Weird Science

[gotsnowgotslush]

Physicists Achieve Elusive 'Evaporative Cooling' of Molecules

Dec. 19, 2012

JILA researchers cooled about 1 million hydroxyl radicals, each composed of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom (OH),
from about 50 milliKelvin (mK) to 5 mK, five-thousandths of a degree above absolute zero.

The same JILA group previously used magnetic fields and lasers to chill molecules made of potassium and rubidium atoms to
temperatures below 1 microKelvin.

To achieve their landmark result, Ye's group developed a new type of trap that uses structured magnetic fields to contain
the hydroxyl molecules, coupled with finely tuned electromagnetic pulses that tweak the molecules' energy states to make
them either more or less susceptible to the trap.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121219133329.htm

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The only weird science is the bogus bull shit so many perfessers pull. I mean, you gotta wonder how much fraud really exists.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Einstein's exoplanet, Kepler-76b, a Jupiter-sized planet

May 27, 2013

In a dramatic first, CfA astronomer Dave Latham and four of his colleagues have discovered a new planet in the Kepler data
by searching not for transits but for a less well known effect of Einstein's relativity: relativistic beaming.

http://phys.org/news/2013-05-einstein-exoplanet.html#inlRlv

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

CORKSCREW-SHAPED bacteria in the genus Spiroplasma-

continuously contort their bodies to swim through the fluids of the plants and insects they infect.

Because they are so tiny, bacteria and other microbes struggle to move through water and various other fluids as we would struggle
in molasses. Most microorganisms solve this problem with powerful, whiplike tails or many minuscule hairs that flap like oars.

Some microbes, however, have baffled scientists for years by swimming without obvious external appendages. Recently
researchers have begun to solve some of these mysteries, revealing such adaptations as intricate protein motors and
slime-thinning enzymes.

In January 1919 a rickety storage tank of molasses split open, releasing an enormous wave of viscous fluid onto the streets
of Boston's North End. Many people and animals were engulfed by syrup from which they could not escape without help.

"The burly men tried to tread molasses as they would water, but every kick required enormous effort. One firefighter drowned from
exhaustion. Ultimately the disaster killed 21 people and injured 150 others,many of whom were engulfed by the ooze and could not
escape without assistance."
Stephen Puleo
Dark Tide
(Beacon Press, 2003).

A wave of molasses does not behave like a wave of water. Molasses is a non-Newtonian fluid, which means that its viscosity depends
on the forces applied to it, as measured by shear rate.

Consider non-Newtonian fluids such as toothpaste, ketchup and whipped cream. In a stationary bottle, these fluids are thick and goopy
and do not shift much if you tilt the container this way and that. When you squeeze or smack the bottle, however, applying stress and
increasing the shear rate, the fluids suddenly flow. Because of this physical property, a wave of molasses is even more devastating
than a typical tsunami.

In 1919 the dense wall of syrup surging from its collapsed tank initially moved fast enough to sweep people up and demolish buildings,
only to settle into a more gelatinous state that kept people trapped.

Physics also explains why swimming in molasses is near impossible. One can predict how easily an object or organism will move through
a particular medium by calculating the relevant Reynolds number, which in this case takes into account the viscosity and density of the
fluid as well as the velocity and size of the object or organism. The higher the Reynolds number, the more likely everything will go along
swimmingly.

Depending on the way it is made, molasses is between 5,000 to 10,000 times more viscous than water. The Reynolds number for an adult man
in water is around one million; the Reynolds number for the same man in molasses is about 130.

From the perspective of humans and animals of comparable size, swimming through syrup is a bizarre nightmare scenario; for some
of the most abundant life forms on the planet, however, a quagmire of molasses is an everyday reality.

Because bacteria are so tiny, the researchers explained, even a fluid we consider thin—such as plain water—is as thick as molasses
to them. Microbes permanently inhabit a low Reynolds number world—a truth made famous by the American physicist Edward Mills-
Purcell in his 1973 lecture "Life at Low Reynolds Number.” Some bacteria must combat Reynolds numbers as low as 10^-5 (0.00001).

Many bacteria and other microorganisms have obvious adaptations to overcome low Reynolds numbers; they row thousands
of hairlike projections called cilia or corkscrew their way through fluid with powerful spinning tails known as flagella.

In recent years scientists have revealed how some of these more mysterious microbes get around: a few rely on complex internal motors
that ripple the cell surface; one bacterium can turn mucus in the human stomach into a much thinner fluid;

Microscopic organisms must rely on very different strategies than their macroscopic counterparts to swim through liquid. To date,
the best understood method for prokaryotic swimming employs the rotation of flagella. Here, we show that Spiroplasma, tiny helical
bacteria that infect plants and insects, use a very different approach. By measuring cell kinematics during free swimming, we find
that propulsion is generated by the propagation of kink pairs down the length of the cell body. A processive change in the helicity
of the body creates these waves and enables directional movement.

Spiroplasma Kinking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAHM9XfnkDI

(morphing?)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=molasses-flood-physics-science&page=2