Sit. Speak. Good Photon! Researchers have trapped a laser pulse inside a glass chamber --and released it again intact. Such command of light could lead to mind-boggling new technologies. Listen to this story via streaming audio, a downloadable file, or get help. March 27, 2002: Light can be hard to handle, yet humans have nearly mastered it: We can create light (turn on a flashlight) and destroy it (shine it on black asphalt). We can measure it, bend it, and slow it down. We can use it to propel spacecraft, to transmit telephone conversations, to perform surgery. There seems to be no end to what light can do.... Right: Fiber optics. Yet until recently there was one thing we couldn't do with light: pause it.
But now scientists have figured out how to do even that. Last year, physicists at Harvard University shined a laser beam into a glass cell filled with atomic vapors. The laser pulse was kilometers-long before it entered the cell, yet the pulse fit intact within the centimeters-wide chamber. Web Links At Last! WIKISKY.ORG. Planetarium - Interactive star map and virtual sky. Map-of-mars.jpg from virginia.edu. Amazing Planet. Communication skills - zefrank. Smash Earth on your computer! - Technology &science - Space - msnbc.com. A new website lets astronomers — and anyone who likes to watch stuff blow up — calculate the damage a comet or asteroid would cause if it hit Earth. The interactive website, called Impact: Earth! , is scientifically accurate enough to be used by the Department of Homeland Security and NASA, but user-friendly enough for elementary school students, according to the researchers who developed it.
The site could help scientists and the public alike better understand the destructive potential of comets and asteroids, which have caused massive extinction events in our planet's past, researchers said. [Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth.] "There have been big impacts in the past, and we expect big impacts in the future," said Jay Melosh of Purdue University, who led the creation of Impact: Earth!. "This site gives the lowdown on what happens when such an impact occurs. " Massive impacts are rare — but incredibly powerful and destructive. Asteroids don't have to be as big as Chicxulub to leave a mark. NASA Releases Incredible Photos on Flickr (14 photos) John Glenn Enters the Friendship 7 Capsule, 1962 NASA joined Flickr Commons today, releasing 180 historic photos in three incredible sets; Building NASA, Launch/Takeoff and NASA Center Namesakes.
The photos span the US space agency's 50+ year history. You'll not only get to see the key figureheads behind NASA, you'll also see some of the most iconic spacecrafts take flight. Each photo comes with a detailed description, so you can dive a little deeper and learn more. You can visit Nasa Images for the most comprehensive compilation of NASA stills, film and video, or, you can now go to their Flickr page for the curated list of their best photos. From the 180 they have up now, here are fourteen of our favorites. JFK Tour of KSC, 1962 NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans, von Braun and President Kennedy at Cape Canaveral John Glenn Prior to the Mercury-Atlas 6 Mission, 1962 Aerial View of Missile Row, 1964 Gemini-Titan 11 Launch, 1966 Lyndon Johnson Watches the Apollo 11 Liftoff, 1969.