A photon is not actually a wave or particle, but is instead the measured transference of energy from other particles. Which would help reason wave-duality and interference patterns. My hand is broken, or I would have made a longer post about it.
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A graphic look at the huge mass of space junk out there.
To Fix the Giant Near-Tipping-Point Cloud of Space Trash Encircling the Earth, We May Need Space Harpoons
Every where we go we leave pollution and debris.
First step toward putting whalers on the moon.
(via void-thinker1984)
Did you know that the first ever demonstration of second harmonic generation was erased from history forever because the publisher thought it was a smudge on the photo plate and thus rubbed it off…
They still published it. Didn’t bother remaking the plate. There’s just an arrow pointing to where the SHG should be.
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Pushing a Fullerene through a Nanotube
Placing a water molecule inside a 60-carbon-atom cage creates a structure that can be guided by an electric field.
Fullerenes are large molecular cages built entirely of carbon atoms, and researchers have been able to modify their properties by trapping other atoms inside the cage. Writing in Physical Review Letters, two theorists offer an analysis of a more recent invention, a fullerene containing a single molecule of water. They show that it responds in a surprising way to an electric field, allowing the whole structure to be driven in either direction through a narrow channel. Although it’s not completely clear why an object with no net charge should respond in this way, the researchers suggest that their discovery could have practical applications, such as delivering drugs by guiding molecules that carry them.
(via resident-tofu)
![heythereuniverse:
Massive double star is latest test for Einstein’s gravity theory | Ron Cowen
Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity has passed its most stringent astrophysical test yet, correctly predicting how a closely orbiting pair of dense stars are spiralling towards each other.
The findings rule out a subclass of competing theories of gravity, John Antoniadis of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, Germany, and his colleagues report in Science.
“This system provides a rare opportunity to constrain many non-Einstein models of gravity,” comments Alan Kostelecký, a theoretical physicist at Indiana University in Bloomington, who was not involved in the study.
The stellar duo comprises a neutron star — the ultradense cinder of a supernova explosion — and the compact remnant of a Sun-like star, known as a white dwarf.
[Read more]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/9a98594954e60fb2194878c90704954c/tumblr_mlz32zm4wa1qjofuoo1_500.jpg)
Massive double star is latest test for Einstein’s gravity theory | Ron Cowen
Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity has passed its most stringent astrophysical test yet, correctly predicting how a closely orbiting pair of dense stars are spiralling towards each other.
The findings rule out a subclass of competing theories of gravity, John Antoniadis of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, Germany, and his colleagues report in Science.
“This system provides a rare opportunity to constrain many non-Einstein models of gravity,” comments Alan Kostelecký, a theoretical physicist at Indiana University in Bloomington, who was not involved in the study.
The stellar duo comprises a neutron star — the ultradense cinder of a supernova explosion — and the compact remnant of a Sun-like star, known as a white dwarf.
(via purple-cosmos)
Neil deGrasse Tyson moderates a mind-bending debate on the existence of “nothing”
Looking for a way to add a few wrinkles to your brain? Check out the debate at the link above.
One of my favorite passages, on how calculus fundamentally altered philosophy:
“The crucial notion of the calculus is the notion of the infinitesimal — the infinitely small. And what is the infinitesimal? It’s not nothing — but it’s not quite something, either. It somehow mediates between finitude and nothingness. … You have to have a temperamental attraction to dangerous ideas, and the infinitesimal is considered to be an extremely dangerous idea.”
Calculus: It’s a dangerous weapon?
Ala “dark matter” and the higgs am I right?
(via fyspringfield)
Just how old is the Grand Canyon?
A lively scientific debate continues over whether the Grand Canyon is 70 million years old or much younger.
I’m pretty sure it’s actually as old as the universe itself.
“To make a grand canyon from scratch, you must first create the universe.”
(via anndruyan)
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