Physics on EARTH Magazine

Physics on EARTH Magazine https://www.earthmagazine.org/tags/physics/ Recent content in Physics on EARTH Magazine Hugo en-US American Geosciences Institute. All rights reserved. Mon, 15 Oct 2018 10:13:05 -0400 Going subterranean: Repurposed mines become innovative labs https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/going-subterranean-repurposed-mines-become-innovative-labs/ Mon, 15 Oct 2018 10:13:05 -0400 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/going-subterranean-repurposed-mines-become-innovative-labs/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/going-subterranean-repurposed-mines-become-innovative-labs/DUNEprototypeCERN_2.jpg" alt="A technician works inside a roughly 500-cubic-meter neutrino detector during its construction in April — one of two liquid argon detectors being built at the European Organization for Nuclear Research's (CERN) facility near Geneva, Switzerland. Known together as ProtoDUNE, the detectors at CERN are prototypes of four larger versions to be built at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) — housed in the former Homestake Gold Mine near Lead, S.D. — as part of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). Credit: CERN." loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>A technician works inside a roughly 500-cubic-meter neutrino detector during its construction in April — one of two liquid argon detectors being built at the European Organization for Nuclear Research's (CERN) facility near Geneva, Switzerland. Known together as ProtoDUNE, the detectors at CERN are prototypes of four larger versions to be built at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) — housed in the former Homestake Gold Mine near Lead, S.D. — as part of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). Credit: CERN.</figcaption> </figure> <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/going-subterranean-repurposed-mines-become-innovative-labs/IMG_3691.jpg" alt="The headframe of the historic Soudan Iron Mine on a frigid day in northern Minnesota. The mine, which ceased operations in 1962, is now operated as a state park and also hosts scientific research. Credit: Josh Knackert." loading="lazy" decoding="async"> <figcaption>The headframe of the historic Soudan Iron Mine on a frigid day in northern Minnesota. The mine, which ceased operations in 1962, is now operated as a state park and also hosts scientific research. Credit: Josh Knackert.</figcaption> </figure> <p>At about 5 a.m. on a frigid, icy February day in northern Minnesota — the kind of day when it feels like your eyeballs might freeze — a group of about 10 undergraduates in a geobiology course at the University of Minnesota-Duluth jumped onto a bus, headed for a destination far more temperate and out of the elements — or, rather, deep below the elements. Joined by their professors, microbiologist <a href="https://www.aquaticgeomicro.com/">Cody Sheik</a> and geologist <a href="http://www.latishabrengman.com/">Latisha Brengman</a>, as well as a few others (including yours truly), the students arrived, two hours later and still before daybreak in the Minnesota Northwoods, at the visitor center and museum for the historic <a href="https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/lake_vermilion_soudan/tours.html">Soudan Iron Mine</a>. The mine began operations in 1882 as an open pit mine, but moved underground about 20 years later and ceased mining in 1962.</p> Laser experiments illuminate landslide physics https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/laser-experiments-illuminate-landslide-physics/ Tue, 16 Jun 2015 13:26:45 -0400 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/laser-experiments-illuminate-landslide-physics/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/laser-experiments-illuminate-landslide-physics/Particles.jpg" alt="Researchers used beads filled with laser-activated dye to reveal the behavior of granular materials during landslides. Credit: Felice Frankel and Joshua Dijksman." loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>Researchers used beads filled with laser-activated dye to reveal the behavior of granular materials during landslides. Credit: Felice Frankel and Joshua Dijksman.</figcaption> </figure> <p>How does cereal pour from the box? Why do grains of wheat become wedged inside a hopper? What happens to soil when a slope collapses in a landslide? And, more broadly, what do these diverse phenomena have to do with each other?</p> Benchmarks: May 29, 1919: Solar eclipse "proves" relativity https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-may-29-1919-solar-eclipse-proves-relativity/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-may-29-1919-solar-eclipse-proves-relativity/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/benchmarks-may-29-1919-solar-eclipse-proves-relativity/Dyson,%20Eddington,%20Davidson" alt="" loading="eager" decoding="async"> </figure> <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/benchmarks-may-29-1919-solar-eclipse-proves-relativity/Cristian%20Matei" alt="" loading="lazy" decoding="async"> </figure> <p>On May 29, 1919, the moon’s silhouette crept slowly over the sun, bringing premature night to observers in a broad swath of the Southern Hemisphere between South America and Africa. Few onlookers realized that this event would provide the first successful test of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.</p> Electrical failure shuts collider down for the winter https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/electrical-failure-shuts-collider-down-winter/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/electrical-failure-shuts-collider-down-winter/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/electrical-failure-shuts-collider-down-winter/i-83-7d8-9-1a.jpg" alt="CERN's Large Hadron Collider CERN" loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>CERN's Large Hadron Collider CERN</figcaption> </figure> <p>Well, it had a short run: Only nine days after going online Sept. 10, CERN's <a href="http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/106-7d8-9-9">Large Hadron Collider</a> has already gone south for the winter, due to an electrical failure Friday. The LHC was always scheduled for winter shutdown and maintenance, due to the costs of fuel, but that wasn't supposed to happen until the end of November. Now, CERN says, the necessary inspections and repairs will likely not be completed much before that scheduled shutdown date.</p> Raindrop study splashes old assumptions https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/raindrop-study-splashes-old-assumptions/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/raindrop-study-splashes-old-assumptions/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/raindrop-study-splashes-old-assumptions/i-21e-7d9-7-17.jpg" alt="Wikimedia Commons" loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>Wikimedia Commons</figcaption> </figure> <p>Predicting the weather has been central to human civilization since the Babylonians started studying cloud patterns in 650 B.C. The key to weather predictions is making correct assumptions. Today, instruments like Doppler radar that measure rainfall work under the assumption that raindrops fall at their terminal velocity. A new study, however, shows that some raindrops fall faster than they should, indicating rainfall instruments — and by extension, weather forecasts — may need some tweaking.</p> The Big Turn-On https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/big-turn/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/big-turn/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/big-turn/i-76-7d8-9-9.jpg" alt="The underground tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider accelerator ring, where the proton beams are steered in a circle by magnets. CERN" loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>The underground tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider accelerator ring, where the proton beams are steered in a circle by magnets. CERN</figcaption> </figure> <p>Tuesday, Sept. 9, 11:30 a.m. EDT — Fourteen years in the making, the $8 billion Large Hadron Collider comes online Wednesday at last (although, when you think about it, that's not really that long to wait for a machine that may reveal some of the mysteries of the universe).</p> TV: Discovery Channel grows more curious https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/tv-discovery-channel-grows-more-curious/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/tv-discovery-channel-grows-more-curious/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/tv-discovery-channel-grows-more-curious/i-4a6-7db-8-c.jpg" alt="Stephen Hawking illustrates the principles of gravity in 'Curiosity.' Discovery Channel" loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>Stephen Hawking illustrates the principles of gravity in 'Curiosity.' Discovery Channel</figcaption> </figure> <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/tv-discovery-channel-grows-more-curious/i-4a7-7db-8-c.jpg" alt="Hawking sitting in the dining hall at the University of Cambridge. Discovery Channel" loading="lazy" decoding="async"> <figcaption>Hawking sitting in the dining hall at the University of Cambridge. Discovery Channel</figcaption> </figure> <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/tv-discovery-channel-grows-more-curious/i-4a8-7db-8-c.jpg" alt="Milky Way galaxy. Discovery Channel" loading="lazy" decoding="async"> <figcaption>Milky Way galaxy. Discovery Channel</figcaption> </figure> <p>At first, it is difficult to distinguish the Discovery Channel’s new show “Curiosity” — in which celebrity-scientists and science-oriented celebrities each host an episode purportedly answering a big question — from the many other similar shows on television, especially on Discovery itself. The premiere episode, which aired in August and was hosted by Stephen Hawking, appears to be a rehash of that old chestnut of science television, the question of how the universe began. The first clue that you are perhaps about to see something different is the disclaimer: “This program examines the creation of the universe through the commentary and opinions of Professor Stephen Hawking.” Then the question: “Did God Create the Universe?”</p>