Applied Physics

How To Save Da Vinci's Self-portrait Using Physics

One of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpieces, a self-portrait, was drawn in red chalk on paper during the early 1500s. As you can imagine, a chalk drawing on paper from the Renaissance is in extremely poor condition. Centuries of exposure to humid storage ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 3 2014 - 11:18am

Father's Day Science Project: Build A Trebuchet

The A dvanced W onder E xcitement S urprise O riginal M echatronic E xcellence lab is usually devoted to robot design but recently they took a break to go old school.  How old school? The 13th century, that's how old school. ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jun 15 2014 - 9:23am

Dutch Students Building A Church Made Of Ice

Earlier this year, a team of students from Eindhoven went to Finland and built the world’s biggest ice dome, with a diameter of 30 meters.  Credit: Pykrete Dome team. Song: Youngblood Hawke- Stars (Hold On) This next winter, another Eindhoven team wants to ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 7 2014 - 10:21am

Supernova Explosions Recreated In The Lab

STFC’s Vulcan laser facility has recreated scaled supernova explosions to investigate one of the most energetic events in the Universe. Supernova explosions, triggered when the fuel within a star reignites or its core collapses, launch a detonation shock w ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 11 2014 - 7:32am

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