Free Republic

. . . . The scientists investigated the effect of different types of outdoor lighting on light pollution and Melatonin, in order to suggest practical steps for balancing productivity, energy expenditure and public health. White LED light (which is actually blue light on the spectrum) is emitted at short wavelengths of between 440-500 nanometers. The study showed that this type of light suppresses the body’s production of Melatonin five times more than the orange-yellow light given off by traditional high-pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs.

AP Photo/Heather Deal, Cornell University Scientists demonstrate how they have have created a new invisibility technique that doesnt just cloak an object -- like in Harry Potter books and movies -- but masks an entire event by briefly bending the speed of light around an event. In this illustratio, an art thief walks into a museum and steasl a painting without setting off laser beam alarms or even showing up on surveillance cameras. WASHINGTON – It's one thing to make an object invisible, like Harry Potter's mythical cloak. But scientists have made an entire event impossible to see. They have...

Enjoy this season’s Christmas lights; next Christmas it will be considerably more expensive to run the lights that adorn Christmas trees, homes and businesses in many areas around the country, including Michigan. Most American households would have preferred a lump of coal in their stocking from the Environmental Protection Agency rather than the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule issued by the agency today. The rule is aimed at coal-fired power plants, mandating among other things a 90 percent reduction in mercury emissions. This may be the most expensive regulation on utilities issued by the EPA to date, estimated to...

*snip* Sometimes when Rhonda hugged Hero she would softly pet her face and coo, “Justin, are you in there?” It was Rhonda’s gentle way of remembering their son and his last living connection to Hero. At one point, Hero wandered off and took a stroll in the backyard. All of a sudden, the clouds broke and a light began to solidify in a beam directly down on Hero — a kind of vertical halo.

New high-precision tests carried out by the OPERA collaboration in Italy broadly confirm its claim, made in September, to have detected neutrinos travelling at faster than the speed of light. The collaboration today submitted its results to a journal, but some members continue to insist that further checks are needed before the result can be considered sound. OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-Tracking Apparatus) measures the properties of neutrinos that are sent through the Earth from the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, and arrive in its detector located under the Gran Sasso mountain in central Italy. On 22 September,...

Enlarge Image Flipping brilliant! Using only light, scientists can switch this little bridge of silicon between its "bowed up" configuration (top) and its "bowed down" configuration. Credit: M. Bagheri et al., Nature Nanotechnology, Advance Online Publication (2011) The feeble force of light alone can flip a nanometer-sized mechanical switch one way or the other, a team of electrical engineers reports. The little gizmo holds its position without power and at room temperature, so it might someday make a memory bit for an optical computer. Other researchers say it also introduces a promising new twist into the hot field of...

Legislation that could let Michigan escape the federal phaseout and ban on traditional light bulbs is now in the Senate Regulatory Reform Committee. As widely expected, House Bill 4815 was passed on a 62-46 mostly party-line vote in the GOP-controlled House last week. Rep. Matthew Lori, R-Constantine, was the lone Republican to vote against the legislation, while Rep. Richard LeBlanc, D-Westland, was the lone Democrat to vote in favor of it. Rep. Kurt Damrow, R-Port Austin, was not present. Now that the measure has moved over to the Senate, its fate is uncertain. Not only is it unclear what the...

An independent experiment confirms that subatomic particles have wrong energy spectrum for superluminal travel. The claim that neutrinos can travel faster than light has been given a knock by an independent experiment. On 17 October, the Imaging Cosmic and Rare Underground Signals (ICARUS) collaboration submitted a paper1 to the preprint server arXiv.org, in which it offered a rebuttal of claims2 to have clocked subatomic particles called neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light. The original results were published on 22 September by the Oscillation Project with Emulsion-Tracking Apparatus (OPERA) experiment. Both experiments are based at Gran Sasso National Laboratory...

Finding could lead to new photodetectors or energy-harvesting devices.Graphene, an exotic form of carbon consisting of sheets a single atom thick, exhibits a novel reaction to light, MIT researchers have found: Sparked by light’s energy, the material can produce electric current in unusual ways. The finding could lead to improvements in photodetectors and night-vision systems, and possibly to a new approach to generating electricity from sunlight. This current-generating effect had been observed before, but researchers had incorrectly assumed it was due to a photovoltaic effect, says Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, an assistant professor of physics at MIT and senior author of a...

The likes of George Monbiot and Al Gore get pretty hysterical about global warming / cooling / dimming or whatever current theory is in vogue. “The science is settled” they scream in an attempt to block any debate. In reality physicists, as a sub-section of the scientific community, are a lot less keen on the whole carbon and climate scare racket. Scientists are not usually unanimous on any subject which is complex.

ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2011) — Physicists with the Institute of Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL) at The City College of New York have presented a new way to map spiraling light that could help harness untapped data channels in optical fibers. Increased bandwidth would ease the burden on fiber-optic telecommunications networks taxed by an ever-growing demand for audio, video and digital media. The new model, developed by graduate student Giovanni Milione, Professor Robert Alfano and colleagues, could even spur enhancements in quantum computing and other applications. "People now can detect (light in) the ground channel, but this gives us a...

The new squiggly fluorescent bulbs 51% The old incandescent bulbs I've used for years 48% Total votes: 427 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A congressional panel grilled NASA chief Charlie Bolden today (July 12) on Capitol Hill, repeatedly asking him why the space agency has yet to choose a design for its next-generation heavy-lift rocket. Last year Congress gave NASA until mid-January 2011 to pick a design for the rocket, known as the Space Launch System, that will carry astronauts on deep space missions. NASA still has not made an official decision, and members of the House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space and Technology took Bolden to task. "We've waited for answers that have not come. We've pleaded for answers that have...

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.( I John 1:5-7)In John’s epistle, which concerns itself with the true Knowledge of God as opposed to the false, there are...

Lightbulb Rules Spark Political FightHowever, new legislation may not change what manufacturers are doing in creating more efficient bulbs that use halogen, LED or other new technology. By Rob Lever, Agence France-Presse June 27, 2011 With a January deadline looming on a U.S. law mandating energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs, some political forces don't want to turn out the lights. More than a dozen Republican lawmakers are backing efforts to repeal the 2007 law that requires bulbs to consume less energy. Meanwhile Texas has enacted a law that would exempt itself from the federal requirement, and other states are debating...

(PhysOrg.com) -- A group of physicists working out of Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, have succeeded in proving what was until now, just theory; and that is, that visible photons could be produced from the virtual particles that have been thought to exist in a quantum vacuum. In a paper published on arXiv, the team describes how they used a specially created circuit called a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) to modulate a bit of wire length at a roughly five percent of the speed of light, to produce visible "sparks" from the nothingness of a vacuum. The...

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.(I John 1:5)The Apostle John’s ministry is one of restoration. The faith of the saints had been confused, distorted, tangled and blurred by the pseudo spirituality of those who claim a mystical, direct knowledge of God, which is above and beyond the experience of “normal” christians. These “gnostics”, ie “knowing Ones“, undermined the simple faith of christians, causing them to doubt the integrity and depth of their own experience. Therefore John sets out to...

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.(I John 1:5)As we noted earlier, John’s ministry is a ministry of restoration. The faith has been frayed, tangled and torn to the point where the believers whom John addressed were confused as to who knew God genuinely and who didn’t. What does it mean to “know him who is from the beginning”? To “be strong and have the Word of God abiding in you”? Most importantly, who is the God and Father of...

My children you have done well to pursue My vigil for I am seeking after righteousness , virtue and truth , not from man but from Vessels filled with this drink for I am their Melchizedek and Lord . So come to Me that I may feed your soul and allow you to drink Me in for "I AM THAT I AM" your Eternal Sustainer and Guiding Light, The Lord of Hosts to all that will have Me as their wine, and drink in only me for I Am their complete inheritance . The name Melchizedek means king of righteousness...

You have done well to hide ( rest ) from the forces of darkness in My love .(Deut 33:12) Now I shall raise you up into the Majesty of My Fullness by placing you as a lampstand for others , for I have hammered you out of one talent and shaped and formed you into the Mennorah of My manifold witness , bathed in My Glory yet this oil shall not lack or perish for "I AM" The Oil Of Gladness in you that no longer drips but now pours ~ for you are My Honey Comb of Cornucopia (...