Nassim Haramein ‘Earth-sized space-ships crash into Sun [2011 © History.com] – YouTube.flv – Video


Nassim Haramein #39;Earth-sized space-ships crash into Sun [2011 History.com] - YouTube.flv
Our puny simple minds cannot coprehend the TRUE laws of astro physics #39; #39; #39;..we are to busy shopping!.. #39;silly humans #39;....you deserve whats coming!!!..2012 BEYOND!.....**FAIR USE NOTICE: Some of the videos on this youtube channel may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a #39;fair use #39; of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 USC section 107 of the US Copyright Law.***2012 BEYONDFrom:TIMEBOMB2012Views:1497 6ratingsTime:03:22More inScience Technology

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Nassim Haramein 'Earth-sized space-ships crash into Sun [2011 © History.com] - YouTube.flv - Video

Introducing BooM` Astro | Astro Physics | Episode 1 – Video


Introducing BooM` Astro | Astro Physics | Episode 1
Hey BooM` Tricky Here Bringing You our 1st #39;Introducing #39; video, from BooM` Astro. (This is also his 1st Episode). Player: http://www.youtube.com Editor: http://www.youtube.com/2011NiKz Don #39;t forget to: - Like - Comment - Subscribe!From:BooMTrickshottingAUViews:294 16ratingsTime:02:21More inFilm Animation

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Introducing BooM` Astro | Astro Physics | Episode 1 - Video

Shri Prabodh Vekhande SIR on Bruhaspati


Shri Prabodh Vekhande SIR on Bruhaspati Shukracharya
Shri Prabodh Vekhande SIR, Jyotishacharya Margdarshak, at Nagpur, Maharastra-INDIA (Contact No. 09225220895). Conducts The Jyotish Varg ( astrology classes, under name of SRI-VATS JYOTISH VIDHYALAY) on every Sunday at Durga Mandir Parisar, Pratap Nagar, Nagpur, for free. In this class, SIR has-focused on the Dristy of B #7771;haspati ( Jupiter) Shukracharya ( Venus), both are Bramhin,Guru and equal rank Adviser to the King, in the Politics of Nav-grah. But why Jupiter had given two additional dristy (eyes) ie 5th 9th, where as Venus( though having Sanjivani vidhya) got only one, the 7th, which is with all the Grahas, in common. This very important concept is explained by SIR in his unique style, sometime it is Astro Physics, sometime its Astro Politics ( of Navgrah), Astro chemistry (chemical locha) etc and by giving various RANJAN (manoranjan) examples of day to day life that, even a Lehman, in astrology, can understand. It is said, " No person in this world has ever been Rewarded for what he has received, He is always Honored for what he has given". Praying lord Vedvyas (on the auspicious day of Guru Purnima 3.7.12.) to en-shower all his treasure of knowledge on SIR, as he is not only acquiring the most secretive divine knowledge but whole heartedly given it to the mass on there level of absorbility. Koti Koti Pranam Sir.From:Aneel ThakkarViews:85 1ratingsTime:02:14:16More inEducation

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Shri Prabodh Vekhande SIR on Bruhaspati

Scintillation Of Stars – Video


Scintillation Of Stars
Live modular synth and Waldorf MicroWaveXT. The still photos are some astrophotography I did with a Takahashi TOA150, Sbig STL11000 CCD camera, Astro Physics 900GTO mount on a Paramount pier in Maxim DL software. The pictures are of the Coat Hanger cluster, Veil Nebula, M33 galaxy and the Rho Ophiuchi nebulae region. The music includes modules from many different MU and 5U vendors but features a re-constructed Cat Girl Synth Dual Analog Shift Register that I added twelve voltage trimmers to the output buffers in order to fine tune the voltage outs.This led to tuning stability which is not common with the typical CGS design. There are both quantized and un-quantized ASR oscillators heard within the piece. A few notes were played by hand over the top of the modular on a Waldorf MicroWaveXT.From:davidryleViews:137 5ratingsTime:06:17More inMusic

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Scintillation Of Stars - Video

AL HAJJ 1, Science, Anggito Abimanyu.wmv – Video


AL HAJJ 1, Science, Anggito Abimanyu.wmv
AL HAJJ (Millah Ibrahim) adalah "embryo" semua Agama, dan pondasi PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS (Wihdat ad-Dyan). Padanya sudah terkandung dasar-dasar fllsafat - Cosmology, Anthropology, dan Theology yang terpadu, di samping itu juga telah tertuang prinsip-prinsip ilmu pengetahuan yang terintegrasi, baik Astro Physics maupun Socio Economy. Rukun Islam Kelima ini merupakan pondasi ISLAM yang kaffah dan "Inclusive", dan menunaikan ibadah HAJJI merupakan "advance education" menuju Creative Intellectual Muslim. IBADAH HAJJI terpahami keluasan dan kedalamannya maknanya, apabila Sa #39;i antara "sinus" Shafa dan Marwa dihubungkan dengan Quantum theorum atau Wave theory, dan Thawaf mengelilingi Ka #39;bah dikaitkan dengan Expanding Universe (Hubble). Kementerian Agama RI seyogyanya menyelenggarakan "Seminar Ilmiah IBADAH HAJII" yang komprehensif dan disesuaikan dengan kemajuan zaman, yaitu dalam rangka meningkatkan "effiency plus effectiveness" Penyelenggaran Haji dan Umroh. Di samping itu juga dimanfaatkan untuk mengantar Revitalisasi Falsafah Pancasila, supaya semakin luas wawasannya dan bisa diandalkan untuk pedoman menyongsong Kebangkitan MILLENNIUM CIVILIZATION. Saya berharap Kemenag RI juga membuka diri untuk menampung berbagai "ideas" yang akan disumbangkan oleh masyarakat kebanyakan, supaya spektrum makna dan manfaatnya Ibadah HAJJI menjadi semakin luas. Tato Sugiarto. d/a Soemarsono, Pondok Kopi I-1/1, Jakarta Timur 13460, Indonesia. Tilp. 02168301313. Email: sugiarto.tato520@gmail.comFrom:TatoSugiartoViews:54 0ratingsTime:08:11More inEducation

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AL HAJJ 1, Science, Anggito Abimanyu.wmv - Video

AL HAJJ 2, Socio Economy, Anggito Abimanyu – Video


AL HAJJ 2, Socio Economy, Anggito Abimanyu
AL HAJJ (Millah Ibrahim) adalah "embryo" semua Agama, dan pondasi PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS (Wihdat ad-Dyan). Padanya sudah terkandung dasar-dasar fllsafat - Cosmology, Anthropology, dan Theology yang terpadu, di samping itu juga telah tertuang prinsip-prinsip ilmu pengetahuan yang terintegrasi, baik Astro Physics maupun Socio Economy. Ritual Olympic Games di gunung Olympus (Hellenism) yang berlambang "obor api" (Yang/naar) ternyata berpasangan dengan Ibadah HAJJI di lembah Bakkah yang berlambang "air Zam-zam" (Yin/nuur).Rukun Islam Kelima ini memberikan peluang bagi kaum Muslimin untuk melaksanakan "advance education" agar memahami ISLAM secara "kaffah" (inclusive), sehingga bisa memperoleh predikat "Creative Intellectual Muslim" yang progresif. ISLAMY ECONOMY (peace and prosperity) adalah "focus of interest" daripada IBADAH HAJJI, yang sasarannya "Green and Blue Economy" seperti yang dicanangkan oleh PBB. Di samping itu juga dipersiapkan sebagai model "Spiritualization Eco Tourism" yang akan menjadi primadona andalan menghadapi "Cultural Warfare" mendatang. "Economic Cycles" digambarkan melalui "situs" dan "ritus" Sa #39;i antara bukit Shafa dan bukit Marwa, termasuk "rush" (ramal) menjelang "slump" (bear) dan "boom" (bull). Krisis ekonomi Eropa yang kini sedang berlangsung terkesan bergantian dengan krisis Asia beberapa tahun yang lalu (1998), ini diduga mengulangi krisis ekonomi dunia pada tahun 1930. Dengan demikian pengetahuan tentang HAJJI bisa dimanfa #39;atkan sebagai ...From:TatoSugiartoViews:71 0ratingsTime:06:28More inEducation

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Space is the new black

Austrian daredevil ... "Felix Baumgartner's 38.6-kilometre freefall from the edge of space had us staring in jaw-dropping awe at screens, setting social media alight." Photo: Reuters

Space is hip again. Whether it's a Felix Baumgartner skydiving his way past the sound barrier setting Twitter and YouTube on fire or the space shuttle Endeavour pulling big crowds in the streets of Los Angeles, the final frontier is back in vogue.

Just as families the world over gathered around the box and wireless for the 1969 moon-landing, Baumgartner's 38.6-kilometre freefall from the edge of space had us staring in jaw-dropping awe at screens, setting social media alight. More than 8 million watched the livestream as the Austrian daredevil, perched on a balloon capsule surrounded by the black of space, lunged into the void and tumbled to the blue Earth below. During the jump, half of Twitter's global trending topics discussed the jump, and the first photo of his triumphant air punch landing posted on Facebook was shared 29,000 times and liked 216,000 times in 40 minutes.

On the same day in Los Angeles, thousands of people lined the streets to cheer the slow crawl of the retired shuttle's final 20-kilometre journey from the airport to the California Science Centre, where it will go on display. A constellation of eager spectators had camped out the night before.

The space trend has been growing since August coincidentally, the same month astronaut Neil Armstrong died when the SUV-sized Curiosity rover made a "death plunge" to the surface of Mars, slowing from 21,600 km/h to zero in seven minutes. The hair-raising landing appeared live on the twin screens at Times Square in New York, and was streamed to Xbox 360 dashboards worldwide.

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The blogosphere promptly erupted, the ensuing coverage making a minor celebrity of flight director Bobak Ferdowski, 32. His multicoloured Mohawk haircut, created especially for the landing, scored him 54,000 new Twitter followers some making marriage proposals. A parody music video, We're NASA and We Know it (set to the tune of American electropop duo LMFAO's hit song) was out within days, and has so far had 2.5 million views.

Social media is now what television was to the early days of the space race; but it's also a more personal way for the closet space fan in all of us to connect directly with the exploration of the cosmos. Take the rover Curiosity: it has 1.2 million followers on Twitter, to whom it tweets its daily routine as well as links to pictures and video: A scoopful of Mars helps the science go down. Ready to 'rinse & spit' regolith to clean my sampling system.

NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, whose Twitter handle is @Astro-Mike, has 1.3 million followers, many of whom watched live as he became the first person to tweet from space. And shows like Big Bang Theory (23.5 million fans on Facebook) whose characters banter about Mars rovers and physics non-stop have helped make rocket science a lot cooler than it used to be.

Soon, space won't be just a vicarious pursuit: it'll be a place people will visit in their thousands. Cashed-up space entrepreneurs are popping up everywhere: Jeff Bezos (of Amazon.com fame) with his company Blue Origin; Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic; and Elon Musk of PayPal and Tesla Motors fame with Space X.

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Space is the new black

Researchers replicate white dwarf photospheres in lab using X-ray machine

Time-resolved spectrum of hydrogen Balmer lines in absorption from experiment z2244. Credit: arXiv:1210.0832 [astro-ph.SR]

(Phys.org)Researchers at Sandia Labs have used a large x-ray machine to create high-density plasma that approximates the photosphere of white dwarf stars. The team has posted a paper describing the process and how it can be used to assist astronomers to the preprint server arXiv.

White dwarfs are stars that have used up most of their fuelthey're made of mostly carbon and are covered by gasses similar to an atmosphere. Scientists use spectroscopy to identify the elements that make up the photosphere of such stars, and then use the blurringthe result of surface pressureto work out each star's gravity. With that information, researchers can calculate the star's radius and mass. This method is not precise, however, as researchers have found differences between calculations made using this method versus those found by measuring a star's movement through space.

To gain a better understanding of the nature of the gasses that surround white dwarfs, the research team at Sandia used an x-ray machine called the Z Pulsed Power Facility to heat a thin strip of gold held inside a hydrogen filled chamber. At temperatures of 10,000K, the hydrogen becomes high-density plasma (ionized gas), which, the team reports, bears a striking resemblance to gases covering white dwarf stars.

The researchers explain that by re-creating the conditions that exist in the photosphere surrounding white dwarfs they will be better able to understand what is going on with the stars themselves, as they cannot be seen through the gasses. Changing the conditions under which the plasma is created in the lab allows for the creation of a variety of gas cloud types which, in turn, allow the researchers to fine-tune their results. Eventually, they will be able to mimic conditions on individual white dwarfs, resulting in improved calculations used to describe the underlying star.

The x-ray machine is also capable of generating magnetic fields that are similar to those of white dwarf stars. By exerting such fields on the plasma generated, the researchers hope to gain a better understanding of how magnetic fields near white dwarfs impact the spectra of the gasses that surround them, which should help give a clearer picture of the stars themselves.

More information: Creating White Dwarf Photospheres in the Laboratory: Strategy for Astrophysics Applications, arXiv:1210.0832 [astro-ph.SR] arxiv.org/abs/1210.0832

Abstract Astrophysics experiments by Falcon et al. to create white dwarf photospheres in the laboratory are currently underway. The experimental platform measures Balmer line profiles of a radiation-driven, pure hydrogen plasma in emission and in absorption for conditions at T_e ~ 1 eV, n_e ~ 10^17 cm^-3. These will be used to compare and test line broadening theories used in white dwarf atmosphere models. The flexibility of the platform allows us to expand the direction of our experiments using other compositions. We discuss future prospects such as exploring helium plasmas and carbon/oxygen plasmas relevant to the photospheres of DBs and hot DQs, respectively.

2012 Phys.org

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Researchers replicate white dwarf photospheres in lab using X-ray machine

What’s on – October 12 2012

Brighton Dome (01273) 709709: Jack Dee, 8pm Oct 12; Simon Evans – Friendly Fire, 7.30pm Oct 12; Festival of the Spoken Word, 7.45pm Oct 12; Richard Herring – Talking C*ck, 9.15pm Oct 12; Frisky and Mannish – Extra-Curricular Activities, 9.30pm Oct 12; Rob Rouse, 7.30pm Oct 13; Ava Vidal, 7.45pm Oct 13; Seize the David O’Doherty, 9.30pm Oct 13; Marcel Lucont – Gallic Symbol, 9.30pm Oct 13; Mark ...

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What’s on - October 12 2012

The First Pakistani Woman PhD in Astrophysics: Exclusive Interview with Mariam Sultana! [Starts With A Bang]

One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying. -Joan of Arc

Regardless of what intrinsic differences any person or group of people have from another, everyone deserves to be treated as an individual, afforded the same opportunities to pursue their passions, goals and dreams, and evaluated on the merits of their performance. Although this is not yet the way the world works, I am confident that many strides are consistently being made in the right direction, and I was overjoyed earlier this year when I came across the following international news story.

Image credit: The Express Tribune with the International Herald Tribune, http://tribune.com.pk/.

I felt a personal connection to this story since astrophysics is my specialty, and its important for everyone to see more examples that great scientists in general come from all backgrounds, races, religions, countries, and genders. If you have a passion to be a scientist, Ive always encouraged everyoneto follow itand become whatever it is you want to, to the best of your abilities.

But this story was more than just an important milestone and step forward; when I saw it, I felt it was an opportunity to bring a much richer story to the world. Theres a story here not of the first Pakistani woman to get her PhD in Astrophysics but of a human being who followed her passions to achieve her goals, the struggles she faced, the help and support she had along her way, and a window into the unique life of a real person. So I approached her in July and asked her if shed be willing to do an email interview with me. She not only agreed, but encouraged me to ask as many questions as I wanted; I solicited them on twitter, google+ and facebook, and chose many of them to ask her.

Image credit: Flickr user Kashiff, http://www.flickr.com/photos/15025651@N08.

Mariam Sultana is from Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan, and has graciously provided some insightful answers about her experiences and perspectives, and has agreed to share them with the entire world. I am overjoyed and privileged to share with you the following exclusive interview with Mariam Sultana, astrophysicist!

Youve recently gotten your PhD in extragalactic astronomy. What has your research been about?

My research is about the formation theory of ring-like structures in a disk-like self-gravitating system in the background of a non-stationary Universe.

How did you first get interested in astronomy?

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The First Pakistani Woman PhD in Astrophysics: Exclusive Interview with Mariam Sultana! [Starts With A Bang]

Astronomer jets up, up and away with Blue Angels

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | October 4, 2012

Astronomer Alex Filippenko shows hes ready for take-off in a jet fighter piloted by Lt. Mark Tedrow, one of the Navys elite Blue Angels team. Noelle Filippenko photo.

For the lucky few, soaring over San Francisco with the Blue Angels is the dream of a lifetime you want to sit back and enjoy. But for UC Berkeley astronomer Alex Filippenko, it was a teaching opportunity.

As he banked and rolled over the Bay Area yesterday (Wednesday, Oct. 3), he took the opportunity to videotape in-flight physics lessons he hopes to use in outreach to the public.

It was an out-of-this-world experience, he wrote in an email. We broke the sound barrier It was incredible!

The Blue Angels, the Navys elite flight-demonstration team, are in town to celebrate the annual Fleet Week.

Filippenko flew as part of the Blue Angels Key Influencers program, in part because of Filippenkos role in the research that led to last years Nobel Prize in physics. One of the other Key Influencers was local heroCapt. Chesley Sully Sullenberger, the famed US Airways pilot who landed a passenger liner in the Hudson River three years ago.

Filippenkos jet was piloted by Navy Lt. Mark Tedrow, who took Berkeleys well-known black hole expert through rolls and turns where he felt the effects of 6.2 Gs more than six times the force of gravity as well as weightlessness at 0 G and even negative Gs, all perfect conditions for experiments that will wow his Astro 10 students.

Besides being a heck of a lot of fun, there were so many interesting physical principles to talk about before and during theflight, he told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter.

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Astronomer jets up, up and away with Blue Angels

Predicting erectile dysfunction from prostate cancer treatment

Public release date: 27-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Michelle Kirkwood michellek@astro.org 703-286-1600 American Society for Radiation Oncology

Researchers have identified 12 DNA sequences that may help doctors determine which men will suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED) following radiation therapy for prostate cancer. Identifying these patients in advance of treatment may better inform men and their families as to which prostate cancer treatments are best for their specific cancer and lifestyle, according to a study to be published online September 27, 2012, in advance of the October 1, 2012 print issue, in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology.Biology.Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). The findings could also guide doctors in recommending the most effective treatments that carry the least risk of patients developing ED.

The main treatments for prostate cancersurgery, brachytherapy (seed implants) and external beam radiation therapyare all very effective at curing prostate cancer. Unfortunately, each treatment places patients at risk for ED. Although many men will maintain their potency, doctors would like to identify which men are at greatest risk for the development of difficulty with sexual function.

In this multi-institutional, multi-national study, researchers from New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in Bronx, N.Y., New York University School of Medicine, Florida Radiation Oncology Group in Jacksonville, Fla., and Maastricht University Medical Center in Maastricht, the Netherlands, examined 593 men who were treated with brachytherapy and/or external beam radiation therapy and hormone therapy. Of them, 260 reported erectile dysfunction.

"Through a two-stage genome-wide association study, 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified that were associated with the development of erectile dysfunction after radiation treatment for prostate cancer," said Barry S. Rosenstein, PhD, department of radiation oncology at New York's Mount Sinai Medical School. "If validated further, these SNPs could provide the basis for a blood test that would enable radiation oncologists to predict more accurately which men are most likely to develop erectile dysfunction after prostate cancer radiation therapy."

"Prostate cancer screening and treatment are undergoing major shifts," said Harry Ostrer, MD, professor of pathology and genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, director of genetic and genomic testing at Montefiore Medical Center and co-principal investigator of the study. "This is part of our ongoing effort to personalize and optimize treatment for prostate cancer."

###

Disclosures: One author (NS) reports to have received consulting fees or honoraria from Amgen, Ferring, Janssen, Diversified Conference Management, Prologics LLC, and Nihon MediPhysics. Another author (RS) has received fees for developing lectures and educational materials for Bard.

For complete text of the study, contact Michelle Kirkwood, 703-286-1600, press@astro.org. To learn more about the Red Journal, visit http://www.redjournal.org.

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Predicting erectile dysfunction from prostate cancer treatment

NASA Langley Holds Open House

WVEC.com

Posted on September 23, 2012 at 12:58 AM

Updated yesterday at 1:06 AM

HAMPTON-- NASA Langley held an open house Saturday.

Visitors were encouraged to wear sneakers because they were covering a lot of ground. The Gibbons family drove all the way from Kentucky because their daughter is a straight "A" student who loves NASA.

"I would love to go into astro physics just to learn about space, it's just like an astronomer but you just have more science and math," Cassidy Gibbons said.

There is a lot to cover with 54 years of NASA. Astronaut Anna Lee Fisher flew in the Shuttle Discovery. She still works for NASA.

"With the new commercialization of space for going up to the international space station how is all that going to work? I just like being a part of all those efforts."

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NASA Langley Holds Open House

A First for MUN

It's entitled "The Ligher Side of Black Holes." For the first time in the university's history, Memorial will host the Canadian Conference on General Relativity and Astro Physics. The Biennial event will feature more than three dozen delegates from across the country, discussing such 'light' topics as gravity and string theory. The conference runs from July 9 to 12 at MUN's St. John's campus. A public lecture on black holes will take place Tuesday at the university's Bruneau Center.

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A First for MUN

Researchers propose gold and DNA based dark matter detector

ssDNA/Au Tracking Chamber: A WIMP from the Galaxy scatters elastically with a gold nucleus situated in a thin gold foil. The recoiling Au nucleus traverses hanging strings of single stranded DNA, and severs any ssDNA it hits. The location of the breaks can be found by amplifying and sequencing the fallen ssDNA segment, thereby allowing reconstruction of the track of the recoiling Au nucleus with nanometer accuracy. Image: arXiv:1206.6809v1

(Phys.org) -- One of the precepts of scientific theory is that at some point, physical evidence should become available to prove it true. In physics this is an ongoing process in many areas of study, one of which is the detection and measurement of so called dark matter. Most astrophysicists agree it exists, yet no one has been able to definitively prove it though the presentation of physical evidence. While there are some ongoing projects attempting to do just that, the results have not been strong enough to offer proof. To overcome that problem a team of physicists and biologists have proposed a new type of detector based on a thin sheet of gold with many strands of DNA dangling below. The idea the team says in its paper uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, is to follow the path of a gold nucleus after being struck by a dark matter particle as it makes its way through strands of DNA, severing them as it goes.

Dark matter, the theory goes, is all around us, but we cant see it or detect it using conventional means. Scientists believe its moving though, from the center of the universe towards us. The best analogy is water, in a stream; were like an island in it as is the sun. Thus, because we orbit the sun, and because our planet spins, we ought to be facing upstream sometimes and downstream others. Thats the basis of any dark matter detector, to first detect the weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs as researchers call them, and then to measure the amounts of them over the course of a day, or year to see if they conform to theory.

One way to build such a detector this new team says, is to dangle a dense forest of DNA strands from a thin sheet of gold. The idea is that when a WIMP strikes one of the gold atoms, its nucleus will be sent crashing down through the mass of DNA strands breaking the ones it strikes. Then, because each DNA strand would have a unique marker at its end, researchers could, by collecting the broken strands, figure out the trajectory of the nucleus though the strands and likewise that of the WIMP that struck it. Such a detector would go a long way towards proving that theories about dark matter are true.

Unfortunately, its not as simple as all that, because building such a detector would be a feat in and of itself. Making DNA strands that would be long enough to work in such a detector, for example, would be a challenge as would getting them all to align in a meter square trap and to dangle straight down instead of curling up.

On the other hand, the researchers say building such a detector would cost far less money than other efforts underway, and the detector once built would be far more accessible since it could be used at room temperature. Plus, if it worked, the team that built it would almost certainly go down in history as the scientists that finally proved that dark matter is real.

More information: New Dark Matter Detectors using DNA for Nanometer Tracking, arXiv:1206.6809v1 [astro-ph.IM] arxiv.org/abs/1206.6809

Abstract Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) may constitute most of the matter in the Universe. While there are intriguing results from DAMA/LIBRA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II, there is not yet a compelling detection of dark matter. The ability to detect the directionality of recoil nuclei will considerably facilitate detection of WIMPs by means of "annual modulation effect" and "diurnal modulation effect". Directional sensitivity requires either extremely large gas (TPC) detectors or detectors with a few nanometer spatial resolution. In this paper we propose a novel type of dark matter detector: detectors made of DNA could provide nanometer resolution for tracking, an energy threshold of 0.5 keV, and can operate at room temperature. When a WIMP from the Galactic Halo elastically scatters off of a nucleus in the detector, the recoiling nucleus then traverses thousands of strings of single stranded DNA (ssDNA) (all with known base sequences) and severs those ssDNA strands it hits. The location of the break can be identified by amplifying and identifying the segments of cut ssDNA using techniques well known to biologists. Thus the path of the recoiling nucleus can be tracked to nanometer accuracy. In one such detector concept, the transducers are a few nanometer-thick Au-foils of 1m times1m, and the direction of recoiling nuclei is measured by "DNA Tracking Chamber" consisting of ordered array of ssDNA strands. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and ssDNA sequencing are used to read-out the detector. The detector consists of roughly 1 kg of gold and 0.1 kg of DNA packed into (1m)^3. By leveraging advances in molecular biology, we aim to achieve about 1,000-fold better spatial resolution than in conventional WIMP detectors at reasonable cost.

Journal reference: arXiv

2012 Phys.Org

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Researchers propose gold and DNA based dark matter detector