Author Archives: admin

Sun unleashes X6.9 class flare; Earth spared this time

Posted on August 19, 2011 by admin

On August 9, 2011 at 3:48 a.m. EDT, the sun emitted an Earth-directed X6.9 flare, as measured by the NOAA GOES satellite. This was the largest flare of the current solar cycle, an R3 (Strong) Radio Blackout, alternatively classified as … Continue reading →

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What You Learned About Static Electricity Is Wrong

Posted on August 17, 2011 by admin

For many of us, static electricity is one of the earliest encounters we have with electromagnetism, and it’s a staple of high school physics. Typically, it’s explained as a product of electrons transferred in one direction between unlike substances, like … Continue reading →

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Hand-hacking lets you pluck strings like a musical pro

Posted on August 16, 2011 by admin

PossessedHand, being developed jointly by the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Sony Computer Science Laboratories, electrically stimulates the muscles in the forearm that move your fingers. A belt worn around that part of the subject’s arm contains 28 electrode pads … Continue reading →

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Antiproton ring found around Earth

Posted on August 16, 2011 by admin

Antiprotons appear to ring the Earth, confined by the planet’s magnetic field lines. The antimatter, which may persist for minutes or hours before annihilating with normal matter, could in theory be used to fuel ultra-efficient rockets of the future. Charged … Continue reading →

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Scientists drag light by slowing it to speed of sound

Posted on August 15, 2011 by admin

Scientists at the University of Glasgow have, for the first time, been able to drag light by slowing it down to the speed of sound and sending it through a rotating crystal. Most people may think the speed of light … Continue reading →

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Feel the Noise: Touch, Hearing May Share Neurological Roots

Posted on July 27, 2011 by admin

About a year and a half after her stroke, a 36-year-old professor started to feel sounds. A radio announcer’s voice made her tingle. Background noise in a plane felt physically uncomfortable. Now Tony Ro, a neuroscientist at the City College … Continue reading →

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Sounds of Japan Earthquake and Aftershocks from Underwater Observatories

Posted on July 27, 2011 by admin

The Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics (LAB), a unit of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), directed by Professor Michel André, has recorded the sound of the earthquake that shook Japan on Friday, March 11. The recording, now available online, was … Continue reading →

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Augmented instruments add virtual input to live music

Posted on July 27, 2011 by admin

They look like just another three-piece band, with drums, violin and guitar. But stop and listen to Edgar Berdahl and his colleagues, and you’ll notice things aren’t quite what they seem. Strange tones emerge from their instruments, sometimes without any … Continue reading →

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Does coffee make you hear things?

Posted on July 25, 2011 by admin

Scholars at Australia’s La Trobe University just released a study showing a correlation between caffeine intake and auditory hallucinations. In layman’s terms: Lots of coffee might make you more likely to hear things that aren’t there. Researchers came to the … Continue reading →

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What Tau Sounds Like

Posted on July 25, 2011 by admin

Musician interprets the mathematical constant Tau to 126 decimal places See also What Pi Sounds Like via Higher Music.

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