Applied Physics

There And Back Again: Cage Water Molecules, Watch Them Change Form

By ‘caging’ and cooling water molecules in carbon spheres to study the change in orientation of the magnetic nuclei at the center of each hydrogen atom, researchers have been able to transform the molecule from one form of water to another. Water molecules ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 13 2014 - 8:18am

Complex Image Theory: Magnetic Field Tracks Football In 3-D Space

It doesn't happen often but there are times when its unclear if a football crosses the goal line for a touchdown. If a quarterback attempts a sneak, for example, and the line pushes forward, he may be under too many players to be seen. All the refere ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 14 2014 - 11:05pm

Innovating Science Exothermic/Endothermic Combination Kit

Have you ever wondered how hand warmers and cold packs worked? The kind that can be stored at room temperature and then used when needed depend on exothermic and endothermic chemical reactions. An exothermic chemical reaction gives off heat into its surrou ...

Blog Post - Steve Schuler - Jun 28 2014 - 11:32am

Stiffness Boundary Layer: How A Wrinkle Becomes A Crease

Wrinkles, creases and folds are everywhere in nature, from our skin to the buckled crust of the Earth. They're useful structures for engineers. Wrinkles in thin films, for example, can help make durable circuit boards for flexible electronics. A new ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 25 2014 - 4:56pm

Better Engineering Through Urine- You're Welcome, Isaac Newton

When it comes to urine, it's all relative. We can't prove Sir Isaac Newton was thinking about how animals urinate when he was developing his laws of gravity but he can't prove he wasn't either. What we can prove is that they are connec ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 30 2014 - 8:28pm

K’nex Kinetic Interactive Sculpture

In previous articles I’ve demonstrated how to use littleBits and erector set parts to build a magnetic stirrer and a sample rotator. Since I was able to drive Erector set machines with the littleBits motor I decided to try to use it to drive K’nex contrapt ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Jun 30 2014 - 2:34pm

Tiny Switch Could Be Just Three Atoms Thick

Stanford researchers envision a crystal that can form a monolayer three atoms thick. Their computer simulations show that this crystal, molybdenum ditelluride, can act like a switch: its crystal lattice can be mechanically pulled and pushed, back and fort ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 1 2014 - 10:04am

How Did Ancient Japanese Gold Leaf Artists Work At Nanoscale?

We know that ancient Japanese gold leaf artists were truly masters of their craft- their works are ornate and delicate. What remains a mystery is how artifacts were gilded with gold leaf that was hand-beaten to the nanometer scale. Gold leaf refers to a v ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 3 2014 - 8:00am

Geckos: Look, We're Not Spider-Man

When you see an article about geckos and their ability to sit upside down, Spider-Man references are sure to follow. And if the topic is that sticky ability in spiders, you will get Spider-Man references and a picture. Yet even geckos have limits- that� ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 9 2014 - 11:33am

Birdsnap App Can Help You Identify Birds

Birdsnap is an iPhone and web based app that uses many of the techniques of facial recognition software to identify 500 of the most common North American birds. The web based version of Birdsnap is actually very easy to use: upload your picture, click on t ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Jul 16 2014 - 6:10am