Delivery of stable ultra-thin liquid sheets in vacuum for biochemical spectroscopy

The development of ultra-thin flat liquid sheets capable of running in vacuum has provided an exciting new target for X-ray absorption spectroscopy in the liquid and solution phases. Several methods have become available for delivering in-vacuum sheet jets using different nozzle designs. We compare the sheets produced by two different types of nozzle; a commercially available borosillicate glass chip using microfluidic channels to deliver colliding jets, and an in-house fabricated fan spray nozzle which compresses the liquid on an axis out of a slit to achieve collision conditions. We find in our tests that both nozzles are suitable for use in X-ray absorption spectroscopy with the fan spray nozzle producing thicker but more stable jets than the commercial nozzle. We also provide practical details of how to run these nozzles in vacuum

Implications of Creativity: A New Experiential Paradigm for an Aesthetics of the Extended Mind?

This essay is divided into two parts. In the first one it aims at showing the relationship that exists between narrative mind, performativity and creativity. The core issues are: in what sense and how does the literary mind express its own creativity, that is, what does it mean for a literary mind to be creative? When is it possible to maintain that a literary mind is creative in a sense that is considered as positive? Usually, when attempting to answer these questions, only the isolated and finished product of the creative act is taken into consideration. Contrariwise, we will here maintain that a literary mind\u2019s creativity, or creativity more generally, should be evaluated by considering also the experiential fulfillment of the aesthetic production, and hence narration as bound not to the intentional transparency of cognitive acts but to their material components. From this standpoint, creativity results as a radically aesthetic competence in its performativity, if not even the very basis of that mind\u2019s extension that is typical at least of human beings. What will hence be introduced in the second part of this essay is a particular paradigm of aesthetic experience. The basic reasons for this proposal will be explained through a paradox that we believe thrives in our present conception of the aesthetic. The general coordinates of the paradigm at issue will then be provided by attempting to highlight, at least in principle, its specific connection with the extended mind model

Cognitive Traits as Sexually Selected Fitness Indicators

The evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller has argued that various features of human psychology have been sculpted, at least in part, by the evolutionary process of sexual selection via mate choice. This paper specifically examines the central claim of Miller’s account, namely that certain cognitive traits have evolved to function as good genes fitness indicators. First, I expound on and clarify key foundational concepts comprising the focal hypothesis, especially condition-dependence, mutation target size, and mutation-selection balance. Second, I proceed to highlight some subtle distinctions with respect to the concepts of exaptation and adaptation, as well as Fisherian runaway selection and good genes sexual selection, all of which in turn bear importantly on the overall framework of cognitive traits as fitness indicators. Third and finally, I close out the paper by examining various conceptual and methodological criteria which are integral to identifying sexually selected adaptations, then briefly examine some empirical work that has aimed to test the hypothesis that traits such as humor and creativity function as sexually attractive fitness indicators