Colonel Mustard, In the Lab, With a Lead Ingot
Roman ingots to shield particle detector Lead is, in principle, a shield against radiation, but freshly mined lead is itself slightly radioactive because it contains an unstable isotope, lead-210. “We...
View ArticleFalling Down on the Job
Getting the drop on gravity It’s an ingenious plan with two major problems: first, the super-cold atom clouds are extraordinarily hard to make. Second, the best way to test gravity is to make sure that...
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The Worlds Most Expensive Thermometer
The roadway across the Golden Gate Bridge rises and falls as much as 16 feet depending on the temperature. When the sun hits the bridge, the metal expands and the bridge cables stretch. As the fog...
View ArticleReally, Nature?
Quantum mechanics flummoxes physicists again If you ever want to get your head around the riddle that is quantum mechanics, look no further than the double-slit experiment. This shows, with perfect...
View ArticleThis isn’t the NFL
(The NFL likes parity) Largest Parity Violation and Other Adventures in Table-Top Physics: Atomic Experiments Push Boundary of Known Physical World Budker uses atoms of the rare Earth element ytterbium...
View ArticleX Doesn’t Mark the Spot
io9: Poisson’s Spot: The Greatest Burn in Physics There was nothing left to do but award the prize to Fresnel. Poisson had put forward a consequence of light as a wave that was so ridiculous, so...
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Not a Viable Source of Alternative Energy
Back when I was playing with a strong magnet dropping through a coil of wire I wondered how much energy I could extract from the dropped magnet and if I could do anything with it. The coil I was using...
View ArticleMake Like a Tree and Leaf Less Energy Uncollected
Young Naturalist Award — Aiden: The Secret of the Fibonacci Sequence in Trees My investigation asked the question of whether there is a secret formula in tree design and whether the purpose of the...
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Stay! Staaaay!
I’ve been growing salt crystals. Unlike a pet, salt crystals won’t tear up the furniture, do their business on the carpet or need to be walked in the rain. Really I was testing to see if I could do...
View ArticleIt’s ATRAP!
Antiprotons Reflect a Magnetic Symmetry Physicists have improved the measurement of the antiproton magnetic dipole moment, further narrowing how close to identical it is in magnitude (with opposite...
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