The Science of Mentos and Diet Coke

The Science of Mentos and Diet Coke

Jun 16

The startling reaction between Diet Coke and Mentos sweets, made famous in thousands of YouTube videos, finally has a scientific explanation. If you drop a pack of Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke, you get this huge fountain of spray and Diet Coke foam coming out," says Tonya Coffey, a physicist at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. "This was a good project for my students...

xkcd

xkcd

Jun 12

A great xkcd comic about the sciences and their pecking order.

Top Ten Animals in Space

Top Ten Animals in Space

Apr 16

Many animals have been put into space. Here I list my favourite space critters, including the Orbiting Frogs for which this very blog is named.

Incoming Message from the Big Giant Head

Incoming Message from the Big Giant Head

Jan 20

Originally posted in August 2007. There was a New Scientist feature last week on Boltzmann Brains. Now I hadn't heard of these before, and so I thought it may be worth a blog post. A Blotzmann Brain is an intelligent, self-aware entity which arises as the result of a random fluctuation in the entropy of the universe. I have put this post back on the front page for a while as it has generated...

Science and the Internet

Science and the Internet

Jun 25

If the tail was smarter, the tail would wag the dog. Two things have just come back to me at the same time and collided wonderfully, thanks to an article over at Universe Today. The article is one about the liquid mirror telescope that a NASA researcher proposes could be built on the Moon in the near(ish) future. The eagle-eyed among you may recalled I blogged the same story back in May,...