Weather architects of the year 2050 A.D.
Artist Dennis Oppenheim’s “Whirlpool” project, from the summer of 1973, sought to create an artificial tornado on the bed of a dry desert lake in Southern California. It was intended as a “3/4 mile by 4 mile schemata of tornado,” the above image explains, “traced in [the] sky using standard white smoke discharge from aircraft.”…
New microscope produces 3D movies of live cells in action
It’s been a big week for the world of the small. In a new microscope breakthrough, researchers have figured out how to use a minuscule sheet of light to produce movies of living cells, revealing mitosis in action and illuminating cells’ three-dimensional architecture with the greatest detail ever seen. The technique uses a highly focused,…
Is gravity left-handed?
Is gravity left-handed? An answer could provide a clue to a long-sought theory of quantum gravity – and might be within our grasp by 2013. General relativity describes gravity’s actions at large scales. For tiny scales however, a theory of quantum gravity, incorporating quantum mechanics, is needed. But first physicists need to understand gravitons, hypothetical…
