A Communiqué on Weightlessness

Take a look at the painting on your left. "The artist climbed 23,000 feet in a specially modified plane to work on the piece while weightless," this article purports.Pause. Now wait a minute. Now cringe.The terms "weightlessness" and "zero gravity" are constantly thrown around haphazardly, in part because there is a vague misconception surrounding what it means to be "weightless".The notion that one can experience weightlessness by being high enough above the earth's surface is disingenuous. Wei.. Read more »

Anti-Matter Goldmine

Billions of anti-matter particles were recently let loose at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Using a short-pulse laser, a team of researchers figured out how to produce anti-electrons or positrons faster and in greater density than ever before in the laboratory.While positrons were the only form of anti-matter produced in the experiment, not all anti-matter particles are positrons. Every particle has its own corresponding, oppositely charged anti-particle (check out last month's post on .. Read more »

The Lizard-Spock Expansion

I missed last night's Big Bang Theory, but check out the highlights here (I'm told Howard runs the Mars Lander into a ditch)... Read more »

Planets Orbiting Stars Orbiting Planets Orbiting Stars Orbiting&.

Multiple planets orbiting a star other than our own sun- a dizzying thought that has been confirmed for the first time by images from the Gemini North telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii's Mauna Kea.A group of researchers produced novel pictures of a small solar system comprising three planets (two of which are shown in the image above) orbiting a star called HR 899, about 130 light years away from Earth. The pictures are extraordinary because until now, distant planets orbiting s.. Read more »

Fermi Problem Friday

Ironically, the Fermi Problem Task Force was unable to post a Fermi problem last week because we traveled to Fermi Lab for the 2008 Congress of the Society of Physics Students. I highly recommend a visit and tour of Fermi Lab if you are ever near Chicago. However, with further ado, allow me to present this week's Fermi Problem:I was riding my bike to the Physics Central headquarters yesterday morning while it was raining. By the time I arrived, I was wearing more water than clothes. During this .. Read more »

Synchrotrons and Society in the Middle East

I've never thought of synchrotrons as peace making entities, capable of establishing comity between the populations of fractious Middle Eastern countries, but at least two scientists, American Herman Winick and German Guss Voss do. Eleven years ago, they founded the SESAME ( Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) in Amman, Jordan with the goal of bringing together scientists from across the Middle East to a single facility.Their vision of Palestinians a.. Read more »

Overlooked Physics: The Mysterious Drinking (Dipping) Bird

With all of our brain power working on grand experiments like the LHC and pondering big questions about black holes, we occasionally run into some seemingly simple mysteries. For instance, how does a dipping bird work? Or will a slinky perpetually slink down an ascending escalator?Please send us explanations and videos of you tackling these elusive mysteries. Who knows, we may post it up on the Physics Buzz Blog... Read more »