These 9 Famous Writers Can Teach You More About Love Than Any Hallmark Card Ever Could

 

The commercialized Valentine's Day presents a neatly Photoshopped image of modern romance that sets an impossible standard for even the most loving couple. Hallmark greeting cards sing trite stanzas about soul mates and eternal love. Meanwhile, all of the commercials for chocolate, perfume and creepily gargantuan teddy bears somehow seem to be conspiring to undermine our own awkward fumbling love lives.

However, we contend that these famous writers' musings on romance will make even greatest cynic appreciate the complexities, the sorrows and, ultimately, the incomparable joys of love:

1. Love isn't easy, but it can be transformative.

"Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby: awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess."

― Written by Lemony Snicket in his novel, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid.

2. You have more love to give than you could ever know.

"Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold."

― Written by Zelda Fitzgerald in her novel, Save Me The Waltz. She is shown above with her husband, the acclaimed author F. Scott Fitzgerald.

3. Some passions may be impossible to resist.

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."

― Written by Oscar Wilde in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.

4. Love is the greatest gift and the greatest sacrifice.

"In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave,
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet, it is only love
which sets us free."

― Written by Maya Angelou in her poem, Touched By An Angel.

5. Finding love takes luck.

"I wish I had more friends, but people are such jerks. If you can just get most people to leave you alone, you're doing good. If you can find even one person you really like, you're lucky. And if that person can also stand you, you're really lucky."

― Written by Bill Watterson , author and artist of Calvin & Hobbes.

6. When real love hits, it shouldn't make you feel weak.

"Don't ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn't fall in love, I rose in it.”

― Written by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morison in her novel, Jazz.

7. When you love somebody, their goofiest quirks become their most endearing.

“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.”

― Written by author Agatha Christie in her book, An Autobiography.

8. Love is more meaningful than almost anything else.

"It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you."

― Written by Roald Dahl in his children's book, The Witches.

9. Be grateful for all the love you find, be it platonic or romantic, lifelong or merely temporary. That love is ultimately what gives your life value.

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”

― Written by author Kurt Vonnegut in his novel, The Sirens of Titan.

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Even if your disgust with Valentine's Day has reached its seasonal peak and the mere sight of Sweetheart candies make you nauseated, it's hard to feel quite as cynical after reading these masters of language describe what is truly the most remarkable human emotion.

Quantum internet

 

QUANTUM networks are quietly spreading across the world. With secure quantum connections linking up cities, people can communicate in the knowledge that the laws of physics will prevent eavesdropping. Eventually, there may even be a global quantum internet.

When former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden uncovered the extent of government spying, that underlined the need for more secure communications, says Don Hayford of Battelle, a research organisation in Columbus, Ohio. "Even before Snowden we decided there were things coming up in the future that meant people should start looking at something better."

That something is called quantum key distribution (QKD). The technique transmits photons in particular quantum states to generate a secure cryptographic key, with which you can encrypt data sent over an ordinary, non-quantum connection. QKD is far more secure than standard cryptography, which relies on hard mathematical problems that can theoretically be cracked, given enough computing power. Any attempt to intercept a quantum key, however, will disturb the photon's quantum states, alerting users not to use the key (see "Unbeatable security").

Since December, Battelle has operated a quantum link between its Columbus headquarters and manufacturing offices 62 kilometres away in Dublin, Ohio – the first commercial link of its kind in the US. They are working with ID Quantique in Geneva, Switzerland, which sells QKD technology and helped to keep the results of a 2007 Swiss election secure.

Now, Battelle has announced plans to use an existing fibre-optic network running through Dublin to test a larger quantum network. The long-term aim is to link up with their offices in Washington DC, more than 650 kilometres away.

Researchers in China are also linking up cities. A group led by Shuang Wang of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei has just released details of the first experimental wide-area QKD network, which ran from December 2011 to July 2012 (arxiv.org/abs/1409.1568). The network connected five computers or nodes in Hefei to three more in Wuhu, 150 kilometres away, via another in a third city, Chaohu. "From the coverage area point of view, it is the largest quantum network built to date," says Wang.

A 2000-kilometre link between Beijing and Shanghai is due for completion by 2016. The Chinese government is already using QKD to protect its secrets, including discussions during the 18th National Congress in 2012 as new leaders took over the ruling party.

Building such an extensive QKD network was not without problems, however. Local roadworks severed a fibre in Wuhu three times while Wang's network was active, and a power outage at a Hefei node split the network in half just 10 days into the project. Another Hefei node had to be placed in a makeshift kitchen – the only space with access to the necessary optical fibre link. The large temperature variations in the kitchen weren't necessarily a bad thing, says Wang. "This harsh environment also provided us with a chance to test the robustness of the QKD devices."

Long-range networks come at a cost. The performance of Wang's network declined as the distance between the nodes increased. While two nodes in Hefei were able to conduct secure, real-time voice transmission, Hefei-to-Wuhu links could only send new keys three times a second.

One possible solution involves a device called a quantum repeater. At the moment, extending a quantum link beyond 100 kilometres or so requires a trusted node to sit between the two parties and establish a link with each of them. Each user has a secure quantum connection with this node, but they aren't able to communicate directly because the laws of quantum mechanics prevent the trusted node from copying a state to relay it. A quantum repeater would solve this problem by linking states over long distance using a property called entanglement, but entanglement is fragile and no one has yet built a successful repeater.

Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Junior 1969

 

1958 Cadillac Series 62 Sedan

 

Small, fast, and crowded: Mammal traits amplify tick-borne illness

 

September 18, 2014

Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

In the U.S., some 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease annually. Thousands also suffer from babesiosis and anaplasmosis, tick-borne ailments that can occur alone or as co-infections with Lyme disease. In our struggle to manage the ever-growing list of tick-borne diseases, we need to understand which animals magnify human disease risk. New results suggest when generalist pathogens emerge, small mammals with large populations and a fast pace of life warrant careful monitoring.

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Chipmunks are small-bodied animals with fast lives and dense populations. When ticks feed on them, they are more likely to pick up multiple disease-causing pathogens.

In the U.S., some 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease annually. Thousands also suffer from babesiosis and anaplasmosis, tick-borne ailments that can occur alone or as co-infections with Lyme disease. According to a new paper published in PLOS ONE, when small, fast-living mammals abound, so too does our risk of getting sick.

In eastern and central North America, blacklegged ticks are the primary vectors for Lyme disease, babesiosis, and anaplasmosis. The pathogens that cause these illnesses are widespread in nature; ticks acquire them when they feed on infected animals.

Richard S. Ostfeld, the paper's lead author and a scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, has researched the ecology of Lyme disease since 1992. "A pattern emerged in our long-term studies. Ticks that fed on certain rodents and shrews were much more likely to pick up multiple pathogens, making the environment riskier for people."

To investigate why mammals differ in their 'reservoir competence' or ability to transmit pathogens to ticks, Ostfeld and his co-authors from Bard College, Oregon State University, the University of South Florida, and EcoHealth Alliance took a two-pronged approach.

First, they looked at life history traits for nine mammals known to harbor Lyme disease, babesiosis, and anaplasmosis. Attributes like body size, litter size, and life span were taken into consideration.

Then they looked at the role of mammal population density. As 'sit and wait' parasites, ticks are much more likely to encounter animals with dense populations. This, in turn, could help pathogens evolve to exploit specific hosts, resulting in more effective transmission rates.

For Lyme disease and anaplasmosis, fast life history features were a strong predictor of an animal's ability to transmit infection to ticks. Body size was inversely related to reservoir competence. Raccoon, skunk, opossum, squirrel, and deer infected fewer ticks than their mouse, chipmunk, and shrew counterparts.

Ostfeld notes, "This is consistent with past research on Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and Eastern Equine encephalitis. There is evidence that animals that mature early and have frequent, large litters invest less in some immune defenses, making them better pathogen hosts."

Population density was the best predictor of species' abilities to transmit all three pathogen groups, with animals that ticks encountered most frequently being the most effective at transferring infection. Co-author Felicia Keesing of Bard College explains, "Fast life history and high population density often go hand-in-hand. In rodents and shrews, pathogen adaptation and poor immune defense may be working together to amplify disease spread."

With Ostfeld concluding, "In our struggle to manage the ever-growing list of tick-borne diseases, we need to understand which animals magnify human disease risk. Our results suggest when generalist pathogens emerge, small mammals with large populations and a fast pace of life warrant careful monitoring."

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

No sedative necessary: Scientists discover new 'sleep node' in the brain

 

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Artist's concept (stock illustration). A sleep-promoting circuit located deep in the primitive brainstem has revealed how we fall into deep sleep.

A sleep-promoting circuit located deep in the primitive brainstem has revealed how we fall into deep sleep. Discovered by researchers at Harvard School of Medicine and the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, this is only the second "sleep node" identified in the mammalian brain whose activity appears to be both necessary and sufficient to produce deep sleep.

Published online in August in Nature Neuroscience, the study demonstrates that fully half of all of the brain's sleep-promoting activity originates from the parafacial zone (PZ) in the brainstem. The brainstem is a primordial part of the brain that regulates basic functions necessary for survival, such as breathing, blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature.

"The close association of a sleep center with other regions that are critical for life highlights the evolutionary importance of sleep in the brain," says Caroline E. Bass, assistant professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and a co-author on the paper.

The researchers found that a specific type of neuron in the PZ that makes the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is responsible for deep sleep. They used a set of innovative tools to precisely control these neurons remotely, in essence giving them the ability to turn the neurons on and off at will.

"These new molecular approaches allow unprecedented control over brain function at the cellular level," says Christelle Ancelet, postdoctoral fellow at Harvard School of Medicine. "Before these tools were developed, we often used 'electrical stimulation' to activate a region, but the problem is that doing so stimulates everything the electrode touches and even surrounding areas it didn't. It was a sledgehammer approach, when what we needed was a scalpel."

"To get the precision required for these experiments, we introduced a virus into the PZ that expressed a 'designer' receptor on GABA neurons only but didn't otherwise alter brain function," explains Patrick Fuller, assistant professor at Harvard and senior author on the paper. "When we turned on the GABA neurons in the PZ, the animals quickly fell into a deep sleep without the use of sedatives or sleep aids."

How these neurons interact in the brain with other sleep and wake-promoting brain regions still need to be studied, the researchers say, but eventually these findings may translate into new medications for treating sleep disorders, including insomnia, and the development of better and safer anesthetics.

"We are at a truly transformative point in neuroscience," says Bass, "where the use of designer genes gives us unprecedented ability to control the brain. We can now answer fundamental questions of brain function, which have traditionally been beyond our reach, including the 'why' of sleep, one of the more enduring mysteries in the neurosciences."

The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University at Buffalo. The original article was written by Ellen Goldbaum. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Christelle Anaclet, Loris Ferrari, Elda Arrigoni, Caroline E Bass, Clifford B Saper, Jun Lu, Patrick M Fuller. The GABAergic parafacial zone is a medullary slow wave sleep–promoting center. Nature Neuroscience, 2014; 17 (9): 1217 DOI: 10.1038/nn.3789

A more efficient, lightweight and low-cost organic solar cell: Researchers broke the 'electrode barrier'

 

September 18, 2014

University of Massachusetts at Amherst

For decades, polymer scientists and synthetic chemists working to improve the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells were hampered by the inherent drawbacks of commonly used metal electrodes, including their instability and susceptibility to oxidation. Now for the first time, researchers have developed a more efficient, easily processable and lightweight solar cell that can use virtually any metal for the electrode, effectively breaking the 'electrode barrier.'

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Solar panels (stock image). Scientists have developed a more efficient, easily processable and lightweight solar cell that can use virtually any metal for the electrode, effectively breaking the "electrode barrier."

For decades, polymer scientists and synthetic chemists working to improve the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells were hampered by the inherent drawbacks of commonly used metal electrodes, including their instability and susceptibility to oxidation. Now for the first time, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a more efficient, easily processable and lightweight solar cell that can use virtually any metal for the electrode, effectively breaking the "electrode barrier."

This barrier has been a big problem for a long time, says UMass Amherst's Thomas Russell, professor of polymer science and engineering. "The sun produces 7,000 times more energy per day than we can use, but we can't harness it well. One reason is the trade-off between oxidative stability and the work function of the metal cathode." Work function relates to the level of difficulty electrons face as they transfer from the solar cell's photoactive layer to the electrode delivering power to a device.

Russell likes to use a lock-and-dam analogy to talk about electron transfer. "People have thought you'd need to use tricks to help electrons, the water in the lock, over an obstacle, the electrode, like a dam. Tricks like sawing the dam apart to allow the flow. But tricks are always messy, introducing a lot of stuff you don't need," he says. "The beauty of the solution reached by these synthetic chemists is to just move the dam out of the way, electronically move it so there is no longer a difference in energy level."

Synthetic chemist and polymer science professor Todd Emrick agrees, "That challenge was unmet and that's what this research is all about." He and polymer chemistry doctoral student Zak Page in his lab had been synthesizing new polymers with zwitterions on them, applying them to several different polymer scaffolds in conjugated systems, also known as semiconductors, in the inter-layer of solar cells. Zwitterions are neutral molecules with both a positive and negative charge that also have strong dipoles that interact strongly with metal electrodes, the scientists found.

Emrick asked Page to see if he could synthesize conjugated polymers, semiconductors, with zwitterionic functionality. With time, and by enlisting a system of multiple solvents including water, Page was able to prepare these new "conjugated polymer zwitterions," or CPZs.

Emrick explains, "Once we could make CPZs, we were able to incorporate any conjugated backbone we wanted with zwitterionic functionality. That allowed us to make a library of CPZs and look at their structure-property relationship to understand which would be most important in electronics. In particular, we were interested in electron transport efficiency and how well the CPZ could modify the work function of different metals to help move electons across interfaces towards more powerful devices.

In choosing a metal for use as an electrode, scientists must always negotiate a trade-off, Page says. More stable metals that don't degrade in the presence of water and oxygen have high work function, not allowing good electron transport. But metals with lower work function (easier electron transport) are not stable and over time will degrade, becoming less conductive.

Guided by UMass Amherst's photovoltaic facility director Volodimyr Duzhko in using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), Page began to categorize several metals including copper, silver and gold, to identify exactly what aided electron transport from the photoactive layer to the electrode. He and Emrick found that "if you want to improve the interlayer properties, you have to make the interface layer extremely thin, less than 5 nanometers, which from a manufacturing standpoint is a problem," he says.

To get around this, Page and Emrick began to consider a classic system known for its good electron transport: buckyballs, or fullerenes, often used in the photoactive layer of solar cells. "We modified buckyballs with zwitterions (C60-SB) to change the work function of the electrodes, and we knew how to do that because we had already done it with polymers," Page points out. "We learned how to incorporate zwitterion functionality into a buckyball as efficiently as possible, in three simple steps."

Here the synthetic chemists turned to Russell's postdoctoral researcher Yao Liu, giving him two different fullerene layers to test for electron transfer efficiency: C60-SB and another with amine components, C60-N. From UPS analysis of the zwitterion fullerene precursor, Page suspected that the amine type would enhance power even better than the C60-SB variety. Indeed, Liu found that a thin layer of C60-N between the solar cell's photoactive layer and the electrode worked best, and the layer did not have to be ultra-thin to function effectively, giving this discovery practical advantages.

"That's when we knew we had something special," says Page. Emrick adds, "This is really a sweeping change in our ability to move electrons across dissimilar materials. What Zak did is to make polymers and fullerenes that change the qualities of the metals they contact, that change their electronic properties, which in turn transforms them from inefficient to more efficient devices than had been made before."

Russell adds, "Their solution is elegant, their thinking is elegant and it's really easy and clean. You put this little layer on there, it doesn't matter what you put on top, you can use robust metals that don't oxidize. I think it's going to be very important to a lot of different scientific communities."

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Zachariah A. Page, Yao Liu, Volodimyr V. Duzhko, Thomas P. Russell, and Todd Emrick. Fulleropyrrolidine interlayers: Tailoring electrodes to raise organic solar cell efficiency. Science, 18 September 2014 DOI: 10.1126/science.1255826