Infants Can Organise Visual Information At Just Four Months

Infants Can Organise Visual Information At Just Four Months: "Research investigating attention in infancy has revealed that, at just four months old, babies are able to organise visual information in at least three different ways, according to brightness, shape, and how close the visual elements are together (proximity). These new findings mean that very young infants are much more capable of organising their visual world than psychologists had previously thought. The study also has implications for understanding certain developmental disorders such as Williams syndrome."

Chapter 1

As a child, it always surprised me that my grandmother slept with her blinds open. Even when slats broke, she never bothered to fix them. It was as though she had put them up, and then totally ignored their existence. Once I set foot in Birkenau, I understood a little bit better.

Inside a barrack at Birkenau, I was stunned by the darkness. In the broadest daylight, it was pitch black.

Blogging a Novel

Starting today, The Morphine Rules will be used to write my novel of the same name. Stay tuned....

The Kilogram

We don't think about it all that much, but all of the metric units we use are defined by something. Most are based on math, or physical constants such as the speed of light. Only the mighty kilogram is still based on an acutal physical object. The problem is even very unreactive metals such as platinum and irridium can be oxidized over time. So the actual value of a kilogram changes slightly as the years go by. The NIST has proposed an alternative:

A leading experimental method for defining the kilogram in terms of properties of nature is now more accurate than ever, scientists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reported today. The advance may move the scientific community closer to redefining the kilogram, the only one of the seven basic units of the international measurement system still defined by a physical artifact.
The latest NIST work, described in the October 2005 issue of Metrologia and published online today,* confirms the institute's 1998 results using the same method while reducing the measurement uncertainty by about 40 percent, thanks mainly to improvements in the hardware used in the experiments.
"The fact that we got the same values gives us confidence that the uncertainties we're quoting are probably reasonable," says NIST physicist Richard Steiner, lead author of the paper.
Scientists at NIST and other institutions around the world have spent years conducting experiments to find a reliable definition based in nature to replace the current international standard for the kilogram, a century-old cylinder of platinum-iridium alloy about the size of a plum. The new results mean that the NIST method, using an apparatus called the watt balance or electronic kilogram, is almost accurate enough now to meet the criteria for redefinition.
Any decision about when and how to redefine the kilogram would be made by an international group, the International Committee for Weights and Measures, CIPM, and ratified by a General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), which next meets in 2007. The CGPM likely will delay a redefinition until other groups confirm the new NIST results.
The primary kilogram standard is currently maintained at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) near Paris. Although the cylinder is housed in a special vault under controlled conditions, its mass can drift slightly over time and can change because of contamination, material loss from surface cleaning or other effects. Moreover, the standard is accessible only at BIPM and could be damaged or destroyed. By contrast, a property of nature is by definition always the same and can, in theory, be measured anywhere.
The other six basic units of the international measurement system are the meter (unit of length), second (time), ampere (electric current), Kelvin (temperature), mole (amount of substance) and candela (luminous intensity). All six are defined in terms of properties of nature and can be measured at any suitably equipped laboratory.
The NIST watt balance is a two-story-high apparatus designed to redefine mass in terms of fundamental physics and quantum standards. It measures the force required to balance a 1-kilogram mass artifact against the pull of Earth's gravity, as well as two electrical values (see graphic). These measurements are used to determine the relationship between mechanical and electrical power, which can be combined with several equations to define the kilogram in terms of basic properties of nature.
One of these properties is the Planck constant, the ratio of the energy of radiation to its frequency. This is one of an extensive set of "fundamental constants" used by scientists to predict a wide range of phenomena. The latest NIST value for the Planck constant reported in the new paper (6.62606901 x 10 -34 Joule seconds) is equivalent to the 1998 NIST result and a 1988 measurement by the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom, which are the two other most accurate values.
The watt balance is one of two leading approaches for redefining the kilogram. The other approach involves counting how many atoms of a specific atomic mass equal the mass of 1 kilogram. The latest NIST measurements, which have an uncertainty of 0.052 parts per million compared to 0.087 parts per million in the 1998 experiments, are far more precise than any previous results by any research group using either approach, according to Steiner. The total uncertainty is calculated by adding up more than 20 sources of error.
The precision of the latest NIST measurements is roughly equivalent to the suspected drift in the current kilogram standard's mass over time, Steiner says. The NIST researchers hope to further reduce the uncertainty of the watt balance measurements to 0.02 parts per million within the next year or so, to reach the level of precision needed for commercial mass measurements in the near future.
The measurements reported in Metrologia are the product of numerous improvements in NIST's watt balance, including reconstruction of most of the hardware to eliminate many sources of error. The coil and balance were enclosed in a fiberglass vacuum chamber, which reduced the need for air corrections. In addition, the coil was stiffened to reduce flexing that caused excess "noise" in the signals being measured. Noise was reduced to one-fifth of the level of the 1998 experiments. Researchers also improved the alignment of instruments, temperature control and the software used for management and analysis of the experiments.

From NIST

Secretly Hoping?

You can sort of feel it. Articles pop up in European newspapers, saying that they deserved it. Everytime something rotten happens to America, people quietly (and not so quietly) talk like it's all their fault. I'm not talking about poorly coordinated disaster relief, or the lack of support because too many National Gaurdsmen are in Iraq. I'm not talking about the government ignoring warnings posed by a number of different groups, and then cutting funding to levee reinforcement projects. Those things might have helped, but they would not have stopped Katrina from coming, or from ripping apart towns and cities.

Does anyone in their right mind believe that this would not have occurred if President Bush had signed Kyoto. Come on. Weather patterns evolve over a very long time, and although it is clear that man-made climate change has had a severe impact on the weather, Mother Nature can be vicious on her own.

Gaza Pullout

It's a confusing day for a liberal, North American Jew like me. The Gaza pullout is essentially over, and it has gone far better than many predicted. The potential for confrontation looms larger in the four West Bank settlements to be evacuated later. I am thrilled that P.M. Sharon has made these moves, and saddened at the site of Jews being forcibly removed from their homes. I also wonder what this action will contribute to the overall progress toward peace. Hamas is spinning the pullout as a victory for violence. Will this incite more? I was also surprised to see that Sharon stayed well away from the scence of the pullout. Some words of conciliation might have lessened the tension. That being said, most Israelis seem to support the pullout, and there have been no mass demonstrations or riots.

Strategically and politically, disengagement from Gaza is easier than from either the Golan or the West Bank. The Golan Heights represent a critical buffer between Israeli citizens and the Syrians. Prior to 1967, the Syrian army would routinely shoot at farmers in the valley below the heights. This is no longer 1967, but Syria is still an enemy state and strong supporter of Hezbollah. Reliquishing the Golan Heights could provide a gateway for more terrorist activity in the north.

The West Bank is a political nightmare for the administration. Those who believe that it is critical that Judea and Samaria be populated by Jews in order to hasten the coming of the Messiah have a great deal of power. More importantly, pulling out of the West Bank means thinking about hoe far to pull back.... and therefore the question of the unity of Jerusalem must be discussed. No Israeli government would dream of even discussing the division of Jerusalem.

For now, we can just keep hoping, and supporting positive moves made by whatever side.

Pregnancy

In a sense, my wife's pregnancy is just begging. Sure, she's five months now, and has been off work for four of those. She was unbelievably sick for the first two weeks until we got her meds worked out. Her belly is just starting to show, and people who don't know she's pregnant are starting to notice. Today is a serious milestone. The ultrasound. Counting the fingers and toes. The other big debate is about knowing the sex of the baby. We have decided not to find out (at least for now). So many people push either way. There are the practical ones who want to know what colour to paint the nursery. There are the romantics who don't want to spoil the surprise. Each camp seems set. Since neither of us really care, we decided to wait.

Pregnancy brings a lot of issues to the forefront. The world feels free to tell you what to do and how to do it.