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On the care and keeping of your scientist

Congratulations on adopting a scientist! Regardless of their field they will require much coffee, free food, and love. Here are some field specific tips for keeping your scientist happy and healthy!

Biology: make sure they don't get overly invested in their model organism by reminding them about the flaws inherent in their system on a regular basis, but also make sure to join in when they criticize other models in favor of their own

Chemistry: don't let them do that 'just one more reaction' at 10 pm. make sure they get out of the lab and see the sun on a regular basis. try to keep them from partying too hard when they do leave the lab

Geology: humor their rock puns but don't let the lick the rocks (they will tell you they need to lick the rocks to identify them, but don't fall for it)

Astronomy: try not to let them become completely nocturnal. point out nice stars to them and look suitably impressed by their "pictures" of planets that don't look like anything to you

Physics: take them to the park on a regular basis to remind them that things larger than subatomic particles exist. bring a frisbee or a ball to play catch with and be impressed by their ability to calculate trajectories

Math: always make sure to have free batteries for their calculators and a mathmatica user guide on hand. Humor them when they tell you why space without angles is important

Ecology: make sure they remember to wear sunscreen and keep an eye on them in the field. Remind them to come inside and analyze their data occasionally

Psychology: don't mention Freud or ever call them a soft or social science, but make sure you gently remind them that social factors can impact reproducibility and try to keep them from drawing sweeping conclusions about the inherent nature of humanity

Neuroscience: be suitably impressed by their newest experiment and then remind them that people are not mice as often as possible

Computer Science: make sure they take breaks while debugging by limiting their supply of coffee. Nod and smile when they go off on indexing and arrays. Make sure they always have a rubber duck.

Make sure to keep your scientist away from engineers unless they have been properly socialized to interact in a translational household. The most important thing is to remember to hug your scientist on a regular basis and remind them that there is life outside the lab

Blue Angels

M-theory

Membrane theory is a relatively new theory in the world of physics. It has been backed by Stephen Hawking as being the only candidate for the complete theory of the universe.

M-theory has been growing very popular in recent years. This is because it ties together the existing string theories into one relatively simple (mathematically) depiction of the universe. The true origins start with the older string theories that came about in the 80’s. This outlined how all the different forms of energy in the universe could be constructed out of hypothetical one dimensional “strings”. The current M-theory now believes in an 11 dimensional space (this was previously 10 in earlier versions of string theories but the introduction of supergravity increased the count to 11). Now we live in a 3D space with a total of four observable dimensions meaning that there are another 5 we cannot detect. Now in string theory, it was hypothesised that depending on how the strings vibrate the might be seen in 3 dimensions as matter, light or gravity. The problem with string theory was that different equations used to describe the vibrations of the strings kept coming out and they all appeared to be correct. Then what happened was M-theory which said that it’s possible that all the equations are describing the same thing but from a different perspective.

My current understanding of M-theory is that there are lots of 2D membranes which are in an 11D space. These two dimensional branes are not fixed in this eleven dimensional space and move around. When they collide a new 2D brane is created and it is thought that when this happens it is similar to a Big Bang. So it’s entirely possible that out universe is really a 2D membrane in an 11D space.

The first image is a Calabi-Yau manifold. It’s a multi-dimensional mathematic structure and is very significant to M-theory, all they have to do is find the “right” one.

Scientists have created a fluid with negative mass – but what does it tell us?

The fluid, which defies everyday laws of motion, is a rare achievement and provides a platform to study an otherwise hypothetical form of matter

Scientists have created a fluid that exhibits the bizarre property of “negative mass” in an experiment that appears to defy the everyday laws of motion.

Push an object and Newton’s laws (and common experience) dictate that it will accelerate in the direction in which it was shoved.

“That’s what most things that we’re used to do,” said Matthew Forbes, a physicist at Washington State University and co-author of the paper, which shows that normal intuitions do not always apply to physics experiments. “With negative mass, if you push something, it accelerates toward you.”

Negative mass has previously cropped up in speculative theories, including those suggesting the existence of wormholes, a form of cosmological shortcut between two points in the universe. Just as electric charge can be either positive or negative, matter could, hypothetically, have either positive or negative mass.

For an object with negative mass, Newton’s second law of motion, in which a force is equal to the mass of an object multiplied by its acceleration (F=ma) would be experienced in reverse.

Continue Reading.

Alloys: Bronze

Given that there are many different types of bronze with a wide variety of elements included, the alloy cannot be defined as having one set composition. Though the most well known bronze is likely the common copper-tin alloy, alloys such as bismuth bronze, silicon bronze, and aluminum bronze don’t necessarily contain tin.

That being said, the most well known bronze alloy, and the one most people probably think of when they hear the word, is composed of mostly copper with tin or arsenic and, potentially, small amounts of other elements. The oldest tin-copper bronze alloys found are from around 4500 B.C., and this replacement of stone tools with bronze eventually led to the Bronze Age. (The Bronze Age eventually gave way to the Iron Age, because, despite bronze’s favorable properties, iron is more plentiful and easier to find.)

The addition of tin, arsenic, and other elements produces a harder material than copper alone. Bronze also has the favorable properties of being corrosion resistant, non-magnetic, has excellent heat transfer properties, is relatively easy to machine, withstands high temperatures, and is resistant to wear and friction. Unlike steel, bronze does not spark when struck and is therefore useful as tools in environments containing flammable vapors. 

Some historical applications of bronze include in statues, weapons and tools, and currency/coinage. The alloys is also well known for is usage in musical instruments, often bells and cymbals, as well as the windings of string instruments such as the guitar and piano. 

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These spectacular wave-like clouds are the result of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. When two layers of air move past one another at different velocities, an unstable shear layer forms at their interface. Disturbances in this shear layer grow exponentially, creating these short-lived overturning waves that quickly turn turbulent. The strong resemblance of these clouds to breaking ocean waves is no coincidence–the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability occurring between the wind and water is what generates many ocean waves. Kelvin-Helmholtz patterns are also common on other planets, like Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. (Image credit: Breckenridge Resort; submitted by jshoer)

Insanity….