Category: Sci/Tech

  • A Scientific Breakthrough By an ATAA Member

    A Scientific Breakthrough By an ATAA Member

    Dear Readers,

    Today is truly a “Happy Republic Day!” for all of us, Turks, Turkish-Americans, and Turkic people around the world, indeed…

    I have been involved in a momentous development in California in the last 48 hours and I can hardly contain my excitement.

    A Turkish-American Professor, a long time personal friend of mine, finally made the ground breaking announcement of invention and other fruits of his multi-year research, after securing his patent, of course, in an email to me yesterday. He wanted me to break the news to the world which I shall do, to the best of my ability. I am hoping that each and every one of you, will do the best you can do to make this unique success story known to the world, while taking credit for the half a million members of the Turkish American community. I am in the process of preparing press releases in four languages and other languages will follow.

    Now, a few words about the inventor and his invention…

    HOW MOMENTOUS IS THIS INVENTION?

    As the scientific community knows well, the issue of gravity is far from settled. It may be, though, after Prof Hasan Sehitoglu’s invention.

    Think about THE THEORY OF GRAVITY finally explained completely, removing the heretofore unanswered questions and doubts, through sound experimentation and advanced mathematical modeling.

    Better yet, think about the timeline: Isaac Newton —> Albert Einstein —> Prof. Hasan Sehitoglu.

    Prof Hasan Sehitoglu has B.S. degree from Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey; M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. He is an expert on matrix-valued dynamic systems and their control and served as an engineering faculty member at several universities including Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge and California State University-Fullerton.

    ANOMALIES UNEXPLAINED BY THE CURRENT THEORY OF GRAVITY

    Many people may be surprised to hear that the current theories of gravity are far from explaining a growing number of astronomical anomalies and problems that neither Newton’s theory nor Einstein’s General Relativity are able to properly address.

    Consider the facts, for example, that…

    1- … General Relativity is incompatible with Quantum Mechanics. In other words, Einstein’s theory cannot “quantize” the gravitational field;

    2- … General Relativity is unphysical;

    3- … there is no universal law for conservation of energy & momentum in General Relativity;

    4- … the kind of black holes and gravitational waves predicted by General Relativity have never been observed;

    5- … General Relativity cannot even explain an astrophysical system with more than 2 bodies;

    6- … there has never been a rational treatment of the Solar System as a unit;

    7- … rotation curves of spiral galaxies show flat or increasing velocity distribution;

    8- … gigantic clusters of galaxies, called Great Walls, show river-like flow patterns;

    9- … formation of these Great Walls would take many billion years more than 13.7 billion years of finite Universal life predicted by the cosmology of General Relativity;

    10- … there is a secular increase in the Astronomic Unit. The increase is 15 cm/year.

    11- … Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft experience anomalous deceleration.

    12- … others.

    THE SEHITOGLU GRAVITY THEORY SCIENTIFICALLY EXPLAINS ALL OF THOSE ANOMALIES

    Now let’s see how THE SEHITOGLU THEORY is both physically and mathematically correct in addressing the discrepancies listed above:

    a) The Sehitoglu Theory is compatible with Quantum Mechanics. Finally, the gravitational field is “quantized”;

    b) The Sehitoglu Theory starts with the principal of conservation of energy & momentum and uses this principal whenever possible;

    c) The Sehitoglu Theory is compatible with the Theory of Special Relativity;

    d) The Sehitoglu Theory is a covariant field theory.

    e) The Sehitoglu Theory is independent of the coordinate system employed.

    f) The Sehitoglu Theory passes all the experimental tests of gravity.

    g) The Sehitoglu Theory answers and solves many challenging questions and problems. For example, it explains

    – the origin of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation and why CMBR is isotropic.
    – the motion of the Sun and the planets as a dynamic system of N bodies.
    – why the rotation curves of spiral galaxies are flat or rising.
    – the origin of the gravitational red-shift
    – gravitons and the wave/particle duality of gravitational energy.
    – why a magnetic charge does not exist in the Nature.

    (For more details, please visit the Sehitoglu Theory website at: )

    THE THEORY OF GRAVITY

    The laws of physics are mathematical equations put together to explain experimentally observed facts. History teaches us that, as technological breakthroughs increase and theoretical advances broaden our knowledge base, there comes a time period during which the best theories fail to explain the most recent observations. New questions, unsolved problems and anomalies begin to accumulate. Since it is impossible to explain and solve the growing number of questions and problems within the original framework of the established theories, some scientists resort to inventions and speculations. Have we reached such an inflection point in our quest for understanding the physical phenomenon called gravity? The answer is a definite “Yes”.

    For an explanation as to why there is a need for a correct theory of gravity, please see the PROLOG section of The Sehitoglu website . This section also reviews the criteria for a viable theory of gravity, the elements of which were developed by the late Prof. R. H. Dicke and Prof. C.M. Will. The review is necessary to screen non-scientific or metaphysical theories. Sehitoglu also expresses his respect and appreciation to Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein for their incredible accomplishments.

    MATRIX-VALUED MATHEMATICS

    Although the concept of matrix has an important place in mathematics, science, and engineering, the use of matrices has not been as penetrating as the use of vectors. For example, while we have an extensive catalog of vector-valued ideas and methods such as vector-valued calculus and vector-valued geometry, we don’t see much coverage in the literature concerning matrix-valued calculus and matrix-valued geometry.

    The main advantage of using vectors is the fact that vectors enable us to express mathematical and physical relationships in a concise manner. However, for many purposes, the concept of a vector is extremely limited in scope. For example, the solution of equations usually leads to the operation of division, an operation which is not unique in the case of vectors. The matrix-valued algebra and calculus provide the necessary generalizations. The concept of a matrix also brings the advantage of a concise notation. More importantly, the matrix-valued platform allows us to formulate ideas and relationships in such a way that there is relatively easy transition from a given coordinate system to another. There are pages in the website devoted to the foundations of a matrix-valued mathematics.

    MATRIX-VALUED SCIENCE

    The universal laws must be identical for all observers. This requires that the scientific laws describing Nature must be independent of arbitrary choices of coordinates or reference frames. For example, although we can employ Cartesian or spherical coordinates to describe the inputs (e.g. forces) and outputs (e.g. position and velocity) of a system, the ensuing motion of the system in itself does not depend upon which of these coordinate frames we choose to work within. In other words, the “form” of the universal laws must be invariant under arbitrary differentiable coordinate transformations.

    Furthermore, a coordinate free formulation of the universal laws must be such that this formulation is the simplest and the most transparent one available to us. In short, the formulation must be powerful and elegant.

    Matrices can be utilized to quantify sets of physical variables. Since transformation rules for matrices undergoing a change of coordinates have been well researched and understood, we can express the universal laws in terms of matrix-valued entities without any explicit choice of a coordinate system. It appears that matrix-valued laws have three main advantages over tensor formalism:

    1- Matrix-valued equations are component free, hence they are elegant.

    2-Software based computational tools for matrix-valued equations are well established and easy to use. Therefore, they are powerful.

    3-Matrix-valued equations can be given geometric interpretation (both Euclidean and Riemannian). This is an important tool because it helps us to visualize higher-order multi-variable systems.

    MATRIX-VALUED ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

    The Sehitoglu website , in its Engineering & Technology pages, demonstrate how the matrix-valued methods and algorithms can be utilized to create new and innovative hardware and software systems.

    For example, it has been about 200 years since J.B.J. Fourier invented his method that transforms data from time domain to frequency domain and vice versa. However, since that time, his method has been confined to the narrow domain of scalar functions. The documents on the first page of the The Sehitoglu website , “MIMO Signal Processing”, disclose algorithms that generalize the Fourier Transform to the matrix domain.

    The matrix-valued Fourier Transform has numerous engineering applications. See, for example, The Sehitoglu website “4G Wireless & Beyond” page where Sehitoglu demonstrates a matrix-valued OFDM technology for the 4th generation wireless communications systems .

    The Sehitoglu website show that a matrix-OFDM system can easily achieve a multi-Gigabit data rate in UNII band under 6GHz, which is unattainable with the existing technology.

    See The Sehitoglu website for a table showing some of the relationships between Sehitoglu methods and algorithms and the various scientific, engineering, and business application areas. The commercialization of the Sehitoglu advanced technologies is an on-going process.

    THERE ARE TWO MAJOR SIDES TO THE SEHITOGLU DISCOVERY

    First, it presents a modern-day account of matrix analysis and calculus geared towards to the needs of scientists, engineers, and applied mathematicians. In this regard, the Sehitoglu site
    describes new matrix-valued methods and algorithms.

    Second, it shows how these matrix-valued concepts can be applied to create innovative technologies and next-generation systems that were not possible before.

    HAPPY (TURKISH) REPUBLIC DAY!

    The Sehitoglu Theory is a Gravity Theory that scientifically explains the heretofore unexplained realities and anomalies observed in space.

    Inventor dedicates his timeless discovery to Ataturk, the entire Turkish Nation, and the Turkish-Americans community.

    Happy Republic Day to all !

    ***

    Please Note: All references above were quoted with permission from Prof. Hasan Şehitoğlu.

  • Turkish-German University to be opened in Istanbul

    Turkish-German University to be opened in Istanbul

    Turkish President Abdullah Gul hosted a dinner in honor of German President Christian Wulff in Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul on Thursday.

    Friday, 22 October 2010 09:50

    wulff gul german uniTurkish President Abdullah Gul hosted a dinner in honor of German President Christian Wulff in Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul on Thursday.

    Delivering a speech in the dinner, Gul said that some friendly European countries considered that Turkey’s EU membership would weaken harmony and coherence in Europe, but it was totally baseless.

    3 million Turks living in Germany were binding the two countries firmly, he said.

    President Gul said Turkey and Germany which shared universal values such as democracy, pluralism, rule of law, human rights and freedoms, equality and justice were the two allied countries exerting efforts for similar ideals.

    Gul said that a groundbreaking would be held for Turkish-German University in Istanbul on Friday and this university would contribute to relations between Turkey and German.

    “We are determined to complete the EU accession process successfully. We expect solidarity and cooperation from Germany in this matter,” he said.

    Gul said that Turkey’s EU membership would be a historic opportunity in every respect.

    AA

  • United States and Turkey Sign Science and Technology Agreement

    United States and Turkey Sign Science and Technology Agreement

    Office of the SpokesmanWashington, DC
    October 20, 2010


    The Governments of the United States and the Republic of Turkey signed a Science and Technology Agreement today at the U.S. Department of State in Washington D.C. Assistant Secretary Kerri-Ann Jones of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs signed on behalf of the United States while Deputy Under Secretary for Bilateral Affairs and Public Diplomacy Selim Yenel signed on behalf of Turkey.

    science technology

    This new Agreement, which replaces an earlier 1994 text, marks an important milestone in the rich history of U.S.-Turkish scientific cooperation. As President Obama stated during his visit to Turkey in April 2009, “…Turkey and the United States must stand together — and work together — to overcome the challenges of our time.” The Agreement will further this goal by providing the legal framework for increased agency-to-agency collaboration across a broad range of scientific disciplines.

    Scientific collaboration is only one facet of the U.S.-Turkish bilateral relationship. This Agreement will deepen and diversify relations between the two countries by facilitating the undertaking of joint cooperative research projects; exchanges for scientists, specialists and researchers; the establishment of science-based public-private partnerships; as well as the sharing of facilities, equipment and materials for scientific collaboration between the United States and Turkey. Areas of potential bilateral scientific cooperation include research on earthquake early warning and preparedness, environmental science, climate change, renewable energy, health, archeology, material science and chemistry.

    PRN: 2010/1495

  • Turkish hackers hacked CDU websites

    Turkish hackers hacked CDU websites

    Two regional websites for Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s Christian Democrats (CDU) were hacked on Tuesday by unknown perpetrators claiming to be Turkish following controversial comments by her conservatives on immigration.

    osmali sembol

    Police and domestic intelligence agencies are now investigating in both the city-state of Hamburg and the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after CDU officials said their party sites were paralysed overnight when hackers replaced their homepages with a black background featuring a Turkish crest and critical comments.

    Hackers “GHoST61” and “Emre Y” had left their mark claiming responsibility for sabotaging the site, with the comment, “Hi Hamburg: We are from Turkey.”

    In Hamburg the CDU took its website offline by mid-morning on Tuesday, spokesperson Anna Christina Hinze said.

    The Mecklenburg-Western Pomeranian arm of the CDU had a similar experience, discovering that their website had been replaced with an Ottoman Empire crest and some pointed questions about the party’s immigration policies. Their site was repaired by afternoon.

    The hackers left a message asking: “Where is the money for integration? Where is the money for mosques?” and “Where is the tolerance? Where is the freedom of religion?“

    The cyber-attacks appear to have been sparked by anti-immigrant statements from conservatives such as Bavarian premier Horst Seehofer, who said last week that Germany should halt immigration from Turkey and Arabic countries. Over the weekend he also said that multiculturalism was dead in Germany. Chancellor Merkel agreed the concept had “completely failed” and demanded immigrants accept “Christian values” when they come to Germany.

    At the end of the hacker missive they wrote, “Mrs. Merkel, we await you in Hamburg,” – a possible reference to Merkel’s plans to visit integration projects in the city in early November.

    The chancellor’s parliamentary district is in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

    In early 2008, hackers made a similar attack on the state of Schleswig-Holstein’s CDU website, putting Turkish flags and slogans on several local party chapter pages. The IP address was traced to Ankara, Turkey.

    The Local

  • Liquid Thorium Fuel Gets a Start

    Liquid Thorium Fuel Gets a Start

    Brian Wang at NextBigFuture found the news of a press conference at the Japanese organization Keidanren, an industry group with big name members such as Toyota, Toshiba and Hitachi.  The company IThEMS unveiled their plans to build the world’s first commercial Thorium Molten-Salt Reactor (Th-MSR) power generator.

    IThEMS is being started by Keishiro Fukushima, a former Senator and Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Japan and Guest Professor of Waseda University. Fukushima is joining with Dr. Kazuo Furukawa, the inventor of the Thorium Energy concept FUJI, and has dedicated more than 40 years to research and developing the field. Furukawa is Chairman and Director of Laboratory of IThEMS and is conducting research at Tokai University.

    It seems that IThEMS has enough money to start raising money in earnest with a target of only $300US million to get to a ‘micromini’ reactor rated at 10MW.  It’s not clear that the funding target would take the firm to a larger 200MW design.

    Small Fuji Reactor Installation Graphic
    Small Fuji Reactor Installation Graphic

    The major feature to thorium fuel in a thorium molten liquid salt form is the safety as Japan is extremely conscious of the earthquake effects on uranium fueled reactor cores.  Operation of Th-MSR is conducted under normal pressure in a normal pressured container, unlike the high-pressure in a closed container for the current solid fuel class of reactors.  Even if the thorium molten-salt were to be released from the container, it would cool to a solid like glass with no response to air. Thus earthquake-resistance is ensured. This provides superior safety characteristics compared with any other nuclear reactor systems.  No possibility exists of severe accidents such as occurred at Three Mile Island or Chernobyl, which caused great risk of core meltdown at Three Mile and/or large radioactivity releases at Chernobyl.

    Other features include the reaction products do not include the plutonium or uranium products needed for weapons, actually very little high level waste forms at all.  The Japanese have also noticed that thorium resources are widely spread across the world ensuing supply – something an import dependant and independent minded country needs to keep in mind.

    IThEMS looks for the costs to be much lower, as much as 30% less.  Reactor construction cost is effectively low thanks to its simple structure and the absence of the containment buildings and other redundant safety systems uranium fuels need.  In a Th-MSR there is no fuel-assembly fabrication and replacement required.  Additionally, with almost none of the high-level nuclear waste produced, its waste chemical processing cost is low.  Thorium in a liquid fuel state is said to be made at a lower fuel cost than solid uranium pellets.

    These factors make the ‘micromini’ reactor a possibility and opens up a lot of market potential across the planet.  With proliferation off the table sales could be quite substantial, as the regulatory overhead should be vastly reduced.  No atomic inspectors, and UN bureaucracy to build up costs would help enormously.

    There is a catch – in some thorium designs, the Th-MSR included, a lot of fissile U-233 is produced, with plenty of strong gamma rays.  The Th-MSR liquid fuel system treats the U-233 by injecting fluorine gas into the liquid fuel keeping the U-233 volatile so that reprocessing and separating the U-233 is easy and the products can be recycled.  The Th-MSR is not a burn up reactor, but for the ultra safety conscious – this is very good – and the U-233 should find a market in thorium reactors that do burn up the heavy actinides.

    This news is very hopeful.  The Japanese are renown for their skills at taking the world’s best concepts and producing them at incredible reliability, high quality and at low cost.  Thorium is the world’s best fuel and with Japanese technological prowess a major shift to thorium and a huge increase in available electrical power for the developing world can get going.

    While the information is still thin on the engineering the Th-MSR idea seems sound.  The mini version’s preliminary specification has it being quite small, about 6 by 7 feet.  This really is truck sized, albeit very heavy, but the fuel and graphite shipped separately would keep weights in reason.

    The world is changing. Research and development of thorium molten-salt power plants has started in The Czech Republic, The Russian Federation, France, US, Singapore, India and China. Thorium fuel reactors is a now a race – and betting on the Japanese looks like a very good way to invest or hedge into the future.

    It seems thorium is going to fuel the future whether or not the biggest economic powers get involved or not.  That would be a good thing.  Big economic countries are slow to move allowing such fuels as thorium to be a big opportunity for the fast acting economies.

    Best wishes and good luck to Fukushima and Furukawa.

  • Turkey Joins the Proud List of Nations With Humanoid Robot Citizens: Meet SURALP

    Turkey Joins the Proud List of Nations With Humanoid Robot Citizens: Meet SURALP

    SURALP Is Turkey's First Humanoid Robot	 Sabanci University
    SURALP Is Turkey's First Humanoid Robot Sabanci University

    After investing eight years and $1 million, Turkey has now joined the elite club of countries with humanoid robots, finally introducing SURALP to the public in Istanbul on Wednesday. Opting for the traditional acronym-nomenclature, SURALP stands for “Sabanci University Robot Research Laboratory Platform.”

    Standing 164 centimeters tall and weighing 114 kilograms, SURALP has six joints in each limb, enabling it to maintain its balance while walking across a variety of surfaces. It has cameras installed into its head to help it perceive objects in its path. If it does stumble, it can reach out for support from a nearby wall.

    Turkey’s robot may not really dazzle compared to Japanese and American counterparts, but SURALP represents a big step for the country’s robotics program. The development of humanoid bots has spread recently beyond the traditional robotics powerhouses: Iran’s Surena-2 has been seen working the talk-show circuit. SURALP is a crowd-pleaser, too. Its communication is limited to nodding “yes” or “no,” but it can perform the most important robotic tasks: dancing and fetching beverages.

    Watch SURALP in action below: