AskScience AMA Series: We are working to build precise atomic clocks that could fit inside your smartphone. Ask Us Anything! |
- AskScience AMA Series: We are working to build precise atomic clocks that could fit inside your smartphone. Ask Us Anything!
- Which is stronger: the windows on planes, or the lowest windows on a cruise ship?
- [Chemistry] What exactly happens in the brain when someone "Blacks out" from alcohol?
- Why are (some/most) humans instinctively afraid of the dark and feel safe in the light, when through a survival viewpoint it should be the other way around?
- If I forget something in my short-term memory, will it ever come back to me in my long-term memory or is it gone forever?
- What causes "butterflies", as in the feeling in your stomach when you're nervous?
- If temperature depends on the speed of moving molecules, is the absolute hottest temperature when molecules move at the speed of light?
- Is there a language that dogs understand better then any other?
- Can someone please explain how electricity works?
- How are jet engines able to pump compressed air and fuel into an extremely high pressure compression chamber without back flow?
- Is there any difference between "light guide" used in LED backlight and a piece of acrylic with a surface that is roughed up?
- What makes spinal cord tissue different than other tissue than can repair itself when damaged?
- In String theory, do existing Standard Model elementary particles map 1-to-1 with strings (with only their shape and mode of vibration differing), or does String theory propose some existing elementary particles to be composed of more than one string?
- If glass reflects UV light, then why are we unable to safely look at the sun through glass?
- Why do Atoms in the Stern-Gerlach experiment always scatter into two bands?
- Do microorganisms also require sleeping?
- How round IS the sun?
- Can a star just fizzle out?
- How do organisms that live at low altitudes differ from organisms that live at high altitudes from an evolutionary standpoint?
| Posted: 04 Dec 2017 05:00 AM PST Atomic clocks are among the most precise scientific instruments ever made, and play an important role in advanced navigation, secure communication, and radar technology. Kyriakos Porfyrakis and Edward Laird of the University of Oxford are working on building a hyperprecise atomic clock that could fit on a chip inside a smartphone. They begin with a nitrogen atom, which resonates at a particular frequency and acts as a very precise reference point by which to track time. Since nitrogen is highly reactive, they have to trap the nitrogen atom inside of an endohedral fullerene-a sort of atomic cage made out of 60 carbon atoms-in their lab. To do it, they used a process called ion implantation. This process produces a molecule called N@C_60 that can easily be collected and stored (they even sell it for £200 million per gram). But before they could put the molecule in a clock, they also had to figure out how to cancel out magnetic fields from the surrounding environment that could disrupt the energy level of the nitrogen atom within. Earlier this year, they developed a way to shield the nitrogen atom from external magnetic fields by applying a steady magnetic field that would cancel out any effects. They recently wrote about their work for IEEE Spectrum (https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/materials/to-build-the-worlds-smallest-atomic-clock-trap-a-nitrogen-atom-in-a-carbon-cage). They'll be here starting 12 PM ET (17 UT). You can ask them about GPS, atomic clocks, nanomaterials, or anything else! [link] [comments]  |
| Which is stronger: the windows on planes, or the lowest windows on a cruise ship? Posted: 04 Dec 2017 12:23 AM PST Sometimes windows on cruise ships are low enough that they can have waves crashing into them (or even be underwater? maybe?). I would think it's a matter of pressure but I don't know that much about physics. I would also think the cruise ship ones have to be stronger because a tiny leak of water sounds worse than a tiny leak of air. Either way just something I was wondering. [link] [comments]  |
| [Chemistry] What exactly happens in the brain when someone "Blacks out" from alcohol? Posted: 03 Dec 2017 07:22 PM PST I am guessing that some kind of block happens so nothing can reach long term memory, but I am not sure why a lot of alcohol causes this. I am wondering what happens on a chemical level as to why when someone consumes a lot of alcohol they "Black out" and cannot remember anything the next day. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Dec 2017 06:50 PM PST This is kinda psychology/biology maybe? Sorry if it's tagged wrong. If darkness enables an animal to hide from others, wouldn't we feel better in the dark rather than in the light because we're more exposed in the light? Does it have something to do with the fact we aren't accustomed to seeing in the dark and some other creatures are? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Dec 2017 06:43 PM PST For example, if I meet a guy who tells me he lives in x city, but a few days later I can't remember what city he lives in, will that information ever come back to me without me actively trying to recall it? [link] [comments]  |
| What causes "butterflies", as in the feeling in your stomach when you're nervous? Posted: 03 Dec 2017 10:27 AM PST |
| Posted: 03 Dec 2017 03:20 PM PST |
| Is there a language that dogs understand better then any other? Posted: 03 Dec 2017 12:00 PM PST |
| Can someone please explain how electricity works? Posted: 03 Dec 2017 08:28 PM PST This has always been in my mind but I just never seemed to ask anyone or google the answer. I've always wondered how a flashlight turns on just from a switch or how a tv lights up when you press a button. I know it has to do with something dealing with electrons getting excited or something like that but I never understood the big picture. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Dec 2017 12:03 AM PST I know the presence of turbines but since they take energy from the very exhaust from the combustion chamber, they shouldn't be able to compress air to a higher internal energy/pressure than their very own energy source - the combustion chamber. I believe the same question could be asked of liquid fuel rockets' plumbing. EDIT: By compression chamber I meant Combustion chamber [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Dec 2017 02:12 AM PST |
| What makes spinal cord tissue different than other tissue than can repair itself when damaged? Posted: 03 Dec 2017 10:16 PM PST |
| Posted: 04 Dec 2017 01:19 AM PST |
| If glass reflects UV light, then why are we unable to safely look at the sun through glass? Posted: 03 Dec 2017 07:19 PM PST |
| Why do Atoms in the Stern-Gerlach experiment always scatter into two bands? Posted: 03 Dec 2017 10:43 PM PST My understanding of the experiment is that each band is created by one of the possible values for an atoms magnetic dipole moment. I also thought that magnetic dipole moment was based on both the spin and the angular momentum quantum numbers, meaning that there should be always an even number of bands (as opposed to the odd number of bands predicted prior to the knowledge of the existence of spin). Is there something about space quantization or spin that I'm not getting? [link] [comments]  |
| Do microorganisms also require sleeping? Posted: 03 Dec 2017 07:11 AM PST |
| Posted: 03 Dec 2017 08:44 PM PST More or less round than the earth? A billiard ball? The official kilogram in France? And how do we know? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Dec 2017 08:21 PM PST As I understand, a star will either go supernova or turn into a black hole. But is it possible for a star to just cool off? Turn into a lump of heavy elements all fused together? If so could a fusion reactor do the same thing ( fuse a bunch of atoms together and get a macro clump of fused hydrogen or something)? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Dec 2017 10:32 AM PST |
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