PhysicsCentral: Podcasts

These shells glow!  Learn what makes these snails glow and why they glow in this podcast.

What killed Tycho Brahe, the Father of Modern Astronomy?  Calla Colfield explores the man and the mystery of his death.

How fast would Santa have to move to be able to deliver all those presents in one night?  He may not be traveling fast at all, but rather very slowly.

Most of the colors we see everyday arise from chemicals like dyes.  Unlike these colors, iridescence arises from structure. Iridescent objects change color depending on the angle that light hits the object.  Scientists have been able to create this iridescent structure in glass.

"Particles going through my body, cosmic rays!  That sounds unbelievable; what are these particles flying through the air and how can go they go right through me?" Podcaster, Mike Lucibella asks this and many other questions to try make the unbelievable believable.

Scientists at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) have measured the most massive neutron star ever recorded.

Soft robots? You heard right. Scientists at the University of Chicago demonstrate a new example of soft robotics, with their "bean bag gripper." Based on the physics of granular materials, this robotic gripper picks up delicate and oddly shaped objects by gently molding to them, then locking in place.

Mike Lucibella takes us on a journey through the inaugural USA Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall.

"Sometimes science needs to laugh at itself and that's where the Ig Nobel Prize comes in." Mike Lucibella takes us there in this weeks installment of the Physics Central Podcast.

Researchers at the University of Maryland College Park, announced a new record for the fastest spinning object, graphene.