TheFW » Science

The Scientific Power of Thought

Kyle Dowling — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:00:22 +0000

Mind over matter, people! According to this video, when you change your mind, you physically change your brain. It looks as if the power of thought is an immense gift that each of us hold (sans ‘Honey Boo Boo‘ viewers). As the video states, “imagining an action and doing it require the same motor and [...]

How NOT to Make an Electric Gun

Tom Blunt — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 19:30:33 +0000

There’s no need to offer a “Don’t try this at home” warning — by the time you’ve watched this guy accidentally shock, burn, and shoot himself, you’re unlikely to follow in his footsteps. It might seem a little strange to talk about making guns so soon after that botched assassination attempt in Bulgaria, but this homemade [...]

Weird Science: Watch This Bizarre Chemical Reaction

Tom Blunt — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 16:30:20 +0000

Something very strange happens at the 1:15 point in this video. When these three clear solutions are combined on a stir plate, the result changes color — and keeps changing! Don’t ask us why the color change keeps oscillating. That’s what the narrating scientist is there for! The sudden transformation from an amber liquid to an inky [...]

10 Amazing Facts About the Universe You Won't Believe

Carl Pettit — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:45:14 +0000

The universe is a pretty amazing place, from the unimaginably large, right down to the incredibly small. There’s an awful lot going on in this field we call “existence.”With the recent discovery of what is most likely the elusive Higgs boson particle, or some variant thereof, by scientist’s working at the Large Hadron Collider near [...]

Learn Chemistry With Adorable Dogs

Amanda Ferris — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:13:10 +0000

In this heartwarming YouTube video, adorable pooches-turned-chemists Paige and Dexter explain the basics of chemistry using their toys. If your child is struggling with basic chemistry concepts in school or you just need a pick me up after a long, stressful day, this video will make you giggle as the pooches demonstrate the ins-and-outs of chemical bonding.

Duke University Creates 'Harry Potter' Style Invisibility Cloak

Amanda Ferris — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 21:22:11 +0000

If you’re a fan of J.K. Rowling’s hit ‘Harry Potter‘ series, you must have longed for your own invisibility cloak so that you could go off on your own magical adventures just like Harry himself. But invisibility cloaks are merely fictional, right? Wrong! A team of researchers at Duke University have created the first invisibility [...]

Learn the Science Behind Bond's 'Skyfall' Weapon

Ruth Waxman — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:46:46 +0000

While we’ve previously told you about the real life science behind James Bond’s gadgets in movies like ‘Goldeneye’ and ‘Live and Let Die, we thought we’d take a look at the devices used by Bond in his latest outing, ‘Skyfall.’The new movie, released on the 50th anniversary of the franchise, finds (spoiler-alert!) a essentially gadget-free Bond [...]

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson Discovers Superman's Home Planet

Amanda Ferris — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:42:48 +0000

Superman’s home planet Krytpon isn’t fictional anymore! Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has discovered the real-life counterpart to the planet that is so deeply embedded in the ‘Superman’ canon.Tyson discovered the red dwarf star that is located in the Corvus constellation and is about 27.1 light years away from Earth. Up until now, this star was [...]

10 Food Myths You Probably Believe

Ruth Waxman — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 21:53:22 +0000

All too often we get carried away believing (or worse, repeating) everything we are told and don’t spend enough time questioning what’s actually been said. We’ve picked 10 very common health mantras you hear everyday and weeded out the worst of the lies, because we want you to eat all the avocados. All of them. 1. [...]

The Real Life Science Behind James Bond's Gadgets

Ruth Waxman — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 20:04:19 +0000

In anticipation of the upcoming release of 'Skyfall,' the 23rd installment of the James Bond franchise, we've explored five of our favorite Bond gadgets and put them to the test of reality. It's every guy's (and probably girl's) dream to have their own real life Q and his accompanying gadgets. But how many of these are accurate portrayals of reality and how many are far-flung fantasies that belong on the big screen?

12-Year-Old Uses Dungeons And Dragons to Help Dad Solve Scientific Riddle

Jeremy Taylor — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 18:57:50 +0000

When you look at someone, you are immediately drawn to their eyes. Scientists have been unsure if this is because humans are programmed to stare at eyes or at faces in general.

Alan Kingstone, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia, had been working on this quandary and was having trouble thinking of an experiment which separated the eyes from the center of the face. He was telling his 12-year-old son Julian about it when the boy came up with an inspired idea.

10 Awesome Facts About the Internet You Didn't Know

Emerald Catron — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:45:19 +0000

And because we can't do cat videos all day every day,* here are ten amazing facts about the internet. From how many likes there are on Facebook daily to the actual weight of the internet, this video just might blow your mind. (Hence the title.) Learn something new today, so you can watch a cat stuck in a jar over and over guilt-free!

Physicists Trying to Prove That We Live in 'The Matrix'

Amanda Ferris — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:15:07 +0000

When Silas Beane and his team of researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany heard about Oxford Professor Nick Bostrom's 2003 theory that we may be living in a computer-simulated world similar to the hit sci-fi movie 'The Matrix,' they decided to test that theory and see if they could find the theoretical "red pill" that would wake us up.

Get a Step-by-Step Guide to Lucid Dreaming

Emerald Catron — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:05:41 +0000

We know — the first thing we thought when we saw this was “who draws that well on white board” too! Once we got over that, we realized we should actually be paying attention to what this guy’s saying. It’s a step by step guide from asapScience to achieving lucid dreams — dreams you are [...]

The Likelihood of 'Looper' – Science Behind the Movies

Ruth Waxman — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 21:09:58 +0000

In the new sci-fi hit ‘Looper,’ starring Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt, the mob uses “Loopers” and time travel to kill targets in the 30-year past. But how much of the film is based on actual hard science? As shown in the film, criminals are sent from 2074, where killing proves to be [...]

Watch 32 Metronomes Sync Up (It's Science!)

Emerald Catron — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:05:56 +0000

We realize asking people to stare at a bunch of out-of-sync metronomes is kind of a hard sell, but this is actually really cool. For a while it seems like it’s not going to happen, then, magically (note: technically physics, not magic), they do. Here’s why. To put it very simply — because the platform [...]

Japan Made a Mind-Reading Tail For Some Reason

Emerald Catron — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 20:15:29 +0000

Just in case you need everybody to always know exactly how you feel and exactly where you felt that way AND you need it to happen while wearing a tail that interprets your mood based on an EEG, this is the product for you.

College Professor Sets Off Ping-Pong Ball Explosion

Dan Seitz — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 16:03:44 +0000

Dr. Roy Lowry wanted to demonstrate a few basic principles of science, notably the behavior of liquid nitrogen under pressure. But how to get that across in a way that even the least scientifically curious student would think of as awesome. Easy: Just add ping-pong balls! Lowry and his assistants put together the “experiment” quite [...]

Bill Nye Explains Why the Chicken Crossed the Road

Jeremy Taylor — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:15:17 +0000

If you ask a six-year-old to tell you a joke there is a good chance they’d respond with the classic groaner “Why did the chicken cross the road?” However, as you can see in the video above from YouTube explainer Vsuace and Bill Nye The Science Guy, “Why did the chicken cross the road” isn’t [...]

Bill Nye the Science Guy vs. Creationism: 'I'm Not Attacking Religion'

Nick Romano — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:45:57 +0000

Bill Nye the Science Guy has taken the internet by storm with Twitter rumors that he was killed in a balloon accident (sparked by The Onion) and his new Web series for Big Think. Most recently, however, our favorite childhood TV scientist sparked a lively debate through his video blog, pitting science against creationism, and America, obviously, had something to say about it.

Build Your Own Solar Mobile Phone Charger in Five Minutes

Tom Blunt — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 14:33:56 +0000

Paying for electricity to charge your phone is so 2011. In the future, all the cool kids will be hacking their phone charger so they can just leave their phone on the windowsill when the battery’s low. Here’s a video tutorial in five simple(ish) steps. While admittedly you’ll still have to order a couple of [...]

Science Makes Squid Cells Dance Uncontrollably to Cypress Hill

Emerald Catron — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 16:59:14 +0000

The guys at Backyard Brains, promise “neuroscience for everyone,” and, by gum, they are certainly trying. For their video “Insane in the Chromatophores” (scientists are notorious lovers of bad puns, ask anybody), researchers attached a suction electrode to a squid’s fin nerve and played Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Membrane” through it to stimulate it. [...]

Think 'The Amazing Spider-Man's' Lizard is Fiction? Think Again!

Ruth Waxman — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:41:09 +0000

Ever watched a sci-fi movie and pretty much sat there throughout it wondering just how unrealistic the stunts are? And if you’re being particularly optimistic (some might say, unrealistic), what it might take for you to perform said stunts? Well, we’re glad to be the bearer of great news then! In the latest installment of [...]

What Do Hipsters Know About This Higgs Boson Thing? Next to Nothing

Jeremy Taylor — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 20:20:42 +0000

Last week, scientists announced the discovery of the long-sought after Higgs boson, commonly known as the "God particle." Some experts are saying this is the "biggest scientific discovery of the 21st Century" -- if the Higgs boson wasn't isolated, everything we thought we knew about the universe would've been proved false.

If you secretly have no idea what we're talking about, don't worry. You're not alone.

Watch a Paralyzed Woman Control a Robotic Arm With Her Mind

Mithun Divakaran — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:35:58 +0000

There are certain things we take for granted. But for Cathy Hutchinson (pictured above), a task as simple as reaching out for a glass of water seemed like an impossibility due to her paralysis. Until now. Researchers at Brown University have developed a program called Brain Gate, which allows paralyzed patients to move objects virtually [...]

What Would Happen If the Large Hadron Collider Zapped Your Hand?

Mike Adams — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:17:50 +0000

For a few years now, nerds and scientists have been debating what would happen if someone put their hand in front of the beam of the Large Hadron Collider. Finally, one guy decided to ask this question of every science guy he could find. First things first, though — what the heck is the Large [...]

Science Finally Cracks the Cause of Brain Freeze

Danny Gallagher — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:55:12 +0000

For years, one universal scientific phenomenon has baffled scientists and lovers of ice cold sodas and slushies. Why do we get a raging headache when we drink a cold beverage way too fast? Now science has found the answer. Scientists from the Harvard Medical School finally discovered the cause of this strange and supremely painful [...]

Inventors Create Molded Jelly That Can Create Beautiful Music

Danny Gallagher — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:00:29 +0000

“Noisy Jelly” is no longer just the name of an college folk music duo. It’s an actual thing. A couple of very innovative chemists and musicologists have invented a form of wobbly gelatin that can respond to touch with their own unique sound. The “Noisy Jelly” set featured on Designboom comes with four jars of [...]

Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson's 'Most Astounding Fact' Will Leave You in Awe

Mithun Divakaran — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:15:27 +0000

The internet’s favorite astrophysicist, Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, was asked by a reader of TIME magazine what the most astounding fact he could share was. Tyson’s profound answer has now been made even more breathtaking thanks to a fan-made video. Tyson’s thoughts on how we are all interconnected to each and every thing in the [...]

Physics Fail Turns Science Experiment Into a Comedy Sketch

Jeremy Taylor — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:12:31 +0000

This teacher's physics experiment becomes a comedy routine when his object in motion collides with an immovable object. Don't think those 'Big Bang Theory' guys would have made that mistake.