Most colored materials owe their color to the absorption of light. In nature we often see a different type of coloration, known as structural color: certain wavelengths are transmitted, while others scatter and constructively interfere. Structural colors are common in birds and particularly in blue feathers, which consist of disordered arrays of pores that scatter light. Originally aired February 2022.

Whirlwinds caused by thermal updrafts can pick up dust and become visible, forming 'dust devils'. Largely a harmless curiosity in desert meteorology, they can cause occasional damage. Like earthquakes, there are many small ones, and a few intense ones; the distribution of diameters, or core pressure drops, seems to follow a power law…Watch the video to learn more! Originally aired January 2022.

The sparking of grapes in a household microwave oven has been a popular online parlour trick for decades. Traditional explanations presume that the objects act as conductive short antennas. However, attending to the bulk of these objects as aqueous dielectric spheres with an index of refraction of order 9 (at 2.5 GHz) provides new and exciting…Watch the video to learn more! Originally aired December 2021.

Heat engines have played a central role in our society since the industrial revolution. Producing mechanical work from thermal energy, they have been widely used to generate motion, from ancient steam engines to modern internal combustion motors. In the past decades, heat engines have been successfully miniaturized down to the nanoscale, eventually…Watch the video to learn more! Originally aired November 2021.

Shortfin mako sharks are considered the cheetahs of the open ocean, with some estimates putting speeds greater than 60 mph. However, the secret to their speed may lie in more than just their powerful muscles and streamlined shape, it may also have to do with the microscopic scales that cover their skin. Originally aired October 2021.

While the classical vacuum of empty space is static, and perhaps a bit dull, the reality of the quantum vacuum is anything but boring. Electromagnetic fields are constantly fluctuating and can give rise to measurable consequences. One striking effect is the Casimir force, where quantum fluctuations between two charge neutral plates give…Watch the video to learn more! Originally aired September 2021.

This webinar explores jugglers' dependence on muscle memory and dynamical prediction. If every throw is considered to be an independent event, there exist juggling patterns in which the reaction time required to make successive catches and the precision needed to make perfect throws exceeds human capabilities. Using simulations with Gaussian deviations applied to throw angles and velocities, we reinforce this claim and compare the stability of various juggling patterns known as siteswaps. We show that throw angles and velocities affect very distinct aspects of juggling performance, and we obtain criteria on each that are needed to avoid juggling failures. Originally aired August 2021.

In this talk we will discuss rare earth elements from two interlocking perspectives: (1) The physics, rooted in quantum mechanics, responsible for their physical properties exploited in vast technologies. (2) The economics and global supply challenges, which play out in complex, impactful ways. Originally aired July 2021.

An opportunity to learn how a spacecraft mission, Juno, helps us understand the nature and environment of our solar system’s most massive planet, a body that may have influenced how Earth and life came to exist. Topics covered include a summary of how the mission happened, how we decided which questions to ask, what instruments to use and…Watch the video to learn more! Originally aired June 2021.

The Era of the First Stars is the mysterious time when the first stars burst into life, when darkness finally gave way to light. This talk will unveil our pursuit of these incredible stars, and offers a first-hand look at the immense telescopes about to come on line to peer into the past. Originally aired April 2021.