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Physics

Archimedes Would Be Proud of This Now-Bright Norwegian Town

Inspiration for the idea traces back to the 212 BC legend about Archimedes’ burning mirrors used to set Roman battle ships ablaze

The In-Depth Science of Why a Beer Bottle Erupts When You Whack It

More than you ever thought you needed to know about the physics of erupting beer bottles

There’s a Universal Law of Urination in Mammals

They all take an average of about 21 seconds to empty their bladders, nearly regardless of how big they are

Your Cheat Sheet to the 2013 Nobel Prizes

Love them or hate them, here we provide you with the sound bytes you’ll need to at least discuss them

How Much Abuse Can a Single Lego Brick Take?

Forget iPads, if you want a long lasting toy stick with blocks

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Cow Tipping Never Was And Never Will Be a Thing People Actually Do

Scientists have actually taken the time to investigate the idea, and produced some hard numbers that indicated that cow-tipping “has no leg to stand on”

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Clouds Obscure Clear Climate Forecasts

Ride alongside NASA’s Airborne Science Laboratory as scientists try to figure out the role of clouds in climate change

Astronomers traced 2011 QF99, circled in green, across the sky to find that it shared an orbit with Uranus.

Temporary Companion Leads Uranus in Its Race Around the Sun

A small asteroid that orbits ahead of the seventh planet offers a clearer picture of the ongoing celestial pinball game in the solar system’s outer reaches

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The Star Tau Boo Flips Its Magnetic Field, Too

Scientists watched the magnetic field of a star 51 light years away flip back and forth

What is it that makes honey such a special food?

The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life

A slew of factors—its acidity, its lack of water and the presence of hydrogen peroxide—work in perfect harmony, allowing the sticky treat to last forever

This Astronomer Recreated Starry Night with Hubble Space Photos

Alex Parker used the top 100 images from the Hubble Space telescope to create his rendition of Starry Night

Here’s an Incredible Image of Venus Passing in Front of the Sun

The tiny black dot on the top lefthand side is Venus.

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One Physicist Thinks the Universe Is Not Expanding—And He Might Not Be Crazy

Christof Wetterich can also explain the “red shift” that supports the idea of the Big Bang

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This Amazing Interactive Shows What The Sun Would Look Like Anywhere, Anytime

These simple gifs show the motion of the Sun through the sky, anywhere on Earth

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Nobel Prize Winners Are Put to the Task of Drawing Their Discoveries

Volker Steger photographs Nobel laureates posing with sketches of their breakthrough findings

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Watch This Blob of Ferrofluid Multiply Faster Than the Sorcerer’s Apprentice’s Broomstick

Ferrofluids are pretty much the coolest thing ever

The Trinity University pitch drop setup

After 69 Years, Second Oldest Pitch Drop Experiment Observes Drop

After 69 years, the pitch has finally dropped

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Scientists Get Best View Yet of the Structure of Glass

The amorphous solid holds many mysteries, but a new study using a high-powered microscope shows that atoms in glass are organized into distorted shapes

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Weird Blips Randomly Change the Length of Earth’s Days for Months on End

Three times in the past decade the length of the day has jumped

The Sun’s tail, or ‘heliotail,’ as seen by IBEX.

For the First Time, NASA Took a Photo of the Sun’s Tail

Stretched by the interstellar medium, the Sun’s tail stretches far behind us

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