Cool science stuff

Getting pretty dim apparently.

If I am reading the star charts correctly, tonight and tomorrow it should just about cross the "pointer line" between Dubhe and Merak, the "pointer stars" on the end of the Big Dipper pointing to Polaris, so if you have a decent telescope and the weather is good, it's probably pretty close to intersecting that line, about where the "5 * ab" is on the pic. In another day or so it will keep moving away.





Here's a highly-technical NASA-quality map of what I totally guesstimate the comet's path will be over the next few days.

I scienced the shit out of that one.

 

I saw on a website somewhere last week how to distinguish a planet from a star, and Mercury was supposedly easy to spot because of its location in a line with Venus and Saturn, so I'm pretty sure I have that. Obviously I'm not looking in the right place for Mars. It's supposed to be much warmer in the mornings later this week, so I'll be able to give it more time.

 

Mercury is always very close to the sun; I don't think it's ever visible more than 1 1/2 hours before/after sunrise/sunset.

When it is visible, it usually has a yellow/golden color (sort of like Jupiter but much smaller). If you have a real good telescope/binoculars it shows phases like the moon but usually it just looks like a star.

Mars varies from light orange to a bright reddish-orange in color.

 

The fastest time for a human to solve a Rubik’s cube is 4.9 seconds. This robot can do it in 1.019 seconds.

Software engineers Jay Flatland and Paul Rose built this piece of kit, which uses four webcams to determine the state of the jumbled cube. The information is then fed into a computer, using the Kociemba Rubik’s cube-solving algorithm to work out a set of moves to solve the puzzle. A set of small motors mounted in a 3D-printed frame then swivel the, presumably extremely well-oiled, Rubik’s cube.

The previous quickest time for a robot to solve the cube is 2.39 seconds, so it looks like this could be a record breaker; however, they're still waiting for official verification from Guinness World Records.

Watch This Robot Solve A Rubik's Cube In Just Over One Second

 

Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin don't get nearly as many headlines as Musk and SpaceX (frankly, SpaceX has better branding), but they accomplished something interesting on Friday, launching and landing a suborbital vehicle for the second time, proof of concept for reusable rockets.

They're working on an orbital vehicle, which SpaceX has already achieved, so the commercial space race continues.

Blue Origin Sends Reusable Rocket To Space Twice In Historic First

 

Physics in action: This physicist tied himself to the side of a building then went plunging toward the earth — here's why he lived

Kids, don't try this at home!

 

So a new array of telescopes is expected to be able to see and measure the "shadows" of black holes. If it does, the findings could poke a big (black) hole in Einstein's general relativity.

The Death of General Relativity Lurks in a Black Hole’s Shadow

 

I love that.

I was listening to a great 'You Made It Weird' episode with theoretical physicist Brian Greene.

Greene had a great line about science vs. religion/metaphysics/etc. - science is predictive. All theories are not created equal. Scientific theories are provable because you can predict an outcome that proves the theory.

Awesome.

 

That's why a lot of theoretical physicists have problems with string theory and the idea of a multiverse, because they don't make predictions that can be tested. Some scientists have argued those theories are philosophy rather than science.

 

Same maniac physicist aims a gun at himself underwater to show how much denser water is than air.

Crazy Video: Physics teacher shoots himself underwater to prove a scientific principle

 

Great point, and a valid criticism, I think.
However, there are also theories and hypotheses that become predictive and provable over time. In some areas, the theory is ahead of our experimental capacity.

Which puts me in mind of the physics joke about finding the answer to: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? First, you must theorize a spherical chicken in a a vacuum ...

 

Meh. Mythbusters basically mapped that one out years ago when they tested how far under water one would have to dive to safely avoid being shot by various weapons, including a .50 Cal. Pretty simple to watch that episode, stand out of range and fire away.