Applied Physics

Thermoluminescence is used on sediment 'grains', which function as natural radiation dosimeters when buried with defects or impurities, to determine age. The valid range is 1,000 to 500,000 years and…

Scientists have achieved an unprecedented level of control over defects in liquid crystals that can be engineered for applications in liquid matter photonics. They can lasso an intangible ring…

In 2005, scientists studying tiny sac-like creatures called sea squirts found bacteria containing two types of chlorophyll (a and b) in cavities inside the squirts' tissues. Those two pigments were…

The Nobel Prize-winning Higgs boson – the “God particle” - believed to be vital for understanding all of the mass in the universe, was found in 2012 at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, but that's not…

Milk has a long been a nutritional and economic staple in western countries but it is quickly susceptible to pathogens quite easily, which is why pasteurization, which kills harmful microbes, is…

Latency is so ingrained into modern communication we almost forget about it but in live or recorded events, like performances or rehearsals over a long distance, it is crippling.  When recording…

Researchers have discovered proof that acoustic phonons, the elemental particles that transmit both heat and sound, have magnetic properties.  In a new paper, the authors describe how a…

My wife and I were in an airport newsstand. I was looking through the magazines to find something to read on the flight when I saw something that didn't make sense. Quite confused, I had to blink a…

Build a laser oscilloscope using Lego, littleBits, Erector set, and the Kano Computer. In honor of The International Year of Light I’ll demonstrate how use the Kano computer to drive a littleBits…

In a previous blog post, I demonstrated how to build a magnetic optical mount for a laser using Erector set parts. Here's another method of attaching a chip clip to the Erector set stand. Parts…