PhysicsCentral: Podcasts

The Morpho Sulkowsky butterfly uses its flashy iridescent wings to
attract attention, but humans could use those wings in applications
ranging from homeland security to medical imaging. Researchers at the
General Electric Global Research Center attached carbon nanotubes to
real Morpho butterfly wings, and used the resulting structures as
infrared (IR) light sensors, which have applications in medicine,
science, environmental sustainability and the military, to name a few.

Physicists have entangled two diamonds, some of the most ordinary objects ever entangled. Two entangled objects share a connection such that what happens to one impacts what happens to the other. There are many analogies to explain entanglement, but in today's podcast we'll venture into some of the nitty-gritty physics to explain this peculiar
and potentially powerful phenomenon.

In the 1880s some amazing recordings were made at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Labs. A hundred years later, particle physicists decoded them. Listen to history in the remaking.

2011 was a good year in the hunt for planets outside our solar system.
The record for smallest extrasolar planet was broken...twice!
Scientists found a diamond planet, a planet straight out of science
fiction and orphan planets with no solar system to call home. Today
we'll recap some of the highlights of the year.

This time of year some areas of the world, including Salt Lake City Utah, experience an inversion, where cold air gets stuck on the ground underneath a layer of warm air. But doesn't cold air sink and warm air rise? Why is this the exception and not the rule?  Learn why the consequences could be dire if it was.

How do you define a year? One trip around the sun? There are actually different ways to define a year, and those definitions yield different values. Listen and learn why a year can be hard to pin down.

Join Mike Lucibella as he explains the ups and downs of sound and how gasses can change everything.

This week on the podcast, we continue our discussion of uncertainty
surrounding the Higgs. An announcement from CERN reported an "excess
of particles" that could be a hint at the Higgs boson, the particle
theorized to give matter mass. Reports on this subject state that the
findings are a two sigma result, and a five sigma result would mean a
definite discovery. But be warned! This is an oversimplification of
the importance of sigma. Hear why, in this week's Physics Buzz
podcast.

This week on the podcast, we continue our discussion of uncertainty
surrounding the Higgs. An announcement from CERN reported an "excess
of particles" that could be a hint at the Higgs boson, the particle
theorized to give matter mass. Reports on this subject state that the
findings are a two sigma result, and a five sigma result would mean a
definite discovery. But be warned! This is an oversimplification of
the importance of sigma. Hear why, in this week's Physics Buzz
podcast.

Researchers at CERN have announced an excess of particles which might turn out to be the much coveted Higgs boson, the particle theorized to give matter mass. The researchers are excited about the finding, but also say it does not qualify as a discovery. But why all the uncertainty? Why isn't the answer a simple yes or no? Today on the Physics Buzz podcast Calla Cofield talks with Dr. Bob Cousins about the uncertainty surrounding the search for the Higgs boson.