Interest of the day

NASA has posted a number of videos shown the 8/4/2011 Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).

Check out this video on how to setup a flower pot fridge. It uses two clay pots, sand, water, and a towel to keep its contents cool and no electricity. It works by evaporation only. Very cool.

The guys at Periodic Table of Videos went to an exhibit on periodic tables in Ireland and made a video about it.

I've been seeing a lot of references to the search for the Higgs field recently no doubt due to the work going and CERN with the LHC. CERN physicist Tommaso Dorigo provides this wonder explanaiton of the Higgs field and Higgs Boson. Basically, the Higgs field is to water as the Higgs Boson is to the water molecule. The more a particle interacts with the Higgs field, the more mass it experiences. This similar to a sleek racing boat moving faster through water as compared to a tug that moves slower through the water.

The BBC news has a neat graphic showing the 5 space vehicles that could succeed the space shuttle.

I really enjoyed this discussion about particle physics, the standard model, the LHC, and the problems associated with trying to detect new particles like the Higgs particle in this World Science Festival talk on Back to the Big Bang: Inside the Large Hadron Collider. John Hockenberry moderates the discussion with physicists Marcela Carena, Monica Dunford, Jennifer Klay, and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek.

This video shows some mobility tests NASA performed on several spacesuits in 1968.

Bill Moyers interviewed Isaac Asimov in 1988. He describes the Internet with a computer for ever person in their homes, and the revolution it would bring to personal learning and education. No 1988 is not a typo. The also discussed America's decline and attributed it to a lack of leadership in science and technology. Wow. 1988 - really. Oh Foundation series how enjoyed thee.

NASA posted this view of the Southern lights from the ISS. Wow.

NASA has posted this video of different views of the last shuttle launch viewed from the booster cameras.