Gravity’s often assumed to be constant across the entire planet, but because the Earth varies in shape and density, that’s not really the case. Now, this super-accurate gravity map reveals that the fluctuations are even more extreme than scientists previously thought.
     |
A team of US researchers has finally worked out how reproduce ball lightning—sometimes referred to as St. Elmo’s fire—in the lab.
| |
It’s a shame I never paid attention in physics class because outside of Walter White’s school of chemistry, physics might be the coolest type of science around. It’s okay though. BBC Science Club has got me covered with a fantastic short animation video detailing the history of physics. You know most of it—Galileo, Newton, Einstein—but get to know the other parts of the story of physics you should’ve learned a long time ago.
| |
If you happened upon architect Javier Corvalán‘s house in rural Paraguay while its roof was down, you probably wouldn’t give it a second thought—this tiny aluminum box looks more like a bunker than a home. But thanks to a simple winch, the client who lives inside can tilt the entire roof upward by 25 degrees to create a warm, open-air living room.
| |
Move over graphene; get outta here diamond. There’s a new carbon supermaterial in town, and it’s stronger and stiffer than either of you.
| |
You probably read about new physics discoveries all the time on this site, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you know how we got to where we are today. This brief history of physics describes how scientists have tried to build on each others work for hundreds of years—with varied success.
| |
The speed of light in a vacuum stands at “exactly 299,792,458 metres per second“. The reason today we can put an exact figure on it is because the speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant that has been measured with lasers; and when an experiment involves lasers, it’s hard to argue with the results. As to why it comes out somewhat conspicuously as a whole number, this is no coincidence- the length of metre is defined using this constant: “the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.”
| |
You know what the futurists are always saying: Time cloaks are so cool but they’re so complicated. And it’s true! What were you expecting from a device that literally hides moments in time? A Northwestern mathematician has just shown, though, it doesn’t have to be quite so hard after all.
| |
The International Space Station orbits the Earth at 8 kilometers per second—but it’s tough to visualize just how fast that is. When you think about it in terms of how far the thing moves during the course of a song you know, though, you’ll be shocked.
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
