On Life on Mars and Human Imagination

May 20, 2013
On Life on Mars and Human Imagination

After Copernicus released his famous work On the Revolutions of The Heavenly Spheres in the first half of the 16th century, more and more people started believing in the heliocentric theory. Almost a century later the great Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei started observing the endless night skies with his newly built telescope. Galileo was a great fan of Copernicus’ ideas, and his telescope was a great tool to check them practically. Interestingly, after many long nights...

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Physics News of the Week: On New Methods of Detecting Black Holes and Gravitational Waves

May 19, 2013
Physics News of the Week: On New Methods of Detecting Black Holes and Gravitational Waves

So another great week has passed and it’s time to take a look at some of the most important physics news. This week a group of US researchers found new clues on what could signal the birth of black holes. Meanwhile the researchers from the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore...

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Telescopes as Time Machines

May 17, 2013

Dr. Michael Liu was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area and done his undergraduate work at Cornell University. His doctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley led him to the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, where he is now a faculty member. In this TEDx talk Dr....

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Physics From the Past: White Magic

May 13, 2013

In this neat video from 1940, by the Handy Organization, the science of light is introduced. It’s an educational video, which explains and demonstrates the most important facts about light that were known back in those days. In particular, the infra-red and ultra-violet light is introduced. Also, the main physical properties of light are shown...

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Physics News of the Week: Another Nano-Breakthrough and a Thermal Invisibility Cloak

May 13, 2013
Physics News of the Week: Another Nano-Breakthrough and a Thermal Invisibility Cloak

This week there were some nice breakthroughs in nanotechnologies and thermal physics. In particular, KIT researchers succeeded in demonstrating that certain materials could be used to build a thermal cloak. Meanwhile, a group of leading nanoscientists succeeded in explaining the case of the herringbone crystals. The final report is on the clues, that might hide in...

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Free Particle Physics Textbooks

May 10, 2013
Free Particle Physics Textbooks

So since the textbooks on particle physics, offered on our list of free physics books, are so popular, I dug up some more of them. “Particle Physics” from Intech includes a theoretical discussion of Higg’s mechanism and alternatives to the Standard Model. “Particle Physics and Inflationary Cosmology” by Andrei Linde covers an overview of theories...

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UCI: Basic Physics 3A

May 6, 2013

In this course from the University of California, Irvine, professor Michael Dennin introduces the basic concepts of physics. These 13 lectures cover such introductory topics as various forms of motion, position & displacement, constant acceleration, dynamics and others. To access the other lectures, click the playlist icon. UCIrvine | More lectures 

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No Life on Mars? Let’s Look in the Caves

May 6, 2013

All Mars rovers that explored the red planet didn’t find any life forms there. But, according to Penelope Boston, we were searching in the wrong places. According to the scientist, there is a great chance that there might be exotic life forms hiding in the caves of Mars. For more TED videos check out the...

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Physics News of the Week: New Projects for Detecting Gravitational Waves and More

May 5, 2013
Physics News of the Week: New Projects for Detecting Gravitational Waves and More

Here’s a short overview of the most important physics news headlines from this week. To receive physics news of the week straight to your email, you can register for our email newsletter. 1. Unifying General Relativity and Quantum Theory Through Spectral Geometry (April 29) One of the most interesting ways of unifying quantum theory...

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