A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.
Next summer, Warner Bros Pictures releases their reboot of the Superman film franchise Man of Steel from director Zack Snyder and producers Charles Roven, Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas and Deborah Snyder.
Director Zack Snyder's Man of Steel features Henry Cavill in the role of DC Comics' popular hero Superman. The film also stars three-time Oscar? nominee Amy Adams (The Fighter) as Daily Planet journalist Lois Lane, and Oscar? nominee Laurence Fishburne (What's Love Got to Do with It) as her editor-in-chief, Perry White. Starring as Clark Kent's adoptive parents, Martha and Jonathan Kent, are Oscar? nominee Diane Lane (Unfaithful) and Academy Award? winner Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves). Squaring off against the superhero are two other surviving Kryptonians, the villainous General Zod, played by Oscar? nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road), and Faora, Zod's evil partner, played by Antje Traue. Superman's father, Jor-El, will be portrayed by Academy Award? winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator) alongside Ayelet Zurer as Lara Lor-Van, Superman's mother. Rounding out the cast are Harry Lennix as U.S. military man General Swanwick, as well as Christopher Meloni as Colonel Hardy.
Man of Steel: Inside the Legendary World of Superman offers an intimate look at the reinvention of the world?s most iconic superhero through the eyes of acclaimed director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) and producer Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy). This unique companion book offers a rich selection of materials, from concept art and behind-the-scenes set photography to director commentary and interviews with key creatives, unlocking the secrets behind giving new life to an immortal hero.
Man of Steel: Inside the Legendary World of Superman
Author: Daniel Wallace Edition: Hardcover Release Date: June 14, 2013
Man of Steel is being produced by Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder. The screenplay was written by David S. Goyer, from a story by Goyer and Nolan, based upon Superman characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. Thomas Tull and Lloyd Phillips are serving as executive producers. The film is scheduled for theatrical release on June 14th, 2013.
From left to right: Eddie Marsan, Ewan McGregor, Nicholas Hoult, and Stanley Tucci get their adventure on in ?Jack the Giant-Slayer?.
At first blush, Jack the Giant Slayer would appear to be nothing more but the latest in what?s becoming a long and lackluster line of hipster re-imaginings of classic fairy tales; in truth, it?s something those films have failed to be: entertaining.
Where Snow White and the Huntsman and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters were content to coast on Twilight-esque tortured romance and crude tongue-in-cheek genre mash-up, respectively, director Bryan Singer (Valkyrie, the forthcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past) and his cadre of screenwriters (which includes Christopher McQuarrie) wisely keep their tale simple and old-fashioned.
Singer and company waste no time in getting the story going and keeping it rolling briskly through a 115-minute running time, quickly setting the stage with a flashback that sets up the ?story (via an animated sequence that unfortunately looks like an intro from a ?90s-era CD-ROM fantasy game) of an idyllic kingdom and the race of banished giants who would love to crush it. Anyone who heard the classic fairy tale as a child knows the basics: A hapless young farmer, Jack (Nicholas Hoult, Warm Bodies) acquires some magic beans which sprout into a towering beanstalk, climbs the aforementioned vine, rescues a damsel (in this case, a headstrong princess played by Eleanor Tomlinson), slays a giant or two, and lives happily ever after.
The details are elaborated upon and tweaked a bit to give this version an epic feel, but the key elements remain unchanged: Princess Isabelle is in a pre-arranged engagement to conniving nobleman Roderick (Stanley Tucci) who, of course, covets the throne. A chain of events culminates in Isabelle propelled skyward upon a beanstalk. Jack joins the rescue party let by captain-of-the-guard Sir Elmont (Ewan McGregor)?which finds itself in the land of some very disgruntled giants.
Bill Nighy and John Kassir provide the voices for two-headed giant Fallon.
They?re a suitably nasty bunch, in every sense of the word, led by two-headed Fallon (played primarily by Bill Nighy, with the smaller and less articulate head voiced by the former Crypt Keeper himself, John Kassir), and the CGI work involved is largely pretty impressive.
There?s an impressive ? and much-appreciated ? economy of storytelling on display; Singer?s only goal is to show us a good time, and does so quite well, zipping us from point A to point B with flair and without pretension or self-indulgence. He?s worked on this scale before, and his approach plays like Peter Jackson without the excess. Truth be told, in some ways Jack trumps The Hobbit, especially during the ubiquitous final battle that centers around a brutal castle siege.
However, Singer?s fantasy world is a bit generic in look and feel, and its inhabitants are painted in broad strokes: The heroes are suitably heroic and the bad guys are an exercise in scene-chewing evil ? especially Tucci, who borrows liberally from the Princess Bride school of medieval villainy (that?s good thing). Hoult and Tomlinson are a safe, by-the-book screen couple, yet that are far more engaging and endearing than Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth proved to be. McGregor channels his inner Errol Flynn as the swashbuckling Elmont, with a snazzy haircut to boot. McShane is usually more fun when he?s being bad, but he plays rat bastards and scumbags so often that it?s refreshing to see him cast as a stern but patient father figure.
All in all, for a movie about men vs. giants in a box office arena where size usually does manner, Jack the Giant Slayer holds its own quite well.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday approved online gambling within the state's border, a move that he hopes can help boost state revenues and revive Atlantic City casinos.
The measure, announced the same day that Christie unveiled his new budget plan for fiscal 2014, will legalize Internet gaming to New Jersey's 9 million residents and also create opportunities for European companies with expertise in running online gaming operations.
New Jersey, the 11th most populous state, will become the largest so far and the third in the United States to allow online gambling after Delaware and Nevada, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Nevada, home to international gambling Mecca Las Vegas, last week became the first U.S. state to allow interstate online poker.
"We are offering a responsible yet exciting option that will make Atlantic City more competitive, while also bringing financial benefits to New Jersey as a whole," Christie said in a statement.
The Republican governor signed the legislation after Democratic lawmakers agreed to make several changes, including a provision to review the program after 10 years to gauge its impact on problem gambling.
By legalizing internet gaming, New Jersey could see a huge jump in state casino revenue, to an estimated $436 million in fiscal 2014 from $235 million this fiscal year, which ends June 30, according to budget documents.
Earlier this month, the prospect of a quick approval of online gambling in New Jersey spurred gains among gaming companies on both side of the Atlantic amid hopes it could unlock a market worth up to $1 billion.
Feb. 26, 2013 ? An international team led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has documented a 78 percent decline in the number of nests of the critically endangered leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) at the turtle's last stronghold in the Pacific Ocean.
The study, published online Feb. 26 in the Ecological Society of America's scientific online journal Ecosphere, reveals leatherback nests at Jamursba Medi Beach in Papua Barat, Indonesia -- which accounts for 75 percent of the total leatherback nesting in the western Pacific -- have fallen from a peak of 14,455 in 1984 to a low of 1,532 in 2011. Less than 500 leatherbacks now nest at this site annually.
Thane Wibbels, Ph.D., a professor of reproductive biology at UAB and member of a research team that includes scientists from State University of Papua (UNIPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia, says the largest marine turtle in the world could soon vanish.
"If the decline continues, within 20 years it will be difficult if not impossible for the leatherback to avoid extinction," said Wibbels, who has studied marine turtles since 1980. "That means the number of turtles would be so low that the species could not make a comeback.
"The leatherback is one of the most intriguing animals in nature, and we are watching it head towards extinction in front of our eyes," added Wibbels.
Leatherback turtles can grow to six feet long and weigh as much as 2,000 pounds. They are able to dive to depths of nearly 4,000 feet and can make trans-Pacific migrations from Indonesia to the U.S. Pacific coast and back again.
While it is hard to imagine that a turtle so large and so durable can be on the verge of extinction, Ricardo Tapilatu, the research team's lead scientist who is a Ph.D. student and Fulbright Scholar in the UAB Department of Biology, points to the leatherback's trans-Pacific migration, where they face the prevalent danger of being caught and killed in fisheries.
"They can migrate more than 7,000 miles and travel through the territory of at least 20 countries, so this is a complex international problem," Tapilatu said. "It is extremely difficult to comprehensively enforce fishing regulations throughout the Pacific."
The team, along with paper co-author Peter Dutton, Ph.D., discovered thousands of nests laid during the boreal winter just a few kilometers away from the known nesting sites, but their excitement was short-lived.
"We were optimistic for this population when year round nesting was discovered in Wermon Beach, but we now have found out that nesting on that beach appears to be declining at a similar rate as Jamursba Medi," said Dutton, head of the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center's Marine Turtle Genetics Program.
The study has used year-round surveys of leatherback turtle nesting areas since 2005, and it is the most extensive research on the species to date. The team identified four major problems facing leatherback turtles: nesting beach predators, such as pigs and dogs that were introduced to the island and eat the turtle eggs; rising sand temperatures that can kill the eggs or prevent the production of male hatchlings; the danger of being caught by fisheries during migrations; and harvesting of adults and eggs for food by islanders.
Tapilatu, a native of western Papua, Indonesia, has studied leatherback turtles and worked on their conservation since 2004. His efforts have been recognized by NOAA, and he will head the leatherback conservation program in Indonesia once he earns his doctorate from UAB and returns to Papua.
He has worked to educate locals and limit the harvesting of adults and eggs. His primary focus today is protecting the nesting females, eggs and hatchlings. A leatherback lays up to 10 nests each season, more than any other turtle species. Tapilatu is designing ways to optimize egg survival and hatchling production by limiting their exposure to predators and heat through an extensive beach management program.
"If we relocate the nests from the warmest portion of the beach to our egg hatcheries, and build shades for nests in other warm areas, then we will increase hatching success to 80 percent or more," said Tapilatu.
"The international effort has attempted to develop a science-based nesting beach management plan by evaluating and addressing the factors that affect hatching success such as high sand temperatures, erosion, feral pig predation and relocating nests to maximize hatchling output," said Manjula Tiwari, a researcher at NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, Calif.
Wibbels, who is also the Ph.D. advisor for Tapilatu, says that optimizing hatchling production is a key component to leatherback survival, especially considering the limited number of hatchlings who survive to adulthood.
"Only one hatchling out of 1,000 makes it to adulthood, so taking out an adult makes a significant difference on the population," Wibbels said. "It is essentially the same as killing 1,000 hatchlings."
The research team believes that beach management will help to decrease the annual decline in the number of leatherback nests, but protection of the leatherbacks in waters throughout the Pacific is a prerequisite for their survival and recovery. Despite their prediction for leatherback extinction, the scientists are hopeful this species could begin rebounding over the next 20 years if effective management strategies are implemented.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Alabama at Birmingham. The original article was written by Kevin Storr.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Ricardo F. Tapilatu, Peter H. Dutton, Manjula Tiwari, Thane Wibbels, Hadi V. Ferdinandus, William G. Iwanggin, Barakhiel H. Nugroho. Long-term decline of the western Pacific leatherback,Dermochelys coriacea: a globally important sea turtle population. Ecosphere, 2013; 4 (2): art25 DOI: 10.1890/ES12-00348.1
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, left, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, left, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Lamar McKay, former president of BP America and current chief executive of BP's Upstream unit, leaves Federal Court after testifying in New Orleans, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at the federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? A ranking BP executive testified Tuesday that the London-based oil giant and its contractors share the responsibility for preventing blowouts like the one that killed 11 workers and spawned the nation's worst offshore oil spill in 2010.
Lamar McKay, who was president of BP America at the time of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, became the first BP executive to testify at a federal trial intended to identify the causes of BP's Macondo well blowout and assign percentages of blame to the companies involved.
Rig owner Transocean and cement contractor Halliburton also are defendants at trial, which opened Monday.
A plaintiffs' attorney pressed McKay to agree with him that BP bore ultimate responsibility for the blowout, but McKay insisted that managing the hazards of deepwater drilling are a "team effort."
"I think that's a shared responsibility, to manage the safety and the risk," said McKay, now chief executive of BP's Upstream unit. "Sometimes contractors manage that risk. Sometimes we do. Most of the time it's a team effort."
McKay also defended BP's internal probe of the spill, which outlined a series of mistakes by rig workers and faulted decisions by other companies but didn't assign any blame to BP's upper-level management.
"I think it was a substantial investigation," McKay said. "I think we've learned what we can from the accident and we're trying to put those things into practice right now."
McKay, whose testimony will resume Wednesday, called the disaster a "tragic accident" resulting from a "risk that was identified."
It wasn't the first time McKay testified under oath about the spill. He appeared before Congress less than a month after the explosion.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is hearing the case without a jury. Barring a settlement, Barbier will decide how much more money BP and other companies owe for their roles in the disaster.
McKay's testimony followed that of an expert witness for people and businesses suing the company. University of California-Berkeley engineering professor Robert Bea testified that BP PLC didn't implement a 2-year-old safety management program on the rig, which exploded on April 20, 2010.
"It's a classic failure of management and leadership in BP," said Bea, a former BP consultant who also investigated the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill and New Orleans levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
BP has said its "Operating Management System" was designed to drive a rigorous and systematic approach to safety and risk management. During cross-examination by a BP lawyer, Bea said the company made "significant efforts" to improve safety management as early as 2003.
However, the plaintiffs say BP only implemented its new safety plan at just one of the seven rigs the company owned or leased in the Gulf at the time of the disaster.
Bea said it was "tragic" and "egregious" that BP didn't apply its own safety program to the Deepwater Horizon before the Macondo well blowout. Transocean owned the rig; BP leased it.
BP lawyer Mike Brock said the company allows contractors like Transocean to take the primary responsibility for the safety of rig operations as long as the contractor's safety system is compatible with BP's ? an arrangement that Brock suggested is a standard industry practice.
In his May 2010 congressional testimony, McKay said BP's Operating Management System is "as good as anyone."
"I know of nothing that points me in a direction that we have deficiencies" in the system, McKay said.
As he questioned Bea, Brock recited a long list of steps that BP took to improve safety, citing them as evidence that the company wasn't "cutting corners" on safety.
A plaintiffs' lawyer showed Bea a transcript of a deposition of Tony Hayward, BP's CEO at the time of the disaster. Hayward was asked if the blowout could have been averted if BP had implemented the safety management program in the Gulf.
"There is possible potential," Hayward responded. "Undoubtedly."
Bea said BP's "culture of every dollar counts" was reflected in a May 2009 email sent by BP well team leader John Guide: "The DW Horizon embraced every dollar matters since I arrived 18 months ago," Guide wrote. "We have saved BP millions and no one had to tell us."
"Financially, BP had the resources to effectively put into place a process safety system that could have prevented the Macondo disaster," Bea testified.
BP has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other criminal charges and has racked up more than $24 billion in spill-related expenses, including cleanup costs, compensation for businesses and individuals, and $4 billion in criminal penalties.
Plaintiffs' attorney Robert Cunningham read portions of the plea agreement as he pressed McKay to say how much responsibility BP takes for the catastrophe. Cunningham noted that nothing in the document assigns blame to specific BP executives.
"That is not written in there. That's true," McKay said.
Two BP rig supervisors, however, have been indicted on manslaughter charges for the workers' deaths and are awaiting a separate trial.
"There were some misinterpretations and mistakes made" on the rig, McKay said.
One of the biggest questions facing Barbier is whether BP acted with gross negligence.
Under the Clean Water Act, a polluter can be forced to pay a minimum of $1,100 per barrel of spilled oil; the fines nearly quadruple to about $4,300 a barrel for companies found grossly negligent, meaning BP could be on the hook for nearly $18 billion.
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From U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, one of about 75 leading Republicans now supporting marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples:
?I have joined many other Republicans in signing a legal brief demonstrating that the right to marry should be constitutionally supported for all Americans. It isn?t correct to unfairly restrict the rights of equality and justice upon which our great nation was founded. We?re calling on the Supreme Court to correct this injustice and to bestow constitutional freedoms for all. We have taken a historic stride toward equality with the repeal of ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell?. I have also supported other pro-equality legislation such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Student Non-Discrimination Act, and the Every Child Deserves a Family Act. It should not be constitutional that we continue to deny to LGBT Americans rights enjoyed by others. We must act now to ensure the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are applied to all Americans.?
Leading historian Michael Walsh discusses the impact of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, his legacy and whether there's a chance that the next pontiff will be a non-European.
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
A lame-duck pope. A secret dossier. Rumors of a gay cabal. A cardinal accused of "inappropriate" behavior.
The Vatican is in an uproar, and church scholars say there hasn't been this much drama surrounding a conclave since 1800, when Pope Pius VI died while being held prisoner by Napoleon.
One Vatican watcher says you have to go back to 1730 ? when Pope Benedict XIII's right-hand man fled Rome in disguise amid allegations of corruption ? to find a conclave buffeted by this much scandal.
"This is not a healthy situation for any kind of institution," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, an expert on the Catholic Church at Georgetown University.
"It looks like amateur hour."
The conclave that will begin next month to choose Pope Benedict XVI's successor was always going to be an anomaly since it's been centuries since a sitting pontiff resigned.
The pope's historic Feb. 11 announcement has been overshadowed, however, by an extraordinary wave of revelations and accusations.
There were calls for cardinals accused of mishandling the sex-abuse crisis to abstain from voting. Then came a report that Britain's top cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien had been accused of bad behavior by priests, followed by his resignation on Monday.
Over the weekend, the Vatican had to deny an Italian newspaper report that Pope Benedict abdicated because an internal probe into the so-called Vatileaks mess had uncovered a network of gay priests who were being blackmailed.
Now comes the news that the pope will only let two people see the report on the document leaks ? himself and his successor ? despite calls for the Holy See to become more transparent.
Certainly, there have been other modern conclave controversies.?
The 1903 frontrunner, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla, was vetoed by the emperor of Austria-Hungary, prompting a change in rules that allowed Catholic powers to knock down a candidate, said NBC News' Vatican expert, George Weigel.
Hulton Archive via Getty Images, file
Experts say there hasn't been this much pre-conclave uproar since a pope spirited out of Rome by Napoleon's forces died.
The conclave of 1914 had cardinals from Germany and France refusing to speak to each other, and the conclave of 1939 was held against the backdrop of a world hurtling toward war.
But today's level of pre-conclave tension hasn't been seen since 1800, two years after French forces invaded Rome and carried off the pope, several experts said.
"You had a dire situation where Pope Pius VI died effectively still a prisoner of the French. The cardinals could not gather in Rome for the election and had to meet on an island off Venice," said Matthew Bunson, general editor of the Catholic Almanac.
James Weiss, a professor of church history at Boston College, sees the conclave of 1730 more analogous, because it was complicated by internal problems, not outside forces.
He said that when Pope Benedict XIII died after six years, his corrupt and powerful aide, Cardinal Niccolo Coscia, was run out of town amid allegations he looted Vatican coffers.
"The population of Rome attacked his palace and he disguised himself a washerwoman and escaped," Weiss said. Coscia managed to negotiate a return for the conclave, however.
The commotion around the upcoming conclave could have serious consequences.
The Vatileaks intrigue would appear to undermine the cardinals of the Roman Curia, the administrators of the Vatican, while the sex-scandal bombshells weaken the outsiders from dioceses around the world, Reese said.
The various crises underscore some of the Vatican's weaknesses: a lack of transparency and an allergy to change in a rapidly modernizing world with a 24-hour news cycle and exploding social media.
"This is chickens coming home to roost," Weiss said.
Church historians say the clouds hovering over the conclave show why the next pope, unlike Benedict and John Paul II before him, must make Vatican house-cleaning a priority ? from streamlining a web-like bureaucracy to standardizing archaic finances.
"It's always an issue when you have an institution that thinks in terms of centuries, to bring about reforms on a turn of a dime." Bunson said,
Bunson said he thinks those reforms are within reach with the right leader, but Weiss wondered if efforts to usher in a new era aren't already being undercut by the Vatican's announcement that the Vatileaks dossier will stay under wraps.
"That means the cardinals are going into the conclave blind, not knowing who among them may have stuffed their pockets or been part of gay sexual enclaves,"?he said.?
Reese said moving up the date of the conclave ? which the pope announced Monday he would allow ? could also be antithetical to change because it gives the cardinals less time to consider outsider candidates.
"This is the most important thing these cardinals will ever do," he said. "There?s no reason to rush."
NBC News' Erin McClam contributed to this report.
?
As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to step down from his position in a matter of days, Italian newspapers are reporting rumors of blackmail and conspiracy. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
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Related:
Pope says Vatileaks probe will stay secret
Britain's top Catholic cleric resigns amid allegations of inappropriate behavior
Vancouver - Promoter Jason ?J? Joly founder of Cinecoup and CEO of Vancouver-based company Overinteractive Media makes a deal with Cineplex to screen a feature film in all Cineplex theatres across Canada in the fall of 2013. "Not only that, he?s swung a deal with Cineplex, Canada?s largest chain of cinemas, to show their feature film on any of its 1,437 screens across the country next fall. But the hard sell isn?t an easy sell, as the fast-talking entrepreneur learned in a swing through Montreal on a national tour to launch the CineCoup project."- Montreal Gazette So how will Cinecoup choose the feature film? The CineCoup Film Accelerator is, as Linda McIntyre of PerArdua Productions describes as, the "Canadian Idol for Indie Filmmakers". The basic concept of an accelerator is that a group of serial entrepreneurs, angel investors, and VCs select a group of strong startups to participate in a short, intense period of support, feedback, and mentoring, all designed to help them prove out their business model and get to market. The top entrepreneurs that emerge are capitalized in exchange for equity in the business. What normally would take an entrepreneur one to two years in terms of building their business, the accelerator model accomplishes in under four months. This accelerator concept we realized could be applied to film and was in-part the genesis for CineCoup particularly in identifying true film entrepreneurs. This model is not for everyone, as it is tough-love in nature and is designed to nurture and support the most well rounded filmmakers from a both a creative and entrepreneurial perspective. - Cinecoup So what does this mean for McIntyre and her Cinecoup feature film submission Angel of Death? "Sleepless nights trying to make the February 24 deadline to film, edit and submit the required two minute trailer and all the other things needed to complete the application. Win or lose, Cinecoup's Pitch Boot Camp experience is what I will be taking away from this and applying to my future projects." - Linda McIntyre If Angel of Death is accepted, this could mean more sleepless nights for McIntyre as the competition to increase the social networks' awareness of the project goes into hyper mode. By the April deadline, accepted films must accomplish weekly Cinecoup assignments or marketing missions. These missions are designed to help create the fanbase necessary for the film project to succeed after production. Missions will include creating weekly promotional videos to also help the project gain attention from media and other networks. These tasks are not for the weak of heart. Cinecoup projects must have a minimum of three participants in the team in order to share the workload. While audience support is a key element to success, CineCoup is not a popularity contest. Our performance analytics are designed to reward qualitative engagement over quantitative values by measuring factors such as sentiment, trends, reach and retention achieved across the social web. - Cinecoup If the project manages to get into the Top 50 phase, the completed script must then be finalized for the currently announced April 21th, 2013 deadline. The projects will then be further reduced to the Top 15 which will start the fund raising phase. The Top 5 winners will then be reviewed by a Jury who will vote on the final winner of the $1 million dollar Cinecoup contract. The jury will consider all of the following in their evaluation and decision-making -Strength of the team presentation and interview at the jury. -Overall performance during the Social Selection Funnel and Finalist Slate including filmmaking missions, marketing missions and social voting results. -First draft of project script (submitted to CineCoup during the Top 50 phase) and it?s viability to be produced within CineCoup?s production budget and scheduling constraints. -Marketing pitch (submitted to CineCoup during the Top 50 phase) based on it?s originality, innovation and viability to execute within budget and production schedule. -Crowdfunding campaigns as a measure of the quality of audience engagement, not total value - Cinecoup Submissions for the Cinecoup Film Accelerator end tonight at midnight Eastern time. For more information on Cinecoup go to the Cinecoup Official Website. To find out more Linda McIntyre's project Angel of Death, go to: Angel of Death, Facebook fan page Angel of Death Twitter page
Feb. 24, 2013 ? Psychogenic diseases, formerly known as 'hysterical' illnesses, can have many severe symptoms such as painful cramps or paralysis but without any physical explanation. However, new research from the University of Cambridge and UCL (University College London) suggests that individuals with psychogenic disease, that is to say physical illness that stems from emotional or mental stresses, do have brains that function differently. The research was published February 25, in the journal Brain.
Psychogenic diseases may look very similar to illnesses caused by damage to nerves, the brain or the muscles, or similar to genetic diseases of the nervous system. However, unlike organic diseases, psychogenic diseases do not have any apparent physical cause, making them difficult to diagnose and even more difficult to treat.
"The processes leading to these disorders are poorly understood, complex and highly variable. As a result, treatments are also complex, often lengthy and in many cases there is poor recovery. In order to improve treatment of these disorders, it is important to first understand the underlying mechanism," said Dr James Rowe from the University of Cambridge.
The study looked at people with either psychogenic or organic dystonia, as well as healthy people with no dystonia. Both types of dystonia caused painful and disabling muscle contractions affecting the leg. The organic patient group had a gene mutation (the DYT1 gene) that caused their dystonia. The psychogenic patients had the symptoms of dystonia but did not have any physical explanation for the disease, even after extensive investigations.
The scientists performed PET brain scans on the volunteers at UCL, to measure the blood flow and brain activity of both of the groups, and healthy volunteers. The participants were scanned with three different foot positions: resting, moving their foot, and holding their leg in a dystonic position. The electrical activity of the leg muscles was measured at the same time to determine which muscles were engaged during the scans.
The researchers found that the brain function of individuals with the psychogenic illness was not normal. The changes were, however, very different from the brains of individuals with the organic (genetic) disease.
Dr Anette Schrag, from UCL, said: "Finding abnormalities of brain function that are very different from those in the organic form of dystonia opens up a way for researchers to learn how psychological factors can, by changing brain function, lead to physical problems."
Dr Rowe added: "What struck me was just how very different the abnormal brain function was in patients with the genetic and the psychogenic dystonia. Even more striking was that the differences were there all the time, whether the patients were resting or trying to move."
Additionally, the researchers found that one part of the brain previously thought to indicate psychogenic disease is unreliable: abnormal activity of the prefrontal cortex was thought to be the hallmark of psychogenic diseases. In this study, the scientists showed that this abnormality is not unique to psychogenic disease, since activity was also present in the patients with the genetic cause of dystonia when they tried to move their foot.
Dr Arpan Mehta, from the University of Cambridge, said: "It is interesting that, despite the differences, both types of patient had one thing in common -- a problem at the front of the brain. This area controls attention to our movements and although the abnormality is not unique to psychogenic dystonia, it is part of the problem."
This type of illness is very common. Dr Schrag said: "One in six patients that see a neurologist has a psychogenic illness. They are as ill as someone with organic disease, but with a different cause and different treatment needs. Understanding these disorders, diagnosing them early and finding the right treatment are all clearly very important. We are hopeful that these results might help doctors and patients understand the mechanism leading to this disorder, and guide better treatments."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cambridge. The original story is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Man, oh man, ASUS certainly didn't disappoint with the verbally confusing back to back launch of the new PadFone Infinity and FonePad, but the real star of this morning's Mobile World Congress was sheer insanity, outdoing even that bizarre Columbus video from last week. What happens when you let the Magicians Guild run your show? A smattering of confused applause from an audience wondering if they hadn't partied a little too hard while out on the town in Barcelona the night before. The video's after the break. Come for the gadgets and stay for the mind-boggling strangeness of it all.
Feb. 25, 2013 ? Environmental exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a widespread chemical found in plastics and resins, may suppress a gene vital to nerve cell function and to the development of the central nervous system, according to a study led by researchers at Duke Medicine.
The researchers published their findings -- which were observed in cortical neurons of mice, rats and humans -- in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Feb. 25, 2013.
"Our study found that BPA may impair the development of the central nervous system, and raises the question as to whether exposure could predispose animals and humans to neurodevelopmental disorders," said lead author Wolfgang Liedtke, M.D., PhD, associate professor of medicine/neurology and neurobiology at Duke.
BPA, a molecule that mimics estrogen and interferes with the body's endocrine system, can be found in a wide variety of manufactured products, including thermal printer paper, some plastic water bottles and the lining of metal cans. The chemical can be ingested if it seeps into the contents of food and beverage containers.
Research in animals has raised concerns that exposure to BPA may cause health problems such as behavioral issues, endocrine and reproductive disorders, obesity, cancer and immune system disorders. Some studies suggest that infants and young children may be the most vulnerable to the effects of BPA, which led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of the chemical in baby bottles and cups in July 2012.
While BPA has been shown to affect the developing nervous system, little is understood as to how this occurs. The research team developed a series of experiments in rodent and human nerve cells to learn how BPA induces changes that disrupt gene regulation.
During early development of neurons, high levels of chloride are present in the cells. These levels drop as neurons mature, thanks to a chloride transporter protein called KCC2, which churns chloride ions out of the cells. If the level of chloride within neurons remains elevated, it can damage neural circuits and compromise a developing nerve cell's ability to migrate to its proper position in the brain.
Exposing neurons to minute amounts of BPA alters the chloride levels inside the cells by somehow shutting down the Kcc2 gene, which makes the KCC2 protein, thereby delaying the removal of chloride from neurons.
MECP2, another protein important for normal brain function, was found to be a possible culprit behind this change. When exposed to BPA, MECP2 is more abundant and binds to the Kcc2 gene at a higher rate, which might help to shut it down. This could contribute to problems in the developing brain due to a delay in chloride being removed.
These findings raise the question of whether BPA could contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome, a severe autism spectrum disorder that is only found in girls and is characterized by mutations in the gene that produces MECP2.
While both male and female neurons were affected by BPA in the studies, female neurons were more susceptible to the chemical's toxicity. Further research will dig deeper into the sex-specific effects of BPA exposure and whether certain sex hormone receptors are involved in BPA's effect on KCC2.
"Our findings improve our understanding of how environmental exposure to BPA can affect the regulation of the Kcc2 gene. However, we expect future studies to focus on what targets aside from Kcc2 are affected by BPA," Liedtke said. "This is a chapter in an ongoing story."
In addition to Liedtke, study authors include Michele Yeo and Ken Berglund of the Liedtke Lab in the Division of Neurology at Duke Medicine; Michael Hanna, Maria D. Torres and Jorge Busciglio of the University of California, Irvine; Junjie U. Guo and Yuan Gao of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.; and Jaya Kittur, Joel Abramowitz and Lutz Birnbaumer of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
The research received funding from Duke University, the Klingenstein Fund, the National Institutes of Health (R21NS066307, HD38466 and AG16573), and intramural funds from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University Medical Center.
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Journal Reference:
Michele Yeo, Ken Berglund, Michael Hanna, Junjie U. Guo, Jaya Kittur, Maria D. Torres, Joel Abramowitz, Jorge Busciglio, Yuan Gao, Lutz Birnbaumer, and Wolfgang B. Liedtke. Bisphenol A delays the perinatal chloride shift in cortical neurons by epigenetic effects on the Kcc2 promoter. PNAS, February 25, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1300959110
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
All Critics (234) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (219) | Rotten (15)
What's striking is the absence of triumphalism -- Bigelow doesn't shy away from showing the victims shot down in cold blood in the compound -- and we come away with the overwhelming sense that this has been a grim, dark episode in our history.
Chastain makes Maya as vivid as a bloodshot eye. Her porcelain skin, delicate features and feminine attire belie the steel within.
No doubt Zero Dark Thirty serves a function by airing America's dirty laundry about detainee and torture programs, but in its wake, there's a crying need for a compassionate Coming Home to counter its brutal Deer Hunter.
While "Zero Dark Thirty" may offer political and moral arguing points aplenty, as well as vicarious thrills,as a film it's simply too much of a passable thing.
From the very first scenes of Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow demonstrates why she is such a formidable filmmaker, as adept with human emotion as with visceral, pulse-quickening action.
A timely and important reminder of the agonizing human price of zealotry.
An exhilarating and compelling historical document worthy of praise.
Bigelow's latest proves a rewarding piece of filmmaking, one that, in its best moments at least, is as gripping and as troubling as anything the director's ever made.
Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal shape history -- those breaks, big and small, that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden -- into one of the finest fact-based thrillers since "All the President's Men."
Purely as cinematic exercise, Zero Dark Thirty is an exhilarating piece of work. But, beyond its for-the-times subject matter, the work does not linger whatsoever.
Zero Dark Thirty is interesting as opposed to enjoyable, intriguing as opposed to entertaining, and certainly less memorable than The Hurt Locker.
It's quite remarkable how Bigelow and Boal managed to take 12 years of information (including a conclusion that everyone knows) and packaged it into a coherent, intimate and intense movie.
We know the ending, yet remain mesmerized by familiar details, filmed with a harrowing sense of urgency. It's as close to being in the White House situation room that night, watching a closed-circuit broadcast, as anyone could expect.
The second half of the film IS the film.
Whereas Locker was less about war than what it is to have a death wish, ZDT is less about the suspenseful true-life search for Osama bin Laden than the red tape one woman must wade through to prove that a mean old bastard is living in suburban Pakistan.
Bigelow's great achievement is stripping down the action from the exaggerated theatrics in movies and television shows so the missions feel no less exciting and immediate.
One of the finest movies of the year is a thriller about the tracking and, finally, slaying of Osama bin Laden.
There is no Team America-style, flag-waving bravado behind this story - it is quite the opposite.
Bigelow has created the best film of 2012.
"Zero Dark Thirty" is less a celebration how terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was found and killed than an engrossing examination of why it took a decade to deal with him.
Following on from the great acclaim of The Hurt Locker, Bigalow's shaky cam and tough talking characters once again take us to the dark side of modern warfare.
In the absence of cinematic grandeur and didacticism, we're left as empty and as lost as Chastain's agent as she boards a symbolically empty plane for an uncertain future. Just what are we to think of the so-called War on Terror?
The viewer needs to stay sharp to stay on top of the details of the labyrinthine search, but Bigelow tackles the complex story with the same muscular urgency and incisive intelligence that won her an Oscar for The Hurt Locker.
NEWTON, NC (WBTV)- Jason Phelps has resigned today?as head football coach at Fred T. Foard.
Phelps came to Foard back in 2011 and in 2 seasons compiled a record of 5-15.?
The Tigers finished in last in the Northwestern Conference last season as they went 0-6 in conference play.? The year before, they went 2-4 with one of those wins coming via forfeit from Hickory.
Since 2000,?the Fred T. Foard?program has only had?3 winning seasons (2000, 2006, 2008).?
Phelps is an alum of Watauga High School who currently has an opening at the head coaching position as well in football.
Laser mastery narrows down sources of superconductivityPublic release date: 24-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Justin Eure jeure@bnl.gov 631-344-2347 DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory
MIT and Brookhaven Lab physicists measure fleeting electron waves to uncover the elusive mechanism behind high-temperature superconductivity
UPTON, NY Identifying the mysterious mechanism underlying high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) remains one of the most important and tantalizing puzzles in physics. This remarkable phenomenon allows electric current to pass with perfect efficiency through materials chilled to subzero temperatures, and it may play an essential role in revolutionizing the entire electricity chain, from generation to transmission and grid-scale storage. Pinning down one of the possible explanations for HTSfleeting fluctuations called charge-density waves (CDWs)could help solve the mystery and pave the way for rapid technological advances.
Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have combined two state-of-the-art experimental techniques to study those electron waves with unprecedented precision in two-dimensional, custom-grown materials. The surprising results, published online February 24, 2013, in the journal Nature Materials, reveal that CDWs cannot be the root cause of the unparalleled power conveyance in HTS materials. In fact, CDW formation is an independent and likely competing instability.
"It has been difficult to determine whether or not dynamic or fluctuating CDWs even exist in HTS materials, much less identify their role," said Brookhaven Lab physicist and study coauthor Ivan Bozovic. "Do they compete with the HTS state, or are they perhaps the very essence of the phenomenon? That question has now been answered by targeted experimentation."
Custom-grown Superconductors
Electricity travels imperfectly through traditional metallic conductors, losing energy as heat due to a kind of atomic-scale friction. Impurities in these materials also cause electrons to scatter and stumble, but superconductors can overcome this hurdleassuming the synthesis process is precise.
For this experiment, Bozovic used a custom-built molecular beam epitaxy system at Brookhaven Lab to grow thin films of LaSrCuO, an HTS cuprate (copper-oxide) compound. The metallic cuprates, assembled one atomic layer at a time, are separated by insulating planes of lanthanum and strontium oxides, resulting in what's called a quasi-two-dimensional conductor. When cooled down to a low enough temperatureless than 100 degrees Kelvinstrange electron waves began to ripple through that 2D matrix. At even lower temperatures, these films became superconducting.
Electron Sea
"In quasi-two-dimensional metals, low temperatures frequently bring about interesting collective states called charge-density waves," Bozovic said. "They resemble waves rolling across the surface of a lake under a breeze, except that instead of water, here we actually have a sea of mobile electrons."
Once a CDW forms, the electron density loses uniformity as the ripples rise and fall. These waves can be described by familiar parameters: amplitude (height of the waves), wavelength (distance between waves), and phase (the wave's position on the material). Detecting CDWs typically requires high-intensity x-rays, such as those provided by synchrotron light sources like Brookhaven's NSLS and, soon, NSLS-II. And even then, the technique only works if the waves are essentially frozen upon formation. However, if CDWs actually fluctuate rapidly, they may escape detection by x-ray diffraction, which typically requires a long exposure time that blurs fast motion.
Measuring Rolling Waves
To catch CDWs in action, a research group at MIT led by physicist Nuh Gedik used an advanced ultrafast spectroscopy technique. Intense laser pulses called "pumps" cause excitations in the superconducting films, which are then probed by measuring the film reflectance with a second light pulsethis is called a pump-probe process. The second pulse is delayed by precise time intervals, and the series of measurements allow the lifetime of the excitation to be determined.
In a more sophisticated variant of the technique, largely pioneered by Gedik, the standard single pump beam is replaced by two beams hitting the surface from different sides simultaneously. This generates a standing wave of controlled wavelength in the film, but it disappears rapidly as the electrons relax back into their original state.
This technique was applied to the atomically perfect LaSrCuO films synthesized at Brookhaven Lab. In films with a critical temperature of 26 degrees Kelvin (the threshold beyond which the superconductivity breaks down), the researchers discovered two new short-lived excitationsboth caused by fluctuating CDWs.
Gedik's technique even allowed the researchers to record the lifetime of CDW fluctuationsjust 2 picoseconds (a millionth of a millionth of a second) under the coldest conditions and becoming briefer as the temperatures rose. These waves then vanished entirely at about 100 Kelvin, actually surviving at much higher temperatures than superconductivity.
Ruling out a Suspect
The researchers then hunted for those same signatures in cuprate films with slightly different chemical compositions and a greater density of mobile electrons. The results were both unexpected and significant for the future of HTS research.
"Interestingly, the superconducting sample with the highest critical temperature, about 39 Kelvin, showed no CDW signatures at all," Gedik said.
The consistent emergence of CDWs would have bolstered the conjecture that they play an essential role in high-temperature superconductivity. Instead, the new technique's successful detection of such electron waves in one sample but not in another (with even higher critical temperature) indicates that another mechanism must be driving the emergence of HTS.
"Results like this bring us closer to understanding the mystery of HTS, considered by many to be one of the greatest problems in physics today," Bozovic said. "The source of this extraordinary phenomenon is slowly but surely running out of places to hide."
###
Additional collaborators on this research include Darrius Torchinsky and Fahad Mahmood of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Bollinger of Brookhaven National Lab.
The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and DOE's Office of Science.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers.
Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.
Visit Brookhaven Lab's electronic newsroom for links, news archives, graphics, and more or follow Brookhaven Lab on Twitter.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Laser mastery narrows down sources of superconductivityPublic release date: 24-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Justin Eure jeure@bnl.gov 631-344-2347 DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory
MIT and Brookhaven Lab physicists measure fleeting electron waves to uncover the elusive mechanism behind high-temperature superconductivity
UPTON, NY Identifying the mysterious mechanism underlying high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) remains one of the most important and tantalizing puzzles in physics. This remarkable phenomenon allows electric current to pass with perfect efficiency through materials chilled to subzero temperatures, and it may play an essential role in revolutionizing the entire electricity chain, from generation to transmission and grid-scale storage. Pinning down one of the possible explanations for HTSfleeting fluctuations called charge-density waves (CDWs)could help solve the mystery and pave the way for rapid technological advances.
Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have combined two state-of-the-art experimental techniques to study those electron waves with unprecedented precision in two-dimensional, custom-grown materials. The surprising results, published online February 24, 2013, in the journal Nature Materials, reveal that CDWs cannot be the root cause of the unparalleled power conveyance in HTS materials. In fact, CDW formation is an independent and likely competing instability.
"It has been difficult to determine whether or not dynamic or fluctuating CDWs even exist in HTS materials, much less identify their role," said Brookhaven Lab physicist and study coauthor Ivan Bozovic. "Do they compete with the HTS state, or are they perhaps the very essence of the phenomenon? That question has now been answered by targeted experimentation."
Custom-grown Superconductors
Electricity travels imperfectly through traditional metallic conductors, losing energy as heat due to a kind of atomic-scale friction. Impurities in these materials also cause electrons to scatter and stumble, but superconductors can overcome this hurdleassuming the synthesis process is precise.
For this experiment, Bozovic used a custom-built molecular beam epitaxy system at Brookhaven Lab to grow thin films of LaSrCuO, an HTS cuprate (copper-oxide) compound. The metallic cuprates, assembled one atomic layer at a time, are separated by insulating planes of lanthanum and strontium oxides, resulting in what's called a quasi-two-dimensional conductor. When cooled down to a low enough temperatureless than 100 degrees Kelvinstrange electron waves began to ripple through that 2D matrix. At even lower temperatures, these films became superconducting.
Electron Sea
"In quasi-two-dimensional metals, low temperatures frequently bring about interesting collective states called charge-density waves," Bozovic said. "They resemble waves rolling across the surface of a lake under a breeze, except that instead of water, here we actually have a sea of mobile electrons."
Once a CDW forms, the electron density loses uniformity as the ripples rise and fall. These waves can be described by familiar parameters: amplitude (height of the waves), wavelength (distance between waves), and phase (the wave's position on the material). Detecting CDWs typically requires high-intensity x-rays, such as those provided by synchrotron light sources like Brookhaven's NSLS and, soon, NSLS-II. And even then, the technique only works if the waves are essentially frozen upon formation. However, if CDWs actually fluctuate rapidly, they may escape detection by x-ray diffraction, which typically requires a long exposure time that blurs fast motion.
Measuring Rolling Waves
To catch CDWs in action, a research group at MIT led by physicist Nuh Gedik used an advanced ultrafast spectroscopy technique. Intense laser pulses called "pumps" cause excitations in the superconducting films, which are then probed by measuring the film reflectance with a second light pulsethis is called a pump-probe process. The second pulse is delayed by precise time intervals, and the series of measurements allow the lifetime of the excitation to be determined.
In a more sophisticated variant of the technique, largely pioneered by Gedik, the standard single pump beam is replaced by two beams hitting the surface from different sides simultaneously. This generates a standing wave of controlled wavelength in the film, but it disappears rapidly as the electrons relax back into their original state.
This technique was applied to the atomically perfect LaSrCuO films synthesized at Brookhaven Lab. In films with a critical temperature of 26 degrees Kelvin (the threshold beyond which the superconductivity breaks down), the researchers discovered two new short-lived excitationsboth caused by fluctuating CDWs.
Gedik's technique even allowed the researchers to record the lifetime of CDW fluctuationsjust 2 picoseconds (a millionth of a millionth of a second) under the coldest conditions and becoming briefer as the temperatures rose. These waves then vanished entirely at about 100 Kelvin, actually surviving at much higher temperatures than superconductivity.
Ruling out a Suspect
The researchers then hunted for those same signatures in cuprate films with slightly different chemical compositions and a greater density of mobile electrons. The results were both unexpected and significant for the future of HTS research.
"Interestingly, the superconducting sample with the highest critical temperature, about 39 Kelvin, showed no CDW signatures at all," Gedik said.
The consistent emergence of CDWs would have bolstered the conjecture that they play an essential role in high-temperature superconductivity. Instead, the new technique's successful detection of such electron waves in one sample but not in another (with even higher critical temperature) indicates that another mechanism must be driving the emergence of HTS.
"Results like this bring us closer to understanding the mystery of HTS, considered by many to be one of the greatest problems in physics today," Bozovic said. "The source of this extraordinary phenomenon is slowly but surely running out of places to hide."
###
Additional collaborators on this research include Darrius Torchinsky and Fahad Mahmood of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Anthony Bollinger of Brookhaven National Lab.
The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and DOE's Office of Science.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers.
Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.
Visit Brookhaven Lab's electronic newsroom for links, news archives, graphics, and more or follow Brookhaven Lab on Twitter.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The U.S. military's first black pilots were honored today at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, and a three-mile stretch of Interstate 15 near the base was renamed as the "Tuskegee Airmen Highway.''
Renaming the highway from Miramar to Mercy roads honors the men "who faithfully served America while fighting the enemy in World War II and segregation at home,'' according to a MCAS Miramar statement.
Seven San Diego-area Tuskegee Airmen -- Alfonso Harris, George T. Mitchell, Nelson Robinson, Buford Johnson, Louis Hill, Ted Lumpkin and Claude Rowe -- attended the highway sign unveiling, officials said.
"We were not just fighting for our country, we were fighting for our dreams and we were willing to give our lives for it. Our country has come a long way, and we are honored and grateful to receive this recognition,'' Rowe said following the passage of legislation by Sen. Joel Anderson, R-San Diego, that made the highway dedication possible.
Funding for new signage was raised by the Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Tuskegee Airmen Chapter in San Diego, which successfully lobbied the Legislature to approve the freeway renaming.
Sixty-six Tuskegee Airmen were killed in combat and another 33 were shot down and held as prisoners of war. Fourteen of them received the Bronze Star. In 2007, the Tuskegee Airmen were collectively awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
"The Tuskegee Airmen not only helped defeat fascism overseas, but just as importantly, they broke down the barriers of racism and segregation here in America, which led to the complete racial integration of the military,'' Anderson said. His resolution also recognized the nonprofit Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. which aims to introduce youths to aviation.
In addition to unveiling new signage, three T- 34 aircraft and a World War II-era P-51 Mustang, the type the Tuskegee Airmen flew in combat, conducted a flyover.
Prior to the highway dedication, the Tuskegee Airmen were honored during an 8 a.m. morning colors ceremony. Robinson, a retired Air Force master sergeant, was in attendance, according to 3rd MAW public affairs.
Robinson was one of nearly 1,000 black aviators trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Ala., from 1941 to 1946. About 450 of them fought in World War II, flying 1,578 missions and destroying 261 enemy aircraft.
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Public release date: 24-Feb-2013
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