Well, I’m back from Chicago, and my fossil hunting expedition! My abilities to find fossils on this trip can be summarized by one word: FAIL!!!
This was a field trip sponsored by the Field Museum of Chicago, a place I spent much time at in my youth. For at least 20 years, they’ve sponsored fossil hunts in the Mazon Creek area. My dad and I participated in one some twenty years ago, as mentioned in this post; in recent months, I suddenly got the urge to go back and try my luck again.
I just thought I’d mention that I probably won’t be posting for a few days: I’m heading to the Chicago area to go on a fossil hunt with my Dad! On top of that, as soon as I get back the semester starts and I have to make sure my course is in order. I may still throw something on the ‘tubes over the weekend, especially if the fossil hunting is fruitful, but no promises!
In other blog news, a flurry of interest in my short post on Leavenworth’s underground city catapulted my blog views over 50,000!
Here’s a few links for those who need something to read (The Linkin’ Log: August 22, 2008):
About a week ago, I reported on another ‘teaser’ in the media about ‘optical cloaks’, hypothetical devices which would in principle make objects contained in their core completely invisible. Such devices have gotten a lot of attention, both scientifically and in the press, since the publication of two fascinating theoretical papers in 2006. I recently wrote a post, which can be found here, summarizing those original two papers.
The press reports a week ago suggested another major breakthrough in cloaking research, with headlines such as “Science close to unveiling invisible man” and “Invisibility cloak closer than you think.” They were a little confused about what exactly had been accomplished, however: had the researchers made a three-dimensional invisibility cloak, a cloak that works at visible frequencies, or both?
Well, it turns out that they’ve done neither! This is another example of the press hunting for the best ‘hook’ for the story, no matter how tangentially related to the actual research. What has been accomplished, however, is the development of low-loss, three-dimensional negative refractive index materials which work for visible wavelengths, which is an important and interesting accomplishment in and of itself. I give a brief answer to the question, “What is a metamaterial?” below the fold, followed by an explanation of the actual results of the recent Berkeley papers and an analysis of how the press got themselves confused again.
Tim Lebbon relative newcomer as a horror fiction author. I’ve discussed a couple of his later novels in a previous post, and I finally got around to reading his first: Mesmer (1997).
As Lebbon himself notes in the introduction to the 2002 edition, Mesmer is “just-about-a-novel”. It is only 167 pages (about 40k words), and “hovers in that grey, indistinct area between novella and a novel, a mutant child of both that sits quietly in the corner at parties nursing a glass of mudium-strength beer and saying, ‘Well, believe it or not, I want to be this length.'”
(h/t my Mom) For the opening of the 50th Chicago Air & Water show on Friday, actor Bill Murray decided to take the plunge and make a tandem skydive! The raw footage of his skydive can be seen at the Chicago Tribune here.
The funny thing about it is, with only a few notable deviations, the video plays very much like the video anyone would get making a tandem! There’s the pre-launch interview, the look at the altimeter at altitude, the pre-jump questioning, followed by the jump and a ‘debrief’ immediately upon landing.
What were the deviations? Watch the video, and then follow me below…
The second edition of The Giant’s Shoulders is up at The Lay Scientist! I’m delighted (and, quite frankly, a little relieved) to see that there are an excellent number of entries, and they’re… well, excellent! Thanks to Martin for putting it together.
The next edition will be held at Entertaining Research on September 15th.
By the way, after the first TGS, Coturnix noted that many of the entries are eligible and good enough to be submitted for the next Science Blogging Anthology. I’m planning to nominate a few entries, but I’m too shy (proud? honest?) to nominate my own. If you liked one of my ‘classics’ posts, please consider dropping in a nomination.
As I noted a couple of days ago, apparently there has been another significant experimental breakthrough in the development of dielectric cloaking devices. Researchers at UC Berkeley were responsible, though it is a little unclear what exactly the breakthrough is. The results will appear this week in Science and Nature. In the meantime, it seemed like a good time to review the two articles that started the whole cloaking craze.
As I’ve noted in a pair of previous posts (here and here), the search for objects which can be considered in some sense invisible goes back nearly a hundred years. For the most part, however, the idea that one could make a truly invisible object was considered impossible — and theory backed up that view.
This changed with the publication of two back-to-back theoretical papers in Science in 2006. The first, by U. Leonhardt, was titled “Optical conformal mapping,” and the second, by J.B. Pendry, D. Schurig and D.R. Smith, was titled “Controlling electromagnetic fields”. Both papers mapped out strategies — in a nearly literal sense — for creating what could be called a dielectric invisibility device. How would such a device work? Let’s recall a little basic optics that will help us understand the process…
I haven’t done any catblogging for a while, which is a shame ’cause I’ve got lots of cute cat photos. Moving into a new house provides lots of opportunities for unexpected cat cuteness. Also, we received a very nice gift in the mail yesterday from my fiancée’s sister Janet, who is an extremely talented knitware designer and author and blogs about it here. Janet has knitted little catnip-filled mice for our kitties before, but the fiancée requested something a little larger that the cats can really wrestle with when the mood strikes them. The result? A catnip rat! It was an immediate hit with the kitties, who each took turns wrestling with it. Zoe’s turn is pictured below:
More below the fold…
One last reminder: there’s only 3 days left to submit to The Giant’s Shoulders #2, to be held at The Lay Scientist, so if you’ve been meaning to write a classic science post and submit it, now would be a good time to get going! Entries can be submitted via blogcarnival.com, or directly to the carnival host.
I’ve discussed a few of Dennis Wheatley‘s books in past posts. Wheatley was a prolific author from the 1930s through the 1980s (though his most famous works were written from the ’30s to the ’50s), and he could rightly be considered the Stephen King of his time. Unfortunately, most of his works are out of print, with the exception of some inexpensive editions produced by Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural. I’ve started foraging for his used books online, and managed to find an inexpensive first edition of his adventure thriller with the provocative title They Found Atlantis (1936). Though not his best work, it was an entertaining read and gives me an excuse to delve into some of the history of the Atlantis story and some of the Atlantis craze of the twentieth century. I’ll include some minor spoilers of the story, so don’t read any further if you want to discover Wheatley’s Atlantis for yourself! Otherwise, follow me below the fold…
The author of Skulls in the Stars is a professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. 
