On this day in physics: On 12 January 1968 scientists conducted what they called a "controlled excursion", burning up a nuclear rocket in Nevada. It produced a radioactive cloud over Los Angeles. Not everything that's history worthy is great. This should definitely be a reminder that as scientists we should act as responsibly as possible and always consider every possible consequence to our experiments and actions.
Word of the Day: It was too tempting not to cover Dark Matter after covering matter yesterday. It's kind of an interesting word of the day since noone knows exactly what it is. Remember yesterday how I told you how almost everything is made up of matter? Well, it wasn't really true. Roughly 5% of our universe is made of matter. Another 25% is made up of what we refer to as Dark Matter. As we understand the motion of planets and galaxies, based on the mass that we can calculate from what we see, their motion behaves as if they are much more massive, or as if more mass exists somewhere close, but does not emit light in any way that we can detect. That's how it got its name dark matter.
A couple of weeks ago, China launched a probe whose entire purpose is to go on a search for dark matter. Read more about it here.
Killer Resource: Space Shuttle Launch From an Airplane- If this doesn't get you pumped up I don't know what will. Also, if that's not enough, check out these pictures of a shuttle launch from a high-altitude research aircraft here.
Keywords: Dark Matter, Radioactive Cloud, Dark Energy, Matter, China, Space Shuttle
