About.com Physics

Science is a Funny Thing ... According to These Comedians

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:00:13 +0000

The saying goes that laughter is the best medicine, but I also think it can be one of the most effective teachers as well. I've often found that incorporating humor into my writing, or into the classroom (back when I was teaching), helps make things more memorable and, in the case of science, far less intimidating.

Three scientists are becoming known for their own brand of scientific comedy:

Brian Malow - the self-proclaimed "Earth's Premiere Science Comedian"
Norm Goldblatt - physicist who tells jokes as a side gig
Tim Lee - biologist turned comedian, who uses entertaining PowerPoint presentations in his comedy

These three comedians all have segments available for free viewing on YouTube, and it's clear that they not only make science humorous, but they pass along meaningful information. For example, an audience leaving a Tim Lee performance might actually be able to remember how the process of nuclear fission occurs, because of a joke equating unstable uranium atoms to unstable Raiders fans.

And stand up comedy isn't the only place, of course, where science and comedy collide. One of the best comedies on television (especially now that Monk has left the air) is CBS's The Big Bang Theory, which received an Emmy nomination this year for Jim Parsons, the actor who plays the misanthropic string theorist Sheldon Cooper, Ph.D. (The win will come one of these days, I'm sure.) The thing that makes The Big Bang Theory work so well is that they aren't just making fun of scientists (although they do that, too) but they're genuinely making the quirkiness of science itself funny ... and they're doing so without insulting the integrity of that very same science.

This season, one sequence especially had me literally on the floor in tears laughing. In order to assist his friend, astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali (also with a Ph.D.), from being deported when his research fellowship ends, Cooper hires him to assist with some work in string theory that requires astrophysics expertise. Here's the funny part:

Their first work session involves a prolonged montage, complete with dramatic Mission: Impossible-style music, which involves cross-cuts of the two of them staring at a dry-erase board from different angles, contemplating string theory equations.

(If you haven't seen the episode, it may not sound funny, but I have independent confirmation. A friend of mine, who had just begun watching the show but has no real background in science other than knowing lots of geeks, independently mentioned this as the scene that hooked her onto the show. If you still don't believe me, the clip is available legally from the official website, at least at the time of this posting. Look for a clip entitled "Complete Focus" with an air date of 10/12/09.)

While this incorporation of humor and science can certainly have an impact on non-scientists by spreading scientific literacy, I think it's perhaps even more useful as a lesson for scientists themselves. Scientists see worlds in formulas, charts, and equations, but to translate this information to the public at large requires taking these concepts and putting them into a context that the average person can understand. Unfortunately, many of our most brilliant scientists fail at this task. These comedians, however, do it brilliantly ... and there's a lesson for scientists out there about how to communicate their ideas with others.

Do you have another instance where humor has helped teach people about science? Drop a comment and share it with the rest of us.

Science is a Funny Thing ... According to These Comedians originally appeared on About.com Physics on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 01:00:13.

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A Worthwhile Book for the Holidays

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:15:16 +0000

Last year, I was able to read 50 books in a year, an achievement that I've tried to repeat this year. Though I'm cutting it a bit close, I think I'll come in just under the wire ... which, given that I wrote a book and we had a newborn baby in 2009, while still holding down a full time job and also writing for About.com Physics, is an incredibly good achievement.

One of the last books I'm reading this year is The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, the story of a teenage boy in Malawi who builds a windmill for his village entirely out of spare parts. I'm over halfway through the book and the windmill hasn't even been started yet ... but there's good reason for that.

What is most compelling about the book - and what's taken up the bulk of the story so far - is the setting of the scene. The book gives an exceptional look into life in Malawi, which is a harsh and became even harsher when a series of famines struck the country. William's family was limited to only one small meal a day because of the famine, and ultimately he had to quit going to school because they did not have money to pay the necessary fees.

There's also a strong science versus superstition vibe early on, as William describes the supernatural mysticism that seems to dominate his country. (He relates one shocking event, supposedly witnessed by his own grandfather, where a witch doctor brought a man who died of a snakebite back from the dead, while an entire forest full of cobras stand mesmerized around them.)

The story looks as if it's shaping up to be the tale about how scientific innovation and persistence can bring accomplishment out of even the most hopeless of situations. I think this is such an excellent book because it can be appreciated on so many levels. For those who don't think much of science, but care deeply about charity and the wellbeing of others, this is an excellent example of how the two are linked. For those who love science, this book helps reaffirm the necessary role it plays in our lives, by lifting us out of ignorance and poverty, and shows that doing so can contribute to the world instead of detract from it. It opens a worthwhile dialogue between science and compassion, which is lost in many of the books that I've had the pleasure to read for this site.

The book is an excellent case in support of South African cosmologist Neil Turok's mission to find the next Einstein out of Africa. Turok's goal is based on the idea that that the problems in Africa can only truly be solved by Africans, and can also only be solved if they become educated enough to build up their own infrastructure, scientific establishments, and standards of living. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind demonstrates clearly that there is skill and determination among the people of Africa to achieve these things, they just need some help in hammering out the details.

I'll have to finish the book to see if it warrants a full review on this physics site, but I do enjoy it enough (even if the science appears to be limited mostly to the second half of the book) to recommend it as a great holiday gift for either yourself or someone else, so check it out. �You can also check out this interview with William Kamkwamba on The Daily Show with John Stewart, which is how I originally learned of the book.

What books have you read which clearly show the positive human effects of science? Have you found any science books that are also good for warm holiday reading?

And, of course, feel free to check out some of our other physics gift recommendations.

A Worthwhile Book for the Holidays originally appeared on About.com Physics on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 14:15:16.

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50 Years of Science Successes

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:38:22 +0000

This time of year, there are always lots of retrospectives of the "year in review," and given that it's 2009 there are even some decade in reviews going on, but the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW) is doing them one better by doing a 50-year retrospective.

Why 50 years?

Because the CASW turns 50 in 2010, so the retrospective covers their entire span of operation. The focus isn't just on big science and technology stories, but specifically on big science research success stories. (The Large Hadron Collider didn't quite make the cut yet, unfortunately. Hopefully it will generate science worthy of notice in the 100-year retrospective.)

So the Challenger and Columbia disasters don't make the cut, but the discovery of cancer-causing genes (oncogenes) and creation of an invisibility cloak do.

The CASW list isn't finalized, though, and it's posted on their website in part to solicit commentary from scientists and science enthusiasts about which stories should be given more weight and which should be given less. What other stories do you think should be included and which should be removed?

50 Years of Science Successes originally appeared on About.com Physics on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 01:38:22.

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Rocket Balloon Variations

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:00:21 +0000

I recently received an e-mail from one of our many readers which sparked my interest:

My 10-year-old son and I used the rocket balloon for a school science project.

What he wanted to measure was the variable of balloon shape - and we learned CLEARLY that shape matters greatly. �The long skinny balloons were more than twice as fast as round or "light bulb" balloons (the kind you see at parties).

What I would love to know is how can we quantify this variable? �Do you know where we could research or what we would try to research?

This is such a great example of how to carefully look at a situation which is, on the surface, extremely straightforward, and you're able to find certain new factors that have an impact. It would never have occurred to me that the design of the balloon would have had a strong impact on the acceleration or speed of the balloon rocket, but now that it's been brought up, it's actually fairly obvious that this would be the case.

Here was my initial response to the e-mail, which I came up with after considering the situation for just a few moments:

I think the best way to evaluate this would be to categorize the "eccentricity" of the balloons.�The "light bulb" balloons would have an eccentricity close to zero, but the longer balloons would have a higher eccentricity. (This is hard to quantify, though, since the "long skinny balloons" aren't really conic sections or ellipses, but hopefully you get the idea.)

As to the physics mechanism behind it, my guess would be that in the long skinny balloons, the balloons are stretched the most in the "long" direction, and therefore that's the area of greatest tension. It pulls in that direction more strongly than the other direction. Since this is also the direction the air leaves the balloon, it is pushing the air out with greater force than in the round balloon, where all directions are stretched with roughly the same pressure. You could probably try to contact balloon manufacturers for some more detail about the tensile strength of the balloons.

Also, as part of the experiment you'd definitely want to be sure that you're performing the experiment for the same volume. You could probably approximate the long skinny balloon as a cylinder and the round balloon as a sphere without losing too much precision. You could also use a pressurized air tank, probably, to fill two balloons with precisely the same amount of air. You could do this with an air hose at a gas station by filling each balloon for exactly 5 seconds, or something, and then seeing how the size of the balloons compare.

What other suggestions would you give to this writer and his son (who's in the 5th grade, by the way) as they continue to explore this situation for the school science project? I, for one, think that they're on their way to a great project, and the son may be on his way to a great science career (much like my own boy, perhaps).

Rocket Balloon Variations originally appeared on About.com Physics on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 10:00:21.

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Physics Gifts ... in Time for Christmas

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:55:17 +0000

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of taking part in the first book signing as the published author of a book, with the Indiana Historical Society. I've always enjoyed buying books, especially autographed ones, as holiday presents, and it was very interesting being on the other end of the table this time.

Of course, at the event, I was recommending my own book as a great Christmas gift for the science geek in your life ... but there are obviously many more wonderful gifts (including wonderful books) available. This time of year, I like sharing some of the lists of these movies, books, and toys/games that might help you find the right gift for a nerdy friend.

Not all of the books fit clearly into these categories, of course, and I have a handful of other books that I highly recommend:

Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future by Chris Mooney & Sheril Kirshenbaum
George's Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen & Lucy Hawking
George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt by Stephen & Lucy Hawking

As always, I want to expand these lists and am looking for new items that might fit on them. Feel free to offer up some suggestions for new lists, or additions to the existing lists, in the comment section!

Physics Gifts ... in Time for Christmas originally appeared on About.com Physics on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 22:55:17.

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Physics of the Christmas Star

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:15:23 +0000

The holiday season is rooted in ancient myths and legends, but there are some aspects of the holiday celebration which lend themselves to some sort of scientific analysis. One of these is the Christmas Star (or Star of Bethlehem). While there's not a lot of information, some conjectures over the years have included a supernova, a comet, and a planet. You can find out more about these conjectures, and their pros and cons, in our article about the physics of the Star of Bethlehem.

You can find out about this and other scientific aspects of Christmas (and some scientific musings on un-scientific aspects) in Roger Highfield's fun and intriguing The Physics of Christmas.

Physics of the Christmas Star originally appeared on About.com Physics on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 21:15:23.

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The Creative Power of Black Holes

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:55:33 +0000

The traditional view of black holes has focused on their destructive aspects, viewing them as devouring entities that consume all matter and energy in their path, even light itself. In recent years, however, there has been recognition that black holes seem to have some role in galaxy formation. For example, there's generally a supermassive black hole at the center most galaxies and recent research has shown that black holes may cause gamma ray bursts as they devour stars.

In fact, the role may be even active in the creation of galaxies than pulling matter together. A recent study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics indicate that black holes may actually form their own galaxies. The black hole (actually a quasar that appears to be floating in space without being part of a host galaxy) in question appears to be surrounded by the rapid development of new stars, at a rate nearly 100 times the galactic average. Basically, though the quasar is off by itself, the high energy particles that emits are causing a nearby galaxy to grow so quickly that stars will eventually begin to form around the quasar, in essence creating a stellar neighborhood around it. (You can find out more about this study at the Scientific American podcast or this Wired magazine article.)

This could explain why the majority of quasars that we witness are within galaxies ... because the ones that form outside of galaxies appear to cause this sort of growth, and eventually become part of the nearby galaxy.

I guess this just goes to show that even incredibly dense spheres of destruction need company.

The Creative Power of Black Holes originally appeared on About.com Physics on Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 23:55:33.

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Large Hadron Collider Hits Record Energy

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:13:44 +0000

Early in the morning of Nov. 30, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) reached a new milestone by accelerating its two beams of protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV, making it the most powerful particle accelerator in the world.

The LHC restarted on Nov. 20, after a year riddled with repairs and avid speculation about whether it would ever work (including conjectures that it was being sabotaged from the future). Now, according to several sources (including rock star physicist Brian Cox in a commentary published in The Independent) things are going more smoothly than even the physicists involved would expect. CERN's Director General Rolf Heuer says,

"We are still coming to terms with just how smoothly the LHC commissioning is going. It is fantastic. However, we are continuing to take it step by step, and there is still a lot to do before we start physics in 2010. I'm keeping my champagne on ice until then."

The previous record of 0.98 TeV was held by the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory's Tevatron collider, which reached that energy level in 2001. It is hopeful that collisions at the higher energy level will allow physicists to perhaps definitely test conjectures such as the existence of the Higgs boson or possibly some extra dimensional concepts from string theory.

Large Hadron Collider Hits Record Energy originally appeared on About.com Physics on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 23:13:44.

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New Show - Physics of the Impossible

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:48:20 +0000

On Tuesday, Dec. 1, the Science Channel will be premiering their new series�Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible, based upon the book Physics of the Impossible by physicist Michio Kaku. The series will explore the idea that some concepts from science fiction may actual become reality in the years to come. The first two episodes of the series, set to air at 10pm Eastern time, are "How to Explore the Universe" and "How to Travel to a Parallel Universe."

Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku

New Show - Physics of the Impossible originally appeared on About.com Physics on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at 21:48:20.

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Thermodynamics of Turkeys

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:52:07 +0000

This time of year, people are of course focusing on how to roast that turkey for Thanksgiving. But did you know that scientific principles lie at the heart of roasting a turkey? (If you didn't, then you haven't been paying attention ... scientific principles lie at the heart of everything!)

Source: Lisa Peardon / Getty Images

Well, now you can learn the thermodynamics of cooking a turkey. It may be a bit too late for this year's cooking of the holiday bird (and for that I truly apologize ... we've had baby craziness around the Jones household), but there's still time to incorporate some of these principles into cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving, or definitely for Christmas.

And what, you may ask, about the thermodynamics of turducken? Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that turducken does, in fact, defy all laws of nature (despite my earlier admonition to the contrary).

Thermodynamics of Turkeys originally appeared on About.com Physics on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 08:52:07.

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