Consuming post-disaster destinations: The case of Sichuan, China

Addressing the call for a better understanding of tourist behavior in relation to post-disaster destinations, this study explores the motivations and intentions of potential domestic tourists (from non-hit areas) to visit Sichuan, China in the aftermath of an earthquake. Drawing on dark tourism theories, this study offers a more comprehensive insight into the consumption of post-disaster destinations, aiming to capture the impact of the changes to the destination’s attributes on tourist behavior. The findings move beyond the common approach to tourism recovery, which solely focuses on reviving the traditional ‘‘non-dark’’ products. This study reveals the importance of newly formed dark attributes that emerge from the disaster as another means to destination recovery, reflected in the emergence of new tourist segments

Novel Tests of Gravity Below Fifty Microns

Gravity’s relationship to the other fundamental forces is still not well understood. The Standard Model of quantum mechanics describes interactions between the strong, weak and electromagnetic forces, while Einstein’s theory of General Relativity (GR) describes gravity. There is yet to be a theory that unifies inconsistencies between GR and quantum mechanics. Scenarios of String Theory predicting more than three spatial dimensions also predict physical effects of gravity at sub-millimeter levels that could alter the gravitational inverse-square law. The Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP), a central feature of GR, states that all objects are accelerated at the same rate in a gravitational field independent of their composition. A violation of the WEP at any distance scale would be evidence that current models of gravity are incorrect. At the Humboldt State University Gravitational Research Laboratory, an experiment is being developed to observe gravitational interactions below the 50-micron distance scale. The experiment measures the twist of a parallel-plate torsion pendulum as an attractor mass is oscillated within 100 microns of the pendulum, providing time varying gravitational torque on the pendulum. The size and distance dependence of the torque amplitude provide means to determine deviations from accepted models of gravity on untested distance scales.https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/inrsep_posters/1010/thumbnail.jp