Light: Particle/Wave? . . .Topographic Map?

      The first-ever image of light behaving as both a particle and a wave was published yesterday in Nature Communications and is shown below:

      This short summary article from Science Daily describes the procurement of the image by researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Quantum mechanics in bright , primary colors!

      The first thing I noted was the similarity to contour lines on topographic maps:

        Closing all those circles from contour lines/waves into pinnacles/particles brought me to Topo Gigio's brother, a quantum mechanic ;-) :

         

            Off to enjoy time with my brothers, my son, and my mom. 

            Happy March! Enjoy March fo(u)rth tomorrow, the most assertive day of the year and the anniversary of my son's beginning of his first trip around the sun. 

March Forth and Prosper,
Steph



         
      

From Snadstone to Sandstone: The Promise of Literary Sensitivity

      Sandstone, often misprinted as snadstone (even occasionally today, in a spell checker world) in-spires in its magical, swirling layers:

         autumn colors, shadow, light, eroded surfaces, 

  cross-bedding,

 and miniature landscapes:

          Thanks for the sand and sandstone topic idea, jan. A good introduction to sandstone, mostly reddish, yellowish or brownish in color, is here. Emily Eggleston describes the strength of the atomic scaffolding of silica in excellent Wisconsin frac sand. [Lego, could you kindly post a photo of one of the frac sand mines some time?]

     Sandstone, the poster rock for autumn, is a great stone for weaving in this comment from Dr. Susan Van Dyne, a professor at Smith College, on one of my essays typed on onion skin paper in a course called "The American Dream:"

         My mom sent a box of stuff last week with a gray, non-descript folder containing my ancient essays lining the bottom (I almost missed it and happened on it today while getting the box ready to be reused and filled with fruit for my daughter).

          The last line of her critique reads "You have promise of literary sensitivity in all of your essays." Red! Red! Red!

        (shell of 8 on CT River 9-29)

          Her words, after buckets of red ink all over a semester of short papers, meant much more to me than all the A grades in high school. Finally, true sandstone! Beautiful, cross-bedded, fine- to coarse-grained sandstone (not snadstone). 

 

     As the former Editor-in-Chief of The Mountain Geologist, a technical journal of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG),

I encountered an astounding number of snadstones. One of my associate editors was John Hickenlooper, who is now Colorado's governor. We (and all of RMAG) had many chuckles over snadstones, prompting a whole bit (not a drill bit) in the organization's monthly newsletter written by a fictional, crotchety, old prospector in search of the elusive snadstone.

     As to the last word today, I will leave it to Dr. Van Dyne's critique to pave the trail for my summary:

      "Always better to end essay with your own words rather than a quote -- as critic and organizer of discussion you deserve last word."

     I am publishing a bit early today so tomorrow's annual trek to Hell's Hole (weather permitting--it's been a wild hail and snow afternoon) will be open to the whole day for a sedimental (well, actually, it's mostly granite and lots of metamorphic rocks) journey.

     
      See you after my trip to Hell and Back!

      Sandstone. Sandstone. Sandstone.

Finely,

Steph

September 30, 2014 Hell's Hole Trail and environs, CO

     Things are orangier than they have ever been in Colorado this autumn. Might our very wet year in CO account for more oranges than yellows this fall?

     "When you're going through Hell's Hole, keep going," to paraphrase Winston Churchill.

     Splendid day, if a bit windy and chilly:

                                    

      And the solution to just about everything is swimming outside in October: