On Monday, December 29, the opera will air at 9 pm on Channel 13 -WNET as part of the Great Performances series.

Act Two of Doctor Atomic careens toward apprehension and anguish while a storm rages and delays the test. It opens with Kitty Oppenheimer drinking wine while her Pueblo Indian maid sings a lullaby about preserving the earth. The bomb lurks above, behind are mountains draped in cloth. Blossoms and lightning, sings the maid in her contralto, blossoms and lightning.

Meanwhile, the scientists are terribly jittery. (more…)

A week from today, the opera Dr. Atomic will air on Channel 13 - WNET as part of the Great Performances series. I saw the opera during an HD broadcast in a theatre and reviewed the first Act posted on November 25.

Here are my thoughts on the mini-doc we saw during Intermission:

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Virgin Galactic is on-track and doing very well; the WhiteKnightTwo is still slated to complete a test flight before Christmas. So why is George Whitesides, the Senior Advisor, taking a temp position? (more…)

This last week the Supreme Court has been hearing the case of Entergy v. Riverkeeper, which in layman’s terms boils down to Power Plants v. Fish, or, as always, The Bush Administration v. Environmentalists. (more…)

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is a new technology striding towards drastically improving the lives of people living with a disability that hinders independent communication. Strokes and neurological diseases like Lou Gehrigs and Cerebral Palsy can result in what is called ‘locked in syndrome’, where the mind is intact but the body is significantly paralyzed. BCI technology, which refers to a device that picks up braings signals and transmits that information to a computer, can serve as the key for those locked in.

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Wall Street is in more than a slump–dare I say, it seems impotent. The question is, can the space industry fly while the market is crashing? The answer is…well, it’s debatable. (more…)

Talia: Please tell me about yourself… for example, what sparked your interest in engineering, and how did you become the Vice Dean of the Engineering School at Sergio Arboleda University in Bogotá, Colombia? (more…)

Este texto lo escribí un día mientras le estaba dando biberón a mi pequeñita hija Jania, entonces de 8 meses y me sorprendió el destello que en sus ojos provocó una luz, producto del reflejo de una chispa en el transformador de la calle. Su pupila y su iris se extendían y se contraían al unísono durante dos o tres segundos. Ese hecho, tan síncrono y homegeneo me recordó lo que acaba yo de leer sobre el Premio Nobel de Fisica del 2001.

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So, recently a friend of mine, one who’s knowledge of computers and is very reasonable, caught the “Power Antivirus 2009″ trojan. For any who are unaware, the “Antivirus” series is pure, unadulterated evil. This includes, but is not limited to, Antivirus XP, 2008, 2009, Pro, and just about any program with the word “Antivirus” with an attached meaningless word: something like “Power” or “Pro,” but not Norton. Just never download any antivirus program from an advertisement. (more…)

By Susan Reslewic

Michael Oliveri takes pictures of landscapes. But instead of brooks and streams, rolling hills and deep canyons, or prairies and thickets, his subjects are nanostructures grown from the vapors of metal and metal oxide powders heated in a low pressure environment. And his camera is a Scanning Electron Microscope. (more…)