Aaron O’Connell: Making sense of a visible quantum object | Video on TED.com: “Physicists are used to the idea that subatomic particles behave according to the bizarre rules of quantum mechanics, completely different to human-scale objects. In a breakthrough experiment, Aaron O’Connell has blurred that distinction by creating an object that is visible to the unaided eye, but provably in two places at the same time. In this talk he suggests an intriguing way of thinking about the result.”

My mind is blown.

YouTube – SpartanburgDaySchool’s Channel

The Incredible Shrinking Proton That Could Rattle the Physics World | 80beats | Discover Magazine: “But the big story this week in Nature is that we might have been wrong all along in estimating something very basic about the humble proton: its size.

A team from the Paul-Scherrer Institute in Switzerland that’s been tackling this for a decade says its arduous measurements of the proton show it is 4 percent smaller than the previous best estimate. For something as simple as the size of a proton, one of the basic measurements upon with the standard model of particle physics is built, 4 percent is a vast expanse that could shake up quantum electrodynamics if it’s true.”

Of course this has major ramifications for how we view the current model of the nucleus, atom and the quantum world.

As we continue to learn more and more about the quantum world (using the LHC and other particle accelerators), we’ll continue to run into problems like this… which is why we need you all to hurry up and become scientists.

…Niko, the N900-powered Lego robot, looks poised to take over Twitter (video) — Engadget: “a machine called Niko that has Lego Mindstorm NXT 2.0 components for a body and an N900 for a brain. The bot has been under construction for a few weeks but it has just made its YouTube debut with the short video posted after the break, showing it roving around and taking a photo whenever it bumps into something.”

Love that they replaced the NXT’s brain with a Nokia N900.

You can follow (and command) Niko on Twitter.

Next week, we’ll start our studies on “Fluid Dynamics” which is Chapter 11 in your book.

That’s just a fancy term for how forces affect fluids.

Sounds boring?

Nope, it’s fun. You’ll see.

How are Pascal’s, Archimedes’ & Bernoulli’s principal applied at a water park?? – Yahoo! Answers: “How are Pascal’s, Archimedes’ & Bernoulli’s principal applied at a water park??”

We’ll be taking Pascal, Archimedes and Bernoulli to the water park next week.

Bring your Dihydrogen Monoxide Coats!

Awesome.

Newton’s Set of Laws! The Song

8th Grade Students at Spartanburg Day School tackle the ideas and implications of string theory… 1 minute at a time.

YouTube Link

Dear Parents -

During our Trip to Washington D.C., I thought it might be informative, entertaining and interesting for you to follow along with some of our exploits and excursions around the capital city.

- If you’d like to get a few glimpses into our trip, I’ll be sending out updates, pictures and videos via Twitter at http://twitter.com/griffinscience

- You can also follow along if you’re on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/griffinscience

- As always my contact info (mobile, email, etc) is located here: http://griffinscience.com/contact-mr-h/ if you have any questions or need to get in touch while we’re on the trip.

Here’s To a Great Trip!

Sam Harrelson
Middle School Science
Spartanburg Day School
mobile: 864-381-7374
sam.harrelson@sdsgriffin.org
http://griffinscience.com
http://www.twitter.com/griffinscience