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I've gotten a few FReepmails asking for email services recommendations and I don't have the technical background to either warn against or recommend such services. One FReeper said Google is soon going to implement facial recognition or thumbprint ID etc. - is there anything out there still 'reasonably' private and not shifting to biometrics...yet? PS: Yes, I'm logged in. ;D

Caption:When measuring a nucleus with a certain “magic” number of neutrons — 82 — the magnetic field of the nucleus exhibits a drastic change, and the properties of these very complex nuclei appear to be governed by just one of the protons of the nucleus. Credit: Adam Vernon ================================================================================================== A curious thing happened when MIT researchers Adam Vernon and Ronald Garcia Ruiz, along an international team of scientists, recently performed an experiment in which a sensitive laser spectroscopy technique was used to measure how the nuclear electromagnetic properties of indium isotopes evolve when an extreme number of neutrons are added...

LENR Solution of the Cosmological Lithium Problem # V.I.Vysotskii1 , M.V.Vysotskyy1 , Sergio Bartalucci2 1 Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine 2 http://ikkem.com/iccf23/orppt/ICCF23-OA-10%20Vysotskii.pdf INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, 00044 Italy # E-mail: vivysotskii@gmail.com, Volodymyrska Str. 64, Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine The basis of modern cosmology is the Big Bang theory. The validity of this theory is based on three main facts: a) the redshift of spectral lines of distant stars; b) the presence of cosmic microwave background radiation; c) the theory of primary Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) of light H2 , He3 , He4 , Li6 and...

Experimental setup. As a beam of beryllium comes in from the left, the deuteron Trojan horse intercepts it at the target and delivers its neutron soldier. This allows the decay products of the beryllium and neutron reactions to be captured by a curved array of six detectors on the right. Credit: Hayakawa et al. There is a significant discrepancy between theoretical and observed amounts of lithium in our universe. This is known as the cosmological lithium problem, and it has plagued cosmologists for decades. Now, researchers have reduced this discrepancy by around 10%, thanks to a new experiment on...

Proton therapy leads to significantly lower risk of side effects severe enough to lead to unplanned hospitalizations for cancer patients when compared with traditional radiation, while cure rates between the two groups are almost identical. The findings come from an expanded analysis of the largest review of its kind, performed by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, to evaluate whether or not patients undergoing radiation therapy at the same time as chemotherapy experienced serious adverse events within 90 days. Researchers found proton therapy reduces the relative risk of these side effects by two-thirds.

Only in physics can a few quintillionths of a meter be cause for uneasy excitement. A new measurement finds that the proton is about 4 percent smaller than previous experiments suggest. The study, published in the Jan. 25 issue of Science, has physicists cautiously optimistic that the discrepancy between experiments will lead to the discovery of new particles or forces. “Poking at small effects you can’t explain can be a way of unraveling a much bigger piece of physics,” says Carl Carlson, a theoretical physicist at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., who was not involved in...

Using the first new method in half a century for measuring the size of the proton via electron scattering, scientists have produced a new value for the proton's radius in a new experiment...The new value for the proton radius that was obtained is 0.831 fm, which is smaller than the previous electron-scattering value of 0.88 fm...

The Pressure Inside Every Proton is 10x That Inside Neutron Stars Article written: 20 May , 2018 by Matt Williams Neutron stars are famous for combining a very high-density with a very small radius. As the remnants of massive stars that have undergone gravitational collapse, the interior of a neutron star is compressed to the point where they have similar pressure conditions to atomic nuclei. Basically, they become so dense that they experience the same amount of internal pressure as the equivalent of 2.6 to 4.1 quadrillion Suns!In spite of that, neutron stars have nothing on protons, according to a...

European Space Agency Cluster II satellites observe equatorial noise waves inside the Earth's magnetosphere. Credit: ESA/Yuri Shprits ********************************************************************************************************************************************************** Since the early 1970s, orbiting satellites have picked up on noise-like plasma waves very close to the Earth's magnetic field equator. This "equatorial noise," as it was then named, seemed to be an unruly mess of electric and magnetic fields oscillating at different frequencies in the form of plasma waves. Now a team from MIT, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Sheffield, and elsewhere has detected a remarkably orderly pattern amid the noise. In a region of space...

MOSCOW — The first launch of Russia's new space rocket after two decades of development was aborted Friday moments before its blastoff, as President Vladimir Putin was watching via live feed. [....] Last month, the launch of Russia's Proton-M booster also ended in failure, and the same type of rocket also failed at launch last July, leading to the loss of three navigation satellites.

A Russian Proton-M rocket with an advanced satellite on board crashed outside of Kazakhstan's territory on Friday, about nine minutes after lift-off. The Express-AM4R would have been Russia’s most advanced and powerful satellite. There are so far no reports of damage or casualties resulting from the Proton-M's failure to deliver the satellite into orbit. The rocket could have crashed over the Altai Mountains or the Pacific Ocean, a source told RIA Novosti. All other launches of Proton-type rockets will be halted at Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan until the reason for the crash is determined, a source told RIA Novosti.

Proton Problems: Faith in Theories or Reality? by Vernon R. Cupps, Ph.D. * The proton—a positively charged particle found in the nuclei of atoms—continues to present problems for the Standard Model of particle physics. Generally considered a composite particle, it is made up of three subatomic particles known as quarks. Among the zoo of known particles, only the proton, antiproton, electron, positron, neutrinos, and photons appear to be stable. All other particles decay. Even the free neutron (one that is not bound in a nucleus) decays with a 15-minute half-life. The Grand Unified Theory (GUT) of particle physics that seeks...

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DENVER — The size of a proton, long thought to be well-understood, may remain a mystery for a while longer, according to physicists. Speaking today (April 13) at the April meeting of the American Physical Society, researchers said they need more data to understand why new measurements of proton size don't match old ones. "The discrepancy is rather severe," said Randolf Pohl, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics. The question, Pohl and his colleagues said, is whether the explanation is a boring one — someone messed up the measurements — or something that will generate new...

An international team measures the charge radius of the hydrogen nucleus and stumbles across some mysteries of physics Big problems sometimes come in small packages. The problem with which physicists must now concern themselves measures a mere 0.0350 millionth of a millionth of a millimetre. This is precisely the difference between the new, smaller, dimension of the proton, the nucleus of the hydrogen atom, and the value which has been assumed so far. Instead of 0.8768 femtometres it measures only 0.8418 femtometres. At the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, an international team of researchers including physicists from the Max Planck...

Surprise To Physicists -- Protons Aren't Always Shaped Like A Basketball PHILADELPHIA -- When Gerald A. Miller first saw the experimental results from the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, he was pretty sure they couldn't be right. If they were, it meant that some long-held notions about the proton, a primary building block of atoms, were wrong. But in time, the findings proved to be right, and led physicists to the conclusion that protons aren't always spherically shaped, like a basketball. "Some physicists thought they did the experiment wrong," said Miller, a University of Washington physics professor. "Even I thought...

Sophisticated measurements from experiments indicate the radius is 4% smaller than thought. If true, the finding could have major ramifications for the standard model used in modern physics. Physicists might have to rethink what they know about, well, everything. European researchers dropped a potential bombshell on their colleagues around the world Wednesday by reporting that sophisticated new measurements indicate the radius of the proton is 4% smaller than previously believed. In a world where measurements out to a dozen or more decimal places are routine, a 4% difference in this subatomic particle — found in every atom's nucleus — is...

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Russia's space industry is set for a hefty hike in funding. In 2006, its budget will balloon to $690 million and Russia will share fifth or sixth place with India in the global financial league table (after the U.S., the EU, Japan and China). According to Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Federal Space Agency, the new trend will continue into the future. In 2004, Russia launched two spacecraft more than in 2003, for a total of 23 launches, or 42.6% of the worldwide number. The U.S. accounted for 29.6%, China, 14.8%, the EU, 5.6% and India, 1.9%. Even if...

The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed United Launch Alliance ("ULA") joint venture between the US Defence and Space contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The investigation has shown that the proposed transaction will not significantly impede effective competition in the European Union. Both Boeing and Lockheed provide space launch services to governmental and commercial customers. Lockheed is active on the market with its Atlas family of launch vehicles as well as with Proton, a launcher produced in a joint venture with Russian partners. Boeing offers the Delta launch vehicles as well as launchers produced by...