Why is Tunisia important?

The question has been asked again and again - why should Americans care about Tunisia? After all, their main contribution to our culture was to serve as the shooting location for Tatooine in the Star Wars movies. The so-called Jasmine Revolution has been going on for days now, but still is not garnering much attention in the US press.

CNN has up a good explanation of why this is important, and why a revolution in this tiny nation could have far-reaching implications for the world.

It might be too soon to predict a populist revolution erupting throughout North Africa anytime soon following the example of Tunisia. But these recent social uprisings in a region of the world important to Europe and the United States should serve as a warning call that state stability achieved through intensified political oppression, economic marginalization and social injustice are certain guaranties of the kind of societal uncertainty from which future instability occurs without any guarantee of a democratic outcome.

Tunisia had a revolution! Did you notice?

"Revolution" is a big word for Americans. Our own nation was founded by a Revolution where our founding fathers wrested control from a monarchy to found a Republic. So, whenever another country cries "Revolution", we are usually quick to sit up and take notice. But not so much with Tunisia, the north-easternmost country in Africa and a neighbor to Libya.

On December 17, a 26 year old Tunisian man named Mohamed Bouazizi reached the end of his rope. An unemployed university graduate, Bouazizi had become a seller of fruits and vegetables in the southern Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid. When authorities confiscated his wares to punish him for selling without a license, Bouazizi set himself on fire...Bouazizi’s suicide struck a chord with other frustrated Tunisians. Thousands took to the streets in Sidi Bouzid to protest widespread unemployment, government corruption and lack of opportunity. Another frustrated youth in Sidi Bouzid, Lahseen Naji, killed himself by climbing an electricity pylon while crying out “No for misery, no for unemployment!” before grasping the high voltage line. The Tunisian government responded by sending baton and teargas-wielding reinforcements to the city and by promising future economic development projects...The director of Mr. Ben Ali's presidential security force was arrested in the afternoon, and after nightfall army special forces battled armed units loyal to the former president that had holed themselves up in the presidential palace on the outskirts of Tunisia...Tunisia's caretaker prime minister said a new coalition government would be announced Monday that includes members of the country's opposition and some leaders, like himself, from the previous regime—a move that could fill the country's power vacuum and help stabilize the tense North African country.

But America has barely been paying attention, distracted by the shooting in Tucson and the NFL playoffs. Now is the time to catch up with your knowledge of Tunisia as this revolution is expected to have international repercussions, and may trigger other revolutions across Africa.

The Electron has been Split!

If you ask a modern quantum physicist, he or she will tell you that there are two indivisible kinds of particles - quarks and electrons. Get anywhere smaller than these two particles and you're into a energy soup defined by E=mC^2 that Einstein talked about. An electron, we were always taught, is a "fundamental" particle.

Turns out, it is not so fundamental.

A team from the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham have successfully split the electron into two separate particles - one which holds the electron's charge and one which holds its magnetic spin. They have been named holons and spinons. The split only occurs when electrons are forced into tight proximity that overcomes their natural electromagnetic repulsion.

This has the potential to transform how we see the world around us, and could have huge implications for quantum computing and nanoscale technologies.