science

Check out this video of a high-powered marshmallow cannon fired by President Obama and eighth grader Joey Hudy at the White House.

The second White House Science Fair yesterday gave 100 student winners of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competitions from across 45 states the opportunity to show off neat science projects to the president, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and several well-respected educators and leaders from the science and engineering community.

Perhaps the viral star of the expose is 14-year-old Hudy's "Extreme Marshmallow Cannon," a compressed air-powered weapon that can launch the tasty confections more than 170 feet. The president helped Hudy pump the cannon to 30psi, and then shot the marshmallow across the State Dining Room. … Read more

In 1927, Professor Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland in Australia set out to teach his students a lesson, and that lesson is still going on today and has at least another 100 years to go.

The physics professor wanted to demonstrate to his pupils that solid material could have viscous properties, so he used tar pitch, a derivative of coal once used to waterproof boats, in an experiment to prove his point.

At room temperature, pitch appears to be solid and can even shatter if hit with a hammer, but despite its look and feel, pitch can also flow at room temperature--just really, really slowly.

To conduct the Pitch Drop Experiment, Parnell melted some pitch into a glass funnel with a sealed stem and allowed it to settle for three years. In 1930, the funnel was unsealed, clearing the way for the pitch to flow freely, but it sure did take its sweet time. … Read more

If you have a good mind for puzzles and are a whiz at video games, your may have a calling in science.

Researchers at the University of Washington have devised a video game that lets citizen scientists take a stab at decoding the shape of proteins. The graphical game called Foldit challenges players to predict protein structures and ultimately design their own using a three-dimensional construction tool.

"You could imagine where you come home in the evening and you can either stay up all night playing Halo or be designing an HIV vaccine with people around the world. Which … Read more

A roboticist I know was on a train in Japan when an elderly lady asked him what he did for a living. When he said he builds robots, she smiled and told him she can't wait until she gets a robot nurse.

That isn't how we all hope to live out our final years. Certainly not Frank, a cranky ex-thief who finds himself in the unwanted care of an Asimo-esque robot nurse in the independent movie "Robot & Frank."

The Jake Schreier-helmed feature just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won over critics with its quirky charm. It was based on a short-film idea from Christopher D. Ford, who penned the screenplay.

Starring Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler, and James Marsden, it's set in the near future and explores the comedic possibilities of mixing the unwilling, curmudgeonly Frank with the irrepressible VGC-60L (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard), which is dedicated to making him exercise and eat healthier breakfasts. … Read more

The "Star Trek" universe may be beloved by millions, but it's entirely fictional. Yet one element of Gene Rodenberry's timeless creation may actually help people with their health care decisions in real life.

The problem faced by millions of people around the world, especially in the third world, and in rural areas of the first world, is that there's not always a doctor around to help figure out what's wrong with you--and sometimes, one isn't even necessary. Sometimes, the right technology could help us determine what's going on in our bodies.

That'… Read more

Among the throngs at CES next week there will be a cadre of scientist looking to crack into the consumer electronics world.

There will be 24 companies incubated by the National Science Foundation exhibiting at the Eureka Park TechZone at the event. By creating the zone, the Consumer Electronics Association is looking to highlight innovations from startups.

When it comes to the NSF-affiliated bunch, the technologies are all over the map, touching on electronics, health, and alternative energy. Here's a sampling.

Gamma Dynamics is expected to show off its latest developments in a super-thin, flexible display technology, which could … Read more

I need to disabuse you. Men do not think about sex every seven seconds, as some would have it.

However, they do think about their target sex--be it men, women or other--constantly.

As living proof, might I offer renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. He shouldn't be offering living proof of anything; when he was diagnosed with motor-neuron disease at the age of 21, few thought he would last another 49 years.

Still, in a 70th birthday interview with New Scientist, Hawking finally admitted that physics, Einstein, the Cosmos, aliens--oh, it's all so much dogged piffle when compared to the … Read more

The world is changing fast--maybe faster than we ever thought. And within five years, science fiction is going to turn into non-fiction. We'll be able to read each other's minds, forget all our passwords, and create all our own homes' energy.

These are just three of the five predictions IBM announced this morning as part of its annual "5 in 5" prognostication project.

The list is meant to promote long-term work being done under Big Blue's Smarter Planet initiative--and the company says "5 in 5" already has a track record of success. In … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--A towering Atlas 5 rocket flashed to life and vaulted into space Saturday, putting on a spectacular weekend sky show as it boosted NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory rover on an eight-and-a-half-month, 352-million-mile voyage to the Red Planet.

Equipped with a nuclear power pack, a robot arm, and a suite of sophisticated instruments, the mobile laboratory, dubbed Curiosity in a student naming contest, is expected to spend at least two years looking for organic compounds and signs of past or present habitability in the layered terrain at the heart of a 100-mile-wide crater.… Read more