2013

Mirrors seem simple enough. What we see in them is turned around backwards but other than that, simple. except mirrors aren't flat sheets or glass. They're sheet of molecules. And light isn't a slender beam but a wave. That means we have to consider quantum theory. And quantum theory says mirrors behave in a bunch of strange ways if you look in the right way.

0 /10

SUnknownWhy are there no Purple Stars? or Green Stars?

Fri, Feb 14, 2020

Nick explains how stars get their color and what their colors mean.

0 /10

SUnknownThe Sun can't work without Quantum Tunneling

Sun, Feb 23, 2020

Scientists and Engineers trying to fuse protons into Helium on Earth have found they need temperatures far beyond the temperature in the sun's core. Yet the sun has no trouble doing it. Its secret is an extremely low probability event called quantum tunneling. Forturately the sun has so many protons the tunneling occurs constantly.

0 /10

SUnknownAre Orbits like this even Possible?!

Sat, May 30, 2020

We're used to thinking about orbits as neat little circles. Or if we're a little more ambitious, ellipses or parabolas. And as long as we're talking about two distant objects that works pretty well. But, of, course, there are many more objects in space that tug on each other which can lead to some complex orbits. Here are some examples.

0 /10

SUnknownThe Real Source of Gravity Might Surprise You...

Fri, Jun 12, 2020

About a hundred years ago scientists gave up the idea that gravity is a force. Now it is thought of as the curvature of space time. And here in the Science Asylum it caused specifically by the curvature of time. That is because a large mass causes time dilation that causes the near and far parts of an object to move at different rates which tilts its motion toward that mass.

0 /10

SUnknownAtomic Orbitals, Visualized Dynamically

Sat, Nov 07, 2020

0 /10

SUnknownThe Sun Will Turn into a Red Giant Twice!

Fri, Jan 15, 2021

A billion or three years from now the core of the sun, then comprised of helium, will shrink as it no longer has hydrogen to burn. As it collapses the surrounding hydrogen collapse with it reigniting nuclear fusion and causing the sun to expand in to a red giant. As more helium builds up the core will become hot enough to start helium fusion. But once again the core will run out of helium causing the core to collapse again. Outer layers will again fall inward reigniting nuclear fusion causing the sun to expand into an even larger red giant.

0 /10

SUnknownScales do NOT measure Weight!

Sun, Jun 27, 2021

What is weight? Don't worry this is high school physics so you can handle it. Professor Lucid addresses all your questions complete with demonstrations (and a devil's advocate). Along the way you may learn what an orbit really is and see astronauts at play on the International Space Station.

0 /10

SUnknownThe Speed of Light is Infinite... Kind Of.

Mon, Mar 28, 2022

With a change in perspective and mathematics light is infinite and time dilation disappears.

0 /10

SUnknownHow Entanglement Breaks the Universe

Wed, Apr 13, 2022

How physicists developed and demonstrated the existence to quantum entanglement.

0 /10

SUnknownThe Solar System looks like a Spirograph from Earth!

Thu, Dec 15, 2022

When you walk outside at night and look at the universe (sky) or something closer, like a car going by, you quite naturally view it from your own frame of reference and think it is moving. But that perspective is a bit awkward when analyzing planetary orbits.

0 /10

SUnknownBrown Dwarfs Challenge our View of the Universe. Here's How.

Sun, Feb 26, 2023

Brown dwarfs are astronomical objects that form like stars but aren't massive enough to fuse hydrogen. But some may fuse deuterium for awhile. Curiously, although they are 13 to 80 times the mass of Juptier they are all about the same size as Jupiter with different densities.

0 /10

SUnknownHere are 3 Ways a Multiverse could Exist.

Fri, Mar 31, 2023

Philosophers have been discussing multiple universes for thousands of years like it was a simple inevitability. About a hundred years ago physicists realized they are not so simple.

0 /10

SUnknownWhat Are Particles? Do They Actually Exist?!

Sun, Apr 30, 2023

Nick explains quantum field theory to his wife who has a knack for asking him insightful, challenging questions.

0 /10

SUnknownNot all your Atoms are Stardust

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Nick describes the several different processes that produce the elements in and around us.

0 /10

SUnknownThe Star That Keeps Getting Weirder

Sun, Jul 07, 2024

The Surius binary star, brightest in Earth's sky, was quite the puzzler to astronomers over the years as they gradually came to grips with the diversity of stars and how they evolve.

0 /10

SUnknownWe Discovered this Matter by Accident

Thu, Sep 05, 2024

Gases cooled to near absolute zero and the cores of white dwarfs have something in common; degenerate matter, a state where quantum effects surpass thermal effects.

0 /10