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VIII. Earth Earns: An Open Participatory Earthropocene to Astropocene CoCreative Future

1. Mind Over Matter and Energy: Quantum, Atomic, Chemical, Astronomic Realms

Gilder, George. Microcosm. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989. An early advocate of the global Internet revolution extols the triumph of emergent mind over recalcitrant matter which augurs for an exuberant recreation of the material realm.

Girovsky, Jan, et al. Emergence of Quasiparticle Bloch States in Artificial Crystals Crafted by Atom-by-Atom. SciPost Physics. 2/020, 2017. Quantum Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology and Iberian Nanotechnology, Portugal researchers including Sander Otte provide another example of a collaborative humanity commencing a second material creation. As this section reports, by virtue of deep quantum, atomic, molecular techniques, along with computational acumen, it increasingly seems, as seemingly intended, that human beings are meant to take it anew from here on. Visit the Otte Lab publications page for more articles such as Atomic Spin-Chain Realization of a Model for Quantum Criticality.

The interaction of electrons with a periodic potential of atoms in crystalline solids gives rise to band structure. The band structure of existing materials can be measured by photoemission spectroscopy and accurately understood in terms of the tight-binding model, however not many experimental approaches exist that allow to tailor artificial crystal lattices using a bottom-up approach. The ability to engineer and study atomically crafted designer materials by scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy helps to understand the emergence of material properties. Here, we use atom manipulation of individual vacancies in a chlorine monolayer on Cu(100) to construct one- and two-dimensional structures of various densities and sizes. Local STS measurements reveal the emergence of quasiparticle bands, evidenced by standing Bloch waves, with tuneable dispersion. (Abstract)

Giuliani, Sameul, et al. Superheavy Elements: Oganesson and Beyond. Reviews of Modern Physics. 91/011001, 2019. Nine physicists from the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, USA, University of Erlangen and Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, India, and Massey University, New Zealand review the state of past, present and future art as human ingenuity, now of a global scale, has been able to discover, arrange, and begin to draw forth atomic elements. See also a special Periodic Table sections in Nature for January 31, 2019, and Science for February 1, 2019.

During the last decade, six new superheavy elements were added into the seventh row of the periodic table. This milestone was followed by proclaiming 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements by the United Nations General Assembly. According to theory, due to their large atomic numbers, the new arrivals are expected to be qualitatively and quantitatively different from lighter species. The questions pertaining to superheavy atoms and nuclei are in the forefront of research in nuclear and atomic physics and chemistry. This Colloquium survey offers a broad perspective on the field and outlines future challenges. (Abstract)

Goral, Prashun, et al. Computationally Guided Discovery of Thermoelectric Materials. Nature Reviews Materials. 2/17053, 2017. We add this work by National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado, researchers as a report of nascent abilities to delve into atomic and electronic structures so as to create novel, effective substances.

The potential for advances in thermoelectric materials, and thus solid-state refrigeration and power generation, is immense. Progress so far has been limited by both the breadth and diversity of the chemical space and the serial nature of experimental work. In this Review, we discuss how recent computational advances are revolutionizing our ability to predict electron and phonon transport and scattering, as well as materials dopability, and we examine efficient approaches to calculating critical transport properties across large chemical spaces. Through computational predictions for both materials searches and design, a new paradigm in thermoelectric materials discovery is emerging. (Abstract excerpt)

Greco, Ralph, et al, eds. Nanoscale Technology in Biological Systems. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2005. The latest advances with an emphasis on novel biomaterials and medical applications.

Gromski, Piotr, et al. How to Explore Chemical Space Using Algorithms and Automation. Nature Reviews Chemistry. 3/119, 2019. University of Glasgow computational chemists in coauthor Leroy Cronin’s lab explore the frontiers of novel material discovery, composition and enhanced utility.

Although extending the reactivity of a given class of molecules is relatively straightforward, the discovery of genuinely new reactivity and the molecules that result is a more challenging problem. Here, we describe how searching chemical space using automation and algorithms improves the probability of discovery. The former enables routine chemical tasks to be performed more quickly and consistently, while the latter uses algorithms to facilitate the searching of chemical knowledge databases. In order to find new chemical laws, we must seek to question current assumptions and biases. Accomplishing that involves algorithms to perform searches, and more general machine learning to predict the chemistry under investigation. (Abstract excerpt)

Gyongyosi, Laszlo and Sandor Imre. Multilayer Optimization for the Quantum Internet. Nature Scientific Reports. 8/12690, 2018. We enter this posting by University of Southampton and Budapest University of Technology systems physicists as a current example how quantum phenomena are being treated, availed, and creatively advanced in a similar manner to everywhere else.

We define a multilayer optimization method for the quantum Internet. Multilayer optimization integrates separate procedures for the optimization of the quantum layer and the classical layer of the quantum Internet. The multilayer optimization procedure defines advanced techniques for the optimization of the layers. The optimization of the quantum layer covers the minimization of total usage time of quantum memories in the quantum nodes, the maximization of the entanglement throughput over the entangled links, and the reduction of the number of entangled links between the arbitrary source and target quantum nodes. The objective of the optimization of the classical layer is the cost minimization of any auxiliary classical communications. The multilayer optimization framework provides a practically implementable tool for quantum network communications, or long-distance quantum communications. (Abstract)

Haba, Hiromitsu. A New Period in Superheavy Element Hunting. Nature Chemistry. 11/1, 2019. In a special issue for the 150th anniversary of the Periodic Table, a RIKEN Materials Research Group scientist considers how human ingenuity might proceed to expand nature’s iconic array of 118 elements via “islands of stability” all the way to atomic number 172. In regard, we emergent Earthlings seem to have reached some kind of “second singularity” whence cosmic material creation may pass to our respective human intention. See also Making the Heaviest Elements in the Universe: A Review of the Rapid Neutron Capture Process by John Cowen, et al at arXiv:1901.01410.

Halal, William. Technology’s Promise. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. The George Washington University futurist extrapolates a worldwide recreation of body, mind, society and nature, notably not without ethnic and ethical dilemmas, to be achieved via computer, medicine, energy, transport, and biopsychic enhancements.

He, Xiaojin, et al. Exponential Growth and Selection in Self-Replicating Materials from DNA Origami Rafts. Nature Materials. 16/10, 2017. This entry by NYU Center for Soft Matter Research, and Tongji University, Shanghai, biochemists including Nadrian Seeman contributes to growing indications that this double helix nucleotide, broadly conceived, seem to have limitless innate qualities for our human co-creative curation going forward. The work merited a commentary Nanostructure Evolution by Friedrich Simmel in the same issue.

Self-replication and evolution under selective pressure are inherent phenomena in life, and but few artificial systems exhibit these phenomena. We have designed a system of DNA origami rafts that exponentially replicates a seed pattern, doubling the copies in each diurnal-like cycle of temperature and ultraviolet illumination, producing more than 7 million copies in 24 cycles. We demonstrate environmental selection in growing populations by incorporating pH-sensitive binding in two subpopulations. This addressable selectivity should be adaptable to the selection and evolution of multi-component self-replicating materials in the nanoscopic-to-microscopic size range. (Abstract excerpt)

Hia, Saw Wai. Atom-by-Atom Assembly. Reports on Progress in Physics. 77/056502, 2014. As another instance, an Argonne National Laboratory, Center for Nanoscale Materials, researcher extols the novel ability of our human phase to enter even into the realm of individual atoms. How fantastic is this – it seems we may be intentionally here so a natural evolutionary genesis can initiate and shift to a radical mode of our conscious new creation.

Atomic manipulation using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip enables the construction of quantum structures on an atom-by-atom basis, as well as the investigation of the electronic and dynamical properties of individual atoms on a one-atom-at-a-time basis. An STM is not only an instrument that is used to 'see' individual atoms by means of imaging, but is also a tool that is used to 'touch' and 'take' the atoms, or to 'hear' their movements. Therefore, the STM can be considered as the 'eyes', 'hands' and 'ears' of the scientists, connecting our macroscopic world to the exciting atomic world. In this article, various STM atom manipulation schemes and their example applications are described. The future directions of atomic level assembly on surfaces using scanning probe tips are also discussed. (Abstract)

Hickinbotham, Simon, et al. Maximizing the Adjacent Possible in Automata Chemistries. Artificial Life. 22/1, 2016. In a paper which is a good example of biological and cosmic evolution in passage to our human intentional furtherance, York University, UK computer scientists including Susan Stepney consider algorithmic programs, broadly conceived, so as to design and advance novel, salutary materials and organisms.

Automata chemistries are good vehicles for experimentation in open-ended evolution, but they are by necessity complex systems whose low-level properties require careful design. To aid the process of designing automata chemistries, we develop an abstract model that classifies the features of a chemistry from a physical (bottom up) perspective and from a biological (top down) perspective. There are two levels: things that can evolve, and things that cannot. We equate the evolving level with biology and the non-evolving level with physics. We design our initial organisms in the biology, so they can evolve. We design the physics to facilitate evolvable biologies. This architecture leads to a set of design principles that should be observed when creating an instantiation of the architecture. (Abstract)

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