Japan's emperor urges victims not to 'abandon hope'
"Japanese Emperor Akihito made an unprecedented televised address to his disaster-stricken nation Wednesday, saying he was "deeply worried" by the crisis at damaged nuclear reactors and urging people to help each other in difficult times."
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42104850/ns/world_news-asiapacific/
"I am deeply hurt by the grievous situation in the affected areas. The number of deceased and missing increases by the day we cannot know how many victims there will be. My hope is that as many people possible are found safe," Akihito said.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Revelations of a golden age
"For roughly 700 years, many of the greatest scientists lived in the Islamic world. The Western narrative, however, has often neglected the contributions of major figures such as the chemist al-Jabir, the mathematician al-Khwarizmi and the medic al-Razi, preferring instead to jump directly from Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes and Ptolemy to Copernicus and Galileo in reporting scientific development over the ages. Yet the fact is that between the eighth and 15th centuries AD, the scientists of the Islamic world developed original theories in mathematics, astronomy, physics, medicine and engineering – frequently with the help of works translated into Arabic from Greek, Sanskrit, Pahlavi and Syriac sources." by George Gheverghese Joseph, Revelations of a golden age - physicsworld.com
On the book "Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science", by Jim Al-Khalili
On the book "Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science", by Jim Al-Khalili
Monday, March 14, 2011
Questi tremendi eventi
Il Papa esprime la sua vicinanza alle popolazioni del Giappone colpite dal terremoto e dallo tsunami. Un telegramma, a firma del segretario di Stato, cardinale Tarcisio Bertone, è stato inviato dal Papa a monsignor Leo Jun Ikenaga, arcivescovo di Osaka e presidente della Conferenza episcopale giapponese. Nel messaggio, Benedetto XVI esprime il proprio cordoglio per le vittime del cataclisma e per le loro famiglie e si dice vicino ai soccorritori.
Speculum Orbis Terrarum - Peru
From the “Speculum Orbis Terrarum,” Antwerp, 1578.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10772/10772-h/10772-h.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10772/10772-h/10772-h.htm
Hiram Bingham
Hiram Bingham, formally Hiram Bingham III, (1875–1956) was an academic, explorer, treasure hunter and politician from the United States. He made public the existence of the Quechua citadel of Machu Picchu in 1911 with the guidance of local Indigenous farmers. Later, Bingham served as a member of the United States Senate.
More Wiki
Bingham used the Raimondi's maps of Peru for exploring the country. In the book "Inca Land, Explorations in the Highlands of Peru", Bingham is telling "Raimondi's marvelous energy led him to penetrate to more out-of-the-way Peruvian villages than any one had ever done before or is likely to do again. He stopped at nothing in the way of natural obstacles."
Bingham used the Raimondi's maps of Peru for exploring the country. In the book "Inca Land, Explorations in the Highlands of Peru", Bingham is telling "Raimondi's marvelous energy led him to penetrate to more out-of-the-way Peruvian villages than any one had ever done before or is likely to do again. He stopped at nothing in the way of natural obstacles."
Antonio Raimondi
"Antonio Raimondi (1826 – 1890) was a prominent Italian-born Peruvian geographer and scientist. Born in Milan, Raimondi emigrated to Peru, arriving on July 28, 1850 at the port of Callao. In 1851 he became a professor of natural history. ...Throughout his career, Raimondi displayed a passion for all things Peruvian. He undertook no less than 18 extensive journeys to all regions of the country, studying the nation's geography, geology, botany, zoology, ethnography, and archaeology. In 1875, he collected his findings in the massive tome El Perú, ...".
More Wiki
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Yashima Gakutei
Yashima Gakutei (1786-1868)
Dea con drago e sol nascente, Periodo Edo, c.1825
Xilografia su carta, nishiki-e con pigmenti metallici e gauffrage
Goddess with dragon and rising sun, Edo period, c.1825
Xylography on paper, nishili-e with metal pigments and gauffrage
Museo Arte Orientale, Torino
Museo Arte Orientale, Torino
Nishiki-e (lit. "brocade picture") refers to Japanese multi-colored woodblock printing. It was invented in the 1760s, and perfected and popularized by the printmaker Suzuki Harunobu, who produced a great many nishiki-e prints between 1765 and his death five years later. Previously, most prints had been in black-and-white, colored by hand, or colored with the addition of one or two color ink blocks. A nishiki-e print is created by carving a separate woodblock for every color, and using them in a stepwise fashion. An engraver by the name of Kinroku is credited with the technical innovations that allowed the blocks of separate colors to fit perfectly onto the page, relative to others, in order to have the complete image.
Folding furrows
Folds on the surface of soft materials are shown to be a consequence of a nonlinear instability.
"Even as we probe physics on ever-smaller scales, materials that can be held and manipulated with our hands often still resist our understanding. Elastic materials, in particular, still confound because of the nonlinear relationship between strain and the displacement of the material needed to maintain the rotational invariance of the elastic energy. The effects of these nonlinearities are often more pronounced at free surfaces, where strain can be alleviated by a large rotation of the surface. When a slab of an elastic material such as rubber is compressed, it develops a sulcus—a sharp furrow in its surface that plunges into the material. First reported for photographic gelatin films over one hundred years ago, they are not just a laboratory curiosity. Sulci create large strains that can lead to material failure. They are also a common motif in the morphogenesis of many organs, most famously in the characteristic folds on the surface of the human brain or, say, the arm of an infant ..."Physics - Folding furrows, Physics 4, 19 (2011), DOI: 10.1103/Physics.4.19, Folding furrows, Christian D. Santangelo, a viewpoint on: Unfolding the Sulcus, by Evan Hohlfeld and L. Mahadevan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 105702 (2011) – Published March 07, 2011, Download PDF
Surface boosts conductivity of nanocrystals
Surface states boost conductivity of Ge nanocrystals
"Ge nanocrystals are promising materials for developing nanoscale optoelectronic devices, such as band-gap engineered tandem solar cells, thanks to low processing temperatures and full compatibility with large-scale integrated circuit fabrication. Many groups have successfully developed technologies to synthesize Ge nanocrystals embedded in SiO2 thin films and to control the structural and optical properties of the nanocomposite. Nevertheless, implementation in practical devices has rarely been demonstrated. This can be partially attributed to the difficulty in making electrically conductive thin films."
"Ge nanocrystals are promising materials for developing nanoscale optoelectronic devices, such as band-gap engineered tandem solar cells, thanks to low processing temperatures and full compatibility with large-scale integrated circuit fabrication. Many groups have successfully developed technologies to synthesize Ge nanocrystals embedded in SiO2 thin films and to control the structural and optical properties of the nanocomposite. Nevertheless, implementation in practical devices has rarely been demonstrated. This can be partially attributed to the difficulty in making electrically conductive thin films."
Tiger
Paravento - Wind wall - Museo Arte Orientale - Torino
The tiger is revered not just in Japan but in the entire Asian adjoining societies. In Japan, the tiger (tora) is the emblem of the great aristocratic warriors, known as the samurai.
The tiger represents the virtue of courage.
Messaggio Quirinale a S.M. Akihito
"La notizia delle gravissime conseguenze del sisma che ha colpito il nord-est del Giappone, provocando vittime e grandi distruzioni materiali, mi ha profondamente addolorato". Lo ha scritto il Presidente della Repubblica Giorgio Napolitano nel messaggio inviato all'Imperatore del Giappone, S.M. Akihito.
"In questo momento così drammatico - ha sottolineato il Capo dello Stato - l'Italia, unita al Suo Paese da saldi vincoli di profonda amicizia, si stringe al popolo giapponese.
Con questi sentimenti, desidero trasmetterLe a nome mio personale e di tutto il popolo italiano il più sentito cordoglio e le espressioni di umana solidarietà per le vittime".
"In questo momento così drammatico - ha sottolineato il Capo dello Stato - l'Italia, unita al Suo Paese da saldi vincoli di profonda amicizia, si stringe al popolo giapponese.
Con questi sentimenti, desidero trasmetterLe a nome mio personale e di tutto il popolo italiano il più sentito cordoglio e le espressioni di umana solidarietà per le vittime".
Radiation risk
Japan earthquake shuts nuclear facilities but radiation risk unlikely | News | The Engineer
"The massive earthquake that struck off Japan’s northeast coast today has triggered the automatic shutdown of four nuclear power stations, with reports of a non-reactor fire in one and problems with the cooling system in another.
However, there has been no reported leakage of radiation from any of the reactors and based on previous experience of earthquakes at nuclear power plants experts say there is unlikely to be any."
"The massive earthquake that struck off Japan’s northeast coast today has triggered the automatic shutdown of four nuclear power stations, with reports of a non-reactor fire in one and problems with the cooling system in another.
However, there has been no reported leakage of radiation from any of the reactors and based on previous experience of earthquakes at nuclear power plants experts say there is unlikely to be any."