Science, News & Critical Thinking.

Ask Science – How Many Megapixels Does the Human Eye Have?

Ask Science – How Many Megapixels Does the Human Eye Have?

Jun 26, 2012

Can you measure the human eye with megapixels, and if so how many megapixels is the human eye? Yes and no. There are about 120 million rods (black and white receptors) and about 5 million cones (colour receptors), so the total resolution of your eye would be about 125 megapixels… But you can’t really stop the comparison there, since about 5% of your...

Ask Science – Would a nuclear bomb be as destructive in outer space as in the atmosphere?

Ask Science – Would a nuclear bomb be as destructive in outer space as in the atmosphere?

Jun 18, 2012

Nope, the bulk of destruction from a Nuclear blast comes from the initial shockwave and the cavitation caused by the blast. In a vacuum the energy from the blast would dissipate rapidly as the inverse square law of radiation dictates. So after a kilometer, it would be half as strong. After 2 kilometers it would be 1/4 as strong, after 3 kilometers, it would be...

SpaceX – The First Privatized Orbital Space Agency – Enjoys Successful Mission

SpaceX – The First Privatized Orbital Space Agency – Enjoys Successful Mission

Jun 14, 2012

Florida, May 22, 2012. On May 31 2012, SpaceX successfully completed the historic mission that made Dragon the first commercial spacecraft in history to visit the International Space Station. Previously only four governments — the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency — had achieved this challenging technical feat. SpaceX has successfully...

Ask Science! How long would it take a thermos of coffee to freeze in space?

Ask Science! How long would it take a thermos of coffee to freeze in space?

Jun 10, 2012

In order to answer that we need a formula that describes the surface area of an object, how much energy it has, and what it’s thermodynamic temperature, or ‘absolute’ temperature. In simpler terms… how big its surface is, and how cool it can get, in how much time. Since coffee is mostly water, we’ll just use plain water in our...

One Eyed Robot – Teaser

One Eyed Robot – Teaser

Jun 1, 2012

I’m almost done. Here is my first motion test now that all the control circuits are worked out.

Ask Science! Can you “catch-up” on your sleep after having a few short nights?

Ask Science! Can you “catch-up” on your sleep after having a few short nights?

May 9, 2012

We take some questions from Redit’s ‘Ask Science’ section and attempt to answer some questions. Can you catch up on your sleep after you’ve had a few short nights? And how do sleep cycles work?