A new online citizen science initiative, Fossilfinder, is inviting ordinary members of the public to help hunt for fossils in the Kenyan desert. The volunteers will have the opportunity to sift through one million images from the arid Turkana Basin – a key area for fossils of early human ancestors.
Continue reading Armchair Fossil Hunting in the Turkana Basin
With his wind-swept mane, the inimitable Richard Feynman looked devilishly handsome. And he darn-diddly knew it too! As for Fritz Haber, Rosalind Franklin and Neil deGrasse Tyson, they were the original hipsters. That’s according to BuzzFeed anyway…
Yes, modern-day hipsters take heed. BuzzFeed – the undisputed masters of click-bait – even made it a feature in unique BuzzFeed style: 11 Pictures That Prove That Scientists Were The Original Hipsters.
Marie Curie (1867-1934) – the ‘foreign student‘ who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She didn’t shy away from a bold pattern.
Fritz Haber (1868-1934) figured out the method used in industry to synthesise ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen gases. Known as the Haber-Bosch process, the food production for half the World’s current population depends on this method for producing nitrogen fertilisers. So, you wouldn’t dream of taking a dig at his glasses…
Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) may be considered to be the “father of the atomic bomb”, but you wouldn’t think of criticising his tie.
Stylish Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was unravelling the mysteries of DNA structure, long before anyone even heard of DNA.
And Neil deGrasse Tyson? The only thing hotter than his facial hair are the supernovae he studied in his field of Astrophysics…
If you thought physicists weren’t known for their good dress sense, think again!
Once upon a time, Europe was almost covered by one giant forest. Now, it’s almost entirely fields and grasslands. Humans are controlling tree densities. Understanding the global extent and distribution of forest trees is central to our understanding of the terrestrial biosphere.
Continue reading Three Trillion Trees
Astronomers have found the smallest exoplanet yet to be directly photographed by a telescope on Earth. A methane-shrouded gas giant. A young Jupiter…
Continue reading Exoplanet ‘Young Jupiter’ 51 Eridani b
The radiocarbon 14C dating method has been used for decades to accurately determine the age of a wide range of artefacts. But our relentless use of fossil fuels has pumped a type of carbon into the atmosphere that is starting to confuse the dating technique. By 2050, scientists warn, new fabrics could have the same radiocarbon date as items 1,000 years old!
Waste fibres from cannabis crops can be transformed into high-performance low-cost pseudo-graphene energy storage devices.
Continue reading From Super Weed to Super-Capacitors, Another Surprising Use for Cannabis…
Look into my eyes. The eyes, the eyes. Not around the eyes. Don’t look AROUND the eyes. Look INTO my eyes. The eyes… [click] You’re not under! But… Can you read my mind?
Continue reading Eyes of the Beholder
Forensic researchers from the University of Salzburg have developed a new method for establishing an exact time of death after as long as 10 days – a significant step forward from the current method of measuring core body temperature, which only works up to 36 hours after death.
Continue reading We Check the Time of Death with Post-Mortem Degradation of Skeletal Proteins – And Other Gruesome Forensic Facts of Life
1/60 minute. 1/3,600 hour. 1/86,400 day. 1/1 hertz. The duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of a 133 55Cs caesium isotope corresponds to one second. But what does it look like? And where might you find a second?
Continue reading Just a Second…
Deep down, in huge subterranean caverns… Underneath the Franco-Swiss border… 300 feet underground… lies a beast of unprecedented power… and mystery. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that man summons to explore the uncharted corners of the sub-atomic realm… After two years of a deep slumber, the mighty beast has awoken…
Continue reading Physics at 13 TeV – Cranking Up the LHC