Mixing Water

Thermal camera video on mixing hot and cold water, hot water on top of cold water.

 

The Oldest Star in the Universe

Hank tells the story of the mysterious star known as "Methuseleh," and why scientists think that it is the oldest known star in the universe.

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What If The Sun Disappeared?

No more natural light, no more photosynthesis, freezing temperatures...

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Single Photon Interference

What happens when single photons of light pass through a double slit and are detected by a photomultiplier tube? In 1801 Thomas Young seemed to settle a long-running debate about the nature of light with his double slit experiment. He demonstrated that light passing through two slits creates patterns like water waves, with the implication that it must be a wave phenomenon.

 However, experimental results in the early 1900s found that light energy is not smoothly distributed as in a classical wave, rather it comes in discrete packets, called quanta and later photons. These are indivisible particles of light. So what would happen if individual photons passed through a double slit? Would they make a pattern like waves or like particles?

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Dartmouth professor discusses Foucault's pendulum

Physics and astronomy professor Jim LaBelle discusses the science behind a classic physics experiment, Foucault's pendulum, while seated next to Dartmouth's pendulum in Fairchild Tower.

 

The Pain of Electricity (AC versus DC)

Have you always wondered if you shocked yourself with electricity, which type of electricity would hurt more: AC (Alternating Current) or DC (Direct Current)? Wait no more!

 

The Manhattan Project

Some of the greatest advances in science have come from humanity's more destructive impulses. This is not the fault of science - when we discover powerful truths about the universe it's up to us to decide how to use them because they can either be boons or banes to the world. There may be no better example of this than the work done by the Manhattan Project - the years long, multinational effort to develop an atomic bomb during World War II. The project created unfathomably destructive weapons and led to a 50 year Cold War with the USSR, but is also the source of a lot of information about the atom we didn't have before, which has led to advances in many beneficial fields, like energy production and medicine. Science, like history, is always complicated.

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Youtube Video vs. The Universe

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Microscopes: How They Work

An explanation of how microscopes work, using a ray tracing diagram.

 

Negative Temperatures are HOT - Sixty Symbols

Temperatures below absolute zero are HOTTER than those above, explains Professor Philip Moriarty.

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Bare Filament

Why do lightbulbs have the bulb? This video shows what happens if the glass bulb of an incandescent lightbulb is removed and the electicity turned on.

 

The Search for Antimatter

If you don't have any idea what antimatter is, you don't have to feel bad - the brightest minds in the world have only recently begun to understand what it is and how it works. Hank gives us the run down on what we know about antimatter, and what we're still trying to figure out.

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Total internal reflection breakdown

This experiments show total internal reflection at the boundary between wax and air. When we place a drop of water at the surface the conditions changes and total internal reflection disappears.

 

Is There Gravity in Space?

In a word, "yes" - space is packed with gravity. Hank explains how Isaac Newton described how gravity works, and why even though it seems that things are floating in space, they're still effected by gravity. Every object in the universe is constantly attracting every other object in the universe.

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Hydrogen Storage - Backstage Science

A team from the University of Bath use the neutrons at ISIS to make a breakthrough.

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