The Whitest White We learned the Blackest Black has some incredible applications, beyond turning objects into mind-melting black holes. A substance that can absorb nearly all the light that hits it can work marvels on telescopes or solar cells. The secret to carbon nanotubes – the structures that make the serious blacks possible – is to bounce […]
Eigengrau Close your eyes. What color do you see? Disregard any of the artifacts that linger from light sources that impacted your eyes before you closed them. Those kaleidoscopic blobs are fascinating, but they’re not what we’re after here. They should fade relatively quickly. Some people experience these light shows all the time, thanks
The Blackest Black Color is a prismatic subject, if we can strain an adjective to its limits. Are black and white colors? Open your box of crayons; white and black will likely nestle in the neat rows. So, they’re colors, right? In physical optics, however, black and white are not treated as colors. Check a
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The World’s First Forest If you had to guess, where would you place the planet’s oldest forest? The world’s oldest known tree – a bristlecone pine called Methuselah – is nearly 5,000 years old. Technical definitions of “forest” are nebulous, but they largely revolve around biomes that contain numerous trees. Forests see trees come and go, some
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Taters, the Space Laser Cat “Everyone loves Taters.” –Ryan Rogalin, Jet Propulsion Laboratory In our current understanding of the cosmos, nothing travels faster than light. All the incarnations of the electromagnetic spectrum move at 299,792,458 meters per second in a vacuum, which is approximately 186,000 miles per second or 671 million miles per hour. That’s some serious
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Frisson You’re at a concert and hear a thrilling or moving musical snippet, perhaps a particularly soulful bit of vocals or a combination of instruments that seem to mimic a truth of the universe. You’re in a dark theater and watch a heartwarming bit of acting on the screen or stage that deftly displays complex
Puffins We recently declared the Dalmatian to be one of the most recognizable dogs on the planet. Certain types of critters are so distinctive that most humans can identify them with just a glimpse. Some of these animals stand out because of their size or shape, such as the elephant or the crab, but not necessarily their
The Dark Lady of DNA For many decades following the 1950s, biology classes across the United States and the world drilled two names into the heads of students in relation to unraveling the “secret of life.” Which brilliant scientists unlocked the famous double helix of deoxyribonucleic acids – aka DNA – the coding chains of life on
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Mast Years In many parts of the Midwestern and Eastern United States (and perhaps more of the country), Autumn 2023 has contained a bit of an oddity. Yard owners and hikers have noticed a spate of squirrels on the prowl and a seemingly unending deluge of nuts on the ground. A member of my family
Infantile Amnesia On my eldest daughter’s second birthday, we ferried her to one of her favorite parks. After cake, singing, and gifts at a shelter house, I took her toward the playground. When we approached the slides, a smile erupted on her face that seemed to illuminate the entire planet. It was one of the