The Science Behind Lebron's Magic

Ever wonder how Lebron can do what he does so much better than everyone else his age?

Sports Science has the answer in this video.

Egg or Chicken Debate Solved

What came first, the chicken or the egg? Scientists found the answer ... about 3 years ago.

The answer: the egg came first.

Scientists reasoned that genetic material does not change during an animal's life and, therefore, the first bird that evolved into a chicken first existed as an embryo with chicken DNA inside an egg.

Computer Cracks Code Thomas Jefferson Could Not

In 1801 Thomas Jefferson received an encrypted message but its message remained a mystery ... until March 2009. In the letter, math professor Robert Patterson wrote that he had devised the perfect cipher: simple, yet impossible to break without the key. Patterson claimed that his message would stump humanity “to the end of time.”

Challenging Patterson's challenge, Lawren Smithline wrote a computer program which unveiled various pairs of letters. Pairs like “qu” and “nt” offered promise, while impossible pairs like “vj” and “dx” were rejected. After a week, Smithline exposed the message - words Jefferson would have easily recognized: the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence.

A Sonic Black Hole

A black hole is a pocket of density so intense that light cannot escape. Scientists have created a sonic black hole - that is a pocket of space from which sound cannot escape.

Cooling rubidium atoms to just barely above absolute zero, a laser shot into the cloud created a void. The atoms, attracted to the breach, left the pocket at +4 times the speed of sound, creating a black hole type effect. No sound wave could travel against the flow of the racing fluid - much like trying to swim against a current much faster than you.

Aside from being real cool, a sonic black hole could help evaluate Stephen Hawking’s prediction that a real black hole slowly evaporates as it emits radiation.

Smelling Fear

Some sweat, aside from smelling, emits an odor of fear as well according to a study. Studies of brain responses to different sweat odors revealed the brain detects differences when the sweat was produced during periods of duress. The study suggests that fear, maybe even other emotions as well, can be chemically transferred between people - something like a 6th sense.

Knockouts

Knockouts are, above all else, quick. But what happens when someone gets knocked out?

Your brain is sitting in cerebrospinal fluid with the skull forming a protective outer shell. When a blow lands the skull recoils, moving in the direction the punch/kick has forced the skull, and then back again. The skull does not move much more than this. The brain, however, is like a boat in a turbulent ocean at this point - constantly moving back and forth in the fluid. Every time the brain makes contact with one side of the skull, trauma ensues. Newton's 2nd law says force = (mass) X (acceleration). Therefore, the larger the force (i.e. the heavier and/or faster the blow) the more severe the trauma. When the trauma is severe, the brain sends misfiring electric signals throughout the body which essentially overload the nervous system and the body shuts down - i.e. you collapse.

The blow itself also offers a lesson in physics. When a punch or kick is delivered, a transfer of kinetic energy occurs. If, for example, you throw a punch, you gather energy from your base, and while swinging your torso and then your arm, transmit that energy from your feet through your hand and into the opponent.

This principle is found in all knockouts, delivered with a punch or kick.

Time Travelling - Sort of

Research indicates that man's perceptions of space and time is interwoven. Researchers found that the mere act of thinking about the past or future caused test subjects to move backward or forward.