Insane Assassin's Creed III concept art by William Wu. Graphene: materials in the flatland How Matter Lost Its Mojo You’re sitting here, reading this article. Maybe it’s a hard copy, or an e-book on a tablet computer or e-reader. It doesn’t matter. But what is matter, exactly? Let’s make our question a little more focused. To understand what a cube of ice is made of, we need to draw on the learning acquired by the chemists. The mystery of the combining volumes of hydrogen and oxygen gas to produce water was resolved when it was realized that hydrogen and oxygen are both diatomic gases, H2 and O2. This partly answers our first question. About 99 percent of the masses of the proton and neutron seem to be unaccounted for. It so happens that our cube of ice weighs about 18 grams, which means that it represents a mole of water, more or less. But, of course, we can go further. Hydrogen still has only one (its nucleus consists of a single proton—no neutrons). Also in Physics Why Physicists Make Up Stories in the Dark By Philip Ball For centuries, scientists studied light to comprehend the visible world. No.
A Guy Created Hilarious Fake Animal Facts & Put Them Up At The Zoo If you've ever been to a zoo, you know that those little 'blurbs' on the animal signs can often go overlooked. Most people don't care what country the red-tailed hawk originated from or the typical shade of bamboo koalas prefers to snack on at night. Comedian Jeff Wysaski (aka Obvious Plant), decided to spice up those fun facts by making them, well, not facts at all. Check out a handful of his signs below, and for more of his work check him out here. The Schrödinger lecture 2012 - Metamaterials: new horizons in electromagnetism
World's fastest camera freezes time at 10 trillion frames per second What happens when a new technology is so precise that it operates on a scale beyond our characterization capabilities? For example, the lasers used at INRS produce ultrashort pulses in the femtosecond range (10-15 s), which is far too short to visualize. Although some measurements are possible, nothing beats a clear image, says INRS professor and ultrafast imaging specialist Jinyang Liang. In recent years, the junction between innovations in non-linear optics and imaging has opened the door for new and highly efficient methods for microscopic analysis of dynamic phenomena in biology and physics. Using current imaging techniques, measurements taken with ultrashort laser pulses must be repeated many times, which is appropriate for some types of inert samples, but impossible for other more fragile ones. Compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) was a good starting point. Explore further: Physicists produce extremely short and specifically shaped electron pulses for materials studies
An American Tragedy The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety. All along, Trump seemed like a twisted caricature of every rotten reflex of the radical right. In the coming days, commentators will attempt to normalize this event.
The Truth About Diamonds