August 2011
Posted August 29, 2011
Wind and waterfalls:
When I think of a waterfall, I generally expect the water to fall down under the influence of gravity. This video shows what happens when really strong on-shore winds interact with small waterfalls on the coast of Australia.
Posted August 22, 2011
Mimic octopus:
I had not heard of the mimic octopus until last month, and I found this video really amazing. Animal intelligence is really difficult to measure, but octopuses certainly show behaviors that appear to require some significant brain power.
Posted August 15, 2011
Launch of Juno:
On August 5, 2011, NASA launched an Atlas V rocket carrying Juno, a new probe that will study Jupiter and the origin of the solar system. The Juno project includes a couple of firsts: this is the first mission beyond the asteroid belt that will use solar panels to supply power, and this will be the first probe to go into a polar orbit around Jupiter. Juno is also carrying three custom Lego figures, one of the the Roman god Jupiter, one of his wife, Juno, and one of Galileo.
Jacob Clark Blickenstaff is Assistant Professor of Physics and Assistant Director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Southern Mississippi.