We intuitively know that the ocean is constantly moving: the tides ebb and flow, waves swell and crash, plane wreckage moves mysteriously across latitudes to be beached on the other side of the world. But what makes the ocean move? The steady heartbeat of the ocean is its global-scale currents. Ocean circulation is the global-scale […]
The heartbeat of the ocean is slowing Read More »
The Earth is constantly awash with energy. During the day, photons literally fall from the sky, pumped out by fusion reactions in the Sun, and power countless processes on Earth. Humans have not evolved photosynthesis (yet), but a technological workaround has been developed. Solar panels now cover the roofs of homes and acres of solar
Sunlight and Semiconductors Read More »
Exoplanets are distant, mysterious cousins of our own home — obscure balls of rock and gas orbiting stars hundreds of light years away. It’s difficult to understand what might be on the surface: are they covered in global oceans? Made up of molten lava? Does it rain razor-sharp shards of glass at thousands of miles per hour?
Ice Planet or Lava World? Exoplanet environments depend on temperature Read More »
Bubbles are the subject of fascination for young children and legendary physicists alike; though pretty to observe, they also offer intriguing lessons in fluid dynamics. Looking closely at the surface of a soap bubble, a shimmering, iridescent surface swirling with activity can be observed. These mesmerizing patterns are due to the Marangoni effect. This phenomenon
The Science of Soap Bubbles Read More »
In the beginning, all that would become the universe was concentrated into an extremely small, dense, high-energy speck of space. In the fractions of seconds that followed, this singularity exploded: one hundred decillionths (10–35) of a second after, it expanded to nearly the size of a soccer ball; after one nonillionth (10–30) of a second,
How do you conduct a laboratory experiment when your subject can be as wide as 400 AU and as massive as ten billion suns? An international team of scientists at the Black Hole Laboratory at the University of Nottingham faced this question in their study of black holes. Their solution was to simulate a rotating
Black Holes in a Bathtub? How Scientists are Using Water Vortices to Study Black Holes Read More »
Most people are familiar with a möbius strip, literally a surface with a twist: a long continuous object with only one side. But what about a möbius shape that is instead made up of several parts hinged together? A team of scientists led by Johannes Schönke and Eliot Fried at the Okinawa Institute of Science
Reinventing the Möbius Strip: The Mesmerizing Twists of Möbius Kaleidocycles Read More »
For decades, Mars has been the planet in vogue: the possibility of exploration, even colonization, beyond the Earth system captured the imagination of the public (as well as certain billionaires). But such a mission might be more technically challenging than we’re ready for. Transit of up to a year each way makes it difficult to
Wreaking HAVOC on Venus Read More »
Many people, beleaguered college students especially, can find it challenging to appreciate mathematics because of the way it’s presented: it’s difficult to see the beauty in a toolkit. But math isn’t only a set of tools, it is also an entity unto itself, rich with gorgeous intricacy. Like a language, it is a colorful and
The Rosetta Stone of Mathematics Read More »