Pink Noise - Leonid Korogodski [58]
On Earth, dust devils produce radio noise and electrostatic fields of more than 10,000 volts per meter. On Mars, their bases glow.
dysrhythmia
Arises when gamma oscillations in the thalamocortical system are adversely affected by a resonance with lower frequency brainwaves, the so-called edge effect. It is an important part of the neurological basis for many psychological disorders. Discovered by Rodolfo Llinás.
E
electromagnetic pinch
Also known as z-pinch and Bennett pinch, this is the force that compresses plasma into filaments in a magnetic field.
Positively charged particles spiral around the magnetic field lines clockwise, when looking in the magnetic field’s direction, and negatively charged ones spiral counterclockwise. The Lorentz force is directed toward the axis of rotation. In other words, the magnetic field “wants” the particle to make a tighter spiral.
This is what makes lightning so pinched and forky-looking.
electromagnetic pulse,aka EMP
An explosive, high-intensity and short-duration burst of electromagnetic radiation. The rapidly fluctuating magnetic field, if strong enough, can fry unprotected electronic equipment.
See also Faraday cage.
ELF waves
Extremely Low Frequency waves are under 30 Hz in frequency. They are used for communication with submarines because the higher frequencies can’t penetrate sea water. But elf communication is mind-numbingly slow, at the whooping rate of up to 30 bits a second.
exception
Special conditions arising in computing systems. Exceptions can be “caught” and processed to respond to the condition.
F
falcon mast
A kind of mast on magsail ships.
See also magnetic sail.
Faraday cage
An enclosure made of a conducting material, often in the form of a fine mesh, the Faraday cage protects any electronic equipment placed inside it against an external static electric field (or an external variable magnetic field, which amounts to the same thing), because electric charges inside the conducting material of the cage are automatically redistributed over the surface in response to the external field, neutralizing it inside the cage.
The thicker the walls of the cage and the smaller the openings in its lattice, the more powerful must the pulse be to break through.
See also electromagnetic pulse.
ferrofluid
A liquid of nanoparticles suspended in a carrier fluid such that its properties are affected by magnetic field. Ferrofluids that solidify in the presence of magnetic field are used in Pink Noise to make lightweight emergency armor.
See also magnetorheological material.
flywheel
Quite simply, a wheel used for energy storage as it keeps spinning, and spinning, and—you guessed it—spinning. The faster it spins, the more energy it stores in the form of rotational energy.
See also power needle.
foliation
A mathematical concept. Informally speaking, a foliation is a division of a higher-dimensional body (properly called a “manifold”) into a set of “slices” of a lower dimension. Think of an egg sliced very thin, though the slices don’t have to be flat like planes.
G
gamma oscillations
The historical name for brainwaves in the 30–80 hertz frequency range. The 40–50 hertz waves in the thalamocortical system are closely linked with consciousness.
geno-song
Julia Kristeva (b. 1941) introduced the concepts of geno-text and pheno-text into the then-new discipline of semiology, the study of cultural signs. Roland Barthes (1915–1980) extended them to music.
Pheno-song is all about meaning, not only through words but also through melody, rhythm, and by other means. Geno-song, on the other hand, is the “grain” of the song, the ineffable quality that gives it a character, a personality—“the body in the voice as it sings.” [4]
Gilles de Rais (1404–1440)
Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, Baron of Rais, Count of Brienne, Marshal of France, nicknamed Bluebeard, was a companion of Joan of Arc and the most notorious serial killer and pedophile of the Middle Ages. Executed in 1440 for sodomy, murder, and witchcraft, by hanging (which was rare for a nobleman).
The number of