In the photo above, you’re looking at a single, positively charged strontium atom suspended by electric fields.
It’s an atom, visible to the naked eye.
Whoa, right?
David Nadlinger, a quantum physicist and PhD candidate at Oxford University, is the person who put it all together. He titled his picture “Single Atom in an Ion Trap.” A blue-violet laser blasts the atom, which then absorbs and re-emits enough light particles to be photographed with conventional equipment. ...read more
Although the moon looks quite spherical from the ground, it is flatter at its poles and wider at its equator, a trait known as an equatorial bulge. This characteristic is common; it’s usually caused by an object’s rotation around its axis. However, it’s been noted that the moon’s bulge is about 20 times larger than it should be given its rotational rate of once per month.
Outlined in a paper published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, rese ...read more
We all know that individuals fight over potential love interests. Just think of Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) scuffling, rather impotently, over Bridget Jones in a fountain. But you might be surprised to hear that the fierce rivalry continues behind the scenes — in the form of sperm competition. This is when the sperm of two or more males compete inside the reproductive tract of a female, to fertilize the eggs, something that is widespread in the animal kingdo ...read more
Are you planning an adventure vacation packed with new experiences? Thinking about doing something that few people have ever done, like climbing Mt Everest? Well, according to this study, these experiences may not be all they're cracked up to be. These researchers found that "participants thoroughly enjoyed having experiences that were superior to those had by their peers, but that having had such experiences spoiled their subsequent social interactions and ultimately left them feeling wors ...read more
When it comes to interesting cephalopod sex lives, squid seem to have drawn the short straw. Argonauts, their cousins, keep things interesting with swimming, detachable penises. Giant Pacific Octopus mating involves several hours of rough, squishy grabbing action that would make Toshio Maeda blush. But squid just get a quick hello, a few colorful flashes, and second or two of perfunctory sperm delivery—or so it would seem. A new study suggests that for all they lack in ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine