The Massey Lectures are an annual event in Canada, where one person gives five different public speeches over the course of a month. This year, the speaker is theoretical physicist Neil Turok. He's also the director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Institute is sponsoring a contest where you can win tickets to the lectures (there are two left) or copies of Turok's latest book. The grand prize, though, is the really exciting bit. One lucky winner will get a 7-day trip for two to both the Perimeter Institute and CERN (home of the Large Hadron Collider). Feeling lucky? Enter your name in the drawing by October 24.
Enter a drawing for a chance to win a trip to CERN
Study demonstrates that anti-radiation phone stickers do nothing
Can stickers—as in adhesive- or magnetic-backed paper—block phone radiation? Not these ones, says the University of Surrey in England. The stickers are sold by a U.K. company, Energydots, to exploit the country's pitch into 5G conspiracy theories and mystic paranoia. The stickers are about $35 each, shipped; Energydots has also falsely claimed to be in… READ THE REST
Floating a foil boat on heavier-than-air gas
Others have done this demo, but this is a great recent example in a large tank full of sulfur hexafluoride. Their demonstration of its voice-lowering properties was not as good as some, though. Image: YouTube / Da Vinci TV READ THE REST
Is the human gaze a physical force?
Is the human gaze a physical force? It sure feels like it sometimes. Princeton University researchers scanned subjects' brains to gain insight into why we subconsciously interpret "other people's visual attention as an invisible, force-carrying beam projecting from the eyes." This isn't about the paranormal investigations into whether you can "feel" when someone is staring… READ THE REST
This espresso press can turn out a brilliantly powerful brew in minutes and it's less than $50
If you're a coffee-lover, specifically, a lover of espresso, then you already know that picking up an espresso machine is not cheap. Those machines pressurize boiling water, then fire it at finely ground coffee beans for a richer, more caffeine-fueled result than your normal drip-brewed coffee. That specialization is why many won't pay for a… READ THE REST
Get over 90 hours of top instruction on Calculus, Number Theory, and more with this Mathematics training package
Even if you're never broken out in a cold sweat at the thought of having to complete a problem, know this – math anxiety is 100% real. And we aren't just talking about 7-year-olds who suffer from stomach aches driven by their fear of math class. Turns out, even the anxiety of teachers who have… READ THE REST
This app can turn all your reading into a podcast so you can get more done
When you're toddling around the web, you probably can't go more than a click or two before bumping into some content you want to read. But, you've got a busy life, so the list of articles and other assorted stuff that you'll "read later" just gets longer and longer and longer. Half of the reason… READ THE REST