geekosystem

Physicists and astronomers have hypothesized the existence of dark matter for decades, but evidence for the substance (if we can call it that?) has been scant at best -- until now, that is. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment (aka AMS), that detector of cosmic rays mounted on the International Space Station, has identified millions of antimatter particles that may provide long-sought evidence for the existence of dark matter.

Ok, I'm just going to say it -- the physicists at Aalto University may have a bit too much time on their hands, seeing as they've taken Wikipedia watching to a new extreme. Working with researchers from around Europe, they've created the first known mathematical model of editorial conflicts in Wikipedia, which tracks the birth, life and occasionally even the resolution of the Internet grudge matches that determine what is fact on the Internet's number one repository of facts.

Geologists at the University of Buffalo are making us think we picked the wrong career today, publishing a study in the journal Physical Review Letters that explores the nature and formation of volcanic maar craters -- bowl-like craters that are formed by volcanic activity, but resemble the impact craters left behind by some meteorites. How, you may ask does one recreate a crater in the lab? The immensely satisfying answer is "in slow motion with a lot of dynamite." As you can see in the short video below which replicates the explosion and aftermath that go into forming one of these craters, we may have missed our calling.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is one of the most well-known and dearly held tenets of modern quantum physics. It's one of those things about science you totally know, even if you don't know you know it. The principle states that on a quantum level, you can't directly measure anything without changing something about it. Thus, it is impossible to measure a particle's position without affecting its velocity, and vice versa. Still confused? Us to, but luckily this Futurama clip explains the matter brilliantly in the first 30 seconds or so. Go ahead, we'll wait. Back? Great. Now that you understand the uncertainty principle, it's time for the news about it. Thanks to new measurement techniques, physicists are no longer certain that the theory holds up.

How water waves are formed, and what shapes they take is something that can easily be taken for granted. Waves are just waves, right? Actually, they aren't, because in addition to variations in size and velocity, waves can also differ in shape. New research into the shapes waves take has documented for the first time a completely different wave behavior called an odd standing wave.

Researchers led by Jean Rajchenbach, Alphonse Leroux, and Didier Clamond of the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis in France discovered two new types of standing water waves, called Faraday waves. The two-dimensional even wave, is new for the type of experiment conducted, but is very similar to another phenomenon witnessed in nature. But, the researchers believe the odd standing wave is something completely new.