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 […]
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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 »
Globe-trotting, exploring new cultures, and helping people are common dreams of young college students. For a few ambitious individuals at Northeastern University, these dreams have become reality due to their involvement in Engineers Without Borders (EWB). A chapter of a global organization, their mission is to help communities around the world meet their basic needs
Engineers Without Borders: Providing Global Communities with Sustainable Solutions 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
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Stephen Hawking, a renowned cosmologist and celebrity scientist, passed away at age 76 on March 14, 2018, the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death. Hawking was born in Oxford, England in 1942 to a family of academics: his mother studied politics, philosophy, and economics and worked as a secretary for a medical research institute, and his
Stephen Hawking: A Singular Mind Read More »
Boston has a long and vibrant history of scientific achievement, a legacy celebrated by the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s semi-annual I Heart Science event. On February 10th 2018, science enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds wove between stations scattered across the museum. Kids built Lego habitats for Madagascar hissing cockroaches; adults perused scientist profiles lining the
I Heart Science at the Harvard Museum of Natural History Read More »