Articles in the Category: Physics and Chemistry
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Citizen science, Computer Science, Math, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 12 14th, 2011 | No Comments
New Newton Project Drops Online
Sir Isaac Newton wrote mainly in Latin and Greek, the languages of science at the time he made astonishing discoveries about the laws of motion and gravity. Now those numerous writings are being put online in new a collection of 4,000 pages, including his hand-annotated copy of Principia Mathematica.Principia...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Discoveries, Physics and Chemistry, Space, Video on 12 13th, 2011 | No Comments
Search Narrows for Particle to Explain All Mass
For physicists the search for the elusive subatomic particle that gives all things mass is tantamount to the search for the Holy Grail. That’s one reason why scientists call the much-theorized but never seen Higgs Boson the God particle.
Now an update on research from the European nuclear agency...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Astrobiology, Astronomy, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Physics and Chemistry, Space on 12 7th, 2011 | 1 Comment
Earth-like Planet Fuels Excitement for Space Exploration
The question is the subject of movies, science fiction novels and our own curious minds. Are we alone in the universe? Prevailing scientific wisdom says yes but more and more the answer appears to be no.
With the advent of more sensitive cosmological equipment to scan the night sky, astronomers are...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Atmospheric science, Backyard Science, Citizen science, Consumer Safety, Health and Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 12 6th, 2011 | No Comments
Combustion Whoosh Bottle Experiment Done Right
Last week, a Minnesota science class got more than they bargained for when a combustible demonstration being done by the physical sciences teacher caught chemicals on a lab table on fire and burned several students, including 15-year-old Dane Neuberger.
The burned student says, “I started screaming...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Citizen science, Discoveries, Featured Articles, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 12 5th, 2011 | 1 Comment
Help Name the New Elements
The latest additions to the periodic table of the elements finally have placeholder names. It was earlier this year when elements 114 and 116 were admitted onto the coveted list of elements. At the time they were referred to by their numerical Latin ununquadium and ununhexium.
They might be called flerovium...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Adaptation and Extinction, Animals, Atmospheric science, Biology, Climate, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environment, Marine Science, Oceanography, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 12 1st, 2011 | No Comments
Arctic Region Warms into New Climate State
In 2006, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began monitoring the Arctic region, creating an annual report card to mark rapid change occurring there. Five years in and the news isn’t good.
The 2011 Arctic Report Card shows that the entire region is changing dramatically. Ice, both...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Inventions, Physics and Chemistry, Robotics, Video on 11 29th, 2011 | No Comments
Softbots Slither in Tight Spaces
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After the earthquake in Japan or Haiti robots were pretty useless in sifting through rubble to find survivors. They also didn’t do well in off-road situations where the environment had shifted and they couldn’t maneuver over obstacles.
But a chemist at Harvard...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Discoveries, Engineering, Inventions, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 11 15th, 2011 | No Comments
Quantum Levitation Hovers on the Horizon
Science has proven it’s possible to make the Back to the Future II hover board a thing of the future. But first scientists need to overcome the need to flash freeze the object in order to turn it into a superconductor, which makes quantum levitation possible.Team Demonstrates Quantum Levitation...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Engineering, Inventions, Physics and Chemistry, SciArt, Scientainment, Video on 11 10th, 2011 | No Comments
Bright Ideas Drove Invention of Mundane Things
Right now Steve Jobs is being remembered as the man who made technology personal and pleasing. But as time passes the iPod, iPhone and iPad will become part of our lives, no longer remarkable. This is the same journey that other inventions took, from bright, new concept to items in everyday use.iPad,...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Atmospheric science, Climate, Climate Change, Featured Articles, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 11 1st, 2011 | 1 Comment
Climate Skeptics Confirm Global Warming
Global warming has become so politicized that many people forget there is science underlying the concept. The camps sort out like this. Climate scientists for the most part agree that the world is heating up thanks to man-made or anthropogenic global warming, largely caused by excess carbon dioxide...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Atmospheric science, Backyard Science, Citizen science, Physics and Chemistry, Space, Video on 10 26th, 2011 | 3 Comments
Northern Lights Track South
Generally people in the far northern latitudes get to see the solar wind dancing with the magnetic field around Earth. But because of increased solar activity, the northern lights have been more visible further south, including Alabama, Georgia and even Florida.
An automated NASA camera that takes a...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Biology, Diseases, Geology, Health and Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, Scientainment, SciLebs, Space, Video on 10 14th, 2011 | No Comments
Music Meets Science in Biophilia
The voice of nature Sir David Attenborough is featured explaining Iceland musician Bjork’s latest venture — Biophilia. It’s part music album reflecting the connection points between sound, nature and technology. It’s an app for iPhones and iPads. It’s a creation generator...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Citizen science, Climate Change, Physics and Chemistry, Plants, Science of..., Video on 10 13th, 2011 | No Comments
Science of…Fall Foliage
For leaf peepers Fall is the time for the best leaves. They turn from bright green to yellow, then orange and if the conditions are right red and purple too. But what makes fall colors so spectacular?
Science can explain.
First just about everybody knows that chlorophyll gives leaves their green color....
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Animals, Biology, Consumer Safety, Food and Nutrition, Health and Medicine, Physics and Chemistry, Physiology, Scientainment, Video on 10 11th, 2011 | No Comments
Ig Nobel Prizes Take a Lighter Look at Science
Pee pressure, beer bottle-humping beetles and a wasabi-flavored fire alarm were among the top prizes awarded at Harvard University’s 21st Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, a more laid back version of the Nobel Prize ceremony. Nobel Prize laureates present the Ig Nobels to scientists and philosophers...
Quasicrystal Discovery Wins Chemistry Nobel Prize
Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited Shechtman “for the discovery of quasicrystals.”
Until his 1982 discovery, Dr. Shechtman, who has joint appointments at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Astronomy, Physics and Chemistry, Space, Video on 10 4th, 2011 | 1 Comment
Three Capture Nobel Prize in Physics for Expanding Universe
For scientists it doesn’t get any bigger than the Nobel Prize. This year’s winners in the Physics category receive the honor for work they did on the biggest subject available to them or anyone — the universe.
Three U.S. scientists are sharing the prize for their theory of a rapidly...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Biology, Physics and Chemistry, SciArt, Scientainment, Video on 09 30th, 2011 | No Comments
Performance Art Demonstrates Origin of Life
Science and art collide (sometimes literally) in Group Intelligence, a new flash mob performance art piece that asks the question, “How did life begin?”
Out of Hand Theater in Atlanta combined forces with the NASA/NSF Center for Chemical Evolution to explore the formation of molecules. But...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Discoveries, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 09 26th, 2011 | 1 Comment
Neutrinos Speed Past Light, Maybe
Last week, the world’s biggest physics lab unveiled a shocking finding: that one type of subatomic particle was clocked going faster than the speed of light. If true, it could undercut Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Since 1905 the C in Einstein’s famous equation E=MC2 has...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Astronomy, Discoveries, Geology, Physics and Chemistry, Space, Video on 09 6th, 2011 | No Comments
Astronomers Find Diamond Planet
Far far away, toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy sits a true diamond in the rough. Astronomers haven’t been able to see a newly discovered exoplanet but it may prove to be a real gem.
Using deductive reasoning based on crucial pieces of evidence, an international astrophysics team led by...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Atmospheric science, Climate Change, Marine Science, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 08 29th, 2011 | No Comments
Irene’s Wet Legacy
Hurricane Irene was never a wind maker. Just ask any meteorologist tracking the storm since it began developing. But it was big, even for a hurricane. At one point Irene stretched over 610 miles across and hovered over half of the eastern seaboard as it roared up the U.S. Atlantic coast Saturday and...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Nanotechnology, Physics and Chemistry, Video on 08 26th, 2011 | No Comments
Quantum Circus Blurs Lines between Science and Art
An experiment itself, the Quantum Circus was born out of a collaboration between some Finnish quantum physicists and a group of circus performers. After three five-day workshops in 2009 and 2010, the idea grew into a performance, telling the story of quantum phsyics.
Broken into two distinct parts,...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Biochemistry, Discoveries, Diseases, Environment, Health and Medicine, New Species, Physics and Chemistry, Plants, Video on 08 18th, 2011 | No Comments
Yale Undergrads Find Plastic-Eating Fungus
The growing garbage problem may have a new solution–fungus that eats plastic. For years mounting mounds of plastic have been choking landfills and polluting the ocean. Now an annual undergraduate trip to the rain forest may have found a solution to the plastic problem.
Unleashing creativity in...
Posted by Michael Bradbury in Backyard Science, Nanotechnology, Physics and Chemistry, SciArt, Scientainment, Video on 08 12th, 2011 | No Comments
Ferrofluid Sculpture
Ferrofluid Morpho Towers from Jason Peters on Vimeo.
Morpho Towers–Two Standing Spirals is a 2007 installation that consists of two ferrofluid sculptures that moves synthetically to music.
The two iron spiral towers stand on a large plate holding ferrofluid, also known as liquid magnets. When...
