Big Bang "matters"

With space research gaining momentum, I found this article speculating on the balance of matter in our galaxy. It's really exciting to come across this type of article because it explains a complex subject in an elementary way. There is major brain-storming and creativity present in the following experiment.

The important role of balance throughout the galaxy is evident throughout this article. I think it's safe to say it's crucial in our lives as well. To balance requires communication. To communicate requires us to open our "third eye."


The question that has vexed scientists and astronomers for years is why there is more matter in the Universe than anti-matter. Both were formed at the time of the Big Bang, about 13.7 billion years ago. For every particle formed, an anti-particle should also have been formed. Almost immediately, however, the equal numbers of particles and anti-particles would have annihilated each other, leaving nothing but light. But a tiny asymmetry in the laws of nature resulted in a little matter being left over, spread thinly within the empty space of the Universe. This became the stars and planets that we see around us today.

The only way scientists can verify their theories to explain this anomaly is to study the corresponding asymmetry in sub-atomic particles, by looking for slight "pear-shaped" distortions in their otherwise spherical forms. It has taken five decades of research to reach the stage where measurements of these particles, called neutrons, have become sensitive enough to test the very best candidate theories. Neutrons are electrically neutral, but they have positive and negative charges moving around inside them. If the centers of gravity of these charges aren't in the same place, it would result in one end of the neutron being slightly positive, and the other slightly negative. This is called an electric-dipole moment, and it is the phenomenon that physicists have been working to find for the past 50 years. Spin-offs from the original pioneering work in this area include atomic clocks and magnetic-resonance imaging.

The new result shows that the distortion in the subatomic particles is far smaller than most of the origin-of-matter theories had predicted - if the neutron were the size of the Earth, the distortion would still be less than the size of a bacterium. "This will really help to constrain theories that attempt to go beyond our current understanding of the fundamental laws of physics", says Dr Harris. "For some of them, it's back to the drawing board; but for the better ones, it will definitely show them the way forwards.

"To carry out the research the Sussex group, together with scientists from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Institute Laue Langevin in Grenoble, built a special type of atomic clock that used spinning neutrons instead of atoms. It applied 120,000 volts to a quartz "bottle" that was filled regularly with neutrons captured from a reactor. The clock frequency was measured through nuclear magnetic resonance.

The team has now expanded to include Oxford University and the University of Kure in Japan. They are busy developing a new version of the experiment: By submerging their neutron-clock in a bath of liquid helium, half a degree above absolute zero, they will increase their sensitivity a hundredfold.

Source: University of Sussex

Pear- shaped particles probe big bang mystery

technorati tags: space, big bang, matter, balance, science, universe, University of Sussex,

The future of body armor

Instead of posting on what I previously decided I would (I still will; give me time!), I decided to stick to the topic of the bizarre and arcane. I go through phases with this topic. Sometimes I find it very intriguing, other times it is a waste of time. How to interpret the off-beat nature of all this is beyond me. Tell me what you think.

from: SILKMILK MagiZain (http://www.crossroads.wild.net.au/silkmilk.htm

In 2002 scientists found that by isolating the web-spinning gene from spiders and injecting it into the DNA of goats they would produce a super-strong SilK-MilK. They have been trying to work out how to farm spiders for years as their webs are 5 times stronger than steel (relative to density), but had no luck because of the cannibalistic nature of spiders in large groups. They aim to produce bullet-proof vests with the silkmilk. But why should the Military have exclusive rights to such a brilliantly surreal concept?

Therefore we are hijacking the concept for aesthetic and magickal purposes, producing our own luscious non-violent silkmilk ink; or perhaps reclaiming is a more appropriate term -after all, Metamorphic Ritual Theatre co. (a vessel of The Order of ChAOS on the outer)- have been performing plays and rites about Pan and Arachne for years -this is their strange offspring...

Tool is playing with your mind; Teaching vs. doing (sort of)

When listeing to this album, I am always wondering what stance the musicians take behind the music. What were the intents and directions taken to produce a mysterious opus like this. Lateralus (TOOL, op. 4) is a concept album that stands on its own and goes a step further in the effort of the collective. Take a look:


Restructuring Lateralus: Tool's Holy Gift Fans of the alternative metal band Tool have to be some of the most curious and creative in rock. They are incredibly active interpreters of Tool's music and lyrics and are proud of their sense of intelligence as fans. Tool's aesthetic lends itself very well to wide ranging interpretation, dealing as it does with "alternative" views of inner consciousness, vaguely Buddhist spirituality, and other interesting philosophical inquiries such as the mutation of DNA and the concept of a Third Eye. In other words, these are not songs about your best girl and movies on a Saturday night. The band's music can best be described as drawing on the aggression and ensemble virtuosity of metal combined with the kind of tortured interiority that characterizes Radiohead's post-O.K. Computer music. Such a combination certainly sets them apart from many metal bands, and the centrality of their unusual lyrics only adds to the mystique of the band.However, any previous interpretative theories by fans have been outdone by the recent focus on the notion that the entirety of Tool's most recent album, Lateralus, actually needs to be reordered in order to reveal a secret message dealing with moving through consciousness as a movement of along spirals: "Spiral out, keep going, spiral out" sings Maynard James Keenan toward the end of "Lateralus," the album's title track. Added to this is the tantalizing prospect that the album and its message are also influenced by the Fibonacci sequence of numbers. When plotted on a graph Fibonacci numbers form a spiral-like image. Moreover, the main riff in "Lateralus" is comprised of three different meters: 9/8, 8/8, 7/8, or: 987, which happens to be the sixteenth step in the Fibonacci sequence (as observed by Keenan himself during the writing of the song). Moreover, moreover (!), Keenan's halting vocal rhythms during the first verse of "Lateralus" correspond to Fibonacci numbers in their syllable counts:

1 (Black)
1 (then)
2 (white are)
3 (all I see)
5 (in my infancy)
8 (red and yellow then came to be)
5 (reaching out to me)
3 (lets me see)

Restructuring Lateralus: Tool's Holy Gift

I plan on doing some more of my own writing and more pictures. Unfortunately, the Flickr photos I try to post don't always appear and instead create a blank link. I have been writing on some random topics lately along with some minor poetry. I'm trying to get more into the improvisational stage of creativity instead of just the reproductive. It plays such an important role in my educational philosophy, but yet I don't create in my own education as much as I should. In the back of my mind, I hope this leads to an inspiration in composing.

technorati tags: Tool, Lateralus, Magick, rock, music, Fibonacci, numbers, education, music, writing, poetry, composition, improvisation,