Fishing Net Machine

Bermuda Traingle

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean in which a number of aircraft and surface vessels have disappeared. Some people have claimed that these disappearances fall beyond the boundaries of human error or acts of nature. Some of these disappearances have been attributed to the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings by popular culture. Though a substantial documentation exists showing numerous incidents to have been inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have gone on record as stating the number and nature of disappearances to be similar to any other area of ocean, many have remained unexplained despite considerable investigation.
The Triangle Area The boundaries of the Triangle vary with the author; some stating its shape is akin to a trapezoid covering the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas, and the entire Caribbean island area east to the Azores; others add to it the Gulf of Mexico. The more familiar, triangular boundary in most written works has as its points somewhere on the Atlantic coast of Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with most of the accidents concentrated along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits.
The area is one of the most heavily-sailed shipping lanes in the world, with ships crossing through it daily for ports in the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands. It is also a heavily flown route for commercial and private aircraft heading towards Florida, the Caribbean, and South America from points north.
The Gulf Stream ocean current flows through the Triangle after leaving the Gulf of Mexico; its current of five to six knots may have played a part in a number of disappearances. Sudden storms can and do appear, and in the summer to late fall hurricanes strike the area. The combination of heavy maritime traffic and tempestuous weather makes it inevitable that vessels could founder in storms and be lost without a trace ­ especially before improved telecommunications, radar, and satellite technology arrived late in the 20th century.
History of the Triangle Story According to the Triangle authors, Christopher Columbus was the first person to document something strange in the Triangle, reporting that he and his crew observed "strange dancing lights on the horizon", flames in the sky, and at another point he wrote in his log about bizarre compass bearings in the area. From his log book, dated October 11, 1492 he wrote:

The land was first seen by a sailor (Rodrigo de Triana), although the Admiral at ten o'clock that evening standing on the quarter-deck saw a light, but so small a body that he could not affirm it to be land; calling to Pero Gutiérrez, groom of the King's wardrobe, he told him he saw a light, and bid him look that way, which he did and saw it; he did the same to Rodrigo Sánchez of Segovia, whom the King and Queen had sent with the squadron as comptroller, but he was unable to see it from his situation. The Admiral again perceived it once or twice, appearing like the light of a wax candle moving up and down, which some thought an indication of land. But the Admiral held it for certain that land was near...

Modern scholars checking the original log books have surmised that the lights he saw were the cooking fires of Taino natives in their canoes or on the beach; the compass problems were the result of a false reading based on the movement of a star.
The first article of any kind in which the legend of the Triangle began appeared in newspapers by E.V.W. Jones on September 16, 1950, through the Associated Press.
Two years later, Fate magazine published "Sea Mystery At Our Back Door", a short article by George X. Sand in the October 1952 issue covering the loss of several planes and ships, including the loss of Flight 19, a group of five U.S. Navy TBM Avenger bombers on a training mission. Sand's article was the first to lay out the now-familiar triangular area where the losses took place. Flight 19 alone would be covered in the April 1962 issue of American Legion Magazine.
The article was titled "The Lost Patrol", by Allen W. Eckert, and in his story it was claimed that the flight leader had been heard saying "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." It was also claimed that officials at the Navy board of inquiry stated that the planes "flew off to Mars." "The Lost Patrol" was the first to connect the supernatural to Flight 19, but it would take another author, Vincent Gaddis, writing in the February 1964 Argosy Magazine to take Flight 19 together with other mysterious disappearances and place it under the umbrella of a new catchy name: "The Deadly Bermuda Triangle"; he would build on that article with a more detailed book, Invisible Horizons, the next year. Others would follow with their own works: John Wallace Spencer (Limbo of the Lost,1969); Charles Berlitz (The Bermuda Triangle, 1974); Richard Winer (The Devil's Triangle, 1974), and many others, all keeping to some of the same supernatural elements outlined by Eckert.
Kusche's Explanation Lawrence David Kusche, a research librarian from Arizona State University and author of The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved (1975) has challenged this trend. Kusche's research revealed a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies between Berlitz's accounts and statements from eyewitnesses, participants, and others involved in the initial incidents. He noted cases where pertinent information went unreported, such as the disappearance of round-the-world yachtsman Donald Crowhurst, which Berlitz had presented as a mystery, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
Another example was the ore-carrier Berlitz recounted as lost without trace three days out of an Atlantic port when it had been lost three days out of a port with the same name in the Pacific Ocean. Kusche also argued that a large percentage of the incidents which have sparked the Triangle's mysterious influence actually occurred well outside it. Often his research was surprisingly simple: he would go over period newspapers and see items like weather reports that were never mentioned in the stories.
Kusche came to several conclusions:

The number of ships and aircraft reported missing in the area was not significantly greater, proportionally speaking, than in any other part of the ocean. In an area frequented by tropical storms, the number of disappearances that did occur were, for the most part, neither disproportionate, unlikely, nor mysterious; furthermore, Berlitz and other writers would often fail to mention such storms.
The numbers themselves had been exaggerated by sloppy research. A boat listed as missing would be reported, but its eventual (if belated) return to port may not be reported.
Some disappearances had in fact, never happened. One plane crash was said to have taken place in 1937 off Daytona Beach, Florida, in front of hundreds of witnesses; a check of the local papers revealed nothing.

Kusche concluded that:

The Legend of the Bermuda Triangle is a manufactured mystery ... perpetuated by writers who either purposely or unknowingly made use of misconceptions, faulty reasoning, and sensationalism.

Natural Explanations Methane Hydrates An explanation for some of the disappearances focuses on the presence of vast fields of methane hydrates on the continental shelves. A paper was published by the United States Geological Survey about the appearance of hydrates in the Blake Ridge area, offshore southeastern United States, in 1981. Periodic methane eruptions are capable of producing ship-sized bubbles, or regions of water with so much dissolved gas, that the fluid density is no longer capable of providing adequate buoyancy for ships to float. If this were the case, such an area forming around a ship could cause it to sink almost directly and without warning. Experiments have proven that a methane bubble can indeed sink a ship by decreasing the density of the water.
Methane gas can also crash planes. The less dense air causes planes to lose lift. Also, the altimeter of planes (the instrument that measures the altitude) functions on the density of air. Because methane is less dense, the altimeter assumes the plane is climbing. Planes at night or in the clouds, where they can't see the ground, assume that they are climbing and dive, causing them to crash. Also, methane in the engine throws off the mix of fuel and air. Aircraft engines burn hydrocarbons (gasoline or jet fuel) with oxygen provided by the air. When the ambient oxygen levels drop, combustion can stop, and the engine stalls. All of these effects of methane gas have been shown experimentally.
Laboratory experiments carried out in Australia have proven that bubbles can, indeed, sink a scale model ship by decreasing the density of the water; any wreckage consequently rising to the surface would be rapidly dispersed by the Gulf Stream. It has been hypothesized that periodic methane eruptions (sometimes called "mud volcanoes") may produce regions of frothy water that are no longer capable of providing adequate buoyancy for ships. If this were the case, such an area forming around a ship could cause it to sink very rapidly and without warning.
A white paper was published in 1981 by the United States Geological Survey about the appearance of hydrates in the Blake Ridge area, off the southeastern United States coast. However, according to a USGS web page, no large releases of gas hydrates are believed to have occurred in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 15,000 years.
Hurricanes Hurricanes are extremely powerful storms which are spawned in the Atlantic near the equator, and have historically been responsible for thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars in damage. The sinking of Francisco de Bobadilla's Spanish fleet in 1502 was the first recorded instance of a destructive hurricane. In 1988, Hurricane Gilbert, one of the most powerful hurricanes in history, set back Jamaica's economy by three years. These storms have in the past caused a number of incidents related to the Triangle.
Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream is an ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, and then through the Straits of Florida, into the North Atlantic. In essence, it is a river within an ocean, and like a river, it can and does carry floating objects. A small plane making a water landing or a boat having engine trouble will be carried away from its reported position by the current, as happened to the cabin cruiser Witchcraft on December 22, 1967, when it reported engine trouble near the Miami buoy marker one mile (1.6 km) from shore, but was not there when a Coast Guard cutter arrived.
Freak Waves Extremely large waves can appear seemingly at random, even in calm seas. One such rogue wave caused the Ocean Ranger, then the world's largest offshore platform, to capsize in 1982. There is, however, no particular reason to believe rogue waves are more common in the Bermuda region, and this explanation cannot account for the loss of airplanes.
Research has shown that freak waves up to 30 m (100 feet) tall, capable of sinking the largest ships within moments, can and do happen. Although these are very rare, in some areas ocean currents mean they happen more often than the norm. Such waves have now been hypothesized as a cause for many unexplained shipping losses over the years.
The book was a best seller, and many interested readers offered theories to explain the nature of the disappearances. The list includes natural storms, transportation by extraterrestrial technology, high-traffic volumes (and correspondingly high accident rates), a "temporal hole," the lost Atlantis empire from the bottom of the ocean, and other natural and supernatural causes.
Glowing Water Aerial photos taken in 2005 show the phenomenon of glowing water. Whatever causes this phosphorescence to vent up from the Bahama Bank bottoms, if that is its cause, remains a mystery.
The Triangle's location in the Caribbean makes it subject to unpredictable weather patterns. This takes us to Earth changes and the excalation of intense hurricanes in 2005 with more to come in the years ahead.
These weather extremes prey on inexperienced navigators and smaller boats and planes. Water spouts, sudden electrical and thunder storms, and the like, can cause havoc in the area. The Gulf Stream can also be brutal in that region and perhaps has swept away evidence of natural disasters.
Electronic Fog Many people have reported seeing portals opening in cloudy skies - strange swirling lights sometimes accompanied by sounds - temporal distortions - electromagnetic distortions called 'electronic fog' that can cause a time storm, and the disappearance of planes and ships. There is something about this fog that is important and gives one the sense of all things paranormal. Something unexplained is definitely happening in that region of the Atlantic. This goes back to ancient explorers such as Christopher Columbus and his crew who experienced the phenomenon.

Acts of Man Human Error One of the most cited explanations in official inquiries as to the loss of any aircraft or vessel is human error. Whether deliberate or accidental, humans have been known to make mistakes resulting in catastrophe, and losses within the Bermuda Triangle are no exception. For example, the Coast Guard cited a lack of proper training for the cleaning of volatile benzene residue as a reason for the loss of the tanker V.A. Fogg in 1972. Human stubbornness may have caused businessman Harvey Conover to lose his sailing yacht, the Revonoc, as he sailed into the teeth of a storm south of Florida on January 1, 1958. It should be noted that many losses remain inconclusive due to the lack of wreckage which could be studied, a fact cited on many official reports.
Deliberate Acts of Destruction This can fall into two categories: acts of war, and acts of piracy. Records in enemy files have been checked for numerous losses; while many sinkings have been attributed to surface raiders or submarines during the World Wars and documented in the various command log books, many others which have been suspected as falling in that category have not been proven; it is suspected that the loss of USS Cyclops in 1918, as well as her sister ships Proteus and Nereus in World War II, were attributed to submarines, but no such link has been found in the German records.
Piracy, as defined by the taking of a ship or small boat on the high seas, is an act which continues to this day. While piracy for cargo theft is more common in the western Pacific and Indian oceans, drug smugglers do steal pleasure boats for smuggling operations, and may have been involved in crew and yacht disappearances in the Caribbean. Historically famous pirates of the Caribbean (where piracy was common from about 1560 to the 1760s) include Edward Teach (Blackbeard) and Jean Lafitte. Lafitte is sometimes said to be a Triangle victim himself.
Another form of pirate operated on dry land. Bankers or wreckers would shine a light on shore to misdirect ships, which would then founder on the shore; the wreckers would then help themselves to the cargo. It is possible that these wreckers also killed any crew who protested. Nags Head, North Carolina, was named for the wreckers' practice of hanging a lantern on the head of a hobbled horse as it walked along the beach.
Popular Theories Triangle writers have used a number of supernatural theories to explain the events. One explanation pins the blame on leftover technology from the lost continent of Atlantis. Sometimes connected to the Atlantis story is the submerged rock formation known as the Bimini Road off the island of Bimini in the Bahamas, which is in the Triangle by some definitions. Followers of the purported psychic Edgar Cayce take his prediction that evidence of Atlantis would be found in 1968 or '69 as referring to the discovery of the Bimini Road. Believers describe the formation as a road, wall, or other structure, though geologists consider it to be of natural origin.
Other writers attribute the events to UFOs. This idea was used by Steven Spielberg for his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which features the lost Flight 19 as alien abductees.
Charles Berlitz, grandson of a distinguished linguist and author of various additional books on anomalous phenomena, has kept in line with this extraordinary explanation, and attributed the losses in the Triangle to anomalous or unexplained forces.

Photonics

The different stages of technological evolution are characterized in terms of the dominant type of tools used in each of them. We have passed trough the `stone age', the `copper age' and the `iron age' and are probably now in the `electron age'. After having done a wonderful job, today it looks as if electronic technologies have started experiencing their limits. For example, today's `information explosion' and communication problems demand very large bandwidths without cross talk, larger than that electronics can provide. What could be the technology that can tackle the growing needs of tomorrow?

Photonics is being studied today as a possible alternate technology for the future. Investigations are on to harness the capability of the photon to carry information and energy. Fortunately, success has already been achieved in the area of communications. Optical fibers, not copper cables, are already being used to carry huge amounts of information across the great oceans. Even the internet cables around us are now optical and not electronic. However, communication is only one of the three `C' s, that has been taken care of, the other two being computing and control. Photonic switches and optical computers are still in the laboratories and not yet in the marketplace. The major bottleneck in this area is not in solving technological problems or in perfecting theoretical understanding, but in developing suitable materials. That is where contributions from Materials Scientists are called for.

The Nature of Optical Nonlinearity

Optical processes of materials have always attracted the attention of Materials Scientists. Spectroscopic characterization and analysis of materials using the techniques of optical absorption, luminescence, Raman scattering are standard techniques in research. These studies help in structure analysis and in understanding the electronic processes and energy levels in systems. Several interesting photochemical processes and reactions such as photosynthesis have attracted the attentions of Materials Scientists and Biologists. The advent of lasers has revolutionized optical technology including spectroscopic instrumentation.

The high intensity radiation from lasers is also capable of causing new processes to occur in materials. In such cases, most of the materials can have a `nonlinear interaction' with the electric field. The nonlinear interaction results in several novel processes, which have the potential for communication, control and computing applications.

Essentially, the proportionality of the induced electrical polarization P in the medium to the electric field E breaks down and the resulting polarization can be considered to be made up of several terms consisting of products of higher order susceptibility c(n) and the magnitude of the electric field E. This mathematical formalism helps us to classify optical nonlinearity of materials and to present several important aspects of it in a convenient way.

P and E are vector quantities and c(n) is a tensor of rank (n+1), with 3(n+1) individual components. These tensor components describe the directional dependence of optical properties of crystals. The second and subsequent terms inside the brackets for the expression for susceptibility are progressively much smaller than the first term. This means that nonlinear optical effects would vanish in the low optical intensity regime as intensity is proportional to the square of the amplitude E of the electromagnetic wave. A material can be expected to exhibit n th order optical nonlinearity when either of the quantities c(n) or E is large enough. E depends on the intensity of the laser used and c(n) is a property of the material. Thus the amount of nonlinearity induced will depend on both the nature of the material as well as the intensity of the laser used.

From Optics to Photonics

The nth term in the above expression for c(n) describes an `(n+1) wave-mixing' phenomenon. According to this formalism, the first order nonlinearity (n=1) actually corresponds to linear optics and hence c(1) governs most of the ordinary optical phenomena such as reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, polarization etc. In linear optics, we have the principle superposition of waves according to which light waves passing through a medium do not exchange energy with one another. This is not the case for n>1, and for n=2, we have wave mixing phenomena such as second harmonic generation (SHG), second order sum-and-difference frequency generation etc. SHG refers to the generation of light at frequency 2w when light of frequency w interacts with a medium. For example, infrared light of wavelength 1060 nm from an Nd:Yag laser could be converted to the green light of wavelength 532 nm. In the case of frequency mixing, light at frequencies w1 and w2 can generate light at w1 �w2 in a second order medium, in addition to light at 2w1 and 2w2. A smart combination of such processes in a proper medium can ultimately provide several laser wavelengths by process known as optical parametric mixing. This is the technology being widely used by the latest models of high power tunable lasers in the market today.

Second order phenomena are NOT exhibited by materials which possessing a center of inversion. The existence of inversion symmetry forbids c(2) -related processes in materials. This restricts second order materials to certain classes of crystals. This is not the case with third order phenomena, which could be exhibited by all materials. Apart from higher order wave mixing phenomena, several new processes are also possible here. The refractive index of the material n becomes a function of the intensity of light I according to the relation n(I) = n0 + n2 (I) where n0 is the linear refractive index and n2I is the nonlinear contribution. This in fact makes the medium act as a lens when a strong beam of light with a Gaussian cross section passes through it. This is because the central part of the beam sees a larger effective refractive index and consequently travels slower, when compared to the peripheral part. Some materials self-focus the beam whereas some others self-defocus, depending on whether n2 is positive or negative. The change in refractive index with intensity is the basic principle based on which several photonic devices such as optical switches, transistors, modulators couplers, limiters etc.

Several methods have been designed to measure the nonlinear optical susceptibilities in materials. These are based on the optical processes involved. For example, third order nonlinear susceptibility can be measured conveniently using the self-focusing effect. In an experiment known as z-scan, a laser beam with Gaussian cross section is passed through a convex lens and the far field beam pattern is studied as the medium is moved along the beam direction, across the focal point of the lens. Obviously, the beam profile will change if the medium also starts acting as another lens. Thus a plot of the intensity (at any point) in the far field cross section of the beam as a function of the position of the sample enables us to calculate the beam distortion and hence the third order nonlinear susceptibility.

The dreams of Photonics Technology would be realized only if proper materials with large nonlinear susceptibility and fast response apart from ease of preparation and handling could be developed. Most of the natural materials such as inorganic crystals, organic liquids, semiconductors etc. have only either one of these conditions satisfied and not both simultaneously. This is a frontier area of intense research in the area of developing new Photonic Materials and improving the nonlinear optical response of known materials.

history of robotics

~ 350 B.CThe brilliant Greek mathematician, Archytas ('ahr 'ky tuhs') of Tarentum builds a mechanical bird dubbed "the Pigeon" that is propelled by steam. It serves as one of histories earliest studies of flight, not to mention probably the first model airplane.~ 322 B.C.The Greek philosopher Aristotle writes...
“If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it... then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.”...hinting how nice it would be to have a few robots around.~ 200 B.C.The Greek inventor and physicist Ctesibus ('ti sib ee uhs') of Alexandria designs water clocks that have movable figures on them. Water clocks are a big breakthrough for timepieces. Up until then the Greeks used hour glasses that had to be turned over after all the sand ran through. Ctesibus' invention changed this because it measured time as a result of the force of water falling through it at a constant rate. In general, the Greeks were fascinated with automata of all kinds often using them in theater productions and religious ceremonies.1495Leonardo DaVinci designs a mechanical device that looks like an armored knight. The mechanisms inside "Leonardo's robot" are designed to make the knight move as if there was a real person inside. Inventors in medieval times often built machines like "Leonardo's robot" to amuse royalty.1738Jacques de Vaucanson begins building automata in Grenoble, France. He builds three in all. His first was the flute player that could play twelve songs. This was closely followed by his second automaton that played a flute and a drum or tambourine, but by far his third was the most famous of them all. The duck was an example of Vaucanson's attempt at what he called "moving anatomy", or modeling human or animal anatomy with mechanics." The duck moved, quacked, flapped it's wings and even ate and digested food.1770Swiss clock makers and inventors of the modern wristwatch Pierre Jaquet-Droz and later joined by his son Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz start making automata for European royalty. They create three dolls, each with a unique function. One can write, another plays music, and the third draws pictures.1801Joseph Jacquard builds an automated loom that is controlled with punched cards. Punch cards are later used as an input method for some of the 20th centuries earliest computers.1822Charles Babbage demonstrates a prototype of his "Difference Engine" to the Royal Astronomical Society. He continues his work by designing an even more ambitious project "the Analytical Engine" that reportedly was to use punch cards inspired by Joseph Jacquard's invention. During his lifetime he never produces a functional version of either machine. Despite this shortcoming he is often heralded as the "Father of the Computer" and his work lives on as the foundation for the binary numbering system that is the basis of modern computers.1847George Boole represents logic in mathematical form with his Boolean Algebra.1898Nikola Tesla builds and demonstrates a remote controlled robot boat at Madison Square Garden.1921Czech writer Karel Capek introduced the word "Robot" in his play "R.U.R" (Rossuum's Universal Robots). "Robot" in Czech comes from the word "robota", meaning "compulsory labor"1926Fritz Lang's movie "Metropolis" is released. "Maria" the female robot in the film is the first robot to be projected on the silver screen.1936Alan Turing introduces the concept of a theoretical computer called the Turing Machine. Despite being a fundamental advance in computer logic it also spawns new schools in Mathematics.1940Issac Asimov produces a series of short stories about robots starting with "A Strange Playfellow" (later renamed "Robbie") for Super Science Stories magazine. The story is about a robot and its affection for a child that it is bound to protect. Over the next 10 years he produces more stories about robots that are eventually recompiled into the volume "I, Robot" in 1950.Asimov is generally credited with the popularization of the term "Robotics" which was first mentioned in his story "Runaround" in 1942. But probably Issac Asimov's most important contribution to the history of the robot is the creation of his Three Laws of Robotics:
A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.Asimov later adds a "zeroth law" to the list:
Zeroth law: A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.1946George Devol patents a playback device for controlling machines.1950Alan Turing publishes Computing Machinery and Intelligence in which he proposes a test to determine whether or not a machine has gained the power to think for itself. It becomes known as the "Turing Test".1951The Day the Earth Stood Still premieres in theaters. The movie features an alien named Klaatu and his robot Gort.1956Alan Newell and Herbert Simon create the Logic Theorist, the first "expert system". It is used to help solve difficult math problems.1956Aided by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nat Rochester and Claude Shannon organize The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence at Dartmouth College. The term "artificial intelligence" is coined as a result of this conference.1959John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky start the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).1961Heinrich Ernst develops the MH-1, a computer operated mechanical hand at MIT.1962The first industrial arm robot - the Unimate - is introduced. It is designed to complete repetitive or dangerous tasks on a General Motors assembly line.1963John McCarthy leaves MIT to start the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University.1966The Stanford Research Institute (later to be known as SRI Technology) creates Shakey the first mobile robot to know and react to its own actions. Amongst other achievements SRI was also the research institute that helped bring us modern day laundry detergent in the development of Tide.1966An artificial intelligence program named ELIZA is created at MIT by Joseph Weizenbaum. ELIZA functions as a computer psychologist that manipulates its users statements to form questions. Weizenbaum is disturbed at how quickly people put faith in his little program.1967Richard Greenblatt writes, MacHack, a program that plays chess, in response to a recent article written by Hurbert Dreyfus where he suggests, as a critique to efforts in artificial intelligence, that a computer program could never beat him in a game of chess. When the program is finished and Dreyfus is invited to play the computer he leads for most of the game but ultimately loses in the end in a close match. Greenblatt's program would be the foundation for many future chess programs, ultimately culminating in Big Blue the chess program that beats chess Grand Master Gary Kasparov.1968Stanley Kubrick makes Arthur C. Clark's, 2001: A Space Odyssey into a movie. It features HAL, an onboard computer that decides it doesn't need its human counterparts any longer. Hear HAL by clicking here.1969Victor Scheinman, a Mechanical Engineering student working in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL) creates the Stanford Arm. The arm's design becomes a standard and is still influencing the design of robot arms today.1970Stanford University produces the Stanford Cart. It is designed to be a line follower but can also be controlled from a computer via radio link.1971The film Silent Running is released starring Bruce Dern. Bruce's co-stars are three robot drones Huey, Dewey and Louie.1974Victor Scheinman forms his own company and starts marketing the Silver Arm. It is capable of assembling small parts together using touch sensors.1976Shigeo Hirose designs the Soft Gripper at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. It is designed to wrap around an object in snake like fashion.1977Star Wars is released. George Lucas' movie about a universe governed by the force introduces watchers to R2-D2 and C-3PO. The movie creates the strongest image of a human future with robots since the 1960's and inspires a generation of researchers.1977Deep space explorers Voyagers 1 and 2 launch from the Kennedy Space Flight Center.1979The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University is established.1979The Stanford Cart is rebuilt by Hans Moravec. He adds a more robust vision system allowing greater autonomy. These are some of the first experiments with 3D environment mapping.1980Seymour Papert publishes Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas where he advocates constructionism, or learning through doing.1981Takeo Kanade builds the direct drive arm. It is the first to have motors installed directly into the joints of the arm. This change makes it faster and much more accurate than previous robotic arms.1982"A new life awaits you on the Off-World colonies." Blade Runner is released. This Ridley Scott film is based on the Philip K. Dick story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and starred Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard a retired Blade Runner that hunted Replicants (or illegal mutinous androids).1986LEGO and the MIT Media Lab colaborate to bring the first LEGO based educational products to market. LEGO tc Logo is used by in the classrooms of thousands of elementary school teachers.1986Honda begins a robot research program thats starts with the premise that the robot "should coexist and cooperate with human beings, by doing what a person cannot do and by cultivating a new dimension in mobility to ultimately benefit society." 1989A walking robot named Genghis is unveiled by the Mobile Robots Group at MIT. It becomes known for the way it walks, popularly referred to as the "Genghis gait".1989At MIT Rodney Brooks and A. M. Flynn publish the paper "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control: A Robot Invasion of the Solar System" in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. The paper changes rover research from building the one, big, expensive robot to building lots of little cheap ones. The paper also makes the idea of building a robot somewhat more accessible to the average person.1989Dr. Seymour Papert becomes the LEGO Professor of Learning Research.1992In an attempt to build a radio controlled vaccuum cleaner Marc Thorpe has the idea to start a robot combat event.1992Dr. John Adler came up with the concept of the CyberKnife a robot that images the patient with x-rays to look for a tumor and delivering a pre-planned dose of radiationto the tumor when found.1993Dante an 8-legged walking robot developed at Carnegie Mellon University descends into Mt. Erebrus, Antarctica. Its mission is to collect data from a harsh environment similar to what we might find on another planet. The mission fails when, after a short 20 foot decent, Dante's tether snaps dropping it into the crater.1994Dante II, a more robust version of its predicessor, descends into the crater of Alaskan volcano Mt. Spurr. The mission is considered a success.1994Marc Thorpe starts Robot Wars at Fort Mason center in San Francsico, CA.1995The second annual Robot Wars event is held at Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA.1996A RoboTuna is designed and built by David Barrett for his doctoral thesis at MIT. It is used to study the way fish swim.1996Chris Campbell and Stuart Wilkinson turn a brewing accident into inspiration at the University of South Florida. The result is the Gastrobot, a robot that digests organic mass to produce carbon dioxide that is then used for power. They call their creation the "flatulence engine."1996Honda debuts the P3, the fruit of its decade long effort to build a humanoid robot.1996The third annual Robot Wars event is held at Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA.1997The first node of the International Space Station is placed in orbit. Over the next several years more components will join it, including a robotic arm designed by Canadian company MD Robotics.1997The Pathfinder Mission lands on Mars. Its robotic rover Sojourner, rolls down a ramp and onto Martian soil in early July. It continues to broadcast data from the Martian surface until September.1998Tiger Electronics introduces the Furby into the Christmas toy market. It quickly becomes "the toy" to get for the season. Using a variety of sensors this "animatronic pet" can react to its environment and communicate using over 800 phrases in English and their own language "Furbish".1998LEGO releases their first Robotics Invention SystemTM 1.0. LEGO names the product line MINDSTORMS after Seymour Papert's seminal work of 1980.1999LEGO releases The Robotics Discovery Set, Droid Developer Kit and the Robotics Invention System 1.5

.1999SONY releases the AIBO robotic pet.2000Honda debuts new humanoid robot ASIMO.2000The Battlebots event is held in Las Vegas, Nevada.2000LEGO releases the MINDSTORMS Robotics Invention SystemTM 2.02001LEGO releases the MINDSTORMS Ultimate Builder's Set2001In August, the FDA clears the CyberKnife to treat tumors anywhere in the body.2002Honda's ASIMO robot rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.2003June 10th - NASA launches the MER-A "Spirit" rover destined for Mars.July 7th - NASA launches the MER-B "Opportunity".2003SONY releases the AIBO ERS-7 it's 3rd generation robotic pet.2004Jan. 4th - After six minutes of holding our breath (during EDL) as it burned and bounced its way to the red planet the robot rover Spirit lands on Mars.Jan. 23rd - The second Mars Exploration Rover - "Opportunity" safely lands on the Meridium Planum.

Submarines

The ability to stay hidden deep under the waves makes the submarine a powerful and effective warship. To travel underwater, a submarine needs a strong hull to resist high water pressure, and engines for both surface and underwater use. Submarine were used effectively as deadly weapons for the first time in world war 1.Today there are two main types of military submarines in operation. A patrol submarine searches for and atttacks enemy vessels. A missile submarine carries long-range nuclear missiles

the most powerful submarines are those that carry nuclear missiles, and are driven by nuclear engines.Each missile can destroy a large city, killing thousands of people.
Nuclear engine allow a submarine to stay submerged for much longer than other submarines, which have to return to the surface to recharge thier batteries.

Hovercraft

A hovercraft reduces water resistance by riding just above the surface on a cushion of air. the cushion is made by large fans blowing air under the hovercraft. the air is held in place by a flexible "skirt". the hovercraft is pushed along by propellers in the air.

Hovercraft can travel on to land for loading and unloading.

Discovery of Protons

The [nucleus] is the place where radioactivity takes place. In order to understand radioactivity, man should first understand what is in the nucleus.

Finding Protons

In 1919, Rutherford bombarded gases with alpha particles. This is the diagram of the apparatus used in Rutherford's investigations.

The thin silver foil at one end could stop the alpha particles from the radioactive source. Any other particles that penetrated through the foil would fall on the zinc sulphide screen and produced [scintillation]. Various gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide have been used to fill up the apparatus but scintillation was only detected when nitrogen was used. The particles which have passed through the silver foil were shown to have a similar range, and same charge as protons.

Later investigations of the reaction in a [cloud chamber] gave rise to photographs showing clearly that the alpha particle actually entered the nitrogen nucleus which immediately ejected a proton.

equation showing the nuclear reaction

This was the first occasion on which one element was changed into another one. This process was called nuclear transmutation.

Rutherford's students nicknamed him "the crocodile" because " the crocodile cannot turn its head... it must always go forward with all devouring jaws."

The Discovery of DNA

James Watson	Francis Crick died 7/28/2004	Maurice Wilkins died 10/05/04	Rosalind Franklin died in 1958	Linus Pauling died in 1994	Erwin Chargaff died 6/20/02

James Watson, a biologist from Indiana University, and Francis Crick, a physicist, were working at the Cavendish Lab in Cambridge, England on the structure of DNA. Maurice Wilkins, a New Zealand physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project, was the deputy director of the King's College biophysics lab. Linus Pauling was a Caltech chemist, who in 1951 had discovered the alpha helical nature of protein structure. Rosalind Franklin was a 30 year old English chemist who was working in an X-ray crystallography lab in Paris, France in 1951. Erwin Chargaff was a professor of biochemistry at Columbia University who discovered that the molar base ratios of A equal T and G equal C, and helped solidify our understanding of the structure of DNA.

A primary technique for structural analysis of biological molecule is X-ray crystallography. The wavelength of X-rays is about the same as the space between the atoms in crystalline matter. Deflected X-rays can give an image pattern on a photographic plate, whose angles when analyzed mathematically can lead to the details of each atoms arrange with respect to the other atoms.

Rosalind Elise Franklin was born in 1920 in London and attended St. Paul's Girls School where she excelled in science, mathematics, and athletics. In 1938, she was awarded a scholarship in physics and chemistry to attended Cambridge University where she undertook studies in X-ray crystallography. After earning her Ph.D. and publishing seminal papers on coal she took a job offer in one of the best labs in Paris. She was a good experimenter, perfected her X-ray techniques, and published, spoke at conferences, and was well liked by her peers. It has been reported that she was a fashion-minded lady of Paris wearing Dior and socializing as a chef for her friends. After 4 years in Paris she decided at 30 years of age to return to London. She was hired by J.T. Randall, Director of King's College biophysics labs, to create an X-ray unit and work on DNA. She arrived at the King's College lab in 1951.

Maurice Wilkins, the assumed overseer of the King's College lab, had in 1951 taken the first X-ray pictures of DNA that lead him to suggest the DNA structure might be a helix (similar to just announced Linus Pauling alpha helical structure of proteins). The atmosphere at King's was akin to an old boy's club (the lunch room was from men only) which lead to conflict. In addition, Randall did not clearly delineate a chain of command, and though he had hired Franklin as director of the x-RAY lab, Wilkins, who was away when Franklin was hired believed himself to be in charge. Wilkins and Franklin did not get along. Wilkins called Franklin Rosy, which she perceived as 'bad' nick name. She was never called Rosy to her face.

Rudolf Signer, a Swiss chemist had isolated some quality calf thymus DNA, which he gave in a "jelly jar" to Maurice Wilkins at a scientific meeting sometime in 1951. At the time this was the... "best sample of DNA in the world". Franklin was given Signer's DNA by the King's College biophysics lab director, J.T. Randall.

J.D. Watson arrived in England and having seen Wilkins pictures of DNA wanted a post-doc at King's, but instead goes to the Cavendish lab at Cambridge where he meets Francis Crick.

Franklin discovered that Signer's DNA X-ray patterns indicated 2 forms... alpha "a wet form" and beta "a drier form". Franklin's effort often included X-ray pictures that took over 100 hours of exposure and in the November of 1951 she obtained a pattern from the wet form... a stark X-array of black stripes radiating from the centerFranklin presents the data on the "X" pattern at a colloquium, which Watson hears. She suggests that DNA is helical and Watson and Crick begin to build a model upon the "X" pattern. Franklin was asked to review the model, which she belittles and criticizes. The Director of Cavendish suggest Watson and Crick do no further model building. In May of 1952 Franklin takes the famous photograph 51, [Anatomy of Photo 51] but sets it aside spending all her efforts on the dry form pictures that did not point as strongly toward a helix. In fact Franklin never formally published or reported on any of her X-ray photos. Conditions at King's had gotten so unsociable that Franklin decides to leave.

Watson and Crick pursued model building, using balls and sticks. Their first model was a triple helix with the bases pointed outward. However, chemically it wouldn't hold itself together, thus they knew it was incorrect.

In May of 1952 Linus Pauling was to go the Royal Society meetings in London, but he was denied a passport by the U.S. State Department because of McCarthyism suspicions for his anti-nuclear weapons proclamations. Some suggested he might be a communist sympathizer. Peter Pauling, Linus' son, comes to Cambridge and discusses his father's January 28, 1953 published model of DNA, not unlike the first Watson/Crick earlier incorrect version that was criticized by Franklin. It proposed a 3 stranded helix with the bases on the outside.

Franklin became fed up with the scientific atmosphere at King's College and accepted a position at Brikbeck College, London, with crystallographer J.D. Bernal to work on the structure of viruses. In her final seminar at King's College, she never showed photo 51. Watson came to King's College to show Franklin the Pauling model, but the story goes that she confronted Watson, and so he retreated and quickly walked out of her lab. Watson and Crick realized they had about a 2 month lead, before Pauling realized that chemically his model wouldn't hold itself together.

The story gets mirky here. "Someone" gives photo-51 to Watson, either Franklin herself, her lab assistant, Raymond Gosling, or Wilikns showed him Franklin's photo 51 (some have called this unethical on Wilkins part). Watson immediately recognizes the significance of the "X" in photo-51; it means DNA is a helix with 10 units per turn (count the spots in the photo) with 34 Angstroms per turn. Watson sketches a copy of the photo on a newspaper and returns to Crick. Together they model the structure of DNA as a 2 chain helical, with antiparallel properties and the bases facing inward paired to hold the molecule together. Within 2 months Watson and Crick published their model. On Saturday, February 28, 1953 it is reported that Crick came into the Eagle, a Cambridge pub, and announced to everyone there that they had "found the secret of life". Franklin, in fact, came to Cambridge to see their model, and readily accepts it.

With the discovery of the structure of DNA solved, the question of who gets the credit arises. The Director's of the Cavendish and King's College labs approach Nature and suggest that 3 papers be published in sequence: one by Watson and Crick, one by Wilkins, and a third by Franklin and Gosling. In April of 1953 the Watson and Crick paper appeared in the journal Nature 171 : 737-738 & 964-967 (1953).

Rosalind Franklin's photo-51 was a pivotal moment in the discovery of the double helix, and maybe only Francis Crick and James Watson realized it. Franklin didn't willingly share or publish photo 51, though she did speak and presenther results including the obvious helical nature to DNA. At 38 (1958) Rosalind Franklin died of ovarian cancer, probably due to constant exposure to X-rays. In 1962 Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize.

end.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE ZERO

The zero is the mathematically defined numerical function of nothingness that is used not for an evasion but for an apprehension of reality. The "nothing" has been the exclusive territory of mystics and neocheaters. They thrive on "nothing", in nonreality, and create their mystical edifice of power and dominance upon "nothing" with "nothing". The zero is the only "nothing" thus far conceived that is nonmystical, i.e., reality-based. It is a tool, a mathematical tool, for dealing with reality, and as such is integral to the whole context of reality qua reality. After the Renaissance, the monopolization of knowledge became broken and scientific knowledge flourished owing largely to the propagation of this mathematical "nothing", the zero -- to the increased computational capability among common people that was made possible solely by the widespread use of the zero concept and its counterpart -- the place-value numerical system.

On the assumption that an Aristotelian-based philosophy rather than a Platonistic philosophy had dominated the Western world since the Golden Age of Greece, Neo-Tech predicts the following retrospectively (see "Neo-Tech Discovery", Neo-Tech Advantage #77, An Aristotelian Course of History):

350 B.C.	Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
200 B.C.	America discovered.
100 B.C.	Free-enterprise capitalism established around the world.
0 B.C.	All traces of mysticism, altruism, are gone.
20 A.D.	Electrical power developed, camera developed.
40 A.D.	Internal-combustion engine developed.
50 A.D.	Cars in mass production. Airplane developed.
60 A.D.	Computer developed...
70 A.D.	Nuclear power developed.
80 A.D.	Man on the Moon.
100 A.D.	Man on Mars and heading for other planets.
120 A.D.	Human biological immortality developed. 200 A.D.Universal immortality achieved...

As revealed in the second chapter, exactly as predicted above, the Phoenician navigators circumnavigated the world and discovered the American continent around 200 B.C., preceding Columbus and Magellan by 1700 years. Aristarchus' heliocentric theory of the universe was developed approximately fifty years prior to that circumnavigation. However, also around 200 B.C., with the rise of the Romans, Platonistic-based philosophies became increasingly more dominant and growth in science rapidly declined, except in Alexandria where Greek culture and science still continued to flourish.

What is implicit in this "retrospective forecast" of human history, however, is that a numerical system much like ours with the zero and the place-value principle should have been developed somewhere between 200 and 100 B.C., for the Greek numerical system was much too rudimentary to make the subsequent developments in science and technology probable. In fact, no matter what kind of numerical symbols people of antiquity might have adopted, logic dictates that their number system should have been the same as ours with the zero concept and the place-value principle. Since man has ten fingers, it is most likely that the base of their number system would have been ten (10). The computers of 60 A.D. should have employed a binary system due to the nature of logic.

Our modern written numeration, with the zero concept and the place-value principle, is such an ingenious, efficacious, and conceptually integrated system that no one who has ever considered the history of numerical notation or mathematics fails to realize its enormous profundity, significance, and power. For instance, consider the following addition -- the same addition by means of Roman numerals and of our Hindu-Arabic numerals:

CCLXVIII	268
MDCCCVII	1807
DCL	650
MLXXX	1080
MMMDCCCV	3805

Without converting the Roman numerals into our modern system the problem is difficult, if not impossible, to solve. And this is only an addition -- multiplication or division would be far worse. Roman numerals and most other systems do not lend themselves to written computation owing largely to the static nature of their basic numerals, which are in essence only abbreviations for recording the results of computations done by means of an abacus or counting board.

For this reason, before the advent of our modern positional numeration (the zero and the place-value system), the art of reckoning remained an exclusive and highly skilled profession. Indeed, it attests to the success wherewith the master neocheaters executed their destructive substrategy, specialization of knowledge, that the knowledge of reckoning remained so exclusive a profession. That master neocheating strategy created a lack of motivation for the advancement of knowledge, particularly of science, and its accompanying mathematical/computational tools. Thus, no progress was made in the field of reckoning in the Western world beyond Greek or Roman numeration. Roman numeration, particularly, was an intentional device to keep the populace ignorant and powerless, forever confined in the perceptivity-centered modality, in a mystical cave, by a mega-dose of neocheating.

Therefore, the discovery of the zero and the development of the place-value numeration had to wait for a less oppressive intellectual climate -- a flourishing business and commercial atmosphere. Such a climate took place in India between the first and fifth centuries A.D. It was during that time in India that the zero was discovered and the system of place-value numeration was developed, almost reaching to their fullest formulation by 500 A.D. Although in recorded history the place-value number systems have been developed four times (by the Babylonians, Mayans, Chinese, and Hindus), and the zero concept has been evolved three times (by the Babylonians, Mayans, and Hindus), none outside of the Hindus have devised such a complete system of numerical operation. Furthermore, none outside of the Hindus evolved the zero concept to the degree that it is used as the null-value in all facets of calculation.

Increased commercial/business activities during the first three centuries A.D. in India called for further developments in navigational technology and astronomical science, and for an evolution of a written computational methodology for recording the process of calculations that were employed in navigation, astronomy, and business. To accomplish these ends, development of a superior numerical system that lent itself to written computation became imperative. It was among those sea-dwelling navigator-engineer-scientist-businessmen who kept and evolved the lineage of advanced knowledge from antiquity that the place-value number system with the zero concept was first developed. The Brahman scholars, the Pythagoreans of the East, further evolved and perfected the system nearly to its present formulation. By using only ten numerical symbols while assigning one of the ten symbols, the zero, unique meanings and functions, they succeeded in expressing infinitely large numbers and making complex numerical operations remarkably more simple.

In Sanskrit (the scholarly language of the Hindus), the word for the zero is "sunya", meaning "void", and there is little doubt that the zero concept originated as the written symbol for the empty column of the abacus. The abacus had been used around the world since antiquity to provide a facile means of accumulating progressive products of multiplication by moving those products ever further leftward, column by column, as the operator filled the available bead spaces one by one and moved the excess over ten into the successive right-to-left-ward columns.

Number products in even tens (such as the number 20 or 30) leave the first right hand column empty (void). When expert abacus users had no abacus available to them, they could remember and visualize the operation of the abacus so clearly that all they needed to know was the content of each column in order to develop any multiplication or division. They then invented symbols for the content of each column to replace drawing a picture of the number of beads. Having developed symbols to express the content of each column, they had to invent a symbol for the numberless content of the empty column -- that symbol came to be known to the Hindus as "sunya", and sunya later became "sifr" in Arabic; "cifra" in Roman; and finally "cipher" in English.

Only an empty column of an abacus could possibly provide the human experience that called for the invention of the zero -- the symbol for "nothingness", and that discovery of the symbol for nothingness had an enormous significance upon subsequent humanity. The zero, the cipher, alone made possible humanity's escape from the 1700-year monopoly of all its calculating functions by the neocheating power structure operating invisibly behind their governments and religions. It was also the power of nothingness, the zero, that raised the curtains of science during the Renaissance, which had been drawn by the master neocheaters since 200 B.C. (It is significant to realize that the positional numeration with the zero concept had been implicitly employed in the operation of the abacus almost in its entirety, including the zero being the null-value. The Hindu numeration was the written translation of that operation.)

Even if the zero with the place-value principle and its computation-facilitating capability had been discovered by the Alexandrian Greeks, by Archimedes or Apollonius, for instance, it would have been banished or even lost when the emperors of the Roman Empire amalgamated the vast power of the priesthood with their already-established military supremacy. Historically, Roman numerals had been invented to enable completely illiterate people to keep "scores" of events occurring one by one. The more complex Roman numerals were those used by their superiors, keeping count by their fingers -- V for five (the angle between one's thumb and the other four fingers) and X for ten (representing one's crossed index fingers). Since one cannot see "no sheep" or "no person", the Roman world had no need for a symbol for nothing.

For science to evolve, there should be three basic socio-intellectual factors present: (1) a flourishing business climate that will provide an incentive to advance knowledge; (2) an explicitly defined Aristotelian philosophy that will provide the metaphysical/epistemological foundation or context for valid scientific knowledge and the ethical/moral basis for productive living; (3) mathematical tools, such as the zero with the place-value principle, that will facilitate the advancement of science. During the Renaissance all three of these factors were clearly present. Science did not develop in India after the discovery of the zero owing to the fact that no explicitly defined Aristotelian philosophy had ever been prevalent in India or had been known to the Hindus in general.

Indian philosophies from Hinduism to Buddhism, although they differed in various issues, all held that reality could not be known by reason and logic but only by a mystical union with existence called samadhi or nirvana, purported to be transcendental to reason and logic. They believed that reason and logic could take them only to the point where they could merge into existence through the cessation of the mind. In truth, their mystical union, samadhi or nirvana, was nothing more than a glorified perception or sensation. They inverted the epistemological order of human cognition, which proceeds from sensation to perception and perception to conception, and gave perception and sensation the ultimate cognitive status.

Therefore, albeit the Hindus perfected one of the greatest discoveries in human history -- the zero, they could not realize its cosmic function as a mathematical tool of science. Although it required a conceptuality-centered modality of consciousness to conceive of the zero, the Hindus did not possess a conceptuality-centered philosophy -- an Aristotelian philosophy -- to integrate the zero concept into a larger philosophical scheme so as to bring about its fruits. The zero, thus, had to wait for nearly 1000 years until the time of Leonardo da Vinci and Copernicus in order to bear its fruits and transform the human world forever.

Meanwhile, in the West, the Romans repeatedly burned the Alexandrian library, which as early as 100 B.C. was reputed to have had 700,000 manuscripts containing the wealth of Greek intellectual achievements. The library was first set on fire in 47 B.C. during the war between Caesar and Pompey (40,000 volumes were burned), set ablaze in 272 A.D. by a Roman emperor, ignited in 391 A.D. by another Roman emperor, and finally completely destroyed by the Muslims in 642 A.D. Thus, before the zero could reach the Western world around 700 A.D. via the Moorish invasion of Spain, the intellectual soil wherein this remarkable concept could have borne fruit had been destroyed almost completely by the master neocheaters and their neocheating strategies. The Western world had entered the Dark Ages.

Discovery of Fire

Fire is a discovery rather than an invention. Man had been searching since prehistoric times for a way of making fire easily and quickly, but a really satisfactory answer was found only when tinder-boxes and matches appeared on the scene.

Prehistoric men knew about fire. They must have discovered it by chance, perhaps when lightening caused a fire or when the sun, shining on dry leaves, caused them to ignite. To our ancestors, the discovery of fire was a important as the discovery of electricity or atomic energy has been to us. It was so important that to the primitive mind of early man it seemed holy, a gift from the gods, and become the subject of many myths. In ancient mythology fire worship reappears often.

One of the ways in which prehistoric men made fire was by rubbing two pieces of wood together. It could also be done by rubbing two flint stones together.

Once man has discovered fire, he could warm himself in front of the flames and cook the flesh of animals (previously he had eaten meat raw). Fire bought light into the dark caves. As time went by and men lived in houses, a fire in the hearth helped to create a homely atmosphere.

With the aid of fire, men could build furnaces into which they put iron or a variety of other substances, mixed with charcoal. they used bellows to make the fires hotter and so were able to fashion tools for many purposes.

For many centuries man used fire to help him with the task of everyday life, although he did not learn to control it completely until the invention of fuel ignition systems, without which modern industry could not function.

Thanks to fire, was able to manufacture files, saws, axes, hammer, anvils, tongs and deadly weapons. He also leant how to make glass. So the discovery of fire was of vital importance in the history of humanity. But such a powerful element has its dangers as well as its advantages. It can do us a great deal of good but can also bring disaster. Think of example of how we heat our buildings: they are comfortable to live in, but if something goes wrong a fire can break out and cause great destruction

First Successful Airplane

Wilbur Wright was born April 16, 1867 on a small farm near Millville, Indiana. Along with his brother Orville, he invented and built the first successful controllable airplane.

Even as children, mechanics fascinated the brothers. After reading about the death of pioneer glider pilot Otto Lilienthal in 1896, they became interested in flying. They began serious reading on the subject in 1899, and soon obtained all the scientific knowledge of aeronautics then available. By the fall of 1903, they had constructed a powered airplane with wings 40.5 feet (12 meters) long and weighing about 750 pounds (340 kilograms) with the pilot. They designed and built their own lightweight gasoline engine for the airplane.

On December 17, 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they made the world's first flight in a powered, heavier-than-air machine. With Orville at the controls, the plane flew 120 feet (37 meters) in 12 seconds. The brothers made three more flights that day. The longest, by Wilbur, was 852 feet (260 meters) in 59 seconds.

The Wrights believed that airplanes would eventually be used to transport passengers and mail. When the Wrights first offered their machine to the U.S. government, they were not taken seriously, but by 1908 they closed a contract with the U.S. Department of War for the first military airplane.

Wilbur died in 1912, just as the airplane was beginning to make great advances. Orville worked on alone and in 1913 won the Collier Trophy for a device to automatically balance airplanes. In 1915 he sold his interest in the Wright Company, and continued work on the development of aviation in his own shop. In 1929, he received the first Daniel Guggenheim Medal for his and Wilbur's contributions to the advancement of aeronautics. He died on January 30, 1948. Orville was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in New York City in 1965.

The original plane flown near Kitty Hawk is now in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. Basic principles of that plane are used in every airplane.

first laser

When the first working laser was reported in 1960, it was described as "a solution looking for a problem." But before long the laser's distinctive qualities—its ability to generate an intense, very narrow beam of light of a single wavelength—were being harnessed for science, technology and medicine. Today, lasers are everywhere: from research laboratories at the cutting edge of quantum physics to medical clinics, supermarket checkouts and the telephone network.

Theodore Maiman made the first laser operate on 16 May 1960 at the Hughes Research Laboratory in California, by shining a high-power flash lamp on a ruby rod with silver-coated surfaces. He promptly submitted a short report of the work to the journal Physical Review Letters, but the editors turned it down. Some have thought this was because the Physical Review had announced that it was receiving too many papers on masers—the longer-wavelength predecessors of the laser—and had announced that any further papers would be turned down. But Simon Pasternack, who was an editor of Physical Review Letters at the time, has said that he turned down this historic paper because Maiman had just published, in June 1960, an article on the excitation of ruby with light, with an examination of the relaxation times between quantum states, and that the new work seemed to be simply more of the same. Pasternack's reaction perhaps reflects the limited understanding at the time of the nature of lasers and their significance. Eager to get his work quickly into publication, Maiman then turned toNature, usually even more selective than Physical Review Letters, where the paper was better received and published on 6 August.

With official publication of Maiman's first laser under way, the Hughes Research Laboratory made the first public announcement to the news media on 7 July 1960. This created quite a stir, with front-page newspaper discussions of possible death rays, but also some skepticism among scientists, who were not yet able to see the careful and logically complete Nature paper. Another source of doubt came from the fact that Maiman did not report having seen a bright beam of light, which was the expected characteristic of a laser. I myself asked several of the Hughes group whether they had seen a bright beam, which surprisingly they had not. Maiman's experiment was not set up to allow a simple beam to come out of it, but he analyzed the spectrum of light emitted and found a marked narrowing of the range of frequencies that it contained. This was just what had been predicted by the theoretical paper on optical masers (or lasers) by Art Schawlow and myself, and had been seen in the masers that produced the longer-wavelength microwave radiation. This evidence, presented in figure 2 of Maiman'sNature paper, was definite proof of laser action. Shortly afterward, both in Maiman's laboratory at Hughes and in Schawlow's at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, bright red spots from ruby laser beams hitting the laboratory wall were seen and admired.

Maiman's laser had several aspects not considered in our theoretical paper, nor discussed by others before the ruby demonstration. First, Maiman used a pulsed light source, lasting only a few milliseconds, to excite (or "pump") the ruby. The laser thus produced only a short flash of light rather than a continuous wave, but because substantial energy was released during a short time, it provided much more power than had been envisaged in most of the earlier discussions. Before long, a technique known as "Q switching" was introduced at the Hughes Laboratory, shortening the pulse of laser light still further and increasing the instantaneous power to millions of watts and beyond. Lasers now have powers as high as a million billion (10¹⁵) watts! The high intensity of pulsed laser light allowed a wide range of new types of experiment, and launched the now-burgeoning field of nonlinear optics. Nonlinear interactions between light and matter allow the frequency of light to be doubled or tripled, so for example an intense red laser can be used to produce green light.

I had a busy job in Washington at the time when various groups were trying to make the earliest lasers. But I was also supervising graduate students at Columbia University who were trying to make continuously pumped infrared lasers. Shortly after the ruby laser came out I advised them to stop this work and instead capitalize on the power of the new ruby laser to do an experiment on two-photon excitation of atoms. This was one of the early experiments in nonlinear optics, and two-photon excitation is now widely used to study atoms and molecules.

Lasers work by adding energy to atoms or molecules, so that there are more in a high-energy ("excited") state than in some lower-energy state; this is known as a "population inversion." When this occurs, light waves passing through the material stimulate more radiation from the excited states than they lose by absorption due to atoms or molecules in the lower state. This "stimulated emission" is the basis of masers (whose name stands for "microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation") and lasers (the same, but for light instead of microwaves).

Before Maiman's paper, ruby had been widely used for masers, which produce waves at microwave frequencies, and had also been considered for lasers producing infrared or visible light waves. But the second surprising feature of Maiman's laser, in addition to the pulsed source, was that he was able to empty the lowest-energy ("ground") state of ruby enough so that stimulated emission could occur from an excited to the ground state. This was unexpected. In fact, Schawlow, who had worked on ruby, had publicly commented that transitions involving the ground state of ruby would not be suitable for lasers because it would be difficult to empty adequately. He recommended a different transition in ruby, which was indeed made to work, but only after Maiman's success. Maiman, who had been carefully studying the relaxation times of excited states of ruby, came to the conclusion that the ground state might be sufficiently emptied by a flash lamp to provide laser action—and it worked.

The ruby laser was used in many early spectacular experiments. One amusing one, in 1969, sent a light beam to the Moon, where it was reflected back from a retro-reflector placed on the Moon's surface by astronauts in the U.S. Apollo program. The round-trip travel time of the pulse provided a measurement of the distance to the Moon. Later, ruby laser beams sent out and received by telescopes measured distances to the Moon with a precision of about three centimeters—a great use of the ruby laser's short pulses.

When the first laser appeared, scientists and engineers were not really prepared for it. Many people said to me—partly as a joke but also as a challenge—that the laser was "a solution looking for a problem." But by bringing together optics and electronics, lasers opened up vast new fields of science and technology. And many different laser types and applications came along quite soon. At IBM's research laboratories in Yorktown Heights, New York, Peter Sorokin and Mirek Stevenson demonstrated two lasers that used techniques similar to Maiman's but with calcium fluoride, instead of ruby, as the lasing substance. Following that—and still in 1960—was the very important helium-neon laser of Ali Javan, William Bennett, and Donald Herriott at Bell Laboratories. This produced continuous radiation at low power but with a very pure frequency and the narrowest possible beam. Then came semiconductor lasers, first made to operate in 1962 by Robert Hall and his associates at the General Electric laboratories in Schenectady, New York. Semiconductor lasers now involve many different materials and forms, can be quite small and inexpensive, and are by far the most common type of laser. They are used, for example, in supermarket bar-code readers, in optical-fiber communications, and in laser pointers.

By now, lasers come in countless varieties. They include the "edible" laser, made as a joke by Schawlow out of flavored gelatin (but not in fact eaten because of the dye that was used to color it), and its companion the "drinkable" laser, made of an alcoholic mixture at Eastman Kodak's laboratories in Rochester, New York. Natural lasers have now been found in astronomical objects; for example, infrared light is amplified by carbon dioxide in the atmospheres of Mars and Venus, excited by solar radiation, and intense radiation from stars stimulates laser action in hydrogen atoms in circumstellar gas clouds. This raises the question: why weren't lasers invented long ago, perhaps by 1930 when all the necessary physics was already understood, at least by some people? What other important phenomena are we blindly missing today?

Maiman's paper is so short, and has so many powerful ramifications, that I believe it might be considered the most important per word of any of the wonderful papers in Nature over the past century. Lasers today produce much higher power densities than were previously possible, more precise measurements of distances, gentle ways of picking up and moving small objects such as individual microorganisms, the lowest temperatures ever achieved, new kinds of electronics and optics, and many billions of dollars worth of new industries. The U.S. National Academy of Engineering has chosen the combination of lasers and fiber optics—which has revolutionized communications—as one of the twenty most important engineering developments of the twentieth century. Personally, I am particularly pleased with lasers as invaluable medical tools (for example, in laser eye surgery), and as scientific instruments—I use them now to make observations in astronomy. And there are already at least ten Nobel Prize winners whose work was made possible by lasers.

There have been great and good developments since Ted Maiman, probably a bit desperately, mailed off a short paper on what was then a somewhat obscure subject, hoping to get it published quickly inNature. Fortunately, Nature's editors accepted it, and the rest is history.