Quantum Levitation

Science night is happening on my campus tomorrow night, so I've spent tonight learning a little bit more, hopefully this stuff's interesting to you guys too.

If this video doesn’t make your jaw drop … you don’t have a jaw.

Behold: Quantum Levitation!

I have to admit, I was flabbergasted by this one. I mean, that means of motion is just so unnatural that it seems fake. But it isn’t fake. So how does it work?

PHYSICS!

What you start with is an inert disc, in this case a crystal sapphire wafer. That wafer is then coated with a superconductor called yttrium barium copper oxide. When superconductors get very cold (like liquid nitrogen cold) they conduct electricity with no loss of energy, which normal conducting materials like copper can’t do.

Superconductors hate magnetic fields (when cold enough), and normally would just repel the magnetic force and float in a wobbly fashion. But because the superconductor is so thin in this case, tiny imperfections allow some magnetic forces through. These little magnetic channels are called flux tubes:

The flux tubes cause the magnetic field to be “locked” in all three dimensions, which is why the disk remains in whatever position it starts in, levitating around the magnets.
Of course, I am a biologist, not a physicist. For more, check out here or here.
Supercold, superconducting hover-boards … OH TO LEARN!

(by ASTCvideos)

off my chest

Kant’s categorical imperative was limited to people. I’d like to extend his philosophy into the realm of metaphysics, specifically in how to make meaning in life. Originally Kant’s philosophy deconstructs the use of other people, more formally; not as a means to an end but a means in themselves.
Perhaps this can be applied into the world of material and behavior to bring about meaning, purpose and the satisfactory solutions to many unanswered questions.


For many of us, the meaning and purpose of life can be found in theologies and god. But for those who feel that religion leaves out the most defining questions of what it is to be human, I can only hope this blog may reveal some insight into how to extract a secular answer out of a widely held spiritual question.
By now I would hope that the person who is reading this understands the point of time in their life which matters most; which is now. This solves the first of our problems (when). Because what you do at this very moment will affect the rest of your life, whether greatly or in a subtle fashion. The only time you can every change your life physically and mentally isnow; for yesterday was already done and the future depends on what had came before.


It is established that - what is important, is our way of living; and it is also established from the moment of conscious awakening that the only way (how) to reach such a living is through the following a set of criteria and standards.


The western culture raises their children in a society that puts an emphasis on what is important (liberty, meritocracy & materialism) and how to attain these desires (capitalism & education). Perhaps this sort of structure in a democracy is ideal for a species that takes more than they can give and uses some sort of reason whether justifiably valid or not to excuse themselves from atrocities and bad habits affecting the world. Don’t get me wrong, I truly believe this style of governing is best among the options given so far by man. However, I believe Karl Marx is right in that such a system will inevitably fall apart and cave in on itself… and by then it would be a little late to ask the most fundamental and basic of the four questions, “why?”


I’m now going to transition from speaking about the physicality of humans to a more mental state involving metaphysics. To summarize from before, we are all taught that the most important of things in our life is tangible… and this is where the western philosophy could be flawed and many individuals fall into a moment of absurdity and a hopeless life. In critiquing the materialism of our contemporary era, I am not inferring that the truest and most rightful path is through religion or anything involving deities. I am establishing that what many religious sects attempt to do that our political system overlooks in which is completely necessary for a human being to live a meaningful life is to raise the importance of the “why” inquisitions of man:
Why should I go to school? (instead of how it can bring me a good career or what the consequences might be)
Why is it so important to understand the world? (instead of how the world works and what it is about)
Why should I work? (instead of what I should work for and how should I work)
Why should I live? (instead of what should I live for and how should I live)
The categorical imperative (Kant) can now rightfully be applied to these questions. We should treat our jobs, careers, work and schooling not as a means to an end (to bring about the whats by living the hows); but rather as a means in themselves!


Q. Why should I go to school & why should I understand the world?
A. A good career will eventually come if a set of knowledge is gained (this is already established by the system in which you are living in). But beyond that, the knowledge attained through school will better the life of oneself in so better the lives of others (this must be established by the individual).


Q. Why should I work?
A. Financial status will come through ways of work (this is again already written and established by laws, regulations and the system). But the reason you should work for anyone should be through the basis of your own philosophies. Work because it brings you meaning and purpose. Any job can bring you financial stability, but it is up to the person alone to bring about existential satisfaction (not the career).


Q. Why should I live?
A. How you should live depends on your culture and society. And what you should live for should go beyond the lines of politics and materialistic desires. What you should live for can be answered through why you should live in the first place. Simply, other people who may not have the same opportunity depend on you to change their way of living, in which may give them a reason to keep living.


1. The meaning of life is progressive and compounds every moment you find meaning in your daily routine.
2. The way to find these sets of meaning in life is through questioning why you should behave in certain ways. (How you should behave is a consequence of your reflection.)
3. In finding these sets of meaning through constant inquisitions you will reach Kant’s categorical imperative of life. Treating everything as a means in themselves instead of a means to your own beneficial end.
4. This brings us back to clause 1… this will bring meaning in a world where existential questions are unanswered by material wealth and where many religious doctrines just doesn’t seem plausible at this current age.

No justification could be sufficient.

I'm more inclined to compromise when presented with clear actualization of my relationships. I don't know why we do these sorts of things, holding onto these peculiar affiliations we have. Perhaps to save ourselves from the inevitability of loneliness. I'm more inclined to listen to the spirit of unity, and hope that the guidance of love --with luck-- will be triumphant.

Pursuing my ideal.

Everything turned on and off really fast; we instantly got past all that surfacey stuff. And ever since then, there hasn’t been a dull moment.


It was my fruition in becoming, as in, oh my god, there is love-- there is nothing but love. I feel that falling in love is a precedent to beauty and birth; as in, we all die, but for now we live.  Meeting Eugenie gives me hope in that so much can be beautiful and that all of us have a capacity to love another. I'm just bragging to have found this hedonizing emotion so soon. 

Victims of our own humanity. The Feeling.

The particular "feeling" disseminated here was premised upon the unique diversity of The United States...as someone who was born there in the late eighties, I have the perspective of the past two decades from which to observe this gradual erosion of the country's ineffable identity. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone intimate with the city--in fact, I've been pondering this for years. The transition from a melting pot to a corporate enclave has taken half a century, in 2011 the city is no longer what it was; the arts communities cannot afford the rents, the quirky bars and night-spots have been replaced by The GAP, Starshmucks, and a vapid variety of other Yuppie venues. The kids who used to come to the city to be musicians, actors, writers have moved to to the suburbs; corporate-conformity does not blend with an edgy, gilded neon-washed metropolis--just the opposite. It instills recognizable signatures and confirmations of its conquest. In a sense, the eradication of this once mysterious, lively and unpredictable mystique called Los Angeles is emblematic/symptomatic of the corporate takeover of our lives and politics over the last twenty years. Even in the late nineties you could walk the city at night and still feel this unique vitality...now it is gone. Dominant cultural trends entail consequences. We are spiraling into a corporate culture in so many respects--many that we fail to recognize because they have been so gradual. In the seventies there was popular ferment, political-action groups, lively dialogue, a diverse political culture that demanded progressive change, and petitioned our leaders--even questioning their very authority. Today we are dismally pacified by superficial technologies that constitute an anemic substitute for more direct human interaction. We are becoming more isolated and more conformed to a corporate lifestyle that has been inculcated through a generation of a predatory commercial culture and the false-materialism it celebrates--this can only intensify in the near future. Today's younger generation is unaware of the degree to which their minds and impulses have been molded by a sinister commercial-culture, they have no point of contrast, they don't regard the culture they inhabit as a culmination of overtly materialistic trends. The difference is apparent to those of us wise enough to remember the history of our nation: thirty years ago when a group of people sat down together, the conversation involved diverse politics and social examination, today that same group will invariably parrot the latest celebrity break-up, or discuss the newest cell-phone being marketed. Corporate America and the Madison Avenue hucksters who work for them have converted Americans into a placid consumer-culture, obsessed with new cars and techno-toys.

Maybe I could’ve fought more for what I wanted - be a bit more selfish and risked it all. Maybe I am too stubborn, too uptight, and too egotistical - that I concealed the best parts of who I could’ve been. Maybe my expectations are too high that I overlooked the expectations of others. Maybe I’ll learn something from 2010.

Hmm

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great,
And would suffice.

-Robert Frost