http://science.discovery.com/videos/sci-fi-science-videos/

really interesting theory on how to make scifi contraptions like warp drives and force fields

Superfast protons sometimes slam into the Earth from space flying at close to the speed of light.

Where these particles, called cosmic rays, come from has been a scientific mystery. But new evidence helps confirm the leading explanation – that they originate in the distant remnants of dead stars.

Such a so called supernova remnants contains shells of gas that were ejected from a star before it collapsed in a supernova explosion. They harbor strong magnetic fields that are thought to behave like giant particle accelerators, speeding up particles that become cosmic rays.

New observations from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveal supernova remnants that are emitting radiation a billion times more energetic than visible light. This radiation, which is the short-wave mechanicslength gamma ray light, could be a signature of cosmic rays, which are thought to produce gamma rays when they collide with gas.

“Understanding the sources of cosmic rays is one of Fermi’s key goals,” said Stefan Funk, an astrophysicist at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics theory and Cosmology at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif. “Fermi now allows us to compare emission from remnants of different ages and in different environments.”

Funk presented the findings Monday at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Washington, D.C.

Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) observed gamma ray light from three supernova remnants called W51C, W44, and IC 443, whose stars died between 4,000 and 30,000 years ago. The telescope also spied a much younger remnant, called Cassiopeia A, which is only about 330 years old.

“Older remnants are extremely bright in GeV gamma rays, but relatively faint at higher energies. Younger remnants show a different behavior,” said Yasunobu Uchiyama, a Panofsky Fellow at SLAC. “Perhaps the highest-energy cosmic rays have left older remnants, and Fermi sees emission from trapped particles at lower energies.”

Scientists think that the younger supernova remnants have stronger magnetic fields, which are able to hold on to particles long enough to accelerate them to the highest speeds, creating the highest-energy cosmic rays.

via SPACE.com — Mysterious Origin of Cosmic Rays Pinned Down.

… on every swing.

A drum can be struck with a stick in three common but fundamental ways, two of them require hitting the rim at the same time, and one of those feels like a solid hit in baseball, every time.  This type of strike allows the drummer to transfer a energy to the drum every efficiently.  That means the drummer can use very little mechanical energy to produce ample amounts of volume from the instrument.  When the wrong part of the stick hits the rim a huge vibration transfers some of the mechanical energy up the stick to the player’s hands.  That energy is usually painful and can bruise the flesh and bone.  Once locked in, though, misses become rare.  Not only does the drumming moment include the hearing of an instrument played live, but it includes a sort of athletic kinesthetic feedback.  It just feels real good.

I love swinging things: fly swatters, badminton rackets, tennis rackets, racket ball rackets, drum sticks, Wiffle ball bats, baseball bats, axes, golf clubs – especially the woods; and throwing things, too.

I’ve elsewhere described my views on the so-called fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life. In the course of preparing that talk, I read some internet articles that were rather woeful. It’s time to quote John Leslie again: “The ways in which ‘anthropic’ reasoning can be misunderstood form a long and dreary list”.

My first target is Dr Hugh Ross. Ross was a postdoctoral research fellow in astronomy at Caltech before founding Reasons to Believe, a Christian ministry that aims to “show that science and faith are, and always will be, allies, not enemies”. Read the rest of this entry »

From day 1, I announced that I do not allow iPods, Zunes, cell phones, etc. for use on the test. Just straight up calculators. Why? You can store notes, and I explicitly don’t allow notes. Besides, people do need to understand how to use calculators. They are fairly simple devices, but each has its own quirks.

Evidently, this is upsetting to some of my students who did not bring calculators to exam day (today.), especially since I don’t bring extra calculators to loan out.

How do other teachers handle it? Do they not realize or care that notes could possibly be stored on these devices?

We all hope that one day physics theory would have an explanation for all that we see around us, all that exists, and all that would ever exist. But is the current scope of physics theory large enough to provide a unified law which can define everything ? Should something very important and very prevalent, but not currently included in physical sciences, be actually be considered as an integral part of physics theory ?

Newton’s laws, Laws of electricity and electromagnetism, laws of relativity, law of uncertainty – all of them were established as true after precise measurements of the observed phenomena matched closely with the predictions of a corresponding law. But is physical science all about the observed phenomena ? Should we agree that the only purpose of physics theory as a science is to make a closely matching mathematical model of the universe ? Isn’t physics theory, at its best, supposed to give us answer to everything that exists ?

Read the rest of this entry »

I realised not long ago, I fell in love with you. Oh man, BIO! And I realised not long ago, I started disliking you, physics theory. physics theory lessons always leave me with a big question mark. Yawn, yawn, yawn, boring much! :B

I’m so looking forward to chingay, tomorrow, friday, and saturday! Heh, must thank ailing & aiqi here for sponsoring me 2 tickets, love! :B

I only have a freaking 5 minutes left before I start revising on physics theory test, and I have 2 photos to upload! Hah, school’s fun today. Oh well, netball. 17-41. Victory was St. Marc’s. You girls tried your best, let’s put up a good fight with Crescent on monday, with all your best. (:

Alicia Kweky, your drawing sucks, ‘Flying sardine fishes’! :B