Magic Zig-zagging water

A colleague sent me this link to an experiment on Alex Hardy's Blog where a 24Hz Sine Wave is put through a flow of running water adn it appears to run in a zig zig motion. I don't know if this beats non-newtonian fluid on a speaker* but it's pretty darn close.

 

The camera frame rate is adjusted to match the vibration of the wave (so, 24 FPS {frames per second})to get this effect. This is an optical illusion resulting from viewing the stream of water at the same FPS as the HZ of the sound. In person, it wouldn't look like this. It's a bit like the way the rims on a car appear to spin in reverse at certain speeds. At 23Hz the stream of water would look like it is moving backwards and 25Hz like it is moving forward in slow motion.

 *I just searched back for a blog post to link to on non-newtonian fluid on speakers and was amazed to find that I haven't posted about it yet. Error. Post coming soon!

The Theory of Everything

A friend shared this video with me recently, introducing me to Minute Physics and the awesome videos they produce. This one is an introduction to the hypothetical Theory of Everything - a theory I wrestled with in a quantum physics module last year - that links together all physical 'things' and predicts the outcome of any experiment that could be carried out, ever...in theory. Yeah, it's tough to summarise, that's where Minute Physics come in:

Guitar oscillations caught on an iPhone 4

Kyle Jones happened upon this trick when curious to see what filming from inside his guitar looked like. The effect you see is due to the rolling shutter and is not representative of the way strings really oscillate. It's fascinating and definitely a try-it-home trick.

Mesmerising pendulum

Fifteen uncoupled simple pendulums of monotonically increasing lengths dance together to produce visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating, and (seemingly) random motion - from NatSciDemos on youtube



A pendulum is made up of a weight suspended on a rod, string or wire. When the weight or bob is moved and let go, the pendulum will swing back and forth in a regular periodic motion. The affect of gravity on the bob results in a very predictable periodic motion. The length of the string/rod determines the frequency of its swing - Pendulums have been used in clocks for hundreds of years, because the motion is so regular.

Here's a pretty awesome UV version from brusspup on youtube (who has some other cool videos)

Infinitely useful EM diagram

(click to enlarge) The talented comics of XKCD dot com

Tim Minchin: a question of science

Here's a little light relief to kick those Monday blues.

Tim Minchin, with his exceptional turn of phrase, observation and impeccable spoken word, spins out a lyrical masterpiece on the subject of science, knowledge and faith. Tim's observations of social interaction are intriguing and it is quite a talent to, in the same nine minutes, make a person laugh to the point of unplanned-urination; and then to honestly think about their readily accepted digestion of common knowledge, the sciences, medicine and religion in whatever ratios they inhabit their life up to this point.

This is a mish-mash of rhyme, anecdote, philosophy, science, knowledge and dinner table etiquette, mixing together social cliche, the immortal words of Puck and touching on every scientists favourite subject - homeopathy!

Tim Minchin's spoken word masterpiece - Storm:

Time: Animated

Philip Zimbardo visualises hedonism, time perspective and pace of life in this superb animated guide to 'The Secret Powers of Time'

Sound sculptures

The creative studio Dentsu, teamed up with photographer Linden Gledhill (a biochemist turned photographer!) to create this series of paint sculptures using sound vibrations. The series was part of a campaign for canon’s pixma ink printer brand. One of the coolest things I've seen a while.

Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Microwaving CDs...don't try this at home!

I have added procrastination to the list of skills I've mastered and, in a bid to impart this wisdom to my faithful readers, I am going to share with you what I've been doing this cold and drizzly Monday evening.

Today's post is about microwaving CDs but please, please, please do not try this at home (or do, but absolutely, definitely DO NOT hold me responsible. Not even a little bit.  Nada)

When you put a CD in the microwave for a few seconds (this is not a recipe...but no more than three seconds) the aluminium concentric circles are vaporised and you are left with this nifty little piece of art (right).

If you were to put a CD in the microwave, you would make sure that it was stood up against a glass and that you stopped the microwave when the CD started smoking.  Of course you know those fumes are very dangerous and shouldn't be inhaled.  But you won't try this at home so it doesn't matter.

The few seconds of arcs being created around the CD makes for a miniature electrical storm sparking away in your microwave (or your neighbours' if your flatmates are odd and don't own one).

You can watch this video at Powerlabs showing you what it looks like since you aren't going to do this at home.

When the little lightning party ends, one must be careful not to touch the CD right away (not You, no one's accusing You).  The CD can still be conducting currents for a few seconds after microwaves are present.

'How the heck does it work?', you may be wondering. Well, the thin layer of aliminium is vaporised by the microwaves and this vapour supports the flow of electricity.  With me so far?  Okay, well arcs form (like those from clouds to the ground - lightning), which continue to vaporise a trail along the circular tracks where data is stored.  This happens until the space between the tracks becomes too great to support an arc.  

...and what you are left with is seen below.  This is not one I did, my attempt (in safe laboratory conditions with all safety precautions taken) was pretty special but I couldn't get a decent photograph with my camera!

 Arianna Gianola, Princeton University gave it a good shot

So, the moral of the story is; if you're bored and have CDs from the 80s kicking around the house don't put them in the microwave*.  

*Unless you have a very well ventilated room, only put it in for 3 seconds, don't mind the prospect of your microwave exploding, wait very patiently once it's finished and take amazing pictures to share with me afterwards.  Then and ONLY THEN may you try this at home

The Painter and the Pendulum

Tom Shannon is an extremely talented and creative painter and scientist.  His work, based around the magnetic and gravitonal fields, centrufugal force and fluid dynamics of the universe demostrate the forces and fields acting on the Earth and the Sun.  I will leave the explanation to Tom, but enjoy this video and listen carefully to Tom's musings on the universe and nature, he's a smart man.

From Thread Cells to Thread Art: A Quantum Leap in Quilting

My research for this blog often takes me into unfamiliar territory but today’s blog comes to you from a place I have never even considered typing into Google’s handy search bar: The Studio Art Quilt Association  (or SAQA to the cool kids).  A group of people who bloody love making quilts!

Seriously though, these aren’t the £2 , ten tog, vac-pac quilts you pick up from a trough at the back of Asda, oh no, they are actually pretty spectacular!  In particular, I am talking about the quilts on display at the SAQA exhibition at Birmingham’s NEC, titled “Frontiers: Art meets Science”.  

The quilts are inspired by scientific theories, phenomena and photography; ‘from the harmonies of randomness to the dynamics’ of science.  The result is a collection of beautifully crafted and truly inspirational quilts that express the fundamental aspects of science alongside advanced theory in a refreshingly inexact merging of wadding and wool.

'Coleus Leaf', Susan Brubaker Knapp

'Binary Fission', Betty Busby

'Lepidoptera', Susan Brubaker Knapp.  (Based on a microscopic photograph of a Painted Lady butterfly's wing. Lepidoptera is the order of insect that includes butterflies and moths)

'Lepidoptera' detail

The exhibition runs till the end of august so if you’re quick you can have a gander yourself.  Welcome SAQA to the geek-slash-chic way of thinking!

String Theory - Prose poetry

Eleven dimensions, so they say but who looks that close or cares that much anyway? They keep thinking smaller and further, and ‘what could it be’ they ask in fervour, whilst making cups of tea to keep the mind awake, asking what could it be? and not what is at stake? They want to see! they want to know everything, everything, so that nothing is precious and mystery a myth, but the mess of the specifics get all tangled in the thing; Do we live in a world where the proton isn’t the end of the line, and birds string and dogs quark, and the universe is made of twine? And if we do, and these string have only length, no height nor width just a one-dimensional oscillating line, vibrating in time with the sound of the atom, the sound of the universe busting a rhyme; then fine, but if space is still expanding, then that string must be stretched thin and should it snap like a rubber band and the universe shrink into a grain of sand then I’ll raise up my hands and say I’m sorry.

Sorry for not believing in a bloody piece of string.

The Art in Science

Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth
Pablo Picasso

There are hundreds of types of art; classical greek art, indian art, aborigine art, abstract art, impressionism, expressionism, realism, dadaism and a whole string of other -isms. Traditionally, as a culture, we teach our young to make the choice: Shakespeare or DNA, Rembrandt or fractional distillation, a Ming Dynasty vase or Einstein's Theory of Relativity. So claiming any kind of Art in Science seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it? But this seems to me a false dichotomy. Though one is the quest for truth and explanation and one the expression of individuality, artists have often chosen to take inspiration from scientific principles and have also unknowingly created structures present in science and nature: Be it music's fascination with mathematical patterns and beat; Rudolf Laban's choreography drawn from principles of geometry as the limbs trace lines along fundamental geometric shapes, or the way the pre-frontal cortical areas of the brain are titillated as you appreciate the aesthetics and respond emotionally to a classic Van Gogh; art and science are inexorably intertwined. Deal with it.

Science and writing, particularly, have a lot in common; the need for fresh ideas and attention to detail, a constant questioning and redeveloping of ideas and creating a complete understanding through commitment to a chosen route. I am interested in poetry and creating an understanding or questioning through creative expression, to take a step back from the raw details and mould it into something tangible and expressive. There is so much beauty in nature, I hope that, however naively, I can recreate and represent the fundamental, exquisite details of nature and science by sharing with you other peoples sci-art collaborations.

Welcome to the beautiful world of Science.