Mystery 1: Is polar bear fur transparent?
The answer seems to be yes! Even though polar bears are white, their hair is actually colorless. I found this out by looking at a great site, Everyday Mysteries, run by the Library of Congress. You can...
View ArticleSynthesia
I’ve always been sort of fascinated by synthesia. A brain with a predilection to mix colors and letters and days and feelings and smells sounds kinda trippy. I’ve always thought (and I think I may have...
View ArticleWe’ve got 10X more bacteria than cells
check out this item from Science Daily… Humans have Ten Times More Bacterial Than Human Cells: How do Microbial Communities Affect Human Health? ScienceDaily -Jun. 5, 2008 — The number of bacteria...
View ArticleScience & the Housewife from an age gone by…
The World’s Fair blog just published a post highlighting a study from 1946 — Scientific Analysis Simplifies a Housewife’s Work. They used motion-tracking to analyze the most movements leading to the...
View ArticleSound sucker
I just read this neat little gem in The Physics Teacher. Take a bunch of coffee stirrers (the kind that look like round straws for wee folke) and set them into a box so they’re all upright (all the...
View ArticleThe Physics of the Impossible (Michio Kaku)
[[AAPT Plenary: PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE, MICHIO KAKU]] We heard a delightful plenary last night from Michio Kaku, the co-founder of string theory and a great popularizer of science. He’s written a...
View ArticleMagnetic silverware in restaurants
Regarding magnetic “silverware” in restaurants from NPR’s Car talk (week of 9/22) PUZZLER: A Magnetizing Dinner Chez Magliozzi Over dinner, Ray’s wife notices that her knife and fork are stuck to each...
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