Thanks to everyone that voted for this blog during the Black Weblog Awards. I'm pleased to announce that we've won the award for Best Science & Technology blog!
This blog is nothing without you. Thank you so much. I love breaking science down into fun, easily understandable chunks of awesome, and I appreciate your support. Now, on with the show!
Hurricane Sandy is approaching landfall on the east coast of the US, between Delaware and Connecticut. People are buying supplies, weather reporters are freaking out with delight, and I made the wonderful decision to visit my mom in northern NJ and friends in NYC right before the entire public transportation system shut down.
Be safe everyone! Check out the rest of NASA's coverage on their Flickr page.
When you walk around, things seem to be fairly normal. Gravity holds everything down so things are floating in the air. When you see a driver, no matter how crazy, careening down the road, you can say "Hey, this idiot is driving around 90 mph and is going through that red light". If you had a radar gun, you could be even more precise at getting the car's position and momentum.
However, what we think of as "normal" is not an accurate representation of the universe. Quantum mechanics exists to explain all of the absurdity that happens when you start looking at things on a microscopic level, like electrons and photons. For example, the idiot driving in the car that we mentioned in the previous paragraph. If we squeezed the driver down to a microscopic side, if you knew the exact momentum of the car, it would be impossible to get its exact position. Similarly, if you know the position, you can't measure the exact momentum.
For my quantum mechanics fun, check out the video below. If you can't see it, click here.
Y'all all know him. He does all kinds of great thing while being drunk on the finest Dos Equis beers. Well, it turns out that he was an extra on Star Trek back in the day - the kind of extra that always died. These extras became known as "Red Shirts", because most of the non-essential characters in Star Trek had a red uniform. But because he is the Most Interesting Man in the World, he survived! Check out the proof at iOS9.com!
PHOTOGRAPH BY: GENARO MOLINA / LOS ANGELES TIMES
Amazing shot of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. It recently flew from Florida to LAX, and its currently navigating at 2 miles an hour through the streets of LA on its way to the California Science Center, where it will be on display. This is definitely one day where I wish I was not on the east coast!
