Objects at rest tend to stay at rest, unless acted on by an outside force. And objects in motion tend to stay in motion, unless similarly acted on by an outside force. Football players know this all too well. In addition to the 49ers and the Ravens, Isaac Newton will be on the field today in New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII. The NFL, NBC, and the National Science Foundation recently got together to produce this excellent video series on the science of football. It's always fascinating to me how many athletes intuitively understand the laws of physics without actually being able to express them as such. Watch the videos on projectile motion and vectors for some great examples of this!
Here's some more geek to tide you over until game time.
- STUNNING geology highlights of the Solar System from the last 50 years of robotic exploration.
- Stroke causes victim to ignore half of the world around him. More specifically, the left half. [VIDEO]
- Humongous archive of biodiversity audio and video rabbit hole that you might never return from.
- Next time you want to back up your computer, forget external drives and forget the cloud. DNA is the next big thing in data storage.
- How long could you swim in a spent nuclear fuel pool? A lot longer than you think or probably want to. (via @xkcd)
- These fourteen winners of the 2012 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge will get all up in your face with their awesomeness.
- 80,000-year-old grove of Aspen trees in Utah is effectively one massive root system and the oldest known living organism in the world. [SLIDESHOW]
- Roboticists in the UK have built a bionic man of sorts for $f5 million dollars than you might expect.
- Beware of the skunk. No not that kind, the other kind. For maximum enjoyment, make sure the beer at your Super Bowl party doesn't come in a clear glass bottle.
- Lastly, speaking of the Super Bowl, pull back the curtain on the dumb cheerleader stereotype by checking out how smart some of these ladies are off the field: six of the 49er's and eight of the Raven's cheerleaders work as scientists or engineers.
GO SCIENCE! @Summer_Ash
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Errrr......your story on "swimming in nuclear fuel pools" is just a little misleading. It isn't the harm to the human that is the issue - it is the harm to the fuel that a human could cause just by swimming in the water.
The water in nuclear fuel pools is keep extremely pure to ensure that the fuel rods don't corrode. Humans are dirty and the contaminants on the human body could cause serious corrosion problems - remember the metal surrounding the fuel is hot and it doesn't take much to make hot metals corrode! The last thing anyone who operates a spend nuclear fuel pool wants is fuel pellets falling on the bottom floor in an uncontrolled manner!
You do understand that the reason you would get shot if you were caught near a nuclear fuel pool isn't because of the possibility of your stealing it, don't you?
Thanks, Summer! I look forward to your Week in Geek posts!
I am curious as to the type of therapy used to re-introduce a stroke victim to the left side of his/her world.
My first stroke (November, 2003) had a similar effect on me... Once the stroke finished its course, I was totally numb on my left side... No loss of motor control or strength, just loss of the sense of touch... Along with that came motion sickness and vertigo, due to loss of sensation in my left inner ear, and loss of control of my right eye (as any first-year med student can tell you, the left side of the brain controls the right eye's muscles)...
I've managed to get most of my left-side sensation back... I just have some difficulty with my left hand, left foot and left side of my face... It sort of feels like I just got back from the dentist, for the last nine years... Everything moves just fine, and there's been no change in my appearance... I have lost a few teeth on the left side, though, mostly because I couldn't feel the gum infections...
I had no problems with hearing or visual perception, though, so I don't suffer from hemispacial neglect, like this poor fellow... My sense of touch was the only sense affected... I was lucky...
Let's just play football, Xbox, and forget about the books, because the job growth is at the low skill level jobs.
Fun trends in job growth
(Depressing graph here)
From MIT's David Autor's fed reserve article here.
Well, it's obvious! People on this blog would rather discuss god than science!
Karl Rove says the 49ers can still win Ohio...
Ah, Deuce McAlister. Want to instant improve your secondary in Madden 12? Pick him up from free agency. If you were playing a team with one shutdown corner, having him significantly improved your team.
The Maddow blog & Science?????
When did the liberals start taking real science seriously???
I mean they think man controls the weather.
Guns are the reason people kill each other.
C02 is killing the planet.
Foodstamps are better than jobs.
Taxing the rich & companies will cure all problems.
7.9% unemployment is conceidered "recovery & growth".