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Physics and Technology
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| Hidden Physicists | ||
Michael LongWashington, DC "After earning a BS in physics from Murray State University, and after a year of graduate study in physics at Vanderbilt, I eventually became a freelance speechwriter here in Washington, DC. (I hardly ever write about science, by the way. I write about politics and popular culture.) Physics taught me to break down a problem and see it for exactly what it is, no more and no less. This is the key to clear writing." |
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| Talking Science Video | ||
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Bones Come To Life With 3-D Scans
Using CT scans, DigiMorph, a project run out of the University of Texas, has compiled hundreds of 3-D visualizations of fossils, skeletons and other specimens. |
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Technology to Society
Imagine a day without physics and technology?
Impossible! But here are a number applications that you might not have thought of:Optical Tweezers
Image Credit:
SGrace, Creative Commons.
Unwind a chromosome to see how it's put together? Sort cells with a light beam? Make a model of a molecular motor? All these and more--welcome to the world of optical tweezers, where cells and even individual molecules are manipulated with laser light. Welcome to the world of Optical Tweezers.
Click here to learn more from the Physics Central website.
Do You See What Eye See?
Image Credit:
Last NYC Hero,
Creative Commons.
It's been hard to miss the publicity for LASIK, the laser surgery that reshapes the cornea to improve the eye's ability to focus. Actually, both the cornea and the lens focus light, as shown in the diagram. But the lens, itself mostly water, is bathed in watery fluid on both sides, so upon entering and leaving the lens, light bends, or refracts, relatively little. It refracts far more when passing from air into the cornea.
Click here to learn more from the Physics Central website.
Blowin' in the Wind: About Hurricane Formation
Image Credit:
smiteme, Creative Commons.
After crossing Florida, Hurricane Katrina headed into the Gulf of Mexico early on August 26, 2005 as a Category One hurricane. Just 55 hours later it was a Category Five, packing wind speeds up to 175 miles/hour, with the Gulf Coast in its sights. How could this happen so fast? To better understand these storms, meteorologists have made the intensification of hurricanes a major focus of their research.
Click here to learn more from the Physics Central website.
MRI Magic
Image Credit: CaptPiper,
Creative Commons.
Medical x-rays provide images of the body but utilize radiation that in large doses can damage cells. A completely different technology, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), emerged in the late 1970s. It produces highly detailed images of soft tissues and requires no x-radiation. MRI is based on nuclear magnetic resonance, a technique developed to probe molecular structure. Ironically, public anxiety about radioactivity and nuclear energy kept the word "nuclear" out of the name of this new kind of imaging, which otherwise might have been called NMRI (nuclear magnetic resonance imaging).
Click here to learn more from the Physics Central website.
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