Higgs Boson Particle

The Higgs Boson Particle has been found. Don't know what the big deal is? Check out the video.

Faster Than Light?

CERN researchers claim they've found subatomic particles - neutrinos - that moves faster than the speed of light.

When Bubbles Burst

What happens when a bubble bursts?

Research indicates when bubble skin breaks, it retracts and, while folding in on itself, it can trap air to form baby bubbles which, in a chain reaction, collapse on themselves to create even smaller baby bubbles. The smaller the bubble, the greater the internal pressure, the quicker the burst.

Here's a video.

Hurricanes 101

Informative clip on science of hurricanes

Champagne like Ocean

Researchers found surfactant (molecular compounds) concentrations higher at the surface of a glass of champagne than in the champagne itself.

In ocean air, surfactants are dragged along with bubbles in ocean waves. When bubbles burst, the surfactants break into aerosols that give ocean air its odor. A champagne glass is a small "ocean," but the bubbles bring more pleasing aerosols to the surface.

Planck's Law Breaks Down

In 1900 Max Planck described how energy dissipates from any nonreflective object. But Planck said if something else is really, really close to the object, the law might break down. Research reveals that heat transfer rules from a nonreflective object (Planck's blackbody radiation law) break down if the object is brought close enough to another object, but not touching.

Researchers placed flat plates a 10 billionths of a meter apart and radiation flow was 1,000 times greater than Planck’s law predicts. The findings have implications for computer storage and solar energy devices which become less efficient because of heat buildup.

Fedor Emelianenko vs Python

Who has a more powerful choke-hold? See for yourself.

Orangutan Locomotion

A study shows the secrets to how heavy orangutans (up to 180 lbs) travel through the trees to get fruit without breaking branches.

Orangutans sometimes move upright, sometimes horizontally with their limbs fully extended. They avoid repetitive motions, which could make their perches sway more. And they usually grab on to 1+ branch at a time — 1/3rd of time they’re holding more than four at once. Also, climbing higher requires energy and, if the tree is shaking, orangutans must wait for the vibrations. By swaying instead of leaping from branch to branch, orangutans use less energy, and less energy and time if they climbed down and back up trees. Also, adult females swing conservatively while males and youngsters are risk takers.

Chimpanzees, by comparison, pull their bodies close to the tree branch while moving because they are relatively small and don't worry about the vibrations their body weight would create.

Freezing Fat to Death

Harvard researchers found kids who sucked on popsickles lost facial fat. Plastic surgeons reasoned if they could manipulate temperature and have people lose fat in other places. And they have been successful.

The procedure uses extreme cold to kill fat white cells while energizing brown fat (fat that helps burn calories). Overtime the fat white cells enters the stage of apoptosis - cell suicide.

A Different Kind of Liquid Metal

A ferrofluid is a liquid which contains iron and becomes highly magnetized if near a magnetic field.

Here's a trippy video of what it looks like and how it works.

Birds and Bugs Fly the Same

Scientists studied 7 different kinds of winged animals - bugs to birds - and found they all used "flapping counter-torque" to turn. When a bird or bug turns right, its left wing moves faster on the downstroke while the right is faster on the upstroke, slowing the animal’s rotation. Whatever their size, animals with a similar wingspan to body length ratio need the same number of flaps to finish a turn.

Tweezers of Light

MIT researchers use light beams to stabilize or pull molecules, thereby measuring the strength of protein chemical bonds. The science had previously been used to move cells on a microchip.

Levitation With Sound

Liquid droplets, while useful for research, are easily contaminated by other liquids or surfaces. In response, scientists are making liquids bounce or float in air. Droplets on oil's surface eventually collapse but employing sound vibrations makes droplets lightly bounce, thereby separating the droplets from the oil.

Here's a video of ultrasonic levitation.

Breakthrough of 2010: First Quantum Machine

While both verifiable, the two big fields of physics - classical mechanics and quantum mechanics - seemed incompatible ... until now.

Before 2010, all human-made objects moved according to the laws of classical mechanics. In March, researchers designed a gadget that moves according to quantum mechanics (governing the behavior of tiny things like atoms).

Science has called this discovery the most significant scientific advance of 2010.

Here's a video explanation.

Travelling Light

Because photons impart momentum, physicists demonstrated that light can move insect's wings.

A wing experiences different pressures on its top and bottom side to stay in flight. But aside from air, light can also create pressure. When photons pass through or reflect off of something, they induce momentum in that object. Researchers zapped a tiny wing-shaped rod with a laser beam causing the wing to move.

Superfluidity

Superfluidity occurs when certain liquids are cooled to near absolute zero ... becoming frictionless and defying gravity. As such, they actually move up and out of a container without any external force acting upon them.

Watch the clip.

Superconductivity

Discovered in the early 1900s, superconductivity is the mind bending occurrence of zero resistance to electric flow.

Resistance to electrical flow decreases as temperature cools but conductors generally have a limit to which they can allow electric flow. Superconductivity occurs when the material is cooled below its critical temperature. Placing 2 like pole magnets next to each other an electrical current is induced, causing the repulsion we are so familiar with. If we have a magnetic rail and place a magnetic puck cooled to superconductive levels, the magnetic field repels the puck along the magnetic rail - the puck moving along without physically touching the rail. This continues until the puck warms up.

Watch the clip.

Gator's Lungs Help in Locomotion

Research shows that alligator's can effortlessly glide through the water because they shift the location of their lungs. Lungs act like flotation devices which a gator uses to steer just by moving them around. Surfacing means moving lungs forward; diving requires pushing lungs back; changing direction means moving them to one side or another.

Mexican Jumping Beans

Why do they jump?

Mexican jumping beans house a moth larvae. The moth lays its eggs in the flower of the jumping bean plant, which become part of the seed. While maturing, the larvae moves, causing the bean to "jump." Light and heat can also induce the larva to move, causing the bean to jump.

Here's a video.

Freezing Light

Einstein said that the special theory of relativity shows "that mass and energy are different manifestations of the same thing.” Accordingly, researchers have frozen and unfrozen light in an entirely different place.

Researchers sent a light pulse into a sodium cloud of -460 degrees (theoretical point were matter stops). While frozen, the light actually changed state - like frozen water. It also split into two forms of matter. One was frozen while the other moved at 200 meters/hour. The second form - a matter wave - contains the exact information of the original light wave which was converted back into light.

Since fiber-optic communications use light, it means we may one day stop, store and turn messages back on, just like a light switch.