What is the size of a single molecule of oil? What may initially seem like a trick question – answerable only through the use of complicated, high-tech scientific equipment – is actually as easy to calculate as the circumference of planet Earth. Much like how [Eratosthenes] used a couple of sticks to achieve the latter […]
Structure of the Ramtron FeRAM. The image is focus-stacked for clarity. (Credit: Ken Shirriff) Although not as prevalent as Flash memory storage, ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM) offers a range of benefits over the former, mostly in terms of endurance and durability, which makes it popular for a range of (niche) applications. Recently [Ken Shirriff] had a […]
Everyone knows that time’s arrow only goes in one direction, regardless of the system or material involved. In the case of material time, i.e. the ageing of materials such as amorphous materials resulting from glass transition, this material time is determined after the initial solidification by the relaxation of localized stresses and medium-scale reordering. These […]
One of the hardest things about studying electricity, and by extension electronics, is that you generally can’t touch or see anything directly, and if you can you’re generally having a pretty bad day. For teaching something that’s almost always invisible, educators have come up with a number of analogies for helping students understand the inner […]
[Lynnadeng]’s team wanted to monitor the Los Angeles River over time and wanted citizen scientists — or anyone, for that matter — to help. They built a dual phone holder to allow random passersby to use their phones to take photos. A QR code lets them easily send the pictures to the team. The 3D […]
Down here at the bottom of our ocean of air, it’s easy to get complacent about the hazards our universe presents. We feel safe from the dangers of the vacuum of space, where radiation sizzles and rocks whizz around. In the same way that a catfish doesn’t much care what’s going on above the surface […]
The ‘Sombrero Potential’ as seen with the Higgs mechanism. One of the exciting aspects of some fields of physics is that they involve calculating the expected time until the Universe ends or experiences fundamental shifts that would render most if not all of the ‘laws of physics’ invalid. Within the Standard Model (SM), the false […]
NASA’s ACS3 (Advanced Composite Solar Sail System) is currently fully deployed in low Earth orbit, and stargazers can spot it if they know what to look for. It’s actually one of the brightest things in the night sky. When the conditions are right, anyway. ACS3’s sail is as thin as it is big. What conditions […]
Experimental setup for the EAP hydrogel free energy principle test. (Credit: Vincent Strong et al., Cell, 2024) Of the many big, unanswered questions in this Universe, the ones pertaining to the functioning of biological neural networks are probably among the most intriguing. From the lowliest neurally gifted creatures to us brainy mammals, neural networks allow […]
If you need to measure the presence of photons down to a very small number of them, you are looking at the use of a photomultiplier, as explained in a recent video by [Huygens Optics] on YouTube. The only way to realistically measure at such a sensitivity level is to amplify them with a photomultiplier […]