Physics – Page 90

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Man Will Never Fly (to the Stars)

March 13, 2010

It’s risky to say “never” in science. The Man Will Never Fly Society had a short life. However, an article on Space.com makes it seem a safe bet that, Star Trek notwithstanding, warp-speed flights to the stars are out of the question for humans. “Warp speed will kill you,” the article announced; why? Because interstellar […]

Astronomy

Divining Violent gods as Natural Cosmic Creators

March 10, 2010

Ancient stargazers imagined the violent actions of gods in the heavens giving rise to the stars, earth and man. Today’s secular astronomers engage in a similar kind of lore. While not naming their gods after mythical heroes, they describe them as forces of nature whose violent clashes give rise to order and design. Sometimes they […]

Amazing Facts

Flight Design: Flies and Birds Get it Wright

March 3, 2010

Parse the following sentence for logical consistency: “Just as the Wright brothers implemented controls to achieve stable airplane flight, flying insects have evolved behavioral strategies that ensure recovery from flight disturbances.” That is the first sentence from a paper in PNAS yesterday about the stabilizers in fly wings.1 Ristroph et al just compared design principles […]

Solar System

Swinging at Saturn’s Moons: Keep Your Eye on the Ball

March 1, 2010

To avoid being misled by planetary scientists, keep your attention focused on the age issue.

Amazing Facts

Spider Hair: The Perfect Water Repellant Surface

February 24, 2010

To keep dry, make like a spider. “Engineering researchers have crafted a flat surface that refuses to get wet,” began a press release from University of Florida. “Water droplets skitter across it like ball bearings tossed on ice. The inspiration? Not wax. Not glass. Not even Teflon.” The audience waits breathlessly for the answer. “Instead, […]

Amazing Facts

Molecular Highway Motor Comes into Focus

February 19, 2010

A beautiful new image of kinesin, a molecular machine that carries cargo on cellular highways, has been produced in greater detail than ever by a team at Berkeley and Brandeis Universities. Science Daily published a picture and description of how kinesin works. “Life’s smallest motor – a protein that shuttles cargo within cells and helps […]

Amazing Facts

Life Masters Physics

February 10, 2010

Living things, especially cells, have mastered the forces of advanced physics in ingenious ways. This ingenuity sometimes inspires physicists to try to copy it. Here are some recent examples: Photosynthesis and quantum mechanics: Nature reported that plants take advantage of quantum mechanics in photosynthesis.1 “The photosynthetic apparatus of cryptophyte algae is odd – its pigments […]

Amazing Facts

Spider Webs Are Precision Dew Collectors

February 4, 2010

Photographs of dew drops on spider webs are favorite targets for nature photographers, because they resemble strings of pearls on fine jewelry (example 1, example 2). But did you know the reason dewdrops bead up so well on webs is due to the fine microstructure of the spider silk? A team of Chinese scientists studied […]

Cosmology

Universe Has a Run-Down Feeling

February 3, 2010

There’s 30 times more entropy in the universe than thought, according to Dr. Charley Lineweaver at the Australian National University. PhysOrg said that Lineweaver and a PhD student Charles Egan measured the entropy of the universe. It looks like it is feeling pretty run down. “We considered all contributions to the entropy of the observable […]

Cosmology

Who in the Universe Makes Music?

February 1, 2010

A cosmologist and some musicians want to “sonify the universe” by making music out of stellar events like supernova explosions. In an unusual article for a science media outlet, “Reaching for the Stars to Create Music of the Universe,” Science Daily reported that Nobel laureate George Smoot was inspired by the wishes of a Grateful […]

Birds

Incredible Creatures that Support Evolution?

January 29, 2010

Paleontologists and biologists continue to uncover animals past and present that exhibit amazing diversity. Some of them are so weird and unexpected, they are almost unbelievable. Usually, the news media are quick to tally up points for Darwin by explaining to lay people how they shed light on evolution. But in the “discovery” stage of […]

Amazing Facts

Barefoot Is Better

January 27, 2010

Who do we wear shoes? It seems obvious; we expect that they help us avoid injuries and provide comfort. Maybe we should think of the injuries we are getting by wearing them. The image of the barefoot person is usually of someone poor, deprived, lower-class, hick, unclean, redneck or something else unattractive. Shoes […]

Intelligent Design

Fermi Paradox Reasserts Itself

January 23, 2010

Paul Davies, no stranger to facing difficult questions and proposing imaginative solutions, is coming out with a new book in April about SETI. In it, he tackles the Fermi Paradox: if aliens are out there, why haven’t they dropped by yet? Amazon.com lists some of the ideas to be presented in The Eerie Silence: Renewing […]

Amazing Facts

Molecular Machines Use Moving Parts

January 19, 2010

Research papers into the processes of molecular machines continue to reveal moving parts: “fingers” that open and close, ratchets that lock into place, and feet that move along tracks. Here are a few samples from the voluminous literature that continues to pour from biophysics labs. DNA Polymerase I: Scientific papers tend to be reserved in […]

Biomimetics

Robot Designers Strive to Match Animals

December 30, 2009

Engineers feel great satisfaction when their robots can match just some of the feats of animals. What does that say about the design of the animals? It’s a bird, it’s a plane: The first “hummingbird robot” was unveiled by Japanese researcher Hiroshi Liu (Chiba University) in a press release published by PhysOrg. The hand-sized device […]

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