New Sunspots

EASTERN ACTIVITY: A phalanx of sunspots is rotating over the sun’s eastern limb, and this could bring an uptick in solar activity. “Today the sun looks alive again with lots of sunspots and magnetic filaments rising over the sun’s eastern edge,” reports amateur astronomer Sergio Castillo, who sends this picture from Inglewood, California:

Castillo took the picture using a solar telescope capped with a Ca K filter tuned to the light of singly-ionized calcium. Ca K (“calcium K”) filters are particularly good at revealing the magnetic froth around active sunspots; pictured above is sunspot complex 1614-1615.

fr/spaceweather.com

Incoming CME

CME IMPACT: An interplanetary shock wave (probably the leading edge of a CME) hit Earth’s magnetic field on Nov. 12th at approximately 2300 UT, filling skies over northern Scandinavia with bright auroras. Oskar Pettersson sends this picture from Luleå, Sweden:

“Half of the sky was green and I stayed out for 5 hours observing the dancing light befor heading home,” says Pettersson.

from: spaceweather.com

Earthquake off Coast of Chile

Very strong earthquake along the Chile coast

Last update: November 13, 2012 at 8:17 am by By

Very strong earthquake along the Chile coast
Although that this was a very strong earthquake, the location of the epicenter makes it harmless for people as this part of Chile is only sparsely populated.  Additionally readers have to know that the epicenter is approx. 350 km out of the coast.

USGS Off The Coast Of Aisen, Chile Nov 13 04:31 AM 6.0

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/11/13/major-earthquakes-list-november-13-2012/

Upcoming Solar Eclipse 11/13-14

Total Eclipse of the Sun

Nov. 8, 2012:  People from around the world are converging on the coast of northeast Australia.  The attraction isn’t the Great Barrier Reef, just offshore, or the surrounding rain forests full of wildlife and exotic plants. They’re going to see a total eclipse of the sun.

On the morning of Nov. 14th (Australia time), about an hour after sunrise, the Moon will pass directly in front of the sun. Residents and visitors of the city of Cairns, also known as the Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, will enjoy an early morning eclipse lasting 2 minutes with the sun only 14 degrees above the eastern horizon.

Total Eclipse (splash)

Solar eclipses aren’t only pretty, they’re also scientifically valuable. A new ScienceCast video explains how. Play it

NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak has a rating scheme for natural wonders.  “On a scale of 1 to 10,” he says, “total eclipses are a million.”  Even the reef itself will be momentarily forgotten by onlookers as the Moon’s cool shadow sweeps across the beach and the ghostly tendrils of the solar corona surround the black lunar disk.

But there’s more to this event than tourism. Scientists are attending, too.  For researchers, the brief minutes of totality offer a window into one of the deepest mysteries of solar physics: The mystery of coronal heating.

In plain language, they’d like to know why the sun’s outer atmosphere or “corona” is so hot.  The surface temperature of the sun is only 6000 degrees C.  Yet the corona above it is much warmer, a million degrees Celsius or even more.

To understand the physics involved, astronomers have developed instruments called coronagraphs, which block the glare of the sun to reveal the faint corona.  Three spacecraft, SOHO and the twin STEREO probes, currently monitor the solar corona using these devices. But no manmade instrument can match Earth’s natural satellite.  The Moon is nature’s greatest coronagraph.

During an eclipse, “the moon reveals the innermost corona, which manmade coronagraphs have trouble seeing,” explains Shadia Habbal of the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii.  “That is where all the magnetic field and physical processes responsible for heating the corona are evolving most rapidly.”

Total Eclipse (path of totality, 200px)

On Nov. 13/14, 2012, the path of totality crosses the northeast coast of Australia. Click on the image for viewing times and a map of the entire eclipse path. More

On Nov. 12th, Habbal will be in Palm Cove, Australia, to deliver a keynote speech at a solar physics conference sponsored in part by NASA’s Living with a Star Program.  The title of her talk is “The unique scientific advantages of total solar eclipse observations.”  Two days later, Habbal and her colleagues will be inside the path of totality, monitoring the eclipse with a variety of telescopes and spectrometers at 6 different wavelengths from 2 different sites.

Astronomy professor Jay Pasachoff, chair of the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Eclipses will be there, too.  He has observed an astounding 55 solar eclipses.  “The Australia eclipse will be my 56th,” he notes.

Over the years, Pasachoff and colleagues have developed techniques to photograph the corona with a clarity and resolution that coronagraphs on current spacecraft cannot match.  Using these techniques, “we are learning how the wonderfully-detailed structures we see in the corona are shaped by the sun’s magnetic field,” he explains. The shapes vary in a regular way during the sun’s 11-year sunspot cycle. “We can use this information to improve predictions of the next solar cycle.”

That’s a lot of science in two minutes of shadowy darkness.

After totality is over, the moon’s shadow will sweep out across the South Pacific Ocean, tracing a line thousands of miles long across uninhabited waters, reaching almost, but not quite, the coast of South America. Back on the beach, scientists will be taking a first look at their data while tourists starting thinking about breakfast–and snorkeling in the reef.  For all concerned, it’s a great way to begin the day.

from:    http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/07nov_totaleclipse/

Okay, Crazy Shit, But….

Check it out.  DO the research.  Then THINK about what it all means:

40 Outrageous Facts Most People Don’t Know

Once you go down the rabbit hole, you will discover things that most people don’t know. Here are 40 outrageous facts that most people are clueless about.

The IRS is not a U.S. Government Agency. It is an Agency of the IMF. 1. The IRS is not a U.S. Government Agency. It is an Agency of the IMF. (Diversified Metal Products v. IRS et al. CV-93-405E-EJE U.S.D.C.D.I., Public Law 94-564, Senate Report 94-1148 pg. 5967, Reorganization Plan No. 26, Public Law 102-391.)

2. The IMF is an Agency of the UN. (Blacks Law Dictionary 6th Ed. Pg. 816)

3. The U.S. Has not had a Treasury since 1921. (41 Stat. Ch.214 pg. 654)

4. The U.S. Treasury is now the IMF. (Presidential Documents Volume 29-No.4 pg. 113, 22 U.S.C. 285-288)

5. The United States does not have any employees because there is no longer a United States. No more reorganizations. After over The FCC, CIA, FBI, NASA and all of the other alphabet gangs were never part of the United States government. Even though the "US Government" held shares of stock in the various Agencies. (U.S. V. Strang , 254 US 491, Lewis v. US, 680 F.2d, 1239)200 years of operating under bankruptcy its finally over. (Executive Order 12803) Do not personate one of the creditors or share holders or you will go to Prison.18 U.S.C. 914

6. The FCC, CIA, FBI, NASA and all of the other alphabet gangs were never part of the United States government. Even though the “US Government” held shares of stock in the various Agencies. (U.S. V. Strang , 254 US 491, Lewis v. US, 680 F.2d, 1239)

Social Security Numbers are issued by the UN through the IMF7. Social Security Numbers are issued by the UN through the IMF. The Application for a Social Security Number is the SS5 form. The Department of the Treasury (IMF) issues the SS5 not the Social Security Administration. The new SS5 forms do not state who or what publishes them, the earlier SS5 forms state that they are Department of the Treasury forms. You can get a copy of the SS5 you filled out by sending form SSA-L996 to the SS Administration. (20 CFR chapter 111, subpart B 42 2.103 (b) (2) (2) Read the cites above)

8. There are no Judicial courts in America and there has not been since 1789. Judges do not enforce Statutes and Codes. Executive Administrators enforce Statutes and Codes. (FRC v. GE 281 US 464, Keller v. PE 261 US 428, 1 Stat. 138-178)

9. There have not been any Judges in America since 1789. There have just been Administrators. (FRC v. GE 281 US 464, Keller v. PE 261 US 428 1Stat. 138-178)

10. According to the GATT you must have a Social Security number. House Report (103-826)

11. We have One World Government, One World Law and a One World Monetary System.

No one on this planet has ever been free. This planet is a Slave Colony.12. The UN is a One World Super Government.

13. No one on this planet has ever been free. This planet is a Slave Colony. There has always been a One World Government. It is just that now it is much better organized and has changed its name as of 1945 to the United Nations.

14. New York City is defined in the Federal Regulations as the United Nations. Rudolph Gulliani stated on C-Span that “New York City was the capital of the World” and he was correct. (20 CFR chapter 111, subpart B 422.103 (b) (2) (2)

15. Social Security is not insurance or a contract, nor is there a Trust Fund. (Helvering v. Davis 301 US 619, Steward Co. V. Davis 301 US 548.)

16. Your Social Security check comes directly from the IMF which is an Agency of the UN. (Look at it if you receive one. It should have written on the top left United States Treasury.)

17. You own no property, slaves can’t own property. Read the Deed to the property that you think is yours. You are listed as a Tenant. (Senate Document 43, 73rd Congress 1st Session)

The Revolutionary War was a fraud.18. The most powerful court in America is not the United States Supreme Court but, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. (42 Pa.C.S.A. 502)

19. The Revolutionary War was a fraud. See (22, 23 and 24)

20. The King of England financially backed both sides of the Revolutionary The King of England financially backed both sides of the Revolutionary war. (Treaty at Versailles July 16, 1782, Treaty of Peace 8 Stat 80)war. (Treaty at Versailles July 16, 1782, Treaty of Peace 8 Stat 80)

…and as history repeats itself, Prescott Bush, as history repeats itself, Prescott Bush, father of George HW Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush, funded both sides of World War II. The Bush family have been traitors to the American citizens for decades. father of George HW Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush, funded both sides of World War II.  The Bush family have been traitors to the American citizens for decades.

“Sarah, if the American people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched.”

George Bush Senior speaking in an interview with Sarah McClendon in December 1992

21. You can not use the Constitution to defend yourself because you are not a party to it. (Padelford Fay & Co. v. The Mayor and Alderman of The City of Savannah 14 Georgia 438, 520)

22. America is a British Colony. (THE UNITED STATES IS A CORPORATION, NOT A LAND MASS AND IT EXISTED BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND THE BRITISH TROOPS DID NOT LEAVE UNTIL 1796.) Respublica v. Sweers 1 Dallas 43, Treaty of Commerce 8 Stat 116, The Britain is owned by the Vatican.Society for Propagating the Gospel, &c. V. New Haven 8 Wheat 464, Treaty of Peace 8 Stat 80, IRS Publication 6209, Articles of Association October 20, 1774.)

23. Britain is owned by the Vatican. (Treaty of 1213)

24. The Pope can abolish any law in the United States. (Elements of Ecclesiastical Law Vol.1 A 1040 form is for tribute paid to Britain. (IRS Publication 620953-54)

25. A 1040 form is for tribute paid to Britain. (IRS Publication 6209)

26. The Pope claims to own the entire planet through the laws of conquest and discovery. (Papal Bulls of 1455 and 1493)

27. The Pope has ordered the genocide and enslavement of millions of people.(Papal Bulls of 1455 and 1493)

28. The Pope’s laws are obligatory on everyone. (Bened. XIV., De Syn. Dioec, lib, ix., c. vii., n. 4. Prati, 1844)(Syllabus, prop 28, 29, 44)

29. We are slaves and own absolutely nothing not even what we think are our children. (Tillman v. Roberts 108 So. 62, Van Koten v. Van Koten 154 N.E. 146, Senate Document 43 & 73rd Congress 1st Session, Wynehammer v. People 13 N.Y. REP 378, 481)

30. Military Dictator George Washington divided the States (Estates) into Districts. (Messages and papers of the Presidents Vo 1, " The People" does not include you and me. pg 99. Websters 1828 dictionary for definition of Estate.)

31. ” The People” does not include you and me. (Barron v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore. 32 U.S. 243)

32. The United States Government was not founded upon Christianity. (Treaty of Tripoli 8 Stat 154.)

33. It is not the duty of the police to protect you. Their job is to protect the Corporation and arrest code breakers. Sapp v. Tallahasee, 348 So. 2nd. 363, Reiff v. City of Philadelphia, 477 F.Supp. 1262, Lynch v. N.C. Dept of Justice 376 S.E. 2nd. 247.

34. Everything in the “United States” is For Sale: roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, water, prisons airports etc. I wonder who bought Klamath lake. Did anyone take the time to check? (Executive Order 12803)

35. We are Human capital. (Executive Order 13037)

36. The UN has financed the operations of the United States government for over 50 years and now owns every man, women and child in America. The UN also holds all of the Land in America in Fee Simple.

37. The good news is we don’t have to fulfill “our” fictitious obligations. You can discharge a fictitious obligation with another’s fictitious obligation.

38. The depression and World War II were a total farce. The United States and various other companies were making loans to others all over the World during the Depression. The building of Germanys infrastructure in the 1930’s including the Railroads was financed by the United States. That way those who call themselves “Kings,” “Prime Ministers,” and “Furor.”etc could sit back and play a game of chess using real people. Think of all of the Americans, Germans etc. who gave their lives thinking they were defending their Countries which didn’t even exist. The millions of innocent people who died for nothing. Isn’t it obvious why Switzerland is never involved in these fiascoes? That is where the “Bank of International Settlements”is located.Wars are manufactured to keep your eye off the ball. You have to have an enemy to keep the illusion of “Government” in place.

39. The “United States” did not declare Independence from Great Britian or King George.

40. The etymology of government means to control the mind. From Latinised Greek gubernatio “management, government”, from Ancient Greek κυβερνισμός, κυβέρνησις (kybernismos, kybernesis) “steering, pilotage, guiding”, from κυβερνάω (kybernao) “to steer, to drive, to guide, to act as a pilot” plus Latin mente “mind”,

from:    http://in5d.com/40-outrageous-facts-most-people-dont-know.html

 

 

Short, But Meaningful, Commentary

I have always said that Obama was a loose cannon.  I was greatly disappointed by his actions in his first term.  However, I have confidence that in this next term, he will move beyond all the conditioning and the controls under which he was acting  and become the man he truly is.

The energetic thrust of this world at this time allows for no more pandering to a clique on controllers who have a cavalier attitude towards the people of the world, feeling that they are mere cattle to be led and used for whatever profit can be made.

The terms of profit have changed.  No longer will profit be read in the bottom line of a corporation.

Profit will become a word that means the betterment of all people.

Profit will imply the personal development and fulfillment of all persons.

Profit will call for the right use and consideration of the Planet in all her aspects.

Profit will be clean water and real food.

Profit will be the rise of corporations by, for, and of the people.

Profit will be the recognition of the sanctity of life in all its guises.

Profit will be gratitude for the beauty of the Earth.

Profit will be an acceptance of the existence of extra-terrestrial races.

Profit will be a considerate use of the resources of the planet, of people, of the Universe.

Profit will mean connectedness to All That Is.

Profit will be an acknowledgement of the angelic nature of all beings.

Profit will be a knowing that the dimensions are shifting.

Profit will be the road to ascension.

If profit is other than this, then this planet is in even graver trouble than before.

On the Importance of Women Voters

Lisa Belkin

Senior Columnist on Life/Work/Family, The Huffington Post

Women Voters Won Last Night — But Did Anyone Get The Message?

Posted: 11/07/2012 12:31 pm
Women voters were the prize in the 2012 campaign. They turn out in higher numbers than men and it has long been impossible to win an election without

And yet, for far too long, candidates seemed to think women’s votes could be gotten with good looks (most recently the Wisconsin ad urging women to “Vote for the cute one,” before that the selection of Dan Quayle because, as one prominent Republican noted at the time “I can’t believe a guy that handsome wouldn’t have some impact”) or a pandering placement on the ticket (hello, Sarah Palin), or by spending a lot of time calling us Mom.

Perhaps last night they finally gotten the message. Or, messages:

You don’t win if you dismiss us. Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” struck a chord because it felt like a rare moment of candor. He seemed to see us as a box to be checked. A former governor who appointed competent, talented women to his cabinet because he saw them as integral and intrinsic to governing rather than tokens of their gender would never have used those words.

You don’t win if you think you know more about our bodies than we do. Especially if you are horrifyingly wrong. Todd Akin proved that when Missouri voters rebuked him for saying that pregnancy rarely results from “legitimate rape” because a woman’s body “has ways to shut the whole thing down.”  (It didn’t help that he later explained he was confident he would win because opponent Claire McCaskill did not appear “ladylike” during their September debate, and went on to compare her to a dog.)

You don’t win if you equate rape with anything other than the evil that it is.  Defeated Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock knows that now, after saying that pregnancies resulting from rape are  “something that God intended to happen.”

You probably shouldn’t joke about birth control, either. We take it very, very seriously. We made that clear during the primaries when Foster Friess, the wealthy Rick Santorum supporter, tried to distract us from his candidate’s archaic stance on contraception, saying “back in my days, they’d use Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly.” (It wasn’t just women, of course, who joined the firestorm of response on Facebook and Twitter. Men made it clear that they care about birth control, too.)

It should go without saying, but you don’t win just because you are a woman. Linda McMahon learned that in Connecticut, as did Heather Wilson in New Mexico and Shelley Berkley in Nevada. Tellingly, when women ran against women, it was the candidates who were championed women’s rights who tended to win: pro-choice women, supported by such organizations as Emily’s List, beat Republican women for Senate in California, New York and Hawaii.

We are not single issue voters and don’t respond well to being viewed as such. Policies about our bodies are not the only questions we take to the voting booth. But even if what tipped us was the economy, or the war, or climate change, our world view as women — or, more accurately, how the political world viewed us as women — seeped into how we processed this campaign. There were candidates who respected us and others who insulted us. With few exceptions (Michele Bachmann comes to mind), respect won.

Partly because many candidates failed to hear or heed the messages above, this newly elected 113th Congress will include 19 women senators, the largest number in history. (Yes, it is still absurdly low in a country where half the population is female — equally baffling is why so many states had no women candidates in any race — but it’s a start.)

New Hampshire, in turn, will be represented at the highest levels entirely by women — Democrat Maggie Hassan is governor elect, and two congresswomen will join the two female senators who already represent the state.

And President Obama arguably owes his re-election to women. He won with an 18-point gender gap nationwide, making victory possible in several key swing states  including Ohio (where he led by 12 percent among women) and Pennsylvania (where women preferred him by 16 percent).

Heady stuff, right? The ultimate proof of the power of women? Perhaps. We certainly got their attention over the past year, when women’s issues took center stage more than any campaign in history. But attention from a candidate is not the same as action from an elected representative, and the real test will be what happens next.

Politicians talked to women, about women and at women when they wanted our vote. Now they have to talk with women if they want to keep our support

from:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-belkin/women-voters-won-candidates-listening_b_2088705.html

Making Diesel Fuel out of Sugar

Long-abandoned bacterial fermentation process converts sugar directly to diesel November 7, 2012
Sweet diesel! Breakthrough process converts sugar directly to diesel
A long-abandoned fermentation process once used to turn starch into explosives can be used to produce renewable diesel fuel to replace the fossil fuels now used in transportation, University of California, Berkeley, scientists have discovered.
Campus chemists and chemical engineers teamed up to produce diesel fuel from the products of a bacterial fermentation discovered nearly 100 years ago by the first president of Israel, chemist Chaim Weizmann. The retooled process produces a mix of products that contain more energy per gallon than ethanol that is used today in transportation fuels and could be commercialized within 5-10 years. While the fuel’s cost is still higher than diesel or gasoline made from fossil fuels, the scientists said the process would drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, one of the major contributors to global climate change. “What I am really excited about is that this is a fundamentally different way of taking feedstocks – sugar or starch – and making all sorts of renewable things, from fuels to commodity chemicals like plastics,” said Dean Toste, UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and co-author of a report on the new development that will appear in the Nov. 8 issue of the journal Nature. The work by Toste, coauthors Harvey Blanch and Douglas Clark, UC Berkeley professors of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and their colleagues was supported by the Energy Biosciences Institute, a collaboration between UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and funded by the energy firm BP. The late Weizmann’s process employs the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum to ferment sugars into acetone, butanol and ethanol. Blanch and Clark developed a way of extracting the acetone and butanol from the fermentation mixture while leaving most of the ethanol behind, while Toste developed a catalyst that converted this ideally-proportioned brew into a mix of long-chain hydrocarbons that resembles the combination of hydrocarbons in diesel fuel. Tests showed that it burned about as well as normal petroleum-based diesel fuel.
“It looks very compatible with diesel, and can be blended like diesel to suit summer or winter driving conditions in different states,” said Blanch. The process is versatile enough to use a broad range of renewable starting materials, from corn sugar (glucose) and cane sugar (sucrose) to starch, and would work with non-food feedstocks such as grass, trees or field waste in cellulosic processes. “You can tune the size of your hydrocarbons based on the reaction conditions to produce the lighter hydrocarbons typical of gasoline, or the longer-chain hydrocarbons in diesel, or the branched chain hydrocarbons in jet fuel,” Toste said. The fermentation process, dubbed ABE for the three chemicals produced, was discovered by Weizmann around the start of World War I in 1914, and allowed Britain to produce acetone, which was needed to manufacture cordite, used at that time as a military propellant to replace gunpowder. The increased availability and decreased cost of petroleum soon made the process economically uncompetitive, though it was used again as a starting material for synthetic rubber during World War II. The last U.S. factory using the process to produce acetone and butanol closed in 1965. Nevertheless, Blanch said, the process by which the Clostridium bacteria convert sugar or starch to these three chemicals is very efficient. This led him and his laboratory to investigate ways of separating the fermentation products that would use less energy than the common method of distillation. They discovered that several organic solvents, in particular glyceryl tributyrate (tributyrin), could extract the acetone and butanol from the fermentation broth while not extracting much ethanol. Tributyrin is not toxic to the bacterium and, like oil and water, doesn’t mix with the broth. Brought together by the EBI, Blanch and Clark found that Toste had discovered a catalytic process that preferred exactly that proportion of acetone, butanol and ethanol to produce a range of hydrocarbons, primarily ketones, which burn similarly to the alkanes found in diesel. “The extractive fermentation process uses less than 10 percent of the energy of a conventional distillation to get the butanol and acetone out – that is the big energy savings,” said Blanch. “And the products go straight into the chemistry in the right ratios, it turns out.” The current catalytic process uses palladium and potassium phosphate, but further research is turning up other catalysts that are as effective, but cheaper and longer-lasting, Toste said. The catalysts work by binding ethanol and butanol and converting them to aldehydes, which react with acetone to add more carbon atoms, producing longer hydrocarbons. “To make this work, we had to have the biochemical engineers working hand in hand with the chemists, which means that to develop the process, we had learn each other’s language,” Clark said. “You don’t find that in very many places.” Clark noted that diesel produced via this process could initially supply niche markets, such as the military, but that renewable fuel standards in states such as California will eventually make biologically produced diesel financially viable, especially for trucks, trains and other vehicles that need more power than battery alternatives can provide. “Diesel could put Clostridium back in business, helping us to reduce global warming,” Clark said. “That is one of the main drivers behind this research.” Journal reference: Nature search and more info website

New Discoveries on the Nature of Light

Quantum Mystery of Light Revealed by New Experiment

Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience senior writer
Date: 05 November 2012
Light's Wave-Particle Duality
This illustration shows the dual nature of light, which acts like both particles and waves. In a new experiment reported in November 2012, researchers observed light photons acting like both particles and waves simultaneously.
CREDIT: S. Tanzilli, CNRS

Is light made of waves, or particles?

This fundamental question has dogged scientists for decades, because light seems to be both. However, until now, experiments have revealed light to act either like a particle, or a wave, but never the two at once.

Now, for the first time, a new type of experiment has shown light behaving like both a particle and a wave simultaneously, providing a new dimension to the quandary that could help reveal the true nature of light, and of the whole quantum world.

The debate goes back at least as far as Isaac Newton, who advocated that light was made of particles, and James Clerk Maxwell, whose successful theory of electromagnetism, unifying the forces of electricity and magnetism into one, relied on a model of light as a wave. Then in 1905, Albert Einstein explained a phenomenon called the photoelectric effect using the idea that light was made of particles called photons (this discovery won him the Nobel Prize in physics). [What’s That? Your Physics Questions Answered]

Ultimately, there’s good reason to think that light is both a particle and a wave. In fact, the same seems to be true of all subatomic particles, including electrons and quarks and even the recently discovered Higgs boson-like particle. The idea is called wave-particle duality, and is a fundamental tenet of the theory of quantum mechanics.

Depending on which type of experiment is used, light, or any other type of particle, will behave like a particle or like a wave. So far, both aspects of light’s nature haven’t been observed at the same time.

But still, scientists have wondered, does light switch from being a particle to being a wave depending on the circumstance? Or is light always both a particle and a wave simultaneously?

Artist’s impression, inspired by the work of the artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, of the continuous  morphing between particle- and wave-like behaviour of light
Artist’s impression, inspired by the work of the artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, of the continuous morphing between particle- and wave-like behaviour of light
CREDIT: Nicolas Brunner and Jamie Simmonds

Now, for the first time, researchers have devised a new type of measurement apparatus that can detect both particle and wave-like behavior at the same time. The device relies on a strange quantum effect called quantum nonlocality, a counter-intuitive notion that boils down to the idea that the same particle can exist in two locations at once.

“The measurement apparatus detected strong nonlocality, which certified that the photon behaved simultaneously as a wave and a particle in our experiment,” physicist Alberto Peruzzo of England’s University of Bristol said in a statement. “This represents a strong refutation of models in which the photon is either a wave or a particle.”

Peruzzo is lead author of a paper describing the experiment published in the Nov. 2 issue of the journal Science.

 

The experiment further relies on another weird aspect of quantum mechanics — the idea of quantum entanglement. Two particles can become entangled so that actions performed on one particle affect the other. In this way, the researchers were able to allow the photons in the experiment to delay the choice of whether to be particles or waves.

MIT physicist Seth Lloyd, who was not involved in the project, called the experiment “audacious” in a related essay in Science, and said that while it allowed the photons to delay the choice of being particles or waves for only a few nanoseconds, “if one has access to quantum memory in which to store the entanglement, the decision could be put off until tomorrow (or for as long as the memory works reliably). So why decide now? Just let those quanta slide!”

from:    http://www.livescience.com/24509-light-wave-particle-duality-experiment.html