Douglas Phillips's Blog

Checking Out the Neighborhood

Say you live in a dense city. Your apartment is on the 14th floor with tall buildings all around. And, for this mental exercise, let���s pretend you���re an avid voyeur. Each evening, you pull out your binoculars and spy on your neighbors. There���s a cute guy cooking dinner just across the street. In the next building over, an old woman reclines in front of the TV. You can even see what show she���s watching. In another apartment, lovers kiss, never realizing they���re being watched.You quickly realize

Geography of Antipodes

My first degree was in Physical Geography ��� the study of the Earth���s surface. Landforms, erosion, water cycles ��� that kind of thing. Our planet is a gem among millions and an inspiration as I learned its many secrets. Geography also involves lots of maps, something we cartophiles (map lovers) love. I���ve spent hours (or weeks) pouring over a single map. I post maps on my office walls. I even have an accurate map of the Milky Way which marks hundreds of stars, clusters, and nebulae. That map is a

It Rains Iron

You���re walking down a street. A stranger stops you, claims special powers, and pronounces that you left the bathroom light on in your apartment over on 85th street, forty blocks away. Naturally, you should: a) ignore this nut case and walk on, b) tell David Blaine to pester someone else, or c) ask if this stranger is a scientist. The correct answer is c, but you knew that in advance, right? If you���re like me, you already know and love the astonishing methods of remote sensing. If not, read on!

English Isn't Purely English

English. This language that many of us speak is quite old, with roots going back to the��6th century when it was brought to Britain by��Saxons migrating from northern Europe. Every language evolves, but what I find most interesting about modern English is that it isn���t pure. Not even close. Many of the words we speak every day are borrowed from other languages, sometimes without us even realizing their non-English nature. Go to Starbucks, for example and order a venti cappuccino. Or make it a

Polonium, the Perfect Poison?

A few months ago, I posted a blog about the weak force (read it here), and it got me thinking about each of the processes of radioactive decay. There are three kinds: alpha, beta, and gamma. ��Alpha decay is when an alpha particle (two protons and two neutrons) is ejected from the nucleus of an atom. Alpha particles are low energy and short-range ��� they can be stopped by a piece of paper (or your skin) and fizzle out after one or two centimeters.Beta decay causes an atom to miraculously change

The Fourth Wall

I���ve always enjoyed storytelling hiccups that involve the ���fourth wall��� ��� you know, that imaginary barrier between fictional characters and the audience. The name, fourth wall, comes from theater where performances have three physical walls, to the left, right and behind the stage. Characters in a stage play aren���t supposed to know that somewhere off in that fourth direction, there are people watching them. Once in a while, those characters figure it out, and that���s when the comedic fun begins.

Discovering the Weak Force

Our universe is quite organized, with physics that follows well-defined rules. For example, the only way bits of mass are pulled together or pushed apart is through a specific force. So far, physicists have discovered four fundamental forces: electromagnetism, gravity, the strong nuclear force that holds protons and neutrons together inside an atom, and the weak force that governs radioactive decay of the atomic nucleus. For years, I never quite understood that last one, the weak force, and when

91 and 5���16 Versus the Gregorian Calendar

Ninety-one and five sixteenths. It���s an important number in the relationship between Earth and Sol. That���s how many times Earth rotates for each quarter revolution around our star. It���s equivalent to 365.25 rotations for each full trip around the sun, a number more recognizable to most people.But there are four key positions that our planet passes through each trip around the star: two equinoxes and two solstices, and the rotations between each position are almost exactly 91 and 5/16 *. We

Reader Questions - Quantum Time

Thanks for all the email. I love it! I thought I���d answer a couple of questions that came up for Quantum Time.Q: One thing I'm curious about is the issue of force (mass times acceleration) in empros time. People are moving so fast relative to forward time, that touching someone might impart a fatal contact.A: Several readers pointed this out! As Mathieu and Zin explain in the book, transitioning to empros time causes forward time to dramatically slow down to just a trickle. One tick of the

The Great Earthquake Debate

What if this was the argument that we were having... ? A commercial break ends and the television switches to a busy newsroom. The Fair News talk-show host looks up from papers spread across her desk.Host: ���Welcome back. In our next segment we focus squarely on the big debate raging across our country. Earthquakes. Are they natural? Or human-caused? Joining me now are representatives from both sides. Lawrence Temblor is a senior geologist with the State of California and is the author of the