The Year in Planets
February 01, 2012
2011 was a good year in the hunt for planets outside our solar system. The record for smallest extrasolar planet was broken...twice! Scientists found a diamond planet, a planet straight out of science fiction and orphan planets with no solar system to call home. Today we'll recap some of the highlights of the year.

Physics of the Inversion
January 18, 2012
This time of year some areas of the world, including Salt Lake City Utah, experience an inversion, where cold air gets stuck on the ground underneath a layer of warm air. But doesn't cold air sink and warm air rise? Why is this the exception and not the rule? Learn why the consequences could be dire if it was.

What's in a year?
January 11, 2012
How do you define a year? One trip around the sun? There are actually different ways to define a year, and those definitions yield different values. Listen and learn why a year can be hard to pin down.

Breathing Gas
January 04, 2012
Join Mike Lucibella as he explains the ups and downs of sound and how gasses can change everything.

How Certain is the Higgs?
December 28, 2011
This week on the podcast, we continue our discussion of uncertainty surrounding the Higgs. An announcement from CERN reported an "excess of particles" that could be a hint at the Higgs boson, the particle theorized to give matter mass. Reports on this subject state that the findings are a two sigma result, and a five sigma result would mean a definite discovery. But be warned! This is an oversimplification of the importance of sigma. Hear why, in this week's Physics Buzz podcast.

Higgs 2
December 28, 2011
This week on the podcast, we continue our discussion of uncertainty surrounding the Higgs. An announcement from CERN reported an "excess of particles" that could be a hint at the Higgs boson, the particle theorized to give matter mass. Reports on this subject state that the findings are a two sigma result, and a five sigma result would mean a definite discovery. But be warned! This is an oversimplification of the importance of sigma. Hear why, in this week's Physics Buzz podcast.

Uncertainty and the Higgs
December 21, 2011
Researchers at CERN have announced an excess of particles which might turn out to be the much coveted Higgs boson, the particle theorized to give matter mass. The researchers are excited about the finding, but also say it does not qualify as a discovery. But why all the uncertainty? Why isn't the answer a simple yes or no? Today on the Physics Buzz podcast Calla Cofield talks with Dr. Bob Cousins about the uncertainty surrounding the search for the Higgs boson.

Self Organizing Patterns
December 14, 2011
Researchers have found a way to hide secrete messages inside self-organizing patterns. Self-organizing patterns include zebra stripes, flocks of birds, and termite colonies, to name a few. These examples might seem biological, but it is physicists who study the science of self organizing patterns -- and sometimes hide top secret messages in them.

Fin Power
December 07, 2011
Over billions of years, living creatures have evolved elegant solutions to complex engineering problems that humans are just starting to figure out. Fish and whales have developed ways to swim efficiently in the ocean, which researchers are now hoping to adapt for power generating wind turbines.

Seemingly Unsolvable Mysteries
November 30, 2011
For over 40 years after superconductivity was discovered, scientists wondered if they would ever find the theory behind it. Then suddenly, this seemingly unsolvable mystery was cracked wide open. Leon N Cooper, one of the physicists who won the Nobel Prize for the theory of superconductivity gave a talk emphasizing that we not give up on seemingly unsolvable questions too quickly, and cited many other examples of "unsolvable" mysteries that physics has managed to illuminate.

Too Small to See
November 23, 2011
It's been 100 years since Ernest Rutherford and his lab associates fired helium atoms -- stripped of their electrons -- at a thin sheet of gold, and were shocked to see the atoms bounce back. Rutherford said the results were akin to a bullet bouncing off tissue paper. He realized he'd been given a clue about the structure of the atom -- an object too small to see with light -- and a glimpse into the quantum world.

Lasers Put Pricks in Past
November 16, 2011
A new laser-based technology may one day make it possible for diabetic patients to monitor their blood-sugar levels non-invasively, without drawing a drop of blood. Hear how scientists are using rather simple laser technology, and a few clever tricks, to solve this medical puzzle.

The Dark Twins
November 09, 2011
Dark matter and dark energy are both dark: literally, because they don't interact with light, and figuratively, because they remain mysterious. But we do know that dark matter and dark energy are two totally different things, despite the fact that they are often grouped together. Hear a little more about what makes these two things different, and the things they have in common.

Dust Trail to Alien Life
November 02, 2011
There's a storm of comets bombarding the inner part of the Eta Corvi solar system. What's more? The exact same thing happened to Earth not too long before life started here.

The Physics of ZOMBIES
October 26, 2011
What are your chances of surviving a zombie apocalypse? Calla Cofield explains how physics can help you stay alive.

Accelerating Universe
October 19, 2011
In 2011 the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three men, for their work in discovering that the universe is accelerating as it expands. Join Calla Cofield as she sheds some light on this otherwise dark discovery.

Ig Nobel 2011
October 12, 2011
Think, then laugh. How does Wasabi function as an alarm? What does a 40 year old experiment have to do with GPS? What does a tank have to do with parking in the bike lane? Listen as Mike Lucibella and this year's winners of the Ig Nobels discuss their work, you might find yourself laughing in the name of science.

DDT: It's a bang...really
October 05, 2011
What turns a fast-moving fire into a super-sonic explosion that can punch through concrete? Physicists studying the deflagration to detonation transition, or DDT, think they may understand this dangerous phenomenon.

Faster than Light
September 28, 2011
Last week, a group of physicists announced that they had detected neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light. Whether the results are accurate or not will have to wait for results from other experiments. In the mean time Calla Cofield gives a little background on just how much nature is willing to bend the "faster than light" rule.

9-11 WTC
September 14, 2011
10 years after the towers fell the reflecting pools are about to open to commemorate this tragic event. Join Calla Cofield as she reflects on the physics of the falling towers and lessons for future presidents.

Earthquake
September 07, 2011
The Physics Central team recently got some first-hand experience with the physics of earthquakes.

The SSC
August 31, 2011
The Superconducting Supercollider was going to be the biggest, most powerful particle accelerator in the world. After major budget overruns and delays, Congress pulled the plug and all that’s left today are a bunch of derelict buildings south of Dallas Texas. Where did things go wrong?

Ettore Majorana
August 24, 2011
In 1938, physicist Ettore Majorana boarded a boat for Naples and was never heard from again. Did one of the great geniuses of modern physics choose to end his own life? Or did he have a reason for vanishing? In this edition of the podcast we'll explore a little bit of Ettore's life, his contributions to physics, and his unsolved exit.

Juno to Jupiter
August 19, 2011
The Juno spacecraft lifted off on August 5, 2011 and is now on a five year journey to Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet. From orbit around Jupiter, Juno will gather information that could tell us how our solar system formed.

Coffee Ring Physics
August 11, 2011

Summer of Science
August 10, 2011
Science writer Lizzie Wade and photographer Nick Russell drove 15,000 miles visiting physics labs across the country during their Summer of Science.

Living Laser
August 03, 2011
Scientists have created the first "living laser," using a human cell. Calla Cofield explains the basic physics behind traditional lasers, and how the living laser uses the same principles.

Comic-Con
July 29, 2011
From a Richard Feynman comic book to cosmic dung, physics and Comic-Con intersect in some unusual places.

Independence Day
July 20, 2011
Physics is part of America's history. In fact, one of its Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, is also one of America's most well known physicists. Find out if Franklin really did fly a kite in a lightning storm and what turkeys have to do with scientific progress, this week on the Physics Buzz Podcast.

Magnetic Pulse
July 13, 2011
New research by physicists at the University of Philadelphia shows that magnets can reduce the viscosity, or the thickness, of blood. High viscosity can cause heart attack and stroke, so the new results suggest that magnets could one day contribute to treating high blood viscosity.

BigBOSS
July 01, 2011
David Schlegel of Berkeley National Laboratories is leading a team that’s making the biggest, most detailed three dimensional map of the known universe. BOSS and its successor BigBOSS will be able to peer back in time to when the universe was young, and dark energy was just starting to appear on the scene.

Quantum Man
June 29, 2011
Richard Feynman is one of the most dynamic and ebullient larger-than-life characters in modern physics. Mike Lucibella sat down with physicist and author Lawrence Krauss to talk about his new biography Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science.

Alligator Faraday Waves
June 22, 2011
Alligators flirt with physics

A Supernova Close to Home
June 15, 2011
Did a supernova recently go off close to our solar system? If it did, how would we know?

Big Bang Theory
June 08, 2011
Hear Bill Prady, writer and producer of 'The Big Bang Theory' speak on using the sitcom platform to get the public excited about science, and respond to criticisms of the popular television show.

Accelerators
June 03, 2011
When one hears the words "particle accelerators," it conjures up the image of giant atom smashers, but really those are the ones that capture the imagination of the press. Mike takes a look at some of the other particle accelerators and how they can be as vital to research as a test tube or a microscope.

Coolest Brown Dwarf
June 01, 2011
Scientists think they may have found the lowest temperature brown dwarf ever detected. What's so cool about that?

Neutrinos for Peace
May 25, 2011
Neutrino scientists are helping to prevent nuclear proliferation.

APS April Meeting
May 18, 2011
Calla and Mike team up to discuss the APS Physics Meeting. Join Calla and Mike as they search for planets, discuss the Higgs Boson and how this research reflects on current science issues.

Magnetic Plants
May 11, 2011
Are plants magnetic? Scientists at the University of Berkeley have recently tried to find out.

IceCUBE
May 06, 2011
At the bottom of the world in the frozen Antarctic ice fields Physicists, like Spencer Klein of Berkeley Lab, are looking for evidence of one of the most exotic fundamental particles in the Universe, the Neutrino.

Carbon Nanotubes
April 27, 2011
Scientists are using carbon nanotubes to detect cancer cells in the bloodstream. The nanotube device is about the size of a dime and could provide a low cost and portable way to test for cancer.

Rodeo Physics
April 20, 2011
Inventor and former rodeo rider Stephen Wharton uses physics to measure the power of bucking bulls.

Solar Storms Part 2
April 13, 2011
What a solar storm looks like from Earth's perspective and what precautions we can take to prevent loss of satellites and power grids? Find out in part two of our podcast on solar weather.

For More Information:

Space Weather Alerts from NOAA:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/index.html

Space Weather Event Categorization: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/NOAAscales/

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

NASA's STEREO solar observatory:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/main/index.html 

Science Comedian
April 08, 2011
Join Mike Lucibella as he interviews Science Comedian, Brian Malow.

Solar Storms Pt. 1
April 06, 2011
Join Calla Cofield as she learns about solar weather and the impact it has on our lives.

Carnivorous Bladderwort
March 23, 2011

The carnivorous bladderwort is the fastest carnivorous plant known to man. It achieves this awesome title with the power of physics.

Gamma Ray Vision
March 16, 2011
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope lets us look at the universe in gamma ray vision: the highest energy, shortest wavelength form of light there is. But what we see in the gamma ray sky presents some big questions. Calla Cofield talks with Keith Bechtol, a researcher with the FGST Collaboration.

The Sound of Stars
March 09, 2011
Mike Lucibella interviews William Chaplin, a researcher at the University of Birmingham who uses asteroseismology, the music of the stars, to study stars' resonance.

AAAS Advances Science
March 02, 2011

From the 177^th meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Mike and Calla report on physics in unexpected places.

Finding Habitable Planets
February 23, 2011
NASA's Kepler mission, launched in March of 2009 to search for extrasolar planets, has found a system with five Earth‑like planets in the habitable zone, where liquid water may exist. Now, Kepler needs
your help in the hunt for other planets.

Magnetic Sponge
February 09, 2011
Engineers at Duke and Harvard Universities are working on a new technology that could eventually administer medical drugs to patients
via a very small sponge that squishes up under the force of a magnetic
field.

The Cat Lap
February 03, 2011
After watching his own cat lapping up its breakfast one morning, MIT Engineer Roman Stocker wanted to know just how the cat moved liquid from the bowl to its mouth. The answer is unexpected, and it involves some interesting physics.

International Year of Chemistry
January 26, 2011
It’s the start of the International Year of Chemistry, and it’s always
good to start with the basics. What is chemistry, and how does it
relate to physics?

Black Hole Hunter
January 19, 2011
Join Andrea Ghez in her search for black holes and what kind of mysteries these invisible celestial beings.

Glowing Snail Shells
January 12, 2011
These shells glow!  Learn what makes these snails glow and why they glow in this podcast.

Tycho Brahe
January 05, 2011
What killed Tycho Brahe, the Father of Modern Astronomy?  Calla Colfield explores the man and the mystery of his death.

How Fast Can Santa Travel?
December 15, 2010
How fast would Santa have to move to be able to deliver all those presents in one night?  He may not be traveling fast at all, but rather very slowly.

Iridescent Glass
December 08, 2010
Most of the colors we see everyday arise from chemicals like dyes.  Unlike these colors, iridescence arises from structure. Iridescent objects change color depending on the angle that light hits the object.  Scientists have been able to create this iridescent structure in glass.

Exotic Particles
December 01, 2010
"Particles going through my body, cosmic rays!  That sounds unbelievable; what are these particles flying through the air and how can go they go right through me?" Podcaster, Mike Lucibella asks this and many other questions to try make the unbelievable believable.

Neutron Star
November 17, 2010
Scientists at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) have measured the most massive neutron star ever recorded.

The Granular Gripper Gizmo
November 10, 2010
Soft robots? You heard right. Scientists at the University of Chicago demonstrate a new example of soft robotics, with their "bean bag gripper." Based on the physics of granular materials, this robotic gripper picks up delicate and oddly shaped objects by gently molding to them, then locking in place.

USA Celebrates Science
November 03, 2010
Mike Lucibella takes us on a journey through the inaugural USA Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall.

The Twitter Method
October 25, 2010
Twitter certainly has become an ever-present part of our lives.  Twitter may even be able to tell us what people are really concerned about,what issues are grabbing their attention and what topics are generating the most discussion.  Physicists have devised a method to gather this information and give it meaning beyond just a tweet.

Ig Nobel 2010
October 21, 2010
"Sometimes science needs to laugh at itself and that's where the Ig Nobel Prize comes in." Mike Lucibella takes us there in this weeks installment of the Physics Central Podcast.

Graphene
October 20, 2010
Researchers at the University of Maryland College Park, announced a new record for the fastest spinning object, graphene.

Colliding Planets part 2
October 13, 2010
Mike Lucibella interviews Mark Kuchner about the discovery of a dust cloud around a binary star system, possible evidence of colliding planets.

Colliding Planets part 1
October 06, 2010
In today's podcast, PhysicsBuzz talks to Marc Kuchner from NASA Goddard about planets orbiting around binary stars. Kuchner and his colleagues recently reported their findings from the Spitzer Space Telescope, which showed that planets around binary stars can have a rough life. They discovered a ring of diffuse dust and believe it may be all that's left of an unfortunate planet that was too close to its dying star.

When Black Holes Collide
February 26, 2010
We sat down with the physicist Joan Centrella to talk about how black holes collide.

Poking around a physics meeting
August 24, 2009
A physics meeting can be an intimidating adventure with Nobel laureates and sophisticated talks. Calla and Nadia poke around an APS Meeting in Denver, CO and talk with some students about their experiences at the conference.

Maxwell's Demon is back
June 19, 2009
Researchers are tricking atoms and fooling entropy with lasers. Although their experiments don't actually violate the laws of thermodynamics, they have applications to quantum computing and gravity mapping.

Dr. Chris Monroe on Quantum Superposition
May 19, 2009
The Physics Buzz team takes a trip over to the University of Maryland to visit Dr. Chris Monroe, the leading quantum teleportation physicist. Dr. Monroe uses the strange phenomenon of quantum entanglement, which Einstein called "spooky action at a distance" to instantaneously transport information between two atoms. In this podcast, we get to the heart of this matter and try to understand the curious concept of quantum superposition.

New Years Resolutions Part 3
January 23, 2009
In this podcast we describe some of the major experiments and concepts that physicists hope to resolve this year. This is part 3 of 3.

New Years Physics Resolutions Part 2
January 23, 2009
In this podcast we describe some of the major experiments and concepts that physicists hope to resolve this year. This is part 2 of 3.

New Years Physics Resolutions Part 1
January 23, 2009
In this podcast we describe some of the major experiments and concepts that physicists hope to resolve this year. This is part 1 of 3.

Where the Sun Meets the River
November 27, 2008
Scientists have observed a correlation between solar activity and river flow.

Reconnecting Lightning
October 16, 2008
Bolts of lightning often resemble the forked, branches of trees. However, researchers have figured out the conditions that allow for spark branches to reconnect, overcoming the electrostatic repulsion that usually causes them to separate.

Whale Flipper Bumps
October 02, 2008
Why are humpback whales more agile in the water than other whales? Scientists discovered that the bumps on humpback flippers decrease water turbulence. This allows the humpback whales to tilt their flippers up  and achieve greater lift over other whales and hence gives more maneuverability.

Amoeba Reasoning
September 18, 2008
Scientists discovered that some single celled organisms can learn to adapt to their environment. This is an astonishing discovery since single cell organisms don’t have a brain. Previously, scientists thought that the learning process required many brain cells working together.

Back Flip Limit
September 04, 2008
Scientists have calculated that 4 back flips is the upper limit for a dare devil motorcyclist. The energy required for the height and rotation of 4 back flips is the maximum amount of energy that the motorcycle can produce.

Diamond Bug
August 21, 2008
A certain bug has a material on its back that reflects light similar to crystal structure of diamonds.

Snakes Can Hear in Stereo
February 27, 2008
A team of physicists recently confirmed that snakes listen with their jaws.

Waves & Bubbles
June 18, 2007
Hear about ocean waves, bubbles, sound, and global warming.

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