The Museum of Unworkable Devices Physics Gallery
Perpetual motion machine inventors do have principles. Unfortunately the physical principles they assume are often ones not obeyed by nature. Let's examine just a few. The principle of unlimited possibility. Anything is possible Inventors assume that since we haven't looked at every part of the universe nor have we looked at all possible mechanisms or phenomena, we can't rule out anything. Those who think this way are much like the child who puts two blocks in a box, closes the box, shakes it, then opens it, hoping to find three blocks inside. The "heavier on one side" seduction. The most naive level of perpetual motion seduction is the notion that if a system has more mass on one side of the axle, then that side must swing downward. We can test its stability by turning the wheel to any position whatever. The earliest unbalanced wheel of Bhaskara underwent countless modifications and embellishments over centuries. The situation is worse than that. But this isn't a valid test.
Through the (zero-reflection) looking glass
07 Apr 2006 When light passes through material such as glass, a portion of its energy is lost as it reflects off the material's surface. Researchers at Japan's Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) have come up with a theoretical design for preventing this phenomenon from occurring. The researchers have designed a prism of engineered material -- metamaterial comprised of an arrangement of nano-coils of precious metals such as gold or silver -- embedded in a solid glass-like material. The prism structure has a negative refractive index, which makes it truly transparent to light, allowing it to pass freely through with no reflection. In the future, this type of metamaterial prism could lead to improvements in low-loss fiber optic communications, the development of telescopes and cameras well-suited for dark subjects, and the emergence of optical equipment we have never seen before. [Sources: Jiji, Riken press release]
Things That Kill More People Than Sharks
It might be Shark Week at Discovery channel, but hot dogs & high school football kill more people than sharks. A good reminder that a fear of sharks is irrational. Check out the list of 20 things that kill more people than sharks every year here. Among them….hippos, lightening, tornadoes….oh, and hotdogs (which target CHILDREN!). Source: buzzfeed
Bad Astronomy
Well now, this is an interesting discovery: astronomers have found what looks like a "super-Earth" – a planet more massive than Earth but still smaller than a gas giant – orbiting a nearby star at the right distance to have liquid water on it! Given that, it might – might – be Earthlike. This is pretty cool news. Now let me be clear: this is a planet candidate; it has not yet been confirmed. The star is called HD 40307, and it’s a bit over 40 light years away (pretty close in galactic standards, but I wouldn’t want to walk there). Massive planets tug on their star harder, so they’re easier to find this way. In this case, HD 40307 was originally observed a little while back by HARPS, and three planets were found. We don’t know how big the planet is, unfortunately. But the very interesting thing is that it orbits the star at a distance of about 90 million kilometers (55 million miles) – closer to its star than is is to the Sun… but that’s good! Image credits: ESO/M. Related Posts:
Red Tide Causes Glow-In-The-Dark Blue Waves On San Diego Beaches (VIDEOS)
Who knew red tide caused blue waves? San Diego's beaches are captivating many with an eerie nighttime phenomenon. It seems that "red tide" is causing bioluminescent glow-in-the-dark waves in the area, a sight that's almost too eerie to believe. But you can see it for yourself in the videos below. According to the Los Angeles Times, an unusual algae bloom has turned the surf red by day, and provided this effect at night. The electric blue glow is caused by an algae bloom commonly referred to as a “red tide.” More specifically, the color is caused by a chemical reaction that results from the movement of the algae. The event is mildly toxic, GrindTV reported, but isn't really harmful to humans beyond making a swim a bit uncomfortable. How much longer the blue surf will last is unknown. WATCH (A quick clip of the glow-in-the-dark waves): WATCH (A more theatrical compilation of the waves):
Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived
Additional notes from the author: If you want to learn more about Tesla, I highly recommend reading Tesla: Man Out of Time Also, this Badass of the week by Ben Thompson is what originally inspired me to write a comic about Tesla. Ben's also got a book out which is packed full of awesome. There's an old movie from the 80s on Netflix Instant Queue right now about Tesla: The Secret of Nikola Tesla.
Leaf-like sea slug feeds on light - Technology & Science
A green sea slug found off North America's east coast not only looks like a leaf, but can also make food out of sunlight, just like a plant. U.S. researchers have found that the sea slug Elysia chlorotica can photosynthesize, using energy from light to convert carbon dioxide into sugars. "If you shine light on these slugs, they fix carbon dioxide and make oxygen just like a plant," Sidney Pierce of the University of South Florida told CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks. Pierce reported his findings Jan. 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, and has submitted his research to the journal Symbiosis. The slugs look just like a leaf, green and about three centimetres long, and are found off the east coast of North America from Nova Scotia to Florida. They acquire the ability to photosynthesize by eating algae and incorporating the plants' tiny chlorophyll-containing structures, called chloroplasts, into their own cells. Gene transfer a revelation
TOXIC: Garbage Island 1 of 3 - Toxic | VBS.TV
By Thomas Morton Photos by Jake Burghart I’m not one of those guys who corners folks at parties to rant at them about biodiesel or calls people “fucking idiots” for being skeptical about global warming. But I should also point out that I’m not one of those Andrew Dice Clay “Fuck the whales” types either. The problem with all the bravado on both sides of the ecology debate is that nobody really knows what they’re talking about. Trying to form opinions on climate change, overpopulation, and peak oil hinges on ginormous leaps of faith based around tiny statistical deviances that even the scientists studying them have a hard time understanding. Well, I have just such a thing. In the middle of the 90s, Charles Moore was sailing his racing catamaran back to California from Hawaii and decided on a lark to cut through the center of the North Pacific Gyre. The problem with plastic is, unless you hammer it with enough pressure to make a diamond, it never fully disintegrates.
