Case closed: MIT gumshoes solve 'throbbing' oil mystery

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Professors Roman Stocker left and John Bush display a mixture of oil detergent and water. Their research explains what happens when an oil drop containing a water-insoluble surfactant is placed on a water surface. Photo: Donna Coveney
Professors Roman Stocker, left, and John Bush display a mixture of oil, detergent and water. Their research explains what happens when an oil drop containing a water-insoluble surfactant is placed on a water surface. Photo: Donna Coveney

Hey kids! Try this at home. Pour clean water onto a small plate. Wait for all the ripples to stop. Then mix a small amount of mineral oil with an even smaller amount of detergent. Squeeze a tiny drop of that mixture onto the water and watch in amazement as the oil appears to pump like a beating heart.


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All News summaries for July 17, 2007

A Critique of Shortsighted Anthropic Principles

11 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
Many people marvel that we live in a universe that seems to be precisely tailored to suit the development of intelligent life. The observation is the basis for some forms of "Anthropic Principles" that strive to explain why ...

Snakes Hear in Stereo

11 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
Physicists from the University Munich in Germany and the University of Topeka, Kansas have strong new evidence that snakes can hear through their jaws. Snakes don't have outer ears, leading to the myth that they can't hear ...

Rochester's Omega Laser Receives 50-Fold Power Increase to Become 'Petawatt' Laser

11 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
The University of Rochester will mark another important step in the effort toward attaining sustainable fusion, the ultimate source of clean energy, Friday, May 16.

First measurement of entangled states in nitrogen

May 15, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
When atoms form molecules, they share their outer electrons and this creates a negatively charged cloud. Here, electrons buzz around between the two positively charged nuclei, making it impossible to tell ...

Research puts new wrinkle in study of materials folding under pressure

May 15, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Scientists at the University of Chicago and the University of Santiago in Chile have explained, for the first time, the physics that governs how thin materials at scales millions of times different in thickness ...
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