Index of recent reviews:

 -  Index of recent Reviews available upon request:

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-  2773 -  FINE  STRUCTURE  CONSTANT  -  The fine structure constant is a measure of electromagnetism and it is one of the four fundamental forces in nature (the others are gravity, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force).  The fine structure constant is the quantity that physicists use as a measure of the strength of the electromagnetic force.

-  2774  - MARS  -  the first helicopter flight?  See Review 2772 to learn about missions to Mars and this latest mission scheduled for next month, August 2020.  This review is about the helicopter that is hitching a ride and will deploy when Rover lands on the planet in February, 2021.

-  2775 -  LIGHT -  why the constant speed?  The speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second.  But why does it have the value that it does? Why isn't it some other number? And why do we care so much about some random speed of electromagnetic waves? Why did it become such a cornerstone of physics?

-  2776  -  MARS - 4th rock from the sun.   Mars is the forth rock from the Sun and is the easiest planet for us to get to.  Since 2007 we have 3 satellites orbiting Mars and 2 robots roving around the surface.  The robots take pictures and run tests on the soil sending the data up to the satellite overhead to be relayed back to Earth.  

-  2777  -  EYE  -  a prosthetic eye for artificial vision? -  In 2005 a medical team invented a prosthetic eye, artificial vision, for the blind.  Many people are blind due to a medical condition where the eye has deteriorated photo sensors in the back of the retina.   In 2020 bionic eye technology is in its infancy but it will do more than prosthetic eyes.  Bionic eye implants work inside the existing eye structures or in the brain. They are designed to achieve functional vision.

-  2778 -  INFRARED  ASTRONOMY  -  new discoveries from an airplane.   Ten years ago, NASA’s telescope on an airplane, the “Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy“, or SOFIA, became operational. Since May, 2010, SOFIA’s observations of infrared light, invisible to the human eye, have made many scientific discoveries about the hidden universe.

-  2779  -  PLANCK  -  microwave background radiation.  The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)  observed by the Planck satellite is a snapshot of the oldest light in our Universe.  It was imprinted on the sky when the Universe was just 380,000 years old. The imprint shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure that being the stars and galaxies of today. 

-  2780  - INFLATION  -  an expanding universe?  -   The Universe is expanding.  Space is growing.  All the galaxies are separating away from each other.  The greater the distance between the galaxies the faster they are separating because there is more expanding space in between them. 

-  2782  -  KUIPER  BELT  -  Name the Tenth Planet?  -  There are some conflicting opinions whether the 10th planet should be called a “planet”.  Maybe it should be called a large asteroid, or comet?  All the objects found beyond the orbit of Neptune are called Kuiper Belt Objects, KBO‘s .  Named after Peter Gerard  Kuiper, 1905 - 1973.  

-  2783  - MARS  -  launch of Perseverance mission.  -  NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is on its way to the Red Planet to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples to send back to Earth.  Humanity's most sophisticated rover launched July, 2020.

-  2784  -  UNIVERSE -  measuring age with the oldest light?  Ancient light from the Big Bang, the start of the Universe,  has revealed a precise new estimate for the universe's age: 13.77 billion years, + or - 40 million years.  This new estimate is based on data from an array of telescopes in the Chilean Atacama Desert.   In addition to how old it is,  how fast is the universe expanding is another question? 

-  2785  -  MARS  -  Jezero Crator exploration?  -  On July 30, 2020 NASA launched its most sophisticated and ambitious spacecraft to Mars in the search for signs of life beyond Earth.   The spacecraft is aptly named “Perseverance Rover“. 

-  2786  -  BRAIN  -  how does it work?   How the brain works remains a puzzle with only a few pieces in place. Remember the brain is trying to figure out itself.  Of these, one big piece is actually a conjecture: that there’s a relationship between the physical structure of the brain and how it functions.  I’ve been thinking about that and here is what I have come up with.

-  2787  -  MARS  -  Curiosity for 8 years.  The NASA’s car-sized Curiosity rover celebrates eight (Earth) years on the Red Planet today (August 5, 2020), less than a week after its replacement the Perseverance rover took flight toward Mars. 

-  2788  -  LIFE  -  how rare in the Universe?  -  We learn about the history of the Universe just by looking at our own bodies. A fully grown adult human is an incredibly complex system, made up of trillions of cells and somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,028 atoms.  Atoms are the building blocks of all matter on Earth, and the Universe.

-  2789  -  TELESCOPES  -  to do a 3D map of the Universe.   Since 2005, scientists have been scanning the night sky to create a three-dimensional map of our universe with the purpose of shedding light on one of the biggest mysteries in physics.  The quest is to learn the true nature and identity of dark energy and dark matter. 

-  2790  -  DARK  MATTER  -  to discover what it is?  -  There is a race to discover “dark matter“. Dark matter is that elusive substance that has mystified science since the 1930s, when astronomers first realized galaxies needed some kind of invisible gravitational glue to hold them together. No one knew what it was, so it was named “dark matter“. 

-  2791  -  MOON  -  measuring the distance?  -  The distance to the Moon is 240,000 miles.  I learned that in High School.  Today the average distance is measured to be 238,856 miles.  Actually that distance can be measured to within less than an inch.

-  2792  -  SPACETIME  -  Theory of Relativity.  How it messed up geometry.    Our Universe isn’t made up merely of three space dimensions, but of four “spacetime” dimensions.  Three of them are space and one of them is time, and that’s where we get spacetime. The shortest distance between two spacetime events isn’t a straight line any longer. Why is that?

-  2794  -  ASTEROIDS  -  and planets visiting us?  Every 50,000 years or so, another star passes near our solar system. Most visitors brush by without incident. But, every once in a while, one comes so close that it gains a prominent place in Earth’s night sky, as well as knocks distant comets loose from their orbits.