At the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow

floateron: mynerdproblems: hellicaptor: mycroft-queenofcake: iamjayse: thenerdfighterkid: slydi...

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:45:09 -0700

mynerdproblems:

hellicaptor:

mycroft-queenofcake:

iamjayse:

thenerdfighterkid:

slydig:

tsarbucks:

slydig:

dont be mean

be median or mode

damn math fandom bloggers

shut up we have a good range of jokes

this is our domain

guys we’re forgetting the point of this post and going off on a tangent

well i for one think math puns are pretty radical

math puns are the first sin of madness

cos then the imaginary starts seeming real

sifu-kisu: we-are-star-stuff: If Earth Had a Ring Like...

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:46:27 -0700

sifu-kisu:

we-are-star-stuff:

If Earth Had a Ring Like Saturn

Our planet is lucky enough to have a large moon orbiting not too far away, which makes for very pretty moonlit nights. But for spectacular skies it might almost be worth trading in our moon for a ring like Saturn’s.

In fact, the earth did once have a ring - as part of the formation of our moon, ironically enough. When the planet Thea crashed into the earth, a titanic amount of material was blown into space. This went into orbit around the earth, forming a ring until it all eventually coalesced into our present-day satellite. This only happened because the material was orbiting outside of earth’s Roche limit.

In 1848, the French mathematician Edouard Roche calculated that if a large satellite were to approach too closely to a planet, it would be torn apart by the planet’s gravitational forces. This happens because the gravitational attraction of a planet on a moon is not equal. The planet pulls more on the side of the moon closest to it and less on the side further away. If the moon gets too close, this unequal pull can become great enough to tear the moon apart. Every planet has what is called a Roche limit.

Some astronomers believe that Saturn’s rings are material that was unable to form into a moon because it lies within the planet’s Roche limit. The gravitational pull of Saturn prevents particles from clumping together to form a moon. Another idea popular among scientists suggests that during the time when Saturn was first forming, it had one or more moons just outside its Roche limit. The bigger a planet is, the more gravity it has. And the more gravity it has, the bigger its Roche limit is. So as Saturn grew larger, its Roche limit grew, too. The limit soon moved past the inner moons and these moons soon broke apart. The remnants of the destroyed moons eventually formed the magnificent rings we see today. There may still be large pieces of these ancient moons within the rings. They would be much smaller than their ancestors but a thousand times larger than a typical ring particle. Another theory suggests that a few hundred million years ago - at a time when the early ancestors of the dinosaurs were roaming Earth - Saturn may have had no rings at all. The rings formed when one or more small moons wandered too close to Saturn. When they got within the Roche limit, Saturn’s gravity ripped them apart. After millions of years of bumping against one another, the pieces of moon were ground into the tiny particles that form the rings today.

If we had rings in the same proportion to our planet that Saturn’s are to it, it is pretty easy to figure out what they would like like from different places on the earth. From the equator the rings would be passing directly overhead. Since you’d be looking in the same plane as the rings, all you would see is a bright line arching from horizon to horizon. Here is what the rings might look like from Quito, Ecuador:

If we travel just a little further north to Guatemala, the rings begin to spread across the sky. The earthlight illuminating the dark side of the moon is many times brighter than we are accustomed to, due to the increased sunlight being reflected from the rings.

From Washington, DC (at 38° latitude), the rings begin to sink below the horizon, though they would still be an awe-inspiring sight as they dominate the sky both day and night.

At the Arctic Circle, the rings barely reach above the horizon. Seen here from Nome, Alaska, the brilliant rings illuminate the barren landscape scarcely more than a full moon would. Unlike the sun or moon, however, the rings neither rise nor set… they are always visible, day or night, always in exactly the same place.

What about the giant perpetual shadows that rings would make across the face of the earth? Maybe there’d be rainbows but I’d rather have moon light than rings ::)

slydig: tsarbucks: slydig: dont be mean be median or mode damn math fandom bloggers

Sat, 18 May 2013 20:28:15 -0700

slydig:

tsarbucks:

slydig:

dont be mean

be median or mode

damn math fandom bloggers

Photo

Wed, 01 May 2013 19:28:57 -0700

saucycuervo: satans-bacon: The Euthanasia Coaster is a concept...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:49:08 -0700

saucycuervo:

satans-bacon:

The Euthanasia Coaster is a concept for a steel roller coaster designed to kill its passengers. In 2010, it was designed and made into a scale model by Julijonas Urbonas, a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art in London. Urbonas, who has worked at an amusement park, stated that the goal of his concept roller coaster is to take lives “with elegance and euphoria.” It is a ride to the death. The seven loops or “inversions” put the human body under such stress that it causes the brain to be starved of oxygen, as the heart simply cannot push blood against the enormous g-forces. Even if it kills you, it is designed to still be a fun death. An honourable thought, if rather macabre.

I can make a rollercoaster that kills people too.

and I dont have my phd

the-muggles-got-me-down: this was a hint in my geometry...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:34:04 -0700

the-muggles-got-me-down:

this was a hint in my geometry textbook

somewhere there is a mathematician whose entire life has led up to this joke

engineeringisawesome: 19-Year-Old Student Develops Ocean...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 08:53:09 -0700

engineeringisawesome:

19-Year-Old Student Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World’s Oceans

19-year-old Boyan Slat has unveiled plans to create an Ocean Cleanup Array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans. The device consists of an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms that could be dispatched to garbage patches around the world. Instead of moving through the ocean, the array would span the radius of a garbage patch, acting as a giant funnel. The angle of the booms would force plastic in the direction of the platforms, where it would be separated from plankton, filtered and stored for recycling.

Inhabitat

danocrow: rayrayslife: thenimbus: stringmouse: I feel like...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:04:06 -0700

danocrow:

rayrayslife:

thenimbus:

stringmouse:

I feel like I’m getting mixed signals from you, physics.

Absolutely Incredible

#WHAT IS HAPPENING

The little machine is vibrating the molecules of the water at a certain frequency and the stream lets us see the wave of that frequency.

I fucking love physics

Atomically, this is fascinating. It’s a brilliant way to show off one of the features of H20- the way it’s ‘sticks together’ if you like- and this should be shown in schools.

neuromorphogenesis: Bursts of Brain Activity May Protect...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:05:07 -0700

neuromorphogenesis:

Bursts of Brain Activity May Protect Against Alzheimer’s Disease

Evidence indicates that the accumulation of amyloid-beta proteins, which form the plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, is critical for the development of Alzheimer’s disease, which impacts 5.4 million Americans. And not just the quantity, but also the quality of amyloid-beta peptides is crucial for Alzheimer’s initiation. The disease is triggered by an imbalance in two different amyloid species — in Alzheimer’s patients, there is a reduction in a relative level of healthy amyloid-beta 40 compared to 42.

Now Dr. Inna Slutsky of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicineand the Sagol School of Neuroscience, with postdoctoral fellow Dr. Iftach Dolev and PhD student Hilla Fogel, have uncovered two main features of the brain circuits that impact this crucial balance. The researchers have found that patterns of electrical pulses (called “spikes”) in the form of high-frequency bursts and the filtering properties of synapses are crucial to the regulation of the amyloid-beta 40/42 ratio. Synapses that transfer information in spike bursts improve the amyloid-beta 40/42 ratio.

This represents a major advance in understanding that brain circuits regulate composition of amyloid-beta proteins, showing that the disease is not just driven by genetic mutations, but by physiological mechanisms as well. Their findings were recently reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Tipping the balance

High-frequency bursts in the brain are critical for brain plasticity, information processing, and memory encoding. To check the connection between spike patterns and the regulation of amyloid-beta 40/42 ratio, Dr. Dolev applied electrical pulses to the hippocampus, a brain region involved in learning and memory.

When increasing the rate of single pulses at low frequencies in rat hippocampal slices, levels of both amyloid-beta 42 and 40 grew, but the 40/42 ratio remained the same. However, when the same number of pulses was distributed in high-frequency bursts, researchers discovered an increased amyloid-beta 40 production. In addition, the researchers found that only synapses optimized to transfer encoded by bursts contributed towards tipping the balance in favor of amyloid-beta 40. Further investigations conducted by Fogel revealed that the connection between spiking patterns and the type of amyloid-beta produced could revolve around a protein called presenilin. “We hypothesize that changes in the temporal patterns of spikes in the hippocampus may trigger structural changes in the presenilin, leading to early memory impairments in people with sporadic Alzheimer’s,” explains Dr. Slutsky.

Behind the bursts

According to Dr. Slutsky, different kinds of environmental changes and experiences — including sensory and emotional experience — can modify the properties of synapses and change the spiking patterns in the brain. Previous research has suggested that a stimulant-rich environment could be a contributing factor in preventing the development of Alzheimer’s disease, much as crossword and similar puzzles appear to stimulate the brain and delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. In the recent study, the researchers discovered that changes in sensory experiences also regulate synaptic properties — leading to an increase in amyloid-beta 40.

In the next stage, Dr. Slutsky and her team are aiming to manipulate activity patterns in the specific hippocampal pathways of Alzheimer’s models to test if it can prevent the initiation of cognitive impairment. The ability to monitor dynamics of synaptic activity in humans would be a step forward early diagnosis of sporadic Alzheimer’s.

Photo

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:38:39 -0700

fish-puns: stay-0ceanminded: world-shaker: [leaves this here...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:44:32 -0700

fish-puns:

stay-0ceanminded:

world-shaker:

[leaves this here and backs away]

Fuck yes. Thank you.

holy shit that is one hell of a truth bomb

blua: Tea time

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 23:46:56 -0700

blua:

Tea time

tsushort: luluau: HOW TERRIFYING OMG oh hey koji look

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:58:12 -0700

tsushort:

luluau:

HOW TERRIFYING OMG

oh hey koji look

fictionboyfetish: zac-tac: kazard: residentfeline: roxasdavem...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:16:08 -0700

fictionboyfetish:

zac-tac:

kazard:

residentfeline:

roxasdavemakara:

lepreas:

caturday:

New trick

c???ats?!?!???

cat that is a no

how do cats even work

Cats:

A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single bound.

The little tufts of hair in a cat’s ear that help keep out dirt direct sounds into the ear, and insulate the ears are called “ear furnishings.”

The ability of a cat to find its way home is called “psi-traveling.” Experts think cats either use the angle of the sunlight to find their way or that cats have magnetized cells in their brains that act as compasses.

One reason that kittens sleep so much is because a growth hormone is released only during sleep.

A cat has 230 bones in its body. A human has 206. A cat has no collarbone, so it can fit through any opening the size of its head.

A cat’s nose pad is ridged with a unique pattern, just like the fingerprint of a human.

If they have ample water, cats can tolerate temperatures up to 133 °F.

A cat’s heart beats nearly twice as fast as a human heart, at 110 to 140 beats a minute.

Cats don’t have sweat glands over their bodies like humans do. Instead, they sweat only through their paws.

The claws on the cat’s back paws aren’t as sharp as the claws on the front paws because the claws in the back don’t retract and, consequently, become worn.

Cats make about 100 different sounds. Dogs make only about 10.

Researchers are unsure exactly how a cat purrs. Most veterinarians believe that a cat purrs by vibrating vocal folds deep in the throat. To do this, a muscle in the larynx opens and closes the air passage about 25 times per second.

A cat almost never meows at another cat, mostly just humans. Cats typically will spit, purr, and hiss at other cats.

A cat’s back is extremely flexible because it has up to 53 loosely fitting vertebrae. Humans only have 34.

Some cats have survived falls of over 65 feet (20 meters), due largely to their “righting reflex.” The eyes and balance organs in the inner ear tell it where it is in space so the cat can land on its feet. Even cats without a tail have this ability.

A cat can travel at a top speed of approximately 31 mph (49 km) over a short distance.

A cat’s hearing is better than a dog’s. And a cat can hear high-frequency sounds up to two octaves higher than a human.

A cat’s brain is biologically more similar to a human brain than it is to a dog’s. Both humans and cats have identical regions in their brains that are responsible for emotions.

And that’s how cat’s work.

Thanks science

o

onthetrain: amazing one kilometer is greater than one mile

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 12:53:42 -0700

onthetrain:

amazing

one kilometer is greater than one mile

confitureestmadrogue: prndlr: 9gag: Trust me I’m an Architect...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:56:54 -0700

confitureestmadrogue:

prndlr:

9gag:

Trust me I’m an Architect 2.0

is this waht people do with their education

are they christ?

futurist-foresight: A look at a few astronomical mysteries....

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:12:04 -0700

futurist-foresight:

A look at a few astronomical mysteries. (And some great pictures).

ikenbot:

8 Baffling Astronomy Mysteries

We’ve seen a lot of information explaining the wonders of astronomy and space, but what of the mysteries? The realm scientists have yet to fully understand. SPACE has this awesome article getting into a few, 8 in total, of those very areas in the study of the stars that continue to baffle scientists:

The universe has been around for roughly 13.7 billion years, but it still holds many mysteries that continue to perplex astronomers to this day. Ranging from dark energy to cosmic rays to the uniqueness of our own solar system, there is no shortage of cosmic oddities.

The journal Science summarized some of the most bewildering questions being asked by leading astronomers today. In no particular order, here are eight of the most enduring mysteries in astronomy:

8 What is Dark Energy?

Dark energy is thought to be the enigmatic force that is pulling the cosmos apart at ever-increasing speeds, and is used by astronomers to explain the universe’s accelerated expansion.

This elusive force has yet to be directly detected, but dark energy is thought to make up roughly 73 percent of the universe.

7 How Hot is Dark Matter?

Dark matter is an invisible mass that is thought to make up about 23 percent of the universe. Dark matter has mass but cannot be seen, so scientists infer its presence based on the gravitational pull it exerts on regular matter.

Researchers remain curious about the properties of dark matter, such as whether it is icy cold as many theories predict, or if it is warmer.

6 Where are the Missing Baryons?

Dark energy and dark matter combine to occupy approximately 95 percent of the universe, with regular matter making up the remaining 5 percent. But, researchers have been puzzled to find that more than half of this regular matter is missing.

This missing matter is called baryonic matter, and it is composed of particles such as protons and electrons that make up majority of the mass of the universe’s visible matter.

Some astrophysicists suspect that missing baryonic matter may be found between galaxies, in material known as warm-hot intergalactic medium, but the universe’s missing baryons remain a hotly debated topic.

5 How do Stars Explode?

When massive stars run out of fuel, they end their lives in gigantic explosions called supernovas. These spectacular blasts are so bright they can briefly outshine entire galaxies.

Extensive research and modern technologies have illuminated many details about supernovas, but how these massive explosions occur is still a mystery.

Scientists are keen to understand the mechanics of these stellar blasts, including what happens inside a star before it ignites as a supernova.

4 What Re-ionized the Universe?

The broadly accepted Big Bang model for the origin of the universe states that the cosmos began as a hot, dense point approximately 13.7 billion years ago.

The early universe is thought to have been a dynamic place, and about 13 billion years ago, it underwent a so-called age of re-ionization. During this period, the universe’s fog of hydrogen gas was clearing and becoming translucent to ultraviolet light for the first time.

Scientists have long been puzzled over what caused this re-ionization to occur.

3 What’s the Source of the Most Energetic Cosmic Rays?

Cosmic rays are highly energetic particles that flow into our solar system from deep in outer space, but the actual origin of these charged subatomic particles has perplexed astronomers for about a century.

The most energetic cosmic rays are extraordinarily strong, with energies up to 100 million times greater than particles that have been produced in manmade colliders. Over the years, astronomers have attempted to explain where cosmic rays originate before flowing into the solar system, but their source has proven to be an enduring astronomical mystery.

2 Why is the Solar System so Bizarre?

As alien planets around other stars are discovered, astronomers have tried to tackle and understand how our own solar system came to be.

The differences in the planets within our solar system have no easy explanation, and scientists are studying how planets are formed in hopes of better grasping the unique characteristics of our solar system.

This research could, in fact, get a boost from the hung for alien worlds, some astronomers have said, particularly if patterns arise in their observations of extrasolar planetary systems.

1 Why is the Sun’s Corona so Hot?

The sun’s corona is its ultra-hot outer atmosphere, where temperatures can reach up to a staggering 10.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (6 million degrees Celsius).

Solar physicists have been puzzled by how the sun reheats its corona, but research points to a link between energy beneath the visible surface, and processes in the sun’s magnetic field. But, the detailed mechanics behind coronal heating are still unknown.

setfabulazerstomaximumcaptain: sonic-hip-attack: Imagine a...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:31:30 -0700

setfabulazerstomaximumcaptain:

sonic-hip-attack:

Imagine a wall full of circular holes, that circles can keep walking in and out of with no difficulty.

Now imagine that the triangles manage to get the resources together, after years of not being able to fit through the circle’s holes, to drill a single triangle space into the wall.

Now imagine that the circle — who previously supported the triangle’s efforts because they are well-rounded (har) and value equality — comes along and sees the construction project. But instead of being happy, they get angry.

“Well, I won’t be able to fit through your hole!!!!” the circle cries.

“I helped you get the drill!!!!” the circle shrieks.

“Make it fit me too!!!!” the circle demands.

The triangles, barely holding it together enough to get a triangle hole together, stare at the circle in confusion.

“You have all the holes you need,” the triangles explain. “This is for us. You don’t need to fit through our hole, too.”

“YOU’RE BEING UNEQUAL AND HURTING MY FEELINGS!” the circle wails. “I DON’T SUPPORT YOUR HOLE IF IT DOESN’T FIT ME TOO. GIVE ME MY DRILL BACK.”

“It’s not your drill, it’s our drill. You helped us get it, because you said you cared.”

“I ONLY CARED WHEN I THOUGHT YOU’D MAKE A HOLE EVERYONE COULD FIT THROUGH. YOU’RE PERPETUATING INEQUALITY!!!”

“Why is it up to us, the small group that has never been able to fit through the wall at all, to make a hole everyone can use? Why isn’t it up to you, the people who have been able to cross back and forth at will for years? We just want to see the other side; why are you yelling at us?”

“I DIDN’T ASK TO BE BORN A CIRCLE, OMG. I’VE HAD TO WORK HARD ALL MY LIFE TOO. YOU’RE JUST BEING BIGOTED AGAINST ME BECAUSE OF SOMETHING I CAN’T CONTROL, JUST LIKE EVERYONE IS AGAINST YOU.”

“You are interfering with our project and asking us to comfort you while we’re trying to make progress. Please leave.”

“I’m going to tell everyone about this,” the circle warns. “Nobody will support you now.”

“Apparently nobody ever did,” the triangles sigh, getting back to work.

It’s kind of sad

That we have to draw comics using colorful shapes

To explain systematic inequality to people

Photo

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:00:52 -0700

danauerbarf: The cover of my algebra/trig textbook makes me so...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:06:06 -0700

danauerbarf:

The cover of my algebra/trig textbook makes me so angry it’s the cover of a cOVER OF ANOTHER TEXTBOOK LIKE WTF WHO EVEN DOES THAT