ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 717
August 9, 2015
Watch This Lightning Strike In Slow Motion
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Slowed down, you can see the glowing tendrils of lightning as they creep towards the ground. ZT Research/Vimeo
A sudden bolt of lightning can happen so fast that there’s no time to really appreciate its natural beauty. The speed at which this occurs is usually around 360,493 kilometers per hour (224,000 miles per hour).
In the video below, a lightning storm in South Dakota has been slowed down to 2,000 frames per second. Sit back and enjoy this mesmerizing show.
What’s The Fastest (Fictional) Spaceship In The Universe?
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How does the Tardis compare with the other sci-fi ships? Ints Vikmanis/Shutterstock
Fans of sci-fi probably have their favorite spaceships or intergalactic crafts, ranging from the Tardis to the USS Voyager to even the Thunderbirds – but which of these physics-defying ships is actually the fastest, and how do our current spacecrafts stack up in comparison?
Take a look at FatWallet's infographic comparing different ships from the world of Sci-Fi.
How To Make Rainbow-Colored Flames
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Colored flame. Iscatel/Shutterstock
The Backyard Scientist is at it again: This time, he decides to create colored flames using different household chemicals and DIY pieces of equipment. Then, of course, he shoots the fire in the air via a homemade flamethrower.
The variety of hues is due to different metals and chemicals, which can cause fire to burn in different colors. For example, table salt will cause a flame to burn yellow.
Scientists Are On A Mission To Protect Curly Hair From Heat Damage
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mimagephotography/Shutterstock
Morning hair routines can be a long and tiring process for many people with unruly hair. Some use curling irons or flat irons to style their hair, but there are setbacks. In our quest for the perfect "do," we could be seriously damaging our hair. But how are different hair types affected by heat? Researchers are keen to find out.
August 8, 2015
Is Commercial Fishing Driving The Evolution Of Fish?
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Since cod have been intensively fished, has this selected for certain traits? Grigorev Mikhail/Shutterstock
The intensive trawling of fish using massive nets might be influencing how fish evolve. In lab-based experiments, researchers from the University of Glasgow have shown that the natural variability within a fish population might be sufficient to mean that some are more vulnerable to being caught, raising the interesting proposition that we might be driving fish to become “less catchable.”
European Weather-Monitoring Satellite Takes Its First Image Of Earth
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EUMETSAT/ESA
In this latest image from the European Space Agency (ESA), captured by its newest weather monitoring satellite MSG-4, Earth looks especially crisp and detailed.
New Concorde Could Fly London To New York In One Hour
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Artist's impression of the new hypersonic aircraft. PatentYogi/Youtube.
The original Concorde, a flying masterpiece, could zip from London to New York in a breakneck 3 hours and 30 minutes. For many people, it was a dream to experience faster-than-sound travel, and the prospect of cutting the seven to eight hour journey to half the time was enough to make even the most robust traveler giddy with delight. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has been taking inspiration from this flying dream, and they have now won a patent for the next stage in speedy travel.
Why Animal Eyes Take On So Many Shapes
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Grazing prey animals have horizontally elongated pupils that expand their field of vision. Their eyes rotate so that the pupils stay aligned with the ground regardless of whether their head is upright or pitched down. Gordon Love/Durham University.
Pupils regulate the amount of light that hits an animal’s retina, and they come in a variety of shapes. Ours are round dots. Cats have vertical slits, sheep have horizontal slits. Researchers trying to understand why different pupil shapes evolved say it has to do with ecological niches: Are they the hunter or the hunted? The work is published in Science Advances this week.
Scientists Make Neurons From Human Skin Cells Using Only Chemicals
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Human chemical-induced neurons. Courtesy of Gang Pei and Jian Zhao.
The ability to give cells new identities in the lab holds huge potential not just to dramatically improve our knowledge of cell biology and disease, but also for the promising fields of regenerative and personalized medicine. And scientists may have just made a giant stride in this area, as two groups in China have independently come up with techniques that allow for the conversion of skin cells into neurons, without the need to introduce potentially problematic genes.
Study Finds That The More Beautiful Your Home Is, The Less Likely You Are To Be Religious
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Can you feel yourself becoming less religious as you stare at the Rocky Mountains in fall? Peter Kunasz/Shutterstock.
A study of the religious affiliations of Americans by county has concluded that the more naturally beautiful their home is, the less likely they are to be part of a mainstream religion. What is not clear is which way causality runs – are non-believers more inspired by the beauties of nature, and therefore inclined to move there, or does daily experience of the natural world dampen one's ardor to pray?
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