MPJ

In the last post of the Beth's Q&A we tried to understand four basic forces and their corresponding particle carriers or bosons. With almost certain discovery of the Higgs boson physicist completed the search for this last mystery of the standard model and we now know how larger particles get their mass and how interact with each other. Now is the time to bring this story up one level and write about chemical elements representing basic 'lego' blocks of almost everything in the universe we currently comprehend. Hmm, everything but mysterious dark matter that we still don't have a clue what it's made of. Every now and again in media (mostly internet) we can read about how we all are made out of stars and other violent events in the universe dating back in time even so far in the past to the Big Bang itself. Following some of this articles Beth posted another idea for the thread and I am paraphrasing her thoughts: "I keep reading we are made from the ...

If you start thinking of augmented reality, what will come to your mind first? Well, I don't know about you, but if you ask me, there is no doubt it's the car keys. Yes, car keys. Let me explain. This is one of those weird situations when you're approaching your car from a distance and vainly trying to unlock the door with your fancy wireless keys. You are simply too far away from the car. But if you put the keys next to your head and try again, your brain will do the magic. It will augment the poor thing and considerably enhance the wireless range, and the car will no longer be locked. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself. I don't remember exactly where I saw this, probably in those documentary shows like "Brainiac" or "Top Gear", but it works every time. The human body is a large conductor when it comes to radio waves, and it easily alters the field when it's close to a transmitter or receiver, but still, this is a very nice example of ho...

Do you remember Sony's first cassette-based Walkman that was remarkably playing stereo audio magnetic tapes back in the 80s? Yes, everybody had it at the time, hanging on the belt with a pair of shiny wires playing music directly to both ears in awesome stereo. Compared to the 21st century, who doesn't like the iPod, right? Well, not me. I never liked it, and I always thought everybody was staring at me the moment I stepped out of the house. Even today I am not using any MP3 players, iPods, or smartphones for listening to music on the go. I simply want to think while walking; it relaxes me, and it's a great brain exercise. But let me get back to the Walkman of the 80s. I had a couple of those as well, but on occasions when I carried one from home to school, I wasn't listening to pop music. I had that one audio cassette with the complete audio track from the movie "Star Wars", and I am not talking about the soundtrack that accompanies the movies - it was...