Category Archives: Singularity

Black holes are cosmic bodies that pack an immense amount of mass into a surprisingly small space. Due to their extremely intense gravity, nothing can escape their grasp not even light which defines the universes speed limit.

April 10th, 2019 marked a milestone in science history when the team at the Event Horizon Telescope revealed the first image of a supermassive black hole. As a result, these areas of space created when stars reach the end of their nuclear fuel burning and collapse creating massive gravitational wells, completed their transition from theory to reality.

This transition has been further solidified since with the revelation of a second, much clearer image of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the centre of the galaxy Messier 87 (M87). This second image revealing details such as the orientation of the magnetic fields that surround it and drive its powerful jets that extend for light-years.

The study of black holes could teach us much more than about these spacetime events and the environments that home them, however. Because cosmologists believe that most galaxies have an SMBH sat at their centre, greedily consuming material like a fat spider lurking at the centre of a cosmic web, learning more about these spacetime events can also teach us how galaxies themselves evolve.

The origin of black holes is one that runs in reverse to that of most astronomical objects. We didnt discover some mysterious object in the distant cosmos and then began to theorise about it whilst making further observations.

Rather, black holes entered the scientific lexicon in a way that is more reminiscent of newly theorised particles in particle physics; emerging first from the solutions to complex mathematics. In the case of black holes, the solutions to the field equations employed by Einstein in his most important and revolutionary theory.

Just as a physical black hole forms from the collapse of a star, the theory of black holes emerged from the metaphorical collapse of the field equations that govern the geometrical theory of gravity; better known as general relativity.

One of the most common misconceptions about black holes arises from their intrinsic uniqueness and the fact that there really isnt anything else like them in the Universe.

General relativity introduced the idea that mass has an effect on spacetime, a concept fundamental to the idea that space and time are not passive stages upon which the events of the universe play out. Instead, those events shape that stage. As John Wheeler brilliantly and simply told us; when it comes to general relativity:

Matter tells space how to curve. Space tells matter how to move.

The most common analogy is for this warping of space is that of placing objects on a stretched rubber sheet. The larger the object the deeper the dent and the more extreme the curvature it creates. In our analogy, a planet is a marble, a star an apple, and a black hole a cannonball.

Thus, considering this a black hole isnt really an object at all but, is actually better described as a spacetime event. When we say black hole what we really mean is an area of space that is so warped by a huge amount of mass condensed into a finite point that even light itself doesnt have the necessary velocity to escape it.

This point at which light can no longer escape marks the first of two singularities that define black holespoints at which solutions of the equations of general relativity go to infinity.

The event horizon of a black hole is the point at which its escape velocity exceeds the speed of light in vacuum (c). This occurs at a radius called the Schwarzchild radiusnamed for astrophysicist Karl Schwarzschild, who developed a solution for Einstiens field equations whilst serving on the Eastern Front in the First World War.

His solution to Einsteins field equationswhich would unsurprisingly become known as theSchwarzschild solution described the spacetime geometry of an empty region of space. It had two interesting features two singularities one a coordinate singularity the other, a gravitational singularity. Both take on significance in the study of black holes.

Dealing with the coordinate singularity, or the Schwarzchild radius first.

The Schwarzchild radius(Rs)also takes on special meaning in cases where the radius of a body shrinks within this Schwarzschild radius (ie.Rs >r). When a bodys radius shrinks within this limit, it becomes a black hole.

All bodies have a Schwarzschild radius, but as you can see from the calculation below for a body like Earth, Rs falls well-within its radius.

Thats part of what makes black holes unique; their Schwartzchild radius is outside their physical radius because their mass is compressed into such a tiny space.

Because the outer edge of the event horizon is the last point at which light can escape it also marks the last point at which events can be seen by distant observers. Anything past this point can never be observed.

The reason the Schwarzschild radius is called a coordinate singularity is that it can be removed with a clever choice of coordinate system. The second singularity cant be dealt with in this way. This makes it the true physical singularity of the black hole itself.

This is known as the gravitational singularityand is found at the centre of the black hole (r=0). This is the end-point for every particle that falls into a black hole. Its also the point the Einstein field equations break down maybe even all the laws of physics themselves.

The fact that the escape velocity of the event horizon exceeds the speed of light means that no physical signal could ever carry information from the central singularity to distant observers. We are forever sealed off from this aspect of black holes, which will therefore forever remain in the domain of theory.

Weve already seen that for a body with the mass of Earth to become a black hole, its diameter would have to shrink to less than 2cm. This is obviously something that just isnt possible. In fact, not even our Sun has enough mass to end its life as a black hole. Only stars with around three times the mass of the Sun are massive enough to end their lives in this way.

But why is that the case?

It wont surprise you to learn that for an astronomical body to become a black hole it must meet and exceed a series of limits. These limits are created by outward forces that are resisting against the inward force that leads to gravitational collapse.

For planets and other bodies with relatively small masses, the electromagnetic repulsion between atoms is strong enough to grant them stability against total gravitational collapse. For large stars the situation is different.

During the main life cycle of starsthe period of the fusion of hydrogen atoms to helium atomsthe primary protection against gravitational collapse is the outward thermal and radiation pressures that are generated by these nuclear processes. That means that the first wave of gravitational collapse occurs when a stars hydrogen fuel is exhausted and inward pressure can no longer be resisted.

Should a star have enough mass, this collapse forces together atoms in the nucleus enough to reignite nuclear fusion with helium atoms now fusing to create heavier elements. When this helium is exhausted, the process happens again, with the collapse again stalling if there is enough pressure to trigger the fusion of heavier elements still.

Stars like the Sun will eventually reach the point where their mass is no longer sufficient to kick start the nuclear burning of increasingly heavier elements. But if it isnt nuclear fusion that is generating the outward forces that prevent complete collapse, what is preventing these lower-mass stars from becoming black holes?

Lower-mass stars like the Sun will end their lives as white dwarf stars with a black hole form out of reach. The mechanism protecting these white dwarfs against complete collapse is a quantum mechanical phenomenon called degeneracy.

This degeneracy pressure is a factor of the Pauli exclusion principle, which states that certain particles known as fermions, which include electrons, protons, and neutrons are forbidden from occupying the same quantum states. This means that they resist being tightly crammed together.

This theory and the limitation it introduced led Indian-American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar to question if there was an upper cap at which this protection against gravitational collapse would fail.

Chandrasekhar awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in physics for his work concerning stellar evolution proposed in 1931 that above 1.4 solar masses, a white dwarf would no longer be protected from gravitational collapse by degeneracy pressure. Past this limit termed the Chandrasekhar limitgravity overwhelms the Pauli exclusion principle and gravitational collapse can continue.

But there is another limit that prevents stars of even this greater mass from creating black holes.

Thanks to the 1932 discovery of neutronsthe neutral partner of protons in atomic nuclei Russian theoretical physicist Lev Landau began to ponder the possible existence of neutron stars. The outer part of these stars would contain neutron-rich nuclei, whilst the inner sections would be formed from a quantum fluid comprised of mostly neutrons

These neutron stars would also be protected against gravitational collapse by degeneracy pressurethis time provided by this neutron fluid. In addition to this, the greater mass of the neutron in comparison to the electron would allow neutron stars to reach a greater density before undergoing collapse.

By 1939, Robert Oppenheimer had calculated that the mass-limit for neutron stars would be roughly 3 times the mass of the Sun.

To put this into perspective, a white dwarf with the mass of the Sun would be expected to have a millionth of our stars volumegiving it a radius of 5000km, roughly that of the Earth. A neutron star of a similar mass though would have a radius of about 20kmroughly the size of a city.

Above the Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit, gravitational collapse begins again. This time no limits exist between this collapse and the creation of the densest possible state in which matter can exist. The state found at the central singularity of a black hole.

Weve covered the creation of black holes and the hurdles that stand in the way of the formation of such areas of spacetime, but theory isnt quite ready to hand black holes over to practical observations just yet. The field equations of general relativity can also be useful in the categorisation of black holes.

Categorising black holes is actually fairly straight-forward thanks to the fact that they possess very few independent qualities. John Wheeler had a colourful way of describing this lack of characteristics. The physicist once commented that black holes have no hair, meaning that outside a few characteristics they are essentially indistinguishable. This comment became immortalised as the no-hair theorem of black holes.

Black holes have only three independent measurable propertiesmass, angular momentum and electric charge. All black holes must have mass, so this means there are only four different types of a black hole based on these qualities. Each is defined by the metric or the function used to describe it.

This means that black holes can be quite easily catagorised by the properties they possess as seen below.

This isnt the most common or most suitable method of categorising black holes, however. As mass is the only property that is common to all black holes, the most straight-forward and natural way of listing them is by their mass. These mass categories are imperfectly defined and so far black holes in some of the categoriesmost notably intermediate black holes remain undetected.

Cosmologists believe that the majority of black holes are rotating and non-charged Kerr black holes. And the study of these spacetime events reveals a phenomenon that perfectly exemplifies their power and influence on spacetime.

The mathematics of the Kerr metric used to describe non-charged rotating black holes reveals that as they rotate, the very fabric of spacetime that surrounds them is dragged along in the direction of the rotation.

The powerful phenomenon is known as frame-dragging or the Lense-Thirring effect and leads to the violent churning environments that surround Kerr black holes. Recent research has revealed that this frame-dragging could be responsible for the breaking and reconnecting of magnetic field lines that in-turn, launch powerful astrophysical jets into the cosmos.

The static limit of a Kerr black hole also has an interesting physical significance. This is the point at which lightor any particle for that matter is no-longer free to travel in any direction. Though not a light-trapping surface like the event horizon, the static limit pulls light in the direction of rotation of the black hole. Thus, light can still escape the static limit but only in a specific direction.

British theoretical physicist and 2020 Nobel Laureate Sir Roger Penrose also suggested that the static limit could be responsible for a process that could cause black holes to leak energy into the surrounding Universe. Should a particle decay into a particle and its corresponding anti-particle at the edge of the static limit it would be possible for the latter to fall into the black hole, whilst its counterpart is launched into the surrounding Universe.

This has the net effect of reducing the black holes mass whilst increasing the mass content of the wider Universe.

Weve seen what happens to light at the edge of a black hole and explored the fate of particles that fall within a Kerr black holes static limit, but what would happen to an astronaut that strayed too close to the edge of such a spacetime event?

Of course, any astronaut falling into a black hole would be completely crushed upon reaching its central gravitational singularity, but the journey may spell doom even before this point has been reached. This is thanks to the tidal forces generated by the black holes immense gravitational influence.

As the astronauts centre of mass falls towards the black hole, the objects effect on spacetime around it causes their head and feet to arrive at significantly different times. The difference in the gravitational force at the astronauts head and feet gives rise to such a huge tidal force that means their body would be simultaneously compressed at the sides and stretched out.

Physicists refer to this process as spaghettification. A witty name for a pretty horrible way to die. Fortunately, we havent yet lost any astronauts to this bizarre demise, but astronomers have been able to watch stars meet the same fate.

For a stellar-mass black hole, spaghettification would occur not just before our astronaut reaches the central singularity, but also well before they even hit the event horizon. For a black hole 40 times the mass of our Sunspaghettification would occur at about 1,000 km out from the event horizon, which is, itself, 120 km from the central gravitational singularity.

As well as developing the Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit, Oppenheimer also used general relativity to describe how a total gravitational collapse should appear to a distant observer. They would consider the collapse to take an infinitely long time, the process appearing to slow and freeze as the stars surface shrinks towards the Schwarzschild radius.

An astronaut falling into a black hole would be immortalized in a similar way to a distant observer, though they themselvescould they have survived spaghettification they would notice nothing. The passing of Rs would just seem a natural part of the fall to them despite it marking the point of no return.

After emerging from the mathematics of general relativity at the earlier stages of the 20th Century, black holes have developed from a theoretical curiosity to the status of scientific reality. In the process, they have indelibly worked their way into our culture and lexicon.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about black holes is that there is so much we dont yet know about them. As a striking example of that, almost all the information listed above resulted just from theory and the interrogation of the maths of Einsteins field equations.

Unlocking the secrets held by black holes could, in turn, reveal how galaxies evolve and how the Universe itself has changed since its early epochs.

Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology, Robert J. Lambourne, Cambridge Press, [2010].

Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology: A basic introduction, Ta-Pei Cheng, Oxford University Press, [2005].

Extreme Environment Astrophysics, Ulrich Kolb, Cambridge Press, [2010].

Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis, Sean G. Ryan, Andrew J. Norton, Cambridge Press, [2010].

Cosmology, Matts Roos, Wiley Publishing, [2003].

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What are Black Holes: The Journey From Theory to Reality - ZME Science

She warned us by holding up the box of Kleenex. Rev. Hannah was in the sanctuary at Minneola Lutheran Church near the town of Goodhue on Thursday evening, April 1, 2021, for their Holy Week worship service. It combined traditional elements depicting both Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.She shared a few passages from some of her recent meandering journaling with its insights, outlooks and hints of petulance.She and others have been considering the meaning of the cross. She feels strongly that it mustnt be seen merely as an ornament relegated to an accessory. It instructs us: Put your body where your values are.An entry online that had caught her attention referred to the crucifixion as a singularity creating a portal at the horizon. (That caught my attention because as she was live-streaming my husband and I were watching a two-part episode of a science fiction series with that very phenomenon as part of the story.)After officiating the institution of communion farther back from the camera beyond the rail, Jesus death on the cross was further dramatized up close and personal. Referring to his last breaths with words including battle and rattle and hole in my soul, Rev. Hannah said the atmosphere at that time and place had shifted from taunting to compassionate. Putting herself at the scene that followed as one who had sat at his feet and stood by his side, shed stepped into the cold tomb. Christs hand fell off the edge of the ledge where his body had been placed. She lovingly tucked it back into the folds of the linen.After putting a tissue to good use (while I had another sip of wine), she shifted smoothly into singing another refrain of stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray changing the atmosphere for me from dire to dear.As at many other churches, the altar was ceremoniously stripped bare. Communion ware, candle sticks and colorful cloths were solemnly set aside. Earlier in the day during Minneolas community prayer time, there had been talk of hope and confidence starting to take shape along the periphery. But now, we focus on lack, loss and lifelessness ... for the time being.

Kate Josephson grew up in rural southwestern Minnesota going to a small town church every Sunday worked as a church secretary in Red Wing for seven years. She continues to seek out religious experiences wherever she goes.

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Church mouse: Setting things aside in Minneola Lutheran Church - RiverTowns

Bridging the gap between the cryogenically-cooled inner workings of quantum computers and the conventional electronics that control them is an outstanding challenge. Current approaches look unlikely to scale, but new research suggests optical fiber could be the key to creating devices big enough to revolutionize computing.

The past decade has seen significant breakthroughs in quantum computing, and a host of well-heeled technology companies joining the race to build the first commercially useful machines. But despite the progress, todays leading quantum processors still only feature a few tens of qubits, the quantum equivalents of bits and the fundamental building blocks of the technology.

Thats orders of magnitude away from the number most experts think well need to build a universal quantum computer powerful enough to tackle useful problems beyond conventional computers. While estimates vary, its likely to require millions of qubits, which could be hard to reach with current approaches.

Todays leading processors use superconducting qubits, which are incredibly sensitive and have to be stored at temperatures close to absolute zero to prevent background thermal energy from disturbing them. They are both controlled and measured using microwave pulses, which are transmitted via dedicated electrical cables to each qubit individually.

The problem is that sending signals down these cables produces a tiny yet unavoidable amount of heat. At current qubit numbers this is manageable, but beyond a few thousand qubits the heat generated by thousands of these cables is likely to interfere with the operation of the processors.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology think they might have found a workaround. They have devised a way of sending the microwave pulses down optical fiber cables, which generate far less heat and could make it possible to pack millions of qubits together safely.

I think this advance will have high impact because it combines two totally different technologies, photonics and superconducting qubits, to solve a very important problem, NIST physicist John Teufel said in a press release. Optical fiber can also carry far more data in a much smaller volume than conventional cable.

Sending the microwave pulses over optical fiber was more complicated than simply switching out the cables. In a paper in Nature, the researchers describe how the long-wavelength microwave pulses first had to be converted into much shorter-wavelength infrared light signals using a device called an electro-optic modulator.

These were then transmitted down the optical fiber to a photodetector that can operate at the same cryogenic temperatures as the qubits. As the light hits the photodetectors, it produces an oscillating current, which in turn generates microwave pulses that can be used to either alter or measure the state of the qubit.

When the researchers used their system to measure the qubits state, they achieved an accuracy of 98 percent, exactly the same as when they carried out the measurement using a conventional electrical cable.

The authors acknowledge that work is already underway to try and reduce the heat produced by current approaches, including the development of thinner wires, proposals to replace wires with superconducting cables, or a process called multiplexing that makes it possible to send many signals over the same cable simultaneously.

But optical fiber is a well-established technology, and is already replacing electrical wires in many areas of computing thanks to its ability to carry far more data. The authors also point out that components used in this experiment were designed to work at room temperature, so optimizing them for cryogenic temperatures could provide significant performance gains.

Solving the wiring problem is still only a small part of the much broader challenge of building large-scale quantum computers. But the research suggests a tried and tested technology could remove at least one of the hurdles in the way.

Image Credit: from Pixabay

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Fiber Optics Could Be the Key to Million-Qubit Quantum Computers - Singularity Hub

The universe is brimming with light thats invisible to us humans.

The electromagnetic spectrum extends far beyond visible light in both directions. Longer wavelengths include radio waves and shorter wavelengths reach into X-rays and gamma rays.

To study the universe in full, then, we need to extend our eyes. Some telescopes reach into the radio part of the spectrum to penetrate the occluding clouds of dust between us and the center of the galaxy, while others study X-rays from high-energy black holes and supernova remnants.

But the mind-blowing images we know and love are always rendered in full colorconverted from invisible X-rays or radio waves to visible light so we can see the universe in all its splendor.

Now, NASA has taken it a step further and converted light to sound.

In a series of sonifications, scientists and musicians translate beautiful images into compelling soundscapes. The latest edition, released this week, features data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, among others.

First up, the Chandra Deep Field.

Nearly every point of color in the image is a galaxy or supermassive black hole.

The sonification sweeps from bottom to top. If you have headphones, youll notice points of light on the right are played into your right ear, and points on the left into your left ear. Warmer colors are assigned lower tones and cooler colors higher tones.

While the incredibly broad range of X-rays gathered by Chandra have to be compressed so we can see them in reds and blues, the sonification includes the full spectrum.

Soothing, no?

The Cats Eye Nebula was formed when a sun, like our own, ran low on the helium burning in its core, blew off its outer layers, and then lit them up.

This sonification is a team effort. The center includes X-ray data from Chandra, while further out we encounter visible light from Hubble.

Instead of bottom to top, the sonification sweeps around the nebula like hands on a clock face. Visible light is softer, X-rays harsher, and in both cases brighter is louder. The rings provide a steady background hum punctuated by spoke-like features in the nebula. Someday, in the far future, our own sun may sound like this.

M51, or the Whirlpool Galaxy, is what the Milky Way would look like if we could take a trip above its plane. But seeing as warp drive remains firmly beyond reach, well have to settle for images of M51. If this sonification is any indication though, its a tense place.

Again, the composition sweeps around the radius of the galaxy, but here, the tones belong to the melodic minor scale. Creative choice clearly play a role in the character of each piece.

This sonification combines four wavelengths from four telescopes: infrared (Spitzer), optical (Hubble), ultraviolet (GALEX), and X-ray (Chandra). Each one gets its own sonic frequency. Frequencies corresponding to wavelengths in the spiral arms are assigned higher pitches the further they are from the galactic center.

Lets just say this one isunsettling.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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Hear Black Holes and Galaxies Sing in These Captivating NASA 'Sonifications' - Singularity Hub

Keeton Coffman is readying his new album, Hard Times, a 10-track feat of triumphant, ragtop-down rock-and-roll. It will be released on June 18, 2021. Anchored in Coffmans natural storytelling and earthy voice, Hard Times is both a reintroduction and a return for an artist whos pushed through starts and stops, but whos never been anything but exactly who he is. Ive never needed someones permission to write, Coffman says. Ive always just thought its what I should do.

Wounded Heart, the first single out now, is a courageous anthem that stings with power pop adhesiveness and jubilant guitar chords.Coffman echoes the sounds of his heroes while projecting his own flair of songwriting singularity. Glide Magazine

Growing up in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Coffman found an old Alvarez guitar in his mothers closet behind stacks of Motown, 70s songwriters, and Tina Turner records. My mom showed me three or four chords after I confronted her with the guitar, like, Why has this been hidden in our house? Coffman says with a smile. An elite gymnast en route to becoming a national champion, he carried the guitar with him on long bus rides to competitions, and then west to college at the University of Texas at Austin. When an injury finally ended his athletic career at 20, Coffman immersed himself wholly in music.

After graduation, Coffman packed up and moved to Houston, where he first built a following with his band, The 71s. The quartet decided to part ways in 2012, and solo projects including 2016s Killer Eyes followed, always gaining traction thanks to Coffmans Springsteen-esque grasp on the beauty only found in grit. Houston Press, Space City Rock, and other outlets noticed. But as projects opened doors, Coffman had to step back, moved by forces out of his control. Diagnosed with Bipolar II and Obsessive-compulsive disorder while still in high school, the diseases reared up and set him down. You dont know why Bipolar pops up when it doesit just comes out of nowhere, and boom, Coffman says. A few years ago, when things got very difficult, I decided, well, Im not going to stop writing even though Im not sure if these songs are any good - my analytical skills arent what they should be. When I got back to myself, I had these 10 songs.

Hard Times comprises those songsand Coffmans willingness to trust the process. When I just let the notes float around as they want to, I am symptom-free in the midst of all that, he says. On the hard days, the more music I play, the less my mind hurts. Tracks including The Magician and Night tackle deception carried out by different actors to different ends, while songs such as In the End, River Town, and Wounded Heart explore faith, consistency, and love. Vivid details form multi-dimensional character sketches moving through recognizable Texas skylines, and the guitar-wrapped stories and confessions become our own.

I hope people find themselves in the characters, Coffman says. This is a record I wrote from my experiences, but these arent stories about me. I hope these characters share your story, your thoughts, your pain. We can share the same hopethats what music does for me.

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Keeton Coffman Releases First Single Wounded Heart From New Album Hard Times Due on June 18, 2021 - Grateful Web

situated on the east side of estado de mxico, the interlomas student housing complex by a-001 taller de arquitectura, proposes an architecture that brings residents together, following space optimization principles in a shared living environment. the project introduces a distinctive volumetry, with the dwellings taking shape as concrete towers amid open recreational, rest areas with lush natural surroundings.

all images courtesy of sandra pereznieto

a-001 taller de arquitectura shaped the project through volumetric experimentation with the site, with the challenge to create a series of private and shared areas for twelve students. an initial volume was dismembered into four towers that contain the bedrooms. between these towers, there are open, common areas fostering the collective activities of the occupants. the ensemble is completed with four levels, housing the bedrooms and shared internal spaces, two study rooms, a recreational area, two lounge areas in a roof garden, two integral kitchens, a dining room, a gymnasium, and a service area for maintenance.

the project reinterprets the traditional dichotomy of the courtyard house by providing sufficient space, both interior and exterior, and allowing all rooms to enjoy natural lighting, ventilation, and verdant vegetation. regarding the projects materiality, a-001 taller de arquitectura has opted for the prominent use of corrugated steel, to give an interesting aesthetic character, as well as thermal warmth and singularity, to the complex. due to the imperfection of the technique, every corrugated concrete wall is different from the other, generating a unique look.the walls, which are very low maintenance, create a rich mix of textures and stony hues.

during the building process, several technical trials were held in order to achieve the final corrugated concrete effect. different types of metal sheets and wood were used until the ideal technique, in which none of the corrugated waves peeled off, was achieved. this is the reason why the corrugation is slightly slanted, instead of at a straight 90 angle. the exterior of the project is completed with fixed wooden furniture installed throughout the shared areas, creating visual contrast. in some cases the furniture functions as dividing walls, and in others, as partition elements that differentiate the spaces and create interesting paths in the process.

project info:

name: housing interlomas

architects: a-001 taller de arquitectura

lead architect: eduardo gorozpe

project team: arturo olavarrieta, erik ley, gustavo fajardo, mariluz arce

construction: joel betanzos, miguel becerril, agustn pilar

furniture: duhart design, fbrica astilla, blu dot

structural design: fernando calleja

location: estado de mxico

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: myrto katsikopoulou | designboom

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corrugated concrete towers + verdant patios form student housing by a-001 in mexico - Designboom

Is your head constantly spinning with outlandish, mind-burning questions? If youve ever wondered what the universe is made of, what would happen if you fell into a black hole, or even why not everyone can touch their toes, then you should be sure to listen and subscribe to Ask Us Anything, a brand new podcast from the editors of Popular Science. Ask Us Anything hitsApple,Anchor,Spotify, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every Tuesday and Thursday. Each episode takes a deep dive into a single query we know youll want to stick around for.

This time on Ask Us Anything, we took a deep dive into a black hole. Well, not literally. In fact, if you listen to this weeks episode, youll learn that if a person somehow did find their way to the entrance of a black hole and tried to enter, scientists have a pretty good idea of what would happenand its not great.

If you somehow could survive entering a black hole, then scientists dont really know what happens to you next. They do know that youll reach something called the singularity, but thats where things get wonky. The singularity is an infinitely dense point where space and time warp and cease to exist as we know them. Physicists and mathematicians have numerous ideas for what could happen in that place, but at some point, they all seem to break the laws of math and physics. Tune in to this weeks episode of Ask Us Anything (and read the story that inspired it) to hear all these possibilities. And rest assured: The nearest black hole is roughly 1,000 light-years away.

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Ask Us Anything: What would happen if you fell into a black hole? - Popular Science

When the 30-story tower Greenwich West opened late last year, its architect Franoise Raynaudthe first French woman to complete a tower in New York Citywasnt there.

Instead, the founder of Loci Anima, the Paris-based architecture, design and urban planning studio, was at her country home on the west coast of France. Shes been working from there since the first lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic were implemented more than a year ago.

Fortunately, the work on Greenwich West, located on Charlton Street in Manhattans Hudson Square neighborhood, was advanced to the point where Ms. Raynaud did not have to supervise. Her design for the facade features pewter-glazed bricks from Austria, curved corners with Art Deco vibe and oversized windows to frame views of the Hudson River and New York Harbor.

Ms. Raynaud was part of a team of designers from France working on Greenwich West. Interiors for the project were helmed by Paris-based Sebastien Segers, and French botanist Patrick Blanc created a 18-foot vertical viewing garden in the courtyard. There will be 170 residences, ranging from $1.1 million to $7.95 million.

Mansion Global spoke with Ms. Raynaud about her inspiration for the tower and her desire to see the completed project soon, plus how small imperfections can make some things even more precious.

More: New York City Developer Says Now Is a Once-in-a-Cycle Buy Opportunity

Mansion Global: How have you spent the pandemic year?

Franoise Raynaud: In France, lockdown was mandatory. It was forbidden to leave the home or [youd] face a fine. Ive been at my country house near Deauville on the west coast of France. With the digital tools we have these days, its very easy to work from home. Im aware of being extremely privileged, as the majority of Parisians were confined to their small and even large apartments.

MG: What are the most valuable amenities to have in a home right now?

FR: A garden, a terrace and a beautiful view.

More: Silicon Valley Architect Says the Pandemic Brought Design Back to Basics, Comfort and Functionality

MG: Do you have a real estate property that got away?

FR: During the first lockdown, I wanted to buy the house next door, imagining that it would be practical to bring in staff and clients from the office to work in a green workshop. But in the spring of last year, after lockdown was eased and people could travel again, there was a run on all the properties within two or three hours of Paris and I did not bid high enough.

MG: If you had a choice of living in a new development or a prime resale property, which would you choose and why?

FR: Old or new is not the main criteria for me. It really depends on the character of the property and its situation.

More: Thinking Outside Your House: Mandarin Oriental Marketing Exec Says Outdoor Amenities Are Everything Right Now

MG: What was your inspiration for Greenwich West?

FR: Few parts of Manhattan have such a visible urban history, so its influence on the context of the built environment is fundamental. The building is a reflection of the way that the Hudson Square district has evolved over the centuries, adapting itself to the changing social and urban context that has formed the area. Greenwich West is a contemporary insertion in a changing context that seats itself in a complex urban environment seeking stability and innovation.

MG: How has it been to continue work on projects like Greenwich West when you cant be there in person?

FR: Fortunately, the Greenwich project was very advanced and would no longer require our presence, as in the earlier phases. What we missed a lot is not being able to participate in this beautiful, very rewarding and emotional moment which is the completion of a project of this magnitude. We will hopefully be able to come back to NYC soon and catch up with this.

More: Canada-Based Designer on Making the Home a Sanctuary

MG: Whats the biggest surprise in the luxury real estate market now?

FR: Real estate in Europe is doing quite well despite the long months of economic shutdown; it is still a safe haven.

MG: Where is the next hotspot for luxury homes and why?

FR: There could be an increased attraction to destinations where there are less coercive health measures in place, either because of better management or thanks to less contamination. That freedom may be a new luxury criterion for some.

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MG: Whats your favorite part of your own home?

FR: I have a passionate love for my Normandy house. It is an Anglo-Norman style house dating from the beginning of the last century. Each room has an extremely beautiful fireplace decorated with wood, brick and ceramic details.

MG: What does luxury mean to you?

FR: For me it is a more Japanese conception of the precious objectsomething that was made as a unique model and which could even have some small flaws, which gives it all its singularity. Its something far from the industrialized product of luxury brands.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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The OOH market in China is valued at around US$9 billion, with DOOH estimated to be worth 30% of that figure. DOOH spend is expected to continue along a growth trajectory, while its static outdoor counterpartwith the exception of large format billboard adsis set to decline, a position that bucks global static OOH forecasts and is testimony to the singularity of the Chinese environment. While pandemic-related restrictions drove indoor media consumption and CTV ad spend last year, Chinese consumers have now resumed their outdoor lives and activities, making this the right time to focus on DOOH.

GroupMestimatesOOH in China has a higher daily reach than TV among users in the 15-45 age bracket, ranking second only to the internet. Just as they do with CTV, advertisers can reach engaged audiences with relevant messaging by using innovative digital out of home (DOOH) technologies, such as programmatic and data-driven targeting, to further increase the impact of their campaigns.

The opportunity presented by outdoor advertising is not lost on some of the countrys largest businesses with many exploring the opportunities offered by DOOH inventory. This includes Alibaba, which has invested $1.43 billion in Focus Media, the largest out-of-home advertising network in China. Baidu has placed $300 million in Xinchao Media, the countrys leading DOOH media owner, and Tencent has invested an undisclosed amount in Tikin Media. JD.com, the nations leading one-stop ecommerce platformoften referred to as the Amazon of Chinais also one of the countrys top DOOH advertisers.

As the local digital audience continues to grow, OOH inventory is attracting demand from Western brands such as Este Lauder, Tesla, Walmart and Procter & Gamble. With mobile and digital channels driving user engagement and media consumption, DOOH is increasingly becoming an essential medium for advertisers and brands to deliver impactful cross-platform campaigns.

Following a long period of being stuck indoors and staring at screens, people are keen to get outside and reclaim their livespresenting an opportunity for Western brands and Chinese publishers to capitalise on the power of programmatic DOOH and attract the attention of those with screen fatigue looking for an escape.

The adoption of programmatic technology, which brings advanced capabilities including data-driven audience targeting, measurement, accountability and automated buying, makes DOOH a powerful performance marketing channel.

Chinese DOOH publishers are proactively looking for new technology and innovative ways to help brands drive better online and offline integration with measurable results. DOOH media is already being traded programmatically, which is opening up new opportunities for Chinese publishers to monetise inventory from Western brands. Some DSP operators are pushing this transformation and are already up and running for Western brands to reach Chinese audiences.

Just as the convergence of traditional and digital channels is driving a surge in CTV advertising in China, digitalisation is set to drive significant growth in DOOH over the coming year. While more transparency, accountability and standardisation will inevitably be required as the ecosystem matures, the technology already exists to aggregate inventory and data capabilities through programmatic.

Troy Yang is managing director of North Asia at Hivestack

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As outdoor life resumes in China, now is the time to invest in DOOH | Advertising - Campaign Asia

Before the release of Ok Computer, Gandhi sat down for a short conversation to reflect on the decade gone by, the present circumstances, and what the near-future might hold for us.

We might be living in uncertain times right now, but it's nearly impossible to remain cynical about the future while talking to the multi-hyphenate, Anand Gandhi. And that's because Gandhi has always lived in the future.

At a time when the country was still coming to terms with the World Wide Web in 1996, Gandhi was teaching Adobe Photoshop. Starting out writing dialogue on two of Indian TV's biggest K-serials (Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki) at age 20, Gandhi used the earnings to experiment with an interesting short film, Right Here Right Now, in 2003. He backed a young, unknown voice called Chaitanya Tamhane, with his first play: Grey Elephants In Denmark in 2008.

At a time, when streaming services were a distant dream, Gandhi made his directorial feature Ship of Theseus (2012) available for download... for free. Running a lab called Memesys, Gandhi is now at the forefront of India's VR technology initiatives, trying to integrate it into day-to-day storytelling.

"Anand is an awe addict. His sole aim is to inspire awe and wonder, he's most excited by creation," says Neil Pagedar, his co-creator on the brand-new futuristic show, Ok Computer,now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. Starring Vijay Varma, Radhika Apte and Jackie Shroff in prominent roles, the show is a comical take on the future where AI (Artificial Intelligence) is investigated in a murder case.

A promotional still of Ok Computer. Twitter @sachin35308302

Varma tells me how he was 'arrested' for the part by Gandhi "Anand and I go back a long way, he was a mentor for the selection process at FTII. I developed a very unique and unsaid bond with him. He had ideas that no one talked about, he has an enthusiasm that can be really infectious. He's in a very evolved state of being right, and it's something he's been harnessing and cultivating for a while..."

Before the release of Ok Computer, Gandhi sat down for a short conversation to reflect on the decade gone by, the present circumstances, and what the near-future might hold for us.

Edited excerpts from the conversation:

I'm sure filmmakers don't like to discuss 'market forces' but tell me how did the industry react to Ship of Theseus?

Ship of Theseus, according to all of us who worked on the film, was as successful as successful can get. One story I would like to share about it, is the Film Critics Circle based in London, which is the oldest critics body in the world, had invited its members and other film scholars to make a list of the films that changed their lives. The only film from the last 30 years (also apart from the fact that the only Indian film) in that list was Ship of Theseus. Around that same time, Ship of Theseus was also made it to the cover of Box Office India. I think we achieved what we set out to achieve, we made a film that was warmly received and got India the interest that we deserve as a culture, and that we could represent India in a way that's not been done on the world stage for a long time. Meanwhile, it also got an incredible response in India too. It wasn't a couple of days or weeks, but we started out by releasing the film in six cities, and by the end (around the sixth week), the film was playing in 46 cities. So it was a massive success, even in terms of box office too, led entirely by an audience's demand for quality content. It was a complete, audience-driven distribution model of cinema. Immediately after the film's theatrical run, the film was acquired by Netflix. I think it was probably the first Indian film to be acquired by Netflix. After that, there were conversations with HBO in Latin America, Channel 4 with Australian and UK partners, all of that happened later. We got a massive worldwide distribution, but I think it opened up possibilities for us. It was a pilot project that fructified our belief that there is an audience (in India and abroad) that are hungry to look at deep, meaningful conversations being represented in cinema.

Did it have any material effect on your career as a filmmaker?

It opened up windows in my life, wear multiple hats like I did after that. I see my responsibility as a storyteller first, I think we should look at the greatest ideas at our disposal, as a civilisation. Ideas that come to us from Philosophy, Economics, Politics, Sciences, Biology, Neurosciences about our existence, about the idea of the human self and its relationship with its environment. The more we develop such ideas into rich, intuitive, seductive stories, (we may discover) audiences that were previously not exposed to these audience, but ones that they might thoroughly enjoy. That's really my responsibility as a storyteller, hence, I don't limit it only to writing or directing. I love to produce, I love to seek out talent, cinema-thinkers, who might not be fulfilling their potential in the present infrastructure. I can probably help expedite their dream, and that's where I've had the good fortune to work with the brilliant filmmakers under one umbrella, to be each other's peer reviewers, to challenge each other, to question and constantly inspire each other. Filmmakers like Neil and Pooja, who are now being launched with Ok Computer, Vinay and Khushboo (who made An Insignificant Man), Rahi Barve (Tumbbad), my good friend Chaitanya Tamahane, I've had the privilege to work with some incredible filmmakers. Chaitanya, obviously I haven't worked on a film with, but I helped produce his play Grey Elephants In Denmark long back. Pankaj Kumar, obviously our brilliant cinematographer, I've had the honour to collaborate with incredible talent. I find it incredibly challenging and even exciting, to invent new markets, to discover new audiences for content. I've realised that if we can afford some dignity to the audience, if we can acknowledge that our audience members are thoughtful beings with meaningful pursuits, then the relationship between these new-age creators and the audience becomes and exciting thing to forge.

We've seen plenty of movies about singularity, it's been at the heart of most modern sci-fi. What intrigued you about this sub-genre of movies, what sparked your curiosity?

That's a great question that we've been asking ourselves for the last six-seven years. I've had the good fortune to be deeply engaged in conversations around Singularity, around longevity. My good friends at Future of Humanities Institute at Oxford, have been advisors and participants to pretty much everything we've tried to write. Many years ago, I had the honour to speak at Singularity University about the future of the human consciousness, I had the privilege to be a mentor at the XPrize Visoneers Forums (in 2016). Pooja, Neil and I have been deeply embedded into these conversations for a while, and there's an incredible legacy to this genre (like you rightly pointed out), which dates back to a century in modern science-fiction. I think it's been exactly 100 years since the Czech play Rossum's Universal Robots was written, covering the exact themes that we're trying to uncover with Ok Computer. And then, coming from a legacy of names like Phillip K Dick, Asimov, Douglas Adams, and TV creators like Matt Groening, who have played around with similar settings and done their own spin on things, I think the one thing we did was to set and build it in India. Thanks to our specific POV, we can imagine how these machines would work in India. Second, to approach it with a lot of humour and joy. We wanted to pay homage to all the incredible literature behind us, but at the same time keeping things simple enough for someone being introduced to it. That was really important, that while many young Indians are exposed to many things from across the world, were still not exposed to some of the things here. We wanted to keep it light and delightful for them, so as to engage with them. We want these viewers to take these concepts and make it a dialogue. We look at this first season as an ice-breaker, and we're actually hoping that the audience will take it all and start a dialogue. We want this show to be a dialogue that India has with the world.

Do you have short-term and a long-term goals as a filmmaker, something you would like to share?

Short-term goal like I said, I want the audience to completely take to OkComputer. It's out there for complete absorption. Like all our previous projects, we're a group of community-first authors. We're here to play a tiny, humble role of sharing some insights, ideas, dreams and anxieties with our audiences. But that's only the beginning, we want the audience to own it, to adopt it, to make it their own, to share it, to rip it apart. To tell us where we went wrong, to tell us where they want us to go next, we're more than happy to engage with our audiences to create something great. The long-term goal is even simpler, we're one billion people, one-sixth of the world population. If you think that each person has at least 10 great stories to tell in their lifetime, then we're currently sitting on a goldmine of 10 billion stories waiting to be represented on screen. Just imagine... I'm hard-pressed to believe that as much as we would like to borrow from the West, we would also like to set stories in India. Something that has to do with our people's imaginations, their dreams, and their futures. In the next 10 years, I would like to see a world-class studio emerge out of India, and I would be very happy with myself if I sowed the seed for it to happen.

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Long-term goal is to set more stories in India: Anand Gandhi opens up on Hotstar series OK Computer - Firstpost