ScienceIQ.com

Fahrenheit 100 and Rising

When you are well, your body temperature varies only a little around 37o C. (98.6o F.), whether you're sweating in a steam room or hiking in the Yukon. The hypothalamus in the brain controls body temperature. It works like a thermostat, sensing the temperature of your blood. When a pathogen (disease-causing microbe) invades, however, the body ...

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Fahrenheit100
Engineering

Snakebots Coming Your Way

Early robots were stiff, clumsy machines that plodded in straight lines. More modern robots can be radio controlled and move with much more grace and precision. Snakebots, though, can weave through ... Continue reading

Snakebots
Biology

Synchronicity

There's something called synchronicity that we've probably all experienced at one time or another. Some people prefer the term 'meaningful coincidence.' You're thinking about your friend from high ... Continue reading

Sinchronicity
Astronomy

Ancient Planet

Long before our Sun and Earth ever existed, a Jupiter-sized planet formed around a sun-like star. Now, almost 13 billion years later, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has precisely measured the mass of ... Continue reading

AncientPlanet
Physics

How Lasers Work

Light is a fascinating thing. Or things, as the case may be. Electromagnetic energy that our eyes have developed to see, light has the same behavior and properties as all other electromagnetic ... Continue reading

HowLasersWork

Does Earth Have Its Own Neon Sign?

NorthernLightsYou might wonder what the Northern Lights and neon signs have in common. Actually, a lot! What makes luminous colors shimmer across the Northern sky? The answer is in the Sun. Charged particles are constantly ejected from the Sun. These particles, collectively called solar winds, travel toward Earth with an average speed of 400 kilometers per second. Earth is shielded from the solar winds by its atmosphere and magnetic field. The magnetic field pulls the charged particles toward the North and South poles. As the particles strike atoms in the upper atmosphere, electrons are knocked free. We call atoms whose electrons have been knocked free 'ionized'. When the electrons re-unite with the ionized gas, they emit light.

In a neon tube, light is produced by a similar mechanism. The tube contains a low-pressure gas that is under high voltage. The high voltage ionizes the gas, and when the electrons recombine, they emit light. The color of the light depends upon the type of gas that is ionized: Oxygen emits bluish light, and neon emits reddish light. Because the chemical makeup of the Earth's atmosphere changes with altitude, the color of the aurora depends on altitude. The most spectacular auroras occur at elevations of 75 to 150 kilometers, and can produce red, green, yellow, blue and violet light. The shimmering is due to motion of the ionized gas as it is pulled by the Earth's magnetic field. And what is our planetary sign saying? Come and see and learn!