houck2040/artisci huggingface dataset:
why every christmas do so many people endure the mess of dried pine needles the risk of a fire hazard and impossibly tangled strings of lights strapping a fir tree to the hood of my car and worrying about the strength of the twine i sometimes wonder if i should just buy an artificial tree and do away with all the hassle then my inner historian scolds me i have to remind myself that im taking part in one of the worlds oldest religious traditions to give up the tree would be to give up a ritual that predates christmas itself a symbol of life in a time of darkness almost all agrarian societies independently venerated the sun in their pantheon of gods at one time or another there was the sol of the norse the aztec huitzilopochtli the greek helios the solstices when the sun is at its highest and lowest points in the sky were major events the winter solstice when the sky is its darkest has been a notable day of celebration in agrarian societies throughout human history the persian shab-e yalda dongzhi in china and the north american hopi soyal all independently mark the occasion the favored décor for ancient winter solstices evergreen plants whether as palm branches gathered in egypt in the celebration of ra or wreaths for the roman feast of saturnalia evergreens have long served as symbols of the perseverance of life during the bleakness of winter and the promise of the suns return christmas slowly emerges christmas came much later the date was not fixed on liturgical calendars until centuries after jesus birth and the english word christmas an abbreviation of christs mass – would not appear until over 1 000 years after the original event while dec 25 was ostensibly a christian holiday many europeans simply carried over traditions from winter solstice celebrations which were notoriously raucous affairs for example the 12 days of christmas commemorated in the popular carol actually originated in ancient germanic yule celebrations the continued use of evergreens most notably the christmas tree is the most visible remnant of those ancient solstice celebrations although ernst anschützs well-known 1824 carol dedicated to the tree is translated into english as o christmas tree the title of the original german tune is simply tannenbaum meaning fir tree there is no reference to christmas in the carol which anschütz based on a much older silesian folk love song in keeping with old solstice celebrations the song praises the trees faithful hardiness during the dark and cold winter bacchanal backlash sixteenth-century german protestants eager to remove the iconography and relics of the roman catholic church gave the christmas tree a huge boost when they used it to replace nativity scenes the religious reformer martin luther supposedly adopted the practice and added candles
but a century later the english puritans frowned upon the disorderly holiday for lacking biblical legitimacy they banned it in the 1650s with soldiers patrolling londons streets looking for anyone daring to celebrate the day puritan colonists in massachusetts did the same fining whosoever shall be found observing christmas or the like either by forbearing of labor feasting or any other way german immigration to the american colonies ensured that the practice of trees would take root in the new world benjamin franklin estimated that at least one-third of pennsylvanias white population was german before the american revolution yet the german tradition of the christmas tree blossomed in the united states largely due to britains german royal lineage taking a cue from the queen since 1701 english kings had been forbidden from becoming or marrying catholics germany which was made up of a patchwork of kingdoms had eligible protestant princes and princesses to spare many british royals privately maintained the familiar custom of a christmas tree but queen victoria – who had a german mother as well as a german grandmother on her fathers side – made the practice public and fashionable victorias style of rule both reflected and shaped the outwardly stern family-centered morality that dominated middle-class life during the era in the 1840s christmas became the target of reformers like novelist charles dickens who sought to transform the raucous celebrations of the largely sidelined holiday into a family day in which the people of the rapidly industrialized nation could relax rejoice and give thanks his 1843 novella a christmas carol in which the miserly ebenezer scrooge found redemption by embracing dickens prescriptions for the holiday was a hit with the public while the evergreen décor is evident in the hand-colored illustrations dickens specially commissioned for the book there are no christmas trees in those pictures
victoria added the fir tree to family celebrations five years later although christmas trees had been part of private royal celebrations for decades an 1848 issue of the london illustrated news depicted victoria with her german husband and children decorating one as a family at windsor castle the cultural impact was almost instantaneous christmas trees started appearing in homes throughout england its colonies and the rest of the english-speaking world dickens followed with his short story a christmas tree two years later adopting the tradition in america during this period americas middle classes generally embraced all things victorian from architecture to moral reform societies sarah hale the author most famous for her childrens poem mary had a little lamb used her position as editor of the best-selling magazine godeys ladies book* to advance a reformist agenda that included the abolition of slavery and the creation of holidays that promoted pious family values the adoption of thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863 was perhaps her most lasting achievement it is closely followed by the christmas tree while trees sporadically adorned the homes of german immigrants in the us it became a mainstream middle-class practice when in 1850 godeys published an engraving of victoria and her christmas tree a supporter of dickens and the movement to reinvent christmas hale helped to popularize the family christmas tree across the pond only in 1870 did the united states recognize christmas as a federal holiday the practice of erecting public christmas trees emerged in the us in the 20th century in 1923 the first one appeared on the white houses south lawn during the great depression famous sites such as new yorks rockefeller center began erecting increasingly larger trees
christmas trees go global as both american and british cultures extended their influence around the world christmas trees started to appear in communal spaces even in countries that are not predominately christian shopping districts in dubai united arab emirates hong kong and tokyo now regularly erect trees the modern christmas tree is a universal symbol that carries meanings both religious and secular adorned with lights they promote hope and offer brightness in literally the darkest time of year for half of the world in that sense the modern christmas tree has come full circle * this link is no longer active and has been removed this story was originally published by the conversation
at a humble facility that once served as the fire station for the bryan air force base the timbers of an 18th-century merchant ship lie submerged in a row of long shallow tanks quietly awaiting their final voyage home over the next few years a team of texas a&m university professors and students will carefully conserve the salvaged remains of a colonial-era shipwreck before sending the pieces back to alexandria virginia where the wreck was originally discovered in 2015 its a big job says chris dostal assistant professor in the department of anthropologys nautical archaeology program and director of the conservation research laboratory located at the rellis campus in bryan but as dostal explains texas a&m is one of just a handful of institutions in the country with the knowledge and resources to permanently preserve this important piece of american history theres only a few places that do underwater archaeology conservation said dostal who earned both his master's and phd in anthropology at texas a&m in 2015 and 2017 respectively and i would say the vast majority of those places are all run by aggies big rigs of the sea in the mid-to-late 1700s the city of alexandria was quickly becoming one of the busiest ports in america situated along the banks of the potomac river its harbor was a popular spot for merchant ships to stop and unload goods from all around the world these ships were sort of like the 18-wheelers of their day dostal said simple sturdy vessels built to carry tons of cargo from port to port for 18th century alexandrians they would have been a wholly unremarkable sight but to todays archaeologists theyre a rare treasure we dont have many archaeological remains of these ships because its just like a big rig you dont really think of it as important he said so they werent very well-documented and very few of them are preserved thats why the discovery of this ship and three others like it within the span of a few years in alexandria was such a big deal: its like hitting the jackpot dostal said
all four ships were discovered by accident when construction crews started digging into the ground near the citys present-day waterfront the first ship unearthed in 2015 during construction of the since-completed hotel indigo was sent to texas a&m for permanent conservation dostal said this ship was probably constructed sometime during the 1750s making it more than 260 years old the three other wrecks dug up at a different site in 2018 now lie at the bottom of a pond in alexandrias ben brenman park the longer the water-logged wood is allowed to dry out the more it deteriorates dostal said submerging the ships will help keep them safe for additional research and preservation efforts in the future putting the pieces together when discoveries like this are made aggies are often at the center of the action the universitys world-renowned nautical archaeology program has been at the forefront of this growing field since the 1970s when father of underwater archaeology george f bass chose texas a&m as the permanent home for his research institute when the first alexandria wreck was dug up in 2015 dostal was an a&m graduate student he and a group of fellow aggies made the trip to virginia to help catalog the discovery using a unique digital scanning technique dostal developed while studying another 18th-century ship unearthed at the site of the world trade center they have since made at least eight return trips to alexandria to scan the other three wrecks because its such a lengthy process i really wanted to have all the data in front of us so that we could study the ship before all of that was done dostal said now while the pieces of the hotel indigo ship sit in vats of liquid at rellis dostal can hold a 3d-printed replica in his hand and use it to explain the teams findings additional models were sent to a local museum in alexandria so residents can learn more about the seafaring history of their city weve been able to see all kinds of technological innovations that were being utilized at the time the shortcuts being used during construction and sort of the mindset of the shipbuilders dostal said for instance the hotel indigo ship would have been unnecessarily strong for its time he explained owing to the large number of timbers packed close together to create the ships frame when europeans got to the americas one of the things they were struck by was the amount of trees that were here dostal said so they started building ships with this really close framing which is incredibly unnecessary for shipbuilding but they figured we might as well make it as strong as possible
thinking about why the ships were found underground and not at the bottom of the river opens up another window into alexandrias past when these vessels had outlived their usefulness as cargo ships dostal said they were sawed in half and intentionally buried to help expand the citys waterfront in the 18th century landowners started to break down the bluffs that were behind them and push the dirt into the bay essentially creating a false chunk of land he said while they were doing that they were using old ships cutting the timbers across the keel until they broke open and then kind of using them as a pier or a retaining wall so thats why the ships were there in the first place two centuries of water damage for dostal and the team at the conservation research laboratory the ultimate goal is to return the hotel indigo ship to alexandria in the best shape possible getting to that point has already involved years of hard work and as dostal explains theres still much to be done transporting the wreck from virginia to texas was a monumental effort in its own right as crews wrapped each piece in wet towels and foam to help the wood retain its moisture during the 1 400-mile truck ride now the challenge is to safely remove all that moisture while keeping each piece intact when it was buried the wood was below the water table so water was attacking the cells of the wood the whole time dostal said think of it like this: if you make a lasagna and you have a bunch of baked-on stuff around the edge you just put the pan under the water and let the water break it down it does the same thing to wood over time eventually the water breaks down key components of the woods cellular structure like cellulose and lignin until the only thing keeping the cells from collapsing is the water itself filling up each cell like a balloon therein lies the problem dostal said: theres no other material in the cells to help them keep their shape so if you let the water come out itll just collapse ultimately turning the wood to dust
to prevent this the team is soaking each and every piece in a solution of polyethylene glycol this water-soluble wax will slowly be absorbed by the wood cells replacing the water and shoring up the structure of the cells before the timbers are removed from the liquid and placed in a massive freeze dryer like the process used for snacks like astronaut ice cream freeze drying allows dostal and his crew to quickly remove any remaining moisture from the wood without risking additional deterioration by letting the water escape as a gas instead of seeping out as a liquid and causing more damage to the wood along the way its the same process aggies used to preserve la belle a french ship that sank in matagorda bay during la salles doomed expedition to the americas in the 1680s its preserved hull is now on display at the bullock texas state history museum in austin the city of alexandria has similar plans for its restored merchant ship dostal said: the idea is to reassemble the ship and have it on display on the waterfront for the many texas a&m students who have assisted with the conservation effort the project has been a valuable hands-on learning experience thanks to them countless future visitors will get to see this long-forgotten piece of history up close weve had about a dozen grad students helping on the project and at this point probably about a dozen undergraduate students as well dostal said with more work ahead for this project and many others he said the lab will continue enlisting help from this newest generation of aggie archaeologists if someone wants to get ancient splinters in their thumb dostal said well hook them up this story was originally published by texas a&m today
kelli humbird a nuclear engineer and who graduated from texas a&m university describes the last 10 days as surreal humbird is a design physicist at the lawrence livermore national laboratory (llnl) in california she works on the team of scientists that predicted a major breakthrough in the field of nuclear energy was poised to occur and her team was right on dec 5 the lab used 192 giant lasers to ignite a nuclear fusion reaction unlike any before in human history thats because the fusion reaction produced more energy than it took to start the reaction the breakthrough which was announced tuesday will advance us nuclear deterrence and someday could lead to a new abundant source of clean and safe energy to fuel everyday life
after it happened i barely slept that night said humbird a houston-area native who holds four degrees from texas a&m including a phd in nuclear engineering (2019) and a bachelor of science in physics (2013) this is one of those moon landing kind of events it cant be emphasized enough how big of a deal this is energy secretary jennifer granholm compared the breakthrough to the wright brothers flight at kitty hawk she and other top department of energy officials called it the culmination of 60 years of research and thousands of scientists work while there is no official count there is also no doubt that many of those contributing scientists over the years have been texas a&m graduates working at llnl or faculty from texas a&m who have worked closely with the lab for example two texas a&m professors of industrial and systems engineering satish ts bukkapatnam and yu ding have helped llnl engineer the type of capsule that contained the fuel for fusion on dec 5 lawrence livermore has ongoing affiliations with texas a&m in physics and math as well as a range of engineering fields in addition to multiple collaborations with the texas a&m cyclotron institute llnl workers train in high-explosive safety techniques at disaster city in college station which is operated by the texas a&m engineering extension service (teex) even lawrence livermore director kim budil is a graduate of an executive education program at the texas a&m bush school of government and public service a program tailored to meet the needs of the department of energys national security labs and facilities and then there is marvin l adams the renowned texas a&m university nuclear engineering professor who has taken a leave of absence to serve as deputy administrator of doe defense programs he took to a podium in washington dc tuesday and explained to the world the experiment itself
his role stems from his 30 years at texas a&m helping scientists at llnl and the other national labs tackle daunting research challenges he and other texas a&m professors also have mentored generations of engineers including many playing vital roles at the labs im not surprised that aggies played a significant part in a breakthrough like this said interim vice chancellor and dean of texas a&m engineering john e hurtado who worked at sandia national laboratories early in his career this is a special place we have the largest nuclear engineering program in the country we have renowned professors teaching mentoring and guiding these students who then have opportunities to go to the national labs when they graduate michael zika 53 went straight to lawrence livermore upon getting his phd from texas a&m in 1997 now the deputy program director for weapons physics and design zika has designed other experiments for the giant facility used on dec 5 the national ignition facility has the worlds largest most precise and reproducible laser system its the size of a sports stadium and produces the extreme conditions needed for the most sophisticated experiments
this is literally center of the sun kinds of extremes zika said this is a remarkable facility a global gem zika was adams first phd student starting in january of 1993 originally from ohio he earned his bachelors and masters degrees in nuclear engineering from purdue university adams had just joined the faculty after more than five years at llnl as a computational physicist i went to texas a&m because of marv adams zika said he had been doing just what i wanted to do and what i have done in my career he was and is a fantastic mentor and friend following the dec 5 breakthrough test results were reviewed for several days internally and by an independent outside panel of experts to ensure they were accurate before they were announced to the world humbird and her teammates waited anxiously it was surreal she said by telephone from the lab after it happened our team was thrilled we were exchanging emails and plotting preliminary data onto our expectations the figures we sent around everything just kind of lined up then it started to sink after a couple days this looks like its going to be a really really big result humbird 31 joined llnl in 2017 as a student researcher and completed her phd research at the lab she also has bachelors and masters degrees in nuclear engineering from texas a&m i got a fantastic education she said i was so well-prepared with physics and engineering understanding when i got here it really kind of surprised me my favorite part of that university was the relationships that i got to build with my professors they were never too busy for you humbird took classes from adams who served on her phd committee and now reviews her work at llnl it is kind of a joke we share because he was my professor he graded my exams he graded my phd and hell just be reviewing me for the rest of my career she said it was cool to see him up on the stage this week and to know how many students that hes impacted inspired and set on career paths this story was originally published by texas a&m today
a team of scientists from the united states canada and germany are tackling one of the largest challenges of our generation reliable energy storage the international group of experts led by researchers from texas a&m university has combined powerful imaging techniques and large data sets to better understand why lithium-ion batteries fail and how they can be improved their innovative approach has brought the team one step closer to solving this complex problem one technical gap that exists today is that we don't really understand fully what's happening at the nanoscale and that's where we've worked closely with a canadian light source to leverage a number of different imaging techniques to investigate further says david santos a 2022 texas a&m chemistry phd graduate and former member of texas a&m chemist sarbajit banerjees research group the team was able to visualize the flaws and map defects that occur within the batteries using the sm beamline at the canadian light source (cls) located at the university of saskatchewan (uofs) their findings were recently published in patterns
the x-ray tools at the canadian light source are great for eavesdropping on the batteries and the little secret conversations that ions are having and understanding what makes them fail says banerjee the team is interested in identifying in real time the flaws that occur which would allow them to measure the complex relationship between the batterys materials its shape and the chemical reactions that occur within reaching this goal would allow researchers to proactively address design failures a battery is kind of like a ceramic coffee mug says santos if you pour that hot coffee in and out you have thermal changes and over time that can lead to cracks in the mug the chemical and mechanical changes that occur during a batterys lifetime can also lead to flaws like cracks in the ceramic mug affecting its longevity santos says that drawbacks that affect a batterys performance are also linked to safety hazards and have a large impact on the environment more efficient batteries can help reduce waste and help us transition to a greener grid at the end of the day building a better battery touches all aspects of sustainability says santos
santos david a justin l andrews binbin lin luis r de jesus yuting luo savannah pas michelle a gross et al "multivariate hyperspectral data analytics across length scales to probe compositional phase and strain heterogeneities in electrode materials" patterns (2022): 100634 this story was originally published by canadian light source
check out this bonus q&a from patterns featuring texas a&m chemistry phd graduates and former banerjee group members david santos '19 and justin andrews '18 as well as technical university's binbin lin which details an ongoing collaboration between banerjee's and bai-xiang xus groups that now spans several generations of world-class students and groundbreaking research at both universities