Ice Cold Science Blog

2 Brand New Physics Newsletters

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:31:00 -0700

One amazing thing about RSS feeds is that they are extremely handy and easy to use. For those of you who have no idea what an RSS feed is, well it is a simple way of sharing news of a website with the visitors. For instance you could register for an RSS newsletter to receive the newest updates straight to your email, so that wouldn't have to visit the website every time when you would like to see if there's something new online.

So on this occasion I would like to offer two great science newsletter for the visitors of the website. The first one is, of course, the brand new newsletter of the Ice Cold Science blog. Join this newsletter to get the brand new updates on science, book reviews, science videos and so much more. You can join the mailing list here:

Ice Cold Science Blog Email Newsletter

Also please check out the Physics Database email newsletter. Physics Database is a brand new website dedicated to everything that has something to do with physics. You will find there brand new physics and science book reviews, videos, lectures and all other good stuff. Join the mailing list here:

Physics Database Newsletter

More Touching Sounds From Outer Space

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:41:00 -0700

A couple of days ago I wrote an article about the "Symphonies of the Planets" on Physics Database. It's a famous recording of the sounds from the outer solar system planets and since it turned out to be a popular article I decided to make a more complete collection of these amazing sound clips.

The original recording was made by using the signals recorded by Voyager 1 & 2 on their way out of the solar system. Various interactions, for instance, the interactions between the magnetosphere of the planets and the solar winds were caught and transformed into sounds. It was quite a hit in the 90s. as you can imagine, but it's hard to find new recordings these days. However, you can find some used ones for an affordable price here.

So today let's check out some more sounds from the giant planets of our solar system and some extra clips that do not belong to the Symphonies of the Planets Collection but are still unique and remarkable.

Register at Physics Database

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:51:00 -0700

Hey guys, I would like to share with you some great news - the registration at Physics Database is up and running.

All you have to do is register with your email address and you will get newest and best physics books reviewed and delivered to your email. In addition, you will reviews of various physics documentaries and other cool stuff. So all you have to do, is check out the website and if you like what you see please support it by registering. Cheers.

Cool Magnifying App

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:42:00 -0700

Hey guys, check out this cool app, which let's you magnify various objects to compare them with atoms or even the universe itself. Enjoy!

The Universe made possible by Number Sleuth

Interview With Neil deGrasse Tyson

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:14:00 -0700

Everyone loves Neil deGrasse Tyson, after all, who can not love a charismatic astrophysicist? And for those who don't know who he is, he's one of the most popular astrophysicist these days and a popular author and TV personality as well.

So check out this great interview, where he expresses his views on a variety of subjects. Enjoy!

Beginner's Guide for Stargazing

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:10:00 -0700

Hey guys, I just wanted to share something with you. Recently I became quite interested in stargazing and even though telescopes and other equipment is relatively cheap these days, it's still kind of hard to get into stargazing if you're a complete beginner. So while searching for info online on stargazing I found this invaluable video, which is basically a short beginner's guide.

Also check out their other videos. Thanks for reading!

Brand New Website Finished!

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:48:00 -0700

So here I am, back after a quite long absence. For those few but amazing fans, who read this blog, I would like to tell that I'm sorry for the lack of updates recently. As you might know, I was working on a brand new website about physics called Physics Database. As you might guess from the title, it contains everything about physics, including book reviews, reviews of documentaries, free ebooks and I'm planning to add a section with physics and science lectures and maybe even a forum eventually. It was a hard job, but I'm happy that it worked out quite easily.

You can check out the page here: Physics Datbase.com. Be sure to like and subscribe and tell me what you think :)

Oh and yeah I almost forgot, now since I'll have some free time I'll start posting some productive stuff again. Cheers and have fun.

The End of Story of Faster Than Light Neutrinos?

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:59:00 -0800

Recently some possible explanations of the faster than light neutrinos were announced. And guess what, after all of these mind blowing speculations of neutrinos travelling through other dimensions or Einstein's theories being wrong it's likely that all of this fuss was basically due to a flawed cable.

So there are two likely explanations - one is basically that one of the cables had a flawed connection, which caused a slight discrepancy, while other explanation is that a timing instrument called an oscillator had a problem.
as CERN press officer Arnaud Marsollier said, the flawed cable connection could account for the 60 microsecond difference between the measured neutrino speed and the speed of light. Although further tests will be needed to fully confirm the explanation, it's the most likely explanation we have.

So I don't know what you think about this guys, but I'm quite happy that the experiment was not confirmed and Einstein's theories still hold. I think we already have too much unsolved questions in the world of physics these days so the fall of Einstein's theories would simply be too much.

Cosmos by Carl Sagan (Episode 1)

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Wed, 1 Feb 2012 15:23:00 -0800

Today let's look back to one of the most popular and classic science documentaries of all time - Cosmos with Carl Sagan. But firstly let's look at some history behind this charming documentary.

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan and Steve Soter, with Sagan as presenter. It covered a wide range of scientific themes, including the origin of life and our place in the universe.

Image Credit

Ever since 1978 when Cosmos was produced it became famous for groundbreaking special effects and memorable soundtracks (including music by Vangelis). However, the real show stealer was Carl Sagan, who is one of only a few scientists who were truly popular outside the world of science. He was a truly amazing scholar who had an extraordinary passion for science and a talent to pass it to the wide audience.

The show had 13 episodes covering a variety of subjects including planets, stars, universe formation, science in our society, evolution and others.

The Eye of God

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:01:00 -0800

Hey guys, if you recently noticed a drop in productivity in the blog it's because I'm currently working on a new physics website, but more about that later. Meanwhile let's checkout something cool. Every sky gazer loves nebulas. After all, these giant clouds of ionized gases are perhaps the most beautiful thing in outer space. These nebulas can take various forms and have a variety of eye-catching colours. So let's check out one of the most popular nebulas - Helix nebula also known as the Eye of God.

Helix nebula is an example of a planetary nebula. It's a relatively small remnant stellar core surrounded by a cloud of ionized gas. Here are some pictures (click on pictures for a full resolution view):

Infrared:

Image credit

Image Credit

Picture with fake colour:

Image Credit

And finally here's an amazing video:

Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science by Lawrence Krauss

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:28:00 -0800

Year 2011 was a really good year for science literature. Many amazing physics books were released. Both laymen and experts had a pretty big share of various titles. So let's check out this list of top 10 physics books by Physics World.

Physics World's 2011 Books of the Year

I won't comment on all of the books but I would really like to recommend my personal favourite - Quantum Man, which is an amazing book about perhaps the most charismatic physicist ever - Richard Feynman.

After the death of the famous physicist there were plenty of books on the biography of this exceptional personality, so how does this book stand out? The author, who is also a physicist, digs deeper into the head of Feynman, to find out exactly what kind of physicist he was. Krauss even uses some original research papers to find out more about what was going in the mind of this great physicist. This is very refreshing, as the charismatic character of Richard Feynman is well known, yet his theories and thinking process is still a mystery to most.

Source

However, don't worry if your physics is a little bit rusty, as this book is perfectly readable for every physics fan. The author also digs up some amazing new facts from Feynman's biography so even if you already read some books on Feynman don't skip this one.

All in all, it's a great and easily readable book, which offers not only the life story of Feynman, but also digs deeper to the mind of one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century.

Playing With Fire

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Sat, 7 Jan 2012 16:03:00 -0800

So recently I found some great clips showing some awesome experiments illustrating the basic principles of physics. Let's start with an amazing representation of sound waves. Oh and the best part is that it includes fire!

This is an experiment that is very popular in presentations as it's quite simple, yet really amazing. I remember seeing this in my physics lecture. Everyone was amazed, even though the lecturer did not use music.

Oh and if you want to try this at home be sure to check out this video of Mythbusters, which show the same kind of tube (it's called Ruben's Tube by the way) and it's construction, which is really simple.

Thanks for reading and be sure to follow, like and subscribe for more videos, articles, book reviews and all that good stuff. Cheers

About the Meaning of Quantum Mechanics

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Wed, 4 Jan 2012 17:37:00 -0800

Everyone who knows at least the basics of quantum mechanics knows how tricky and counter intuitive this highly successful theory is. Even one of the greatest minds among the developers of quantum mechanics, Richard Feynman, once said that "if you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics."

One of the few similarities between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics is that there is a main equation which can be manipulated mathematically to derive the equations which describe how a physical system behaves. For example Newton's law's (+ the law of gravity) can be used to derive almost all the equations needed to describe classical physical systems (pendulums, rolling balls, sliding blocks and all such stuff).Similarly Schroedinger's equation can be manipulated to derive the wave function and the probability distribution, which tells us, for example, where it is most likely to find a particle. So why is it that quantum mechanics has the reputation of one of the most counter intuitive theories of physics?

It's mostly because of many paradoxes, which seem illogical and too strange to be real sometimes. For instance, it's all perfectly normal in terms of the laws ruling the quantum world, for a particle to be in two places at once. Also, a elementary particles and other objects have properties of both waves and particles. And I don't even wanna start talking about strangeness of quantum entanglement and the double slit experiment.

So what all do these paradoxes tell us about reality? After all, it's hard for most of the people to believe that particles in reality can indeed be in two places at once and so on. This is where the opinion of scientists splits - some say there is no objective reality, some say there is some kind of objective reality but it can't be detected (due to the Heisenberg principle) and others believe that quantum mechanics is an unfinished theory. These opinions are reflected in a variety of different interpretations of quantum mechanics.

Actually, I've just found a great article, which talks about various interpretations of quantum mechanics and what they tell us about reality. You can find the link bellow. Also be sure to check out the website it is on. Nova has a bunch of great physics videos as well as amazing library of articles and other useful stuff.

Debating the Meaning of Quantum Mechanics

NOVA

Don't forget to subscribe, follow and comment. Cheers

Michio Kaku - "The World in 2030"

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Tue, 3 Jan 2012 16:06:00 -0800

It's time for a new video. This time it's a daily dose of Michio Kaku. It's a lecture about the world of the future. Kaku discuses the technology, science and daily life of the future.

Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist and the Henry Semat Professor at the City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he has taught for more than 30 years. He is a graduate of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and earned his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Kaku is one of the founders of string field theory, a field of research within string theory. String theory seeks to provide a unified description for all matter and the fundamental forces of the universe.

So long story short Michio Kaku is this charismatic guy who has the talent to make physics interesting for everyone. So enjoy!

Physics from the Past: Facts About Nuclear Weapons (1960)

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Sun, 1 Jan 2012 15:57:00 -0800

In this edition of "Physics from the Past" let's check out a slightly newer video called "Stay Safe, Stay Strong: Facts About Nuclear Weapons". This instructional video from 1960 tells the story behind nuclear weapons, their transportation, safety and instructions in case of a nuclear war.

As most of these old videos this one is really informative and even though it doesn't have any fancy animation (or other stuff like that new documentaries usually have) it delivers the information in a simple yet efficient manner. The video also covers the basics of nuclear physics and how it is used to operate a nuclear bomb. Enjoy!

For more videos, book reviews and articles on physics please follow and subscribe. Thanks!

Significant Progress at LHC!

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:44:00 -0800

In the seminar back at 12th of December held at CERN presented the current results of the search of Higgs boson. The great news was that some significant progress was made. Yet Higgs boson is still not found, let's check out what's the latest progress update from CERN is all about.

The main conclusion of the seminar was that the most likely mass ranges of Higgs was discovered to be 116-130 GeV and 115-127 GeV. What is even more amazing that huge hints of Higgs were detected in the latter mass region, yet it's still too weak to confirm the discovery of the particle.

Source

Here's a qoute from the press release:

"We have restricted the most likely mass region for the Higgs boson to 116-130 GeV, and over the last few weeks we have started to see an intriguing excess of events in the mass range around 125 GeV," explained ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti."This excess may be due to a fluctuation, but it could also be something more interesting. We cannot conclude anything at this stage. We need more study and more data. Given the outstanding performance of the LHC this year, we will not need to wait long for enough data and can look forward to resolving this puzzle in 2012."
"We cannot exclude the presence of the Standard Model Higgs between 115 and 127 GeV because of a modest excess of events in this mass region that appears, quite consistently, in five independent channels," explained CMS experiment Spokesperson, Guido Tonelli. "The excess is most compatible with a Standard Model Higgs in the vicinity of 124 GeV and below but the statistical significance is not large enough to say anything conclusive. As of today what we see is consistent either with a background fluctuation or with the presence of the boson. Refined analyses and additional data delivered in 2012 by this magnificent machine will definitely give an answer."

For more physics news, articles, videos and book reviews please follow & subscribe. Cheers!

More TED Talks About Physics

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:07:00 -0800

I found a great website with nice articles on physics, education, lectures and other good stuff. It also has this great article with 15 TED talks for physics students. Some of the videos are already featured in my previous post about TED talks about physics, also there are a couple of new ones. So be sure to check this out. Oh and by the way merry Christmas and happy New Year!

"15 Fascinating TED Talks for Physics Students"

The Path of Measuring Cosmic Acceleration

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:47:00 -0800

A couple of days ago I added a lecture at the University of Uppsala by one of the Nobel Prize (2011) winners Saul Perlmutter. So why don't we check out another part of these lectures at the same university by Brian P. Schmidt (who also shared the 2011 prize). The lectures focuses on observational astronomy and techniques used in measuring the acceleration of the universe. So enjoy!

For more physics articles, videos and other stuff feel free to subscribe.

Measuring the Acceleration of the Universe

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 06:36:00 -0800

I think it's about time to update the video content of the blog with a great lecture. Here we have one of the Nobel Prize winners Saul Perlmutter, who talks about the process of measuring the acceleration of the universe (for which he with his colleagues received the 2011 Nobel Prize).

The quality is not that good, but it's a great lecture nonetheless. So enjoy and thanks for visiting the blog!

* For more videos, lectures, articles, news and all that good stuff please subscribe to the blog or the RSS feed. Cheers

Physics from the Past: White Magic

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:35:00 -0800

So here we have another amazing old science video. This time it's about the wonders of light. I really liked the title. Anyway, this video is from 1940 and it covers the basics of physics of light and its applications. By the way I really like the opening, it sounds more like an opening of an old classic movie than a science documentary.

Book of the Week: "General Relativity and Cosmology: A First Course"

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Sun, 4 Dec 2011 17:46:00 -0800

So this week let's check out something a little bit more serious. I would like review this great book on the basics of GR and cosmology by Tai L. Chow.

About the Author

Tai L. Chow was born and raised in China. He received his BSc. degree in Physics from the National Taiwan University and later his Phd from the University of Rochester. He has published more than 30 research papers, mostly in astrophysics. In this book he shares his knowledge and experience on special and general theories of relativity, which he has been teaching for more than thirty years.

Source

Short Review

As the title says it this book is basically an introductory textbook on general relativity and cosmology. From my experience I can assure you that it's quite hard to find a good book on the basics of GR, as most of the books are either too advanced or almost have no maths at all. This book seems to be one of those rare books, which fall somewhere in between - it has all the required maths and some philosophical considerations as well. Another great thing is that the book has everything you need for the basics of GR, that is it has a couple of chapters on Newtonian Mechanics, Newton's law of gravity and special relativity. Some problems are added after every chapter as well.

The book is not too hard, if you have some experience in special relativity, calculus and tensors. I would probably recommend this for at least 1st or 2nd year students, as the later chapters get quite hairy. But nonetheless, check out this nice little book (270 pages), as it is a great choice for students.

Chapters of the Book:

1. Classical Mechanics
2. Special Relativity
3. Basic Ideas of General Relativity
4. Curvilinear Coordinates and General Tensors
5. Einstein's Law of Gravitation
6. The Schwarzschild Solutions
7. Experimental Tests of Einstein's Theory
8. The Physics of Black Holes
9. Elements of Cosmology
10. Cosmic Dynamics
11. The Physics of the Early Universe

Also you can find the book here:

Physics from the Past: Atom and Biological Science

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Fri, 2 Dec 2011 19:17:00 -0800

This one is back from 1952. It describes some of the biological effects of high energy radiations on plants and animal cells. It also explains how typical experiments are conducted and demonstrates some of the protective measures required to insure the safety of the experimenters. Points out some possible applications of nuclear radiation to problems of human health, emphasizing work in the study of cancer.

Some Explanations for Crazy Neutrinos

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Fri, 2 Dec 2011 16:49:00 -0800

So as you all know neutrinos have been behaving in a rather bizarre way these days. And even though thousands of headlines already declared Einstein's theories wrong, in reality more independent tests are needed to confirm the results. So meanwhile let's check out some possible explanations for this strange behaviour of neutrinos.

This pictures illustrates how the experiments were done:

Source

Perhaps the most famous explanation is that neutrinos might be travel some of the way in another dimension, which enables them to complete the journey faster. This short cut scenario would explain the strange results without challenging relativity. Perhaps the simplest analogy would be travelling between two points on the surface of Earth through a tunnel instead of travelling on the surface. The main problem however is that extra dimensions still belong to the more exotic theories of physics. That is there is no direct proof of any extra dimensions yet. Also, if neutrinos could do something as fancy as extra dimensional travel we should have detected it when observing massive supernova explosions, which enable quite accurate predictions of the speed of neutrinos. However, no such faster than light travel was ever detected.

Of course there are scientists who think that neutrinos have indeed travelled faster than light. However, according to physicist Sheldon Glashow, if neutrinos were indeed travelling faster than light in vacuum, they would radiate electron-positron pairs and would simply lose energy. This change in energy would be noticeable in the OPERA experiment, however no energy loss was detected. So this means that there simply is some kind of systematic error or that something really bizarre is going on.

So the other possible explanation might be some kind of unknown factor, which messes up the experiment and gives faster than light results. After the famous results were published, scientists were flooded by emails asking whether they included rotation of the Earth, general relativity, continental drift and other similar factors to their calculations. So far it seems that everything was included, as even the second experiment gave positive results that neutrinos travelled faster than they should. Yet, one of the newest explanations says that the anomaly in the speed of the particles could be explained having in mind that satellites were used to accurately determine the distance between Cern and Gran Sasso. And since the satellites where moving relatively to the observers on Earth, the calculations should be slightly different, which could give a change in the results of about 64 ns., which is very close to the result found in the experiments.

So even though there are many great as well as crazy explanations all of them have to be examined and checked. It will take long and hard work to test all of this, but as history shows, every great revolution in science starts with a crisis.

Also some guys sent me this crazy video. It's a song about neutrinos and it's so cheeeeeeesy. Actually, it's one of the strangest songs I've seen, but check it out :D

Physics from the Past: Electromagnetism in Silence

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:09:00 -0800

So here we have something special. It's an educational video back from the late 1920s about electromagnetism. It's the first silent physics video and by far the oldest I've seen so far.

So it's basically basics of electromagnetism, transformators, electricity transportation and stuff like that. It's hard to believe but it's basically the same stuff that we learn in school these days, even some equipment reminds me of high school experiments. So but be sure to check this one out as it is really hard to find such old physics videos these days. Cheers

Physics from the Past: X-Rays

noreply@blogger.com (silentbob14) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:47:00 -0800

So we're back with another edition of the Physics from the Past. This time let's look at this old video about the mysterious form of electromagnetic radiation called X-Rays. The video is back from the 1940, and anybody who has seen some of the old school movies back from that period will notice that the quality is really good. Also I can't help but notice that the video has a quite interesting atmosphere - it feels like something from an episode of the Twilight Zone. Anyway, I think these old videos are really good, as even though they don't have flashy effects or modern animation, they focus on explaining the scientific ideas with simplicity and accuracy. So enjoy and don't forget to comment and subscribe. Cheers