Open Culture » Science

The Milky Way in Time-Lapse Video

Dan Colman — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:57:53 +0000

This humbling footage of the Milky Way was filmed on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the same location that recently gave us footage of stars orbiting a black hole. This is, of course, not a coincidence. Mauna Kea hosts the world’s largest observatory for optical, infrared, and submillimeter astronomy. Thanks Robert for sending this our way.

via The Huffington Post

The Milky Way in Time-Lapse Video is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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Chilean Earthquake Waves in Animation

Dan Colman — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:18:52 +0000

This animated footage gives you a more global view of the Chilean earthquake in action. Seen from this vantage point, there’s a certain beauty to Mother Nature in action. Waves rippling across the Pacific, as if a stone were thrown into a calm pond. But, obviously, for those experiencing the earthquake on the ground, it’s a very different and tragic story.

Chilean Earthquake Waves in Animation is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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Chilean Quake Shortens the Day

Dan Colman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:22:15 +0000

An interesting factoid relating to the devastating earthquake in Chile this weekend. A NASA scientist surmises that the quake probably shifted the Earth’s axis and shortened the day. As this piece in Business Week goes on to explain:

Earthquakes can involve shifting hundreds of kilometers of rock by several meters, changing the distribution of mass on the planet. This affects the Earth’s rotation, said Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who uses a computer model to calculate the effects.

“The length of the day should have gotten shorter by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second)… The axis about which the Earth’s mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters or 3 inches).”

For more, read the complete Business Week article. And, consider donating to a Chile relief fund. Mashable tells you how…

via @slate

Chilean Quake Shortens the Day is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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Chilean Earthquake Waves in Animation

The Deepest Part of the Ocean – To Scale!

Dan Colman — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:58:02 +0000

The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the ocean and also the lowest known elevation on earth, plunging down some 36,200 feet. This graphic, sent along by Bill and Ian, puts the Trench into perspective, allowing you to see it in scale just how low it goes…

The Deepest Part of the Ocean – To Scale! is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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MIT LED Helicopters: The Early Smart Pixels

Dan Colman — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:04:51 +0000

Imagine a TV display that contains millions of “smart pixels” that can move into different places and reliably create 3D images? That’s what researchers at an MIT research lab are currently doing. But, in the absence of real smart pixels, they’re using “remotely controlled micro-helicopters that can be choreographed electronically to display shapes and images.” (Read more about this in Wired.) The clip above offers a two minute demo of the “Flyfire” project, showing the micro-helicopters in action…

MIT LED Helicopters: The Early Smart Pixels is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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When the Dalai Lama Meets the Neuroscientists

Dan Colman — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:37:21 +0000

More and more, the Dalai Lama has been developing an interest in what modern science has to say about human emotion — or, more particularly, how neuroscience makes sense of meditation and compassion. Partly as a result, Stanford University has launched The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, which is delving deeper into these questions. The clip above features Daniel Goleman, the bestselling science journalist (Emotional Intelligence and Destructive Emotions), talking about the Dalai Lama’s work on this front. You can find the full conversation with Goleman at Bigthink.com, a good resource for thought-provoking video.

When the Dalai Lama Meets the Neuroscientists is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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The Stanford Mini Med School: Visit the Web Site

Dan Colman — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:36:46 +0000

Back in January, we gave you a heads up about a new course available online: The Stanford Mini Med School. Now it’s time for a quick update: the Stanford School of Medicine has launched a handsome web site that conveniently centralizes the video lectures in one place. 10 lectures (from the Fall term) now appear. Eventually, another 20 lectures will get posted. You can start watching here.

For more courses, visit this big list of Free Online Courses from top universities.

The Stanford Mini Med School: Visit the Web Site is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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Bill Gates on Energy: Innovating to Zero!

Dan Colman — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:11:57 +0000

The major TED conference wrapped up late last week. And now the videos start to roll out. Above Bill Gates (to quote TED) “unveils his vision for the world’s energy future, describing the need for miracles to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he’s backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050.”

Bill Gates on Energy: Innovating to Zero! is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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The Science/Liberty Nexus

Dan Colman — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:11:02 +0000

You can’t get good democracy without science, and you can’t get good science without democracy. That’s why great political and scientific revolutions have historically gone hand-in-hand. It’s an intriguing argument that Timothy Ferris (UC Berkeley) makes in his new book, The Science of Liberty, and debates in an interview with Michael Krasny, aired last week on KQED in San Francisco. You can stream the interview below, or access it via mp3 or iTunes.

The Science/Liberty Nexus is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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10,000 Galaxies in 3D

Dan Colman — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:44:23 +0000

In 2004, the Hubble Space Telescope captured 10,000 galaxies in an image that’s now called the Ultra Deep Field. It’s our deepest look into the universe. The video above animates the Deep Field image and puts it into 3D. No need to read more. Just watch.

10,000 Galaxies in 3D is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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