Aquinas Physics

Boredom, alienation and anxiety in the maths classroom? Here's why

Brian Hudson, <i>University of Sussex</i><p>The quest for appropriate teaching and learning practices for children and young people is ongoing and ever present. A major challenge is to make maths teaching more inclusive and maths itself more accessible to a wider cross section of children and young people. …

Six technological breakthroughs inspired by nature

<i>By Cat DiStasio</i><p>Biomimicry is an incredible field that seeks to unlock nature's deepest, darkest secrets and then use them to solve human problems. Many of the scientific breakthroughs in biomimicry have far-reaching applications ranging from new medical technologies, to methods of space …

NASA: Earth’s magnetic poles are ‘switching’ with catastrophic consequences for humanity

NASA•GETTYThe Earth's magnetic field (left) would be gone, leaving us at the mercy of solar flares<p>The US space agency confirmed fears that we may be …

19 impossibly detailed views of Earth from space at night

Nothing makes me feel more connected to the rest of the human race than seeing the Earth from space at night.<p>National borders vanish, and rivers of light unite our towns and cities into a single glowing tapestry.<p>Just look at this incredible view of Europe, sparkling with artificial light:<p>Er, wait a …

Winning astronomy photos of the year show our amazing universe (pictures)

The Physics of Federer-Nadal

If you're a tennis fan, and a fan of Rafa Nadal in particular, the last seven months probably felt like the period in rock n' roll history in which …

Forget Dark Energy: MIT Physicists Have Finally Cracked Overhand Knots

Topology meets shoelaces.<p>A big rock climbing fall is called a whipper. A climber may be protected from "hitting the deck" by a rope, but there are many routine occasions in which the rope accumulates slack. Any slack translates directly to a corresponding amount of freefall for the wayward climber. …

An energy expert’s tweetstorm is the perfect snapshot of climate change's danger

What we are doing to the atmosphere now is going to leave a lasting impact for millennia, according to Shauna Theel, a clean energy policy expert and a Louis Bacon Environmental Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.<p>Theel recently spat out 10 amazing tweets that completely sum up what we …

How fast could humans travel safely through space?

The current speed record has stood for 46 years. When will it be beaten, asks Adam Hadhazy.<p>We humans are obsessed with speed. Recent months, for instance, brought news that students in Germany have broken the record for the fastest accelerating electric car, and that the US Air Force plans to …

10 Formative Assessments Tech Tools to Put to the Test in 2015

Students require constant feedback in order to be actively engaged and strive towards growth while learning new concepts. Technology, as an …

A New Study Says Spending Time In Nature Does Something Amazing to Your Brain

The scientific explanation behind our love for the country.<p>The next time you're feeling frustrated or angry and someone tells you to "go take a …

You Know What's Pretty Weird? Bicycle Physics

Even to actual physicists.<p>I remember with surprising clarity the day I was to learn to ride a bike <i>the hard way</i>. I'm not sure if that's how it was put exactly, but it probably involved something to the effect of learning to ride a bike "like a man" or somesuch, e.g. without training wheels.<p>This was …

Einstein: His Space and Times by Steven Gimbel, review: 'a complex nut'

From fathering a secret daughter to declining the presidency of Israel, Albert Einstein lived a life of mystery, argues Nicholas Shakespeare<p>In 1905, a young patent clerk in his office in Bern wrote a paper that overturned the study of physics. Working one day, Albert Einstein – a scientific nobody …

Some first results from the new, higher-energy Large Hadron Collider

On 3 June this year, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN began delivering particle collisions at an energy 63% higher than previously achieved. This week in Vienna, first physics results were presented. Here are some highlights<p>The European Physical Society High Energy Physics conference is taking …

A Brief History of Everything, feat. Neil deGrasse Tyson

3D 'white graphene' could keep electronics cool - Futurity

Three-dimensional structures of boron nitride might be the right stuff to keep small electronics cool.