Physical Science – Athens Science Observer

Predicting the not-so-Northern Lights

Sahana Parker — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 15:16:12 +0000

For the first time in two decades, stargazers across the southern United States have been dazzled by colorful, undulating waves of light in the night sky. These so-called Northern Lights are vibrant displays of the interaction between electrons and ions emitted by the Sun and the Earth’s upper atmosphere. While this interaction usually occurs closer …

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The Earth from ET’s Perspective

Sahana Parker — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 13:00:00 +0000

To date, researchers have identified over 5,000 exoplanets in the Milky Way, a small fraction of the billions hypothesized to exist in our galaxy. Among them, researchers catalog so-called “Earth-like planets,” or planets with a similar size, structure, and distance from the Sun as Earth. While of great interest to modern astronomers, no conclusive evidence …

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Looking to the Future

Sayani Roy Chowdhury — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 14:25:39 +0000

As of 2020, the global consumption of energy is 580 million terajoules per year. Of this, 83.1% comes from fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas, 4.3% comes from radioactive sources, and about 12.6% comes from renewable sources like hydro, solar, and wind. We have currently 50 more years of oil reserves left available, …

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Drifting through cosmic dust into April Lyrid Meteors

June Haeun Kim — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 13:59:27 +0000

People say that April showers bring May flowers, but have you ever considered meteor showers? We are in the midst of the annual Lyrid meteor shower, and it is one of the oldest meteor showers ever observed with sightings dating back to 687 BC. In 2022, the shower is expected to peak on the night …

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Natural Philosophers and Seekers of Truths: The Missing “Ph” in “PhD”

Audrey Ward — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 17:41:27 +0000

The History of the PhD While many students aim to earn their PhDs, few know the philosophical history of the degrees they are pursuing. The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD or DPhil) began as the degree awarded in recognition of advanced scholarship and acknowledging that recipients had expertise needed to teach at a university level. These …

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What are colors, anyway?

Bijay Duwal — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 13:41:54 +0000

It is springtime! As spring prevails, all things in nature are suddenly adorned by myriads of colors. These myriads of colors inspire myriads of feelings. No other thing affects living beings' psyche as powerfully as colors. May that be love or war, spirituality or science, ascetism or fashion, poems or technology, colors seem to touch …

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The Cartography of the Genome

athenssciencecafe — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:42:39 +0000

What is a map? What does it REALLY represent? You might answer a map generally represents the relationships of locations. However, maps have evolved substantially in modern times. For example, modern genomics and cartography? While they might seem like different worlds, they actually share much in common. Both focused on a similar goal – spatial …

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Littering 2.0

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 13:32:25 +0000

Like many kids, I dreamt of becoming an astronaut; exploring distant planets and making contact with aliens. With a huge number of planets out there, it's hard to think we're all alone in this vast universe. But, as I grew as a scientist, my curiosity focused on a specific question: How can we find alien …

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The Sugar Code: Representing Glycans

athenssciencecafe — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 21:50:47 +0000

Hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers and blue moons, pots of golden rainbows and me red balloons! If you've ever eaten Lucky Charms cereal, you probably know this jingle and the tiny shapes of marshmallows it references. Interestingly enough, glycobiologists, or biologists who study the sugars that make up those tasty mallows, have their own Lucky Charm …

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Frosty the Microbe

athenssciencecafe — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 03:15:36 +0000

â€˜Tis the season for stories of wintery magic. From Elsa and Frozone to their mythical grandfather, Jack Frost, there's no cooler gift than the power to let it snow at will, or shock a pond skate-worthy with a single touch. Little do we realize that these chilly abilities aren't limited to the realm of holiday …

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Cosmic Proportions

athenssciencecafe — Fri, 25 May 2018 13:08:10 +0000

Everyone you've ever loved (or hated), everything you've ever held dear, every experience you've ever had – all of these have been confined to one tiny rock orbiting a giant ball of gas at 67,000 mph. From a distance, that tiny rock – Earth – is just a pale blue dot – or in the …

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The EDGES Story: How Scientists Detected Effects of Light from the First Stars

athenssciencecafe — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 01:50:18 +0000

In March 2018, a team of scientists led by Judd Bowman from Arizona State's School of Earth and Space Exploration and Alan Rogers from MIT's Haystack Observatory has done what many thought to be an impossible task. With a small radio antenna called EDGES (Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Recombination Signature) placed in …

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ER = EPR

athenssciencecafe — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 21:19:58 +0000

Einstein is known for reshaping our conception of space and time and showing that this involved a re-imagining of gravity. This set the stage for the field of General Relativity, a field of physics that is still vigorously researched today. This only scratches the surface as to his contributions. He, for example, was the first …

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What is Quantum Mechanics?

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 09 Nov 2016 16:56:06 +0000

What comes to mind when you think about the word â€œphysics?â€ You probably see yourself sitting in your high school or college Intro Physics course trying to memorize what seemed to be pointless equations and relationships between variables. For example, the good ole' F=ma. Many of us know these basic physical principles referred to as …

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The Origins of Rocketry

athenssciencecafe — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 21:31:37 +0000

Curious about how rockets get into the sky? Join Graham as he discusses the origins of rocket engines and the history behind the technology that is still in use today. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/289960354″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] Sources: Robert Goddard, Goddard's Experiments, Scott Manley's Rocket Plumbing Image Credit: RS-25 engine test (for NASA’s New Rocket) By NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/qsyGca (No …

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The Strangest Stars in Outer Space

athenssciencecafe — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 01:03:25 +0000

Outer space is pretty weird. Ask anyone who has ever heard of a black hole or seen the movie Interstellar, and they are bound to agree. But those points of light we see in the night sky, the stars we have been admiring for our whole lives, those seem more accessible to us. I mean, …

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Wait a Hot Minute!

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 25 May 2016 14:22:16 +0000

What if I told you that the flow of time is an illusion due to our limited consciousness and that the only true distinction between the past and the future is the presence of heat? You might call me crazy. However, it turns out that while the flow of time is obviously an essential part …

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Getting around space, Star Wars style?

athenssciencecafe — Thu, 05 May 2016 15:07:06 +0000

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/262628478″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /] Normally the scientific community takes a stab at making science fiction a reality. But, science fiction took a page from science this time around. Learn about how the ion engines of Star Wars work in reality and how it is enabling space exploration, like never before. Links: CubeSat Podcast, Saturn …

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Math Meets Mayhem: How Fractals Shape the Universe

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 17:24:15 +0000

By strategically eating a single spaghetti noodle, you can make it last forever. Let me explain.Suppose you take a string of spaghetti, cut it into thirds, and eat the middle section; repeating over and over with the remaining sections. It won’t make a particularly substantial meal- the pieces you eat will quickly become infinitely small- …

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What's the Point of the International Space Station(ISS)?

athenssciencecafe — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 12:59:08 +0000

On March 1st, astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after 340 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS). But why was he even up there for so long in the first place? What is the ISS? According to NASA, the ISS is a â€œconvergence of science, technology, and human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and …

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CubeSats and You: The Future of Space Exploration

athenssciencecafe — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 12:00:10 +0000

Satellites are often thought to be large and needing millions of dollars to be built. But, can citizen science change that notion with CubeSats? Join Graham Grable as he discusses the potential for using citizen scientists and CubeSats to increase research. To learn more about the Kepler satellite, listen to the project manager for Kepler, …

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First Detection of Gravitational Waves

athenssciencecafe — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 12:00:00 +0000

By Paige Copenhaver On February 11th, scientists from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the first ever detection of gravitational waves. Analogous to ripples caused by throwing a rock into a pond, gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime caused by the acceleration of massive objects in space. The collision of …

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Not so Fast Elon Musk: The Biological Barriers to Colonizing Mars or the Moon

athenssciencecafe — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 11:25:50 +0000

The reality of a man-made colony in space is becoming more plausible every year. Both private industry and government institutions are combining their collective genius to tackle the substantial engineering challenges associated with building human habitats on these completely alien environments. Many see space colonization as inevitable, like homesteading the American West with a twist; …

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