Fridaygram: science education, simulating galaxies, spider webs
By Scott Knaster, Google Code Blog EditorMost software developers started getting interested in technology at an early
age. With that in mind,
Google Roots in
Science and Engineering (RISE) is a program that annually awards grants to groups
that come up with great new ways to teach students in Computer Science (CS) and science,
technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This year’s awards were
just
announced. The winners included a program that helps
primary school students in Dublin,
girls in the
San Francisco Bay Area, and
kids in Uganda who want to learn about
technology.
Scientists love to have reproducible results so
they can test theories and ideas. What if you’d like to reproduce the creation of a galaxy?
That task is still out of scale for humans, but scientists at the Laboratoire pour
l'Utilisation de Lasers Intenses (LULI) have figured out a
lab
procedure that simulates the magnetic fields in newly formed galaxies. The
experimental version uses lasers and carbon rods in place of clouds of gas and dark matter,
but the results are useful, and you don’t need a galaxy-sized lab to work in.
Narrowing our view from giant galaxies to little spiders, a
new study
says spider webs are not just strong, but also have the ability to become either
stiff or soft, as necessary. Spider webs are also designed to stay as strong as possible when
strands are damaged. So spiders are good engineers.
Finally, you might
use some of your weekend time to ponder this
Vi Hart video about SpongeBob
SquarePants and Fibonacci sequences.
Fridaygram
posts are just for fun. Fridaygrams are designed for your Friday afternoon and weekend
enjoyment. Each Fridaygram item must pass only one test: it has to be interesting to us nerds,
and we certainly love our lasers.
