theories, and spiritual impulses. For those who arrived late to Erik Davis' extensive body of work, let me single out three important contributions: his classic (and still  relevant) read Techgnosis; his musical hermeneutic homage to the Led Zeppelin IV album; and his podcast, a cornucopia of weekly interviews with artists, intellectuals and all sorts of weirdos, all concerned with the cultures of consciousness.

Consensus Reality vs. High Weirdness

High Weirdness can be seen, in part, as a playful assault on reality, which, after all, is a complicated business. We all go through life, trying to make sense of things, navigating a so-called "consensus reality." Our very notion and understanding of what "reality" is (and, as a consequence, our own experience of it) is dependent and mediated by an existing matrix of institutions and cultural frameworks. These frameworks filter, shape and organize the world through shared and enforced patterns of perception, signification, and conceptual organization. In other words, whatever we ultimately come to believe to be possible, real, legitimate, or reasonable is a function of these structural mediations at play. We are all subject—more than we are generally able to acknowledge—to what our culture has programmed us to believe about the way things are and how the world works. However useful and necessary these structures and frameworks are, they are too limited, flawed, and incomplete to encompass of the whole spectrum of reality. To paraphrase a famous Aldous Huxley piece: every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the consensus reality into which s/he has been born. We are beneficiaries inasmuch it allows us to build a coherent and useful model of reality; we are victims in so far we believe that this reduced awareness and understanding of reality is the only thing there is. The point is: there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy. And sometimes, weird shit just happens: the rug is pulled from under our feet, our known terrain and categories won't work anymore, and our familiar consensus reality threatens to crumble to pieces. We are not in Kansas anymore. We are entering the space of high weirdness, which can include intensely bizarre and extraordinary experience, paranormal phenomena, overwhelming synchronicities, extraterrestrials communication and direct encounters with nonhuman entities, mystical seizures, occult effects, and psychedelic experiences.

Whenever faced first-hand, such anomalous experiences are ontologically confusing, potentially disturbing, and unnerving. They deeply shake our very model of reality, our beliefs about the nature of consciousness and the physical cosmos itself. Inherently ambivalent and paradoxical, high weirdness events have a peculiar mix of sacred and profane elements, both alluring and scary, terrifying and blissful, a blessing and a curse.

Trying to dismiss these "perturbations in the reality field" (as Philip K. Dick called them) as mere glitches, or hallucinations, or delusions, or pathological conditions is a shallow oversimplification. The stale rhetoric of rationalism and materialism falls short in providing satisfying answers or sustainable explanations concerning these enigmatic and compelling events.

High weirdness is a kind of incandescent magma running underneath the quiet crust of our ordinary consensus reality: be it by mere accident, or disciplined training, or intentional ingestion of psychoactive compounds, high weirdness can erupt into one's life—potentially everybody's life—with an unannounced and unpredictable degree of power.

Read the rest:

https://boingboing.net/2019/06/28/the-magic-theatre-of-high-weir.html

[withastolenlantern]

When Yokota arrived back to the laboratory, Midori was again occupied by the object of his affection, bent at the waist as he loomed over the short wall of the nurse station. A video, no doubt the latest net sensation, played on Eiko-kun’s holo as they both giggled quietly. Yokota smiled, as fifty years ago one might have found him in the same position, laughing and flirting in the student union with the art student who would become his wife. Yokota had many apprentices throughout the years, and all of them were talented in different ways. Some were destined for greatness as epidemiologists, or primary care, or even, as with Takahashi-san, hospital administration. In Midori he had found something else. The young man’s energy and impertinence were emblematic of his age, and he still needed work on his bedside manner. An earlier patient nearly died of shock when the young physician callously described test results confirming a rare form of cancer, more taken with his prognostic prowess than considering its effects on the afflicted.

But whatever his latest protege might have lacked in self-control or compassion, he made up for with his brilliance in diagnostics. The doctor was a tireless researcher, willing to chase every and any strange symptom or bizarre condition, and an expert at multiple cutting-edge metrology and analysis techniques. Yokota was increasingly convinced that this was his last kohai, and Midori would make for a more than capable replacement managing the research laboratory.

The elder man’s hands were becoming arthritic with age, and his knees creaked loudly in the mornings, a testament to one too many years of kendo practice. He’d squirreled away enough savings to last a few years, and while he would never accept it, his daughter would no doubt offer him a place with her family. But he would never allow himself to become a burden like that. The Japanese government, much like it's global counterparts, had largely exhausted its ability to support its elderly population through any type of entitlement programs. Both domestic and UN politicians continued to pay lip service to the important role the aged played in modern society; here in Japan there was even a federal holiday for it. But that was not the first opioid-addict oba-chan he'd laid to rest, and likely would not be the last. Shinto was arranged around the worship of the already deceased, not those dying in a piss-alley gutter. No, Yokota-san would take a long walk into Tokyo Bay before he let himself become a burden. He would fade away from the changing world, leaving only his daughter and his work to succeed him. Just like Tomoko.

He approached the nurse station slowly and quietly, allowing the young professionals one small fleeting moment of distraction before they returned to their responsibilities. Eiko-kun gasped in surprise at the holo, lifting a hand to her mouth as a distraught cat scurried under the a table, fleeing the buzz of a drone bird flitting around an apartment. Her other hand, Yokota noticed, was resting quietly atop Midori’s. He stopped behind his assistant and cleared his throat loudly to announce his presence.

“Doctor Yokota,” Midori said, turning quickly and becoming ramrod straight. Eiko-kun blushed a bright crimson in embarrassment and killed the feed to her holo. “We, uh…”

“Am I interrupting?” the older doctor asked with mock severity.

“No, no. Eiku-kun and I were just discussing…” Midori stammered.

“It’s fine, Midori-san. Relax,” Yokota said reassuringly. “We all need a break sometimes."

The younger man sighed, his shoulders visibly releasing tension. He turned to Yokota, bowing his head low and away from the nurse. “Did you bring the sample?” he whispered, his tone conspiratorial.

“Of course,” Yokota replied, opening his bag to display the vial.

They hurried into the lab, where Midori had already been preparing. “I ran additional tests against the patient’s blood samples,” he explained. “ELISA measurements did not yield any results for hemorrhagic proteins, and visual scan results returned no signs of unusual viral strains.”

Yokota opened the vial and withdrew a small amount of the viscous fluid into a syringe before injecting some into a spectrum analyzer. The machine whirred and hummed to life as it processed the sample. Midori busied himself depositing an additional specimen between two glass plates and sliding them under a high-powered optical profilometer. The viewscreen kicked on and the younger doctor began scanning across the surface of the fluid, looking for any anomalous variations in uniformity that may indicate any particulates suspended in the emulsion. Yokota stepped behind his protege and watched idly as the constant surface aspect flowed by on the screen.

A small colored blip flew by the edge of the monitor, almost imperceptible. Yokota blinked, not sure if what he’d seen was real, or simply an illusion of his aging eyes. Perturbed, he wiped his glasses with his akita kerchief. Then it happened again. “Wait, what was that?” he asked. “Go back.”

“I didn’t see anything,” Midori said, confused.

“No, there it is again,” Yokota pointed as another colored blotch, larger this time, quickly came in and out of frame. “What magnification are you at?”

“Uh… ten nanometers,” the younger man said.

“Back out. Five-hundred nanometers,” Yokota instructed.

“That’s awful big for a viral infection, don’t you think?” Midori cautioned.

“Humor me.”

“You’re the boss, Midori said with a shrug, resizing the scan envelope to a larger sweep size. The servo-controller squealed as it lifted the interface head further away from the sample, then whined as it auto-adjusted its position for optimal clarity. Taking up the small joystick, Midori again panned slowly across the surface, now less uniform in coloration with several distinct rectangular structures dotted across the landscape. “What the hell?”

Yokota leaned in closer, his nose near to the screen. He reached over gently and took the joystick from Midori’s hand, centering the view on one of the structures and zooming in slightly. It was several hundred nanometers in length, with a pointed structure on one end of a tubular structure, and a flattened wider section at the other. “That… doesn’t look like any virus I’ve ever seen,” the older man commented.

“Is it some kind of bacteriophage? The overall structure looks vaguely like that, but I don’t see any of the landing fibers, and I have no idea what this... is,” Midori said, gesturing toward the non-pointed end. “That’s typically where the attachment fibers would go.”

“Agreed,�� Yokota said, equally perplexed. “There’s a bunch of these, whatever they are, scattered about the suspension. Look, there’s more,” he commented, steering the profilometer across the surface as several more of the structures came into view.

Behind them, the spectrum analyzer blurted that it had finished its assessment, and the readout came to life displaying several chemical formulas. Yokota walked over to the instrument and hit the button to generate a print-out. A sheet of paper listing the chemical contents slid out from a slot in the front, and he laid it down on the bench to review, Midori behind and peering over his shoulder. “Well, we’ve got sufentanil in a sucralose suspension, just as we suspected. Explains the color and viscosity.” He read on: “caffeine, corn starch, trace organics…”

“Does that say tungsten?” Midori interrupted, pointing to the bottom of the chart.

“That doesn’t make any sense. And I don’t recognize this here below it either,” Yokota said, indicating a complex chemical formula.  

“I do,” Midori said, a quizzical expression on his face. “It’s an esterase.”

“Not one of the pancreatic ones,” the older doctor countered.

“No. It breaks down certain types of plastics and polymers. Polyimide, in particular, if I remember correctly from my Biomechanics classes.”

“Why would anyone cut that into a street drug?” Yokota wondered.

[jcmarchi]

Shining a Light on the Hidden Properties of Quantum Materials - Technology Org

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Shining a Light on the Hidden Properties of Quantum Materials - Technology Org

Certain materials have desirable properties that are hidden, and just as you would use a flashlight to see in the dark, scientists can use light to uncover these quantum properties.

Using an improved technique that gave access to a broader range of frequencies, the team uncovered some of the hidden quantum properties of the TNS exciton condensate. Image credit: Sheikh Rubaiat Ul Haque / Stanford University

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have used an advanced optical technique to learn more about a quantum material called Ta2NiSe5 (TNS). Their work appears in Nature Materials.

Materials can be perturbed through different external stimuli, often with changes in temperature or pressure; however, because light is the fastest thing in the universe, materials will respond very quickly to optical stimuli, revealing properties that would otherwise remain hidden.

“In essence, we shine a laser on a material and it’s like stop-action photography where we can incrementally follow a certain property of that material,” said Professor of Physics Richard Averitt, who led the research and is one of the paper’s authors.

“By looking at how constituent particles move around in that system, we can tease out these properties that are really tricky to find otherwise.”

The experiment was conducted by lead author Sheikh Rubaiat Ul Haque, who graduated from UC San Diego in 2023 and is now a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University. He and Yuan Zhang, another graduate student in Averitt’s lab, improved upon a technique called terahertz time-domain spectroscopy.

This technique allows scientists to measure a material’s properties over a range of frequencies, and Haque’s improvements allowed them access to a broader range of frequencies.

The work was based on a theory created by another of the paper’s authors, Eugene Demler, a professor at ETH Zürich. Demler and his graduate student Marios Michael developed the idea that when certain quantum materials are excited by light, they may turn into a medium that amplifies terahertz frequency light. This led Haque and colleagues to look closely into the optical properties of TNS. 

When an electron is excited to a higher level by a photon, it leaves behind a hole. If the electron and hole are bound, an exciton is created. Excitons may also form a condensate — a state that occurs when particles come together and behave as a single entity.

Haque’s technique, backed by Demler’s theory and using density functional calculations by Angel Rubio’s group at Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, the team was able to observe anomalous terahertz light amplification, which uncovered some of the hidden properties of the TNS exciton condensate.

Condensates are a well-defined quantum state and using this spectroscopic technique could allow some of their quantum properties to be imprinted onto light. This may have implications in the emerging field of entangled light sources (where multiple light sources have interconnected properties) utilizing quantum materials.

“I think it’s a wide-open area,” stated Haque. “Demler’s theory can be applied to a suite of other materials with nonlinear optical properties. With this technique, we can discover new light-induced phenomena that haven’t been explored before.”

Source: UCSD

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