The Magnus Effect Is Cool! Learn More About It In @veritasium Video: Https://youtu.be/2OSrvzNW9FE

18 Science Facts We Didn't Know at The Start of 2017

We've learned so much already.

1. Lungs don’t just facilitate respiration - they also make blood. Mammalian lungs produce more than 10 million platelets (tiny blood cells) per hour, which equates to the majority of platelets circulating the body.

2. It is mathematically possible to build an actual time machine - what’s holding us back is finding materials that can physically bend the fabric of space-time.

3. Siberia has a colossal crater called the ‘doorway to the underworld’, and its permafrost is melting so fast, ancient forests are being exposed for the first time in 200,000 years.

4. The world’s first semi-synthetic organisms are living among us - scientists have given rise to new lifeforms using an expanded, six-letter genetic code.

5. Vantablack - the blackest material known to science - now comes in a handy ‘spray-on’ form and it’s the weirdest thing we’ve seen so far this year.

6. It’s official: time crystals are a new state of matter, and we now have an actual blueprint to create these “impossible” objects at will.

7. A brand new human organ has been classified, and it’s been hiding in plain sight this whole time. Everyone, meet your mesentery.

8. Carl Sagan was freakishly good at predicting the future - his disturbingly accurate description of a world where pseudoscience and scientific illiteracy reigns gave us all moment for pause.

9. A single giant neuron that wraps around the entire circumference of a mouse’s brain has been identified, and it appears to be linked to mammalian consciousness.

10. The world’s rarest and most ancient dog isn’t extinct after all - in fact, the outrageously handsome New Guinea highland wild dog appears to be thriving.

11. Your appendix might not be the useless evolutionary byproduct after all. Unlike your wisdom teeth, your appendix might actually be serving an important biological function - and one that our species isn’t ready to give up just yet.

12. After 130 years, we might have to completely redraw the dinosaur family tree, thanks to a previously unimportant cat-sized fossil from Scotland.

13. Polycystic ovary syndrome might actually start in the brain, not the ovaries.

14. Earth appears to have a whole new continent called Zealandia, which would wreak havoc on all those textbooks and atlases we’ve got lying around.

15. Humans have had a bigger impact on Earth’s geology than the infamous Great Oxidation Event 2.3 billion years ago, and now scientists are calling for a new geological epoch - the Anthropocene - to be officially recognised.

16. Turns out, narwhals - the precious unicorns of the sea - use their horns for hunting. But not how you’d think.

17. Human activity has literally changed the space surrounding our planet - decades of Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio communications have accidentally formed a protective, human-made bubble around Earth.

18. Farmers routinely feed red Skittles to their cattle, because it’s a cheap alternative to corn. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Proof without words - Pi

This was intended to be posted on Pi-day earlier this month, but somehow that didn’t happen.

Hope this beautiful pi gif on this sizzling Saturday puts a smile on your face and guides you through the day.

Have a good one!

Photo credit: Lucas V. Barbosa via Wikimedia Commons

** FYP’s Pi-day post ( if you are interested )

You might be an engineer if you know how long a zeptosecond is. (It's a trillionth of a billionth of a second!) http://ow.ly/uUUb30caXrH 

Vantablack absorbs 99% of light and is the darkest material ever made.

There's an app for that

A “master list” of apps that are essential to student life.

Flashcards

Quizlet - Flashcard app that has pre downloaded flashcards and you can make your own flashcards. Available on multiple platforms

Duolingo - Language flashcard app

Flashcards+ - Another flashcard app

Math

Luna Calculator - calculator app ($2.99 on iOS)

Wolfram Alpha - online math solver

Symbollab - online math solver

Productivity & Planning

Forest - Grows a tree for every thirty minutes you are off your phone. If you touch your phone, the tree dies. ($0.99 on iOS)

FocusNow - Free version of Forest for iOS. Instead of trees, it grows fruits and vegetables. 

30/30 - Great time management app

Any.Do - Great app for creating to-do lists, organize tasks, syncs with other devices. You can also change the priorities on certain tasks. 

Studious - Great app on Android that reminds you when homework is due, when exams are and even silences your phone during class. 

StayFocused - A chrome extension that you can customize to limit the time on websites to stay productive

Self Control - Allows you to block your own access to distracting websites for a certain amount of time. Useful for people who get distracted on the computer (Also known as Cold Turkey for Windows).

My Study Life - Student planner app

myHomework Student Planner - another Student planner app

To-do List - extensive to do list, like an online bullet journal

Learning

Itunes U - For any apple device users, a app that gives you access to free educational courses 

TED - The whole catalog of TED talks at your fingertip. 

Wikipedia - Free encyclopedia that can be used for general references

Khan Academy - study videos (absolutely amazing app/website)

Music 

Coffitivity - coffee shop soundtrack

8tracks - great playlists, especially study playlists

Wake Up Calls

Alarmy - good alarm that will force you out of bed

Sleep Cycle - measures your sleep cycle

Math Alarm - alarm clock that forces you to do math to turn the alarm off, get’s your brain going 

Class Lectures and Note Taking

Dragon Dictation - takes notes for lectures (useful for classes where professors talk faster than you can type)

XMind - mind mapping tool

Notability - another app for recording lectures. ($2.99 on iOS)

These are just a few study apps that can be useful for studying. I will add more (or make a new list) later as I learn about them; feel free to message me to add some to this list. 

NTU and JTC develop enhanced fire protection for steel

Credit: shutterstock/Anusorn Abthaisong

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and national industrial developer JTC have unveiled what they are calling a 3-in-1 coating for better fire and corrosion protection.

‘In a fire, our coating forms a compact charred layer that acts as a protective barrier against the heat,’ explained Aravind Dasari, a Principal Investigator at the NTU–JTC Industrial Infrastructure Innovation Centre.

Called FiroShield, the coating functions like regular paint and is easy to apply, according to the research team. It can be applied on bare steel without the need for sand blasting, and provides protection against fire for two hours. 

Dasari explained, ‘While typical fire coatings will also form a charred layer, those are thick and foam-like, which can fall off easily and leave the steel exposed to the fire. What we aimed at was an innovative coat that works differently from conventional intumescent coatings and can stick to the steel surface for as long as possible under high temperatures, and yet has durability and weather resistance under normal conditions without a need for a top coat of paint.’

To find out more see the January issue of Materials World or visit  bit.ly/2nft8Z3

In mathematics there is a concept known as ‘Conformal Mapping’ which allows you convert a given shape to a completely different one by making a transformation.

In the joukowski transform you take all the points on a circle and apply the following transform:

And the resulting transformed points resemble an aerofoil shape. Pretty cool huh ?

** Conformal mappings are a really cool topic in complex analysis but also equally extensive. If you want to know more about them click here

Coloring Book Celebrates Mathematical Beauty of Nature with Hand-Drawn Golden Ratio Illustrations

We started looking at fluctuating loads last time - that is, loads that feature some combination of non-zero mean and alternating stresses - and how to account for them using a Goodman diagram. Let’s re-examine the bracket design problem we did earlier. This time, instead of a fully-reversed load, we’ll assume a fluctuating load with a mean force of 200 lbs, a minimum force of 50 lbs, and a maximum force of 350 lbs. We’ll say the dimensions of the bracket are those we calculated earlier that could handle the fully reversed load. (Problem adapted from Machine Design: An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed., by Robert L. Norton.)

Most of the calculations we did earlier will still hold. We won’t need to recalculate the endurance limit or stress concentration factors. The only new things we need to do are calculate the mean and alternating stresses and the new safety factors.

First step is to calculate the mean and alternating force.

From here, we get the mean and alternating moment.

We’re dealing with a situation of simple bending, so we can calculate mean and alternating stress using the basic bending stress equation.

The geometry of the part hasn’t changed, so we’ll apply the same stress concentration factors that we used before.

Great. We’ve got our new stresses. Now we need to figure out safety factors. As we mentioned earlier, this is now a slightly more complicated proposition. Which safety factor is appropriate will depend on how the alternating and mean stress behave in relation to each other. The possible failure states are shown as points A, B, C, and D on the Goodman diagram for this situation.

We’ll step through all the possible situations one by one using the new stresses we calculated and the endurance limit we got earlier.

Case 1: Constant alternating stress, variable mean stress.

Case 2: Variable alternating stress, constant mean stress.

Case 3: Alternating and mean stress are proportional to each other.

Case 4: Alternating and mean stress vary independently.

We take the worse case, with the failure state F being as close as possible to the current stress situation.

Our design will survive all four cases. Note that Case 4 is always the most conservative case - if you don’t know what your stresses are going to do, this is the one to go with.

It’s a good Sunday. 🤗

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Experimental Saturday

Meet the ‘400k pie’

Banana whey protein bread

Interesting and fun stuff

Work vs Hobbies [Comic]

Use a Pencil to Freeze Sauce into Usable Portions

Bake the Perfect Pound Cake

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Bake Off

Recipe lists

10 PUMPKIN SPICE FAVORITES

Ten Minute Meal Prep Recipes and Prep Ideas

10 DESSERTS AND COOKIES TO TRY FOR FALL

20 PUMPKIN RECIPES FOR FALL

25 APPLE RECIPES TO GET YOU READY FOR FALL

19 OF THE BEST EASY & HEALTHY ONE PAN MEALS

Our Favorite Pumpkin Recipes

Food days

Cheeseburger 🍔

Butterscotch Pudding

Rum Punch 🍹

Pecan Cookies

White Chocolate

Top recipes!

Classic Snickerdoodles

Fresh & Flavorful Strawberry Cake Recipe

Double Chocolate Brownies

RED VELVET SUGAR COOKIES RECIPE

BROWN SUGAR POUND CAKE

Ginger Fig Tart with Chestnut-Almond Crust {vegan & gluten-free}

RED VELVET MACARONS WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

My Mom’s Homemade Spaghetti and Meat Sauce

APPLE FRITTER PANCAKES

Bacon Tomato and Spinach Spaghetti

PUMPKIN PIE SPICE PROTEIN SMOOTHIES

Apple Spice Ricotta Donuts

pumpkin gnocchi with sage butter sauce

Mashed Potato Fries

QUICK POTATO ROLLS

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