May 15, 2014 Electromagnetic fields guide light in specific ways. The image above is from the Planck satellite, now defunct, that was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in May 2005, along with the Herschel Space Observatory, which also recently ended its mission. According to ESA, Planck’s mission was…
May 13, 2014 Structures on Mars that resemble Earth’s hydrothermal vents or eroded mounds have sparked renewed interest in water flowing over the Red Planet. Mounds on Mars are thought to be the remains of ancient hydrothermal vents because they have a similar appearance to fossilized “mound springs” in the Australian Outback, so…
In recent decades the scientific enterprise has produced many technological revolutions but few conceptual revolutions. Professor Gerald Pollack describes the reasons why. He goes on to describe how the newly founded Institute for Venture Science will restore science to the creative enterprise it once was. Dr. Pollack is a…
May 12, 2014 Some star clusters appear to be inside out. Ideas that enter the mind under fire remain there securely and for ever. — Leon Trotsky The Flame Nebula is located in the constellation of Orion, just below the three visible stars that make up its belt. Of the…
Electric Spin and Ballerinas By Hilton Ratcliffe There is a particular and almost magical property of matter that has a profound effect on every single thing we’ve ever come across. It’s called spin. In a sub-atomic particle, or a planet, or a star, or a galaxy, or the silken touch…
May 09, 2014 Assembling the Universe requires dusty plasma. Dust in space is said to be formed because stars condense out of dusty protoplanetary nebulae. The current theory of star formation was originally proposed by Immanuel Kant and Pierre Simon Laplace in the Eighteenth Century. A nebula is said…
May 08, 2015 Elongated craters on the Moon are said to come from “grazing impactors.” In one of the earliest Pictures of the Day by the late Amy Acheson, the question was asked, how do you make a crater? When astronomers began to observe the Moon centuries ago, the…
May 07, 2014 So far, no dark matter candidates have been detected. Dark matter, as previous Picture of the Day articles report, is undetectable, except through its supposed gravitational interactions with luminous, or baryonic matter. Large, expensive experiments are currently investigating many aspects of its hidden qualities, including a…
In Dr. Latour’s presentation, physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, economics, history and ethics are deployed to identify the barriers to designing the thermostat to control Earth’s atmospheric temperature by adjusting its CO2 input. He explains that Earth’s temperature is a chemical process system. Review of control system engineering of Earth’s thermostat…
Scientists using the BICEP2 telescope recently pronounced that they had discovered direct evidence of Einstein gravitational waves and cosmic inflation. The team describes having detected polarizations in the so-called Cosmic Microwave Background, which is described as the afterglow of the theoretical Big Bang explosion. Science media declared the discovery a victory…
