these are troubling times
This is simply a distraction. I'm trying to pay attention more, I swear. I hope that I'm not the only one who realizes this...

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→ Quantumaniac: List of Unsolved Problems in Physics

quantumaniac:

Wikipedia has a pretty awesome list of unsolved problems in physics, which can be read here. A couple of the interesting questions are:

  • Is the universe heading towards a Big Freeze, a Big Rip, a Big Crunch or a Big Bounce? Is our universe part of an infinitely recurring cyclic model?
  • What…
April 15th 2012 at 07:30PM | 286 notes
April 15th 2012 at 07:26PM | 3,803 notes

alice-unchained:

my dad ate a cucumber today and he was like “wow this is pretty cold” and then he just slowly put the cucumber down and stared into space for a really long time until he turned to me with wide eyes and quietly said, “oh my god. cool as a cucumber.” 

(Source: jerryfultoncantrell)

April 15th 2012 at 07:24PM | 48,713 notes
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April 2nd 2012 at 01:09PM | 107 notes
quantumaniac: The Photoelectric Effect Ask any average person what Albert Einstein won his Nobel Prize for, and, of course, assuming that they know what a Nobel Prize is - they will most likely answer relativity (or some deviation from the term.) However, most would be surprised to discover that Einstein actually won his only Nobel Prize for his work on quantum theory - by explaining the photoelectric effect.  When light is shone on a piece of metal, a small current results within the metal! This happens because the energy in the light is transferred to the electrons in the metal’s atoms - allowing them to move around. Interestingly, this effect does not occur with every color of light - for example, no intensity of red light will produce a current, but even a very dim blue light will produce the effect.  Scientists in the early twentieth century realized that this effect could not be explained with the description of light as a wave. If light was a wave, the energy would result from its amplitude - or brightness. Einstein realized that the only way to describe this way to conclude that light was actually composed of lots of small packets of energy that behaved like particles - and thus the photon was born. While he did not invent the concept of the photon, he was the first to have a real application for it. He realized that the different colors must have different energies, which are completely condensed in the photon. So, no matter how many red photons hit an electron, they cannot dislodge it simply because they are not energetic enough! 
April 2nd 2012 at 01:00PM | 113 notes
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they see so much, but feel so little
March 25th 2012 at 10:46PM | 1,293 notes
c0gnition: untitled by Rose Clements. on Flickr.
March 25th 2012 at 09:39PM | 654 notes
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