ScienceIQ.com

What Is Autism?

Autism is not a disease, but a developmental disorder of brain function. People with classical autism show three types of symptoms: impaired social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and unusual or severely limited activities and interests. Symptoms of autism usually appear during the first three years of childhood and ...

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WhatIsAutism
Medicine

Civets Lesson

Recently a Chinese television producer fell ill with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, better known as SARS. He is the first victim in many months, although an epidemic last year claimed nearly 8000 ... Continue reading

CivetsLesson
Science

Benjamin Franklin, Science Founding Father

While popularly known for his role as one of the United States' founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin was also a renowned scientist who made a number of substantial contributions in the field of Earth ... Continue reading

BenjaminFranklin
Engineering

Hollywood To The Rescue

Sixty years ago, World War II was driving many advances in the sciences; a surprising number of these developments have evolved to impact our lives today. At the beginning of the war, scientists and ... Continue reading

HollywoodRescue
Engineering

New York to London in Less Than Two Hours

If flying from New York (USA) to London (UK) in less than two hours sounds like science fiction, continue reading. On September 1, 1974 Major James V. Sullivan, 37 (pilot) and Noel F. Widdifield, 33 ... Continue reading

FastestPlane

X-Rays - Another Form of Light

XRaysA new form of radiation was discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Roentgen, a German physicist. He called it X-radiation to denote its unknown nature. This mysterious radiation had the ability to pass through many materials that absorb visible light. X-rays also have the ability to knock electrons loose from atoms. Over the years these exceptional properties have made X-rays useful in many fields, such as medicine and research into the nature of the atom. Eventually, X-rays were found to be another form of light. Light is the by-product of the constant jiggling, vibrating, hurly-burly of all matter.

Like a frisky puppy, matter cannot be still. The chair you are sitting in may look and feel motionless. But if you could see down to the atomic level, you would see atoms and molecules vibrating hundreds of trillions of times a second and bumping into each other, while electrons zip around at speeds of 25,000 miles per hour.

When charged particles collide - or undergo sudden changes in their motion - they produce bundles of energy called photons that fly away from the scene of the accident at the speed of light. In fact they are light, or electromagnetic radiation, to use the technical term. Since electrons are the lightest known charged particle, they are most fidgety, so they are responsible for most of the photons produced in the universe.