Have science, will travel
Home to the finest science shows this side of the Big Bang performed by the two best science guys in this (or any other) universe. Have science, will travel.
Aaron's back with another episode of Constant Science! Today he explains just how and why flames can come in different colors and he uses an old friend of ours: the Fire Tornado.
With his help you will be forever safe from The Goblin King. Click through to watch!
Read MoreAaron is back! This week on Constant Science, Aaron demonstrates one of the more creative ways to break a bottle: with the powerful physics of cavitation.
Read MoreWoo Hoo! Some of you may have seen it on our Instagram, our Twitter, or our Facebook page, but for anyone who missed it, some friends helped me build a pair of beds of nails over the weekend for an upcoming physics show. Let me tell you: that is some tedious work. I need to make friends with someone with a drill press.
To celebrate this momentous achievement (and the fact that I'm super busy this week) I've decided to share our Bed of Nails episode of Constant Science again, one of our very first videos. If you're wondering why a bed of nails is a useful tool for the popularization of science, look no further. The video is a segment from a show, but I give a brief intro at the top. Enjoy!
Read MoreThanks to the hurly-burly of modern life, we seem to spend every moment of every day under constant pressure. School, jobs, relationships, the constant threat of velociraptor attack, the list seems endless. Among this litany of pressures, however, is one that we cannot do without. I'm talking about air pressure. This week I want to show you a neat demo you can try at home that takes advantage of a quirk of air pressure. So sit back, relax, and make sure to keep your velociraptor spray handy.
Read MoreI was staring resolutely into the middle distance, practicing my world-weary, erudite look, when a few feral thoughts scampered nimbly through the wastes of my wide-open mind: What exactly is an explosion? Shorn of all the fire, debris, shockwaves, and cool protagonists walking away without looking back, what is the essence of an explosion, the thread that binds all explosions together? Is there a singular definition that encompasses them all? Give yourselves a second to think about that. I'll wait........(Warning. Some gross images ahead)
Read MoreIn the woolly wilds of Oregon, Spring has sprung! The sun is shining, bees are buzzing, and if your covered wagon turns over while fording the river, you might not die of hypothermia. (That was an Oregon Trail joke.) What better way to usher in the season and enjoy the outdoors than building your own stomp-bottle rocket launcher? Safe and easy, you can welcome back the songbirds with a barrage of air-propelled science! (Explosions Inc. does not condone firing rockets at living creatures. Not even birds. Not even if they totally pooped on you and your fancy new pants completely on purpose while you were minding your own business. Stupid birds.)
Read MoreFIRST AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: I am not here to impugn the idea behind popularizing mathematical concepts through any means possible. Nor am I here to suggest the concept of Pi itself is not worth study and exaltation. Certainly I am not here to cast aspersions upon the glorious existence of pie. As the full moon loves the night sky, as the grizzled mariner loves the sea, as Garfield loves lasagna, so I too love pie.
Read MoreThe final episode of my epic Chemical Reaction Trilogy! Perhaps it's not quite Peter Jacksonesque in scope (maybe more Terry Gilliamesque) but it's a good primer. This time I discuss where the energy that is released in a chemical reaction ends up and this video is in no way yet another excuse for me to set myself on fire. Nope, not at all. Not one little bit. Nuh-uh...Really.
Read MoreAn ode to element number 8. Without it my job would be so much more difficult. Come to think of it, my entire life, and yours as well would be devoid of, well, pretty much everything, including life. Good thing it's the third most abundant element in this little universe we like to call home. So come along as I sing the praises of your friend and mine, the shining star of the chalcogen family
Read Morereaction when Don conveniently pointed out we had done just that, a long time ago. So strap yourself into your way-back machine and let's take a trip down memory lane to the Big Bang of Explosions Inc.
Read MoreWe got a new camera! An honest-to-goodness, shooting stuff, all the bells and whistles, type camera......And I'm completely terrified of it. Like a suspicious peasant who won't go near the creepy old castle without muttering and making cryptic signs to ward off the evil eye. But I put on my big boy pants, burned some sage to discourage the negative humors, sacrificed a fatted calf to any deities who may be around (okay, so it was a slim jim) and I made a brief video to check it out. And it worked! Kinda.
Read MoreIn the annals of scientific research there are many sober, conscientious minds, meticulously following protocol to slowly, inexorably advance the state of human knowledge towards the goal of being just a little bit less wrong about the universe. There's also a lot of silly whack-a-doodles who can't be trusted not to run with scissors. Guess which group I'm going to write about today.........
Read MoreLet’s say you’ve sealed a cat in a box with a killing device powered by the radioactive decay of an element (Don’t ask why. In this hypothetical you’re a sociopath). If the element decays, the device is triggered, the cat dies, and the ASPCA will come gunning for you. Whereas the average decay rate of elements is well known, exactly when each atom actually decays is not able to be predicted. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory states that until an observation is made of the inside of the box, the quantum system described above is represented by a wave function in superposition. That is, the cat can be considered both alive and dead.
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We may live in a holographic simulation. Everything that can be conceived of must exist somewhere in the universe. There's this cat, you see, in this box that's both dead and alive, man. Dead and alive.
s much as I love the mind-bending ideas of scientific conjecture, sometimes the use of these ideas rankle my common sense. Especially when ideas like the quirks of quantum theory are accidentally or, even worse, purposefully misinterpreted and the model of the universe science is trying to build is mistaken for the actual thing
Read MoreI'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet. I'm not a teacher but I sometimes play one in a classroom. It can be argued that I'm an educator because I like to tell people stuff about things but so does the sketchy guy on the street corner who yells at trees and trashcans. I prefer to think of myself as part of a proud tradition that stretches back into antiquity.
Read MoreA few weeks back Don wrote an article on the spectrum of scientific inquiry where he talked about the loss of respect some of the "softer" sciences suffer due to the lack of hard evidence, explosions, and the stereotypical trappings of the scientific endeavor. In that subtle love poem written to his wayward mistress of Anthropology I saw myself mirrored and this week I'd like to make reparations and start by apologizing personally to Biology, Biologists, and a girlfriend I had long ago at whom I sarcastically rolled my eyes when she made the same points.
Read MoreQuick, how many planets are in our solar system? No googling. I’ll accept eight or nine as answers. If you want to be in line with current teaching standards, we have eight. If you refuse to bow to the whimsical tyranny of the IAU (viva la revolucion!) there’s nine. Or is there…….
Read MoreBrace yourselves. Winter is……well, winter is here. As parts of the US are being savaged by the polar vortex, indoor activities take on a whole new appeal. To help pass the time, here’s a fun, hands-on activity to make your very own super ball. As usual, please do this activity under the supervision of a responsible adult or at least someone who satisfies the legal definition of adult and has the self-delusion to believe he/she is responsible.
Read MoreAfter the huge success of last week's post about my top 5 science moments of 2014, I figured while any shlub can look backwards, it takes a man of vision, a man of courage, indeed, a man of SCIENCE to look forward into the murky mists of the near-future and bring you the Top 5 Science Thingies of 2015.
5. Unexpected Discoveries for New Horizons: Just beyond the orbit of our long-lost ninth planet, New Horizons will discover a curious gravitational anomaly. On the say-so of famous physicist, Stephen Hawking, it will be declared a wormhole and immediately Matthew McConaughey will be sent through it. While no real science will be achieved, everyone involved will agree it creates a nice visual spectacle.
The spacecraft utilized will be a slightly modified Lincoln Navigator.
4. Vaccines Cause Everything: Medical science will be turned upon it's head as it is discovered that vaccines are responsible for fatally weakened immune systems, autism, asthma, male-pattern baldness, communism, the polar vortex, and the cancelling of Firefly. Unfortunately this information will be heeded too late and the majority of the world's vaccinated population will be wiped out by a virulent strain of gonnosyphilerpemeningococcalaids. The survivors will gather in somber yet smug celebration only to be decimated by tetanus infection caused by bad quinoa.
She was the sole voice of reason.
3. Stephen Hawking is a Fraud: After the wormhole debacle beyond Pluto, it will be revealed that esteemed physicist Stephen Hawking is actually comedian Andy Kaufman, who successfully faked his death in 1984 for the sole purpose of perpetuating the most obtuse and long-running joke in history. Furthermore, the physics world will be rocked again as it is revealed the entire concept of a "black hole" is just an obscure butt joke.
2. The Vantablack Affair: Shortly after the New Year, the miraculous new material "Vantablack" (mentioned in Dazzling Don's last video) will indeed be used to make clothing. It will be a huge hit among the nation's disaffected youth subcultures. However, not realizing the dangers of absorbing nearly 100% of all available light energy, the first sunny day of Spring will cause massive spontaneous combustion events. Not a Hot Topic will be left standing.
AND FINALLY.......
1. HOVERBOARDS: Yup, hoverboards. It's finally time. Hover. F-ing. Boards. The revolution started in 2014 with the magnetic model, and the invisible hand of the market just took over from there. Who cares about a post-vaccine wasteland full of burning goth kids when we finally have the hoverboard the prophecies foresaw back in the dark ages of 1989? Nobody, that's who. And no one even minds we all have to dress like this.....
Classy.
As the arrow of time rockets us inexorably towards the goyish New Year* it is once again appropriate to whittle down by arbitrary rules the amazing complexity of events of the past year into what amounts to the lowest hanging dingleberry on the literature bush: The Listicle. So without further ado (or much ado at all) I present:
Aaron's Top 5 Sciencey Thingies of 2014
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