Check out this liquid that momentarily turns dark green when struck by a UV laser beam:
The molecules in the liquid, called hexaarylbiimidazoles, are known to have photochromic abilities, which means that they change color when blasted with the right wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. Other photochromic chemicals are used to make sunglasses that darken when they are taken outside — into bright sunlight.
When these special chemicals are struck by ultraviolet light, they break in half, forming two colorful and highly-reactive smaller molecules called radicals. Eventually, the radicals re-combine to form the original molecule, and the color goes away. The compound in this liquid reverts to its clear appearance within milliseconds. Read more here.
Apparently more than 1700 nuclear weapons have design flaws that could conceivably cause multiple warheads to explode one after another accidentally – an effect known as “popcorning”.
Unbelievable! You would think nuclear weapons would be carefully designed to not go off by accident.
The effects of a popcorning accident would be dire. In the worst-case scenario, people a kilometre away would receive a radiation dose of 100 sieverts – that’s 16 times the lethal dose. The explosion of a boatload of missiles in a port would be an unimaginable catastrophe. Read more here.
Life on Earth can be found in scalding, acidic hot pools, in the driest deserts, and in the dark, crushing depths of the ocean. It has even found a toehold in the frigid polar regions and in toxic dumps.
The very existence of these hardy organisms hints that life might be able to eke out an existence in the cold, dry climate of Mars, the icy, acidic conditions of Jupiter’s moon Europa, or in countless other spots beyond our solar system.
To learn more about organisms that can survive at temperatures ranging from -12 °C to 121 °C, go here.
Now it seems that a different, bigger bunch of Latvian students have beat them. They sprayed the contents of 1,911 bottles of Coke violently upward:
There is actually quite a bit of science in the Diet Coke and Mentos eruption. Mentos have millions of tiny pits all over their surface – just like the dints on golfballs but way smaller. These pits are called nucleation sites and are great places for bubbles of carbon dioxide to form, of course soft drinks have lots of carbon dioxide in them (thats the fizz). So lots of nucleation sites combined with lots of dissolved carbon dioxide makes heaps of bubbles!
Girls are no less competitive than boys, they simply employ more subtle tactics. Scientists discovered this by studying the way pre-schoolers behaved when they were playing with a toy puppet. While boys used head-on aggression to get what they wanted, girls relied on the pain of social exclusion.
Boys tended to ask for the puppet, grab at it, or even chase the child who had it. In contrast, girls punished the puppet-holder by excluding her from their group, whispering behind her back or even hiding from her. Read more here.
When Olympic sprinters dash down the track in Beijing this August, the fastest athlete may not take home the gold medal. Current start-gun technology gives athletes on the inside lanes an unfair advantage right off the blocks.
Although officials are aware of the problem, they have no plans to correct it before the Beijing games this summer.
Sound from the starter’s gun is known to take longer to reach athletes who start from the outside lanes than their competitors on the inside. Now a new study suggests that competitors nearest the gun have another advantage – the loudness of the bang shocks them into starting more quickly.
Together, these extra boosts may amount to more than a tenth of a second in some races, which is easily enough to make the difference between gold and silver. Read more here or here.
Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist says the situation has got so bad that the world’s only hope is drastic action. When asked the question of whether it is too late to do anything about it. His answer: There still is time to stop the worst, but not much time! Read more here.
This is on the back of news that Arctic warming has become so dramatic that the North Pole may melt this summer. Scientists are actually projecting that the North Pole may be totally free of ice this year for the first time in history. YIKES! Read more here.
It seems that unborn baby crocodiles talk to each other while they are still inside their eggs! Which is quite amazing.
Apparently the chit-chat between crocodile eggs serves to synchronise hatching so that the little ones aren’t on their own when they enter the world. It may also alert the mother so that she can help her babies get out of the soil, which is often hardened by weeks in the heat. Read more here.
Matter usually exists in one of three states, that is, either solid, liquid, or gas. Interestingly, although glass feels like a solid, its molecules cannot quite settle into a regular 3D lattice and, given enough time, it flows like a liquid. So if you look at the glass in the window of a really old house you will find that it is thinner at the top and thicker down the bottom. This is because the glass has very slowly flowed downwards over time.
So the question is … is glass a solid or a liquid. Well, it seems the answer is that it is a vitreous solid. To learn more go here.
