Category Archives: Physics

Why Moving Clocks Do Slow Down

A cartoon drawing featuring two cartoon character clocks running the London Marathon. One of the two overtakes the other one who is almost stationary and says: "I'm slowwer". Moving clocks do slow down. Cartoon: NaturPhilosophie with AI

At some point, we’ve all heard about time dilation – every sci-fi fan among us in particular.  And yet, moving clocks DO slow down.  This is not a fiction fantasy.  It’s a little thing called Special Relativity.

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Dating Rocks – Methods of Historical Surface Exposure Analysis

Dating Rocks with Cosmogenic Nuclides Artwork: NaturPhilosophie with AI

Our Earth is constantly bombarded with high energy particles and cosmic rays.  These charged particles interact with the atoms in atmospheric gases, producing a cascade of secondary particles.  And you can use those for dating rocks! 

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Zero Point Energy and The Vacuum of Space

Zero Point Energy - The Energy of the Vacuum and Black Holes Artwork: NaturPhilosophie with AI

According to whom you ask, Zero Point Energy can do everything… or nothing at all.  But what is it?  Something that pervades all of space, albeit on a microscale?  The kinetic energy a molecule does retain, even when cooled down to absolute zero?  And could it offer us a source of unlimited energy? 

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Neural Oscillations – Are You Having a Brain Wave?

Brain wave or not brain wave? - Ideation Artwork: NaturPhilosophie

The brain is a bio-chemical organ that emanates electromagnetic waves.  That little, we do know.  And brainwaves are linked to cognitive states from awareness and consciousness, to dream states.  But what are their particularities?  And are brain waves modulated by external frequencies?

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Eliminating the Impossible – The Complex Electro-Chemistry Behind the Hessdalen Lights

Hessdalen Lights II: A composite picture (in negative colours) showing the Hessdalen light phenomenon and people gathered at a lookout point to observe at night. Artwork: NaturPhilosophie

A Norwegian valley.  Strange lights observed by many witnesses.  It has been called “Norway’s Roswell”.  But what makes the remote valley of Hessdalen so different from other locations?

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Identifying the Unidentified – The Hessdalen Light Phenomenon, Norway

Hessdalen Lights: A composite picture showing the Hessdalen light phenomenon and people gathered at a lookout point to observe at night. Artwork: NaturPhilosophie

The Hessdalen Valley of Norway.  Just 15 kilometres across.  Low population density.  But why is there a blue box perched high up on the hillside, with cameras covering the valley?  What’s going on in this secluded valley?! 

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The Brief Flight of the Russian Woodpecker Over The Horizon – And More About Phased Array Radars…

North east of Ukraine, close to the Russian border, is the site of the Duga radar, also known during the 70s and 80s as the Woodpecker – one of the most extraordinary engineering structures ever built.

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Volcanic Unrest and How To Survive It

Over the next century, large magnitude volcano eruptions are many times more likely to happen than all risk of large asteroid or comet impacts combined.  The World is not prepared.

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Engineering A Star – Nuclear Fusion, Tokamaks and Stellarators

An artist's impression of an atom trapped in a containment field made up of Greek-style columns.  Artwork: NaturPhilosophie
A Stellar Reactor

Greifswald, Northeastern Germany, 2016.  Physicists at the Max Planck Institute have been racing to find a way of producing sustainable, clean energy with a stable nuclear fusion reactor. The challenge? Re-creating the Sun’s powerhouse on a much, much smaller scale.

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Our Burning Planet – Beyond Net Zero, Will We Adapt Or Die?

An illustration showing a large part of the Atlantic side of the Northern hemisphere almost entirely engulfed by orange flames, created for the post: Our Burning Planet - Beyon Net Zero Will We Adapt or Die? Artwork: NaturPhilosophie

As World leaders meet for COP26 in Glasgow, the Earth has already reached 1.2 °C warming above pre-1880s industrial levels.

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