physics
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World's longest lab experiment still going strong, via webcam
In 1927, a physics professor named Thomas Parnell launched an experiment on viscous liquids. 85 years later, we're still waiting for his results. It all began with a funnel, a beaker, and some melted tar pitch. Parnell, a professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, was hoping to demonstrate that brittle tar pitch actually behaves as a liquid when kept at room temperature. To prove this, he melted some tar pitch, let it cool for three years, and placed it within the funnel, held over the beaker. The first drop rolled down the funnel eight years later. The second came nine years after that. By the time the third rolled around, Parnell had already passed away. Following his death, the experiment was shelved, quite literally, in a closet, before Professor John Mainstone revived it shortly after joining the University of Queensland in 1961. In 1975, Mainstone successfully lobbied the university to put the experiment on display, but he likely could've never imagined how large an audience it would ultimately have. Today, in fact, the experiment is on display 24 hours a day, via a dedicated webcam. It's been hailed as the world's longest running lab experiment, and it's available for gazing at the source link below. Mainstone expects the next drop to come down the pipeline sometime next year, but you probably shouldn't hold your breath. The last drop ran down the funnel in 2000. Unfortunately, it was never recorded on video, due to a very untimely camera malfunction.
Daily iPad App: Fathead
There's something intriguing about Fathead, but honestly, I don't really know what it is. The game is pretty standard -- similar to other titles like Jelly Car or Epic Truck, the goal is to drive a physics-based vehicle across a 2D world, landing jumps and flips as you can. And Fathead has the same issues that those games have: The physics can be a little sticky, and the gameplay is a little simple, given that you really only have one button to control. But Fathead remains fascinating anyway -- maybe it's the well-rendered little motorcyclist, but I found myself trying again and again to get to the next checkpoint and beat my previous score. I do wish there was a little more to the gameplay -- maybe there could be items to collect as you played along, some more tricks to do, or a little something else to mix up the gameplay just a little bit more. But I can't argue that what's there is still well-done, spare and simple as it may be. There is Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements, and I can only guess that updates are on the way as well. But for 99 cents for the universal version there's a solid chunk of entertainment to be had here.
Researchers build world's smallest steam engine that could
Wanna create your very own microscopic steam engine? Just take a colloid particle, put it in water, and add a laser. That's a CliffsNotes version of what a group of German researchers recently did to create the world's smallest steam engine. To pull it off, engineers from the University of Stuttgart and Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems tweaked the traditional approach introduced by Robert Stirling nearly 200 years ago. In Stirling's model, gas within a cylindrical tube is alternately heated and cooled, allowing it to expand and push an attached piston. Professor Clemens Bechinger and his team, however, decided to downsize this system by replacing the piston with a laser beam, and the cylinder's working gas with a single colloid bead that floats in water and measures just three thousandths of a millimeter in size. The laser's optical field limits the bead's range of motion, which can be easily observed with a microscope, since the plastic particle is about 10,000 times larger than an atom. Because the beam varies in intensity, it effectively acts upon the particle in the same way that heat compresses and expands gas molecules in Stirling's model. The bead, in turn, does work on the optical field, with its effects balanced by an outside heat source. The system's architects admit that their engine tends to "sputter" at times, but insist that its mere development shows that "there are no thermodynamic obstacles" to production. Read more about the invention and its potential implications in the full press release, after the break.
New periodic table elements finally get names, will probably want to trade them in
Flerovium and livermorium. Prime names for really ugly babies -- or, equivalently, new elements on the periodic table. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry opted for the latter last week, baptizing elements 114 and 116 just about six months after they were first ratified. Back in June, as you may recall, Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear Research proposed flerovium and muscovium as names for the two ultraheavy elements, while deferring to the IUPAC for final say on the matter. At the time, the organization said it would likely accept any name, as long as "it's not something too weird." Flerovium (Fl), named after Soviet nuclear physicist Georgiy Flerov, apparently passed that litmus test. Muscovium, sadly, did not. Instead, slot 116 will belong to livermorium (Lv), named after California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which collaborated on the discovery of the element, back in 2000. Bill Goldstein, associate director of Lawrence Livermore National Labs' Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, heralded the decision as a celebration of his institute's collaborative contribution to chemistry: "Proposing these names for the elements honors not only the individual contributions of scientists from these laboratories to the fields of nuclear science, heavy-element research, and super-heavy-element research, but also the phenomenal cooperation and collaboration that has occurred between scientists at these two locations." The nomenclature isn't entirely set in stone, however, as the two names must first endure a five-month public comment period before appearing in chemistry textbooks.
Get Where's my Water free from Apple's Facebook page
Apple is apparently giving yet another popular game away using its Facebook page -- this time, it's Disney's Where's my Water up for grabs. To grab your free copy of the great water-guiding physics puzzler, just head over to Apple's App Store Facebook page, become a fan, and you'll get a free promo code to download the game on an iOS device of your choice. It's a great title (put together, as we've previously reported, by a former game tester at the House of Mouse), and obviously much better at the low price of completely free. This is still such a weird promotion, though -- Apple has traditionally not had the best relationship with Facebook, but they have given away apps using Facebook before. Cupertino has a perfectly good Twitter account that could also be used to give away free games, but the Facebook freebies appear to use a slightly different method than posting promo codes. Don't forget Apple also has the Ping social network that could probably use a little traffic (and, you know, already happens to be connected up in iTunes).
Levine: BioShock Infinite won't favor close-range weapons, Objectivism
Ken Levine and the team at Irrational Games are switching things up for BioShock Infinite -- instead of being based on the Objectivist society of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Infinite is aiming for more of an Erik Larson's Devil in the White City feel, with a focus on physics rather than gene splicing. Irrational is also switching up some of the most recognizable gameplay from the first two BioShock games, namely the ability to beat them almost entirely with the shotgun and Electro Bolt, Levine told PlayStation.Blog. "One of the first things we did when we started on BioShock Infinite was to draw a graph with y and z axes, and to say that one of those axes was the number of enemies in an encounter and the other was the range of those enemies," Levine said. "In the original BioShock, the entire game lived in one corner of that graph – few enemies, all at close range - so the Electro Bolt and shotgun were perfect. BioShock Infinite is going to have much greater ranges and, potentially, far more enemies, so we're greatly increasing the spectrum of encounters that are possible, and that requires the player use a broader set of tools." That sounds like a challenge if we've ever heard one. You're on, Levine. You're on.
Scientists capture birth of new planet on camera, mother and child doing just fine
After all the pushing, squeezing and screaming, the universe has finally given birth to a new planet, in an eruption that two scientists managed to capture on film. The newborn pile of planetary pudge, named LkCa 15 b, was discovered by Drs. Michael Ireland and Adam Kraus, who, over the course of 12 months, successfully documented the event using Keck telescopes and a technique called aperture mask interferometry. Their findings, published in Astrophysical Journal describe a Jupiter-like gaseous planet that likely began forming some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. Located about 450 light years from Earth, it's also the youngest planet ever observed, having dethroned the previous record-holder, which was about five times older. According to Ireland and Kraus, the LkCa 15 b is still being formed out of a circle of dust and gas (pictured above) surrounding a 2-million-year-old star. By observing a "young gas giant in the process of formation," the researchers hope to find answers to fundamental questions that have long eluded them. "These very basic questions of when and where are best answered when you can actually see the planet forming, as the process is happening right now," Kraus explained to the AP. Head past the break to see an artist's rendering of the newborn, and if you get the chance, be sure to send flowers.
Levitating superconductor floats within a magnetic field so you don't have to (video)
What happens when you douse a superconducting urinal cake with liquid nitrogen? We haven't given it too much thought, to be honest, though we're guessing it would look a lot like the "levitating" disc pictured above. Developed by researchers at Tel-Aviv University, this device is actually a superconductor hovering over a "supercooled" magnet. While locked within the magnetic field, it can rotate around a vertical axis, turn upside down or do laps around a track -- all thanks to a phenomenon that Tel-Aviv's physicists call "quantum trapping." We're not really sure what that entails, but we do know that the results are pretty incredible. Check them out for yourself, after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Daily iPhone App: Aiko Island
Aiko Island is a physics puzzler with a little different take than usual -- instead of flinging cute little guys around, you're instead working to keep them from falling off of the screen. The idea is that there are little blue creatures and little red creatures, and by deleting some of the red creatures (and/or support structures, just by touching them), you can remove them from the screen without letting the little blue guys fall. It may sound complicated, but once you dive it, it's really that perfect mix of easy to understand and (eventually) really hard to master. Oftentimes, I just found myself trying experiment after experiment to see if I could make things fall correctly -- deleting some of the blocks in one order or another. There is some strategy to the madness (usually, you need to work on balancing one of two sides, or just make sure you're closing up all of the gaps in the right order), but still, sometimes I would just find the solution by random. Not a great feature, unfortunately, in a precise puzzle game like this one. Still, Aiko Island is colorful and fun, and especially if you like physics puzzlers, this one is right up your alley. It's even cute and fuzzy enough for the kids to play with (though some of the younger ones probably won't figure out the toughest levels right away). The game's packed with content, with over 120 puzzles to play with, really polished graphics and score, and full Game Center and OpenFeint integration. Aiko Island is a deal at just US99 cents for iPhone, or you can pick up the iPad version for $1.99.
Darkfall update talks camera, physics improvements
What's up in the lands of Agon recently? Quite a lot if the latest Darkfall dev update is any indication. The lengthy wall o' text touches on current development tasks including the possibility of an improved third-person camera, momentum mechanics, and ragdoll physics for the game's animations. Starter areas are also getting a makeover, and Aventurine producer Tasos Flambouras says that new and more powerful guard towers will deter newbie ganking without creating full-blown safe zones. Additionally, there's a bit more explanation regarding the ongoing siege and clan tweaks, and the devs continue to work on Darkfall's new armor specialization mechanics. Unfortunately there's still no word on either character wipes or a timeline for Darkfall 2.0's release, but there is quite a bit of other info available to peruse on the game's official site.
Pour one out for the Tevatron particle accelerator, because it's shutting down today
The eyes of the physics community are collectively fixed upon Illinois today, where, later this afternoon, researchers at Fermilab will shut down the Tevatron particle accelerator... for good. That's right -- the world's second-largest collider is being laid to rest, after a remarkable 25-year run that was recently halted due to budgetary constraints. Earlier this year, Fermilab's scientists and a group of prominent physicists pleaded with the government to keep the Tevatron running until 2014, but the Energy Department ultimately determined that the lab's $100 million price tag was too steep, effectively driving a nail through the accelerator's subterranean, four-mile-long coffin. First activated in 1985, the Tevatron scored a series of subatomic breakthroughs over the course of its lifespan, including, most notably, the discovery of the so-called top quark in 1995. Its groundbreaking technology, meanwhile, helped pave the way for CERN's Large Hadron Collider, which will now pursue the one jewel missing from the Tevatron's resume -- the Higgs boson. Many experts contend that the collider could've gone on to achieve much more, but its ride will nonetheless come to an inglorious end at 2PM today, when Fermilab director Pier Oddone oversees the Tevatron's last rites. "That will be it," physicist Gregorio Bernardi told the Washington Post. "Then we'll have a big party."
Daily iPhone App: Sprinkle
Sprinkle is a physics-based puzzle game that's centered around water. You control a spigot that's mounted on a crane, and then you blast water to interact with various items in the environment, such as boulders (that actually light on fire, sometimes trouble) and blocks. The overall goal is to keep the ingame characters from lighting on fire, and you can do that by flooding their general area. As with most games of this ilk, things start off simply, but ramp up to get pretty complicated, and the fire itself (along with a limited supply of water) means time is of the essence in most of the levels. Burn a house down, and you're done. The game's got plenty of content, with 48 levels and more on the way. I found it to be a little persnickety in terms of controls: the water is executed brilliantly with really amazing physics, graphics, and even sounds, but the items will sometimes flood around the way you want them to, and sometimes not. Still, the spigot itself controls very well, and restarting a level is easy if things don't quite go your way. Sprinkle is definitely one to see, especially if you're up for taking on some more physics puzzles with a fairly new medium to play with. The universal app is available for the iPhone and iPad for 99 cents.
Scientist creating rain-making lasers, Weezy and Fat Joe await royalty checks
We've heard of "making it rain," but actually making it rain -- with lasers, no less -- now, that's something to write home about. A team of researchers at the University of Geneva is coming ever closer to creating real-deal downpours by shooting beams from their Teramobile mobile femtosecond-Terawatt laser system into the sky above the Rhone River. While logging nearly 133 hours between the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010, the team observed that the beams actually triggered the creation of nitric acid particles, which bound water molecules together creating water droplets. Those droplets proved too small and light to actually be categorized as rain, but the discovery has apparently spurred the scientists on. Previous efforts to make it rain, known as seeding, have used rockets and jets to shoot silver iodide and dry ice into the sky. No word yet on when the scientists expect to successfully "wash the spider out."
UCLA creates portable microscope that uses holograms, not lenses
Instead of lugging a heavy microscope into the field, doctors and nurses in remote regions may have a more portable choice -- a lightweight microscope that replaces lenses with holograms. Researchers at UCLA announced a prototype dual-mode microscope that's lightweight, costs between $50 and $100 to produce and is similar in size to a banana. Like a hologram that uses interfering rays to create an image, this device shines light on a sample where its sensor chip (apparently also found in iPhones and BlackBerrys) and a cloud-based software program analyze the interference pattern and reconstruct an image of the sample. Since it's dual-mode, both large samples and small samples can be analyzed through processes called "transmission" and "reflection," and doctors could potentially use their laptops or smartphones to access the images remotely. Although still considered a prototype, researchers think the development has the opportunity to revolutionize health care by allowing doctors to test things like water, blood and food. Check out the full PR after the break.
Daily iPhone App: A Game With Balls
This game's title isn't just cheeky -- it's pretty literal. A Game With Balls definitely has lots of balls in it -- you play as a sort of cannon that shoots balls, and there are various balls and other shapes slowly floating down the screen towards you. The balls you fire have a little bit of weight to them, and so it's a physics action game as you try to shoot away the invading shapes with your own ammo. The title's not bad, though it gets a little repetitive -- "beating" each stage basically just requires you to sit there shooting for as long as possible, so while there are separate mechanics for each of the four stages (or themes, as they're called -- each one has a different graphical look and feel), there's really just the one premise to play with. Still, the physics work well, and the graphics are solid and well-done, so if you want a little something fun to whittle away the time, this one's worth a look. A Game With Balls is out now for only US 99 cents as a universal app. There is full Game Center integration, and the developers promise more content is coming soon.
CERN's LHC@home 2.0 project simulates a Large Hadron Collider in the cloud
"You break it, you bought it," came to mind when researchers at the Centre for European Nuclear Research (CERN) announced the LHC@home 2.0 project, giving us regular Joes access to the Large Hadron Collider. OK, we kid; the reality is that much like SETI@home and Folding@home, a whole group of volunteering home computers link up together, and while idle they quietly help simulate LHC particle collisions according to CERN's theoretical models. Scientists there then compare these results with those from actual LHC experiments in order to check for any instrumental or theoretical errors, thus potentially speeding up the mission to find the God particle in a low cost manner. Besides being a great way to get your science on, the cloud-based program also makes CERN's resources (like crisis mapping and damage assessment) available to researchers in developing nations that may not to be able to afford the accelerator's $6 billion dollar price tag -- but nowadays, what nation can?
Duke University's underwater invisibility cloak stills troubled waters
Everyone's jumping on the invisibility cloaking bandwagon these days, but no one's quite managed to fully deliver on the promise. The same goes for two Duke University researchers who believe their mesh casing could grant the gift of concealment to underwater craft -- submarines, anyone? According to the proposed model, a specially designed shell punctuated by complex patterns of permeability and millimeter-sized pumps would eliminate the drag and turbulent wake caused by an object as it moves through the water. Utilizing the penetrable gaps in the case, water would at first accelerate, and then decelerate to its original speed before exiting -- rendering the fluid around the object virtually undisturbed. Now for the bad news: the design doesn't quite work for large-scale, real-world implementations -- hello again, submarines -- since the tech can only cloak small structures, like "a vehicle one centimetre across... [moving] at speeds of less than one centimetre per second." It's a massive bummer, we know, but we're getting there folks -- you just won't see it when it actually happens.
Ultra-pure material lets electrons discover each other on the quantum dance floor
These guys aren't Purdue University professors, they're DJs. That thing on the left? It isn't a high-mobility gallium-arsenide molecular beam epitaxy system, it's their decks. It creates an ultra-pure material so perfectly latticed that it traps electrons between its layers and stops them bouncing around like drunken fools at the high school prom. By squeezing them ever so tightly, it lulls the particles into an "exotic" slow dance, at which point they become "aware" of each other and start performing correlated motions that are essential for quantum computing. That's a still a long way off, but if one day we find ourselves affixing gallium arsenide swabs to our quantum motherboards, we'll raise our lighters in the air. Informative PR after the break.
Researchers use graphene to draw energy from flowing water, self-powered micro-robots to follow?
What can't graphene do? The wonder material's been at the heart of a stunning number of technological breakthroughs of late, and now it's adding oil exploration to its long list of achievements. A team of researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered that the flow of good old H2O over a sheet of graphene can generate enough electricity to power "tiny sensors" used in tracking down oil deposits. The gang, led by professor Nikhil Koratkar, was able to suck 85 nanowatts of power out of a slab of graphene measuring .03 by .015 millimeters. The little sensors the researchers speak of are pumped into potential oil wells via a stream of water, and are then put to work sniffing out hydrocarbons indicative of hidden pockets of oil and natural gas. Of course, that doesn't have a whole lot of practical application for your average gadget consumer, but Koraktar sees a future filled with tiny water-powered robots and micro-submarines -- we can dig it.
Bomb-sniffing crystals may save us from nuclear Armageddon, tea leaves agree
Worried that a nuclear attack might wipe out all of American civilization? You needn't be, because the scientific community's crystal ball says crystal balls may save humanity. Last week, the Department of Energy awarded a $900,000 grant to Fisk University and Wake Forest, where researchers have been busy exploring the counter-terrorist capabilities of strontium iodide crystals. Once laced with europium, these crystals can do a remarkably good job of picking up on and analyzing radiation, as the team from Fisk and other national laboratories recently discovered. Cost remains the most imposing barrier to deploying the materials at airports or national borders, though soothsaying scientists claim it's only a matter of time before they develop a way to produce greater crystalline quantities at an affordable price. The only thing Miss Cleo sees is a glistening press release, in your very near, post-break future.
