Blog RSS Feed
Physics & Chemistry Archive
Plight Of The Postdoc
by Is modern American science strangling its young talents in the cradle?
> Read More
Take a Tour of a Detector!
by Ever wanted to look inside a particle accelerator's detector and see how it works? Want to know what sort of work goes on at these huge facilities? There's a new website for the CDF experiment at Fermilab that'll interest you. There's also some fun movies about the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider.
> Read More
Ray Ray Ray
In other gamma-ray related news, the movie "The Incredible Hulk" is released this week. What was it with gamma rays (and other rays) playing such a prominent role in so many origins stories in the old classic comic books?
> Read More
At Last - GLAST!
The GLAST observatory has been launched today. It is designed to study gamma rays coming from space. There's an exciting time ahead, with this new window on a range of highly energetic phenomena happening in the universe. We may learn a great deal about astrophysics and cosmology. Stay tuned.
> Read More
I Am Canadian (Physics)
by Another day, another $50 million dollar donation from Canadian telecom billionaire/physics-benefactor Mike Lazaridis.
> Read More
Fate Of The Ocean
Ocean acidification is intimately connected to our changing climate and as important as global warming...
> Read More
With Honors. Without Options?
In the 21st century, we're producing more Ph.D. graduates than ever while the traditional academic trajectory affords fewer and fewer options.
> Read More
Open House at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Ever wanted to see where those wonderful spaceships we send out there are designed and assembled? Wanted to talk to the scientists and engineers who do that? Well, this weekend you can do it quite easily. Go to JPL!
> Read More
No, Not A Doomsday Device
When the LHC in Geneva switches on later this year, is the earth going to be destroyed? Fear not - The odds are hugely in our favour.
> Read More
Galaxy Bumper Cars
Galaxies are, quite often, far from the safe places that they are usually portrayed as. They're not just the places where the universe keeps its stars. Among other things they've been seen getting up to, they can collide and merge with each other. NASA recently released some images of some of these events...
> Read More
"I'd rather be smart than be a movie star"
..says actress Natalie Portman!
> Read More
A Cosmic Salute to Arthur C. Clarke?
As Damon pointed out earlier, the great writer Arthur C. Clarke died on Wednesday of last week. Did you know that on that same day, there was a huge celestial event? Coincidence, or the universe's way of paying tribute?
> Read More
Sand, Man
Sometimes, if you look at things the right way, there are patterns all around to be spotted. Much of physics begins (and sometimes ends) with the business of looking at things the right way and asking the right questions in order to find important features of even the most complicated systems. Take sand, for example...
> Read More
Relativistic Art
It's time for some art. Featured here is Tamsin Van Essen, who works in ceramics on a variety of themes. Here, I point to some of her work that has a spacetime theme or two.
> Read More
Rings around Rhea
The Cassini probe has found evidence of a new ring system! Not about another planet (Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings, by the way), but about a moon of another planet, Rhea, which orbits Saturn. This opens up yet another new avenue in the exciting field of planetary science.
> Read More
A Buggy Perspective
by When I was little, my concept of infinity was that our entire twinkling universe fit neatly inside of God's belt buckle. And standing next to God of course, was his Mum. From that world I'd zoom out again past their stars and suns and solar system, until all of that space fit inside a bigger God's belt buckle, who lived in a bigger world, with his bigger Mum. Infinity to my 5 year old mind, was essentially worlds existing endlessly & simultaneously within bigger worlds, and of course, bigger belt buckles.
> Read More
Paper Geniuses
Give me an A4 sheet of white paper and you might get a few doodles, a paper airplane, or a snowflake-cum-doily if I'm feeling particularly creative. But for some folks, a simple sheet of paper can evolve into a mind-melting trip into another dimension.
> Read More
Teleportation Friday!
So I've two timely snippets on teleportation in my newly minted Teleportation Friday! series...
> Read More
DIY dinner
Seeing as it's DIY month here on Wired Science, I was thinking we could delve into a few Molecular Gastronomy recipes. After all, nothing perks up the taste buds like a scrumptious hydrocolloid dinner! That said, Khymos.org is a fantastic resource for those of you who'd like to experiment with the "science of cooking". Download the digital cookbook here, and try your hand at making everything from Frozen parmesan air to Spherical mango ravioli, to White sangria in suspension! 
> Read More
Planck Meets Fleming
So yesterday at Pinewood Studios they announced the name of the upcoming second James Bond film in the new series that (excellently, in my opinion) re-envisions the Bond movie universe. Last year's first one was "Casino Royale", you may recall. Did you hear what the next one will be called?
> Read More
Not Science Fiction
Anti-matter. Seeing the previous word, you immediately glance back at the title, right? Strangely, it has been 80 years since the discovery of anti-matter, and we use it routinely in our technology. Nevertheless, anti-matter is still thought of as something from science fiction (and mostly bad science fiction at that).
It all goes back to one of my favourite theoretical physicists, Paul Dirac, and you might like how he found it [...]
> Read More
A Cloud Called Smith
There's quite a substantial cosmic collision due to happen. It is between our very own galaxy and a cloud of gas called the Smith Cloud. It's due to happen soon, by cosmological standards, but rather a while away by human standards. There are all sorts of collisions happening in our universe, near and far, fast and slow, always interesting, and often with a lot to teach us. More locally, there's also been an update on the collision of an asteroid with mars that was possible at the end of this month.
> Read More
Relating and Correlating
by Michael celebrates the improved cohesion, energy and vision of the Correlations team and then messes it all up by foolishly starting an argument with the on-air talent.
> Read More
A Big Bang for 2008?
There's an asteroid on its way to a close approach to the planet Mars. New data on its trajectory have helped scientists announce today that the chances of a collision have increased from 1 in 75 to 1 in 25. Happily, there's quite a bit of Earth-originated traffic in the Mars area these days, and so if the collision does happen, we're bound to learn a lot of exciting new science.
> Read More
Essence
Both Science and Art are part of our everyday culture. Or at least they should be. Do you think of them as related, sharing some common goals, or quite different? Do you go to one as relief from the other, or for inspiration for the other? It is interesting to explore some common themes in art and science.
> Read More
Earth as Alien Planet
The field of astronomy and planetary science devoted to the study of planets in other star systems is a young and exciting one. Soon, it is hoped, we will be able to learn about planets not so different from ours, but orbiting about other stars. Will there be life on those other planets? Will there be intelligent life? To learn that will require detection tools currently unavailable, but currently being developed. In preparing for such remarkable telescopes, some scientists have been wondering about what an alien species (perhaps on one of those very planets we might find one day) might see if looking back at our very own planet earth? What can they learn about our planet using telescopes of the sort we might build soon?
> Read More
A Black Hole Death Ray?
Another supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy makes the news. This time, this sort of violent activity affects a neighbouring galaxy. And it's been caught on film. While a great story in itself, showing the immense power of black holes, another interesting story that lurks is how we went from black holes being exotic solutions to exotic equations to the commonplace objects that they are in today's astrophysics.
> Read More
The Universe, on TV
WIRED Science is not the only science show that launched on television this year. A number of channels are making new science-themed TV shows, with others under discussion. This is good news for everyone! The second season of the History Channel's new show "The Universe" has begun airing, and there's some fun stuff coming up.
> Read More
Antarctic Pioneers, Old and New
I've been fascinated by Tamsin's posts about her activities in Antarctica. I hope you've been reading them. Scientists from several disciplines now visit that remote part of the world, and are modern antarctic pioneers. It is sobering to recall just how recently the classic pioneering expeditions to that continent were made, and to hear the remarkable stories about what happened. One the big names from that era is that of Sir Ernest Shackleton, in connection with the heroic 1914 expedition that was intent on crossing the continent.
> Read More
Warped Ambitions?
I noticed recently that there was a conference, hosted by the British Interplanetary Society, about research on things like warp drive. You know, the means by which they zip around space in Star Trek. Is this crazy stuff? Where does the science begin and the science fiction end? Current research shows that there are certain important obstacles in the way of building a warp engine, even in principle. Can we get around them?
> Read More
Long Hair, Drano & Green Chemistry
I have long hair. Long hair that loves to bundle together and form a happy little party in the drain. At least that's what I try to imagine, since the alternative from The Ring is enough to keep me from showering altogether. But each time I get one of those scary Samara clogs, I also get Drano guilt. So today I decided to do some research and take a look - as my friend Chris does brilliantly every week - at what's inside that mystery product?
> Read More
Reflecting on the Quantum
Do you think of quantum physics as something weird? Irrelevant? It is not weird, really, and your life depends on it in so many ways. The problem is more to do with the way the subject is presented.
> Read More
Notes from the Underground
Experiment Cave is a segment that is close to my heart. Of course not literally, as we shot the thing more than a mile beneath the ground in Canada. And of course the heart is a metaphor for my ego. And ego is a metaphor for my consciousness. . . .okay, I'm boring even me.
> Read More
Like a Model on the Cover of a Magazine
Climate science depends on climate models. There is nothing odd about that. All science depends on models.
> Read More
What is the Big Round Thing?
You may have seen Ziya interview Jim Gates on last week's show. If you did not, you can check it out on the show's video archive. Somewhere in there, he mentioned the new experiment called the "Large Hadron Collider", or LHC, which several physicists are all excited about. It will turn on next year, we hope. It will allow us to test several important ideas in physics, and so we're all sitting on the edge of our seats to find out what it will tell us. So what ideas will it be testing for us?
> Read More
What is the Big Round Thing?
You may have seen Ziya interview Jim Gates on last week's show. If you did not, you can check it out on the show's video archive. Somewhere in there, he mentioned the new experiment called the "Large Hadron Collider", or LHC, which several physicists are all excited about. It will turn on next year, we hope. It will allow us to test several important ideas in physics, and so we're all sitting on the edge of our seats to find out what it will tell us. So what ideas will it be testing for us?
> Read More
Digging for Treasure
by Yesterday I set out to dig up a piece of history. I wasn't looking for ancient ruins or even dinosaur bones, just plain old snow.
Why? Because Antarctic snow and ice contains a treasure trove of information about past climates. Everyone wants to know how the climate is going to change in the future but before we can predict the future, first we need to understand the past. Trapped in between the buried grains of snow and ice are little air pockets - bubbles of the atmosphere as it was tens, hundreds, thousands, even millions of years ago...
> Read More
New Possibilities for Black Holes
There's been a recent discovery of an unusual black hole. It is about 16 times the mass of our sun. Such large black holes resulting from the collapse of ordinary stars have hitherto been unknown. It doesn't fit well with current theories about how these processes work. This presents an important and exciting puzzle for Astrophysicists. There's evidently more going on than previously thought.
> Read More
Giant Magnetoresistance Recognized
Magnetoresistance has nothing to do with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants or its charismatic leader. It's to do with your ipod, your laptop, and pretty much any device that uses hard drives to store a ton of vital information (you know, those valuable pictures of you at that party the other night) in a small place. Magnetoresistance is a material's ability to change its electrical resistance in response to an applied magnetic field.
> Read More
It's Nobel Week!
It's that time of year everyone! Every year there's a period of about a week during which all the Nobel prizes in the various categories are announced. This is the week. Rather than wait for the press to announce, you can keep an eye on the Nobel site here, and find out who won, what for, and get as much detail as you like about the significance of the contribution the prize is for, and details about the people who won it.
> Read More