Perceiving Smellscapes

We perceive smells as perduring complex entities within a distal array that might be conceived of as smellscapes. However, the philosophical orthodoxy of Odor Theories has been to deny that smells are perceived as having a distal location. Recent challenges have been mounted to Odor Theories’ veracity in handling the timescale of olfactory perception, how it individuates odors as a distal entities, and their claim that olfactory perception is not spatial. The paper does not aim to dispute these criticisms. Rather, what will be shown is that Molecular Structure Theory, a refinement of Odor Theory, can be further developed to handle these challenges. The theory is further refined by focusing on distal perception that requires considering the perceptual object as mereologically complex persisting odor against a background scene conceived of as a smellscape. What will be offered is an expansion of Molecular Structure Theory to account for distal smell perception within natural environments

Unravelling strange quarks in nucleon structure

We present a discourse on the stages of discovery that have led to a deeper understanding of the role played by strange quarks in the structure of the nucleon.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; prepared for the proceedings of Achievements and New Directions in Subatomic Physics: Workshop in Honour of Tony Thomas' 60th Birthda

Note on the limits to the local Mach number on an aerofoil in subsonic flow

It has been noted in some experiments that the local Mach number just ahead of a shock wave on an aerofoil in subsonic flow is limited, values of the limit of the order of 1.4 are usually quoted. This note presents two lines of thought indicating how such a limit may arise. The first starts with the observation that the pressure after the shock will not be higher than the rain stream pressure. Fig.1 shows the calculated relation between local Mach number ahead of the shock (M„ 1 ), shock inclination (S), mainstream Mach number (M1) and pressure coefficient just aft of the shock. • (Cp) It is noted that, for given M1 , Cp and .5 ,two shocks are possible in general, a strong one for which Ms , > 1.48, and a weak one for which MS1 < 1.48, and it is argued that the latter is the more likely. The second approach is based on the fact that a relation between stream deflection (8) and Mach number for the flow in the limited supersonics regions on a number of aerofoils has been derived from some. experimental data. Further analysis of experimental data is required before this relation can be accepted as general. If it is accepted, however, then it indicates that the Mach numbers increase above unity for a given deflection is about one-third of that given by simple wave theory (Fig.2). An analysis of the possible deflections on aerofoils of various thicknesses (Fig.3) then indicates that deflections corresponding to local Mach numbers of the order of 1,5 or higher are unlikely except at incidences of the order of5 ° or more, and may then be more likely for thick wings than for thin wings. Flow breakaway will make the attainment of such high local Mach numbers less likely

Nucleon structure in the search for new physics

We report on recent results on nucleon structure that are helping guide the search for new physics at the precision frontier. Results discussed include the electroweak elastic form factors, charge symmetry breaking in parton distributions and the strangeness content of the nucleon.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; contribution to the proceedings of "T(r)opical QCD 2010: Cairns CSSM 2010 Workshop," Cairns, Australia, 26 September - 1 Octobe