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Tech NewsVocal Fry Packs a Raw, Emotional Punch in Pop Music
The growing popularity of so-called “vocal fry,” particularly among young women, is either a hot new trend or the bane of cultured discourse, depending on who you ask. But when it comes to popular music, vocal fry actually enhances expressiveness. That’s the conclusion of John Nix, a professor of voice at the University of Texas, … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Why Certain High-End Golf Clubs Make Such an Ear-Splitting Sound
Back in 2006, Nike introduced the high-performance SUMO 2 golf club driver, specially engineered to help golfers hit straighter shots, even for slightly off-center hits. There was just one problem: the newly designed club made an unpleasantly loud, tinny sound when it struck the ball—so much so, that most players proved unwilling to tolerate it, … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryIt Takes Just Four Minutes To Explain the Entire Universe
In need of a quick refresher course on, well, the science of pretty much everything? Here’s a cheeky, irreverent summation of the universe in just four minutes from Exub1a, YouTube purveyor of “spacey stuff and existential angst.” Loosely reminiscent of the classic “Powers of Ten” motif, the video starts with “the Tyrion Lannister of physics,” … Continued
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Tech NewsThe Game of Thrones Intro Recreated with Slime Mold Is Glorious
Slime molds and fungi might not rank high on anyone’s list of favorite organisms, but there is a compelling beauty in their growth patterns. And now Transcend Rules has taken “slimeography” to a whole new level, setting those patterns to the Game of Thrones theme music. It might just be the solace fans crave after … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryHow Flowers Help Us Understand Why Bridges Collapse
The catastrophic collapse of Washington State’s Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940 launched intensive research into the aerodynamics of bridge design. Now a team of South Korean scientists have identified a geometric structure that can better withstand the complicated aerodynamic forces at play—and they found their inspiration in the shape of a daffodil stem. When wind … Continued
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Tech NewsPosthumous Paper Resolves Century-Old Mystery of How Stars Evolve
Chances are you’ve never heard of Allan Sandage, but the late astronomer was a major figure in 20th century astronomy, particularly known for his work on how stars evolve. Late in life, he discovered two other scientists had beaten him to that breakthrough, but Sandage died before he could finish investigating. His posthumous paper correcting … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryWatch Musical Tesla Coils Electrify an Audience in Glorious 360 Video
Anyone who attended this year’s Maker Faire Austin had the joy of catching electrifying live performances by Arc Attack, a team that makes music with two gigantic transformer coils (a.k.a., “Tesla coils”). They’re a popular staple of the festival circuit. Now Caleb Kraft, senior editor for Make, has captured one of those live performances in … Continued
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Tech News
What Happens if You Swallow Your Cell Phone? Nothing Good.
Don’t you just hate it when you accidentally swallow your cell phone right when you need to make a call? Yeah, me too. That really happened to an unfortunate Irishman, according to a new report in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports. And the challenges doctors faced removing the mobile device might be cause … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Used the Stars to Confirm When a Famous Sapphic Poem Was Written
Scientists from the University of Texas at Arlington used planetarium software to recreate the night sky of ancient Greece, the better to peg the date when lyric poet Sappho penned one of her most famous verses. They describe their findings in a new paper in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. “This is an … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryThe Incredible Physics of the Hyperloop
There was lots of exciting news this week about the much-anticipated Hyperloop, a high-speed train that would be able to make the trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles in just 35 minutes. A startup called Hyperloop One (formerly Hyperloop Technologies) built the first full-scale test track for the transportation system in the desert outside … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
A Terrifying Interactive Map Visualizes the Devastation of Nuclear Fallout
The destructive power of nuclear bombs has been seared into our collective memory, thanks to archival images of the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There’s the blast itself, and then all the radioactive fallout to contend with. A new interactive map shows what the damage from fallout would be if nuclear bombs were dropped on … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
We’re One Step Closer to Better Tabletop Particle Accelerators
A new generation of tabletop accelerators has the potential to accelerate electrons to near the speed of light, without the need for gigantic machines like the Large Hadron Collider. But that all-important energy beam is too spread out for optimal performance. An international team of physicists has figured out a way to address this shortcoming … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryHas the Mystery Behind This Non-Newtonian Fluid Been Solved at Last?
Mixing corn starch and water makes for a crowd-pleasing staple of science demos. The resulting substance looks like a liquid, but hardens instantly when you punch it—in fact, it’s possible to run across a pool of the stuff. Now physicists think they’ve figured out just what’s going on when this unusual material switches from a … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryJazz Music and Physics Have a Lot More in Common Than You Think
It might not seem like music has much to do with cutting-edge physics at first glance. In his new book, The Jazz of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe, Brown University physics professor Stephon Alexander argues that using music as an analogy can shed light on some of the … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryTime Runs Backwards in Latest Video from A Capella Science
Ready for some mind-bending musical physics to take you into the weekend? A Capella Science is back with a new parody video, “Entropic Time,” set to Billy Joel’s classic pop hit, “The Longest Time.” The twist: if you look closely, the video footage is running in reverse—a visual play on the subject of the song. … Continued
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Tech News
The Woman in This Famous Painting May Have Suffered from a Nerve Disorder
The American artist Andrew Wyeth found inspiration for his most famous painting in a neighbor woman who suffered from a crippling, mysterious disorder that baffled her physicians. Now a child neurologist at the Mayo Clinic thinks he’s found the correct diagnosis. The woman in Christina’s World (above) is based on Anna Christina Olson, who lived … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryThe Right Vibrations Will Make Particles Break Into a Circle Dance
Chances are you’ve seen the gorgeous patterns that sound waves produce when sand is sprinkled on a vibrating metal plate. Now French physicists have produced inverse versions of these patterns using microbeads suspended in a liquid. They described their work in a recent paper in Physical Review Letters. The original patterns are known as Chladni … Continued
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Tech News
How the Venus Flytrap Became Predator Instead of Prey
Remember when we told you that the Venus flytrap can actually count? That’s how this carnivorous plant knows the difference between the presence of prey in its trap and a false alarm. Now the same team of German scientists is back with insight into how the Venus flytrap turned the evolutionary tables to become predator … Continued
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Tech News
How Your Brain Uses Statistics to Boost Your Confidence
We make many decisions every day, from choosing whether to buy skim or whole milk, to deciding which way to turn at an intersection. How confident you feel about your choices will influence your behavior. But that subjective feeling of confidence stems from objective statistical calculations in the brain, according to a new paper in … Continued
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Tech NewsThe DuoGraph Makes Creating Pretty Spiral Patterns a Snap
Remember that nifty Cycloid Drawing Machine making the internet rounds back in March? Its inventor, Joe Freedman, is back with a smaller, simpler version called the DuoGraph, making it easier than ever to create pretty swirling patterns reminiscent of Spirograph. The Cycloid Drawing Machine is awesome, but it’s a complicated machine, and bulky to boot. … Continued
Jennifer Ouellette
Jennifer Ouellette's posts