Daniel S Helman

Winkle Institute

Based on the observation that teacher expectation often drives classroom success, a project was undertaken whereby all students were given top marks in two sections of a geology classroom at the undergraduate level. To further this project, a student motivation strategy was attempted to take the place of their not having to fear for top marks. The...

Electrochemical cells from ice will be an important seasonal addition to power generation in cold regions. We demonstrate power generation on the order of 0.1 mW at 0.3 V and 0.13 m² surface area using an electrochemical cell with 2% HCl providing a pH gradient in ice, and suggest a solar add-on effect due to temperature changes under direct sunlig...

Four types of academic social media (publication-repository, Q&A, crowd-funding, and blogs) provide a mixed methods review of Vietnamese academic usage with Chinese data presented as control. Data show the extent Vietnamese academics are present, and from this, a future trajectory. An iterative qualitative process assesses the quality of academic o...

This case report describes the sudden presentation and successful cessation of psychiatric symptoms following the first administration of the Moderna mRNA vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus during early 2021. The process of discovery of symptoms is described, along with an empirical procedure which identified St. John’s wort as the mediating agen...

This is a digest of how various researchers in biology and astrobiology have explored questions of what defines living organisms—definitions based on functions or structures observed in organisms, or on systems terms, or on mathematical conceptions like closure, chirality, quantum mechanics and thermodynamics, or on biosemiotics, or on Darwinian ev...

Conversion of strangers, or proselytizing, is a feature of a range of groups for religious, organizational and other aims. In twelve-step recovery programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, belief in a higher power is a requirement for working the steps to recovery. People are encouraged to find a higher power of their own understanding. This paper pr...

Conversion of strangers, or proselytizing, is a feature of a range of groups for religious, organizational and other aims. In twelve-step recovery programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, belief in a higher power is a requirement for working the steps to recovery. People are encouraged to find a higher power of their own understanding. This paper pr...

The average atmospheric charge density of Earth is neutral. Charge built up from thunderstorms and lightning phenomena is offset by oceanic surface charging, and offers a source of energy that has not been harnessed broadly. Unfortunately, the total terrestrial energy of the Earth’s atmospheric electrical system is modest (250–500 MW) compared to i...

The average atmospheric charge density of Earth is neutral. Charge built up from thunderstorms and lightning phenomena is offset by oceanic surface charging, and offers a source of energy that has not been harnessed broadly. Unfortunately, the total terrestrial energy of the Earth’s atmospheric electrical system is modest (250–500 MW) compared to i...

Schizophrenia is a major mental illness with a disease course that is influenced by lifestyle. The risk-benefit ratio for alternative interventions is more favorable than for antipsychotics in long-term treatment. Dietary interventions may target autoimmune features, vitamin or mineral deficiencies, abnormal lipid metabolism, gluten sensitivity or...

Electromagnetic phenomena are sometimes associated with seismic events, but earthquake prediction using seismic electric signals (SES) has not been seriously considered since the early 1990s. There are several causes: (1) false alarms that have created panics in Greece, and (2) a strong critique of the Varotsos-Alexopoulos-Nomicos (VAN) method used...

Electromagnetic phenomena are sometimes associated with seismic events, but earthquake prediction using seismic electric signals (SES) has not been seriously considered since the early 1990s. There are several causes: (1) false alarms that have created panics in Greece, and (2) a strong critique of the Varotsos-Alexopoulos-Nomicos (VAN) method used...

Schizophrenia is a major mental illness with a disease course that is influenced by lifestyle. The risk-benefit ratio for alternative interventions is more favorable than for antipsychotics in long-term treatment. Dietary interventions may target autoimmune features, vitamin or mineral deficiencies, abnormal lipid metabolism, gluten sensitivity, or...

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries witnessed political change moving away from socialism on a national scale in some countries. In one model the institutions of government were completely transformed, e.g. Russia from the USSR, while in another model markets have been added to the socialist frame, e.g. in China. The conditions of art producti...

Metamorphism generates electrical and magnetic phenomena, and is influenced by these forces. Information fundamental to their combined study is presented, including examples from microtectonics, crystal physics, geophysics, seismology, mineralogy and materials science. Applications for earthquake prediction, planetary science research, alternative...

Prudence demands a pre-contact appraisal of ethical requirements towards living organisms as planetary science and astrobiology continue to move forward. Likewise, advances in artificial intelligence may mean that it will be necessary to have ethical guidelines in place for machine life. A novel framework for studying complementary ethical perspect...

The Arctic is warming twice as quickly as the rest of the globe. There are perhaps fifteen years left before all the perennial Arctic sea ice has melted, and climatic as well as ecosystem health is uncertain. This set of haiku is inspired by Subhankar Banerjee's Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point (2012) and other texts, in which an ethi...

Conceptualizing planetary habitability depends on understanding how living organisms originated and what features of environments are essential to foster abiogenesis. Estimates of the abundance of life's building blocks are confounded by incomplete knowledge of the role of chirality and racemization in organic compounds in the origination of living...

https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1XSls6gcL6w3aC

Despite coincidental earthquakes in Southern California and Hawaii during recent (April-May 2018) coronal hole events and of the devastating Mexico earthquakes of September 2017 coincident with major solar flare activity, there are many seismic events that lack associated solar activity, thus prediction seems unlikely. Likewise with lunisolar gravi...

The existence of Earth's solid inner core is well-known from the seismological observations of Inge Lehmann in the early part of the 20th century. Yet if the Earth's inner core were a high-density plasma—acting as a non-Newtonian fluid—it is hypothesized to likewise transmit transverse seismic waves as solid materials do. These two alternative hypo...

In human history the successful contacts between cultures have been held together with trade and shared economic interests. The genetic diversity of our planet is unique—as it is the result of the interactions of life with this particular environment. As such, genomic information might form a viable trade good if contact with an extraterrestrial sp...

School discipline remains authoritarian in the USA despite the superficial adoption of student-centered, constructivist lesson delivery. The issue may be lack of ideas for how to conduct constructivist discipline. Three novel activities are presented for classroom discipline that may close this gap. All three present discipline in a manner that is...

Update: Job Announcement: Faculty of Labor Relations and Trade Unions, Ton Duc Thang University (Tenure-Track Faculty) I've just joined the faculty at Ton Duc Thang University in Ho Chi Minh City and am helping to recruit faculty members (short-term or full-time, with PhD). In this capacity I would be very, very happy to correspond with anyone rela...

Subject: Science. Grade level: Middle school, high school, or college. This is a student-centered activity that will work with all three levels. Distance learning: Yes, this activity can be adapted to use in an electronic classroom. Time for this lesson: 50 minutes. Content goals: • Students will be aware of what is meant by confirmation bias and...

Subjects: Career education, homeroom, citizenship, health, science, computer science Grade level: Middle school, high school, college, career. This is a student-centered activity that will work with all four levels. Distance learning: Yes, this activity can be adapted to use in an electronic classroom. Time for this lesson: 50 minutes Content goal...

What is covered in this report? Policy related to autonomous machines and artificial intelligence. Policy related to space exploration and microbial and other life potentially found there. Why are these two covered in the same report? The fundamental issues of technology, rights and life are intertwined in a way that sometimes a view from differen...

Prudence demands a pre-contact appraisal of ethical requirements towards living organisms as planetary science and astrobiology continue to move forward. Likewise, advances in artificial intelligence may mean that it will be necessary to have ethical guidelines in place for machine life. A novel framework for studying complementary ethical perspect...

Ice is a mineral that exhibits paraelectricity, piezoelectricity and pyroelectricity [1,2]. Exploring whether the electrical properties of ice may influence the formation of proto-metabolic chemical systems on its surface in various settings is the aim of this work. Background information on relevant topics will be presented so that participants wi...

Medication- and symptom-free recovery has been the author’s experience since March 2006. Details of 127 potentially therapeutic lifestyle activities were explored using a structured reflective analysis. These activities were divided into twelve communities: family, arts, romance, etc. Perceived therapeutic effects are noted. Also included is the au...

Abstract: Total Physical Response (TPR) is a second-language learning technique developed from observations of how very young children learn language in a family setting. The point of focus is the act of a parent asking or directing the very young child, e.g. “See that box over there? Go bring it to me” or some similar request that was just at the...

Conceptualizing planetary habitability depends on understanding how living organisms originated and what features of environments are essential to foster abiogenesis. Estimates of the abundance of life's building blocks are confounded by incomplete knowledge of the role of chirality and racemization in organic compounds in the origination of living...

Abstract: Living organisms are a conundrum. Their origin and provenance are open questions. An operational definition for their detection has been settled upon for practical reasons, i.e. in order to plan mission goals. The spirit of such undertakings is typically noble, and yet the question arises clearly related to how humanity will engage with o...

Living organisms are a conundrum. Their origin and provenance are open questions. An operational definition for their detection has been settled upon for practical reasons, i.e. in order to plan mission goals. The spirit of such undertakings is typically noble, and yet the question arises clearly related to how humanity will engage with other livin...

Malia read the paper and then again. It was hard to believe. “Really?” you thought. “They’re offering money for that?” It was midweek, and you’d managed to accompany your brother to the store, where he picked up yesterday’s news for half price. http://365tomorrows.com/2016/10/06/malia-read-the-paper-and-then-again/

Abstract Recent experiments by the author suggest that there may be viable conditions for power production in cold-weather locations from solar panels made out of water ice. The most promising model uses a three-layer panel, with a partially melted layer of ice plus acid (or base) sandwiched between two layers of water ice. The energetics of the ma...

The Earth’s core, mantle and crust are composed of rocks and minerals, and exhibit electrical and magnetic phenomena. Electrical data in particular are extremely sparse for Earth materials; fewer than one hundred minerals have piezoelectric data associated with them, for example. This type of data helps to constrain Earth processes and structures,...

Catastrophic ice loss from the Arctic and Antarctic may lead to large-scale changes in both weather and climate. From a human perspective, the worst case resulting would be changes to weather circulation such that rain patterns would be disrupted significantly. The impact on global agriculture is worth studying. Preliminary thoughts related to mode...

Ground glass may be used as a filler or pigment in many industries, including construction, papermaking, fine arts, and others. While it can replace sand in concrete, calcium carbonate in plastics and paper, and pigments in paints, the economic potential is complex, with challenges caused by uncertainties in the waste diversion of glass from curren...

Currently, there are competing scientific definitions for life based on observed features; thermodynamics; biosemiotics; quantum mechanics; chirality; the ability to undergo Darwinian evolution; and others features. While these definitions are not necessarily exclusive, research in the origins of life and other related fields are hampered by there...

This work explores composition and melting point data (or lack of data) related to Earth’s outer core, and also the possibility of a high-density plasma composition, plus gives a background on Inge Lehmann’s seismological observation demonstrating a solid inner core. Implications related to geomagnetic field dynamics are also presented, as are evid...

Since Georg Cantor’s invention of set theory in the 19th century, mathematics has increasingly contributed tools for solving scientific questions. One of these tools is the Axiom of Choice (AC), a proposition in set theory which describes the ability to choose a member from a set. AC states that one can always choose an element from a set of non-em...

Mathematics and science pedagogy can be practiced with as much heart and active learning as one would find in any language-learning classroom. The short sequence of activities presented here use teaching techniques adopted from the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom and applied to mathematics and science in a way that humanities and socia...

The possibility exists for creating solar panels from ice very cheaply, i.e. for the cost of the tray, wires and tensioners to hold the wires down. These would only be workable in locales wherein the ambient air temperature is cold, but the low cost makes them attractive and suggests future wide adoption. How to get there? Should governments rely o...

This is the text of a mini-course that presents material about yoga practice and philosophy for those who are not familiar with it. The focus is ultimately on how to use these philosophies as a research methodology.

Telluric currents are natural electrical phenomena in the Earth or its bodies of water. The strongest electric currents are related to lightning phenomena or space weather. Earth electricity can cause damage to structures, and may be useful for earthquake forecasting and other applications. Thirty-two distinct mechanisms that cause Earth electricit...

Metamorphism generates electrical and magnetic phenomena, and is influenced by these forces. Information fundamental to their combined study is presented, including examples from microtectonics, crystal physics, geophysics, seismology, mineralogy and materials science. Applications for earthquake prediction, planetary science research, alternative...

Metamorphism generates electrical and magnetic phenomena, and is influenced by these forces. Information fundamental to their combined study is presented, including examples from microtectonics, crystal physics, geophysics, seismology, mineralogy and materials science. Applications for earthquake prediction, planetary science research, alternative...

The paper promotes urban parks as suitable locations for geology field trips. A sample field guide of Griffith Park in Los Angeles is presented. The area described includes fault splays in the Santa Monica Fault Zone, and shows an inferred linkage between the Hollywood Fault and the Eagle Rock Fault. A conjunction of three faults is described, alon...

The article reviews the current literature related to lightning and makes a case for using lightning as an alternative source of energy. Objections to using lightning as an alternative source of energy are listed. Current literature is reviewed and articles are suggested as useful for building a tower, or using rockets or lasers to target a strike,...