Science

How Your Smartphone/Tablet Gyroscope Works

How Digital Cameras Work

I love this series of videos which explains how things work. Engineers have created amazing tools with some very clever designs to simplify very complex processes.

Water Memory

Interesting, provided the information is relevant or usable.

Brian Greene: The Search For Hidden Dimensions

11 Dimensions

How Hard Drives Work

Coffee Maker Engineering

I love these engineering videos. It’s always amazing what a little science can do.

How LCD Monitors Work

Nikola Tesla: Mad Genius

One of the greatest inventors of all time.

Queing Theory

Focused Light Melts Rock, Steel

Attention Rosie O’Donnell. Owned.

PS: Do not stick your hand in there, genius!

Invisibility Cloak that “Hides History”

Theoretical Physicists have conceived of an invisibility cloak that not only makes an object invisible, it erases any trace of its history during the time it is invisible.

“Light normally slows down as it enters a material, but it is theoretically possible to manipulate the light rays so that some parts speed up and others slow down,” said McCall.

When light is ‘opened up’ in this way, rather than being curved in space, the leading half of the light speeds up and arrives before an event, whilst the trailing half is made to lag behind and arrives too late. The result is that for a brief period the event is not illuminated, and escapes detection. Once the concealed passage has been used, the cloak can then be ‘closed’ seamlessly.

Such a space-time cloak would open up a temporary corridor through which energy, information and matter could be manipulated or transported undetected. “If you had someone moving along the corridor, it would appear to a distant observer as if they had relocated instantaneously, creating the illusion of a Star-Trek transporter, McCall said. “So, theoretically, this person might be able to do something and you wouldn’t notice!”

Of course, this is all a theory for now. But such an invention would allow for some amazing applications. Untraceable communications, for one.

Connections

James Burke made this excellent science show in 1979 and has made all the episodes available for free on YouTube. Check them out, they’re well worth it. One of the best science shows ever. It tells how many modern inventions had their roots in accidents and the strangest unrelated things. It also helps to explain how important technology is in our lives. Something many people take for granted.

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12 Events that Will Change Everything

Scientific American has a great article online discussing 12 events that would bring about the singularity. Some of them are seriously unlikely, like the poles melting due to climate change. But many of them are well worth reading about.

The Mariana Trench

So named because it’s near the Marianas Island chain in the Pacific Ocean, this is the deepest known part of the ocean. A chasm so deep you need to see this image to appreciate it. Make sure you click on the image to enlarge it. Then scroll down.

And only 10% of the oceans have been mapped. So there may be a deeper crevice than this. Imagine flying high across the country on jet plain and looking down from the window above. If you have ever done that, remember how small everything looked. That is still not the distance to the bottom of the Mariana trench.

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