Scientific World

On January 28th 1986, NASA, the United States, and really, the world at large, suffered a great loss ion the Challenger disaster. What was scheduled to be another important part of NASA's shuttle program turned into a tragedy that resulted in the decimation of the space shuttle and the loss of all 7 people on board. Below, we'll take a look back on what exactly happened, and the legacy and impact of the disaster. What Happened?  Above is a video of the Challenger disaster occurring LIVE on national television. Just 73 seconds after lift off, the shuttle starting to break apart. Immediately following that was the shuttle's descent into the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Florida (Note: it was launched at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida). It is believed that several of the crew members were actually alive until impact with the ocean; however, they were very likely unconscious during the shuttle's plunge. The impact of the ocean surface was just too stron

For decades, NASA has been just about the only organization that comes to mind when people think "space". A response to the rapidly improving technology of the Soviets during the Cold War, NASA has remained the most important 4 letter acronym in space travel since its inception in 1958. Since then, some of the greatest accomplishments in aerospace engineering have come courtesy of the organization, including the Space Shuttle program and, of course, landing the first human on the moon. How about reliving that historic moment one more time? NASA has captured the imagination of people all across the world - children and adults alike. While the organization has done wonders for space exploration and will continue to be an important player as we push the boundaries of our capabilities…things need to change. Things need to change NOT because NASA is incapable of taking us deep into the solar system. Things need to change because it is very likely that, moving forward, NASA

It's been cold lately. I mean really, really cold - enough to make me curse at the howling and frigid winds as they assault by cheeks. But a lot of that sounds like a bunch of whining, doesn't it? I mean, how cold could it really be, right? Well, according to Curiosity, the great Mars rover, today, it is colder in Canada and in many of the Northern states than it is at its current location on Mars! Here's the tweet from Curiosity's Twitter page: All of the blue regions are areas that are colder than much of the Martian surface…and that includes pretty much all of Canada (lucky British Columbia!). So to all of the Canadians (and northern Americans), if you were out and about at all today, then just this one time, you can whine and complain however much you want!

Looking back on history, there are a few scientific breakthroughs that tend to catch our immediate attention. Perhaps it's the publishing of Newton's Principa or Euclid's Elements or Einstein's miracle year, 1905, in which he changed our understanding of space, time, and the quantum world. Although these examples are certainly worthy of our attention, it's important to remember that science is an ongoing process…and I mean it's happening right now! Even this year, we've had quite a few advances in various fields of science that may just have planted the seeds to future revolutions. Here's a look at some of the most significant discoveries or advances of 2014:  January  Successful Production of Artificial Cells   Right at the dawn of the new year, for the first time in history, chemists were able to successfully produce the first artificial cell, containing organelles. Mimicking our very own biological cells that we are familiar with, th

Instellar turned out to be okay. I'm not going to go to any further extremes with my choice of adjective here because I honestly felt like I didn't completely waste my money watching it in theatres…so that's nice. At the same time, as a huge 2001: A Space Odyssey fan, I must admit that I carry a heavy bias against the film for being, in my mind, a poor rehash of the greatest sic-fi classic of all time.  But regardless of my opinions on the movie or on the overrated Christopher Nolan, one thing I can discuss objectively is the science presented in Interstellar. Just how accurate are the different elements of physics in the movie? We'll analyze each one:  Drought/Crop Blight The entire plot of the movie relies on a premise that is a bit shaky in my opinion: all of earth is in the midst of a crop blight that apparently will only deteriorate. (Note: A crop blight is basically the sudden, widespread "death" of crops). Now, the problem with this is that

Just a quick reminder to primordial wave enthusiasts: the Planck satellite team will make the instrument's data publicly available on December 22nd 2014! If you don't know, way back in March of this year, the BICEP2 team, situated in Antarctica, made an experimental discovery that seemed to confirm the theory of inflation. In other words, we had ostensibly understood the evolution of the universe up to a fraction of a second after it came into existence (I'm talking a really small fraction; something close to 10 to the minus 30 seconds!). Everything seemed great, especially since the experimental results yielded a very strong r value of 0.2. However, the Planck satellite, which was simultaneously conducting similar experiments and attempting to tackle the exact same question as BICEP2 initially put forth contradicting results, with an r value of just 0.11. Of course, at that time, only half of the Planck satellite's data was in, so it was difficult to compare