As our sun heads to its 11 year solar maximum, NASA has captured, during a solar flare, this amazing picture of a giant “solar whip” last week. A burst of solar material leaps off the left side of the sun in what’s known as a prominence eruption. This image combines three images from NASA’s Solar […]
Materials scientist and Christmas Lecturer Mark Miodownik demonstrates some of the weird properties of ferrofluid. This liquid is literally ‘dripping with magnetism’, containing a suspension of ferromagnetic nanoparticles that make the liquid responsive to external magnetic fields, generating unusual patterns, shapes and motion. Oh, and while we’re on the subject of ferrofluids, there’s a cool […]
Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles have found a way to create stunningly detailed 3D reconstructing of platinum nanoparticles at an atomic scale. These are being used to study tiny structural irregularities called dislocations. [Source: NatureVideoChannel | Via UD]
I wanted Thor’s hammer (Mjolnir), but I wasn’t going to accept any old boring plastic prop. I needed something with a little more POP. I worked with Staci Elaan to build this hammer that has a solid state tesla coil inside. When you push the button, 80,000 volts of electricity arc from the top. It […]
From the guys over at Gritty Reboots: WHY DID WE MAKE THIS? To be blunt: Science, technology, and education are important to us. But we live in a world where the little news we hear of schools, research, and the arts is when they’re laying their heads on the chopping block. We live in a […]
I think “chaos” would be kind of an understatement if this would ever happen. [BuzzFeedVideo]
You’re about to see the movie that holds the Guinness World Records™ record for the World’s Smallest Stop-Motion Film. The ability to move single atoms — the smallest particles of any element in the universe — is crucial to IBM’s research in the field of atomic memory. But even nanophysicists need to have a little […]
One of the most powerful pieces of space equipment ever launched has lost its ability to collect data. As was always inevitable, the Herschel Space Observatory has run out of the helium needed to cool instruments. The observatory, built and run by the European Space Agency, was launched in 2009. It used a 3.5 meter […]
An informative venn diagram showing who can catch which flu virus by the folks over at Information is Beautiful. [Information is Beautiful | Via Neatorama]
Artist Nicole Williams made this awesome cell cake as an assignment for a biology course. Looks great, doesn’t it? But the question remains: Is it scientifically accurate? I’m waiting for all you biologist out there to chime in with your answers! [Source: Nicole William on Deviantart.com | Via Neatorama