Top Ten Websites for Science

Real Clear Science has posted its recommendations for

 the top ten websites for science in 2017...

The Top 10 Websites for Science in 2017

Ben Franklin's Amazing Musical Instrument

Now considered one of the first musical instruments invented in Colonial America, the Armonica is a little known invention of Benjamin Franklin.  It is based on the principle of creating a musical note by running a dampened finger around the rim of a crystal glass or bowl.  Franklin often brought the armonica on his travels and noted that: "Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction." 

Franklin's Glass Armonica Web page at the Franklin Institute 

Video of Armonica Being Played by
JAKE SCHLAERTH of the Mason Gross School of the Arts

Article on the Armonica:
Benjamin Franklin’s Bizarre and Beautiful Glass Armonica 
Could be the First American Instrument

Potential Source of Clean, Limitless Energy?

                               Graphene Illustration from the Graphene Flagship Website

Paul Thibado - Physics Professor University of Arkansas 

Explains Graphene as a Potential Source of 

Clean, Limitless Energy:

ScienceAlert Article: 

Physicists Just Found a Loophole in Graphene That Could Unlock Clean, Limitless Energy 

Original Research Paper:

Anomalous Dynamical Behavior of Freestanding Graphene Membranes 

What is Graphene?  The Seeker Explains:

 What is Graphene - A Simplified Introduction:

Reduce Dementia Risk by Nearly 30%?

Researchers suggest that "speed of processing" training may be able to reduce dementia risk by nearly 30%...

Original Research Paper:  Speed of processing training results in lower risk of dementia 

ScienceAlert Summary Post:  There's a Type of Brain Exercise That Could Reduce Dementia Risk by Nearly 30%  

Good Explanation of  "Speed of Processing" and Cognitive Ability:  CogniFit - Processing Speed Cognitive Ability

Free example Speed of Processing Tests to try...

Mental Speed Test - Version 1 

Mental Speed Test - Version 2 

Another test from Psychology Today


 wikiHOW:  How to Increase Your Brain's Processing Speed 

Just Passing Through

Solar System’s First Interstellar Visitor Dazzles Scientists

NASA Information Page on the interstellar visitor 

 BBC Report: Bizarre shape of interstellar asteroid

 

Animation of Oumuamua passing through the Solar System...

 

Professor David Jewitt discusses the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua

 

The next 'Oumuamua:  it may already have arrived. Here’s how scientists are preparing for the next close encounter:

Will Astronomers Be Ready for the Next ‘Oumuamua?  

Meet Oumuamua: 

The first interstellar visitor ever seen gets a name...

 

Interstellar Asteroid A/2017 U1 

Update for 11/07/2017

 

Recent Research Papers...

Pole, Pericenter, and Nodes of the Interstellar Minor Body A/2017 U1  by C. de la Fuente Marcos, R. de la Fuente Marcos

  Here, we explore some peculiar orbital features of the recently discovered asteroid A/2017 U1, which is a clear outlier when considering the average value of the eccentricity of known hyperbolic comets. As for the orientation of its orbit in space, the orbital plane of A/2017 U1 seems to be away from any obvious clusters present for this population. The orbital nodes of A/2017 U1 are well away from the paths of the planets of the Solar System and the Sun. All these orbital properties appear to confirm A/2017 U1 as the first known interstellar asteroid.

Origin of Interstellar Object A/2017 U1 in a Nearby Young Stellar Association?  by Eric Gaidos, Jonathan P. Williams, Adam Kraus

   We suggest that the kinematics and properties of interstellar object A/2017 U1 point towards its formation in a protoplanetary disk in the ~45 Myr-old Carina or Columba young stellar associations, and subsequent ejection with a low peculiar velocity (1-2 km/sec) during or soon after planet formation inside the ice line. This scenario predicts that the Solar System will encounter more such objects with radiants similar to that of A/2017 U1. 

Implications for planetary system formation from interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua)  by David E. Trilling, Tyler Robinson, Alissa Roegge, Colin Orion Chandler, Nathan Smith, Mark Loeffler, Chad Trujillo, Samuel Navarro-Meza, Lori M. Glaspie

  The recently discovered minor body 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua) is the first known object in our Solar System that is not bound by the Sun's gravity. Its hyperbolic orbit (eccentricity greater than unity) strongly suggests that it originated outside our Solar System; its red color is consistent with substantial space weathering experienced over a long interstellar journey. We carry out an simple calculation of the probability of detecting such an object. We find that the observed detection rate of 1I-like objects can be satisfied if the average mass of ejected material from nearby stars during the process of planetary formation is ~20 Earth masses, similar to the expected value for our Solar System. The current detection rate of such interstellar interlopers is estimated to be 0.2/year, and the expected number of detections over the past few years is almost exactly one. When the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope begins its wide, fast, deep all-sky survey the detection rate will increase to 1/year. Those expected detections will provide further constraints on nearby planetary system formation through a better estimate of the number and properties of interstellar objects.

 The tumbling rotational state of 1I/‘Oumuamua

by Wesley C. Fraser, Petr Pravec, Alan Fitzsimmons, Pedro Lacerda, Michele T. Bannister, Colin Snodgrass & Igor Smolić 

The discovery of 1I/2017 U1 (1I/‘Oumuamua) has provided the first glimpse of a planetesimal born in another planetary system.
Oumuamua was probably set tumbling within its parent planetary system and will remain tumbling well after it has left ours.

New research on Qumuamua's origins:

INTERSTELLAR OBJECT ‘OUMUAMUA IS LIKELY A PIECE OF A PLUTO-LIKE PLANET

Original research article:

1I/‘Oumuamua as an N2 ice fragment of an exo‐pluto surface II: Generation of N2 ice fragments and the origin of ‘Oumuamua

Einstein's Relativity better than Quantum Mechanics at Explaining Berkelium Behavior

Quantum Mechanics fails to explain the strange behavior of Berkelium.  Einstein's Theory of Relativity explains it better which is unusual, since current wisdom says that Quantum Mechanics works at the atomic level and Einstein's Theory of Relativity at the cosmic level.

A Rare Element From The Edge of The Periodic Table Is Breaking Quantum Mechanics

Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt , the Gregory R. Choppin Professor of Chemistry at Florida State University submitted this ground breaking paper...

Electronic Structure and Properties of Berkelium Iodates

What is Berkelium?  Learn about Berkelium's properties, history, and other interesting facts...

Meanwhile back in Labrador, four billion years ago...

Meanwhile back in Labrador, four billion years ago amazing life was already underway... 

New Discovery Points to Life on Earth Nearly 4 Billion Years Ago   

 

 The Eoarchean Era
 is when the Earth had a firm crust for the first time.

Gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger observed by three detectors in a landmark collaboration

The three-detector observation was made on August 14, 2017 at 10:30:43 UTC. The two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Virgo detector, located near Pisa, Italy, detected a transient gravitational-wave signal produced by the collision of two stellar mass black holes:

Gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger observed by LIGO and Virgo 

 

A paper about the event, known as GW170814, has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters and this article features data from all three of the gravitational wave detectors involved:

Explanatory Article by ScienceAlert:

IT'S OFFICIAL: Gravitational Waves Were Just Detected With The Greatest Precision Ever

Update on Gravitational Wave Science 

from the LIGO-Virgo Scientific Collaborations

The three observatories involved:

The two LIGO interferometers are located in fairly isolated areas of Washington (LIGO Hanford) and Louisiana (LIGO Livingston), and separated by 3,002 km (1,865 miles).

VIRGO is a giant laser interferometer operated in Cascina, near Pisa on the site of the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), by an international collaboration of scientists from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Hungary.

LIGO Livingston 

 in Louisiana

LIGO Handford

 in Washington state

 

 Virgo

near Pisa, Italy

 How does the VIRGO laser interferometer work?  

Here is an explanatory video:

Gravitational Waves: A New Era of Astronomy Begins

Producing Energy From Evaporating Water

The fascinating potential for using natural evaporation of water to produce power...

Potential for natural evaporation as a reliable renewable energy resource

Science Daily Article Helps Explain:

Energy harvested from evaporation could power much of US

Short video explanation:  

Capturing clean energy from evaporating water:  

 More detailed video:

Renewable Energy from Evaporating Water:

Restoring Consciousness Even After Many Years in a Vegetative State

A 35-year-old man who had been in a vegetative state for 15 years after a car accident has shown signs of consciousness after neurosurgeons implanted a vagus nerve stimulator into his chest...

After 15 years in a vegetative state, 

nerve stimulation restores consciousness 

Original Research Article:
Restoring consciousness with vagus nerve stimulation 

Related Article in Medical News Today:
Consciousness 'restored' using nerve stimulation 

Mayo Clinic Info Page: Vagus nerve stimulation

How to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve for Better Mental Health 

 

Great Horned Frogs! Beelzebufo was One Tough Amphibian

Researchers are astounded by the bite force exerted by the South American Horned Frog and believe this has implications for giant prehistoric frogs like Beelzebufo...

By Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com) (Own work)

Bite force in the horned frog (Ceratophrys cranwelli) 

with implications for extinct giant frogs

Prehistoric News : Devil Frog had Spikes and Armor

And they certainly were not toothless: 

Histological characterization of denticulate palatal plates 

in an Early Permian dissorophoid

 

World's 10 Weirdest Prehistoric Animals

Zika's Cancer Fighting Potential

Fighting cancer through the use of viruses is not a new idea, but now it appears the the dreaded Zika has potential as a cancer fighter...

Zika virus has oncolytic activity against glioblastoma stem cells

  By CDC/ Cynthia Goldsmith - http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/details.asp?pid=20541, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47622558

Further Research into using Zika as Cancer fighter...

Harnessing the power of the Zika virus – Dr Harry Bulstrode 

Testing Zika Against Brain Tumors

An engineered virus, injected into the blood, can selectively target cancer cells throughout the body in what researchers have labelled a medical first...

Intravenous delivery of a multi-mechanistic cancer-targeted oncolytic poxvirus in humans

Cold sore virus could treat skin cancer, say scientists

 

In Addition to Monstrous Moonshine, There are 23 Other Moonshines!

Researchers are on the trail of a mysterious connection between number theory, algebra and string theory...

Mathematicians Chase Moonshine’s Shadow

The Story of Moonshine, Part I: 

Symmetry, Number theory, and the Monster 

Symmetry, Algebra and the Monster

 

Unexpected Source for the Brain's Development

Reminds me  of the "Junk DNA" controversy.  Just because the purpose of something is not immediately apparent doesn't necessarily mean it is junk.  So-called "junk" may contain Hidden Treasures.

Biologists find new source for brain's development 

Milestone in the regeneration of brain cells

Glia were completely overlooked until it was discovered that Einstein's brain was packed with them... 
 

Meet Your Glia

 The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries About the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science

Apes: We Know Less Than We Think about Them

Turns out that a strongly held belief in our own superiority was a bad place to start the study of apes...

Apes' abilities misunderstood by decades of poor science

 Learning from Koko...
Apes may be closer to speaking than many scientists think 

Researchers decode gestures used by chimpanzees to communicate with each other 

Mathematicians Tame Rogue Waves

The mathematician Svitlana Mayboroda and collaborators have figured out how to predict the behavior of electrons — a mathematical discovery that could have immediate practical effects...

Mathematicians Tame Rogue Waves, Lighting Up Future of LEDs 

Svitlana Mayboroda: Taming Rogue Waves

An excellent review of the history of Anderson Localization...

Fifty Years of Anderson Localization

 Philip Anderson shared the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nevill Mott and John van Vleck

CSE Research Spotlight: Svitlana Mayboroda

Babylonians beat Greeks to the Invention of Trigonometry

It used to be the standard notion that the Babylonians just employed rules of thumb based on trial and error, but modern research continues to reveal more and more about how the Babylonians rather than the Greeks pioneered much modern mathematics. Read about how the Babylonians beat the Greeks to the invention of trigonometry...

Mathematical mystery of ancient Babylonian clay tablet solved

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

Sydney scientists have discovered the purpose of a famous 3700-year old Babylonian clay tablet, revealing it is the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table, most likely used by ancient mathematical scribes to calculate how to construct palaces, temples and stepped...

  

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit...

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

A University of New South Wales academic, Dr Norman Wildberger, has rewritten the arcane rules of trigonometry and eliminated sines, cosines and tangents from the trigonometric toolkit.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2005-09-trigonometry.html#jCp

New trigonometry is a sign of the times 

Rocks Rolling Downhill

Controversial New Theory Suggests Life Wasn't a Fluke of Biology—It Was Physics...

Wired: Life was physics not fluke 

 

Related Articles and videos: 

 A New Physics Theory of Life (2014)

First Support for a Physics Theory of Life (2017)

Spontaneous fine-tuning to environment in many-species chemical reaction networks (2017)

Self-Organized Resonance during Search of a Diverse Chemical Space (2017) 

How does life come from randomness?

Jeremy England:  What is Life Lecture

Are we are all from a galaxy far, far away?

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Milky Way’s origins are not what they seem

Check out the galaxy formation simulations at

The FIRE project which develops cosmological simulations of galaxy formation that directly resolve the interstellar medium of individual galaxies while capturing their cosmological environment. 

Further articles on this discovery...

Phys.org: Milky Way's origins are not what they seem 

Wired: Nearly half the Milky Way and everything in it may have formed from distant galaxies

Wired: The Milky Way's fastest stars could have escaped from nearby galaxies

Wired: Listen to ancient stars 'singing' in the Milky Way

PBS Education: 32 Space-Themed Resources to Explore the Galaxy 

Wikipedia: The Milky Way Galaxy

NASA: Charting the Milky Way From the Inside Out 

Phys.org: The Outer Galaxy 

Tintoretto, the Origin of the Milky Way

Topology and Physics

The scientific applications of the mathematical field of topology 
continue to astound!

Article from Nature Magazine... 
The Strange Topology That is Reshaping Physics 

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to theoretical physicists whose work established the role of topology in understanding exotic forms of matter...

 Topological Phases of Matter

Mathematical physicist John Baez (Univ. of California, Riverside) 

explains the KT transition in simple language 

with pictures and animation.

 

"Exotic is not a precise scientific term." 

Interview about the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics...

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics 

explained by Professor Michael Fuhrer

 

Algebraic Topology finds an application in neuroscience

For fans of Algebraic Topology, here is a fascinating practical application in the exploration of brain structure, a good example of apparently arcane math suddenly finding uses in the so-called "real" world... 

Science Daily Article: 
 'Multi-dimensional universe' in brain networks

Wired Article:
The Mind-Boggling Math That (Maybe) Mapped the Brain in 11 Dimensions

 Blue Brain Blog Report:
Team Discovers a Multi-Dimensional Universe in Brain Networks 

Topology in Neuroscience

 

The image attempts to illustrate something that can not be imaged – a universe of multi-dimensional structures and spaces. On the left is a digital copy of a part of the neocortex, the most evolved part of the brain. On the right are shapes of different sizes and geometries in an attempt to represent structures ranging from 1D to 7D and beyond. The “black-hole” in the middle is used to symbolise a complex x of multi-dimensional spaces, or cavities.

Blue Brain Project / EPFL © 2005 – 2017.
All rights reserved 

The original paper is freely available at the Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience...

 Cliques of Neurons Bound into Cavities Provide a Missing Link between Structure and Function

This discovery was made by a team from the Blue Brain Project
a Swiss Brain Research Initiative. They have also provided videos about this research...

The Blue Brain Project also provides some general videos about their research...  

Fun video introduction to Algebraic Topology...

And a fun video introduction to Topology in general...

 

Is the Human Mind Bound to the Physical World?

New Scientist Article:

A classic quantum test could reveal the limits of the human mind

Futurism Article:

Scientists Have an Experiment to See If the Human Mind Is Bound to the Physical World

Read the original article by Lucien Hardy of the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo Canada:

Proposal to use Humans to switch settings in a Bell experiment

Quantum Entanglement Animated:

Quantum Entanglement, Bell Inequality, EPR paradox:

 

Open Courses offered by Universities

Many Universities offer free open courses in Math, Science and many other Subject Areas:

 MIT Open Courses

 Yale Open Courses

Harvard Free Online Courses

Pioneering Physics Show The Mechanical Universe Now on YouTube

The critically acclaimed television series The Mechanical Universe… And Beyond, created at Caltech and broadcast on PBS from 1985-86, is now available in its entirety on YouTube thanks to the efforts of Caltech's Institute's Information Science and Technology initiative.

Explore the Open Culture Website for other free educational programs in a variety of media.  Open Culture editor Dan Colman scours the web for the best educational media. He finds the free courses and audio books you need, the language lessons & movies you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.

Interactive Human Evolution Timeline

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History provides an

 Interactive Human Evolution Timeline

The Timeline is just a part of the Smithsonian's exciting and informative...

 Human Origins Program & Field Research

The Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program conducts field and lab research on the evolution of early human adaptations. Our key research partners are in East Africa and East Asia – especially in Kenya, China, and Indonesia. Our digs and studies in these regions, along with investigations by associates working in Ethiopia, Tanzania, India, Mozambique, among other countries, help generate scientific data on the long-term interaction of human ancestors with their surroundings. Curiosity about human origins drives our research. The research supports our effort to bring the latest findings to public audiences worldwide.