Weird & Interesting science, take 2

[Bob Schroeck]

7-ton asteroid explodes over northeast Ohio. It's reported to have survived all the way to the ground, but I haven't seen a confirmation of that yet.

[Dartz]

Researchers affiliated with Harvard Medical School say that popular artists releasing new albums appears to cause traffic fatalities.

Non-technical article on The Register

The results were, if not surprising, then at least statistically significant.

...

According to their analysis of the data, the total number of streams on the release date for major albums increases by nearly 40 percent. Traffic fatalities on those same days also increased, though by a more modest 15 percent.

Working paper (not yet peer-reviewed) on NBER

Nickelback's Silver-Side Up caused 4 plane crashes on release day

[Bob Schroeck]

Tech hobbyist makes shoulder-mounted guided missile prototype with $96 in parts and a 3D printer

[Bob Schroeck]

1-ton meteor comes down over Texas, scatters fragments around the Houston area

[classicdrogn]

I was reading about the tragic fate of poor U.S.S. Grunion and wandered off into a crush-depth related tangent, which can beb summarized into the outline of a practical physics experiment. Most of the time a pressure vessel encounters crush depth it breaks up and releases anything bouyant to float away while the rest sinks, but what if the system as a whole remained intact enough for only not to be part of the picture?

First, assume sea access, or a sufficiently large container of water. The experiment device itself is a test tube or similar vessel of gas at waterline pressure capped with a piston that keeps it from escaping but allows water pressure to compress it as it is submerged. The tube assembly is weighted to bet just buoyant enough to float when placed on the surface of the water. Assume that you wait between each depth change to allow temperature to normalize so only the change in gas pressure is a factor. Since compressed gas is denser than sparse gas at the same temperature, is there a point at which the water pressure will compress the gas enough that the assembly no longer has positive buoyancy? By logic it should, but my logic is not always like your Earth-logic, and what the actual laws of physics have to say about things can be counterintuitive at times.

[robkelk]

Darjeeling loses taste if not hydrated properly

(The tea, not the Girls und Panzer character.)

[classicdrogn]

Well, tankery is physically demanding and fatigue does no one any favors, so it's probably important for her to stay properly hydratyed too.

[Mamorien]

This actually dropped last year (in the February 2025 bumper number of the American Journal of Physics), but I hadn't heard until it showed up in my Google News mobile feed this morning: Ergodic Lagrangian dynamics in a superhero universe by I.L. Tregillis (of Los Alamos National Laboratory) and his fellow New Mexico resident George R.R. Martin.

We present a fictional scenario that, while undeniably whimsical, provides the foundation for a unique exercise in extended problem solving, physics analysis, and quantitative model development. Starting with the foundational premise of the Wild Cards shared-world superhero universe, we demonstrate how a variety of concepts appropriate to the advanced undergraduate level—ergodicity, functional analysis, Lagrangian mechanics, and the ever-important simplifying approximation—can be combined into a rich, coherent mathematical model. The goal of this case study is to develop a useful pedagogical exercise in exploring an open-ended research question that presents, at first glance, no clear path forward. Being both eclectic and lengthy, this exercise offers a unique way for students to apply their core physics and mathematics education. It is perhaps best used within a senior honors seminar or within a brief (e.g., January term) elective class.