Few things herald Thanksgiving as loudly as turkeys, flight delays, and long hours in front of the TV watching football. It's an important time in the football calendar, with the playoffs beginning to shape up for both college football and the NFL. But what about those impacts? I don't mind watching football, but there's no…
You might think this is a video showing the testing of the electromagnetic catapult system for an aircraft carrier, but you are wrong. No, this is a video of a near-perfect example of a real physics homework problem. Yes, that is what it is. First, you might ask, what is an electromagnetic catapult? So, you…
In a recent video, Celtics player Kyrie Irving stands on a basketball court, with his legs straight and feet planted together, and leeeeeeans forward. He looks like he's about to topple. But he doesn't. He calmly returns to a normal upright standing position, shakes out his arms and stretches his neck, and then leeeeeeans a…
Two years ago, scientists in Japan reported the discovery of a mouse that just could not stay awake. This creature, which had a mutation in a gene called Sik3, slept upwards of 30 percent more than usual: Although it awoke apparently refreshed, it would need to snooze again long before its normal lab mates’ bedtime.…
The octopus is unique among animals in that it can essentially turn itself into liquid, Terminator style. Get yourself a 600-pound octopus and leave it unsupervised and the thing will squeeze itself into a quarter-sized tube and melt its way to freedom. And its manipulation superpowers are legendary—cram it into a jar and it’ll unscrew…
In January 2018, Rocket Lab sent a surprise to orbit. Along with its normal payloads, the launch company deployed a shiny object it dubbed the Humanity Star—basically a 3-foot-wide disco ball. Its reflective surface would shine down on Earth’s inhabitants, visible to the naked eye for a few months. “No matter where you are in…
Jellyfish float through the ocean like drones of the sea. Their simple nature makes them a natural muse for robot engineers building devices that can squeeze through tight spaces, check the ocean’s health, and eventually, explore the human body. This week, a team at Florida Atlantic University unveiled a new eight-inch wide robo-jellyfish built to…
When Hurricane Florence makes landfall on the North Carolina coastline this week, Catherine Edwards will be hoping the super-storm doesn’t veer toward her home in Savannah, Georgia. But even if Florence maintains a safe distance, Edwards will still have an intimate view of the weather: she's tracking the hurricane's path with a remote-controlled underwater ocean…
The art of estimations is pretty much a physicist's bread and butter. We all love a good estimation problem. You might also hear these called a "back of the envelope" calculation, or a calculation on a napkin. The writing medium is meant to emphasize how little preparation goes into attacking the problem. The estimator can't…
On Thursday, Russian officials held a press conference to reveal that they have determined what caused last month’s Soyuz mid-flight failure. The culprit: a damaged sensor on one of the rocket’s four boosters responsible for stage separation. With the investigation complete, the officials announced that they will move up the date of the next crew…