PAY ATTENTION!!! The new episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart is all about how our brain deals with information overload.

It seems like every week someone tells us how the internet and the digital age are overloading our brains. Sure, sometimes it feels like we’re being fed more information than we can handle, and that we’re paying attention to the wrong things. Are we giving our brain a fair shot? I mean, it’s a pretty powerful device.

I explore some science that show how paying attention can definitely blind us to the world, but also some science about how paying attention can be a very helpful thing.

Oh and special cameos by Hank Green and Mike Rugnetta! Make sure to subscribe to It’s Okay To Be Smart on YouTube so you don’t miss an episode/

fuckyeahfluiddynamics:

Underwater explosions are, in general, much more dangerous than those in air. This video shows an underwater blast at 30,000 fps. During the initial blast, a hot sphere of gas expands outward in a shock wave. In air, some of the energy of this pressure wave would be dissipated by compressing the air. Since water is incompressible, however, the blast instead moves water aside as the bubble expands. Eventually, the bubble expands to the point where its pressure is less than that of the water around it, which causes the bubble to collapse. But the collapse increases the gas pressure once more, kicking off a series of expansions and collapses. Each bubble contains less energy than the previous, thanks to the loss of pushing the water aside. (Video credit: K. Kitagawa)

If you needed something to make a science GIF out of this weekend, here’s a good subject.

Whoa.

(via thescienceofreality)

Source: fuckyeahfluiddynamics

Peer into a Simulated Black Hole

The folks at NASA put together this awesome supercomputer simulation of the inner regions surrounding a black hole.

Stellar gas is accelerated to near-light-speed thanks to the incredible draw of the black hole’s gravity. You know how a hot iron bar will glow red? That’s emission in the visible and infrared regions of light. Gas surrounding a black hole gets so hot that it emits light with MUCH higher energy: X-rays!

Near the center, the event horizon marks where nothing, not even x-rays, can escape the pull of gravity. That’s the dark disk in the center. 

I think this is about as close as I ever want to get to a black hole.

(by NASAexplorer)

Source: youtube.com

Neil deGrasse Tyson Funks the Universe!

Awww yeahhhh, drop that beat!! Andy Greenhaw remixed audio from Neil deGrasse Tyson’s appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience with a funky little ditty, and the result is pure magic.

Ever short of wonder, Tyson asks? Just think about the universe for a minute. You’ll be awed in no time. From multiverses to black holes to a healthy dose of tardigrades (which are not microbes, by the way, despite what the video says), I think you’re gonna love this.

Source: youtube.com

Aeolus - An Acoustic Wind Pavilion

It’s time for another Episode Extra! (which is where you special blog readers get to check out really cool stuff to go along with my YouTube videos, like special features on a DVD, only way more special-er). This post originally appeared last April, but it was too cool not to share again.

This amazing art project goes along with my latest YouTube episode about gusty science: What Is Wind? Watch it (or else!) and feel the winds of science through your hair!

Luke Jerram is a colorblind artist based in the UK. Aeolus is a sonic creation that blends acoustic physics, inspirations from classical civilizations, and visual adventure. The arch is a large Aeolian harp, an ancient instrument that uses the wind’s vibration on strings to send a frequency down a long metal tube. 

image

A listener in the center of the arch experiences sounds transmitted from a field of taut strings and naturally harmonic open tubes. In addition, the angle of light transmitted through the polished pipes creates an altered listening environment. The experience can change by the minute or hour depending on wind conditions.

The tightened strings vibrate due to something called the von Karman vortex street effect, where the vortex created behind a string causes it to vibrate. It’s similar to what happens when a car antenna begins to sing in the wind.

You can see a photo gallery here, and listen to interviews and sound samples here.

A true feat of beauty and science.

(via Luke Jerram)

Windswept - Sculpture Moved By Wind

It’s time for another Episode Extra! (which is where you special blog readers get to check out really cool stuff to go along with my YouTube videos, like special features on a DVD, only way more special-er)


Have you seen the latest episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart yet? I answer a question so simple that many people forget to ask it: What Is Wind? There’s some amazingly simple science behind it, and the answer might just blow you away*.

Here’s one of my favorite wind-powered art projects: Windswept by Charles Sowers. Using 612 freely-rotating arrows, you can visualize the swirling patterns of wind on the micro scale. It’s hypnotic and beautiful, and a fine artistic accompaniment to the visualizations in the episode, eh?

Click here to subscribe to It’s Okay To Be Smart on YouTube.

*sorry for the pun … j/k, not really, bad puns are the best.

The Adjustable Cosmos - A tale, unfortunately fictional, that tells of an astrologer under the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, and his mission to move the stars.

When pressured by the Vatican to engage the Ottomans in war, Frederick III consulted his astrologer to predict how the campaign would fare. It didn’t look good, according to the magic 8-ball of mysticism. So they decided to go up to space, and adjust the stars in their favor.

This tale of 15th century space travel is fictional, but it’s based on real characters. That’s what makes it so fun. That, and the moon covered in phosphorescent seagulls.

(Film by Adam Duncan, written by Adam Brown, link via Kuriositas) 

Source: kuriositas.com

comaniddy:

Schrodinger’s Cat & Quantum Skittles
In this week’s episode of Coma Niddy University we learn about Quantum Mechanics and Superposition.

The Quantum World is filled with so many quirks. For example, the properties of particles can’t be determined until they are measured. So before you observe the location of an electron, it exists in all of its possible positions. This quirk is known as superposition. The behavior is so strange that we must perform outside-of-the-box experiments to understand the nature of particles.

In 1935, Erwin Schrodinger proposed a famous thought experiment to explore superposition-Schrodinger’s Cat. Place a cat in a box with a deadly poison triggered by a radioactive nucleus. We can’t predict when the poison would be released. So until we open the box, the cat is both alive and dead. The kitty is in a state of superposition.

In 2013, Mike Wilson aka Coma Niddy, proposed a similar experiment. I call it Quantum Skittles. To learn more about it you’ll have to [Watch] my video. And if you like the video then you should also [Subscribe] to my YouTube Channel for more Science.

Until you observe me, I am both eating and not eating all those delicious Skittles.

via science-junkie: Prince Rupert’s drop The prince Rupert’s drop is a truly amazing thing.When molten glass hits cold water, its outer surface cools rapidly and shrinks as it solidifies. Since the center is still fluid, it can flow to adjust to the outer shell’s smaller size. As that center eventually cools and solidifies, it also shrinks, but now the outer shell is already solid and can’t change its shape to accommodate the smaller core. The result of this is a high amount of internal pressure, as the inside pulls the outside from all directions the glass is set to release a lot of energy. If you break the thin glass at the tail, a chain reaction travels like a shock wave through the drop. As each section breaks, it releases enough energy to break the next section, and so on, shattering the whole drop in less than a millisecond. At the same time The glass can be extremely strong aswell glass breaks when tiny scratches pull apart and spread into fractures. Since the surface is compressed by internal stress, scratches can’t grow, and the glass is very difficult to break. Credits: ScienceCubed - http://sciencecubed.tumblr.com/  People, if you haven’t seen Destin from Smarter Every Day shatter these things at 130,000 frames per second, you haven’t truly lived.
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via science-junkie:

Prince Rupert’s drop

The prince Rupert’s drop is a truly amazing thing.When molten glass hits cold water, its outer surface cools rapidly and shrinks as it solidifies. Since the center is still fluid, it can flow to adjust to the outer shell’s smaller size. As that center eventually cools and solidifies, it also shrinks, but now the outer shell is already solid and can’t change its shape to accommodate the smaller core. The result of this is a high amount of internal pressure, as the inside pulls the outside from all directions the glass is set to release a lot of energy. If you break the thin glass at the tail, a chain reaction travels like a shock wave through the drop. As each section breaks, it releases enough energy to break the next section, and so on, shattering the whole drop in less than a millisecond. At the same time The glass can be extremely strong aswell glass breaks when tiny scratches pull apart and spread into fractures. Since the surface is compressed by internal stress, scratches can’t grow, and the glass is very difficult to break.

Credits: ScienceCubed - http://sciencecubed.tumblr.com/ 

People, if you haven’t seen Destin from Smarter Every Day shatter these things at 130,000 frames per second, you haven’t truly lived.

The Beauty of Space Photography

Every branch of science is beautiful, but astronomers have a bit of a leg up on the rest of us … because, you know, it’s SPACE, man. Ever wondered how all those beautiful space images are made? It’s a mixture of science, art, based in both the abstract and in data. 

How do these astro-artists solve the challenge of translating invisible wavelengths into viewable forms? And what about those many images that are captured in the visual range? They must be extensively reconstructed in order to enhance and make that Wow Moment really pop, so when does the science stop and the art begin?

A fascinating look at how scientific measurements are translated into pure, informative, inspiring beauty.

(via PBS OffBook)