Dropping Science: Driverless “Road Trains”

June 2, 2012 by Leave a comment

We all dream of a future where we can drive to work without having to actually touch the steering wheel of our car (ok we don’t all dream of that but a selection of nerdy engineers who eat too much cheese before bed do) and now that future has moved a step closer.

The SARTRE project (that’s Safe Road Trains for the Environment to you and me) has been running since 2009 and aims to create a system whereby cars can tag onto the back of a “road train” and be guided at high speeds over long stretches of motorway. The project had its first test on a public highway recently with the aim of seeing if human beings would completely freak out if placed in a high speed convoy with no apparent means of control. The results seem to suggest that, yes they do, but they chill out again pretty quickly.

Ah, glorious science!

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Dropping Science: 121-Megapixel Earth

May 26, 2012 by Leave a comment

 

I just got back from the Eagle Awards. I’ll write a proper report up about it at a later date but for now it should suffice to say that they were a lot of fun and there was a lot of free beer. With that in mind, I’ll refrain from going into anything too complex on this week’s DS.

Here is a super high res image of our planet looking all sexy and stuff. That’s pretty much all you need to know about it other than it’s Russian.

Yeah, science.

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Dropping Science: What Would Happen If You Put Your Hand Into The Large Hadron Collider?

May 12, 2012 by Leave a comment

Scientists generally don’t like being asked silly questions, so when the guys from Sixty Symbols asked several scientists what would happen if you stuck your hand into the beam of the Large Hadron Collider, they were given pretty short shrift. Most of us would have simply left it there, however the Sixty Symbols guys are not most of us and so they travelled to CERN to ask the people behind the LHC what they thought would happen. Turns out that the CERN scientists were more than happy to chat about crazy theoreticals. I imagine that’s why they work at a giant super collider beneath Switzerland.

In case you’re wondering, putting your hand in the LHC would be a bad idea.

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Dropping Science: How Deep are the Deepest Oceans?

April 14, 2012 by Leave a comment

Randall Munroe has produced several scientific illustrations that aim to help tiny human brains cope with mega concepts. This time he’s tackled the concept of depth by producing this gorgeous chart of the world’s oceans (and associated deep things).

The chart allows you to see a) Just how little we know about the oceans, b) Just how awesome whales are compared to submarines and c) Just how devious James Cameron is.

You can view a full size version of the chart HERE.

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Dropping Science: What Would Earth Look Like With Rings?

March 24, 2012 by Leave a comment

 

We’re very much used to looking at Saturn’s rings from the outside but we rarely think about what it would be like to look up at them from below. In this animation, Roy Prol, shows us what it would look like if our own Earth had a set of rings. By working out the angles, Roy was able to show us how the rings would appear differently depending on where on Earth you were standing. The results are predictably beautiful.

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Dropping Science: The Complete History of The Moon

March 17, 2012 by Leave a comment

 

I thought this seemed like an appropriate item to share on this week’s DS. We often think of the Moon as being essentially dead and unchanging, but this is not entirely true. Over billions of years, our lunar neighbour has been through it’s own share of twists and turns (mostly consisting of being hit by stuff) and thanks to NASA’s Goddard Multimedia team, we can watch that entire process unfold in just two and a half minutes.

For those of you who are interested in reading further, here are some links to wikipedia articles on some of the main segments of the video:

The South Pole Aitken Basin

The Heavy Bombardment

Mare Volcanism

There will be no test. happy reading.

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Dropping Science: The Most Astounding Fact

March 10, 2012 by 1 Comment

 

Time for a little inspiration. One of the most powerful aspects of science is its ability to stir the hearts and minds of those who encounter it. Whether it be the glorious hyperbole of Professor Brian Cox or the music of Tim Minchin, our appetite for eloquently expressed scientific knowledge seems boundless.

Among the modern legends of scientific rhetoric, Neil DeGrasse Tyson stands some way above most. Author, TV show host and superstar of astrophysics, DeGrasse Tyson has spent nearly 20 years making people think a little harder, every time they look up. In a recent interview with Time Magazine he was asked the question “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the universe?” This was his answer.

You can watch the full interview here.

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Dropping Science: 8 Misconceptions About Animals

March 3, 2012 by Leave a comment

 

This week, we’re featuring the youtube channel of CGP Grey. Grey likes pointing out to people when they have the wrong end of the stick about something and that’s good because it makes for interesting stuff. In this video he runs down 8 of the biggest misconceptions about our animal chums and explains the truth behind the myths.

Daddy Long Legs, your asses are mine now!

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Dropping Science: You Live In The Past

February 18, 2012 by Leave a comment

 

Happy Saturday everyone. If you like popular science then you should probably already be subscribing to the fascinating youtube channel that is vsauce. In case you aren’t however, here is another fantastic video from them in which they take a look at the nature of time, how tall people live in the past and where we get the term “Chick Flick”.

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I’m out shooting a short film with James Eaton, Joshua Broadstone and Jack Gavin today. I’ll sling some more news up next week but until then why not check out our last film, The Devil’s Fork!

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Dropping Science: The First LEGO Man in Space

February 4, 2012 by Leave a comment

Many years ago, my brother and I filled a jam jar with several hotel bathroom products and left it in the shed for 6 months to see if it would mutate into something (for the curious among you, it did not). This is about as far as extra-curricular science went for me as a child and so I’m somewhat humbled by the achievement of Canadian 17 year olds, Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad.

Using $400 dollars worth of equipment that they found on craigslist, a hand stitched parachute and several Saturdays worth of hard labour, the pair sent a flag wielding LEGO man up to the far reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere. At the peak of his ascent, the patriotic toy reached 80,000 feet, putting him at twice the altitude of commercial airliners, at the point where the atmosphere meets space. Not content with almost putting the little guy into orbit, the friends also attached a camera and gps to their balloon so that they could film the whole thing and relocate the intrepid explorer when he finally landed, 75 miles from his point of launch.

The only excuse I can make for my comparatively poor efforts at youth science is that if I shot something up into the sky and it came down 75 miles away from where I grew up, it would almost certainly be in the sea. That’s my reason and I’m sticking to it.

Wonderful stuff.

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