ScienceIQ.com

There's A Lot More To Vision Than Meets The Eye

Have you ever heard of Anton's Syndrome? It's a bizarre medical disorder involving a dramatic mismatch between sensory input and conscious awareness. Why is the syndrome bizarre? Not because the patients who have it are blind, or even that they steadfastly deny that they're blind. Those are both true. But the really weird thing about it is that ...

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VisionMeetsTheEye
Biology

Vibrational Energy

Why is hearing such a rich and powerful sense? Maybe because it alone of all the senses has the power to fill our entire body with vibrational energy. We sometimes think of hearing as one of the ... Continue reading

VibrationalEnergy
Chemistry

Your Nose Knows!

Would you like spearmint or caraway flavor? That's a strange choice, but believe it or not, they are the same thing. Well, almost. Spearmint and caraway both contain a molecule called carvone with the ... Continue reading

YourNoseKnows
Biology

What's Blindsight?

Some people become blind after suffering an injury to their primary visual cortex at the back of their brain. Since the visual processing part of their brain is damaged, they can't see. Or can they? ... Continue reading

Blindsight
Biology

The Limbic System

The limbic (meaning 'ring') system is virtually identical in all mammals. It sits above the brain stem, resembling a bagel with a finger (the brain stem) passing through it. This limbic 'system' ... Continue reading

LimbicSystem

Tornadoes

TornadoesTornadoes are perhaps one of the most terrifying manifestations of weather. Luckily for the rest of the world, they occur most frequently in the United States. A typical tornado season may see as many as 700 tornadoes. They are unpredictable, violent, and deadly: a rapidly spinning column of air with winds reportedly as high as 200 miles per hour (321.8 km/hr) or more.

Tornadoes are born when warm moist unstable air meets cold dry air. Sound familiar? That's right, the same process that births thunderstorms. But very few meetings between warm and cold air spawn tornadoes. Some additional elements come into play, not all of which are well understood.

One element that seems to play a role, is a process in which a thunderstorm begins to rotate around itself. A thunderstorm in this state is called a supercell. Supercells can be quite violent on their own, throwing off high winds, hail and torrential rains. On certain occasions, supercells will create the conditions necessary for a tornado, or even worse, a series of tornadoes. Another element that is often present is a strong updraft. Winds traveling rapidly upward create low pressure near the ground, which in turn, pulls more warm air behind it. Whatever the mechanism, once tornadoes form, only time will return them from where they came, but not before they've left a wake of destruction in their paths. Another fact - tornadoes in the northern hemisphere most often rotate counterclockwise, or cyclonically (hence our word cyclone).