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The World's Biggest Popsicle

Stored in a commercial freezer in France, along with quite a lot of frozen meat and cheese, is about 15 kilometers' worth of ice cores, taken from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica. Each giant 'popsicle,' ranging from one to three yards in length and about 5 inches in diameter, is carefully labeled. ...

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TheWorldsBiggestPopsicle
Physics

Somewhere Over Which Rainbow?

How many rainbows are there really when we only see one during a rainstorm? The answer isn't as simple as you might think! Rainbows are formed when light enters a water droplet, reflects once inside ... Continue reading

DoubleRainbow
Physics

Coming In Strong On Your AM Dial

The AM radio dial would be nothing but chaos and noise without a very basic rule - turn down the power at night. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) controls and regulates the airwaves in the ... Continue reading

AMRadioWaves
Chemistry

Oil Viscosity

Everybody recognizes 'oil' as a word for liquid materials that do not behave like water. They have a 'thickness' and self-cohesive character (autocohesion) that enables them to form a film on a ... Continue reading

OilViscosity
Biology

New Ideas About An Old Puzzle

There's a familiar way of talking about language as a 'tool,' but of course that's just a metaphor. Literal tools made of rock can last for millennia as evidence of the skills of early humans. Not so ... Continue reading

NewIdeasAboutAnOldPuzzle

Synchronicity

SinchronicityThere'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 school whom you haven't seen in 20 years, and lo and behold she calls you up the next day. Or you hear Larry King use the word propinquity only a few hours after you looked the word up in the dictionary. What do these kinds of meaningful coincidence mean?

One way to look at synchronicity is to see it as a sign that your mind's unusually energized. The idea is simple: the more alert you are and the more actively you're engaged in the world around you, the more things you'll notice and the more likely it is that you'll find patterns, coincidences, and repetitions. If you're depressed, you won't experience much synchronicity in your life. If you're manic, you'll experience lots of it. Carry it too far, as paranoid-schizophrenics do, and you'll experience so much synchronicity that you'll be considered crazy.