HarryPotterFanfiction.com :: Over 80,000 Harry potter stories and podcasts Entangled toy universe shows time may be an illusion - physics-math - 25 October 2013 Editorial: "Solving the eternal mystery that is time" Time is an illusion – at least in a toy model of the universe made of two particles of light. The experiment shows that what we perceive as the passage of time might emerge from the strange property of quantum entanglement . Physicists have two ways of describing reality, quantum mechanics for the small world of particles and general relativity for the larger world of planets and black holes. "It means that the universe should not evolve. In 1983 theorists Don Page and William Wootters suggested that quantum entanglement might provide a solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt "problem of time" . Photon clock For the first time, Genovese and colleagues have demonstrated this effect in a physical system, albeit in a "universe" that contains only two photons. The entangled photons exist in a superposition of both horizontal and vertical states simultaneously until they are observed. Quantum cosmos? Journal reference: arxiv.org/abs/1310.4691
Harry Potter Christmas Stories Collection by the Author of James Potter and the Curse of the Gatekeeper The Advantages of Being a White Writer Disclaimer: I am writing about YA publishing in the USA. Although I’m Australian I know much more about the publishing industry in the US than I do about Australia. Or anywhere else for that matter. I know that the title of this post is going to lead to some comments insisting that it’s not true that white writers have any advantages and that many white people are just as oppressed as people of colour. Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t, Redux There were some wonderful responses to my post attempting to debunk the “damned if you do/damned if you don’t” canard. I did not mean that at all. I know how tiring it is to hear over and over from editors or agents (who are, in almost all cases, white) that they “just didn’t connect with,” or “just didn’t fall in love with” the characters of a mostly-multicultural book. Mayra Lazara Dole makes a similar point: Many POC feel you are stealing their souls. So, to my white brothers and sisters: certainly, write your story. So does Mayra Lazara Dole:
Heroic characters Disciplines > Storytelling > Characters > Heroic characters The generic hero | Hero sub-types | See also This is a collection of heroic types, by no means complete or definitive, but which illustrate the richness of heroes that may be found in various stories. Heroic subtypes discussed here are: The Generic Hero The generic Hero is the protagonist or main character of most stories, although stories may also have multiple heroes in them (for example Lord of the Rings). The Hero is important in that we identify with him or her more strongly than with other character. A common theme is that the hero demonstrates courage in overcoming external obstacles to their goal. Hero sub-types The Classic Hero The Classic Hero is the person who goes on a quest to achieve some good end that benefits other people in some way. We look up to the Classic Hero but may not fully believe their perfection. The Tragic Hero The Tragic Hero may also fail in their quest, perhaps having bitten off more than they can chew.
Reading a Novel Alters Your Brain Connectivity — So What? - Wired Science So, there’s a new study out (pdf) that’s used brain scanning to investigate how reading a book changes your brain. It tripped my skeptic’s radar right away because our brains are changing all the time, and pretty much anything we do influences those changes. And we already knew the power of reading novels, didn’t we? You follow a story, meet characters, learn things. They used a technique known as “resting state fMRI”, which involves scanning a person’s brain while they lie in the scanner doing nothing. To understand what the researchers say they found, we need to rewind a little to take a look at their technique of choice: resting-state fMRI. The important result, according to the study authors – Gregory Berns and his colleagues – is that the participants’ averaged brain connectivity patterns at rest were altered by the experience of reading Pompeii. Celebration over. Brain function ‘boosted for days after reading a novel’ (The Independent). You get the idea!
Fear of a smell can be passed down several generations - life - 01 December 2013 Editorial: "Mouse memory inheritance may revitalise Lamarckism" If a particular smell makes you uneasy but you don't know why, perhaps you should ask your grandparents. Mice whose father or grandfather learned to associate the smell of cherry blossom with an electric shock became more jumpy in the presence of the same odour, and responded to lower concentrations of it than normal mice. This work, led by Brian Dias at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, provides some of the best evidence yet for the inheritance of memories or traits across generations. Previous studies have hinted that stressful events can affect the emotional behaviour or metabolism of future generations, possibly through chemical changes to the DNA that can turn genes off and on – a mechanism known as epigenetic inheritance. Needle in a haystack However, although epigenetic changes have been observed, identifying which ones are relevant is a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack. Brain change