higgins34:

Graphene Aerogel

— Lightest Solid Material Ever Developed

Because aerogels are porous they are ultra-light materials and this one is 100 times lighter than Polystyrene foam cups and can help clean up pollutants like toluene and crude oil (other oils as well) and other compounds like ethanol. Researchers are planning  to look at the materials ability for insulating and sound proofing in the future.

Previous records for lightest materials were 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimeter in 2011, 0.18 mg/cm3 in 2012, and now this material at 0.16 mg/cm3.

Prof. Gao Chao // Polymer Science Engineering at Zhejiang University
Published Feb 18, 2013 // Advanced Materials

via the-science-llama

whoa

“I can definitely see a whole lot of science”

Sorry, guys, I’m cleaning out my Drafts folder

deergoddess:

Alkali metals reacting in water

“I know just enough about science for that to be credible!”

GPOY

Dinosaur Comics

nirvikalpa:

The Deep Sea Alien Worm, Tomopteris

(Source: captainatlantic)

thesciencellama:

Acoustic Levitation

Using sound waves to levitate individual droplets of solutions containing pharmaceutical drugs and drying them in mid-air. Why do this? This is useful because most of the drugs on the market are either amorphous or crystalline and the crystalline form doesn’t get absorbed by the body. So levitating the solution allows the drug to be made into an amorphous state (by evaporation) because if it were to touch any surface it would simply crystallize. They call this “containerless processing”.

The frequencies used are just above the audible range at about 22 kilohertz and when the two speakers are aligned they create two sets of sound waves, perfectly interfering with each other creating a phenomenon known as a standing wave. This allows the objects to levitate in areas within the waves known as nodes as the acoustic pressure is enough to cancel the force of gravity.

Video Source - Argonne National Laboratory

proofmathisbeautiful:

It would have been funnier if they had put..

…”The BOHRING world of Niels Bohr”

(Source: thedudehasgotnomercy)

via theartofhiding

un:

prostheticknowledge:

Slow Motion Footage of Mosquitoes Shot Down With Laser 

The video runs slower than the GIFs above suggest

Intellectual Ventures’ Mosquito Laser Shootdown Sequence, demonstrated at TED 2010.

THIS. is what the internet was invented for.

I. WANT. MOSQUITO-SHOOTING LASERS.

SOMEONE GET ME A CLIPBOARD

(Source: sandandglass)

andrewbravener:

Broccoli MRI

Wow, tumblr has all the components of the scientific process!

If there’s no entropy in heaven, there’s probably going to be a big debate about whether to rename The Third Law of Thermodynamics to The Second Law of Thermodynamics, and it’s all going to be very confusing.

moderation:

Fantasy Baseball For Physicists: Very, Very Fast Fastballs

Here’s a question: What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent of the speed of light?

The answer is: Don’t.

Not that anyone’s going to pitch a ball that fast, but if they do, you definitely don’t want to be the batter. Or the pitcher. Or in the stands watching. Or anywhere near the ball field. But, trust me, you very definitely want to see what happens.

Cartoonist Randall Munroe over at xkcd has just launched an every Tuesday “what if?” series. And in this first one, he’s asked what would happen if a ball approached 90 percent of the speed of light. His answer, mixed with his wonderfully primitive illustrations, starts calmly…

To see what follows, go over to his place, but first, put on some sunglasses, buy a lead suit, then click here.

(via NPR)

This is like porn for physicists